Farm Girl Blues

  I kept meaning to blog this week,I had some great fall recipes I thought I would share, but I've been in kind of a funk the last few days. It's cough and cold season, we have a house full of sick little ones, and then we lost a sweet little doe named Mocha.So it seems all of that brought on a serious case of the "Farm Girl Blues". I admit that losing animals is a very hard thing for me, and all that talk about it gets easier... well NOT for me. Each time I struggle to do everything I can right up until the last minute, even when I know deep down it's too late, but I just can't stop myself. My heart breaks each time, and it has never gotten easier for me.

   However, I love each and every moment with the animals, and cherish the joy they bring. It may not get easier,but the pros far out way the cons. It sometimes takes a little while for me to bounce back into the swing of things,but the animals always seem to know when I need a little extra love. So I mourn my loss, throw myself into the things I love to do, learn to appreciate life just a little bit more, and laugh as much as possible. Laughter is after all the best cure for the blues, and of course chocolate...Chocolate makes everything better! =)
                                                    

There's a goat in your house, and she's wearing a diaper!

     Yep! That's right, there's a goat in our house, again! So it seems that I pick back up much like where I started, with a goat in my house again. Annabelle is not the first goat to end up in the house, and I doubt she will be the last. Don't worry she's not sick, in fact she's a chubby healthy little thing, but she's a wee bit small for the rest of the herd. We tried putting her in with our new potbellied piggies, but let's say that a certain little horny pig would not leave her alone, so that idea didn't go over so well, and we didn't want to leave her all alone...SO in the house she came, and stayed.
     I know it sounds crazy, but for us it's really no different than having a dog in the house. She's super cute, the kids love her,and when we can keep a diaper on her clean up is pretty easy. So except for her wanting to eat the broom and the occasional bloodcurdling "Maaaahh!!" at 2am she's really no trouble at all.
    So while somethings around here have changed, much remains the same.. meaning you'll still find me cleaning broken egg out of my pocket, or cow poop off my iPhone. Ha! You'd think I would have learned by now, but that would be no fun at all!

A tough first year

      I am glad 2011 is over, it was a year filled with what seemed like more downs then ups, but we made the best of it.I wish I could go in to great detail, however, some of it is just too personal. So I'll just stick to life around the "Farm" and bring you up to speed. The children learned some very hard lessons this Summer about life and death. New life is always exciting, babies no matter what kind are always precious! We started the summer off with puppies, the boys always love puppies, but then we lost all but three. Being that I was home with the boys alone I had to get rid of the little bodies and comfort the boys alone. They took it pretty hard but nursing the three remaining puppies to health became their full time jobs.

    That same week we got a horrible shock we we opened up the chicken coop one morning. We had forgotten to close the chicken door and something got in and killed several of our girls. I'll never forget the look on Andruw's face as he stared at there poor headless bodies. So again I found myself alone cleaning up bodies pets we loved. It was a hard year for the boys as they learned that farm life is tough, there's always work to be done, and they learned life on the farm is precious.

       
     The boys learned allot of hard lessons about death over the year. Each one seemed harder then the lesson before, but it has taught us what a blessing good health is not only for us but for the animals we keep. 
For me each death I encountered was heartbreaking , and I felt that I failed them somehow.However I take what I can learn from each one hoping to prevent future deaths, and I never give up trying to save a life.      

     The boys also had to give away one of their dogs who decided that she really liked killing chickens.She took out about 7-8 chickens and 8 guineas in about a week before getting caught in the act, but after seeing her kill a hen in front of them they understood she had to go. Sophie now lives on a cattle farm, and where there are no chickens.lol She is happy at her new home and in the end that's all that matters.
      
     In some way I think the deaths they encountered on our farm helped them to understand the death of their Grandpa Curry. The boys and I were unable to go to NY for his funeral, but we talked about his life and why people and animals die. Our farm has grown and we have learned allot about the animals we keep, the boys are learning that not every animal we own is a "pet", and they are learning about the purpose each serves. They know that our chickens give us eggs, our new dairy goats will give us milk, and our cows will someday be turned in to meat. Now believe me their not real thrilled about having beef cows, they want each animal to be a pet not food, but they might change their minds if it meant they had to give up steak.

   

     So for now our animals are all doing well, we are enjoying the mild winter, and we have seeds started for our garden. So we have plenty to keep us busy.  Our troubles from 2011 are far from over but we are pushing forward determined not to let them hold us back. We hope that 2012 has lots of great things in store for our family and yours.

A return to Blogging

      Life has thrown me some pretty tough curves over the past year, I stopped blogging or posting online. I immersed myself into the kids and chores, and believe me that is not hard to do when you have 4 kids. The more time that went by the more alone I felt. I let stress become a distraction, I let it get in the way of my life, my goals and dreams, I let it affect my relationship with my children,my husband, and I let it affect the growth of my "Farm".I would pray and beg God to help fix all these problems in my life, and slowly I realized what I need to be praying for was God's help in changing and fixing myself. I have always had a really hard time with wanting to be in control all the time, and when I felt I had lost that control it sent me spiraling. I have found that more often then not Control is more of an illusion than anything else. We would like to believe that we have this control over every aspect of our life, but then something happens and reminds of that we do not.
I am slowly returning to the things I enjoy, determined to live my life fully, and continue to turn over that need for control to God. 
    So I have decided to return to blogging and sharing all the goings on around here. I plan to post a bit of a recap of the last year, our many ups and downs, and changes that we have had to make. I can't wait to share with you what we have planned for this Spring. While many things around here are still uncertain, I refuse to live life on hold, so I will just take it one day at a time.

Country Mornings

Country Mornings are a truly a blessing from God. They often bring peace to my heart when it needs it most, and it never fails to put a smile on my face. Country mornings are the best, I can sit on the front porch with a good cup of coffee looking out over the pond, and watch the ducks waddle about here and there.Maybe take a stroll through the garden with my chickens, stopping to chat with the horses abit, or maybe just sit out on the porch upstairs and take in a better view of the "farm". Early mornings are one of the few times I can sneak in a little "ME" time, so I often spend it lost in thought, or just lost in God's beauty that surrounds me. I'm telling you country mornings can heal your hurt,and after three days of watching the devastaion caused by all the storms, making phone calls to check on friends, and praying for all those who need it so badly this morning... My heart needed it something bad.

Spiders, Froggies, and Beavers?! Oh my!!

So with our kiddos all snuggled and snoozing in their beds, my hubby and I decide to take our glass of blackberry wine and head out to the porch armed with our trusty baby video monitor.(Man you gotta love those things!)The weather was just right,the stars were twinkling,and the frogs were croaking. So with the dogs at our sides we decide to stroll around the yard discussing where to plant our roses.Well as were walking we see a small dark blur take off and of course our dogs sprint behind it. So what do we do? We follow the dogs of course! Now it's dark and we can't see, but suddenly this blur which we were thinking was a cat now jumps into the pond. Okay now were really thinking what in the *$%* is that?! The dogs are still going crazy and trying to jump into the pond behind it, at this point were thinking it's a duck, and then it growls. What kind of duck growls? So Bob goes poking through the trees and bushes along the bank until finally he gets a look at our blur, and it's a BEAVER! So while the babies were peacefully sleeping Mommy and Daddy were chasing beavers. To top it off while I go stumbling along tripping over tree branches and rocks I walk through a BIG spider web, scream, run, and spend the rest of the night thinking there are spiders on me. We had a great laugh at our moonlit adventure, and went to bed talking about Spiders, Frogs, and Beavers. Then when I woke up this morning I had a spider bite on my arm, and I yell at my husband "See, I told you there was a spider on me!" And to think if we still lived in the city we wouldn't be chasing beavers. =O)

Flashlight Fun

Our power has been out off and on tonight due to bad weather, so what better time to break out the flashlights, and of course once the flashlights come out the kids go crazy. I love just sitting back and watching them run around the house with their flashlights, stopping now and again to make shadow puppets on the wall. It's a great way to pass time while the lights are out. Right now they are camped out under a make shift tent(my bed sheet) reading books to eachother. It's times like these that I just have to stop what I am doing and thank God for all that he has given me. There may be thunder and lightning outside but inside all I hear is the pedder patter of little feet and laughter that fills the house. A night spent snuggled up with the ones I love, you just can't beat that!