Where I live, there are only 2 Seasons

Winter and Getting Ready for Winter

Winter Season

Dear SubStack Friends,

I will not be around on SubStack during the summer. There are fences to be repaired, bunk house repairs, electrical repairs, smoking meat for winter, gardening, gathering and cutting fire wood for the winter, canning, winterizing the house for next winter, take the guineas fowl and animals out to graze, harvesting and processing culinary and medicinal herbs, etc.

We get feet and feet of snow. When we first got here, we would get snowed in for a while, we’d depend on our food supply and winter food storage for the animals.

In times past we used what ever we could to push and dig our way out.

Now days we snow blow our way out.

Winters are more layed back than busy summers. We snow shoe with our dogs to the top of the mountain where we can see Canada’s ski resort and mountains, we stay on the ranch, watch anime when time permits, cuddle on the couch, we do daily farm and home chores, etc.

Snow shoeing on the way up the top of the mountain with Yogada, Reina and Mishka.

Mishka the dog and Little Buddy the rejected lamb taking a nap together. Mishka took care of Buddy, raised him. They were inseparable. Little Buddy literally started to bark like a dog.

Mishka was a first generation American born, Russian Ovcharka with Russian champion father by the name of Chezar and American mother also a champion, but I forgot her name.

Mishka came from a breeder whose husband had died. The poor lady went in to a deep depression, unable to care for the dogs. Mishka was 8 months old, emaciated and starving when we got him. He cannibalized his heart muscle. We were blessed to have him with us for 4 years before his heart gave out.

Little Buddy after his bath and dry.

Getting Ready for Winter Season, is the busiest time of year. We raise the baby chickens and guinea fowl, butcher them in the fall, smoke them in a smoker and put them in the freezer for the winter. We butcher the sheep and goats for the winter too. This ensures meat is provided for the dogs, cats and humans during winter. The number of animals we have to feed and support during winter is reduced, giving more space, quality care and food for the animals that will spend the winter in the animal and bird barns.

All our Ovcharka dogs died of old age. We feel blessed to have had them in our family. They are amazing and very protective dogs. While they were on duty, we never lost an animal to predators. They roamed a 1 mile radius around our property.

Ovcharka dogs are rare, hard to find in the USA and can be expensive. We got ours from various dog breeders who wanted to re-home their retired breeding dogs. The oldest dog we got from a breeders was Reina at 2 years old. I wanted these dogs because they do not hurt or chase the wild life for fun. They push predators out of the 1 mile radius they protect. When the danger is gone, they return to protect and watch over the herd. If a predator were to threaten or challenge the dog, Ovcharkas will engage the predator if necessary. We do not spay or neuter our dogs as they need their hormones to go up against wild animals who have their hormones intact.

We look for adult dogs in need of re-homing. We adopted Shikigami aka Shiki, a Belgian Malinois X with German Shepard mix. We use Shiki to herd the animals when ever needed. She also loves to chase away predators, especially coyotes. Shiki is a very fast dog. Shiki is shock collar trained to chase and return. Prior to training, Shiki would be gone for hours. Now days she returns to protect.

Shiki was a rescue from a hoarding situation in town. She was 4 1/2 months old when we adopted her.

Wilma-Wila-Whip is 1/2 Great Pyranese and 1/2 Anatolian. Wilma was 11 months old when we adopted her.

Wilma came from https://www.rescueme.org. Thankfully, Wilma was being fostered after a divorce situation. Wilma is a live stock guardian. Wilma patrols and chases away predators.

Both dogs are doing great at keeping the predators away.

We feel bless to have both dogs.

In 17 years of having intact dogs, we only had 1 dog get pregnant with an unwanted pregnancy and that was Shikigami. She ran off with the neighbors dog after coyotes. Shiki was in heat. They did not return for 4 days. We gave her 1/2 cup of Aloe Vera juice twice a day, for about 1 to 2 weeks. By the 3rd day, the pregnancy usually terminates in a small pool of blood. To make sure the pregnancy is completely terminated, we continue giving her Aloe Vera juice for the rest of the remaining week.

Organic Aloe Vera Juice, Good for Pets, Unwanted Pregnancies in Dogs, Cats and then some...

We feed our dogs and cats the BARF diet, Bones And Raw Food. The BARF diet keeps our dogs and cats healthy. We rarely have veterinarian bills while they are on the BARF diet.

We take the Guinea fowl, goats and sheep out to eat grass and grass-hoppers. We stay with the animals to keep them from getting eaten by Coyotes, Bobcats, Bears, Wolves, Cougars, etc. We take the animals out to graze in the mountains.

This is husband Joel returning a small herd back to the barn after grazing for the day.

We’ve lost a few good animals to mountain deer ticks. We decided to get Guinea fowl to eat grass hoppers, ticks, snakes, small rodents. Since we’ve had the guinea fowl, we no longer lose animals to tick bites.

How many ticks will a guinea eat? According to numbers on the internet, guineas will eat 400 ticks or more in a day.

The Guineas and Chickens are let out of the bird barn for the day. I take them to fields of grass hoppers to eat their fill, some time in June, July.

While the animals are grazing, I comb the mountains for fresh medicinal herbs, some culinary and medicinal mushrooms. I then process the herbs by cleaning them, drying them, turn the fresh and dry herbs into brewing tinctures. We make herb shampoo bars, creams, soaps, infused medicinal and culinary herb oils, etc. We do not buy OTC items as long as we can make our own.

Every Spring we shear the sheep. Shearing sheep is hard on your back type of work.

California Red Sheep sheared for the summer.

Hubby milks the goats. We make cheese, cream, butter, yogurt, ice cream from scratch. I keep a processed white sugar free kitchen. We use sweeteners such as Erythritol, Monk Fruit, Coconut sugar, Date sugar, Molasses, Honey, Agave, and so on.

Spring mornings are cold, getting colder and windier around here.

I’m dropping hay down from the barn loft to the hungry goats and sheep below.

In the picture below, in the back ground, on the mountain you can see baby pine trees growing. Those baby pines are becoming an extension of the mountain forest. They have grown over the years and are almost half as tall as the adult trees. The height they currently are, make it much easier to harvest pine pollen in June.

20 Benefits and Uses of Pine Pollen

We prepare for the winter during summer. We are super busy during the summer time. Gardening, harvesting medicinal herbs and canning food take up most of my summer. On days when my husband Joel is butchering, depending on what he is butchering, I can lamb or chicken or guinea or beef stews and soups using a canning pressure cooker. The night before butchering, I prepare the stew by cutting up the raw ingredients of potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, condiments, broth, etc. for the next day's butchered meat.

What we do not grow, we go to the Farmer’s Market, buy organic food in bulk, can the food for the winter.

There is much to do during the summer for the coming winter. Homesteading is a lot of work, but if we did not do all this work, food preparing, raising animals, gardening, cutting our own fire wood, etc., we would be in the poor house. This kind of work saves us a lot of money we do not have. It is how we survive. It is also the way of the coming future for many Americans and eventually the world. People are going to grow their own food gardens, medicinal herbs, poultry for eggs, goats for dairy, etc. The cities will see many people leave for the country life.

👉 Rural real estate out side of cities is going up in price and will continue to go up.

First we drill baby drill. Free energy is coming, it will power the back yard green houses of the average American family, 24/7, 365 days per year. Working people will work 4 hour days as there will be no more gas, electricity, gasoline, water, etc. bills. Families will have more time to spend with children. Mothers will stay at home. Children will be home schooled. People will meet in each other's homes for church services and fellowship.

If you can, please grow your own food garden as it is a start in the right direction.

Many changes for the better are coming. America first. Rest of the world will follow, eventually.

Hope you have a happy, safe and healthy summer.

May our Paradise Father bless each and every one with health and safety.

NOTE: This is a scheduled paper. While I am thankful for your comments, I am not around to answer comments.