Margali's Griffin Wood Ranch

[farmerjan]

Mmm, curry lamb backstrap over salad with asparagus and portabella mushrooms. Amazingly the kids like the strip with just salt and pepper.
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WOW, looks really good. I am just not much of a cook... basic stuff, just not inspired to make "nice meals" very often. Not much fun for one person either...I'm not real big on curry, but will try things... just not a big spicy person...

 

[Margali]

WOW, looks really good. I am just not much of a cook... basic stuff, just not inspired to make "nice meals" very often. Not much fun for one person either...I'm not real big on curry, but will try things... just not a big spicy person...

I managed to plate one portion pretty. My husband had that one with curry. I had salt and pepper with the kids. It was easy to cook. I seared on all sides with seasoning and pat of butter. Then baked at 400F for ~20min. The time consuming part was searing the 3 batches separate and wrapping in foil to cook.

 

[Baymule]

That looks delicious!

Give yourself a Pat on the back. You have come a long way in a short time. I know you look ahead, you are a forward type personality. You look at all you have to do to make your farm the place you want it to be. Sometimes you get discouraged because it’s not happening fast enough. You have setbacks, but you overcome and push forward towards your goal. When you and your family came to my farm in Lindale, y’all were living in a travel trailer. Just look where you are now! Stop for a moment and look back and allow yourself to marvel at all that you have accomplished.

You prepared a meal for your family with lamb you raised. That is huge. Congratulations.

 

[Margali]

@Baymule Thanks for the reminder. There is so much going wrong lately that has me down. I also just turned 40 and next year I will have a teenager. I have to remind myself that 3rd times the charm and I'm good at recovering from setbacks. That is the basic description of my 20s and 30s.

 

[Mini Horses]

remind myself that 3rd times the charm and I'm good at recovering from setbacks

It gets easier? My "baby" was 53 this spring. DGD, 21! . Had tractor, truck & car "down" same week. And a horse died. Never stops...you deal. You recover.

Just keep rolling with the punches.... you got this!!

 

[Margali]

@Mini Horses The number increments each time.

 

[Ridgetop]

No, No, NO! At 39 you start counting your age backwards. At 27 you can go forward again. After doing this rotation a few times even your mother won't remember how old you really are. One problem solved.

The teenager thing though is bad. We adopted our 5th child when she was 14. If I hadn't already survived 4 teenagers, I would never have made it.

 

[Margali]

I spent about 30 minutes working on sheep shed. The bent middle pen fence will be being replaced with taller divider. The short femce will be cut into lambing jug panels.

I think this gate setup works better.I will have a person gate on either side of the 2 way sort door. I may have to make extensions to the handles.

 

[Baymule]

You made it better and easier for you. Time and effort well spent!

 

[Ridgetop]

Looking good. You have made major steps in your pen situation. The right pens and working chutes can make things so much easier. We are still figuring out how to do some things after all these years. We built a chute between 2 pens. Unfortunately, we used the pe sides to form it. No problem, except the pens were made of 5' high corral panels. See the problem? No way to chivvy the sheep along except by reaching through the bars which was not as good as being able to lean over and move them along with a hand on the dock. Reaching through the bars often caused a painful wrench to the shoulder or elbow when the little dears got tangled and forced their way back.

We made our original pens with the many chain link gates we found abandoned on this property when we bought it. No fencing, just about 12-15 gates in different sizes! LOL We had our dog kennels, bought stock panel (cattle panels), and I ran new chain link along some existing posts for our original dairy goats. (Before we knew NOT to use chain link.) The original gate "pens" were wired together or tied with hay rope until we found you could buy corral clamps at the feed store. Luckily, we had free hired hands - small but plucky - who could be encouraged with the offer of a rental movie and root beer floats.

All the panels and fencing we have now were acquired over the 30 years we have been here. I had more Sydell panels, feeders, and equipment, but sold them when the kids went out of dairy goats.
NOTE TO SELF: Keep all farm gear and let the kids have a big estate sale.

This is why all farms and ranches have a large pile of STUFF - wood, plywood, wire, posts, etc. - behind the barn. It is all stuff that may come in handy later and ALWAYS gets used eventually. Any farms or ranches you see that don't have this pile, either keep it inside a shed, have farm workers that keep these piles at their place, or are newbies who haven't realized they need a "STUFF"pile for emergencies. LOL