A Two Post Day

Folks, I feel a two-post day coming on.

I'm home this afternoon, on a beautiful Thursday, with great temps, the sun shining, and peace all around. 

One of the bloggers on my sidebar has not had much peace lately, though, and that's what I'd like to comment about.

Bloggers blog for many reasons... some, political, some religious... some blog because they love to cook and share recipes, some are designers, whether professional or not (Brenda!) they love to share their loves with everyone else.  Some write the kind of day-to-day journals that many of us do, simply talking about what is happening around the home place, and what's growin', cookin', birthin', etc. for everyone to enjoy.

Ramona from "The Japanese Redneck" is one of those.  She and her husband have many rescued pets that they care for deeply, and a group of horses, several of which are shown regularly.  She has taken a beating recently for complaining in her blog about something that happened in a show recently... and those complaints and comments back at her were in accusing language, sore, and to the point towards her.  Because of it, her blog has gone private.  I don't blame her.  Life is hard enough without inviting criticism and complaints from the world at large, though you might say we bring it on ourselves by our blogging... I understand now why some bloggers check their comments for approval before posting.  I'm sorry, Ramona... I'm sorry you had to go private, because the greater world will miss you, and your lovely stories about your animals, your beautiful horses, and your great mosaic work.  It hurts me to think that there ARE people out there who care so little that they will make comments to someone whom they don't even know in person that are hurtful and harmful.  I "get" comment moderation now... and don't blame anyone who does it.  I have not had harsh words slung at me (yet) but I know they will probably come at some point.  I'll begin moderating then.  Until then... I hope we can all "just get along" and enjoy each other's posts and glimpses of each other's worlds.

Bessie says let's all be gentle with each other, too!

Blog-Hopping

After dragging my tush for three weeks, I am finally on the mend and glorying in the autumn weather we are having around here. 

I've also been blog-hopping, and it's time to talk about some of the wonderful blogs I try to read regularly.... I hope to do this more often, because some are truly inspiring.  It never ceases to amaze me at the creative and interesting people out there who take the time to sit down and write about the things that they love!

Some I feature in my side-bar... and some, I'll tell you about today.

First, FarmGirl at Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in the Good Land.  She is amusing as well as a good blogger... and I love to read her.  She also linked me up with a couple more good blogs... and if you take a look, we are all posting about the D. Landreth Seed Company, oldest seed company in America, which is in receivership right now.  I hope, no, we all hope to see this old company stay alive... Jere Gettle, are you reading us????

Through her, I found a new blog, Kristen at Rusty Moon Homestead, who blogs about gardening.  For a new blogger, she looks like she'll be a keeper!

And also, I found Robin at The Gardener of Eden , who has a super gardening blog with great pictures.

For bees, Susan and Roger at Squash Blossom Farm write not only about bees but CSA gardening.. they are serious about it, and also, many of you read, I'm sure, Jayme Goffin at Tales from the Coop Keeper, and I am sure have laughed along with her at her informative bee-keeping videos she posts on her site, thanks to help from able cameraman (and son) Aaron.

Janis, at Animal Instinct , has not only the most beautiful herd of cattle you have ever seen, but they made it through losing not one but two barns last winter, in horrible conditions, and still look like they have every hair in place.  She takes truly remarkable pictures, and I really admire her stick-to-it-iveness.

Patrice, ("Follow Patrice, she has cookies") at Everyday Ruralty not only writes a good story about her place, but interviews other "Farm Chicks" on her blog regularly, so you can get to know them. 

What can I say about one of my favorites, Michaele at Sprout 'n' Wings Farm , I bought great skin butter from her for Christmas presents, and she has a really good blog with an especially good entry today for Michaelmas. 

If you want to learn about rare breeds, take a look at The Farmer at Hidden Meadow Farm for some awesome Highland Cattle.

I haven't even mentioned the horse blogs I follow or the traveling blogs... in England, Wales, and Scotland, or the decorating blogs... I'll talk about them in another post. 

Don't I have lovely ears?

Thoughts on Blogging

I feel like I should say a few things about blogging tonight, because I have been thinking a lot about it.

Mostly, I blog to keep a record of things that are happening here around our home, so that we can remember things better.  I have some family and friends that keep in touch this way, and other readers come and go.  Sometimes I open up blogs and find two or three hundred followers, and am starstruck for a while, but the fact is, I mostly blog to keep a diary. 

I love reading other people's blogs.  I love to read the blogs of those who are doing all the things that I feel I SHOULD be doing... canning, preserving, cooking great meals, decorating, sewing (if I could).... but I read them to get ideas that may or may not be put into use.

I read horse blogs because I miss riding so much, and miss the smell of a horse and the sounds of a horse.  It was why we had Beau, the palomino pony... he was a remembrance of things past, and a wonderful old boy.

I read travel blogs because I have lived in Kansas my entire life except for ten weeks in Texas and a year and a half in Illinois.  That's it.  I have traveled very, very little, and have never seen the ocean. 

I can read and feel like I am riding the Penines in Great Britain and read Cotswold Peeps and feel like I am exploring ancient churches.  I look at blogs from other countries because I know I am unlikely to go there at this point in life.  I'm happy at home, though, and always glad to be here at the end of the day, and there are few who can truly say that. 

I have been worrying over doing too many chicken posts and too many garden posts, but the fact is, it's that time of year.  We are under the dome of heat with the other 33 states that are currently suffering, and it is an almost-full-time job to keep everyone going. 

Tonight we are freezing into chunks of ice 12 gallon jugs of water out in our chest freezer to put in the llama trough during the day, and in the water fortexes so the chickens have cool water daily if we can't get home.  We'll hide some frozen water bottles in the shade where they can rest up against them, the way we used to do for our bunnies when we had them.  If it weren't for a suggestion from friend Jill, I would never have remembered it.  This will ease our minds in case Keith is unable to stop at mid-day to check on everyone, as he has been doing.  As I said, it is hard to work full time and take care of everything/one too.

Before I married again so late in life, I had been a single mom for 34 years.  (Yes, I was a child bride.)  I had a five acre place of my own, where I kept chickens, took care of someone else's horses, and had too many dogs and cats than were good for me.  But to keep this enterprise going, it took two jobs, and sometimes, three.  I would rise early, feed and water, go to work, go to work, and come home late and do chores again.  It was wearing, I gotta tell you.

It's still wearing, and I'm down to one job!

I admire all of you who are doing so much on your little farms, while still holding down a full time job and all the other responsiblities that go with that.   I admire the fact that you take time to show your lives to us, and share all the happiness and sadness with your friends and readers, us, the people like you.  I admire those of you who are crusading for causes, and those of you who are making sure your families are fed well, and preserving for the future.  I know Keith and I could feed ourselves if it came right down to it, and it's a good feeling.

Mostly, I am glad that I share the same kind of feelings with so many other people around the nation and the globe... to those of you who are reading this blog in Russia, in Slovenia, in all the countries of southeast Asia where you have stopped to read about tiny Tonganoxie, thank you.  I truly mean that from the bottom of my Kansas heart.

On the Soapbox Again

This may be a two-post Sunday... or Saturday, as it may be.  It's 11:0l PM CST, and I am still sitting here reading and catching up on blogs I have been following. 

First off... I want to thank all our fellow bloggers out there.  I am a homesteader... not in the '70's sense... but in the 21st century sense... we are trying to raise our own vegetables as much as possible, to supply those less fortunate (some family, some our local food kitchen) with vegetables, and keep ourselves in eggs and soon, in chicken, in a serious way.  We live very simply, and we have not had a vacation off this place in several years. (However, we're planning one!  Careful coordination for animal care is required!)

I digress as usual.

Back to "homesteading".... I am so appreciative of the wonderful information that my fellow bloggers are putting out there!  Whether it is just a picture of some project that you have going on, or detailed instructions, they have served as inspiration beyond belief for us.  I have so many good ideas for our new chicken house that I don't know where to even start. (Thank you Paula at Fraker Farm)  Gardening ideas... I get them daily.  I used to look at "house" blogs and "decorating" blogs, but the fact is, I live in a tiny country house with soiled carpets (pugs) and leaky windows.  We have been here seven years now and still don't have drapes in the bedroom.  There is a piece of plywood on our bedroom ceiling.  We spend too much on the outside and not enough on the inside, but WE ARE HAPPY HERE and that's all that matters.  Yes, we get tired and grumpy, and sometimes Keith has to escape to the golf course and I to the antique stores, but for the most part, we can't wait to get home daily and hate to leave.  It's a wonderful gift from God that I found a man in my "old age" (I was 46 when we met) that learned to like the things I did, and is happy here.  And a man who suggested I retire at 62... when I thought I would be working forever after working two jobs for 30 years!  Nirvana!

Having said all this.... Usually, Friday and Saturday nights are my only two nights to sit and catch up on blogs.  Yes, I'm addicted to some TV programs... I grew up in a tv family (unlike Keith, who does not consider watching endless sports to be "watching tv") .... and I love to nestle amongst the pugs and watch my shows.  This will shortly come to an end, the season is ending, and we will be spending mucho time in the yard (on the John Deere!).  People... I beg you... TURN OFF WORD VERIFICATION!!!!  When I sit here for three or four hours, I double my effort by having to type and retype the nonsense words.  It is very wearing.  I bet I have done it 40 times tonight all ready, and the fact is, in almost three years of blogging, I have yet to have even one piece of spam.  Someone said to me this week (a blogger who has closed her blog) that she was afraid of people in other countries reading her blog.  This, to me, is the wonder of the web.... I have traveled to other countries VIA people's blogs.  I love to see the sights in Scotland, England,

France and Australia, and I gladly enjoy seeing how folks live in other countries, which really, is so like we do.  I admit it worried me when I posted pictures of my little grands and googled it next day to find the little girl coming up... but the solution for that is to simply NOT write about them  again.  In the same three years, I have only had one comment that was in the least weird, and when I followed it back, it was to a site, a personal blog, of someone struggling with mental issues, and not a threat of any kind.  If my eyesight - and back - were better, it would not be an issue, but typing the nonsensical "words" is very wearing. 

For those of you posting recipes... thanks... as we are trying to eat fresher and healthier.  I love finding things we can adapt to the way we are trying to eat now.  It is so different from the meat and potatoes way we have been (of course, we had steak and potatoes tonight, but that is a treat now).  I love to cook and bake, and I am getting quite the library of recipes from blogs. 

People with Goats and Sheep:  I thank you!  I am trying to learn about your animals.  No, we are not getting sheep, but they are so interesting.  One week I am Pro-goat, and the next, Maybe-Not-So-Pro.  Tomorrow I am buying goat milk from Roxanne at Screamin' Oak's Farm down the road, to try my first ricotta cheese.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Her daughter Justyne has the most beautiful dairy in Tennessee, so go there to Noble Spring Dairy (google) to see it. 

Several nights this week Keith and I have marveled at the way lives have changed in the last 20 years.  My mother, God bless her, did not understand before she died in 2008.  She would never have understood our blog, or even what it was.  Ten years ago, we would not have.  Now, I enjoy writing daily... and reading about all the wonderful things that people are doing across this nation and world.  I have laughed and cried at the adventures that many of you are having, and taken strength from your advice and consideration.  

Some blogs I follow have disappeared recently, and some have gone on hiatus.  Yes, it's hard to post frequently... some nights I am tired, and some nights I just have nothing to say.  I'm not funny like Suzanne McMinn at Chickens... and not a good photographer like so many of you.  For those of you who have decided to close down, I understand... and those on hiatus, I hope you come back stronger than ever when you are ready.  Do I follow the "famous" blogs... I like Pioneer Woman and am in awe of Rhea Drummond for the fact that she has become a Thing... and will now have her own show on Food Network... I can't get comfortable with Dooce....I hop in and out at Chickens in the Road now, because I think Suzanne has stretched herself thin.  I used to follow a lot of the decorating blogs but no longer do, some are very slow to load and I do not have the patience when blog-hopping.  I like simple things, with people who like to get their hands dirty and their minds engaged.  I love animals, and gardening, and reading and .... blogging. 

Homeschoolers... I salute you!

It's now 11:31, and I have been sitting here blog-hopping for 3 hours.  Keith is snoring in the bedroom (along with Abby and Gertie) after digging and pouring cement for the footings of the henhouse.  This week he will be away at a training course, and I will be guiding our fortunes here at the homeplace, but we will be together in spirit, and that's what it's all about. 

Do I want to quit sometime?  Sure.  I get sick of carrying water in the winter, slipping and sliding across the sloping yard.  I get tired of cutting grass and weed-eating and pulling weeds and getting chicken doo doo all over me and cleaning up after the dogs, etc. etc. etc.  We all do.  Sometimes I think it would be easier to be living back in town with just the dogs, and cutting a small yard again with a push mower, and fixing up a small old house to be our cute nest for our senior years, but the fact is... one step off the porch in the morning reminds us daily why we are here and why we love it. 

I hope the full moon is shining down all you all tonight... that your snow is melted, and the winds have stopped blowing, and your animals are safe and snug in their houses.  Thanks for all the inspiration and laughs, and I hope we have many more.

Calamity Acres farmhouse, when we first moved here... no deck, no cross-fencing.. just a house and beautiful land....

And we fell in love.

The Beginning of Another Week

Church this morning, and then home to fix breakfast for Grandson Nathan, who spent the night with us.  We had a quiet morning, since it was only 14 degrees out.  After church Keith went to the gym to work out, and then to Cabelas to look at vaccum packing machines towards getting one for us this year (whether from Cabelas or somewhere more inexpensive, we hope).  While there, he happened to speak to a lady in camping who used a vaccum packer to keep produce and meat at her own place, and they had a lengthy discussion about different things such as butchering chickens (she had done 300 at their last butchering day) and making jerky.  Keith got a wealth of knowledge from her... but when I asked her name, his answer was "I don't know!"  I'll go over myself some day this week  or next weekend, and try to figure out who it was... I have more questions about she is doing things at her place and hope she is willing to answer a few.

Other than that, it was a very quiet day, and I was glad to stay in out of the cold for once, until it was time to do afternoon chores.  I had let the chickens go out for a while, as it warmed up a little... but we are expecting two days this coming week of bitter, bitter cold.  As Keith says... it's January!

Here, however, for everyone to see... is the Hope of Spring.... on the maple tree over our deck.... BUDS!

But lastly, I would like to thank each and every one of you who has commented on our blog.... who has taken the time to tell me what you think about something I have written.  I love to share these things with you, and with those folks across the world, from Thailand to Russia, from Slovenia to Great Britain, and all points in between.  I love to share our lives with you, as you all share with everyone... the world is a wonderful and very small place, in the end.