All the freakin’ cats.

As they trek through the long grass, 

they worry about the surrounding threats. Enemies surround them on all sides, bringing fear into question, just how long they will make it? The winds rip through, despite their lowliness to the ground. Their pack is many, increasing gradually every day. Soon, a loud noise erupts. Chaos scrambles as they try to make their way to safety. The enemy is out and wandering, searching for its next attack. The threat runs toward them, separating the group, but a larger, more powerful noise calls it back. The enemy pulls back in fear. A new figure pushed forward, revealing itself in the daylight. "Who's hungry?!" A second follows, "Kitties! Come here." They run to their owners, with hopeful anticipation of a meal. They run from their duck/chicken/cat coop that has a newly added sunning deck. Spoiled? Yes. 

Welcome to the story of all the cats. Yes, I was talking about the cats the whole time. Buck was the threat. Speaking of Buck, I forgot to mention last week that he, the fellow with severe ADHD is a dog... yes, he is an Australian Shepherd. Note to self, don't write the whole blog 2 hours before publishing it- I really do apologize for last week's not being our best ever. 

Welcome to this week's episode of the Gone Homesteadin' blog! It's good to see y'all back at the Funny Farm. We've got a few good stories for you, so let's continue on to the plethora of cats....

Sun deck haha! 

Living in the country, rodent control is a must. One or two cats is acceptable and necessary on a homestead. Our numbers have always fluctuated and usually are too high. (That is, in some people's opinion.) The random cats that appeared would just find any place necessary to inhabit. That being- our old washhouse, occasionally the chicken coop, etc. A few weeks back, we thought we were down to our three, very friendly, first year cats. Three was an acceptable number.  All of the mothers were gone, and our numbers were down to a very okay level. This was in fact the best time to transition them into their new cat coop. Unfortunately, they told their friends and decided to mass increase. Some of which we hadn't seen in many, many months returned but leaving us again with the newest few they had acquired. And with that, the chickens taking over as their source of warmth. (See the wonderful photo above.) 

Mom's one-of-a-kind philosophy is that they need to be kind kittens. In her words, 'pett-able.' So, yeah, she spends a lot of money on cat food.  Always accepting donations for cat food... So, if anyone is looking for any number of barn cats, please let us know and we will gladly give you a whole batch. Or just one. Somehow cats became a small staple of this Funny Farm... we always, always have cats. 

cat #2319

Unfortunately, we know the struggles of losing cats all too well. Some here are used to it, while others take it to heart. Miss Megan really likes those cats, so her loss is hard. In honor of T-Rex, the tiniest cat we've ever had. RIP. A few months ago, we lost our ancient cat, Meow Meow. I was 3 years old when I named her. Pretty proud if I do say so myself. 

Moving on to other silly stories... I tried to order some Burn 'n Design stickers off a website that I make common purchases from. The transaction went though, the proof was good, and finally they arrived! When I went to open the package, it was NOT the stickers I ordered. In fact, it was 50 Titos Handmade Vodka stickers. I bet you could imagine the hilarious confusion in the household at that. Turns out the shipping labels got switched. Luckily, customer service had a great, quick response time, and good news, the next package will arrive soon. Maybe this will be a great kind of marketing for me lol. 

From the wonderful words of Lorelai Gilmore, "Coffee, coffee, coffee." For those of you who watch Gilmore Girls, you're amazing. For those that don't, I highly suggest bingeing it haha. 

Ready for the newest recipe? Coffee creamer!! Homemade, delicious, and simple. Dissolve 1 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of water and a splash of maple syrup over medium heat. Remove from heat and simply add 1/2 cup of half&half, 1/2 cup of milk, 1-2 tablespoons of vanilla, and some cinnamon. Mix it all together and there you have it! See how easy that was? Don't go buy it anymore, make it yourself, it's better for you anyway! 

Fall & Herbs 

This is our best bud, Buck! 

Well, we are getting through our Fall clean up list. Slowly but surely making our way before we are stuck inside. The garden is cleaned out, and we got our last herb harvest of the season- Calendula and Comfrey. We even found some onions, two to be exact. We're proud. (Go see our social medias lol) 

Speaking of Calendula, we grew a lot! We started our seeds in March this year and to be honest, we had very limited expectations. But man, oh man did this beauty produce SO MANY amazing flowers. In fact, the plant itself overtook some of our other herbs, overfilling our herb garden! We would all take turns going out to harvest and it was no small task. Sometimes we would fill our little herb baskets to the brim and having our hands covered in the goodness of sticky calendula resin after harvesting! We were able to dry so many of these beautiful little flowers which we will use for teas and infusions. We were able to even make a large batch of tincture that will be a huge blessing come this winter season! We will include some photos in future posts, but it is the blogs' cover photo right now! 

Maybe you have not heard of this sweet, little yellow flower before, so let me tell you about it. It has so many amazing uses. It is amazing for healing injured skin, so it is used in many salves and skin recipes. It is also great as a tincture, as it can be nourishing to your kidneys, digestive system, and also your lymphatic system. As we wrote this, we enjoyed a nice, warm cup of Calendula, Comfrey, Lemon Balm, and Mullein tea! (These herbs will be mentioned throughout the blog is much more detail.) We highly recommend researching all of the amazing benefits of this small but powerful flower. We are so excited to see this beauty return in the Spring, but we have saved plenty of seeds in case we need to give it a jump start next year as well. 

Calendula is also an ingredient in Burn 'n Design's 'monthly ease' tallow! Not only is this tallow beneficial for that time of the month, it's soothing, great for your skin, and enhances your natural glow and skincare routine! 

Foxie Roxie & Mom! 

Foxie Roxie came to help on the homestead this week as it was time to dig  dahlias (aka mom's favorite flowers, she is always trying to get the biggest with the prettiest colors.) These fun flowers are grown from tubers which require them to be dug each fall and replanted every spring. Mom grew up with dahlias as her Grandma Helen had a beautiful garden bed full of them throughout all of her childhood. So, they are a fun memory of her childhood with each bloom. The original ones that we had were not all of the fun colors that we see now, but the classics- purple and red. The dahlia bed at the homestead has grown over the years as we've slowly added new colors and varieties. 

But alas, Foxie Roxie! She arrived in her fun bandana ready to work. Now if you know anything about the Energizer Bunny, ope.. I mean Roxie, she is a go getter! So, mom was prepping for her arrival because it would be time to fly as soon as she arrived. We were able to get those tubers dug in no time flat! Dug, trimmed, stalks hauled away, garden gates to the shed, tubers in the buckets and off to her basement for safe winter storage in almost no time! She really in an energizer bunny who is AMAZING help. But you might need a nap after she runs laps around you working. So yes, a huge thank you to this amazing lady!

That's all we got for you this week folks. Megan and I are doing the youth hunt this year (unfortunately, my last) so we'll will be ready with stories about that when we return. We appreciate all of you wonderful readers and thank you for the comments. 

Until next time! 

- The Funny Farm.