My friend got our federal taxes filed, so unless there are any problems, the date to get our return is the 4th as long as its approved by irs by the 27th. There is an end in sight for me. I hope to get my truck fixed, the tractor fixed, and maybe convert our attatched garage into part of the house. Not sure if we can afford that. We are for sure buying a horse trailer from a friend for $1500 minus whatever we work out as what they owe for hay. State taxes cant be done in MN yet because of tax law extensions and such that havent been fixed yet. Will paper file those I think. Supposed to get $9265 from federal, and around $1800 from state? Something like that. Hope its enough to do what we want to do. Should pay someone to finish our floors too. Part of fixing the tractor may be a trip down by moms where a guy says he has the part we need. I swear I will stay with kids at LEAST a week! There is my end to the lonley crap and cabin fever. I can get out and away. I can even go for the yearly horse meeting! YAY! Might plan my trip just to go to it! Of course we have to pay our hay bill, and pick up a bit more hay too. Started with 34 round bales, and down to 7 now. I would like to save the grass hay mostly for the sheep. Do we have enough to do what we want to do....I doubt it, but hey, its nice to dream. Medical bills, and other bills I would like to pay. How do I decide what to do? Only way would probably be to skip doing the house. But darn it next year supposed to fix septic.... choices are far too many.
Ok, so anyone who would actually read this would think I have all day to sit here and I spend a ton of time doing this. I really dont. I write a few lines here and there throughout the day, and publish as I go to bed.
Darn dogs just opened the door agian. How many dogs can actually open a door knob? I have 2 that can! Someone just did a min. ago. Anytime they do I yell at them and make them go back outside.
Looking at a new shetland ram for the girls too. I would rather have paperable lambs for the kids to sell for their college funds. Neither got a lamb last year out of their other sheep, and didnt give them the shetlands until their bdays, plus bought them late in winter and they were not bred... kinda crappy. Especially considering what I paid... hard to lose a year of lambs. Totally excited to see how big the lambs will be. Emilys sheep had a lamb last year, but something happened and he died, but he was soooo tiny when he was born. The shetlands are way smaller so cant imagine how little their lambs will be! They are all scheduled to be sheared on Feb.27th. In time for them to lamb since my breeds have such thick wool and lambs would die before they would find the teats. I can hardly find them on some of them even when they are full of milk. Only the hair sheep doesnt have that problem. Thank heavens for that considering she lambed on jan. 19th last year and hadnt even thought about shearing yet! Of course she sheds like a dog anyways so wouldnt have to be sheared. Still considering finding a way to switch to painted desert sheep. They are spotted, a hair sheep, and have awesome horns. 3 qualities I love in sheep. They can even be tricolored! My someday dream. For now I am just happy expierementing with my jacobs, icelandics, and shetlands. Of course I am try to keep shetlands pure, jacobs pure, and icelands bred for good meat and color. Hoping my jacob ram might put some horns on them. Wonder if he can throw the 4 horn gene to the mix babies? Most people think hes a goat.....but I swear he is a sheep! Right now he almost looks like one with a bit of wool on him. When he got here he was just shorn. The two pics here I posted of him (max2) are of him when he first came with no wool. Wool quality isnt so important to me since I cant sell it anyways, but the shetlands thanks to the person I bought them from are well bred for their wool. Maybe I should concentrate more on my sheep than birds.... though I want to stick with my peafowl. It would be boring in the summer without baby birds to raise. Guess my muscovy ducks too. The pigs will breed and make up some of their feed. I want to cut down to just the 1.....but Emily would never forgive me if I got rid of her pigs. I am sorry but I dont care if potbellys go for butcher. They likely will since I will not put all the time and effort into finding them homes that I did last year. At 8 weeks firm if they have not found homes they WILL go to the sales barn.
Why do I write about all of this.... guess it helps with the spring fever since I can see the end of winter coming. Planning can help to avoid lots of uncertainties later that can cost us in the long run. Like not having a set date to sell the pigs last year. Ended up paying way more in feed on some of them than what we made back. I just like to break even, maybe get a bit to pay for some of the animals feed. Its a hobby farm...... who really expects us to make anything, meaning come out ahead? Not many hobbys can even help pay for themselves, and even fewer can completley recover costs put into them. Do we really care? No....but getting some money out of everything is nice.
LAST YEARS LAMBS WHEN THEY WENT TO THE SALES BARN. LAMB ON RIGHT IS FROM BETTY, SMALL 2 WERE TWINS FROM NO.5, BLACK WAS A NICE ONE FROM DALMATION AND LAST WAS A RAM FROM FAIR MAMA. ONLY 1 LAMB WASNT SOLD AND THAT WAS BROOKS RAM LAMB. HE WAS USED FOR BREEDING, AND LATER WILL BE OUR BUTCHER LAMB.
Emily is begging me for a calf..... we really want to get one, but prices are sooo high right now. Want to find a heiffer calf for less than $200, and one that is not a twin, and a beef breed, preferably herford. Maybe Simmital? Dont really want angus. A cross is ok, purebred not necessary, but really want red and white! We Have to finish fencing the back of our property for the sheep. It will cut way back on normal pasture use. The sheep like that stuff back by the creek better than the regular pasture. Hard to do it on my own though, and Brandon has to work so often. So wondering if adding the pics makes my blog a bit better. Would love to get pics of all of it to show what I am talking about! I found some to add, hope it makes my blog a bit more interesting...
I have a few plans. After a few more blogs maybe those will become more refined! I need to be sure we have everything done on the fencing so I can work with a larger flock and have more chance to get what I want for breeding stock. Guess I have a lot to think about to know where I will go in all this! Do I sound nuts.....probably, I have so much on my mind its hard to keep any of it straight. Lambing is coming up quick. We will see what our quick breedings got for us, and go from there. Maybe I should take more time to eplain this mess since even I am a bit confused......lol!
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