Itty Bitty Hooves

Finding The Right Executive Position

Most small farmers also work off farm, it’s a necessity. Many people living in suburbs, and rural areas too who need to find the best jobs in the financial industry need help finding them. Even if you live in the big cities it can be a daunting task to find just the right position that meets your needs, and where you are qualified for the position. Let an executive search firm help you find the job that suits you. They have clients in investment banks, asset management firms, banks, insurance companies, independent brokers, and regional firms all across the country and can pair you up with just the right match. It will save you hundreds of hours pouring through classifieds, calling in favors, and trying to find out if the position available is right for you. They’ll figure it out and set it all up. Many times those higher level positions aren’t even advertisted. How do you know they’re there? Call Willis Consulting–they know.

Keeping the NAIS at Bay

I have to admit to being very confused over the whole issue of the NAIS livestock registry that the government is trying to pass.

What I’m not confused about is that it will be devastating to small farmers like myself. I’m also fairly sure that’s exactly what the government and big corporate farms want, and exactly why the whole issue started.

Nevermind all the propaganda they put out claiming it will control food-spread illnesses and deaths–quite the contrary, the system only helps AFTER someone has become ill or dies from eating a contaminated product and really doesn’t do much at all even then.

It’s just another way for the government to dip into our pockets, and for the corporate farms that the public is now beginning to see as the least favorable way to obtain food for their table to re-gain their control over the food production industry.

The whole issue of NAIS started to become a real threat when the public began to relish the idea of organic foodstuffs, and buying ‘fresh off the farm’. Slowly but surely the big wheels of government protecting it’s biggest investors–corporations–started to spin. Laws sprung up prohibiting many types of sales off farm, and regulating others to death, until now, in their ultimate bid for re-control they are trying to squash the small farmers right off the consumer map.

Vote against NAIS… and let your congressmen know you mean it too.

Off-Roading In Style

Can you imagine getting a Panasonic 42″ TV and complete theater system for a dollar? How about a Bose sound system, or a BMW? Those things just don’t happen, right? Well they happen all the time at Bid4prizes.com. I really like the Montague Paratrooper. My husband has been wanting an all-terrain bike for a long time, and this one is awesome. It even folds up for convienient carrying to wherever you want to be off-road. He could really off-road in style with that bike. It lists for 649.00 but remember it’s not the cost of the item at Bid4prizes.com, it’s how LOW you can bid and still be the original bid. The lowest bid wins! It may not be a dollar, but go as low as you can and see if you win the prize.

Any Experience with Mozzerella?

Okay–the cheese came out better today, but it’s still not quite right. I don’t remember ever having problems like this in the past. The main problem, and even though it worked today, it is still a ‘remenant’ of the problem, is that the whey remains really milky looking, not clearish grey. There’s too much solid left in the milk after the curd seperates. I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I think I’ll try again next time with double the rennet in the mix, but that shouldn’t be necessary. If you have ever had this happen to you, and figured out what the problem was, please make a comment and let me know what the solution was.

Crafty Find

If you love to sew, or create crafts like I do you are always on the lookout for great fabrics, lots of colors, at great prices. Check out discount Kravet fabric here for some wonderful upholstery fabric. Recover worn out kitchen chairs, living room sets, or even make drapery for your window treatments. I love to find garage sale items that look a little worn, but are still sturdy and recover them for pieces that look brand new. I also love to make throw pillows out of fabrics like the faux fur at Design Diva Fabrics. I’m a real pillow fanatic. Especially in my family room in front of the fire place. I also love to make country crafts to sell at the farmer’s markets so I go through tons of fabric. My sewing machine should have blazes of flames painted on its side because I use it so often, and so quickly. The thing is so many of these projects are so easy and fast. It’s a shame more people don’t try it, they’d be amazed at how well projects like re-doing chairs and such turn out, and how wonderful a difference it can make in what was once worn out. Don’t throw it away–make it new again.

Back Again

Wow I really wretched my back this morning. Just doing normal chores. I went to lift a bale of hay and I swear it must have weighed a hundred pounds. I felt the pull and just knew it was going to give me trouble. Luckily, since I still had lots to do it didn’t throw my back out completely, but I feel it.

On the plus side. I am making yet another attempt at mozzerella and it looks like it’s working. I’ll know in about an hour for sure.

So Many Selections Makes Marketing a Joy

I love this. These corporate promotional gifts are just fantastic. I may not be a corporation ‘per say’ but as a business I’m always looking for promotional items. For the farm I take things like the tote bags, or pens, or mouse pads, and calendars with our logo on them and give them out, or lay them out for people to take on our tables. As a writer I love promo items with my book info on them. People love freebies and seeing your name, logo, product every time they use it will imprint that name/product on their mind. It’s all part of the game of marketing, but this part of it is fun. I like the usefulness of the items for myself as well, and hubby loves hats with our logo on them. I like the pens the best because I go through so many. Buttons and magnets are cool too, but the golf tees are really awesome. There are just so many creative ways you can promote using these items that you’ll never run out of unique and imaginative ways and people won’t get tired of the ’same old thing’. I know our vet sends out calendars with his clinic address and phone number on them every Christmas and I LOVE it. I’m thinking of doing something along those lines too. One year we did it using those book type calendars and folks really liked them. The hanging ones the vet sends are nice too though. Only one problem with so many items to choose from–which to pick.

This Is The Life

You know, it’s days like this that someone who lives on a farm can really appreciate the fantastically relaxing aspect of this type of life. There are days that are crazy, and hectic with all these animals, and so much work involved in caring for them that you begin to wonder if it really is such a ’simple life’, but there there’s days like this.

It’s sunny, and warm, but a beautiful warm breeze that makes it pleasant to sit outside in which I just came back in from doing. The chores were normal today with one little exception.

Oreo is my little exception. I swear if there’s a way to make me crazy, that little three day old kid will find it. She is determined to find a spot in the fence where she can lay up against it and roll into the horse pasture. Everytime she finds one, I go and ‘rescue’ her and put her back with mom, and fix the spot she found… then she finds another. I really thought that fence was secure enough for a newborn kid… like they say, if a fence will hold water it will hold a goat. Sometimes it really is that hard. It’s the really small babies that are the most trouble in that respect though. They can slip through the teeniest of openings.

Other than the day’s rescue though, it was peaceful and relaxing here. I rotated the younger dry doelings through the backyard to cut down some of the weeds on the back 1/4 acre of it. We have a one acre fenced in back yard that we don’t have animals roaming or pastured in, but it cuts down on yard work to have them in there at times to do the lawn mowing. There is a 1/4 acre front yard as well that’s the same. No pastured animals in it, but we let them graze it down occassionally. The rest of the front 5 acres is pretty much dedicated to animal pens and pastures. Our back 5 is still unused except for our occassional fun times in it. That will change eventually, but it’s a lot of fencing to put up and that’s about the most expensive part of animal housing. Actual sheds and barns may cost more initially, but they last a lot longer. Fencing has to be repaired often. If we never had to replace, or repair fence we’d probably have all of the property finished by now.

Anyway, it’s so serene sitting out there with the animals as they graze. Pretty much all of our goats will come when called so if they stray too far the back of the yard is fenced but it’s original fence from when we first moved in and there are a few holes that need repairing so I don’t want them back there, they come running.

That right there is another of the joys. Animals that bound across a field to be with you when you call because they love you. It’s such a joy to live this life.

See Europe

Wouldn’t you just love to travel to Europe on vacation? I dream of it. There are so many romantic spots in Europe that I’d love to see. Some I’d just love to go to relax at. Canary Islands travel spots would be one of those types. Or a package to Rome, or Ireland. Cheap Holidays can be found by the hundreds at holidayhypermarket.co.uk to all sorts of beautiful European hot spots. Greece, Sri Lanka, you name it, they have affordable packages to anywhere you can dream of wanting to go. I’ve never been outside of the States and just once I’d love to see Europe. With prices like that I could afford to.

Well… I did it.

Yes I bought another goat.

After the really hard delivery by Polly my Alpine last Sunday and talking to some people, I’d decided I really wanted to breed her to a dairy buck once more and see how it went delivery wise before taking a chance on breeding her to my big Boer. I know from his previous owner, and having seen one of the little does who had delivered a couple of his kids that it probably would be okay to breed him to her, but why take a chance? Maybe she is just gonig to give me those types of problems. I also have two really small dairy kids that I’d like to breed one time before breeding them to Mickey. So I talked to Bob and he agreed. I was going to just look for a little dairy buckling that I could breed this fall to the girls and then put in the freezer… Bob said why do that? I get such a kick out of him. He said why not find one you like and we’ll keep him. We have enough does to give him a couple each year. Maybe let him do all the first fresheners just in case.

So without any trouble at all, a beautiful little Nubian buckling just popped up. He’s in Ohio so I have to travel a bit to get him but he’s gorgeous. I can’t wait. They call him ‘Inky’ but I think I’ll call him Apollo.

Here are a couple of pics of him that the breeder sent me.