Tues. Eve, Jan. 6th… Recovered as best we can expect for now……

I think we have recovered from the virus….at least for what that’s worth…… There will be things we need and don’t have any longer, just like the last time we were infected back in the summer. This time, we were smart enough to have picture files and some programs saved in files which we were able to download to a SD card, but there is always things you forget, like the latest file for the web sites…… so now, you guessed it…… I don’t have the latest for all the web pages. Now when I first need to update a web page……… I’ll need to build it again and redo the html before I can change the page. I did download all the desktop icons, shortcuts and pictures…… but forgot that files on the desktop, all contain something, so while the computer was reloading the original program, I remembered that I failed to copy those files and got that sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach, as I realized they were gone…… not to be retrieved from anyplace in existence.
The last time I pulled this crap, I was busy rebuilding things for weeks. This time it will take but a week. The next time, I will have the stuff on hard disc so it won’t happen again.
Today, I took a break from this “ol’ pooter”, and we went to Hilltown Agway and picked up all our feed for the month……… all $400.00 worth of scratch feed, all grain layer pellets, hi-protein bunny feed, and dog food…… along with six huge bricks of wood shavings for bedding…… all of which was packed tightly into the back of the pick-up with no room to spare. Not even enough space to put an extra 50 lb. bag of granite grit for the chickens, so I will gather a bucket of crusher stone dust chips for them to ingest as grit, which they will use in the craw to pulverize the scratch and pellets for digestion. I think we’ve found a buyer for all of our eggs……that will be nice if it comes to pass. If so, he will take all the eggs we want to sell, which is all we need to be happy. We can supply our regular customers with eggs and sell him the rest. We have already started making plans for this summer. We are going to take the side yard and make several raised bed gardens to grow sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers for sale in our farm store, along with the eggs and whatever other things the farm produces. The beds will be about eight feed wide and may run 100 feet long with enough area between them to run the mower through. In a way, it will be a modern way to till the land and grow crops. We are toying with a 16 x 100 foot section of field corn for the animals so we can offset the feed cost here on the farm. The Alpacas will be pretty self sufficient in the pasture and we will supplement their diet with Alpaca pellets at first. We are anticipating an exciting year as we grow animals that grow wool, that we will harvest, clean spin and knit into products to sell also. Sounds exciting and fun! What do you think?????