Bad Attitude Farm & Forge LLC

Video – We put a camera on the ground between the pond and the pen.  Each night before sun set or when a storm darkens the clouds, our flock of ducks heads to their night time home.  The pond is maybe 100 yards away from the garage.  The flock seems to know that predators come out more at night.  That or they’ve figured out we put the vegetable and fruit scraps in there after a long day of canning.  So, usually without any prompting, they come waddling home… quack quack waddle waddle quack quack

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So, I blog quite a bit on Myspace, which really irks A.J. He has asked that I share some of those blogs on this site. You’ll find that life on the farm from my perspective is quite a bit different than his view. Where his world mainly revolves around the furry and feathered children, mine revolves around our two legged ones, lol. I’m going to make my first blog here a copy and paste of my favorite blog from myspace which I posted back in February when A.J. was out of town and I was left to tend to the animals and children all by myself, I titled it “WHERE’S MY XANAX?!?!?!”

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In our links / other places section, you’ll see a link to Rose Creek Creations and Rose Creek Cattle Company.  One of the owners (Angela) and I met on Craigs List.  She was asking for help with a ceramic kiln.  I gave what advice I could.  Now a days, she gives me a lot more advice than I have to offer in exchange.  Yesterday’s advice saves money and buys the Styrofoam incubator at Tractor Supply.  She also suggested purchasing the automatic egg turner.  I was skeptical at first, but her flocks seem to be health, happy, and growing; so I figured like her other advice it was sound.  I just unpacked the Little Giant Air Incubator ($41.99) and the optional automatic egg turner (another $41.99). Read more…

Video – When we started free ranging our critters, we knew they would raid the garden occasionally.  With the acceptation of the four-legged critters, they are more than welcome to do so.  After all, the ducks and chickens might take a bit of our produce now and then, but they more than make up for it in pest control.  What we didn’t expect was that the different critters would conduct cross species raids.

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Cloning and Marijuana – You will note the title of this rant is not “Cloning Marijuana”.  The -and- in there makes a big difference doesn’t it?

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You can acquire free high carbon railroad spikes legally, without trespassing or steeling railroad property.  Truth be known, the majority of spikes found by the side of the tracks are so low carbon that they are just about useless for knife making.  Although much better than the older spikes, knives made from so-called high carbon railroad spikes should not be considered high performance.  I forge railroad spikes into knives because the finished product demonstrates the tranformative nature of forging.  Let’s face it, everybody knows what a railroad spike looks like, so seeing one changed into a knife really illustrates the difference between forging and stock removal knife making.

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When we first started experimenting blackberries, raspberries, and grapes; our plants were set in raised beds around the out buildings and fences.  We thought about buying a truck load of mulch to keep the weeds down in our new beds, but the cost seemed a bit much and we didn’t think we would use that much mulch.  So we started buying mulch by the bag whenever we put in new plants.  We quickly realized that we could have used an entire truckload and the buy bags as you go plan was adding up fast.  Then I had a revelation and have not purchased mulch since.

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The Herd of Cats – Part I – The Progenitors

If I told you we had more than a dozen cats (I lost count), you might think our house stinks like the crazy cat lady that most urban neighborhoods have.  Not so.  Well, other than the room that just had a kitten explosion and when those kittens are old enough they are out of here.  So let me tell you the story of the Bad Attitude Cat Ranch.  We would like to think of our activities with cats as a rescue effort.  The thing is, it is more of a population control effort.

Trudy – Our first neighborhood cat

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Our farm has three types of cats.  Pets, Barn Cats and Free Kittens.  Pets and Barn Cats are “keepers”.  The herd now helps us insure that new cats don’t just wander in.  This one is a keeper.  She is too small to be much of a Barn Cat (predator control), but the circumstances by which she arrived were such that we figure she was somehow intended to be a part of our family.

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Now this was a surprise.  Our box turtle’s have left us a couple of eggs.  Well, we hope the work was both theirs.  Actually, although we are going to guard them and keep them warm, we do not have a great amount of hope that they will hatch.  From what we read, it is incredibly unlikely and even if they do hatch the survival rate is tiny.  Still, we do hold some hope and now that we know they are fertile the work on the pond area has increased.  In fact, additional plans have been added now that we’ve looked into optimum conditions for their off spring to survive.

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