April 2026
Mama’s Got a Brand New Bag
It's a fascinating thing. I have read. I have studied. I have thought at great length. Laverne is raising her little chicks, and doing a great job. No interference from us, and I feel they are maturing faster than when we raise chicks in a brooder. This may not be true. When raised in the brooder, I watch them multiple times each day. I watch Laverne and her kids multiple times each day, but it is not the same. She encourages them to fly constantly... from the first time she kicked them out of the nestbox. She cares deeply for [...]
OCO – Obsessive Compulsive Order
I have a mental... um... thing that I basically inherited. I am not implicating any one else to suggest my condition is inherited, but there is someone with pretty much my same genes, and she also has this affliction. I am not certifiable. I'm not like Adrian Monk (look it up... he's funny). I just have a somewhat irritated internal response when things aren't right. Most of them are stupid. Let's look at an example. In general, when we go to the garage/basement, we turn the stair lights on upstairs, turn them off downstairs, and then do the reverse when [...]
A Lamb of God
"I thought people would find it really impactful if Maple walked down the center aisle and onto the stage when I talk about The Lamb of God be lead to His crucifixion during the sermon on Good Friday." Those were the words (essentially) that were said when the Pastor at Tiffany's church asked about the possibility of including my little ewe in the service. I was fairly apprehensive about it. It took a while to convince Maple that a halter was not a death harness. There was no need to scratch at it with her hoof. No need to bellyache [...]
Spring has Hatched… early?
In case you are unaware, bantam chickens like Laverne are famous for frequently going broody. Well, they are famous if you are someone who likes to regularly hatch eggs, they are infamous if you want eggs, and don't want to deal with a chicken who is an emotional wreck for a month or so. Laverne goes broody a lot. Over the years I have simply removed her eggs, and taking out the liner in the nest box, if she actually decides to go broody in the nest box. She has found other places around the house that were very dangerous [...]
March 2026
Learning until I Die…
A few years ago, having learned from my frequent Gator rides, I decided, and eventually convinced Tiffany, that we should raise sheep as a source of income as well as meat for us and others. How hard could it be? I see large flocks of sheep in large pastures by themselves, smaller flocks in smaller pastures... Sheep and goats are everywhere. I'll get to that strangeness another time. At this point after taking with people and seeing how the sheep are managed, I figured this should be easy. I read several books cover to cover. I took a few online [...]
Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Nope. This is not about Jerry or his Racecar. Neighbor friends had more goat milk than they needed, couldn't store it, and didn't want to throw it out. So? They offered it to me. They figured at least it could go to the pigs and increase the marbling. They were, of course, right, but that is not what I wanted to do. I wanted to experiment with something that I always wanted to do. Maybe not always, but for a while. I wanted to make milk products. Tiffany has enjoyed cream from goat milk for quite a while as I [...]
I Stand (actually Sit) Corrected
What. Was. I. Thinking? "We'll get pigs in early December," I said. "It will be awesome," I said. "I won't spend anymore time running hoses and water three times a day to keep them cool," I laughed. Yes, I ran a lot of buckets of water. A lot. I could have filled a small to medium pond with all the water I hauled this winter after everything froze. Even with a heater in their water, the nipples froze solid. I bought a heat gun. That was able to thaw the nipples as long as it had not dropped below about [...]
Pigs at a Water Park
It was a beautiful afternoon, and the pigs needed some entertainment... https://youtu.be/GrojPka54H0
Pigs in Zen
This second set of pigs are progressing along just as well as our first set last summer. The differences in weights may force us to change the date of processing, though. The weights are coming in where are heaviest hog is looking about three weeks older than the smallest. Granted, Number 6's pronouns are he/him, and Number 2's pronouns are she/her. That is what I was old. I don't want to get in trouble for misgendering. They share the same bathroom anyway, and everyone is pretty comfortable with that. Number 6 is the hog in the picture. He is coming [...]
If you give a mouse some broccoli…
I have spent years figuring out how to effectively and repeatedly start vegetables from seeds. I am no expert... yet... but, I have made great strides. I even have some artichokes growing in the garage on the new shelves I installed with the new grow lights that I installed. I am hoping to get at least a couple of artichokes this year. That, unfortunately, is not the topic of this rant. We had horrible luck with brassicas last year. In fact, I don't believe we harvested a single brassica that we planted. The bugs were horrendous. I guess the only [...]