Sugar is poison! :ox

The more I have health problems after consuming sugar, the more I am convinced it is toxic.
Case in point:
When I am very good, eating a well balance diet, only consuming honey occasionally & stevia, I feel so much healthier.
But, when I have been craving & binging on sweets & junk food.....I feel ill. I get achy, sore joints, I'm irregular, have mood swings, crying jags, & just generally don't feel well at all.
Some ER doc once tried to tell me he suspected I may have fibromyalgia. Who doesn't these days? It seems everyone is being diagnosed with either ADD/ADHD, fibromyalgia, or autism. Not to mention the other scores of diseases.
I have been reading up on this subject for years & I know better than to eat it. But my body craves it & it's in everything nowadays!
Growing up my mom limited & watched very closely our sugar consumption.
When I was very young she had been told I was hypoglycemic, maybe that is part of the reason for her concern. Or maybe she just knew there was a connection even back then.
When I would go to a friend's house I would binge on sugary junk food & become very ill. It was like my body was trying to make up for lost time, but then I would dearly pay for that "fun". I would have fever, aches, chills, vomiting, the whole 9 yards. Everytime.
I too try to limit my family's "junk food index", but it is a hard battle. My husband is the junk food "junky" in our home so he is perceived to be the fun one, while I end up being the bad guy. The controlling party pooper.

Well, here we are again. After a few days of "junking out" I am getting sick. I can feel it. I am achy, my joints hurt, my sinuses hurt, I had an emotional meltdown yesterday & my poor husband got yelled at.
He is the one who brings it in the house. If it's here I will eat it, just like the rest of the family.
My theory is "Don't bring it in the house"!

People, people, people! Wake up & smell the stevia!

And, when there is an occasional craving why not just a bite? Why does it have to be a KING size candy bar? (Which by the way, has 4 servings in it but nobody ever reads the label.)
Or a 44 oz. sugary drink? (how many servings in that one?)
Or why not just one small candy bar instead of a MEGA bag? (You think you're saving money by buying in bulk, but you will be paying with your health.)

Ok, I'm getting down off my soap box for a breather.

All this to say, we should become pro-active, informed consumers. We should become educated about our food, learn how to read labels, & listen to our bodies.
Contact the food companies & government rep.s to say we want healthier food.
Stop buying the junk & grow a garden!

http://www.feingold.org/
http://www.sweetleaf.com/


Toodles!

What a dreamer....

This is a picture, as you can plainly see, of a washer & dryer.

My NEW washer & dryer. The first matched set of brand-spanking new, never before used by anyone else, laundry convenience.

It's a love/hate relationship really.

Let me explain.

I love that they are new & matching, but hate the money we had to spend.

I love that they are "Colossal Capacity", energy star-rated, energy efficient, & all that, but...hate the money we had to spend.

We got a pretty good deal, but could we have saved more money?

I'm not just all about the money, but it does cross my mind.

Part of the love/hate relationship is based on this fact: I vowed when the dryer broke we would not replace it, but continue to use the clothesline. Darn!

The other part of this love/hate equation? We had to spend my cream separator money to get the new set.

I even told friends & family that we would soon have fresh raw goat's milk butter & they had been excited.

Now, unless I find a way to spin the cream out of the milk using my washer, I'm out of luck.

Wouldn't that be something? I wonder how many gallons it would hold? It does have variable speeds so I could adjust according to how heavy I want the cream. Then all I'd have to do is pour the cream back in the tub & let it agitate.

Voila! Butter!

What a dreamer, no? Oui, oui.

Toodles!

Catching up & burying the dead

 Ok, someone other than my mom requested I update my blog! LOL No offense mom, but I still don't technically exist in "blogger land".

Well, I haven't been on here since Feb. so, I have alot of catching up to do.
Here's the short list, not necessarily in correct order:

*"Outback" (the cow) has grown
*We had some chicks hatch
*Our dear beloved "Elvis" (1 of our fave roos) has been snatched by coyotes
*My hubby thought he had a heart attack, turned out to be stress
*Our oldest son got married & turned 19
*I had some wonderful bonding time w/ my daughter-in-law during wedding prep.
*Our granddaughter, Emily, has gotten in her 1st tooth
*We taught Vacation Bible School at church
*We had our 20th anniversary
*I am learning ASL (American Sign Language)
*Gave an educational tour of the "farm" 
*My cell phone died taking a "milk bath"
*Mom got contact lenses, still no radio show
*My brother & his wife came out from NY for the wedding
*School let out for summer
*Our 15 yr old is job hunting
*Our youngest (13) is gearing up for full on tackle football
*He was cleared by his Neurosurgeon to play
*I just know I'm forgetting some things.......
*And, most recently, we lost a bunch of hens to some neighborhood dogs.

Expanding on that, we had left for a friend's wedding & in the rush forgot to lock the chicken coop for the night.  Upon returning home we discover a dead hen in our driveway & thought it might have been coyotes.
I decided not to patrol the property, in the dark of night, in my heels & fancy dress. Though I have been known to do so before.
Having changed clothes & retrieved the flashlight, I discovered 5 chicken carcasses scattered around our property. My youngest son found one poor hen still clinging to life, but covered in ants. We tried to get all the ants off & placed her in a cage to rest, but she died the next morning.
One terrified hen was hiding under the horse trailer, & had to be pulled out. She is re"coop"erating in "hospital" & looks promising.
I realized there had to be some hens MIA because my white leghorn was gone & there were white feathers everywhere. She & Elvis were the only white chickens, and he's been gone for awhile.

I deduced (using my detective skills, lol), that it was Colonel Mustard, in the study, who used a candlestick!
Oh, sorry, I got carried away for a minute.

At 1st I thought maybe it had been a pack of coyotes; the older ones killing & carrying off the MIA's, and the carcasses left by the younger ones "practicing" their hunting skills.
But, when 2 hens (1 was the white leghorn) came out of hiding the next morning, I knew this was the work of neighborhood dogs. 
See, the coyote's MO is to kill 1 or 2, leave few feathers & carry off the dead to be consumed. (the only exception I have seen is when one female coyote killed several of our hens & came back to carry them off 1 by 1 to her pups.)
However, the neighborhood dog's MO is to kill several chickens, leaving the bodies & feathers everywhere.
Coyotes are calculating & careful, they just want to eat.
Dogs are messy & careless, they just want to have fun.

The next morning, guess who returns to "the scene of the crime"? Dun-dun-dun-dunhhhhh (insert suspenseful music here). 2 small dogs that belong to one of my neighbors.
Is it possible for 2 small, lapdog size canines to take down that many chickens? I suspect so since there wasn't more damage done to the carcasses & they gave chase to one of the hens while I was watching.

Now, the unfortunate task, having to tell my dear sweet neighbors that their cute little pooches are really cold blooded killers. I will be kind, & non accusatory, but I'm hoping for some kind of restitution. Not money per say, but some form of apology & reassurance the little butchers will be kept in their own yard.
I'm not looking forward to this, but they need to know.
If the shoe were on the other foot, I would give them the same number of my best laying hens to replace their loss, keep the dogs indoors & only take them out on leashes.
If only we had locked the coop.

Toodles!

Holy cow!!

Who is this handsome stranger staring into my camera?

As I was taking this picture I'm saying to myself,
"Don't look into his eyes! Don't make friends, don't make friends, don't make friends!"
As for now he is still scared of me, so I'm not attached....yet.

Like I really need anymore drama in my life, my dear sweet husband had to go & bring home a meat cow.
He calls me a couple of nights ago, while I'm out on an errand, & informs me that he bought me a "gift".
Once I learn how much it cost, & that it's a steer for meat, I realize this is really more for him than myself.

You see, I lean a little towards the vegetarian side, but do occasionally consume red meat. Especially if it's organic.

So, I call myself a "flex-itarian", LOL.

Here's the problem, I also become attached to animals & it makes it hard for me to consume them.

Now, I'm not one of those people who "won't eat anything with a face on it", or "won't eat those cuddly animals because they are so cute" & I haven't joined PETA. (No offense to anyone who feels that way) Though I am very much against animal cruelty.

I believe God put certain animals on this earth for the purpose of feeding us. And I think some are quite tasty!

I do have issues with the way people treat them, feed them, medicate them, kill them, etc.

So, my choice not to eat meat on occasion actually extends to other species besides cows.

My flexitarianism is based on what I have learned about feedlots, growth hormones, GMO (genetically modified organisms) corn & soy as feed, inhumane killing practices, unsanitary processing conditions, etc.

Do you see where I'm coming from?


Want healthy beef? Research it & raise it yourself.

More & more I am convinced that grass-fed beef is the healthiest for you. What I wouldn't give for an acre of beautiful lush grass!

Others here are not educated about grass-fed & frankly don't give a darn because "they love corn-fed beef!" Little do they realize what a "corn only" diet does to the cattle's health when they are being fattened up for slaughter. I won't go into gory detail, it's pretty gross.


So, my dilemma is...that this cow is so darn cute, he's gonna make it hard to eat him.

Whatever will I do?


Toodles

From Stud to Dud

Poor infertile boy.
This is our Ameraucana rooster who has had around 30 hens all to himself for the last couple of months & can't seem to fertilize any eggs.
The hens have been sitting faithfully, poor girls, but to no avail. I have candled the eggs on several occasions only to find plain old eggs, no babies developing.
So, he has gone from "Stud" to "Dud" status. (I googled it to see if there was any advice, apparently not many people have discussed this topic.)
I shall have to bring "Old Blue" back in, to do the job properly, I suppose.
Old Blue is our Blue Andalusian rooster who has been sequestered in the rabbit hutch until the county fair, so his feathers would be in show condition.
Such a shame too, I was hoping for more color in our flock. Old Blue has fathered so many of our hens before that half our flock is already grey. The Ameraucana's also lay blue-green eggs & I was hoping for more hens to lay those pretty gems.
What's a farmer to do? lol

On another note, my mom is starting a new radio show called "Blondie & Red".
(She is "The Crazy Hat Lady" http://barbaracblog.blogspot.com.)
Today will be our first attempt at going "on air". But, since we are still trying to figure it all out, it may end up being an entire hour of nothing, lol.
Mom wants to talk about whatever pops into our heads, which a lot of times is quite comical. Since I am always on the go, I will be the roving reporter.
And, since mom says I "will talk to anyone", I will also be interviewing people as I go about my day. (I like to think I have a gift for gab, but also a God-given talent for being able to connect with people.)
As of now, we will be on air every Monday from 11am to 12pm.
My husband doesn't know about this yet, or the fact that I'm a blogger.
Soon I will have to let the cat out of the bag.

Toodles!

Helen Yeller, burnt oats, & nachos?!?

Ok, I am a procrastinator.
Time to play catch up ....

Here is a pic of our newest addition to the farm, her name is Helen (as in Helen Yeller). Her previous owner named her & I thought it was so funny we kept it.
I found her on Craig's List & drove over 100 miles round trip to check her out. The price was so reasonable I couldn't pass up the opportunity to add another milker to our herd.
After driving so far I told my son (he's the one in the pic), "You know we are going to end up taking her home after coming all this way."
I'm glad we did, she is such a sweetheart.
She fit nicely in the backseat of my Toyota Yaris (yes, you heard right, lol) & was so well behaved all the way home.
She has been a joy to have around, though she is dry & not producing milk anymore. We will be breeding her this Fall in order to have milk & babies next Spring.
She is our first Nubian/Alpine, so she is a Nupine.

On other notes, I still don't have the garden started, ugh. But, I do have sproutlings I have started indoors & must get in the ground SOON.

My mom & I visited an organic garden market last weekend, & made some new friends. They will be selling our extra eggs there, and all proceeds go to charity. Check out their blog: http://justicegardenmarket.blogspot.com.

Our Farmgirl's Chapter met & decided to sew a quilt & sell it for charity.

My husband & youngest son went fishing for the week of Spring Break, so it will be nice to have fresh fish!

Oh Darn!!! I just realized my pan of oats was burning on the stove while I'm blogging. Guess it's a peanut butter bagel for breakfast again. (hope I can salvage my pan, lol)

St. Patrick's Day was uneventful. It happened to fall on a Wednesday this year, which is a church night for us. They serve dinner before Bible study, but corned beef & cabbage was out-voted, so nachos it was. I think this was the first time in years we didn't have the traditional meal, maybe I will make it this weekend.

Off to milk!

Toodles!

Love is in the air...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day! :0)

This is a picture of a heart made of soap suds. I was washing one of our milk jugs out the other day, & when I went to rinse it out.....there was the heart. I couldn't resist taking a shot of it & sharing it. It was completely unintentional, so I like to think of it as a little love note from God.

On another note, Coco, our Nigerian Dwarf has been in heat. That is the only time you hear her vocalize & boy can she yell! It didn't seem to help having Dinner in the next pen.
I can't wait until the end of April when we will be breeding her to my friend's buck. If all goes as planned she will deliver end of September/beginning of October.
We hope to have milk from her for our customers. But, she can be quite jumpy since she wasn't socialized with humans before I got her. And, she is so low to the ground I will practically have to lay down to milk her, haha. (I hear Nigerian milk is sweeter, but I also think it depends on what they are fed.)
Nigerians breed year round, which means nearly every month Coco is yelling her head off for a couple days. The rest of our girls are Purebred LaManchas, which only have a breeding season in the Fall. I guess that makes things a little quieter & easier.
We are planning to add more milkers to our herd. My husband says he wants an Alpine, which surprises me because he has always said we have too many! Lol

We shall see :0)

Toodles!

Sleeping "Booty"

Do you ever have those days when you just want to stay in bed? I suppose alot of people do, but I feel that way everyday. I love my sleep & it seems there is never enough to go around.
I am by nature a "night owl". I used to stay up late & sleep in. (sounds like most teenagers we know) I remember when I would think "the night is just getting started" & it was 10:00!
Well, life can change that.
I married a "morning person" & had children. That combination right there will kill any chance of sleeping in. What was I thinking?
All kidding aside, as much as I love my husband, I loathe "morning people". Why do they have to wake up so cheery & wake everybody else up? Namely the "night owls"?
So, now I find myself at a time in my life when I could sleep in more & more frequently if I so choose. The boys are old enough to get themselves ready for school, & even get themselves there without my assistance, if needed (they should be, they're teenagers). And, I could prepare my husband's lunch the night before.
So, what's wrong with this picture?
Well, I have to admit, I would miss the mornings with my husband & talking with him before he leaves for work. I wouldn't know if the boys ate breakfast, or if they dressed warm enough.
Oh yeah, and there's that "farm" thing, darn!
Having farm animals is a wonderful experience, but you don't get to sleep in when they have to be fed & milked, the eggs need to be gathered, and you have customer's coming by. Trust me, I've tried it.
I always feel like I've missed out on something, everybody has gone off to work & school, & the animals are waiting impatiently to be tended to. You don't want to milk a seriously ticked off goat, they cop an attitude & end up kicking over the milk bucket.
Then, if the customers are coming by in the morning, you are rushing trying to get everything done before they arrive. And, if you only manage to get the very least done, you still have to finish after they leave.
The chores seem to drag on forever on those days, and then before you know it....it's time to do it all over again before bedtime.
Alas, I fear I must continue this charade of acting like the "morning" person I am not. Things just seem to go a little smoother.

Nap anyone?

Toodles!

A mercy killing

Well, I had to do my first "mercy killing".
Poor Nemo needed to be put down. I hated to do it, it broke my heart, but her wing was turning funny colors. It may have been only bruising, but I feared it was gangrene. Next time, if there is a next time, I will do things differently. I hate to lose a good laying hen.
Still no "dangerous" critters in the trap. I'm beginning to think Dinner may have pushed her into the fence & her wing got caught, then some predator probably came along and took advantage of her state. I will probably never know.

Vampire Bunnies?

Well, Nemo is still with us, even though I now fear we should have treated her amputation with more care. I'm wondering if we should have pulled the skin over the exposed amputation site & stitched it up like a real amputee. Then again, doctors don't just do that, they also close up the arteries etc., no loose ends y'know. We could have cauterized the exposed wound but my husband feared it would have caused the hen even more pain than she was already in.
What to do, what to do, sigh.
I guess all I can do is pray & wait. In addition to the treatment I mentioned yesterday, I have also added pro-biotics.
If she gets an infection now, we will be unable to save the meat, as the infection will no doubt have entered her body. Ugh! I hate it when things like this happen.

Still nothing in the trap, cat-wise anyway. Just bunnies. And, unless they are rabid flesh eating vampire bunnies, I highly doubt they are the culprit.
My mom wonders if it could be a bobcat. It could be, since we had one running through here a couple years ago. It might have to be something stronger than a regular house cat, to have pulled hard enough to bend the fence. If that's the case, my trap is too small.

Sorry nothing much to report from yesterday, as I was in the dentist's chair being "tortured" for 2 hrs., & when I got home all I wanted to do was sleep. Well, I can't say I was really tortured, but nobody likes going to the dentist.
And, then they hit your wallet. It's like adding insult to injury.
Not to mention the fact, that I do NOT like the Epinephrine to be added to the Novocaine & the dentist had forgotten. Whoa! Was I feeling sick! Not a normal reaction, I've been told.

So, housecleaning today, & customers coming by.
And making yogurt & cheese, maybe I will take pictures.
At some point I am planning to include recipes, & a bit on "farm fashion", LOL.

Toodles!

Chicken surgery!

We had an interesting afternoon yesterday. It's one of the busiest days of the week for us, what with church and all, & we ended it with having to do a chicken surgery. Lord, what is this "day of rest" You speak of?

Walking by one of the pens in the late afternoon, this is what I found. You can see the feathers are stuck to the fence. What you can't see from this pic is all the feathers on the ground outside the fence, the evidence of an animal presence where the dirt is all stirred up, & part of the chain link is actually bent outward where the animal in question was trying to pull the chicken through the fence.

Horror of horrors! This is the poor little hen who was attacked. I found her in the wooden doghouse, hiding with a broken wing. Actually, what was left of her wing was a bloody dangling mess. You can see the rooster & one of the other hens in the background, watching. If only chickens could talk!

Assuming she would have to be turned into tomorrow's chicken dinner, I carried her up to the house with my heart in my throat. When I walk in the door & say "Honey, we have a problem!" my husband knows I'm gonna ask him to do something. I wanted him to take her out back & do the dirty deed of chopping off her head. I can't do it personally, no pun intended, I'm a big chicken. But, after a close inspection & some deliberation, we decided to amputate the wing below the break. We hate to lose a good laying hen. Here in this pic you can see what's left of her wing after the amputation.

Here we have placed her in the sink & applied DE (diatomaceous earth) to stop the bleeding & hopefully prevent infection. We only had pool-grade DE on hand at that moment, but since she isn't eating it, it should be fine.

Here she is bandaged up & re"coop"erating in the hospital (a rabbit hutch we keep in our house for these situations). She will be monitored closely for signs of infection, given daily DE treatments along with antiseptic spray & bandage changes, and doses of herbs to boost her immune system & prevent infection. We try to give every animal a fighting chance to survive & thrive, when possible. And, we try to do everything as naturally & organically as possible.

I think we will call her "Nemo". If she survives this she will still be able to hatch her own brood of chicks come spring & add to our flock of Dominique's. She will be retired from showing, but I don't think she will mind.

Back to the elusive animal predator.... my husband thinks it's a Tomcat we have seen around. Since the chicken appears to have been "caught or grabbed" by something that could reach through the fence, it seems like a possibility. In fact, now that I think about it, my neighbor lost a rooster last week when something "pulled" it through the bars of the cage. A coyote can't do that, but a dexterous cat can.

I set our live trap last night to try & catch the rascal, but ended up with only a rabbit so far. I'm 'upping the ante' & getting some tuna!

So, "Dinner" will be pardoned. He is our year old Boer buck who lives in the pen with the chickens where the incident happened. He loves to stand on top of the doghouse, pretending he is a mountain goat, & jumps off into the group of 5 chickens wherever they are gathered. Of course they screech & cackle as they scatter, and Dinner thinks it's so much fun, he does it again. And again. We call it "bowling for chickens".

I have always feared he would someday hurt one of the chickens. So yesterday my first assumption was that he had finally pinned one of the poor things against the fence and caused the injury. I moved him to a new pen, all by himself. But, it was time for a move anyway, he is bigger now & should be joining the other bucks soon. My baby is growing up!

Toodles!

Hoof Trimming Time

Here's what the goat hooves look like before & after having been trimmed.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

The rain has stopped, hopefully long enough for the animal pens to begin to dry out.

The good thing about after the rain is that it's easier to trim goat & horse hooves while they are soft. I really should take advantage of this opportunity. I already did "the girls" feet the other day when I was milking them. Now for everybody else, ugh.

Except the horse, I don't even think about attempting to touch his feet, I have a farrier for that. Although, he hasn't called me for our standing 2 month appointment. Maybe because I said I was going to try to sell my horse? But, that's another story for later.

I really must get to the straw today, at least in the chicken coop. And, it's time to clean out & refill the nesting boxes. The eggs stay cleaner that way, less egg scrubbing for me & the customers are happier.

We used to free-range our chickens & they were so happy. Unfortunately the predator problem became so bad that we went from 40 down to 12 chickens a couple years ago. We would let them run during the day & then lock them up at night. Sounds easy right? It was for awhile. But , then the coyotes got smart & would come by during the middle of the day when they were out & nobody was watching the flock. Not to mention the hawks, roaming neighborhood dogs, etc.

And then, we had a new problem. Some of the roosters decided they didn't want to be locked in the coop at night & began taking their harems of hens up into the trees to roost.

We tried to get them down & lock them up, but some would just move out of our reach up into the treetop. Those were the unlucky ones, because by morning they would usually have disappeared. At first I wasn't sure what was snatching them. Then one night I saw a HUGE owl perched & watching from my neighbor's place & I knew who the thief was. (These owls can get to be as much as 3 feet tall with a 5 foot wingspan.) Then just to be sure there was no confusion the owl(s) began leaving their calling cards. I would come out in the morning to find blood dripping down one of the telephone poles (corner posts for one of our goat pens), feathers on top of the pole & a chicken head on the ground. Not a sight for the faint of heart. It was even harder when it was one of our pet chickens.

Someday I hope to have a fence around our property to help cut back on the coyote problem. Then I would like a few more coops so the roosters will each have their own place to retire to every night & maybe that will help with the owls.

The chickens used to strut around & make us laugh. They are quite comical if you have ever taken the time to watch & observe them. The hens would walk across the driveway to get to the coop & lay their eggs, then back they'd go to taking their dust baths & sunning themselves. (that's why the chicken crossed the road- to lay an egg! LOL)

I would often sit outside in a lounge chair & read a book while the hens would peck the ground nearby, & some would even perch on me. I miss those days, the chickens were happier then.

I used to be able to say the eggs were from rang-free chickens when I sold them. We even tried buying the organic food for awhile but it was too expensive. Now I can only claim that the eggs are fresh, from cage free hens. The yolks aren't as orange anymore either, but they are still fresher than anything you can buy at the store.

Speaking of fresh....one day while I was gathering the eggs, I had reached under a hen to retrieve them. She stood up as though to let me get at them easier, & lo & behold she laid an egg right in my hand! Now that's fresh! ha ha

Another time, we found 2 tiny little eggs and upon cracking them open we discovered one had only yolk & the other had only white. Now, how did that happen?

And, had I documented it properly, I'm sure we would have had the second biggest chicken egg on record. It was huge! We never figured out which hen laid it, but I'm sure she was sore! That one was a triple yolker.

Anywhoo....Farm chores await. Even though it's Saturday & I'd love to sleep in. :0( Work, work, work. (I've decided God gave us the farm because He doesn't want me to be bored & lazy. Lol)

The farm is finally starting t turn a small profit for us, as God keeps sending customers our way. So, I guess I can't complain. Now, if we can just figure out this small business thing, hmm.

Toodles!

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!

Here in AZ we really don't get alot of rain, so when we do receive some precipitation it's wonderful. Except, it either comes down in droves & washes everything away, like cars, trees, etc. (flash floods), or it sprinkles.
It has been sprinkling off & on for a couple weeks now & I am officially tired of it.

I really must go & track down another bale of straw for the critters again. It seems everyone is running low on straw as of late. My neighbors are out (we usually buy surplus supplies from each other in a pinch), and most of the feed stores are out too. I did find one that still had a few bales left last week (sure wish I had bought more than one bale), even though I dislike shopping there since they are often very RUDE to their customers. But, priorities, priorities.

The animals are tired of the rain too, I'm sure. Az dirt doesn't soak up the rain like other places, so we have muck & mire everywhere on the farm. Yuck.
The goats are managing to stay fairly mud-free, due to the fact that they are skilled hay wasters & are tromping around on their fodder. But the horse is muddy & wet, and most likely a little cold. I wish I had a barn!!

Ah....a barn. I love the idea of having a barn to shelter the animals in when the weather is unbearable. Well, mainly in the fall & winter.
But that is my dream for right now. To someday move to a place where they have 4 distinct seasons, a possibility of having a white Christmas, 5-10 acres of farm & pasture, an old farm house (hopefully not too run down), and....a BARN! A big beautiful old barn that smells of hay & straw, with a loft & stalls. Maybe someday, God willing.

I remember when I was younger, my dreams were different. I wanted to be a supermodel or a famous movie star.
Now, at 38, my dreams have changed. All I want now is to be warm & dry (in a barn) with my family (my hubby, our boys, & my animals of course) & know that God is working in our lives (in a barn). Lol
I guess I'm being selfish since I am putting my dreams before what God wants for us, but I can dream can't I? If I never achieve my dream, that's ok too. I have told God that I don't want a mansion when I get to Heaven, I want a big red barn! With all my animals there.

So, meanwhile back at the ranch.....I have to bundle up & get started on the farm chores, I'm already running late.
The "girls" have to be milked. The goats, horse, chickens, ducks & turkey have to be fed & watered. And eggs need to be gathered.
I have customers coming to buy eggs today & pick up their milk from the goats they lease from me. Not to mention I gotta get the boys off to school.
Whew! I'm already tired just thinking about it! But, I really do enjoy it. And, it's a wonderful feeling to be so close to your food source & to know it's healthier for you than the stuff at the store.

Toodles!

How it all started....

I have always loved animals & children. Even as a small child of 3 or 4 I remember fervently hoping that santa would bring me a horse. A magnificent, tall, majestic, chestnut creature with it's mane blowing in the wind. Gender didn't matter. We lived on the 3rd story of our apartment building at the time, but I had it all planned out. Imagine my mom's surprise when I told her, rather matter-of-factly, that santa would be delivering my horse anytime now. "But where will we keep it?" she asked. "On the balcony, of course!" Wasn't it obvious?

What a dreamer! Ok, so I am a hopeless romantic. Always have been.
Over the years growing up I think I dreamed of a "farm life", among other fantastical ideas, as a way to escape my sometimes less than ideal childhood. And, Hoolywood (haha, typo, but I think I will keep it) didn't help to dispel my romantic visions, it only added to it. I could see myself riding bareback on a beautiful horse...on the beach?...in slow motion. I still dream of that.

But, let me tell you something honey, it ain't happenin'! It's HARD work. Nobody told me that part of it. The muck & the mud, the manure, getting your toes stepped on, getting bit really hard by an aggravated horse with dominance issues over his food! Wow, not to mention the sore derriere after a riding lesson.
Thanks alot "National Velvet" & "The Black Stallion".

Ok, so I have lived in the city, at one location or another most of my life. (mom SWEARS she must have gypsy blood in her) No farms anywhere.
Then 11 years ago my husband & I were blessed to be able to buy the 1&1/4 acre we now live on. I finally got a farm!
Mind you it's not your typical farm, as we live in "The Valley of the Sun" in Arizona. So, it's alot of desert & HEAT. There are places in the valley where they have irrigation & you would swear you have been transported elsewhere. But alas, such is not our case.
We are still in the city, but we are on the outskirts. We are in the desert where it's hot & dry, but it's still our "farm", nonetheless.

We didn't start a farm idea right away, it kind of grew on us. First, we got a dog, since we had always been in apartments & could never have one before. "Barney" was a german shepherd mix. Then later....another dog "Bubba" (yes, my husband is a redneck), a st. bernard mix.
We dabbled with the idea of buying real farm livestock, but we hadn't made the leap yet.

Then one day, my husband walks in the front door & hands me a large cardboard box. Inside were 5 almost grown chickens! I couldn't believe my eyes! I didn't know what to do!
"I'm going outside to build a chicken coop," he says as he disappears out the door again, leaving me holding the box of chickens. My eyes were as wide as saucers, mouth hanging open in disbelief.
I got on the internet & began researching chickens. And, my husband managed to craft a coop out of some old wall cribs that we had used as shelves. He painted it white with mauve trim to match our house. It even had painted on windows & curtains on the outside.

So began our "farm", all those years ago.
And to think, it all started with a spur of the moment idea of my husband's to stop at the feed store. The "poor, orphaned" chickens had been dropped off when the renaissance festival left town. Apparently they had been used in the petting zoo when they were chicks.

Now we have around 60 chickens, a turkey, 2 ducks, a horse, 10 goats, 5 dogs, 2 cats & a hermit crab. Sing it with me.....And, a partridge in a pear tree!

So on my blog I would like to share stories of our farm adventures, and whatever else comes to mind.
If anyone besides me is even paying attention, lol.

Toodles!

Welcome to the "Farm"!

This is my first post. Ever! I decided to start my own blog after watching the movie "Julie & Julia", they made it look so easy. I must admit, it was somewhat painless, lol.
So here I am, typing with one hand & holding my granddaughter. (Who, by the way, is absolutely adorable.)
More to come later....... :0)