Into The Natural State of Mind: Frustrations and Blessings

My outdoor buddies at sunset

-Saidee- The crazy one

Over the past few days, I have had the farm to myself, just me alone with my thoughts and three dogs, a cat, and 15 baby chicks to keep me company. It is nice to have complete quiet, the Dogs don't even bark right now. The other Dogs haven even started coming downstairs to the basement where I live to hang out with me, and the cat has adopted me as its sit in lap till the farm owners get back. I have spent many nights on the front porch with all the lights out listening to the different birds, turkeys, wolves, coyotes, and cant forget the cows in heat in the pasture next to the house... really wish someone would put a bull in there to shut them up! :P

-Cheyenne- The best friend a guy could ask for

-Gypsie- The rodent killer

At the same time, through this brief period of reflection, I realize that I don't think I could fully be a hermit that lives off the land by myself. I crave some sort of human interaction. Last night, my neighbors came over and I cooked up ribs (for the first time ever, and I got it RIGHT!) baked potato's, and corn on the cob. They came over directly after they got off work, then left after about two hours since their 3yo daughter was starting to get cranky. But after they left, I felt great! It was only 6 days alone by myself total, and having them over was a breath of fresh air. So with that being said, again, this part of the experiment of being alone brought me to the realization that I do prefer some sort of human interaction. I remember working with my girlfriend in the garden back in Va, and always enjoying that time more than when I am in this garden by myself. Other than hanging with my girlfriend, I believe it is also the simple fact that someone else is there enjoying the moment with you verses just sharing the snapshots of coolness nature provides with say, just my Dog.

-Kisa- The vocal one

Speaking about gardening. I have officially abandoned the total organic approach to the garden this year and broke down and bought some miracle grow. After seeing the guy with the veggie stand already have TONS of veggies, it is painfully obvious that my plants needed help. So, on the north end of the garden, all plants got a nice dose of Miracle Grow, while the southern end, I have started re-tilling and have also started adding the chicken manure to turn into the soil, hopefully soon, I will be adding goat manure and horse manure to the mix. Over the fall time, I plan on adding manure to the north end and tilling that in, so next year, the garden will be somewhat more "happy" to grow plants with much more fertile soil. As it stands now, the only two plants producing good veggies, are the ones I bought from Walmart that were already three foot high (banana and beefsteak plants). Other plants are trying hard, as seen by my Charlie Brown tomato plant that looks like a twig, but has a little tomato growing on it (refer to pic).

Potato Box before adding more dirt... growing like crazy!

Potato box after adding dirt... already coming back out

Adding Dirt to Potato Tire

Filled up the first tire, soon will add another

My Charlie Brown Tomato plant!

Cheyenne was at attention for a while

I think she saw something, cause she was sternly on guard

I shall call you Fluffhead and you shall be mine

Cheyenne wants to help clean!

Never mind, she just wants that squeaky toy

Lets talk hardships! Yesterday I had a culmination of events that just happened one after the other after the other, and unfortunately has bled (literally) into today... but I hope the bad karma is at a stopping point for a while. I actually stopped what I was doing outside after the "last straw" and took a break and decided to write this post. So, some of the highlights of my crappy day yesterday... yes this is me officially ranting again... I have found that a Rat or some woodland creature has taken residency in my trucks engine compartment. That sucks, I put out poison and the Dogs have gone crazy trying to get the creature, literally biting at the undercarriage of my truck to get at it.. That is what I need, one of the dogs to bite the brake lines or something important. Earlier, I broke the tiller we got from a Farm Auction, its just the part that the pull cord wraps itself around, but I am having a hard time finding a replacement for it, since it is pretty ancient. So I throw it into the back of my truck and take it to a Sears repair store. After being asked by the store clerk to bug my friend that is on Vacation for some information, and spending almost an hour doing paperwork (because country folk are in no hurry to get things done... it has its advantages and disadvantages) I get told that it is too old and they refused to work on it. Typical. So I leave and try to pull out into traffic on the highway the storefront is on. That is when I noticed my battery light is blinking on and off, and the "tow haul" light is also blinking on and off, and I have very slow acceleration. Great... that little creature has officially started chewing the electrical wires in my engine compartment. Sure enough about a mile down the road my engine light comes on and hasn't turned off since. That was my first wave of anxiety for the day. I am in a place where I have little to no connections, friends or family... I just knew I was going to break down on a back road back to the house where my cell phone doesn't have reception. Luckily I made it home, and have since found a "reputable" mechanic from my neighbor to try to fix my truck... haven't asked how much yet, trust me, I will let you know as this story progresses. I get home and I find six different puke piles on the floor, just stomach fluids, but there is another worry moment for me... great, one of the dogs is sick... but then I remembered one of the dogs has a really particular stomach, so she probably just got into something she shouldn't have. (I am leaving the smaller details of the crappy day out cause this is getting really long, and I want to you actually read the blog, so I am cutting this short) All in all after some other things from yesterday, I wake up this morning hoping things will go differently. As I am feeding, watering and cleaning the chickens I start seeing resemblances of yesterday again. First off, I had just washed out and re-filled their water dish, I recently put it on 3 inches of wood to elevate it just a little bit so pine shavings wouldn't continually get where the water is, and has been working great for six days, allowing me to go longer times before having to clean and replace the water. Well, right after I put the water in, I grab the metal food dispenser that is made out of a really thin sheet metal, while trying to open it, I did the thing I knew was inevitable since we got it, and that was slice my thumb on the tip wide open. RIGHT when that happened, one of the Cornish hens, bum rushes the water dispenser making it fall over and get the entire brood wet! I hastily grab the water dispenser to fix it, dripping blood everywhere, fix that and then finish feeding the chicks. At this point, I am already pissed off, but retreat back into the house and cleaned out the cut. The instant I got the cut, it brought me back to this documentary on National Geographic about surviving Armageddon... the main character of the story survives the apocalypse, helps rebuild society, then dies after cutting his hand (because they had no anti-bacterial medications) and I just started laughing... that would be me, I would make it through everything, then be put down by a simple cut. So, I went in and cleaned it properly... I don't have the time or money to get it stitched up, so I remembered hearing somewhere that superglue was invented during World War 2 as a stitch replacement in the battlefield... not sure on the authenticity on that, but I was like, hey, lets give it a shot, So I super glued the gash closed, then put a butterfly bandage over it, then super glued the bandage on so it wont fall off! (overkill... maybe... but I use my thumb A LOT!) I have now sat back and wondered if this really is the "simple life" work is fun, but little mishaps like this, I could really just go without. Of course after having my little pity party on myself, I read about a lady who is controlling an Robotic Arm and Hand with her mind since she has lost total motor skills since experiencing a stroke... I really don't have it that hard, plenty of people out there are struggling a lot more than I ever will, and I need to remember that.

After I super glued the cut shut, can barely even tell anymore!

WOW this is a huge post, I am going to let the rest of my obsessive talking go and let pictures do the rest of the work! Before I do that, I want to point out that my potato box and potato tire is going well, I have started adding layers of dirt, and just like the books say, they re-pop back through the dirt and continue to go skyward... but again, Ill let the pics do the talking on it. Till next time.... enjoy the sunsets!