B&B Happy goats
Herd Master
Plant envy , my goodness 
Devonviolet Acres
- Thread starter Devonviolet
- Start date
Baymule
Herd Master
Oh I see a bodacious garden in your near future!
Bruce
Herd Master
Nice to see your post, did the storm blow by yet? Everything safe and unbroken?
- Thread starter
- #4,314
Devonviolet
Herd Master
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2014
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- Location
- East Texas - Near Sulphur Springs
Well, it has been way too long since I last posted here on BYH! I have thought of y’all many times, but life has been busy on Devonviolet Acres, and every time I thought about stopping to say “Hi”, other jobs were more pressing at the time.
We are doing well, and have managed to remain COVID free.
In looking back, I see that last July was the last time I posted here in my Journal. I don’t know if I posted about injuring my right hand. But, to give a brief overview. On June 2nd, I had a bug on my right hand. I went to flick it off and inadvertently hit the middle knuckle on top of my hand under the bathroom cabinet. That caused the main tendon to sever, and caused a lot of pain. After a wasted visit to Urgent Care and several fruitless physical therapy appointments, my GP ordered an MRI which revealed a severed Sagital Band on the 2nd metacarpal joint. The only way to fix it was surgery, which I had on July 30th. The road to recovery has been a long one. I have finally accepted the fact that my right hand will never be pain free or as strong as it once was. Every joint on that hand is swollen and stiff from the inactivity during recovery, and no matter how much therapy I do, the joints remain swollen, stiff, weak and sore.
I tried to pick up a feed sack at the feed store a couple weeks ago, and while I used to be able to move 8-10 50-pound bags of feed at a time, this time I couldn’t hold it and it fell to the ground. I was able to then hook my wrist under the sack and lifted it right up, though. So, I’m learning ways to work around my gimpy hand.
Last March my sister passed away in San Jose, CA. I have been trying to manage her estate long distance, from Texas. However, with the COVID shutdowns, it hasn’t been easy. She had a 2001 Ford F-150 pickup, that a friend of hers parked on the street in front of her house. She wanted to buy it, but was asked to not drive it, since I did not own it. I tried repeatedly to contact the California DMV, to transfer the title to me, but with the shutdown, they weren’t answering the phone. I did keep up the insurance, and since her friend was going to buy the truck, she made the monthly insurance payments. In Sept. it seemed that California was opening up a bit, so I tried calling again, but still could not get through. My brother went to a local DMV near him, in Northern California. The guy there said the best way for me to handle it was to go to a local, San Jose DMV office.
I tried getting ahold of my sister’s friend, to get registration information from paperwork in the truck, but she wasn’t responding. So, after a lot of agonizing, I decided I needed to fly to California, and sell the truck on Craigslist or FB Marketplace.
My sister also had a 10x15’ storage unit with all her belongings, which I needed to sort though, to find the family heirlooms and sell the rest. Her friend had offered to help, but again she was incommunicado. So, I needed to deal with that too. A trip to California was unavoidable.
My daughter had offered to fly out there with me, to help deal with the friend and sort through the storage unit. Back when my sister died, I had asked her friend what the mileage was. When I got in the truck, I was shocked to see that she had put over 1,000 miles on the truck after I had specifically asked her not to drive it. In the end, she couldn’t afford to buy the truck, so I loaded my sister’s things, that we were keeping, in the back of the truck and drove it back to Texas. It was at least a 3-4 day trip (driving 8-10 hours a day), but I just wanted to get home, so I drove until I was tired, which ended up being 15 hours the first day and 16 hours the next day. On the 2nd day I stopped in Dallas and spent the night at my daughter’s and the next morning I drove the remaining two hours to home. It was a long couple of days, but I was surprised to learn that I do really well with long distance driving!
Since the friend thought she was buying the truck, she put about $1000 into maintenance/repairs and when I got back, we had to replace a couple ignition coils (to the tune of $200+). I am now trying to sell it on FB Marketplace and Craigslist, although I haven’t had any takers. It is a really nice truck, with low mileage. I keep lowering the price, but I think I will have to lower it again soon.
When I was in California, I took lots of photos of my sister’s belongings, so I could post them in an online storage unit auction. The problem I am having is that the photos are on my phone, and it is really hard to work on the auction site, and post photos. I have been trying to transfer them to my iPad, but due to slow internet I have had to transfer one photo at a time in an email. So, I have not been able to post the auction yet. The other problem is that I am paying rent on the storage unit, and I really need to get it emptied out soon. I’m hoping to have the auction and get the unit emptied out before the January rent is due.
Last Spring I posted photos of my seedlings. Shortly after that I injured my hand. So, hand digging the garden wasn’t an option. Well, we got our stimulus money and I was able to buy a rototiller with that money. So, with one and a half hands, I was able to till a nice garden area, and we rushed to get it planted before I had my surgery. We built two 32’x7’ high trellises, that we strung cotton thread from, and planted a 32 foot row of beans and a 32 foot row of cucumbers.
I also planted a 32’ double row of sunflowers, which we fed to the chickens when they dried out. We also put up two cattle panels with t-posts and I planted tomatoes, yellow crook neck squash, bitter melon and Red Kuri Squash. I then tilled two rows - one for broccoli, basil, horehound and peppers, and one for a cut and come again spicy salad mix.
I also tilled an area on the other side of the front steps, that I planted with more herbs, as well as green peppers, kale, collards, asparagus, lamb’s quarter, and Jerusalem artichokes

Once I had my surgery, I wasn’t able to do anything in the garden for a couple weeks. Then I was able to at least water. By the middle of September, we were picking about 50 pounds of cucumbers a week, 5 pounds of beans and lots of spicy salad mix. So, we decided it was time to start selling at Farmer’s Market again. Every week, we took about 45 pounds of cucumbers, several pounds of beans, 8-10 8oz bags of salad greens, collards, kale and several herbs. We didn’t make a lot of money (right around $100) but every week we mostly sold out of everything, and had lots of fun visiting with the other vendors and customers.
I have already tilled an additional area, that is about 20 x 40’ and we planted sweet potatoes and onions,, to grow over the winter. I was planning to plant winter vegetables, in the rest of the tilled area, but it just didn’t get done. So, that area will be ready to plant in the Spring.
As @Baymule mentioned in another thread, we no longer raising dairy goats (since I am allergic to goat milk), but have gone to raising Myotonic meat goats. We kept our sweet Myotonic buck, Danny Boy, and bought two Myotonic does. After they went through their quarantine, we put them with Danny Boy. He bred Crescent right away, Melody wasn’t in heat, at that time, but came into heat two weeks later. So, we now have kids due on April 6th and April 17th.
Here the girls are with their new boyfriend:
I continue to live a holistic health lifestyle, and since DH and I continue to do multiple things (using herbs and supplements) to keep our immune system strong, I believe that is why we have avoided COVID, and will continue to do so. Along those lines, I have been making herbal tinctures and infused herbal oils.
And before I sign off and head for bed, here is a photo, that friends took of us, when we stopped by to share, what was left over from farmer’s market, with them.
We are doing well, and have managed to remain COVID free.
In looking back, I see that last July was the last time I posted here in my Journal. I don’t know if I posted about injuring my right hand. But, to give a brief overview. On June 2nd, I had a bug on my right hand. I went to flick it off and inadvertently hit the middle knuckle on top of my hand under the bathroom cabinet. That caused the main tendon to sever, and caused a lot of pain. After a wasted visit to Urgent Care and several fruitless physical therapy appointments, my GP ordered an MRI which revealed a severed Sagital Band on the 2nd metacarpal joint. The only way to fix it was surgery, which I had on July 30th. The road to recovery has been a long one. I have finally accepted the fact that my right hand will never be pain free or as strong as it once was. Every joint on that hand is swollen and stiff from the inactivity during recovery, and no matter how much therapy I do, the joints remain swollen, stiff, weak and sore.
I tried to pick up a feed sack at the feed store a couple weeks ago, and while I used to be able to move 8-10 50-pound bags of feed at a time, this time I couldn’t hold it and it fell to the ground. I was able to then hook my wrist under the sack and lifted it right up, though. So, I’m learning ways to work around my gimpy hand.Last March my sister passed away in San Jose, CA. I have been trying to manage her estate long distance, from Texas. However, with the COVID shutdowns, it hasn’t been easy. She had a 2001 Ford F-150 pickup, that a friend of hers parked on the street in front of her house. She wanted to buy it, but was asked to not drive it, since I did not own it. I tried repeatedly to contact the California DMV, to transfer the title to me, but with the shutdown, they weren’t answering the phone. I did keep up the insurance, and since her friend was going to buy the truck, she made the monthly insurance payments. In Sept. it seemed that California was opening up a bit, so I tried calling again, but still could not get through. My brother went to a local DMV near him, in Northern California. The guy there said the best way for me to handle it was to go to a local, San Jose DMV office.
I tried getting ahold of my sister’s friend, to get registration information from paperwork in the truck, but she wasn’t responding. So, after a lot of agonizing, I decided I needed to fly to California, and sell the truck on Craigslist or FB Marketplace.
My sister also had a 10x15’ storage unit with all her belongings, which I needed to sort though, to find the family heirlooms and sell the rest. Her friend had offered to help, but again she was incommunicado. So, I needed to deal with that too. A trip to California was unavoidable.
My daughter had offered to fly out there with me, to help deal with the friend and sort through the storage unit. Back when my sister died, I had asked her friend what the mileage was. When I got in the truck, I was shocked to see that she had put over 1,000 miles on the truck after I had specifically asked her not to drive it.
In the end, she couldn’t afford to buy the truck, so I loaded my sister’s things, that we were keeping, in the back of the truck and drove it back to Texas. It was at least a 3-4 day trip (driving 8-10 hours a day), but I just wanted to get home, so I drove until I was tired, which ended up being 15 hours the first day and 16 hours the next day. On the 2nd day I stopped in Dallas and spent the night at my daughter’s and the next morning I drove the remaining two hours to home. It was a long couple of days, but I was surprised to learn that I do really well with long distance driving! Since the friend thought she was buying the truck, she put about $1000 into maintenance/repairs and when I got back, we had to replace a couple ignition coils (to the tune of $200+). I am now trying to sell it on FB Marketplace and Craigslist, although I haven’t had any takers. It is a really nice truck, with low mileage. I keep lowering the price, but I think I will have to lower it again soon.
When I was in California, I took lots of photos of my sister’s belongings, so I could post them in an online storage unit auction. The problem I am having is that the photos are on my phone, and it is really hard to work on the auction site, and post photos. I have been trying to transfer them to my iPad, but due to slow internet I have had to transfer one photo at a time in an email. So, I have not been able to post the auction yet. The other problem is that I am paying rent on the storage unit, and I really need to get it emptied out soon. I’m hoping to have the auction and get the unit emptied out before the January rent is due.
Last Spring I posted photos of my seedlings. Shortly after that I injured my hand. So, hand digging the garden wasn’t an option. Well, we got our stimulus money and I was able to buy a rototiller with that money. So, with one and a half hands, I was able to till a nice garden area, and we rushed to get it planted before I had my surgery. We built two 32’x7’ high trellises, that we strung cotton thread from, and planted a 32 foot row of beans and a 32 foot row of cucumbers.

I also planted a 32’ double row of sunflowers, which we fed to the chickens when they dried out. We also put up two cattle panels with t-posts and I planted tomatoes, yellow crook neck squash, bitter melon and Red Kuri Squash. I then tilled two rows - one for broccoli, basil, horehound and peppers, and one for a cut and come again spicy salad mix.
I also tilled an area on the other side of the front steps, that I planted with more herbs, as well as green peppers, kale, collards, asparagus, lamb’s quarter, and Jerusalem artichokes


Once I had my surgery, I wasn’t able to do anything in the garden for a couple weeks. Then I was able to at least water. By the middle of September, we were picking about 50 pounds of cucumbers a week, 5 pounds of beans and lots of spicy salad mix. So, we decided it was time to start selling at Farmer’s Market again. Every week, we took about 45 pounds of cucumbers, several pounds of beans, 8-10 8oz bags of salad greens, collards, kale and several herbs. We didn’t make a lot of money (right around $100) but every week we mostly sold out of everything, and had lots of fun visiting with the other vendors and customers.
I have already tilled an additional area, that is about 20 x 40’ and we planted sweet potatoes and onions,, to grow over the winter. I was planning to plant winter vegetables, in the rest of the tilled area, but it just didn’t get done. So, that area will be ready to plant in the Spring.
As @Baymule mentioned in another thread, we no longer raising dairy goats (since I am allergic to goat milk), but have gone to raising Myotonic meat goats. We kept our sweet Myotonic buck, Danny Boy, and bought two Myotonic does. After they went through their quarantine, we put them with Danny Boy. He bred Crescent right away, Melody wasn’t in heat, at that time, but came into heat two weeks later. So, we now have kids due on April 6th and April 17th.
Here the girls are with their new boyfriend:
I continue to live a holistic health lifestyle, and since DH and I continue to do multiple things (using herbs and supplements) to keep our immune system strong, I believe that is why we have avoided COVID, and will continue to do so. Along those lines, I have been making herbal tinctures and infused herbal oils.
And before I sign off and head for bed, here is a photo, that friends took of us, when we stopped by to share, what was left over from farmer’s market, with them.
Mike CHS
Herd Master
People have been asking about you two and it's always great to hear from those that have too many life issues getting in the way.
Mini Horses
Herd Master
What a successful garden you had! I know you have waited a long time for that and it has happened. The goats are lovely. And I so enjoyed your update. Sure have missed your posts and hope that "life" will allow you to visit us more. Especially good to hear you are both doing well -- except the hand, sorry -- because we worry when no updates.
B&B Happy goats
Herd Master
Nice hearing from you, sorry about your hand and the problems with your sisters estate...hopefully things will fall into place so you can get everything behind you 
...you have been missed here, ...2021 has to be a better year...hope you have a wonderful Christmas, big hugs to you and Craig 
...you have been missed here, ...2021 has to be a better year...hope you have a wonderful Christmas, big hugs to you and Craig
Baymule
Herd Master
Glad you came back to update everyone! You have been missed here! Your garden pictures look lovely and I know you two will be having a great spring garden. The Farmer's Market is a nice bonus for all your hard work. The garden produce does a lot for yourselves, eating good food, the FM is just that extra kick of appreciation in dollars. Dollars are nice too!
frustratedearthmother
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Great to hear your update. Sorry about the hand! I love the myotonics and glad that you are able to keep them for your goat fix!
farmerjan
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Adding to others , glad to get the update. The garden was real nice and glad that you got a good amount of production. Although you said not alot of money, the sales at the market will more than buy your seeds for awhile so that is always a bonus.
Very glad that you have both stayed healthy. Keeping up your immune system is the way to go.
Merry Christmas to you both and raise a glass to a BETTER 2021.
Very glad that you have both stayed healthy. Keeping up your immune system is the way to go.
Merry Christmas to you both and raise a glass to a BETTER 2021.
