Well I thought I would start a new journal and try to keep it up this time. I am always checking in and reading but have a hard time to actually sit down and write about my life. I have always had a hard time with that anyway. I still kind of live though the kids! Well, the blueberries are ready (all I need now are the actual blueberries!). Been receiving orders from restaurants and now many pounds they want when their ready for picking. Also received a few call about lambs but had to tell them to go else where for lambs this year.

Now that the war has died down (poor choice of words) I have a husband again...and we need to give all the calves blackleg shots this week. That is fun. He grabs them and get them down then I hold them down and he gives the shots. He gets mad at the way I give shots. Close my eyes and scream! Everyone around here seems to have their garden in but us. Were slow this year. Hubby worked quite a few hours in the last month (no extra pay) so the plowing never got done until this last week. I didn't do seeds either so we are going to buy the plants and do it like city people.

I think I mentioned the time I went nuts and actually beat a coyote with a stick (help from my dogs too). Last week I saw 12 coyotes forming a circle around a few calves - so I went out there with a pitch fork - they all ran away. I guess I'll have to pick up the gun and do a better job with them but I can't stand guns.

Soap business is doing well. I have received more wholesale orders which is nice unless they want their own labels which is very time consuming. It think I'll do some of the big fairs this year. I have done all the small ones but I never did a hugh state fair before.

Blessings,

Debbie at Bountiful

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2003

Answers

Well I made 4 gallons of lotion today. All my 4 ounce bottles are in but...I can't figure out how to label them. You see with lotion you have to put down every ingredient. Well there is 17 ingredients but all except 4 are droplets . The biggest next to water is cocoa butter, shea butter, then it goes way down to a few droplets of citrus etc. Oh well maybe I can type microscopic!

My dog got bitten by a copperhead. She is fine, I gave her a tetanis shop and antibiotics. Last year she managed to get bitten twice by copperheads. My horse about 2 years ago got bitten by a rattlesnake and I all most lost him. It took a year for his skin to come back and he was steriods for a few days and antibiotics forever.

We planted a good part of the garden but we are real low on rain this year. I was hoping to get a May cutting of hay but will not at all and it looks like I'll have to start watering the blueberries which is about a 2 hr job every few days without rain. So pray for rain in Eastern Ok. Leave out the tornadoes though, that is all this area seems to like!

Hope all is well and I'll read the rest of the journals this weekend. Blessings, Debbie at Bountiful

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2003

Good Morning, Chores are done but I have to get moving with these 4 gallons of lotion. Started adding essential oils to 16 ounces of lotion last night. Did a bunch of shea butter lip balms. If you were to visit my house at the moment you would probably slide across the floor!

Well we not only got rain, hail and wind but warning every two hours for the last week. I not only had to worry about my place but I have both girls in different parts of OK. My youngest at OK.Baptist University was down the street from a trailer park that is no longer in existence! Her college is close to OKC. My other is at OK.State University which is close to the Kansas border. She lives on the second floor of an apartment bldg with no basements. This part of the country drives me nuts with no basements. I have always had basements in our houses and never lived in tornado alley. You come down here where severe whether watches is the norm and no one has a basement or shelter. I am having big time arguments about getting a shelter with hubby. I think I will win after this last week!

Garden is in!!! How is everyone elses doing. Ours looks pretty nice right now, no weeds. The rolls are pretty far apart so maybe we can rotortill(sp) between the rolls. I wasn't able to plant cool whether crops because we were far behind but will this fall. One thing nice about OK is you have two planting seasons.

Well my big plans for this week is to worm the chickens and then clean out the chix shed and fill up the runs with lots of leaves and the (two story chix house) with lots of wood chips we buy in bulk. The reason we have a very nice two story chix house(plainted bright red with a green shingled roof) is that my parents had visit one winter 4 years ago and my dad is a builder. We wanted a chix house and he had nothing better to do so he built what he thought a chix house should look like! Poured Foundation, darling pitched roof with windows and doors to the runs. 2 layers of laying boxes (he thought every bird needed their own box as a home) Try this one, he hood up water, airconditioning and lights. This chix house is an embarrassment when people ask what that structure is.

The following year he built an extension on to my horse barn for my sheep. Each ewe has her own 6X6 lambing room! An of course they have aircentral too! MIND YOU ALL--- I DO NOT AIR CONDITION MY ANIMALS!!!! You just can't tell my dad anything and both structures were presents, so who am I to complain. He is a city boy raised in Los Angeles so he thinks a little different.

I do hope all is well with everyone and you all had a nice Mother's Day.

Blessings, Debbie at Bountiful

-- Anonymous, May 13, 2003

Today is Thursday...I am still tired and stress. I must tell you about my Tuesday. Well, started out fine, went to the Post Office and bought groceries then to the farm store... nothing out of the ordinary. Worked with my husband and sprayed weed killer on about 60 some acres then life got a little hectic.

My daughter decided to ride her horse, well the horse managed to get caught in an electric fence and looked like Black Beauty in the movie there for a while. She was able to keep him calm, got the electric turned off and got her off the horse safely. She wears a registered hard hat incase of falling, I donot let the girls or my husbnd ride without a safety hat.

Then on to the second incident! I notice a calf crying out in the woods and mother someplace else. We spent hours trying to get the mother into a pen because these cows are on open pasture (food did work) well the mother has an infection in her utters and the baby was hungry. Went and made some colustrum which the baby immediately took and called out for my younger daughter to get all the shots ready. It is 9 in the evening - no lights within miles- in a corral with weeds up to you neck(maybe a slight exaggeration) and giving 7 shots. All okay, fell down a few times trying to find the house which is about 1/2 mile away on the property. When we got back to the house my daughter was complaining about her eyes. I jumped in to the tub to get the ticks off when my other daughter ran into the bathroom say we needed to get to the emergency room. The daughter giving the shots could not see had welps all over her body, chest, neck and eyes. Her face was swollen including lips and eyes and was starting to act like she was going into convulsions. I gab what looked like clothes (husband shirt and my shorts) no shoes and jumped into the car. The hospital is 30 - 40 minutes away and we do not have 911 or an emergency system out here. She is fine now but it took half the night with ivs and every antidote possible because no one know what the toxic reaction was but they hadn't seen a case like that before. She is on steriods and still swollen all over.

It is funny NOW but when we got to the emergency room a nurse asked what she was doing and I said in a panic way that she was giving shots to a cow. Well the nurse thought I said I was giving her shots and she started to panic, what kind of shots and why? I explained LA 200 for MASITIS. Finally, it became clear to all that it was SHE my daughter giving shots and to a cow not on herself!!!

Has anyone ever had a reation like that. I can't imagine what it was, at first I thought snake, scopion (we have plenty of those) but maybe it was plant life but she is always in that corral with the plants. I guess we'll never know or I hope not. She is to carry ephrephine around with her as an anidote until we all feel safe says the DR. Anyway got home Wed. morning, looked in the mirrow and couldn't believe what I was wearing.

Good News, I think I have the cow's utters working again and I am hoping not to have a bottle baby!

Blessing to all from Bountiful Debbie

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2003

Thank you to those that had asked about me. I appreciated the caring. I have been bottle feeding a calf that was a twin and momma abandon. You see with Angus they do not have a lot of milk so a twin is not good! Bottle feeding to me is a pain because I can't seem to get them back into the herd. The herd never accepts them so if I get her to finally eat and drink without the bottle I'll have to sell her and I always feel so bad. Especially, because I named her Summer 2003. Got to have a reason for no summer vacations!

Blueberriers should be coming in a few weeks and unless we get a good rain at least a inch and a half every week I have to water by hand which takes at least 2 plus hours every other day. My hay will be cut this coming week (do not want rain for that).

The reason I appreciated the asking about me is because I have been depressed for no reason. I have my girls home at the moment, hubby isn't gone out of town but I think there are too many chores and every day there is a problem. Bull running down the street. Horses chasing calfs. Turkeys being chased by my dogs. Etc..... Not to mention I need to start canning! I'll get over it, I do not get depressed much so maybe this is a pity party!

Good news is my Website is almost up. Been working on it for a long time.

My daughter survived that toxic attack and actually it made my other daughter re evaluate her walk with Christ, which is always good.

I have another wholesale buyer for my soap and things are starting to take off with wholesale business. That is always good for me because I am not a marketing personality. I almost apolize when I go into a shop to see if they would like to sell my soap!

Well now I feel better already just looking at all the blessing I have.

I hope all is well with you,

Blessings from Bountiful

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2003