I’m so excited for Saturday, you will find me at the 3rd Annual St Nick’s Christmas Bazaar:
I’m going to be on the main level next to some other great exhibitors. This will be such a great opportunity to support small rural/farm businesses so spread the word.
Check out the current specials:
Here is the current catalog too.
As with many families and their history and stories, the stories change over years, assumptions made, that sort of thing. Thus far, that is the military story of Bert. We know prior to joining, he was working for the State Department of Transportation in Ephrata, WA. Depending on who you talk to, he may or may not have been drafted. A likely scenario, as with others of the time, he likely received his draft notice and hurried to enlist in his choice branch rather than having no say. According his his eldest sister my grandmother “the Johnson’s didn’t need to be drafted, we ALL volunteered”.
Bert didn’t talk much about his service if at all. Around 1995 I asked Uncle Bert to speak as a Veteran of WWII for my school assembly. I will never forget the conversation though short it was – He became very quiet and cold looking, after taking a deep breath he said “NO”. It was the most stern he had ever spoken to me. I remember nodding, giving him a hug, and walking away. It was at that point, I realized time doesn’t heal all wounds.
What I can tell you is that his siblings didn’t know he was at the battle of Pearl Harbor until they were notified by the Navy he was safe. They said he didn’t say anything about it, just nodded. Rumors and assumptions were made. Bert had a USS Nevada tattoo on his arm which likely lead to the story he was on the Nevada during Pearl Harbor. What I can tell you is that during the battle of Pearl Harbor he was assigned to the destroyer tender USS Whitney moored behind the torpedo nets. Reviewing the after action report, it is unclear if Bert was on board at the time of the attack. Most accounts recorded from sailors on board indicate they were preparing to head to church and the after action report indicates 90% were on board, making it likely he was as well. My favorite line from the after action report is the proud claim “The personnel on board were calm and unexcited throughout the engagement. They manned their battle stations efficiently and carried out all orders promptly and without confusion. All officers and men of the Whitney are deserving of the highest praise for their conduct during the engagement.”
There was no damage or loss of personnel aboard the Whitney. A fellow sailor, Jim Leavelle was interviewed in 2015 and talked about their role in the Pear Harbor attack. Their ship was positioned away from the main point of attack, and although they shot at planes as they came near, they were not able to have much impact. Orders came to the USS Whitney and the others moored near by to maintain their positions to prevent allowing the Japanese to block the shallow waters of the harbor. Leavelle comments “We had a real good view of everything that was going on but there’s nothing we could do about it. Our guns shot 30 miles, that would be down into Honolulu. We got orders to stay put, because commanders were getting orders to get their ships out of the harbor”.
Bert Likely chose the tattoo as a symbol of Navy strength, remembrance and battle cry similar to “remember the Alamo”. The USS Nevada was called by many “the Cheer Up Ship” or “The Ship That Wouldn’t Sink”. It was the one boat to make progress to leave the harbor and once it endured too much damage the crew grounded the ship rather than block the harbor or sink.
During Bert’s time in the navy he served on a handful of different ships and sailed to numerous regions. A common statement among his fellow sailors and service men was “you did what had to be done”, and this seemed to have been true for Bert as well. The Whitney was later involved in a typhoon injuring some of the crew.
The man I knew was a playful “old man” who didn’t know what it was to be old but had some great sailor tattoos and could still make his girl on his arm dance.
WWII affected us all. When Jack left, I cried, for days I cried. I was so upset. I didn’t know Brother Burt was at Pear Harbor until it was over and we heard he was okay. For me the war [WWII] was just the way things were. The one thing I did notice though was I had a Japanese friend, one day he was there, the next day he was gone. That’s how it was. People were afraid and they took Japanese away. I received a draft notice, but I’d heard that if you enlisted you could choose your branch, so I did. I joined the Army as a steno-graph. While in the army I earned the nickname “Damn-it”. As a sergeant I was tasked with doing barrack checks – similar to the college RA. I would regularly walk in and say “Damn-it! clean this up!”, so the guys started calling me Damn-it, they
would even sing it “Damn it Johnson ….” haha.
I really wanted to be a teacher, so I used this as a way to earn my GI Bill and pay for college. I chose Army because all the siblings took a different branch, everyone joined something so I followed Jack to the Army. I mean everyone joined a different branch, but not Coast Guard – no one joins Coast Guard haha.
Don Johnson: Air Force
Jess Johnson: Marines
Jack Johnson: Army
Bert Johnson: Navy
I’ve been searching for the most economical feed options for our farm, and since I’ve done a lot of leg work I thought I would share. What I found was that for pigs the goal rate would be $0.36 a pound. Tractor supply came out with the best farm brand for the price, North 40, cascade farm and Ranch, Ranch & Home all have Purina for roughly the same prices which is about a penny a pound more than DuMor at Tractor Supply. Now, if your bottom line and focus is price, crazy enough – Walmart has the best price but you will likely need to order in advance and pickup. They have Hog 14 a 40 pound bag for $12.67 making it $0.32 a pound ($2 savings every 50lbs).
Chicken feed is our other big feed expense. I’ve found that current rate goal is $0.31 per pound. Looking at same stores, again Tractor Supply, North 40, and Cascade are comparable at the 0.31 rate. As before, if price is the focus, Walmart does have a cheaper option at $0.29 per pound.
I’ve searched for bulk feed remotely close by and haven’t found anything for a better price within 3 hours of our farm. For us, the bags are just more practical. However, with that said, I’ll be keeping my eyes open.
One nice thing about our little farm is we have a large garden and I’m still learning. That means we have a lot of accidental waste and that is great feed. The pigs love the pumpkins that started getting mushy. Chickens love the lettuce that got out of control and the cabbage that was ravaged by bugs. We have a couple chicken nests from our escapees that we didn’t find timely, and pigs love broken up eggs.
When available cull wheat, peas, corn, etc can be bought at a great deal and make good supplemental scratch grains for the chickens, ducks, & geese. The difficulty is it is generally sold by the ton and that can be more difficult to manage.
I like the idea of this style of bin as you can get a lid for it, but it’s probably a longer range plan:
Have you found a good feed source for the Eastern Washington area? PNW?
When Grandma passed (though it started before that), she designated me the Family Historian. Given she spent years studying and researching our family genealogy. I’m proud she chose me for passing the title, stories, documents, and pictures to. She instilled a love of history in me that I hope my children continue to value and one day I can pass the title to one of them. With that being said, I’ve been wanting to contribute something more to our treasures. That’s where herbalism comes in.
Over the years lessons have been handed down, home remedies passed from generation to generation. I’ve decided to compile these as well as add some of my own, learned from classes, trainings, and research I’ve done. Over time I’ve learned a bit about why Grandma’s Coffee helped asthma, how Aunty Joyce’s Hot Toddy’s really did help colds, aloe is good on burns, oatmeal is a timeless face wash, 2 O’clock tea time really was a good thing, and so on.
To fit with something my ancestors would have chosen, I found a beautiful leather journal with a latch. I’ve been compiling research notes in another journal for sometime with scribbles, torn out pages, things to look up, cross reference and such. Notes on where things grow, how to grow, how to harvest, and all that garble. I’m now getting to a point where I feel like I can start transferring some of the information and I’m very excited.
So far, my plan is to have front pages for various herbs, mostly focusing on ones that are easily grown, then outlining ones that can be purchased that either are harder to grow or regionally specific and not my hardiness zone. Maybe a section of ones that are easily found growing wild.
The part I’m stuck on, feel free to give opinions, is how to or what to have for a table of contents/index. It’s going to be a living book so alphabetizing or grouping is out, either will essentially have to be a list that can be searched. I’m leaning toward listing pages in the back like an index and numbering pages as I go. Maybe on an introduction page I’ll have a note about the list being on the last pages and in no real order.
I suspect it will focus on day to day remedies like allergies, colds, injuries, and such. I’ve lived with asthma all my life as well as environmental allergies; that’s a gift I’ve already passed down to my kids. It will be nice to have a good place to put all the tricks and remedies I’ve learned over the years that I know will come in handy for them if they have interest or need the specific recipes once they move out.
Stay tuned, as I go, I’ll post updates and recipes.
Each year hay season is a big part of farming, this year was more so for our farm as we took on a few additional fields. Having young kids adds a level of crazy, but as farm mom, I love it. Growing up I changed hand lines a time or two, but hubby is what my boys call “a master builder”. He apparently changed enough hand lines growing up that he is a pro that can move 10 times faster than the boys and 5 times faster than me. Of course, my youngest has much more interest in running through the sprinklers pretending to work than really putting in the labor.
Our youngest is our future farmer. Right now he eats and sleeps farming. We have one-on-one time and that really just consists of him talking at me about his farm plans. Needless to say, when it comes time to learn about starting irrigation pumps, setting hand lines, and the like, he is first in line.
For the last couple years my niece and nephew have spent about a week with us during the summer. This year we made so many great memories that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Watching these kids work together to buck hay was probably the highlight of mom-ing this summer.
Farming 2021
Around here the way it goes is the farm mom/wife is the driver and safety officer. When picking up bales she is driver, when doing hard labor she watches everyone and looks out for danger. At this point in life, I’ve earned the ability to delegate to my sons… and I do hahaha. With the cousins over this summer we had extra hands for bucking hay and new tractor drivers too!
As the Fun Aunt, I take my position and responsibility very seriously so naturally it involves playing DJ while out for farm chores. Staple music we have includes parody favorites – “farming and I grow it” and “chore”.
How do you keep chores fun?
As the family historian pictures are priceless. So having family portraits done has been important to me, but easier said than done. Generally I’ve always been on the other side of the camera doing other people’s family portraits. I’ve done ours a few times using a remote, and they’ve been good enough, but I wanted the full experience. Less stress one might say. HA!
I started out trying to do pictures last fall, but things kept coming up. Then I figured early spring. I worked to get outfits picked out the works. I was going to wear a sweater, the boys long sleeve shirts, perfect. Again, things kept coming up – it’s been a COVID year again after all. Finally I get the photographer secured and realize, we are now in warm weather, I can’t wear a sweater. Get a new clothing plan laid out and suddenly the PNW gets record heat. So each time the day pulls closer we check the weather 106, 103, 110, 99, ARE YOU KIDDING ME!
I started to question it, i’m going, 98s not bad, think there will be sweat marks? haha Finally we get a day of low 90s and I’m going the truck has AC, we’re good! Needless to say, it took almost a year to get family pictures done if you go from when I first laid out clothes. Years if you go from wishful thinking haha. As for low stress, goodness no. By the end I was crossing my fingers one family shot would turn out good enough for the wall.
It may not have gone perfect, but given everything and keeping in mind I’m wrangling a 6 year old and 12 year old, not to mention animals running around and making noise – it’s a farm after all, things went pretty good.
I tried framing the “kissy” picture and the 12 year old begged me not to, apparently the kissing isn’t a problem, it’s the fact he had to pretend he was grossed out by it. Okay – not on the wall. I have a wedding picture that haunts me whenever I got to family homes so I get it. When you are young (20 in my case) you may put pictures out there that you later realize are terrible! and they haunt you. I get it.
I bought these great frames at Hobby Lobby and was so excited to use them for the family pictures, but now I’m not sure how to arrange the wall. I attempted to Hand the big one over the couch but accidentally knocked down Hubby’s duck and bent the neck. After “fixing” it, I wasn’t about to mess with that area again until I was positive what / where I wanted. So, now they are up, but not sure what I want. This is the only house I’ve ever lived in that I can’t settle in to fully. It feels like home, don’t get me wrong, but 4 going on 5 years later, I’m still figuring out how I want to arrange, store, decorate.
Don’t mind the mess – this was crafting day 🙂
I’ve been offline for a while so i’ll have to do some back stories for ya. However, today i’m just jumping in. The coop where we have our garden hosted a festival today, and I took the goat babies! I’ll post my story on how goat babies became a thing (Hubby hates goats), but for now, let me tell you the festival story.
Once word got out we had bought baby goats and how sweet they are we were asked if we’d be willing to bring them to the festival for a mini petting zoo. I’m having so much fun with these kids (really – baby goats are kids) I was happy to join up. OH-MY-GOODNESS. It was windy and cold, and I’m such a baby hahaha. But Hubby warned me on the weather and I bucked up and put on my big girl pants (i.e. winter leggings under jeans haha) and gathered my gear. I used an old 8 panel play pen for containment. I never realized how much I would use that when I bought it for our son. I use it for 4 legged animals more than I ever used it for my son. It was perfect. A great height for kids to be able to reach over and pet the goats but sturdy and tall enough to keep them in. The ladies did like to jump up on the panels for a better chance of getting loved on, but it stayed up with no real problems. I’ll add weights to it next time around, but, it was good.
Insider tip: Goats love animal crackers. With the girls being so young still I only took as much as I thought they could handle and made sure to break them up before hand. It was so fun to see the little kids feed and interact with the babies. I actually loved answering all the questions people had. Living the farm life I often forget that there are a lot of people that really don’t know much or ever interact with farm animals. The most common question today was “do goats really eat anything and everything – like tin cans?” Yes, yes they do. I mean, they don’t actually eat metal – but they sure as heck will chew on it. If it won’t hold water, it wont hold a goat. That’s what we say. However, Mom’s pets seem to be a bit more mindful of farm rules than her children’s animals so I suspect they won’t be much trouble.
Garden season means aphid season. With that in mind, I wanted to share my aphid spray recipe. This mix seems pretty widely used and is a nice easy home mix that doesn’t require anything that isn’t in a typical home.
Solution:
50% water, 50% rubbing alcohol plus enough dish soap to tint the water
My Recipe:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
1 tablespoon dish soap
Video link: https://fb.watch/5p5Tops_Fy/
So I should start by saying this: I have a love hate relationship with goats. I loved my angora goats but I was too allergic to them. I love my “neighbor’s” goats (you know, the country one’s miles away). But my oldest seems to get the dumbest of the herd, yet they seem to share DNA with Houdini.
If it won’t hold water, it won’t hold goats. Or at least not the ones that we get. They jump and climb fences, not to mention they can shimmy thru a gap that the dogs can’t get out of.
However, our youngest is going to show a friend’s goat and I’ve fallen in love with the herd. Our friend has Dwarf Nigerian goats. They are so cute! Not to mention she had a train built for them & seeing a goat “driving” a train makes my day.
The other day one ate my shirt and all I could do was laugh. I swear, the one is the goat that started the view that goats eat cans hahaha.
2 years ago my oldest had a goat for 4H that kept putting its head through the gate bars and getting his head stuck. We ended up having to keep a car jack in the barn to rescue the goat every day for about 2 weeks!
Overall, goats are great starter 4H animals for showing. As a mom though, I haven’t decided what my opinion is 🤪
Farm Land Love 