In Times Past

Sometimes I wonder how I lost my life.  What I'm doing now is what I should have been doing all along, but somehow I got blinded to that fact until nearly half my life was over.  Now I feel like I'm having to play catch up.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s.  "They" told us that women should no longer be at home.  We should get out of the house and conquer the world.  We didn't need husbands and families, we needed boardrooms, resumes and portfolios.  We were strong and we had to get out and show it.  And we bought it.  Hook, line and sinker.

We went forth to conquer, blinded by the promises of a better life.  What we didn't realize was that it wasn't necessarily a better life just a different one.  That's great, if you like different.  I thought I did.  Now that I'm hitting half a century on the planet here, I'm not so sure that I do.

When I came of age, I did what I was suppose to do.  I walked out with my degree in hand, ready to show what a woman could do.  I got a job in a man's world and pursued a career by going up, over and around the obstacles before me.  I blazed a trail.  Now I'm wondering why.

This year I am turning 50 years old.  I am divorced with no children, and retired from a job that simply hired someone else to take my place the moment I left. 

As depressing as that sounds, I'm happier now than I have been in years.  I have chosen the life I am leading now and though it is contrary to a woman out conquering the world, it brings me more contentment that I've had in many years.  My home and my garden, my little farmette fill me with a sense of purpose more solidly than my career ever did.  I salute those women who charge into corporate lives with gusto and desire.  May they find what they are looking for.  What we should never look down on though are those women who feel their calling is the old style life of looking after home and hearth.  Once we allow women to choose where they find their purpose, we truely will have conquered the world.

At The Dawn of Day

The humidity has been so high of late that you can actually see the water in the air.  The best time of day to catch it is early morning, just as light begins to creep in. The wind is still and the only sound you hear is that of a bird here and there waking, and announcing the morning.

What I Should Be Doing and What I Am Doing

What I should be doing is out planting peas.  What I am doing is sitting in the house under the air conditioning.  Ahhhh.

After more than a month of not a cloud in the sky, we had two solid days of rain.  Rain, Rain, Beautiful Rain.  You could practically hear the plants breathe a sigh of relief.  It settled in and soaked the ground thoroughly and made us all giddy with the feel of it.

Then today came.  The morning was good with a bit of overcast and a nice stiff wind.  In fact, it was perfect.  My mom, my sister and I had coffee on my front porch.  Then the sun came out.  With a vengence.  And all that blessed water started evaporating.  Right now it's hanging somewhere about eyeball level in 96 degrees temperature.  I just do not have the will power to go out into that and work.

So....I'm making excuses.  It's Sunday and I should take a day of rest.  I don't really feel good,  My head hurts and my back aches.  That field will still be there tomorrow.  It's not going anywhere.  We're probably going to have a long summer so one day won't make that much difference.  If I was planting with the moon, now would be the wrong time anyway.

So I'm staying inside letting the cool air ciculate around me and wondering why we didn't have a Spring this year.  Oh yeah, it got blown away with the tornadoes.  I'll tell you about those in another post soon.

A New Look

What a difference two months makes.  I looked back at my posts two months ago when the chicks were small and fuzzy and oh so cute.

Here's what they look like now.

It will only be a couple of more months and the girly chickens will be laying and the boy chickens will be making some mighty fine chicken and dumplings.  Yum.



A Direction and A Meaning

I started this blog to let my friends and family know what was going on with my house renovations.  I had moved back home from years of wandering and settled down in a small house not far from where I grew up.  Six-tenths of a mile to be exact.  It was what I had been trying to accomplish for years.  The fly in the ointment was that the house I bought was waaaaayyy smaller than what I needed, so when I started to change everything around, I started the blog to let folks know what was happening in my world.

As the house work wound down, other things started to take it's place.  Being out in the country, I was able to indulge in a lot of things I had done as a child and missed ever since.  Gardening was one of those and so was animal husbandry.

I found some things had changed though since my younger days.  The promises of a chemical world had fallen short and it wasn't a good idea to slather everything down with Sevin dust anymore.  Pest management was a concept to be reckoned with instead.  I live in the deep south though and going organic is not that easy in the area of pest control.  Here everything crawls or bites and munches down on your hard labor and can destroy your work in one night. And in this neck of the woods, deer aren't protected as the cuddly Bambis of fairy tales.  Mostly they are considered to be varmits better served with gravy than saved.  And Thumper has caused me more grief than I can possibly explain in one sitting.

And as these things have been brought forward again in my life, the focus of the farmette has changed.  When I got here I wanted a retreat, a place to escape from the hectic pace I had endured for the previous couple of decades.  I wanted someplace to hide from the world and enjoy some peace in my life.  I wanted to be home.

And I have done that.  I love the farmette.  I never want to leave it.  BUT....my focus has changed a bit.  The news all around us is bad and getting worse.  Even the mainstream media has finally admitted that times are not getting better as planned.  The majority of people in this country are not prepared for a recession, much less a depression.  I truely believe that things are going to get a lot worse before they get better, and a lot of people will be hurting very badly, if not outright dying.

I look around my neighborhood and I worry about these folks.  Most of them are older.  They watched me grow up and they are part of what makes me me.  Many of them are getting on in years and aren't able to prepare for bad times even if they believed they were about to happen.  So if something bad is coming down the pike, I want to be able to take care of not only myself but these people who mean so much to me.

I've always believed in having a few things put back for a rainy day.  My folks both lived through the Depression, and I remember tales from my Grandmother of making do with only what was available. I'm now trying to have enough to make do for quiet a few folks.  I'm not going the tin foil hat route, but I'm thinking that being ready for unusual times is not a bad idea.

I was a bit surprised the other day when I checked the stats for this blog and found that I had more people checking it out than I realized.  Someone in Japan is checking me out on a regular basis and I've even had quieries from Russa and India.  Thank you.  I hope you will all continue to check back in as I find a new direction in life and work toward reaching some goals of being more prepared for things to come.

Oh My Goodness!

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted.  Sorry about that.  I knew it had been a while but didn't realize it had been over two months.

It's been hectic to say the least here on the farmette.  Spring and early summer are always busy, busy times but this year has been more so than usual.  Taking care of animals and planting crops can eat up your days in a hurry.  Throw into that the usual round of family activities and time just seems to slip away.

We are also making some major changes in things here, in goals and aims for what we want to accomplish for the farmette and for our lives in general.  I'll be posting more about all these changes soon.  In fact, I think I'll work out an entire mission statement.  I'll post that too.

Hang around.  I promise not to stay gone so long.  In fact, I'll probably be back tomorrow.

Chicken Explosion

We have chickens everywhere.  Well, actually, we have chicks everywhere.  The original three in the chicken coop has expanded to 11 under three hens.  Inside the house, the incubator has produced more than 24 chicks. We lost four for various reasons and now have a brooder box filled with 17 and another filled with three.  Those three hatched a few days later than the 17 and it shows enough that they needed to be kept seperate.

In other things happening around the farmette, the fruit trees bloomed and then we had a freeze.  Time will tell if the baby peaches, apples and pears survived.  The garden has been turned but nothing is planted yet.  It's still a bit early.  The asparagus is up and running though.

And spring storms are rolling through on a regular basis.

And so it goes.

From Beginning to End

It's just been so much fun over the last three weeks watching the cycle of life.

One of our chickens went broody.  She would lay an egg and then stay on the nest....for a while.  Then the next day she was back and would stay a bit longer.  Finally she was staying even when other hens would come in and lay their eggs beside her.  It was obvious she wanted to set a clutch.  Finally, she decided to spend the night on the nest and we knew she was ready.

So instead of having eggs all out of order one day at a time, we took the eggs from everybody for one day and put them under her.

She was perfectly okay with this arrangement and settled in. So we waited......and waited.....and waited.... And yesterday our patience was rewarded with.....

We only have three at the moment from this clutch, and another one hatched in the clutch another hen has next to hers.  We are expecting more at any time.  In the meantime, however, we had two hatch out in the incubator.  We're starting to have chicks spring up all over.

Maybe It's True!

Seems we may actually be having an early spring. The weather is still holding and things are actually blooming around here.  It's turning pretty.

The bluets are blooming....always a sure sign of Spring.

The yellow-bell is turning.....well,.....yellow

And the plum is bursting with blooms......

The creek is running clear

The deer are roaming happily free now that season is over



Even the brand new fruit trees are getting into the act.

If it  freezes now I'm gonna scream!

Spring is Coming!

It's been warm for two weeks now.  I know its foolish to believe in it this early in the year, but it sure has been nice.  I know there will be more cold weather to come, but a girl can dream can't she???

In the meantime, I've been preparing for when Spring really does get here.  Tomato and pepper seeds are in pots and in wading in plates in water waiting to sprout.  I've got lots and lots of them.  If they all sprout and live I'll be giving them away by the dozens.

In an attempt to get better at this farming thing, I finally got myself something that will work wonders.....maybe.  It's what I call my seed shack.

I found a great deal on a cheapy little greenhouse.  It's not all that big, only 6' X 8', but it'll help me start plants just a little bit earlier.  I may get this farm off the ground in spite of myself.

Meanwhile, I raided the garden for the last of the turnips and had an excellent meal of roast beef, turnips, beans and corn bread.

We've also now got about 10 out of 12 hens laying so we are getting covered up in eggs.  I've been giving them away to friends and family and they just keep coming.  I think my egg empire about is about to expand.



The world is suddenly revolving around eggs for me.  I have three chickens laying.  We've got one large egg layer and the other two are game hens.  They lay tiny eggs.  They are cute but not very big.  All of them are very tasty though.  We had scrambled eggs (three tinys and one large) for supper tonight, along with some locally grown sausage.  Threw in some grits and it was a yummy meal.

Here's the eggs.

Here's the only hen that we have that will lay large brown eggs, so at least I know where they are coming from.

We have 11 of the game hens and since I haven't actually seen one of them lay an egg, it's a tossup as to which ones are producing. I know I've got at least two going.

When they all get going, we're talking about a dozen eggs a day.  I'm going to get very inventive with egg dishes.  Anybody got any good ideas, feel free to post them.

Eggs!!!......Finally

We have eggs!  It's the middle of winter and hens aren't suppose to be laying, but one of ours decided to start.  We weren't expecting them until Spring, but our little red hen just couldn't stand it any more and started laying.

They are huge eggs for such a little hen, but once she started laying, we've gotten one a day regular as clockwork.  Guess we'll have to wait for spring for the game hens to kick in.

Christmas at the Farmette

We didn't dream of a white Christmas this year. We actually had one!  It was beautiful, all quiet and peaceful as the snow fell all day.  I couldn't resist getting out in it.

It only stayed for a day and then it warmed back up and melted.  It was great while it lasted though.  Reminded me of days gone by and gave me time to sit and count my blessings.  I have so many.

Have a great and wonderful new year everybody!