Weight

Lately have have been having some self esteem issues. I am overweight and that is something I plan to start working on today. What I really need to work on is my self esteem. If I dont learn to love myself and feel comfortable with the way I look now then I will not even after I lose the weight. I will just go from being over weight and unhappy to being a healthy weight and unhappy. I am not going to do any diets or lose weight workshops I am going to start eating healthy. I am cutting out pop, bread, and treats that are high in fat and substituting them with fruits and vegetables. I know I can do this but I decided that if I post it and let everyone know what I am doing then I will have more reason to keep going. I would like to say that I am going to be more active but I am pretty active now. :-)

Goats

I now have a total of 10 goats on my farm. I have twin nubians who are Nellie, she is my queen goat and the mother of twin doelings Bella who is pictured here on the right and Babylynn who is not pictured here, and Nellie's sister Mohawk who is the mother of twins also, Patrick who is now a wethered meaning he cannot get a girl goat pregnant and his sister Joy. All 4 of the babies are Nubian/Boer crosses. I also have 2 boer doelings that I bought last month, they are 75% boer and a quarter alpine, their names are Sweet Pea and Cheddar Fry. I also have a nubian/boer cross wether named Samson who is company for the Boer buckling I bought yesterday. The boer's name is Champ and he is pictured below.

It was an exhausting day yesterday having to do all of my normal chores plus drive almost 3 hours to where we were picking up Champ and then driving almost 3 hours back but I really enjoyed the scenery. Especially the windmills and the farms that we past. Doug has been wanting to build a windmill so he really enjoyed seeing them. I thought it was beautiful up against the really blue sky behind the farmhouse.

After we got back I still had to put together the shelter for Samson and Champ to sleep in. I had been working on it for quite awhile and it was finally time to put it together.

The Simple Things

It is the simple things in life that are the most worth enjoying. Like seeing a huge moth sitting on a blade of grass as my niece and I are walking up the driveway. I enjoy things like this alot more then watching tv. The fresh air makes you feel alive and watching television actually tires you out more and a nice walk can make you feel energized. When I am stressed I always feel better after doing some kind of activity then I do if I just sit around staring at the tv. I have had headaches go away while working in the garden. I wish people would learn to enjoy life more and see everything as a chance to have some joy. A relaxing evening for me could be just brushing out the goats or taking the dog for a walk, even though now my walks also include a cat, a dog, and 2 baby goats. I cant imagine what people think when they drive past, lol. I miss alot when I give into the temptation to sit and watch tv all day. It is hard not to just sit there and stare at the tv but when I make myself get up and move I feel so much better.

I noticed this morning that the peaches are starting to come

onto the trees. I cant wait to start canning and making

preserves. I also freeze the peaches for use later. My

favorite way to eat them is canned. I think they taste so

good. I did not have a good experience with my canning last year, my seals did not stay sealed but we learn from our mistakes and this year I am going to do a much better job. The raspberries should also be growing pretty soon and then I can have some more of those and make some jelly and ice cream and whatever else I decide to create with them. I still have some in the freezer from last year so I cant wait to get into using them also. My son likes raspberry cobbler, I really like raspberry ice cream and jelly. The blackberries will also be coming soon. 2 years ago we had tons of raspberries and only a few blackberries, last year it was tons of black berries and a few raspberries, wonder what it will be this year. I cant wait to find out.

weekends

I have heard people say that they are glad it is the weekend because then they can relax. Well, for me the weekend is probably the busiest time of the week. I think it is Doug's fault but I have not gotten concrete evidence on that fact. I do not go out and work a 9-5 job like alot of people but I do stay home and work a 6-10 job and I am meaning 6 am til 10 pm, lol. The weekends are no different except that everyone is home and not at school or work. Maybe that is why I am so much busier. I love weekends though because then I am not here working alone, the whole family is working. We even got Caitlyn to work until she was ready to drop. She looked exhausted, lol. It is not all work though, we do have fun. We watched a movie on Sunday night and I let the young chickens out for a bit and watch them run around and explore their new world. I also started my countdown until I get to pick up Champ on the 28th. Soooooooo excited. Just heard the washer quit running so that is a signal for me to get back to work. Love my life!!

Saturdays

Just like everyone some of my Saturdays are busier then others. Yesterday was one of those busy Saturdays that it feels good to work but you also cannot wait until it is over. I am still tired from yesterday. My day today still had to start at 6 wether I am tired or not. I am the only one in this trailer that does not EVER get to sleep in. Maybe if I am sick or something but as of right now I am the only one that can milk both of the goats all the way out and once I am up then I am up. Yesterday started out the way each and every day does for me. My alarm goes off at 6, I take a few seconds pondering the idea of just letting the goats dry up and start buying milk again. Then I realize that is an insane idea after all the years of dreaming of being self sufficient and we are finally seeing that dream in sight. We will never be totally off grid but in small ways we are getting more self reliant. After my few minute battle with myself and that dreaded alarm I get up and go out and milk goats, and feed and water everyone including the goats. I have a pretty good routine down now and it doesnt take too long. Realizing that this might be the only day in the next ten days without rain I decide I need to get done outside as much as possible I get a couple loads of laundry done and hang on the line and then I happily go out to clean out the barn. Wow!!!! A month of bedding piling up takes a REALLY long time to clean up and wet bedding is REALLY heavy. After many hours of cleaning the barn I am finally finished and get a sandwich to eat for lunch. Then I decide to go out and hoe the garden because all this rain seems to be making the weeds grow faster then the plants. Our ground is made mostly of clay and when you mix dry clay with months of almost all rain you dont get normal mud you get a mushy mass of clay. It was dry enough on the surface though to hoe up the weeds and my garden looks pretty good now. Well, while I was doing this Doug took Tim to get his license and then when he got back he decided it would be a good day to burn the brush piles over at Aunt Connie's house. Well these piles were HUGE and he expected them to go up in a great big blaze of glory and burn really really quickly but the piles had other ideas and took forever to burn. Tim had to work today and Doug couldnt leave these burning (not quickly at all!) piles so I had to take him to work in all my stinky mud covered with a coating of clay glory hoping that I didnt really smell THAT bad. Tim didnt say anything so I either did not reek or he was just being polite. Today was also Tim's birthday so I was surprised he did not request the day off anyway. Also while I was out doing all this wonderful out of doors work I was not thinking about the sun and did get a little sunburn but it will change to tan by this afternoon. :-) My wonderful husband also let us order pizza for dinner because we were all so exhausted and it tasted oh so good. Food tastes so much better when you are really really hungry. I want everyone who is reading this to realize that these were just the big things of my day, I also had all of the normal everyday things to do also but if I wrote about those everyday then I am sure you would get bored. It is Sunday now and Saturday is over. I am planning on relaxing today but you never know what the day will bring.

Surgery

Mom had to have surgery on her arm today. It wasnt a major surgery and it was an outpatient surgery but I was still nervous. Mom was really nervous too. Sometimes I have a really hard time getting myself to leave the farm. I really love it here and do not like to go anywhere else but my mom needed me to be there for her so I went and I am so glad that I did. My mom is one of my best friends and I cant imagine life without her even though I know there will come a day when she will go to heaven and I will be happy for her at that time but very sad for me. When people die it isnt them that everyone is sorry for it is for

themselves because they will miss them. When my mom dies she will be in the best place there is to be. Heaven!!! I am plum tuckered out tonight. I still had to take care of the animals. I cannot neglect them just because I have something else to do. Goats still need fed and milked. Doug is an amazing husband and he fed the dogs and chickens for me but he is unable to milk the goats and they need milked to early for him anyway. Caitlyn is able to milk them but she has to go to school. Like I said life doesnt stop just cause I have something to do. After I milked and fed and showered and whatever else I had to do to get ready I spent most of the day at the hospital waiting around, which is exhausting even though it does not take much physical activity. After we got home I ran to the store and got mom's meds and a few groceries. Decided to stop at BK and get dinner, of course I forgot mom's sandwich, lol. Luckily I had bought her a turkey sandwich from the hospital cafeteria and she was able to eat that. About 6 o'clock I had to go home and feed and milk again. Which I might add I really did not feel like doing but Nellie ended up giving almost 2 quarts of milk tonight and I was happy about that. Way to go Nellie!!!! Lots of people were praying for my mom today. It just amazes me how many friends I have, most of the time I feel like I have no friends and then something happens to make me realize I have lots of friends, even ones I have never met in person and I love each and everyone of them and I am so blessed. I think my son needs picked up from work now so will post more tomorrow. Night all!!

The Simple Life?

I cannot figure out why in the world someone would choose to call this the "simple" life. I would call it the work until you drop, pain in the rear, not enough sleep, and wouldnt change it for anything life. But that is just me. There are some days where everything seems right in the world and my day goes peacefully enjoying little things like hearing the frogs croaking at night or watching the goats play in their pen while a nice breeze is blowing through my hair. But then there are days like I have had lately where I have to stomp through the mud to get to each of the animals and when I get out there at least 4 goats jump on me and get me muddy while I am trying to get through the barn door to get ready to milk the goat and then while I am trying to get only 1 goat up on the stand while fighting the baby goats to stay off of it they all spill the feed that I had in my hand trying to put it up in the stand for the milk goat. After cleaning it all up I have a major battle going just to get her to get all the way up on the stand because for some reason she prefers to keep her rear legs firmly on the ground while stretching to reach the feed with only her front legs on the stand. Ever try lifting the rear of a 150 pound goat? It is like dead weight. Finally I get it done and get the milk into the house just to realize that I left 7 ornery goats to spend time with one very grumpy 10 year old aka my niece. And it is only 7:30 in the morning!!! Finally I get all the goats fed, the dogs fed, the chickens fed, my niece to school and I can sit down and enjoy a glass of lemon water and eat breakfast. Who knows how the rest of my day will go, it is raining again so it will probably be an inside day for me but I am sure I will find loads of things to do. Another thing about this life that they call simple is that no matter how hard I work or how much money I spend their is always something else that needs done or fixing. It never seems like we have enough money to do all the stuff we need to and want to do but somehow everything seems to get done. I am real big on fixing stuff myself and spending as little money as possible doing it. It would be much easier to just call someone up to come fix what is broken but that would cost alot more money than we can afford to spend and where would the satisfaction be that you get from knowing that you got it done yourself. Just like it would be much easier to just run to the grocery store and buy all my fruits and veggies but then I couldnt stand out in the yard and look over my garden with pride knowing that I am growing healthy food for my family to eat and that I did it. Their is also a great satisfaction to me knowing what all has been put into and onto my food. That is the reason I try to grow all of our food and raise our own meat. I think there are alot of people who think I am crazy, especially when they see how tired I am but I would not change anything about how we live. It is a hard and sometimes exhausting life but it is also one of the most blessed lives you can have.