Food Freedom

Plant A Victory Garden
Our Food is Fighting
A Garden Will Make Your Rations Go Further

Seems like this would be unreal here in America. I took this photo at the National Infantry Museum in Ft. Benning (Georgia) this summer. It's a common "Victory Garden" poster, popular during WWII around the country.

Now I fear the motto should be:
WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR FOOD

Think I'm going to start a Raw Milk Revolution (Revelation??) or Real Milk Revolt. Or both. Something along those lines. We need something 'catchy'. :)

More really cool WWII Food posters at this link: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=victory%20garden%20poster

Another one of my favorites:

Freeze, Cows and Trailer Photos

Porter and Anna out in the (waning!) pasture.



Patrick working hard under the trailer bolting down the floor.

Almost done!



I left the sprinkler on the tomatoes since it was to freeze. It froze alright, but the plants under the sprinkler (with ice on them) fared the best! Yes, that's icicles on the 'fence' part on the left side of the photo.

Frosty Mints and Catnip in the last photo!

Airplanes, Awards and Another Small Dairy Raid

A bunch of Comfrey in the garage gathered and hung to dry.

The weather has turned colder and windy. Still no freeze/frost here yet--but it might get close tonight. I have been letting the chickens out in the back lot when I'm home and off work, they have discovered my Comfrey patch! (Yikes!) I will have to put panels up to keep them out! I did lose a 'speckled' girl to an unknown predator while I was making supper the other day. :(

I forgot to post, Patrick won over-all high score at his Black Powder shoot earlier this month. He not only brought home a bag full of [food] goodies, he got the top prize, a Turkey! So we thawed it out and made dressing that week and had several meals of turkey. I told him he needs to get me a "real" (wild) turkey for us this year for the Holidays! (He likes that idea!)

Jared did his first airplane jump yesterday--from 1200 feet. They have 4 more jumps (getting progressively higher) to do in 2 days. He was the second one off the plane, and was hesitant, but knew it had to be done. He told us it wasn't that bad and he's looking forward to the next one! (Kids!!)
He said there's about 400 individuals in Airborne right now, so it takes them a long time to "get ready". It was raining Monday morning, so they all sat around for about 6 hours (after getting up at 4 a.m.) with their gear on until the weather cleared and they were able to get on the plane.

Patrick (and his buddy Bob) worked on his flatbed trailer all weekend, but got the floor done, and a tire changed, so it's ready to get used! It needs some paint, but it is "road ready". Now I can go get a big load of hay!! (Yippee!) Not exactly what HE had in mind--but what else would *I* use it for? :)

Kyle is busy with school, and work. Sunday he and friends played 'Air-soft' war at Cub Creek Recreation area. Oh and I'm sure anyone scouting or hunting in the area loved a bunch of goofy teenagers running around 'shooting' each other with paintball guns! HA

And I received news of another raid on a small dairy in WA state, similar 'charges' as Morningland in MO. Read about it, pass it on and support these folks! If this keeps up, there will be no "Farmers' Market" to go to and get local, fresh food! http://wholefoodusa.wordpress.com/

If WE don't help--who will?

Anna

This is Anna--she is part Jersey and part Braunvieh and is 6 months old. She is Dolly's successor. :) I should call her Ms. Independent, but she is curious and likes to pretend "scary, scary" sometimes. I know she's pretending, because if I have alfalfa to offer, she's quite happy with dropping her act!! (Just like a little kid and candy-ha!)

Jared is jumping off of towers in Airborne with his company and learning to land correctly. Today he is doing the 200 ft jump. Next step, the actual airplane drop! He is in good spirits, but hesitant, which is good. At least he still has caution and a conscious!
He is also sending home a duffle bag of his "stuff" for me to store for him, and in it will be 2 kids ACU's (digital cammo clothes) for two great nephews so they can be "Army Man" (what they call it) for Halloween. (That's what you get when you call relatives and their kids think you're really, really cool!) ;)

He'll get a couple of weeks off for Christmas or Thanksgiving so he can come back and visit. They'll let them, but no one is sure which holiday/time-frame it will be yet!

Kyle is picking up a few more hours at work, and went to the movies the other night. He was parked at a friends' house last week, and some lady backed into my truck. (Come to find out, the lady let her insurance lapse---argh!)
Patrick is thinking of putting a flatbed on it for me now! ;) At least its just cosmetic, and its still drive-able.



Work continues on the chicken coop, and since I have been working more, Patrick's "helper" isn't around to boss him, oh, I mean help him with the project! :) HA HA

The temperatures continue to be weird, 80 one day, and 65 the next....with lows anywhere from 35 to 50. No scraping windows yet!! (yay!) I canned some tomatoes last week, not many, but better than nothing!
The neighbor gave us some deer jerky (Pat helped her grind a bunch of deer meat into burger last week) and some yummy roasted pumpkin seeds. They also made pumpkin pies (4) out of the pumpkin pulp from making Jack-O-Lanterns.

Harvest in Full Swing

Around these parts the past couple of weeks have been all about grain harvesting. The weather has been holding (no rain or frost/freezes) so it seems everyone is happy!



Harvesting Beans--it's dusty work!!

On the left--a combine on a blacktop road--a school bus follows behind taking kids home.

Stockpile of grain, there's another one (milo) started that is hard to see in the back of this one. And train cars waiting to be filled with grain.

(Aggrivating!) News Flash!

An acquaintance of mine in Missouri, has had 8 months worth of hard work (cheese) confiscated and their dairy has been shut down since August 26th. They have been ordered to dump milk since that day!
Imagine working for free, and destroying what you're making because the 'testing' done was not done correctly/properly, and you get blamed for it! ARGH!!!

Please read the history and story, and PLEASE donate!

Story: http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/fda-shuts-down-morningland-dairy-despite-clean-tests/

Donation link: http://uncheese-party.webs.com/

Morning Land's main website: http://www.morninglanddairy.com/

Their recall information page: http://morninglanddairy.webs.com/recallinformation.htm

This hits close to home......never know when the USDA, FDA or another agency will come and say you can't grow, nor make or cook your own foods.

Its just un-American! :(

October 10th News

The bottom photo is of a neighbor's pasture.

Fall is here!

Most of the trees turning color early are Ash trees. Cooler nights and warm days have come to stay! Friday it was bloomin' hot with a high of 90*, breaking and tying records from the early 1930's. Nebraska weather can be odd--one year ago we had our first snow! (Oct 10th--also one of my good friends' birthday!) We haven't had rain for two weeks, so I've been watering what is in the garden. (And no, I am not ready to see any snow yet!!) Hopefully our temps will hold out at night and we'll have a late frost this year.

Patrick and I have s-l-o-w-l-y been working on the winter chicken coop, but slow progress is better than no progress! He had to redo a brake calliper and rotor on his truck...he knew when he replaced the one side this summer it would probably be a matter of time before the other one "went". But pulling loads of hay and other stuff takes its toll faster than say if it were a passenger car.

I got the lawn mowed the other day (finally!) and have been doing odds and ends around here, like watering the garden! I have been eyeing my comfrey, I need to get more harvested before: 1) the cow gets in that area and eats it (I have them fenced out right now) or 2) we have a frost. I don't mind her eating it, but not when I'm on a "growing" time limit! I need to get more salve made! :)

Kyles' work days have been reduced, but he keeps getting called in to work. Umm, wouldn't make sense to schedule a person who DOES routinely show up for work in the first place?!? (where's my rolling eyes smiley??!!) School and band activities have been keeping him busy as well. (And Frolfing and Air-soft shooting!) ;-)

Jared went to Airborne last Thursday, and they all have a 4-day pass for the weekend since its a holiday weekend. (Columbus Day is Monday) And I finally got his new address so I can send him a 'backlog' of mail, newspaper clippings (local news) and letters from home! He is on the Main Post now and closer to activities; like a movie theater, bowling alley and the main PX (store for them). He sent us some German Chocolate last week--he discovered the "Foreign Foods" section of the PX. ;-)

I asked him one day what he had for supper: "Chocolate--but I'm drinking Aloe Juice, too!" (It can have prune juice effects......) ;-) HA HA Kids!! :)

Long week!

Oh we had a frost threat last night (ugh, already?) so I decided I needed a cheery photo of some of my flowers from this summer!! :)

This past week has been hectic--working extra days, double-checking fences and fixing 'issue' spots, and looking at the green tomatoes in the garden and telling them to 'hurry up and get ripe'!! :) (It's not really working, but at least I get to vent my frustration! HA!)

Patrick is working on the winter chicken coop, changed the oil in his truck, and found a couple of issues with the drive shaft that he fixed. (Just glad he noticed them now before anything major happened!)

Kyle and the whole school band went to 'Harvest of Harmony' parade in Grand Island Saturday. They go every year and I forgot what they placed, 8th? 10th? in the competition.

Jared is back on Airborne hold....he should start Airborne training later this week. His lungs are clear and he's feeling much better. It's nice to be able to talk to him more often now! I'll be glad when I get a 'new' address from him so I can send him his mail!!

The temps have been cool at nights (40's) and sometimes the daytime temps vary from mid-60's up to the 90's! Indian summer for sure. I'm not complaining, just hope these temps hold out for awhile.
I'm not ready for c-o-l-d weather yet!!