Marsia's Diary

Taking in 3 horses plus foals, possibly neglected ones who need extra care (vet and otherwise), when you have no experience with horses whatsoever???
 
Crazy idea, J. Crazy!
Enjoy what you're doing around your place & let it evolve. There's no rush & you have enough on your plate xo
 
I know, the rescue pictures of the horses were so tempting as first - the mares had such love in their eyes, and mustangs are so beautiful. But there would be no way for us to handle even a chicken at this point unless we could keep her in the house. It just got him dreaming, and I am like him and love to dream. The library book on horse care was as much for me as for him, so I don't even get tempted by such a crazy idea! I'll tell him we'll consider it when we are grandparents for our grand kids. That's probably when we might be in that sort of position anyway.

My daughter really wants goats. I told her we need a greens garden to feed potential goats and some test chickens to see if we even like taking care of livestock. So that got her excited about the idea of homesteading. I think a few pigmy goats in the distant future is much more our speed! One of the things I am noticing is that I need goals. So even if having goats some day is a ridiculous idea, it gets me motivated to focus hard on the garden because I tend to get very scattered between taking care of everyone and just trying to also take care of myself.

I got very stressed out by my mom's back seat driving yesterday. I need to only drive her when absolutely necessary for a while until she gets out of her bossy phase. Also she has these stories of how every doctor or dentist she has seen is highly incompetent, and she keeps going back to these stories as if they are true. I need to let go of the idea that I am going to influence her. She seems determined to undermine any chance of being healthy because she would rather pretend she has been wronged by life. I am always astonished how she can go from a fun interesting person to a royal pain in the butt who I really don't care for. Why is it that I am so startled by this every time? I must have a hole in my head!

I am practicing a nice exercise of letting go from the heart center. It is so relaxing and lovely. My weight has been all over the place, but within 3 pounds of the low weight again now. I am getting tired of the low carb diet. I don't like eating much dairy - it makes me break out like a teen ager. I want to get my weight down to my goal fast so I can experiment with adding in healthy fruits and figure out how to not have to eat so much meat. I am not a big meat eater and am getting tired of having it so much. I think I will try making some keto bread today. Haven't done that yet except for quick mug biscuits you make in the microwave.
 
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As long as you think their enclosure through thoroughly you'll be fine. It's just that they like to taste and climb *anything* they can reach. Cute beasties though.
 
We researched goats last night and my daughter who hates reading was reading this text book on goats and taking notes just on her own initiative. So I think she is serious and we will go talk to some goat people and maybe get her an apprenticeship or something for now. There's a wonderful organic farm associated with her old Montessori school where they have a farm program for the kids in her old school. So I think we'll check that out. In the mean time, we are having a good time planning and researching, so this could be a great family project. I would love the free manure that I don't have to haul from elsewhere, and I liked taking care of the goats on my friend's farm growing up. So it really might work out, but there would be a lot of saving up to fix up the barn and make goat-proof fences and everything.

I am reading an Indian cookbook on Arurveda which is really interesting. I saw an Arrvedic practitioner when in college because he was my friend's step dad. I like the idea of spices and food helping to balance mood. I wonder if it works, but mostly got the book for the yummy looking recipes.
 
You may want to check if you can use goat manure in the garden directly: I know horse manure needs to compost for several years before you use it or it will actually use up valuable minerals from the soil.
 
Thanks LaMa! From what I understand, the goat manure is ok (it's mild like rabbit manure), but the urine can burn plants, so you take the old soiled bedding and compost it for a couple of months. We used to get horse manure and make compost piles when I was a kid, and I got to be in charge of one of the compost piles once. I remember the piles could be used in about a year or so if you had hot piles, but it took longer if you didn't turn them and add fibrous stuff to help keep things composting hotter. I think we also made holes in the compost to get oxygen throughout the pile. So I have a pretty good idea about how to keep the pile hot and composting well. I was thinking of doing raised bed round keyhole gardens that have a pie shaped notch in them so you can get to the center where there is a compost bin that can leach out into the bed as it composts. The round bed is good for companion planting and you can grow a lot more food in round beds than in rows supposedly.

We have a break from school coming up, and we'll go out and design where we want the garden beds and start getting the garden ready to make the raised beds soon. Can't wait!!
 
The planning & researching sounds like lots of fun & it's great that your daughter checked out the book on goats. Your gardening projects sound excellent :)
 
Thanks Cate! It's fun figuring all this out and having my daughter excited about the garden and outdoors is a nice bonus. We are mostly planting in pots and planters this year so we can rip out old beds in the garden and start fresh. I realized that my falling apart back deck gets full sun, so why not make it a potted garden for now.
 
I love having plants in pots. Even living on 50 acres most of our herbs are in pots. You can change the look of your garden so easily.
 
Your garden plans sound great and you seem thoroughly prepared. I like that! Soon you'll be raving about all the lovely fresh food you're producing :drool5:
 
Thanks LaMa and Cate! I feel happy that I figured out the planting in pots thing so I can just totally rip out the old and bring in the new in the garden. I can't wait for fresh garden produce! I've only been sprouting wheat grass in a little terrarium this winter and am happy about lots of fresh veggies. Tomorrow we pot some artichokes and get some late sprouts going.

I went to the health food store today and bought lots of Indian spices because I really want to try a lot of recipes from my new Indian cookbook. I bought dandelion greens for a green lemonaid smoothie recipe I saw somewhere. Today I just could not do keto/low carb and had a couple of fresh pineapple smoothies with lots of nice yogurt in them. I think I have to start seriously exercising and intermittent fasting because I just can't stick to keto anymore. I need some variation in fruits and veggies. Life is too short to only eat greens (or something like that anyway!)
 
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:D I can´t have "real" curries because of the (sesame, ginger, lemon grass, peanuts, cilantro; please circle the applicable) so make sure to make some gorgeous ones and enjoy them doubly for me. Not double portions, mind, I don´t want you to be sorry afterwards, just double enjoyment.
 
:D I can´t have "real" curries because of the (sesame, ginger, lemon grass, peanuts, cilantro; please circle the applicable) so make sure to make some gorgeous ones and enjoy them doubly for me. Not double portions, mind, I don´t want you to be sorry afterwards, just double enjoyment.

lol!!
 
I am pretending my vacation is sooner than it really is so I get everything I want to done before we leave, as a friend will be house sitting and I would like it to be easy for them. There are just so many flower beds to water and potted plants everywhere and cats to feed. I am hoping to get most of the potted plants except the veggies in the ground so it will be simple to house sit. I got sooo much done yesterday. I'm a little sore and feeling happy with myself. I've been getting bags of free coffee grounds everytime we go to the cafe and after about a year or so of this, my flower beds are really starting to build up a nice layer of composted leaves and coffee grounds. It makes me happy making nice soil. It's been sunny and mild and all the new leaves are out on the Japanese maples in the yard. It's just so beautiful here. Also the neighbors were giving away some nice butterfly bushes, so I hauled them home in the car. Should not get more free plants because I have enough to do already, but I am usually the only one who rescues plants in the neighborhood, and these are so nice I couldn't bear to see them go to waste. I love rescuing plants.

I've been listening to this youtuber who does a show called Impact Theory where he interviews successful people on how to change your negative thoughts and get out and do what you were meant to in life. It's been really helping to see that when I am off balance I can take the negative thougths as cues to do what I really want to do instead of passively go along with the negative thoughts. It's helping my mood a lot - that and meditation.

My mom's memory is really, really going fast. She has her first session with a speech therapist today and she absolutely can not remember that the speech therapist is for working on memory issues. Someone's told her this at least 20 times, and she still can't remember. I am really hoping that by vacation she still has a mind enough to enjoy it. J wants to take her to her first speech therapy session, but I am thinking maybe I will because my mom will not give accurate answers when she does her intake assessment.
 
My mom's memory is really, really going fast. She has her first session with a speech therapist today and she absolutely can not remember that the speech therapist is for working on memory issues. Someone's told her this at least 20 times, and she still can't remember.
That may just mean it´s not a priority for her. Remembering a vacation is a whole nother thing!
 
Hey Marsia! I look forward to reading farther back into your posts, but from what I see, you've been busy in the yard planting all kinds of goodies! That's on my list to get done in the next week or so... it's just pots for us as we have a tiny back yard with only stone pavers in it... Sadly, no place for an actual garden at the moment.
 
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