city girl vs. country girl

 Here are some pics of my new buns for you to enjoy.

I was just thinking about how much my life has changed in the last 6 years since we have lived in the country. Actually we now live in the place I grew up in but when I was a kid I did not know how lucky I was and I could not wait to move and get into town. Lucky for me I met and married a wonderful man who happened to live in the city of Weirton. Weirton is not a big city like Pittsburgh but it was big enough to make me happy. I worked and worked and worked to stop saying things like crick and warsh and all of that hillbilly lingo and my grammer became exceptional. I could talk as good as any ole city folk out there. I also made sure that every morning I was up and ready with my hair fixed and nice clothes on. If I was going to be outside I was going to look presentable. If I was going to go out I was going to look magnificent! Heck, if I mowed the grass where any of my hundreds of neighbors might see me I was going to have matching, nice looking clothes on and my hair was going to be fixed. If I needed some milk then Wal Mart was only 5 minutes away, this was the life!! But then after awhile I started realizing this was the life alright, it was the life I did not want. After living in town for 12 years we were finally able to move back to where I grew up and let me tell ya things have changed. I have gone back to warshing clothes and I actually hang the outside where the neighbors might see them. Oh my! I get up every morning still but the last thing on my mind is fixing my hair. I grab a ponytail holder and throw it all up out of my face because all I care is getting it out of the way. Instead of trying to look presentable now I put back on the clothes I had on the day before. I know Gross!! But why go out to the barn in clean clothes, the goats will only leave them clean for approximately 0.25 seconds. That is less then a second. Now, if I need milk I have to go out to the local Nellie (she is one of my milk goats), wrestle her into the milk stand because for some reason that is the last thing on her mind, she would rather mosey around eating the nearby brush. Then I spend the next hour feeding, petting and talking to all my friends that are nearby. AKA my chickens, rabbits, goats, dog and 1 cat. They are such good listeners and I realize I am alot less lonely now then I was when I lived in town. By now I usually look and smell like someone from a horror movie and when I catch a glimpse of myself I realize why the guy in the nice sports car that just drove past sped up a little when I waved at him while walking to the mailbox, so I decide I better get cleaned up a little. Even though there is alot more work to my life now there is also so many things that I cherish. I know where my food comes from and that it had a great life until that time that it is needed. I did not realize when I lived in town just how beautiful the night sky is, it is so nice to be able to walk out and look up at all of those stars. The air is cleaner and I do not have frequent headaches from all of the pollution. Best of all I have the satisfaction of being able to walk outside and say this is truly the life.

Many blessings to you all!

~April

Tired

Tired, that is what I am at the end of a day in this life that they call simple. It is a good kind of tired though, it is the kind of tired that you are when you know that you have gotten alot done and it is all for the benefit of your family. The kind of tired that says well done, now let's do that again tomorrow. I love my life. I love getting up early in the morning when all is quiet and milking the goat listening to the birds sing. I like that before lunch time I have gotten more done then I used to get done all day before I started living this life. It is so amazing seeing how much my garden has changed each and every day and knowing that the food in it is good for my family and will feed them for a long time. It is fun watching the baby goats playing near their mothers and the baby rabbits hopping around their pens and I like knowing that they will all serve a purpose to feed my family knowing that they had a great life before hand. Right now I am learning how to tan the rabbit pelts. They are so soft when they are done and will keep our hands warm when I make some gloves for all of us for winter. I am trying to use all of the animal and not let anymore then necessary go to waste. That also is a good feeling. Well, like I said I am tired and the caramel corn I am making is almost done so I will sign off now. God bless you all!!

~April

House Pig!!

This is Miss Piggie, she is my daughter Caitlyn's pet. Caitlyn had wanted a pig for about 6 years now but we were unable to get her one and then finally we were able to. I will never forget the day we told her we were getting Miss Piggie. My sister  printed some pictures out of some Juliana/potbelly pigs that were for sale and when Caitlyn came home from school I was sitting on the couch looking at the pictures. When Caitlyn came in I showed her the pictures because it was not strange for me to show her pictures of pigs. She collects everything she can find that has pigs on it and showing her cute pictures of piglets was not uncommon. While she was sitting there looking at the pics I asked her which piglet she thought was the cutest and she picked one out and I said "Do you want to go get it when it is old enough?". I thought she was going to pass out, it took a few seconds for it to sink in but when it did she was soooo happy. That was one of the best days I have had ever, making my child so happy is one of the joys in life. We have now had Miss Piggie for almost a month and her and Caitlyn are becoming fast friends. Miss Piggie follows Caitlyn around and will run to catch up with her if Caitlyn leaves the room. It is still a little strange having a pig in the house but seeing Caitlyn this happy makes it worth it.

Great day turns bad

Today started out wonderful. They came and finished our new well today and I was told that we will have plenty of water and should not run out in the summer. I should be able to wash as many clothes as I want and water the garden to my heart's delight. That was great. I also got to talk to an old friend that I haven't seen in awhile. Later that day I was checking on the goat's water to make sure they had enough since it was a really hot day today and noticed that my dog kept trying to get under the boat that we have set up upside down for the goat's to play on and under. It is propped up by an old metal barrel that lays on it's side. Of course I had to go check and see what she was so interested in because we haven't been able to find one of my young bucklings for a few days and I was hoping he was hiding there and just wasn't coming out when I was in the field. Much to my horror I did find him but it wasn't the happy ending I was hoping for because I found my poor buckling laying dead in the barrel. I am heartbroken and keep blaming myself, saying that if maybe I had looked harder or went and looked for him as soon as I saw he wasn't with his friend then maybe he would be ok. Like a good friend told me today though, I cannot keep beating myself up about it, God is taking care of him now. I will really miss my little Wednesday (name my daughter gave him when he was born), he definitely was a very special little guy and will hold a place in my heart forever.  Below is a picture of him.

replacing the grocery store challenge update

I am taking the replacing the grocery store challenge over at www.oursimplefarm.com so go check them out, it is a great blog.

So far the only thing I have planted in my garden are potatoes and corn because the weather just hasn't been cooperating. It is either too rainy and muddy or it is too cold. This week looks like all nice temps but we are getting a well put in right above my garden and I am going to find out if there is any reason I should not plant now. I do not know if he will need to run water down the hill or not. I have lots of tomato plants growing on my windowsill waiting to get into the garden when the weather warms up for awhile. I am also planning to plant watermelon, zucchini, cucumbers, and a few different kinds of peppers. I am also wanting to plant some green beans and peas. My uncle tilled up alot more space for me to plant on so I am hoping to get to can lots of produce to get us through the year.

I am also hoping to plant a couple plum, apple and hopefully pear trees this year along with picking blueberries that I have planted and the raspberries and blackberries that grow wild on the property. I cannot wait until my post show the things I have done instead of what I have planned.

Another way I have been staying away from the grocery store is to make my own cleaners. It is so much more cost effective and I also can breathe while I am using them. Whenever I clean with commercial cleaners, especially the bathtub cleaner I cannot breathe. I am gasping for air and feeling light headed, I do not have that with my homemade cleaners.

Hoping everyone is having a blessed day!!

~April

Updates

 Today was a beautiful day and I got to enjoy it. It was so nice seeing the sun out and the temperature warm.

I spent the morning playing with my 19 month old niece. Here are a couple pictures of her playing in the dandelions. Isn't she a cutie? She also helped me feed and water the rabbits and chickens. She is such a good helper, she carried buckets for me and she was even able to carry the 2 liter bottle of water out to the rabbit pen.



After the little cutie went home I cleaned up the living room. I am trying to thoroughly clean the trailer by doing one room a day. I do not know how I let the place get to be such a mess. I also got to spend some time in the garden. I hoed the weeds out of the flower bed or herb garden, I haven't decided which I am going to plant there. I also planted potatoes and had to transplant 2 of my rosebushes because they just happened to be in the spot that they have to put the well. I think they are putting it there because they are men and do not realize the importance of beautiful roses. I decided though that having a good well and water all year long is much more important then keeping my roses there. I just hope that they survive my transplanting them.

The animals around here are doing great. We will be butchering some rabbits this weekend and moving around the other ones. With all of the babies my pens are getting a little crowded so this weekend everyone is, in the words of George Jefferson, moving on up!!

I opened a jar of the pork and beans I canned the other day for lunch today so that I can see how they taste before I can anymore and they were good! I will definitely be canning more of them.

My chicks are getting so big! I can no longer feed them out of my hands without gloves on because they bite me while they are getting the food. I think I will definitely be getting more cornish rocks for meat. They grow fast. I haven't lost any either and I have read that they have  30% death rate. Hopefully mine survive.

It is time for NCIS so I am going to sign off now. Blessings to you all!!

~April

Sunday ramblings

It has been rainy all day today so I did not spend much time outside. I cannot wait until it is nice out and I can get some more things planted in my garden. I have some spinach, potatoes and onions that are patiently waiting to get into the ground and then after we are out of danger of frost I have some tomato plants to put in the ground. The rest of the things I am planning on planting are still waiting to be bought at the local greenhouse. That my friends is a trip I cannot wait to make because that means summer is close. Since it was so wet out today and I was spending so much time inside I decided it would be a good time to get some pork and beans canned. It was nice to get some canning done I haven't done any in awhile. Here is a picture of my beautiful beans. I only got to make 8 pints because I ran out of lids. It seems like I am always running out of something I need. 

Yesterday my wonderful husband built me a moveable chicken pen. I know it doesn't look pretty but I love it!! It works great for letting the chickens move around without them being able to go into my neighbor's yard or get into my garden. We move it everyday so that they have fresh grass and they are not ruining the yard in places. He is such a great guy for doing this for me.
 

Another thing we did today was go to Sears to get my husband a new pair of shoes. While he was looking around I went to the women's department to see if they had anything on sale and they did!! They had their winter clearance and I got a flannel nightgown, a nice vest, and a blouse and skirt and the best news is that it was all $1.99 each. Cannot beat that!! Of course the original reason for us to be in town today was to get oil for the car and that was the only thing we didn't come home with but I still consider it a success. Hope everyone had a nice Sunday. Blessings to you all!

~April