electric fences, a pole barn, tilling and thankfulness...

 

 

so here we are.  we had a very busy weekend.  mother nature came through for us and gave us a few great days to work with.  this is a pic of what we have accomplished, so far.  isn't it absolutely gorgeous?  i almost tear up every time i see this.

 

so, on to our preparations from this weekend.

 

electric fences...a must here.  now that we are the owners of a jennett and a rescue horse, we knew we needed to provide them with more pasture to graze on, along with a greater area to run and play in.  beloved got off work early on friday, we headed to the local farmer/hardware store, bought what we needed and headed home.  i had some errands to run in town, so after a quick diaper change and a few kisses, mama was out the door.  after running all over the place and hitting every store imaginable, i headed home and found this...

 



 beloved got the electric fence up in no time and it looks great!  gypsy and salty were in heaven!  it was the first time she had been out of the pen and soon after i got home we found her running...running and prancing and i think i saw a smile or two.  it was great!  what a wonderful reward.  to see her acting like this brought smiles and laughter to both of us.

early the next morning beloved went back to work on this...

pretty sweet huh?  once again i must say, this man totally amazes me.  there is nothing he can't do or build. 

as you can tell, there is still a back wall to put on along with the right-hand side that needs to be finished.  some of the roof is bowing in so that will need some attention too.  but all in all, i love it! i love our pole barn, as so do our animals.

saturday morning once again came very early.  mama headed out to pick up some plants, compost and some other odds and ends.  i couldn't wait to get home.  i couldn't wait to get in the dirt and start workin' it. 

it wasn't long before i found myself there.  in the pic above i am working on a few herb plants that i purchased.  i had considered starting my herbs via seeds, but realized that i was biting off more then i could chew.  hence...the plants!

(oregano)



(oregano) 

(basil)

the rest of my saturday was spent cleaning up and prepping the garden for the following day. 

 

 

here is the garden before the tilling began.  here is the garden during the tilling...

 

 



(daddy's audience)

 

 

 

 

 

this man worked so hard today on my/our garden, even though he had to go into work tonight, without a nap apparently.  we hung out and talked, and i was instructed to rake dirt, or rake dirt there...so that is what i did, along with some earthing!

 

 

after all was said and done, he had just enough time to shower, eat and head out the door.  oh how i love that man!  we plan to finish the tilling/composting tomorrow and fingers crossed...get in some seeds and plants.

 

one thing i do have to admit is that i found such joy in our whole tilling experience.  i knew that for every clump of dirt that was overturned and aerated, it was just one step closer to our plentiful garden.  one step closer to self-sufficiency.  one step closer to becoming the homesteaders/farmers that we long to be. 

 

it was at that moment that i realized just how thankful i was.  i was thankful for the beautiful property that the Lord has blessed us with.  i was thankful for the sun, the soil and the sweat that goes into preparing the land.  i was thankful for my marriage and for our unconditional love for one another.  i was thankful for my children, my grandchildren, my animals and my home.  i hope i never stop being thankful.

 

i hope that this post inspires you to try to homestead right where you are.  weather it be in an apartment, a condo or a mobile home.  you can grab a few cheap pots from wal-mart, along with a few tomato plants and what not, some soil and then you are good to go.  experience growing something...anything...even an herb garden that is prepackaged.  put that on your window sill and let it do its thing.  you might be surprised at how easy it is.

 

i am linking this post with The Homestead Barn Hop, The Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Simple Living Wednesdays

 

peace and love to you all!

 

 

 





an unexpected rescue...

so last friday started like any other day.  mama got up, made herself a nice hot cup o' joe and was relaxing for a minute when i received a text.  in this next i was asked if beloved and i were interested in a rescue horse, for free.  being the animal lover that i am, i instantly texted my friend asking more information on the horse. 

now let me be clear...i have NEVER owned a horse before.  to be honest, i had only been around a horse once or twice in my life!  i was a little nervous to say the least, but knew that when my hubby heard about it...it was a done deal. 

and i was right!

after a few phone calls between myself and the horses owner, and then between my husband and the owner, the decision was made and they would deliver him the following day. 

saturday morning arrived entirely too quickly if you ask me, and before i knew it, beloved was rushing in to tell me that they were on their way and that they would be here in under 30 minutes.  a mad dash was made by us both to clean up, and before long, they pulled in.

after a few words between the guys, and a quick trial run with him in the pen with our jennett, they headed out and as you can see, hubby and he have already bonded and become buds.

as you can see, he needs some TLC and most importantly...some food.  his current condition isn't due to neglect from the people we got him from, but from the people they got him from.  the story goes something like this...they, the owners, bought him a few years back.  they then sold him to another individual who was wanting a horse.  after some time, i am unclear about how much time, the current owner at the time contacted the previous owners asking if they would be willing to take him back.  after seeing his condition, which at the time was worse then it is now, they agreed to take him back.  he stayed with them for a few months, but they are also trying to put weight back on another horse of theirs who was a rescue, and between the other two horses she already has, bullying this guy, they felt it best to find someone who could give him a little more time and less competition for food.  hence us!

everyone is already in love with him, oh and his name is Salty too.  it is the name he has had for the last 20 years, so we didn't see the need to change it.  he is very funny and quite friendly.  we have him and our donkey gypsy in a pen, but plan to run some fencing along the property so that they can get out and graze.  we have a creek that runs through our homestead and we don't want them to wander into it and fall...that would be bad.  so hopefully within the next week or 2 we will have a bigger area for them.  until then, they will have to get along, share the pole barn and suffer through all the 'extra' treats and fresh brome and alfalfa.  well he gets the alfalfa, gypsy doesn't. 

as we were walking back in tonight from visiting the 'big kids,' as i like to call them my husband leans over and says, 'darlin', we can't  get any more animals until we get the fencing done.  i know you wanted dairy goats but they are just going to have to wait until after the summer.'  i looked at him and smiled, nodded and agreed with him.

want to bet that we have fresh raw goat milk on our kitchen table before the summer is up?  i wouldn't be surprised.  this homesteading thing is so unpredictable isn't it?

i hope you all had a great weekend.

i am linking this post with The Homestead Barn Hop, The Clever Chicks Blog Hop and Titus 2sdays.

peace and love to you all.

sometimes we just gotta slow down...

so when one has a farm, one has to better manage their time.  it is very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day errands that seem to monopolize our life.  vacuuming, laundry, dusting, dishes...the list is endless.  when you add a farm on top of that, not only do you have the mouths of your babes to feed, along with your husband, but now you have animal mouths to feed.  and let me tell you, they eat a lot!  after food and water is checked or refilled, i believe that it is imperative to 'clean' out their living area/pen/coop.  i know that this may not apply to everyone, but i myself take just a few minutes every morning to clean out the coop and the donkey pen, so that they don't walk all over it and spread it around all day and i also want to keep the smell down along with the bugs.  add farm chores on top of cleaning the babes bottoms and keeping their area clean, and you can find yourself overwhelmed! 

if i am lucky, i can get the keiki a bottle ready, make her a little bed on the playroom floor, put on her favorite movie BRAVE and then sneak out to do chores and check the compost. 

sometimes i catch myself feeling guilty.  i remind myself why we moved to the country.  we didn't move here to pop a movie on to get the kids out of our hair while we got more important things done.  (terrible i know but i would be a liar if i didn't admit that i thought it from time-to-time.)  i also think to myself how much faster and easier it would be if i just did it "real quick" without the lil' one right under foot, then the guilt comes, but i majority of the time just ignore the pangs of guilt and run out and get everything done. 

is my child inside suffering because i am outside...no.  is she inside thinking about how much of a burden she is...no.  she is watching her disney movie, enjoying her milk.  she may not understand what she is missing out on, but mama does. 

so this morning i decided to NOT put a movie on, but to dress her, bundle her up, get her water cup ready, grab the blanket for the wagon, grab the chicken scraps, water and egg basket.  after getting ALL this stuff together, putting on some music for us to listen to while doing our chores, we headed out. 

we, or shall i say she had a good time.  mama was busy cleaning up chicken poop while she was drinking her water and laughing at the dogs.  after our work with the chickens was done, we headed to go see gypsy...

 

gypsy is our jennett, our female donkey.  she is soooo loved it is ridiculous.  i have recently done some studying up on donkeys, and they by far a pretty cool animals.  we got her a few weeks back and she is doing great!

(here she is in a trailer we borrowed in order to get her here.  she was NOT happy!)

(here is daddy trying to calm her before putting her in the pen)

 

 

anyhow, back to my post.  

 

so after we cleaned gypsy's pen and gave her some food, i realize i never let the keiki hand feed her before.  i had grabbed some carrots out of the garage refrigerator prior to coming out so i decided i would let her.  after positioning her on my hip and correctly placing the carrot in her little hand, we moved closer to gyps and waited.  after a few *sniffs* she gently took the carrot and began chewing.  the baby smiled so large i thought she might hurt herself, and it was at that moment that i realized that all this hard work, all this sacrifice and blood and sweat served a much bigger purpose.  our purpose here was not only reconnect to our self-sufficient roots, but to teach our children what was really important.  family, faith and hard work were just a few things that we longed for our children to have, and because i didn't want to take the time to dress her warmly or to walk a little slower due to her persistence of walking rather then riding in the wagon, i was robbing her of the very lifestyle that we worked so hard to attain.  it was then and there that i vowed to S-L-O-W D-O-W-N even more.  i decided to embrace my motherhood and to bring her with me more.  i decided that i would give her every opportunity i could to connect with the animals, the garden, the farm...all of it!  i owed her that, i owed all the children that. 

 

after a lot more giggles and nose wiping, we headed back to the house, but not before she decided to dance for me.  she loves music, always has, and she lets you know it.

 

 

i thanked the Lord today for helping me realize the importance of being right here, right now.  i thanked Him for her, for my family, for our health and most importantly i thanked him for the lesson learned today. 

 

 

 

i am linking this post with...Homemaking Link Up and Proverbs 31 Link Up.

 

i hope you all have a fabulous day.

 

peace and love to you all!