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“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson

Friday, September 20, 2013

Happenings around the farm and home

Wow, things have been a bit busy around here lately. School is officially in session although for us it is never fully "out" of session. The little one is doing well with her reading lessons and the older one is busy with high school, getting ready to take the ACT and thinking about life after high school. We are gearing up for the fair and trying to finish those fair entries that haven't been finished. The little one is working with her bunny for the rabbit show and both girls have decided that they will be showing goats next year. Not really sure how I feel about that since I maintain a closed herd and that blows that out of the water. I guess I will just have to get over it. We are anxiously looking forward to some rain this weekend as it has been really dry lately. It has been a crazy summer as far as the weather goes. Cooler than normal with rain everyday for weeks and then hot and dry with no rain for weeks. Fall is definitely setting in though and I am closing up the majority of the garden while working on getting the winter garden planted. Since I have decided to downsize the garden to fit just our needs I have the berry patches ready to plant in the spring and am getting the orchard area ready to plant. Sweet potatoes will be ready to harvest soon also and that will wrap up the summer harvest. This week has been busy putting up pears. I put up 36 quarts and 10 pints so far and the trees are still loaded with pears. I think I will be making some fruit leathers this weekend for the children. I took my Mom to a great little candy shop the other day just for a fun little outing. You can also get ice cream there and sit on the nice wide front porch. We had fun and brought home some fudge which everyone is enjoying. I am trying to get her out of the house more and take her to some places she wouldn't normally go. She can't travel far from home because of her pain issues so it can be a challenge coming up with places to go. I have been cleaning out and organizing the house to prepare for a relatively easy housekeeping winter. It will be enough of a chore keeping the fires going in the woodstoves and keeping that area clean without having to deal with extra "clutter". We almost have the run on the chicken coop finished so by next week we should be able to lock up the chickens permanently so that we can figure out who is laying and who isn't (most of them). That way we can determine who goes to the freezer and who doesn't. Right now we are getting very few eggs and it is a pain and an inconvenience not having eggs for breakfast. I admit it I am an egg addict. So that is really just about it for right now. Really not much going on other than getting ready for winter and trying to take some time to do things that I enjoy.Hope you are all having a blessed fall. Kat















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Monday, September 2, 2013

Curing Homestead Burnout

Like my last post said when I got back home from vacation, I got pretty depressed because the one thing that I realized was that my life consisted of work...work...and more work. Never having time to really enjoy the fruits of my labor or anything else for that matter because I was always working on something. Well, that is the past and now here is the present and future. Farming is not my life...it is part of my life and I am working now on developing other aspects of my life. I have done some major cleanouts lately and gotten rid of clutter not only from the house but from the barns. I am so OCD about clutter that when things are cluttered and untidy then I feel cluttered and untidy. We had piles of "might use someday", my get repurposed someday" and "might get fixed someday" all around the farm. Most of those are now gone having either been scrapped, given away or taken to the dump. What was left is now neatly stacked and stored under the shed. We have just about finished cutting up and clearing away one tree and even though we have several more to cut up and clean up this one was nearer to the barn and so the barn area looks much better and tidier...happier me. The house has been given another going through and probably will have another one in a couple of months. Part of how we accumulated so much is that same "depression" mentality that my grandparents had. My grandparents both grew up during the depression and saved everything (I mean everything) because it might be able to be used someday. My husband and I have always struggled with living on a tight budget to say the least and disposable money to just always buy something when we needed it has not been there so most times we have had to make do with what we could scrounge, build, or repurpose from what we already had around. This meant that we always kept something around. So all this decluttering and freeing ourselves of those "someday" piles has really been liberating for me. I have done some more work on my front porch and in my front yard. I have always loved cottage type decorating and have really done a cottagey number on the front porch. It is now my retreat and I am enjoying starting my day on the front porch with my coffee, the computer and being able to watch the chickens run around as the sun comes up. This is what country life is supposed to be like. Morning chores are simplified and streamlined so that they only take an hour of my life now. Keeping the house daily takes about another hour. Schoolwork is done in the morning and the afternoon is spent enjoying my children and working on hobbies that bring me pleasure. I hope to soon get back to that painting that has been sitting on my easel for 4 years (yes I said 4 years). This Friday the children and I are going on a short road trip to see some sights and end the day with an art walk in another town. Life is good again here at Whisper Wind. The garden is under a major re-haul with the excess that we used to grow vegetables being transformed to grow berries and dwarf fruit trees. The whole thing is being mulched heavily so that I don't have to worry with weeds, but the space is being made use of. We won't be doing a CSA anymore and have decided more fruits and berries is much more lucrative than selling vegetables. Hope you all are having a good summer, ours is getting much better and I have a feeling this is going to be a good year. Blessings, Kat