Good evening. It’s time to share Happenings at Simply Backwoods.
Life has been super busy here. How about with you?
In the video above the chickens are enjoying a frozen tasty
treat with strawberries and bananas I made them. I try to find
ways to help them stay cool as much as possible. I’m not opposed
to putting a fan on them on super hot days as well.
Of course I usually take them in earlier where it’s cooler on
super hot days.
I now have all 5 chickens laying eggs daily and that makes
me ecstatic to say the least.
The smaller Astra Lorpe usually lays smaller eggs but
I’m not complaining.
I bought a radiant heater for the chickens since where
they will be in the winter does get a somewhat cold,
although not too bad.
Thinking ahead and trying to be prepared.
I’m trying to find something for heat/light for them if
power should go down.
I’m not set up for solar and so far it’s just not in my budget.
MyPatriotSupply.com does have heaters (pic above) that use
candles in a can but not sure I’m comfortable with this even
if the candles are contained.
I may get one for upstairs for grid down with extra InstaFire Candles
for when the power but not for where chickens are at this point.
If any of you have any suggestions that doesn’t use power
I’m very open to hear.
Happenings at Simply Backwoods includes the struggle to grow my food this year. Between chemtrails in the sky continually, the heat and/or rain drowning everything it’s been a challenge. I’ve never experienced a year where I don’t have tomatoes or anything else
yet. Frustration is an understatement. I rely on what I grow to eat and not giving
up for sure. The above picture is of some plants that I started outdoors.
The one below are plants I’ve brought in to attempt to revive. I’m reorganizing
the plant area so a work in progress and the plants do look kinda pitiful.
And now their talking about spraying crystals in the sky to block the sun/uv rays.
Now that ought to help us grow next year ha ha!
I’m also seriously thinking of stocking up on outdoor solar lights as an
alternative to grow lights when the grid is down. If we have sun that
is the plants will have lights from these charged in the sun.
Trying to think outside of the box continually.
A couple years ago my daughters bought me a stove
for Mother’s Day that does use gas but no electronic
ignition. If the power goes down it uses 6 AA batteries.
The pilot light stopped lighting the oven and I had a
service call with Lowe’s protection plan. A young man
came and looked at it and said he’d get the part for it.
A few weeks went by and no service man or part. So I
went through the grueling process of trying to
contact someone with the protection plan. It was awful
to say the least dealing with these people, let alone
getting through to them.
Finally found out they closed my ticket and said won’t
work on my type of stove anymore. Powers that be
want to phase out gas stoves and did get the just
that Lowe’s is kissing arse with them.
After more hassling with them over two weeks I
finally got a refund for less than the price of the stove.
Since I can light the oven with a fireplace match
and the burners light fine I took some of the refund
and ordered a Big Buddy heater that uses propane.
I have to go pick up the propane tanks since
they won’t ship those. Hopefully tomorrow can get to
Lowe’s and get two prefilled 20 lb tanks.
Thinking outside of the box and not waiting until
there is no power or heat. Do I hope and pray it
won’t come to this! I sure do but I’m preparing
every way I can.
Tonight I’m filling up approximately 25 2-liter soda
bottles with water I’m filtering in the Berkey.
I’m preparing all I can to have water for awhile
and have the one pond redone thankfully if need
that water.
I try to limit my water usage all I can yet the municipal
water here says I use 2400 gallons of water a month.
This is absurd to say the least.
I’d love to have more rain barrels and more of a system
to gather more water and filter it. I keep work on it as I can.
I like what Doug and Stacy Offgrid on Youtube do with
huge tanks from rain water. Although until recently
they had no rain and was a bit tough for them.
Well I’m off here to give puppy Thor a bath after being
outdoors a lot today and then fill more water bottles.
His cohort Marie hasn’t been feeling so well but she’s
hanging in there. Vet comes to see her hopefully in
a few weeks and thinking it’s more of a heart issues.
Prayers appreciated for her.
Stay safe, keep thinking outside the box, being wise
and preparing one step at a time.
Cindy
Simply Backwoods
https://www.simplybackwoods.farm/
Let the Peace of Jesus Rule, Stay Focused
and Keep Preparing One Step at a Time
Jamie
Hello, good to see a blog from you.
Sounds like you have really had your hands full.
I am so sorry your garden is struggling. I didn’t grow a garden this year, so I don’t know how it would have done. It’s been so so wet here. The fruit I have was hit or miss. Raspberries did well blue berries did not. Peaches were average but no apples. I have been blessed by some folks in the area, they put out their extra produce by the road for free. Lots of zucchini and summer squash, a few cucumbers etc.
We had a lawnmower who’s “protection plan” went as well as the one on your stove. The person who was supposed handle it all was some work from home lady 5 states away. At one point she was unreachable for like 2 weeks because of some “family issue.” I’ve had problems with a washing machine and a car’s warranty too. I just skip them now and try to have an emergency fund for a repair man. AAA was a bad one for us too. Don’t even get me started on car insurance, lol. A lot of the time warranty companies don’t treat the repair shops well, so they don’t want to deal with them either.
I’m glad your stove is still useable, it sounds like a nice stove. maybe they have a video about it on Youtube? I’ve fixed a lot of stuff I never thought I could that way.
At the end of July We had a bad scare with Lucy the beagle. She likes to lay downstairs under a futon when there’s rain or a storm. She went down one night and the next morning she didn’t come wake me up to feed her. I went down there, she was under the futon, she had her legs sticking straight out in front of her, they were stiff like rigor mortis, she had a puddle of urine under her, she was trembling shaking badly. I took her to the emergency vet and they said that she had IVDD (intervertebral disc disease). Basically she was paralyzed because a disc had ruptured and the contents of the disk were pushing into her spinal cord. It can happen to any dog but mostly effects long back dogs like wiener dogs. There are 5 stages and she was stage 4. I don’t have $2500 for an MRI and $4000 for surgery. Fortunately she still had “deep pain feeling” in all her toes. If you pinched a toe really hard she could pull away. This meant that she had a chance to walk again with just strict bed rest. My mom and I set up a sick room for her in the living room. She had no control over her bladder or bowels, couldn’t even lift her head. I fed her water with a syringe, and we kept her puppy pad changed and her washed and dry. The nsaids they gave her made her sick, luckily I had some tremadol left from a previous dog and CBD oil. She actually recovered to being able to stand, walk and have bladder control in a week. Now for 8 weeks, no running, no jumping, no zoomies, and I carry her up and down the stairs. The e-vet took a bite out of our emergency fund, but I was just grateful there was a place to take her. The vet shortage has made them go from a 24 hour facility to only open during the day and they cannot hospitalize animals over night anymore. Closest 24 hour facilities are an hour + away.
I will say prayers for Marie. I had a dog (Mr. Freddy) who went through congestive heart failure.
It’s not easy trying to keep it all together these days, is it? It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Like you I just try to break it down into little manageable bites.
God bless you and your homestead.
Jamie
Cindy
Hi Jamie.
I’m long over due sharing here.
Thanks for reading and replying too.
I do appreciate it!
Am trying to find time to do so more often and energy either at the beginning
of the day or in the evening lol
I remember you saying you weren’t going to do a garden this year and
understand.
I put fish emulsion on the plants outdoors this morning and will do
indoor ones this evening yet.
I noticed a blossom on a tomato plant and got excited. I’m ready for
some produce lol
It’s wonderful folks around you put stuff out you could get for free.
A nice blessing to have that.
I’m glad you got some peaches and raspberries.
My apple trees are still young so won’t produce probably till next
year or maybe year after. I’ll take sooner lol
The food pantry near me has peach trees and got a few although
small I was grateful for them. I do want to start a peach tree
but haven’t got that far yet.
As my friends at Deep South Homestead have been saying to be
inventive and letting 2023 be the year of solutions, I’m trying
to do just that.
It does seem protection plans and warranties right along with car insurance
(along with medicare for me have been a joke) and sounds like for you too.
More like headaches we can do without.
Much better to like you mentioned it’s just better to set money back in
an emergency fund and take whatever it is somewhere else or hire a repair
person who will actually do the work as you need them too.
I’m going to check on Youtube and see what I find. I know you have
mentioned figuring out how to fix things by looking there before.
Hopefully will find some good information. Just haven’t had the
time yet.
What a scare with Lucy! I’m so thankful she’s so much better now.
She’s went from stage 4 and with all you and your mom’s loving care and
the CBD oil she’s walking now and having bladder control. Very
miraculous recovery for her. I know CBD oil can do tremendous things
for animals. It sure helped Rusty when he was here. I do use it for
Marie as well along with Quercetin since she has such stiff muscles.
It seems to help with her and puppy Thor’s allergies too.
I know you have to be so thankful for her recovery and the e-vet
even though not cheap.
Sounds like a definite vet shortage there and no 24 hour centers
except a great distance from you.
It seems we have lots of vets around here that will charge tons
of money and emergency vet services are outrageous.
My granddaughter’s dog scratched his eye and it cost a lot
for emergency care but thankfully his eye has healed.
The Iowa State University has a vet center that my sister has
used after her puppy ran to greet her since her husband hadn’t
put him in and had his foot under the tire. Thankfully he’s
healed now after surgery.
I am so thankful for the vet that comes here and all she
did for Rusty when he was alive. The animals all love her.
Although it’s not cheap it’s not terrible like most of the
clinics here. She’s always willing to cut me breaks and work
with me and for prescriptions calls them in under Good RX so
a lot cheaper. Rusty’s meds at the vet would have been over
$60 for a month at a vet and through Good RX I got a 90 day
supply for under $25.
I appreciate the prayers for Marie and will keep Lucy in prayers
as she continues to heal and recover too.
You know what it can be like since you went through it with Mr Freddy.
There is so much to deal with these days but like you said we
have to break it down in manageable bites.
I am doing my best daily to keep my focus and not let things steal
my joy.
Have a good night with sweet Lucy and be so blessed.