And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker”

— so God made a Farmer.

God said, “I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board”

— so God made a Farmer.

“I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild; somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife’s done feeding visiting ladies, then tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon — and mean it”

— so God made a Farmer.

God said, “I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt, and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say, ‘Maybe next year.’ I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps; who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, and then pain’n from tractor back, put in another seventy-two hours”

— so God made a Farmer.

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds, and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor’s place

— so God made a Farmer.

God said, “I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark.”

It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners; somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work with a five-mile drive to church; somebody who would bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says that he wants to spend his life “doing what dad does”

— so God made a Farmer.

I was recently reminded of one of my favorite Paul Harvey speeches, and wanted to share….

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While I Was Gone….

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Hello Friends!

It’s been a minute! Oh goodness, has it been a while, but I am happy to be back.
I’m hoping you guys enjoyed the video…blog….vlog…thing that I posted. It was a lot of fun to make and I am excited to work on more kinds of media like that. I think it will keep the writing from getting stale and give you all a new look at the farm.

So, what did you miss in January? A couple big things, but mostly not much. It’s been a cold, quiet start to the year.

Mom spent the last few days of 2022 in the hospital unfortunately. Her asthma came back with a force and her oxygen levels got way too low for us to handle on our own. So that was a very stressful week, luckily I had taken some time off to recoup from the holidays so I didn’t need to worry too much about work. The nurses and therapists were absolutely amazing, and while some of that hospital stay lived up to the small town politics standard (there are always those who wish to build kingdoms instead of do their job) I will be eternally grateful for those lovely ladies and gentleman who took care of my mom (and dad, who stayed the whole time). We also have a new rescue plan in place now that puts a lot more of the responsibility on us, the caregivers, which makes much more sense post-strokes. Her asthma hadn’t really been a problem in so long, we never thought to take that step, but now we are more set up which is offering a nice peace of mind.

Joe has been the best nurse to Mom, he checks her breathing and won’t let her out of his sight

We’ve had some issues with wildlife knocking down the pasture fences, and Ro is on a mission to get up to the road now. I don’t know what I am going to do with that girl. The fencing has been in dire need of an update for a while but panels are so stinking expensive, I’ve kinda deprioritized it. I don’t think that’s going to be an option much longer. Poor Dad has been out several mornings while I am at work trying to wrangle the fencing back together. He and I are getting into the habit of just walking the fence line fairly often to make sure things aren’t completely broken.

Trying to look innocent while I reset a fence post they knocked down, also, can we talk about the dirt situation for a minute? How do they get that muddy?

Speaking of wildlife, a new creature has entered our section of the valley. There is apparently a moose afoot. For those, like me, who just loudly exclaimed, “a moose?!” Yep. Yep, they come around occasionally. I have not seen one, but I often hear the stories. I am aware of four moose…moosen….meese….since I’ve lived here, including the one wandering around now. Christopher and our neighbor have seen it toddling around. I am not sure what the plan is if that moose decides to take out some of my fencing, I don’t think even the panels would truly do much. If I see it though, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will try to get a picture. 

Our houseguests have found a more permanent place to stay. I am really quite excited for them, I think it makes a lot more sense for their family. The church is helping them out, they are staying in a church owned house, so their landlord is probably pretty reasonable (at least it’s probably pretty easy to get the tenant handbook….okay, well, I thought it was funny). They kiddos have their own rooms, they have a kitchen they can use whenever (they could here too, but it was a little awkward because the layout of our house kinda sets you up to be “on show” when in the kitchen, and I think it made him nervous to cook in front of us), and it’s in town, closer to schools and work. Their car broke down out here a couple times and it’s a lot harder to get a car home or to the shop when you live out in the boonies. I think overall it’s a way better set up for them. Admittedly, it’s brought the chaos and stress level way back down to normal for us too. I forgot how truly quiet and chill our household is normally.

Anyhoo, that’s basically been us. Just chilling out and getting back to normal after a crazy end to 2022. I don’t really make resolutions, but I have a few goals and dreams for 2023, so I am pretty stinking excited for this year.
Until we chat again, my friends!

Under Construction

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Hi All!

Over the next few days you might see some weirdness around here in preparations for my starting back up with the blog!
I’ve wanted to change up the blog style and format a little for a while, with my most important goals being incorporating more media styles, making the layout more fun and playful, and eventually maybe using more social media so I can interact with you more! It won’t happen all at once (I’ll be honest, social media spooks me a little; I even made a TikTok that I have no idea how to use) but I am really excited about the new plans! A marathon vs. a sprint, if you will.
I’ve been feeling for a while that the blog had become more of a standard to live up to, and I was not sharing as much of my personality and the fun of the farm as much as I was stuck in a rut of what the topics should be. I can’t imagine that was any more fun to read than It was to write, and writing was losing its appeal. So, things might change, we may try things we end up hating, and finding new fun ways to chat and hang out, and in the meantime, I would appreciate any feedback you want to share with me, the good, the bad, and the bug-report-y. One of my new year’s resolutions is to slow down and be grateful for the beautiful world around me, especially when I’m feeling particularly stressed, and I am hoping to really incorporate that into the blog here, so you guys can take a few minutes each week to slow down with me. Here’s to a healthier, happier 2023!

Until we chat again, my friends!

A Short Winter’s Nap…

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Hello friends!

Took some snowy pictures recently, and if we’re being totally honest, I haven’t had a lot of time to do much of anything, let alone write a coherent blog post, so I’m hoping the photos will tide you over. 

I love writing on this blog, it’s super fun to come up with the post ideas, share the stories of the week, and daydream about all the cool things I’d do with a little more time and planning. I really want it to be a fun little piece of zany farm shenanigans and hopefully some laughs on an internet that can be equal parts cruel and fascinating. Sometimes, however, that actually means taking a break to collect, so consider this… that. A small break with pretty pictures, and hopefully we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming very soon (looking at you, February)!

Until we chat again my friends

**Just a note: Ro hasn’t outgrown her blanket, she had just rolled and pulled it all crooked, so while she is a little overweight, and we are sorting through a food stealing problem, the vet and I are keeping an eye on her, and have no worries

..And To All A Good Night!

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Hello friends!

Happy Holidays!

We had a pretty wonderful, low key holiday. It was a much needed calm for the whole weekend.

Christmas Eve we hung around and finished up the last minute things before heading to a family potluck and cookie exchange. We had all kinds of cookies, but also five different versions of peanut butter bars. Not that it was a competition at all, all peanut butter bars are delicious and deserve love, but mine were unanimously voted the best. To Be fair, however, I’ve also made mine the longest, everyone else was trying out new recipes so it makes sense that I’ve honed mine a little. I also got mine from a genuine church lady, I don’t know where she got it, but little old church ladies generally either have the best or worst recipes, there’s no in between. So, what I’m saying is, my peanut butter bars are bomb. Not that it was a competition. But if it was, they’re pretty great. But it wasn’t. At all. 

We also had gingersnaps, fudge, a couple kinds of sugar cookies, I made my maternal grandmother’s almond butter cookies, and my cousin made these super cute reindeer out of Graham crackers and melting chocolate. 

My sweet mama stood and helped with every part of the cookie baking this year, her help was invaluable

We had a lovely time singing carols, eating yummy potluck, and watching my 16 year old cousin try to show off by sliding an icy donut in his little truck only to be chewed out by his girlfriend and my grandma. His girlfriend fit in perfectly by the way, which is a pretty terrific trick considering we are all crazy. She was in on the jokes, helping with the cookies, and playing with the kids. Pretty brave for a little 16 year old, I don’t think I’d have been that poised at that age. 

I ended up leaving before the church service this year, it was too snowy and icy and I didn’t feel comfortable driving on all that after dark. But it worked out because it gave me some time to be Santa’s elf. I had some last minute things to finish up.

We did our usual tradition of “something cozy for Christmas Eve”. It used to be “jammies on Christmas Eve” but we changed it because some of us stopped growing in the 6th grade and simply did not need more jammie sets. So I got a cute sweatshirt, my dad got socks (he requested them), got my mama a cute jammie set, and Christopher got a hoodie.

The tradition of finding the most ridiculous socks I possibly can for Christopher for Christmas continues

I once again proved that I have no spatial awareness and my stocking stuffers mostly didn’t fit, but I swear that’s becoming family tradition. Christopher tried to stay up and help me but he’s been working long shifts starting at 2 am so he was being super helpful, and then not so much, and when I looked over, he had fallen asleep mid stocking. But points for the effort. I got him to bed and Pat Saget kept me company via reruns. 

Christmas day we got up, I made some cinnamon rolls, and then we slowly started opening presents while snacking on a Hickory Farms box my grandma gave us. We were meant to have a roast but yours truly remembered she didn’t defrost it until 6 pm so… we had it today (I’m writing this on the 26th, for the record).

We had a lovely afternoon watching movies and eating far too many cookies, and all the critters got some kind of special treat. Then I started working on the kiddos gifts. They were at their moms for the weekend, but I knew they were coming home in the evening, so I set out their newly stuffed stockings, set out their gifts, and made sure they had some “Christmas Eve cozies” even though they were getting them a little later than expected. We had also set them up with a bunch of the cookies from the exchange, and a local charity had helped their dad get them some gifts from him. If squeals of delight were any indication, I think we attained at least a little Christmas magic. Mission accomplished. 

Overall the holidays were lovely. I’ve been lucky to have a boss that let me burn my PTO before it expired so it’s been calmer than usual and I’ve been able to catch up on some of the crazy that’s been going on. It was a much needed low key holiday after burst pipes, long term guests, a haywire heater, an ice storm, and a broken water trough. It’s been a December folks, but the holidays were bright and the new year is looking brighter. 

Until we chat again my friends!

Look, Sometimes I Think I’m Funny…

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Hello friends!

Anyone else talk to themselves and the household appliances whilst they clean? No? Just me? Welp, Christopher thought it was funny too, so here’s the transcripts of a few snippets he recorded from my latest cleaning day, hope you laugh as hard as I did. Don’t worry, Christmas content will be next week.

Ode to the Kirby (or Cleaning Plaster Dust Out of EVERYTHING)

“Alright, it’s been a minute, vacuum”

“Look, all we gotta do is work together, neither of us wanna do this all day”

“Why aren’t you going?”

“ROLL D*MM*T”

“Why the h*ll do you weigh so much?”

“Why? aren’t. you… oh wait, neutral, got it”

“Down, down, down, down…”

*vacuum chokes on rug*

“Too much! Calm down, I didn’t mean to suffocate you with the rug”

*pops the head up a level so it can breathe*

“Freaking need a license to run the vacuum”

“Let go of the rug. Let. Go. Of the. Rug”

“Fine! Eat the rug, see if I care!”

*bangs wall* 

“Oops sorry.” 

*bangs it again* 

“Sorry, again.”

“How do I…”

“Ooh that spins”

“Does that move?” *clanking noise* “sh*t, yes it does”

“Hey Dad… no, no, house is fine, we’re fine… yea, no, hypothetically if I wanted to put the hose on the Kirby… *chorus of okays* …so the whole nose piece DOES come off…”

*waving the hose attachment wildly* “Come at me dust!”

*humming along to the vacuum* 

“rooms gonna be SO clean” 

*more humming* 

“let go of the rug. Unhelpful”

“Oooh I can reach the top of the mirror!!”

*humming*

“Oh. But how do I know when it’s clean?” 

*confused in 5 ft*

“Well that’s between God and the dust mites now”

*accidentally sucks up an earring* “welp…that might as well happen”

*aggressive mocking of the dust bunnies*

*accidentally sucks up pencil* “how even…”

*realizes why you don’t get plaster dust wet* “no it’s fine, I wanted to skim coat my entire floor”

*realizes I did the same thing to the desk* “…uuuhhhhmmm, welp….”

*panic kicks in and a mad dash is made to the kitchen for paper towels* “sh*t, sh*t, sh*t,sh*t…”

*aggressively mocks the plaster dust*

*bangs into wall* “okay, look, that one was partially on you” *bangs wall again* “okay, that one was me”

“I wonder…”

*pops Kirby into neutral whilst vacuuming and now can gently pull the body along while vacuuming with the hose*

“H*ll yes, just a genius over here”

*trips over rug the Kirby pulled along with it*

“Nope nevermind, just your garden variety idiot”

“Down, down, down, down…”

*vacuum chokes on the rug*

“Too much, I get it, I get it”

*accidentally sucks up earbud that mysteriously decided it didn’t wanna do its job anymore* “are you f****g serious?!”

“Hey Dad… no, no, house is still fine, we’re still fine… yea, no, hypothetically if i wanted to pull the bag off the Kirby…” *chorus of okays* “…no, no, gotcha, big mess, makes sense…”

*staring at giant pile of gross on the floor* 

“a smarter human would have put cardboard down”

*disappointed sighing*

“But, we are not the smarter humans”

“Seriously, stop eating my rugs, you’re a 22 year old vacuum, you know better.”

Okay, I know it’s not the normal content, but I really did laugh at the fact my brother was so amused at my conversation with the vacuum, and I wanted to share something a little lighthearted since this time of year can be stressful. I can’t share the actual recordings because my sweet brother is a little self conscious of his adorable laugh, and he’s laughing at me through the whole recording.

Second point to note, I absolutely adore the Kirby, not sponsored or anything, but that vacuum is a workhorse and very versatile, and almost as old as I am with a way better work ethic. It’s just a little big and unwieldy for someone of my size (remember I stopped growing in the seventh grade). 

Until we chat again my friends!

The Kirby in question

It’s a Busy Home…

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Hello friends!

My house smells so good right now! One of those rare moments when I wish the blog had smell-o-vision (although, etymologically speaking, shouldn’t it be tele-olfaction? …anyways). Usually you probably wouldn’t want to smell the blog, I’m guessing it smells a lot like horse manure, eau-de-farm-doggie, and diesel. Just a hunch. 

But, for real, we made almond butter cookies and my house smells like a hallmark movie. It literally smells like a good day in here. It smells like christmas! (It smells like warm vanilla, almond, and unsurprisingly, butter, but let’s be poetic for just a moment).

I generally don’t super enjoy baking, and admittedly Christmas cookies aren’t an exception, but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE eating Christmas cookies so I will do my part to get the reward. Love almond butter cookies. They are a bit involved so even though every year I say “I should make these more often”… I don’t. 

It’s been a crazy week on the farm. We had a water pipe go south on us that required digging up a part of the yard and calling a plumber. Then calling a diagnostic imaging company because they couldn’t find the pipe. THEN calling back the plumbers when we found the pipe four inches from where they dug the first giant hole. I’ll attach a photo of the yard now, because you can only dig a hole so many times before it turns into mud. I’m not exactly sure why it happened, something about a nylon joint going bad, but I’m just so grateful it wasn’t the septic system. It also put it on my radar that I should really have the septic system serviced in the spring. Added to the planner.

Here’s the hole, for context, I’d disappear if I walked into that quick sand. My 5′ self would have no chance
Here’s the pic I took a little while later, when the snow had frozen the mud and I was hiding in the barn before making a run back to teh house

Second thing that happened was two of my lovely cousins, who are skilled tradespeople (or skilled tradespeople in training) came over to put in an outlet for me. So my cloffice is official! I have power! Now to get shelves and such. I need to paint, because the wiring in this house, and the wall covering too, is a thing of its own. So we had to punch a few holes, and accidentally turned the power off on my dad mid shower, but it’s in and other than the color differences there’s no sign that plug in wasn’t always there. It was so cool seeing my cousins work, and my cousin who did the electrical is an apprentice, so she was really excited to do a solo job. I had to wash everything because I traded plaster for sheetrock in those holes, and both create just the most invasive dust. (Side note, there’s some potentially very dumb cleaning content headed your way, it made me laugh too hard to not share, so you’ll all have to cringe along with me next week).

My room is currently a pretty, but faded, green, and I like it a lot, so I might try to match it, BUT, I’ll add a couple pictures of the room as it is currently, and if yall have ideas I’m all ears. I’ve also, occasionally, had the urge to do some fun paint or wallpaper tricks, so I’m open to those, but wallpaper, even the peel and stick kind, is seemingly out of my price range for now. And honestly, paint feels a little less like a serious commitment, and I don’t know if I’m looking for a long term relationship with my decor choices. I don’t want to feel bad doing a refresh a couple years down the line, ya know?

Slightly older pic because it’s super stormy and dark this week and when I take new pics they keep looking grey
Slightly older pic because it’s super stormy and dark this week and when I take new pics they keep looking grey

The snow of course made both of these things a little harder, since windows couldn’t be opened and the ground was frozen. So obviously paint will be waiting for warmer weather. But thinking about it now will prepare us for spring. And it’s just kinda fun to day dream. I’m also minorly entertaining the idea of painting the cloffice a soft pink. Of course with that thought came my brain replaying that scene from steel magnolias on loop:

“My colors are blush and bashful”

“Her colors are pink and pink”

Might be fun though.

Until we chat again, my friend

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

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Hello friends!

I am once again calling on your expertise! It’s Christmas time officially and I need some no cost holiday fun ideas for little kids. We’ve been a house of busy working adults for so long that we sorta have our Christmas spirit in batches, and the kids are losing their minds about it.

I also need some very inexpensive but very fun Christmas gifts ideas for these kiddos. Santa is really broke this year because they’ve literally tripled my food and utilities costs and I wasn’t exactly pleased with the budget beforehand. Gotta love when a single tank of gas is your entire commute budget for the month. But I digress. 

The boys have been loving napping under the tree

I plan on making some reindeer snacks for Christmas eve (and the reindeer will enjoy them sometime after the kiddos go to bed). My parents always made it look like the reindeer were super messy eaters, and I think this year that sloppy reindeer might just make a comeback. Carrots and apples for sure, and cookies for Santa.

I was planning on involving them in the cookie making process if they wanted. We always make almond butter cookies instead of sugar cookies, they have a little bit of a deeper flavor and are just a little less sweet. I’ve never heard any complaints so I think the kiddos will like them, and they make up very similarly to a sugar cookie and can be decorated just the same. We usually make a batch of chocolate almond butter cookies too, as well as a couple specialty cookies. Although I learned my lesson a couple years ago with red velvet cookies. It’ll be a while before I try those again. Messy and gross to boot. I think I messed something up, but frankly you have to use so much dye there’s not really a second chance. 

I’ve added a new sweet treat to the mix since I’ve taken over the cookies portion of the holiday. We now also have no baking peanut butter chocolate bars, a recipe given to me by a friend of my grandma’s. They take about ten minutes to make and about an hour to chill (you melt and reset some chocolate) and then you have super cute little snack sized bars to eat. They are super rich but super addictive, so I always have to put them somewhere out of the way to help prevent calamity. I love little treats like that though, because for the most part, I almost always have the ingredients on hand and, other than the small scale crisis caused by attempting to measure peanut butter, they are really easy to make. Same principle as keeping premade cookie dough in the fridge, you literally never know when you might need a sweet treat.

Pretty sure we are going to have something akin to a white Christmas. I don’t know if it’ll snow or have a lot of accumulation specifically over those days but I definitely think that the conditions will be there and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. Last year it was -2 degrees Christmas morning, we had around a foot of snow, and it started snowing more that afternoon. Made it difficult to feed the animals but it was really quite beautiful. 

It was really funny though too, because, and I think I showed you guys in pictures, the little walkway that I throw food into the barn from was completely covered in snow. There was a large pile from the roof to be climbed every time we wanted to feed in the barn. I definitely fell off that pile several times and the horses definitely laughed at me several times, which…fair.

This year so far the snow has been… mushy? Not structures building snow so it doesn’t build into drifts or create those wind balls. Kinda just gets everything wet and muddy. I think the kiddos would like it a lot better if it was the fun fluffy stuff. 

I’m somewhere in the realm of 80% done with my Christmas shopping. I’m one of those weirdos that starts planning in October and as soon as we get Halloween squared away I start slowly enacting my plans. Doesn’t always work, I definitely still have to do the December 23rd quick trip. But I’m getting more organized each year. I have to, my holiday season is packed, have you seen the size of my family? I have events every weekend of November and December and lots of weekday craziness too! This year there’s a color-coded spreadsheet. You know I’ve hit full first born, obsessive planner mode when I bust out the excel formulas. Putting on our serious Santa hats.

(It’s really quite pleasant to see all those pretty little cells though, you gotta admit).

Until we chat again my friends!