Hmmmm.....Where Are We????

Right now this is all I've got for you........but they'll be lots more to come! 

Stay tuned!!

God Bless!

God is Doing Great Things in our Lives!!

This is gonna be a short post because I'm crazy busy right now..........but God has directed us and we are fixing to be on the road again.........to Montana this time!!!

Will try to do a post next week and fill you all in!

God Bless...........

Let's Take a Picture Walk 'Round My New Home............

I wish you a thankful heart, tomorrow and every day of the year!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Until next time.........God Bless........

Did I Forget Something........or Another Episode of Confessions of a Goodwife

If you aren't new to my blog you may be asking yourself a question.  You may be sitting there sayin', "GOODWIFE!! What about your birthday pigs??  What about Ed Earl and Lu Lu?!?  How can you possibly leave out such an important detail about the past few months?!?  Then again, perhaps you are sittin' there at your computer sayin', "Edearlwhosis?  Lulawhatshername?  What the carp are you talkin' about lady?? 

To those of you who are swine minded and are just achin' to know what happened to my dear Ed Earl and Luanne, I'm going to tell you, but first let me share a couple pics of my dear hoggies.....



My dear Ed Earl.....



Pretty Lu Lu......

K, so if you've caught up on what's going on you know we made a major move.  I couldn't take my piggies with me.  Pigs are an acquired taste and you must truly understand swine to love them.  Most folks don't, so asking The Aunt and Uncle to let me keep my porcine cuties over at their place was out of the question.  I was faced with a decision.  I could sell them.............. or eat them........my belly won (as it usually does).

It's true.......you know you are a hardcore homesteadin' goodwife when you can eat your beloved birthday swine with nary a qualm.  I did have trouble sayin' good by to Ed Earl, but having the meat from two HUGE hogs in our freezer has really saved us in our present situation.  We eat pork and that's about it.  Oh yeah, and if you are wondering if there truly is a difference in heirloom pork, the answer is a resounding YES!  I've never eaten a juicier pork chop in my life.  The Man is a pork steak eater because chops are usually dry.  Not so with Ed Earl's fine flesh.  Juicy, tender, moist, and just plain yummy!

So there you have it.  Now you can stop agonizing over the detail I forgot in my tale......

Til next time...........

God Bless...............

Life in Kentucky, and A Few More Changes.........

If you've missed posts one, two, three, and four, you may want to read them first!

As we settled into our new lives in Kentucky, I was still fighting God on some things.  I'm not proud of this.  I think usually I'm pretty good at letting God have the reins, but on some things I have to take my time coming to terms with His plan.  One of those things was letting my goats go.  I held on and cried, and held on and cried and then I finally accepted that God didn't want me to have goats right now.  As you may remember from this installment of our story, my goats were over at The Aunt and Uncle's place.  Tommy had to be housed with Tulip, Star, and their six kids and that wasn't working out so well.  A buck will run does ragged because they are pretty much always ready to breed, even if the girls aren't, especially a Pygmy like Tommy.  The 3 buck kids were also running their sisters ragged and I was stressed to the breaking point. 

I put Tommy and 4 of the kids on craigslist and sold them quickly.  That alleviated some of my stress and I settled in to milking my girls.  The Aunt and Uncle's 100 acre farm is only about 4 miles from where we live, but I had to make that 4 mile drive in Black Betty.  It was costing me $20 a week to go over and do my chores.  As a few weeks went on, the grass and brush in the 1 acre paddock they were in was gone.  My girls were losing weight.  We are not in the financial position to be spending money on extras, and sadly that includes critters.  I had to make a choice between Champ and the goat girls.  I lay on the couch in The Man's lap crying my fool eyes out and then I accepted that God wanted me to sell my girls. 

I got on the computer and emailed my dear friend Jennifer from Our Little Farm.  She lives about 45 minutes from where we are now and she's been a saving grace to us on this journey.  I asked her if she knew anybody that would want to buy my girls, each with a doe kid at their side.  She said she didn't really know of anybody, but then she emailed me back and said she was talking with her husband about it and would get back with me.  In the meantime, I also sold off a bunch of my little pullets, leaving me with only 6 pullets and three ducks.  A really perfect and manageable number.  Jennifer got back with me and said she wanted to buy my girls!  Whew!  Such an answer to prayer.  They have a wonderful home with Jennifer and her family and she is milking them and loving them and that means everything to me. 

We still have our three dogs, our cat, the 6 laying hens, and our Muscovy drake and his ladies.  They free range during the day and are giving us enough eggs for us to eat.  No extras, but that's ok, we have enough for us and I can afford to feed them!  I of course still have Champ, and he is here at our house with me now.  He's right out my bedroom window and I love hearing him nicker for me in the mornings.
 

Notice that he's nappin in the sun right out my backdoor, see the doorknob?

Selling Champ is not, and has not ever been an option.  If the Lord leads us somewhere else and I can't take him, I'll put him down.  He will be 24 in the spring and I'll not take the chance of him being neglected somewhere else.  Of course, if God were to present me with a home for him, I would follow God's direction, but the thought of trusting his welfare to another person is oh so difficult for me, especially as I'm surrounded by horribly neglected and starving horses.

God has provided The Man with a job.  He makes in a month what he used to make in a week, but he is relatively stress free, and happy.  We have enough.  Having enough is huge, and God is good.  We aren't on any state aid, although we do qualify and if it gets to where we need it we will apply.  We don't have health insurance anymore, but our faith in our Heavenly Father is better than any insurance policy on earth.

Our bankruptcy is final and our credit score didn't take as big a hit as we had feared.  I think because it was so high to begin with.  However, we've both decided not to borrow money for anything.  If we can't pay cash, we'll do without.  We were able to sell The Dodge and we've got that money in savings, to be used for emergencies.  We wanted to live the self-sufficient lifestyle, but there is absolutely nothing self sufficient about being deeply in debt.  This is the first time in our marriage that we've been footloose and fancy free.  The first time we've ever rented, the first time we've been unfettered and it is a good feeling.  We are constantly praying and asking God to show us.  Show us what to do, show us where to go, show us how to be better servants to Him.  Our family is closer than ever and our marriage is still steady as a rock.  I know the reason for that......God is the head and the center of our lives. 

Will we stay here?  Who knows!  We certainly don't.  We are asking God to guide us where He would have us.  Use us, let us be shining lights for Him.  We are still homeschooling Shayla but are beginning to feel strongly that God wants us to put her back in school.  We've told her to pray deeply about it, as well as praying about it as a family.  We are His to do with as He will.  Our faith, while already strong, has grown by leaps and bounds.  I can't wait to see what He does with us next!

Thank you dear readers for your comments, thoughts, and prayers.  Please know you've all been on my mind and I've missed you dearly.  I'm back though because I love to witness through my blog and I love sharing with you all.  Reading about your triumphs and your trials is a great comfort and inspiration to me. 

We may no longer be Goodwife Farm, but I remain, as always, the Goodwife!

Until next time,

God Bless...........

Kentucky Bound, and Tragedy Strikes........

Installment one, two, and three.....

I'm going to take the time now to tell you a little about The Man's sister.  She is his older sister and his only full sibling.  She has two young adult children and at the time of our move was married to a man 12 years older than her.  Her husband Ron was very ill with diabetes and heart disease.  He had lost a leg several years ago.  Ron was a character to put it mildly.  He was the kind of person either you loved or you hated, with no middle ground. 

A couple days before our move, The Sister and Ron drove out to California for an experimental medical treatment.  A last ditch effort.  You see the doctors had told Ron there was nothing they could do for him.  I don't know how many heart attacks he had, but in January of this year he was in the hospital for over a month, and they spent last Christmas in the hospital with him as well.  He also had one two days before they left for California.  The doctors told him he would simply continue to have small heart attacks until he had one big enough to kill him.  The Sister was his rock.  She was his caregiver, his lover, his friend, and he was her knight in shining armor, albeit his trusty steed was a wheel chair and a golf cart instead of a shining destrier!

We made it safely to Kentucky and got everything unloaded.  By Sunday July 3 (The Man's 38th birthday) we were totally unpacked and settled in.  As you may remember we don't mess around when it comes to work!  My folks left to go home on the 4th and we began to acclimate ourselves to our new home.  Champ and the goats were over at his aunt and uncle's 100 acre farm and I went over every day to tend to them.  The Youngun decided maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all and we were excited to see where God would send us.

Early the morning of July 12, The Man's aunt and uncle came over to tell us Ron had suffered a massive heart attack and passed away.  The Sister was in the room with him, alone, more than two thousand miles away and she performed CPR on him until the paramedics arrived, but he was already gone.  Our niece, who is 18, was across the driveway home alone, so The Sister had called Aunt and Uncle W to come over and break the news to her, and also to let us know because she couldn't get us on our cell phone.  The Man and I immediately thought perhaps this was God's reason for sending us here.  It took almost a week for The Sister to get home and it's been a long road with the grieving process but they are all getting there. 

At Ron's memorial service a wonderful man preached the service and we were in awe at his passion and devotion to the Lord.  He is pastor of a church about 5 miles from the house and we've been attending every Sunday since the memorial service.  What a blessing it's been to us to find a church that is truly about following God!!  Every single Sunday Brother Willie says, "Mind the Lord children."  Truer words were never spoken, and how wonderful our lives become when we truly do mind the Lord!  To say that things have been totally smooth and easy would be a lie, and I'm going to tell you more about that in the next installment.


To Be Continued......................

The Move to Kentucky..........

If you haven't already, please read installments one and two......


God was really pushing us to Kentucky, even though we weren't sure we really wanted to go.  We decided to take a deep breath and trust God.  The Youngun wasn't happy and there were lots of tears on her part.  She didn't want to leave Pop Pop and Granny, or the Darling Cousin.  We understood but we also explained to her that when you pray for God's guidance and direction in your life, you must be prepared for Him to give it!  We've always prayed for God to show us the way and for Him to give us the courage to follow.  Well He was asking us to put our money where our mouth was so to speak! 

Wednesday, June 29th, The Man and I loaded The Dodge up on a car trailer and pulled it down to Kentucky with our truck Black Betty.  I followed in our S-10 pickup.  We made it a one day run, so were on the road roughly 15 hours.  We dropped The Dodge  and the S-10 off and then went over to his aunt and uncle's place to hook up their stock trailer and haul it back to IL.

On July 2, 2011 we had a 26' U-haul loaded up with our belongings.  We also had the stock trailer with Champ, the goat girls; each with three kids at their side, our cat Willow, and the chickens and ducks. Our little convoy was ready to leave at 6 AM.  It was very hot and I was worried about the critters on our 7+ hour drive down.  The Man drove the U-haul with our dog Ginger along for company.  My dad and mom, along with their dog Pepper, drove our truck Black Betty pulling the stock trailer, and The Youngun and I brought up the rear in my folks' vehicle with our two other dogs, Annie and my Ellie-Girl, in the back seat.  We were off!

Leaving our place behind wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.  I think because we were totally focusing on what God wanted us to do, and knowing that home is where the heart is.  Our hearts are with God, so home can be anywhere we make it!


To Be Continued.............

More On Our Whirlwind.......

First off I have to tell you all how much your comments meant to me!  I got tears in my eyes as I read them off of yesterday's post.  I've missed you all so much, and you can't know how much you mean to me!  K...now that we're done with the mushy stuff.....

Read the first installment here........

The next day we took my Challenger back to the dealership and asked them to buy it back. We knew what a precarious financial position we were in and didn't want to have the car repo'ed if we could do anything at all about it. They took the car back, paid off the note, and gave us 78 bucks to boot. We could cross that little worry off our list..........

We also put our house back on the market............

Next we went to our little local bank that has been so good to us over the past 7 years.  We had a $1500 note with them that we wanted to make sure was taken care of.  We explained to our dear friend and loan officer, Robin what our situation was and we paid the note off.  By the Grace of God we had that little bit of money in savings and were able to take care of it.  Robin was very supportive and said she would write us a letter of reference if ever we needed one.

We next began to explore our options.  As many of you may remember we've always wanted to move south, or west, or somewhere.  We began to pray and ask God where He'd like us to go.  We were feeling strong nudges toward Kentucky.  The Man called his sister.  She has 4 acres and there is a single wide house trailer on her property right across the driveway from her house.  It was fixin' to be empty and we could rent it for $350 a month.  We went down to check it out and see what we thought.  We didn't think......we came home thinking we didn't want to move down there.  We were still thinking on what WE wanted instead of what God wanted for us.  We had gone down there with preconceived notions of what it would be like and those notions were bashed bloody against a rock.  It wasn't at all what we'd thought it would be.

The Man began to look for work in IL, all to no avail.  We also weren't getting any interest in our house.  We weren't upside down on our mortgage, but we weren't in real good shape either.  We continued to pray, asking God to show us where He'd have us go.  We also began the process of filing bankruptcy.  This was so shameful for us.  A real blow to our pride, as we've always taken great pains to be sure our credit was impeccable.  At the time of our filing my score was 803 and The Man's was 798, however we had no choice.  We didn't really live beyond our means, but we lived at our means, that's for sure.  There was no way we could even pay our next house payment, let alone all those to come.  The Man didn't want to go back into a high stress job and I didn't want that for him either, so we chose to let God lead us and we filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  We also decided to accept that God wanted us in Kentucky...........

Continued soon.....

God Bless................

Hello Dear Friends!

I have no idea if anybody even still reads my blog since it's been months since I've posted anything.  If any of you are still there, I'm here to tell you of the ride we've been on!

Do any of you remember this post?  Well boy howdy, did He bring some changes to us!! 

In the 3rd week of May, The Man's employer sent him on a business trip for some training. (Remember he was the Operations Manager for a trash company.)  Naturally, since we've never spent a night apart, I went with him.  On Thursday, May 19th 2011 he was on the 4th day of his training, and we were scheduled to head back home on the afternoon of the 20th after his final day of training was done.  The afternoon of the 19th I was lounging on the hotel bed because my back had gone out and I couldn't do anything else, when The Man came walking in the door.  I said (jokingly because that's what I always say when he comes in earlier than I expect him to), "What are you doin' here, didja get fired?" To which he responded, "Well I think so, we have to go home."  I just looked at him..............uh........what???  He said one of the big head guys from the company had called him and said he needed to come home.  Well we knew what was coming.  We knew they weren't going to call him home with one day left if it was good news!  We threw everything in the car (my 2009 Challenger that I was so fond of) and headed back to IL. 

Upon our arrival back in IL, he took me home and then he headed in to his work.  They fired him.  They had already fired the GM the day before, and they fired him as soon as he got in.  May 19, 2011 God let us know without a doubt that He wanted us to do something different!  My husband has never been fired in his life.  He's never been disciplined at any job, this one included.  This came totally and completely out of the blue.  $80,000 a year one second and penniless the next.  No severance, no reference letter, nothing.  Seriously......we had around three thousand bucks in savings with a $1400/month house payment, not to mention the car payment of $500 and all the credit card bills, as well as a small loan at our local bank for the boat.

Now you may be thinking that our heads were rollin' around and were were contemplating bank robbery or possibly even looking for the lost city of Atlantis, but such was not the case.  Wanna know why?  As we were in the car on the way home, The Man said to me......"If we get there and they don't fire me I'm gonna be really disappointed."  Excuse me??  What's that now?  He said as soon as they told him to come home, he felt a great weight lift off his shoulders.  The burden of responsibility he'd been carrying for so long, the weight of what did God want us to do.....gone......definitively answered with a loud and resounding call.  God had been nudging us for a long time.  We weren't getting the message so He just jerked the rug out from under us.  He said.....if you aren't hearing Me, then I'll make you hear me, and He did.  We heard Him loud and clear.  It was time for a big change.............. 


please tune in soon for the continuation of our story!  I promise it won't take me long to post another chapter!

God Bless.........

Hi All!

Just a quick note to let you all know I'm still alive.  I'm takin' a much needed and rather refreshing technology break and it feels great.  Sometimes I get too wrapped up in bloggin' about life instead of livin' life!  First thing I'd do in the morning was turn the computer on and I was readin' blogs before even doin' chores!  Not good.  For whatever reason, I lost my desire to even turn the computer on and I'm goin' with it. 

I've been sewin' my brains out and we've got some little Muscovy ducklings in the chicken house.  My chicks will be here in a couple weeks and a couple weeks after that Star will be kidding.  We bought a little 14' fishing boat and are enjoying that very much.  The maiden voyage of "Catfish Hunter" netted me a 5 1/2 # channel cat and The Man an 8 pounder!  We've also been findin' the heck out of morels, and getting them in the freezer for future use.

No garden as the weather isn't cooperating.  I'm trying not to freak out about that and figure it will get in when it gets in!

Thanks to all of you who've emailed to make sure I'm ok, and I hope you aren't mad at me for not bloggin'.  I'm just enjoying the spring weather! 

I hope you are all fit and sassy and enjoying bein' alive!

God Bless......................

My Neck of the Woods is Wakin' Up!

Last Thursday I spent the afternoon doing some much needed clean up in the herb/flower beds in front of my house.  I was rewarded with so many beautiful sights such as.........

You may call these peonies, but where I'm from we call them piney bushes......

Our lilies are bursting from the ground.......

The chocolate mint smells like heaven and is so beautiful to boot.....

The Japanese Painted Fern is coming around.

Our little fairy watches over our garden.  I think she's as ready for spring as we are!

God Bless..................

Wanna Feed The Pigs With Me??

Click below (even if you can't see the box) to watch a video of Pig Feeding Time!

You never doubt if you are needed when you have critters!  They are always happy to see you and give you some love, never mind that it's because you feed them, we'll just gloss over that part!

As you can see we are still in love with our Gloucestershire Old Spot hogs! 

They are growing like weeds and still as loving as ever. Luanne isn't near as much of a cuddle bug at Ed Earl, but I think that is probably because she is half Poland China and Ed Earl is full G.O.S......

Have a great weekend and don't forget to visit the other Farm Friend Friday Blogs!

God Bless...........

Some More On Horny Goats........

Hehehe!  Get yer mind outta the gutter!  I'm talking about HORNS you goose!

I'd like to note that all the goats in these pictures have been sold and no longer live here with us!

Notice IE's tipless horns......

After this post a commenter asked me why we disbud, and if horns weren't natural.  I'd like to address this now. 

Yup, horns are more natural, but there are so many unnatural things  we do with goats that for me the horns just can't stay.

It is not natural for us to fence a goat in, it is not natural for us to milk a goat, and it certainly isn't natural to make a pet out of one, but we do and there is nothing wrong with it.  However when you fence a goat in, milk a goat, and keep a goat as a pet, horns can cause you lots and lots of problems.

  Goats learn how to use their horns quickly and they will use them on you and on other goats.  Ever since Tommy came here with his glorious set of horns, my girls have not worn collars.  It's too easy for Tommy to hook them under the collar and perhaps drag them to death or break their necks.  Tommy tries to hook me all the time, but so far I've been too fast for him.  He has gotten me when I've had to wrassle him, but not bad, just a bruise.  I've heard and read many the horror story of goats killing other goats, many times by accident.  I've heard of does ripping the bellies out of their kids with their horns.  As kids get older and the doe wants to wean them she will let them nurse for a bit, then she will butt them off with her head.  Well a goat with horns can really hurt her kids badly doing this.

You can't do this with a horned goat!!

A horned goat is a danger to themselves in fencing.  There is nothing more attractive to a goat than the grass, brush, or browse on the other side of the fence.  Unless you have hot wire all the way around your entire goat pasture your goats will be sticking their heads through to eat the grass and weeds on the other side.  If that goat has horns, they usually can't get their heads back out.  If you don't find them in time, you could come back to a dead goat, hanging from the wire.  

A horned dairy goat will have a more difficult time getting her head in the stanchion, and you won't enjoy lovin' on her nearly as much as her disbudded sister, cuz when she rolls her head back in ecstasy as you scratch her butt, she's gonna get you with her razor sharp horns!  One of the wethers we had that I botched his disbudding loved to rub his head up and down the back of my thighs and my butt.  This was actually a really nice massage, except his horns would hook me!  Tulip does this to me and it's great because she has no horns.

Disbudding is a personal decision and one each individual goat raiser should make.  In keeping livestock there are many, many things we must do that seem harsh, but in the long run they are so much better for the animals and humans involved.  Disbudding is quick and I can tell you from my experience doing it that the babies are just fine as soon as it's done.  They run over to momma, get a slug of milk and are back to bouncin' round with their siblings and cousins within minutes. 



Click this to see the disbudding scars bigger, but keep in mind that it didn't work!  As a matter of fact, you can see that the right horn bud is already growing.



Homestead life isn't all roses and chocolates.  Real homesteading is harsh at times, but that just makes the good all the sweeter!

God Bless.............

15 Years........

15 years ago we became one flesh.  Each day my love for you has grown, swelling inside my heart until sometimes I feel it will break.  Sometimes, I cry because the pain of loving you so fully encompasses my heart and I feel as if I will explode with emotion.  God gave me to you, to be your wife and I feel so fulfilled because I am your woman.  The very first time I saw you, my heart leapt inside because it recognized you as my man.  You mean more to me than I can ever express. 

My partner, my lover,

My husband, my friend,
To be together,

With you to the end,

Is my greatest desire,

My hearts only wish.

Our souls have known each other

For millions of years.

I pray for many more lifetimes of loving you!

Happy 15th Anniversary to The Man, My Man, My Best Friend!

Here are 15 things about The Man and the Goodwife, one for each year we've had together...

1)  The Man's full legal name is initials.  Just initials and then our last name.  He doesn't have a "real name".

2)  My first name is after my Great-Great Grandma on my mom's side and my middle name is after my grandma on my mom's side. 

3)  The Youngun isn't named after any family members, but her middle name is after a Canadian rocker who just had a baby boy on Christmas Day.

4)  Since our first date, The Man and I have never spent a night apart..........not once.

5)  Our entire marriage folks have been saying to us......just wait until you've been married 2 years....5 years....7 years.....10 years.....12 years, meaning we won't be as in love and desirous of spending so much time together.  We are still waiting.......

6)  We work on our marriage every single day.  We don't let stuff slide to the side.  We've watched marriages fall apart and we are smart enough to know how it happens.  We are both very committed to keeping ours strong and healthy.

7)  We love to have fun and laugh.  Supper around our table is a pretty wild time, between the three of us.

8)  We eat supper together at the table every night. We use cloth place mats and napkins and hold hands to say grace. Don't get me wrong though, f@rting, burping, and laughing are always runnin' rampant! :oD


9)  The Man was at the infamous 1991 riot at the Guns and Roses concert at Riverport.  He was so mad 'cuz Axl was singing Rocket Queen (one of his most favorites) when he threw down the microphone and stormed off stage.  We still love classic G N' R though, and no 80's rocker can compare to W. Axl Rose!

10)  The first 6 years of our marriage we slept in a 3/4 bed.  That is bigger than a twin, but smaller than a full/double.  It's now The Youngun's bed.

11)  The Man has been beside me through my ups and downs with weight over the past 15 years and has always made me feel sexy, desirable and like an excellent specimen of womanhood.  I can't even express how sexy that makes him....and he's really sexy anyway!

12)  I've never met somethin' I couldn't cook and he's never met a motor he couldn't take apart and put back together (pre-computerized of course)


13)  He said I looked like Janis Joplin on our wedding day.  That's the biggest compliment he could give because he thinks Janis is the bees knees!


14)   I've had three wedding rings.  They keep breaking!  The first set we got fixed three times and it broke again so I just put it up and started wearing a twisted silver and copper band.  Then it broke so The Man bought me a new set for Christmas.  It's missing a diamond but is showing no signs of breakage.  We also don't buy expensive jewelry.  My first and last set came from Wal-trash and the braided band was 15 bucks from Silver Dollar City.  I loved it and want to buy another one if we go back.

15)  The Man has 7 tattoos and I have 5.  We each have a web on our left shoulder with The Youngun's name in it.



To read our story, you can click here........

God Bless......................

In Honor Of Our Anniversary.........

A while back Nicole over at That's Life did  this little poll on her blog.  Since The Man and I are celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary tomorrow I thought I'd do it too, so here goes!

♥ How long have you been together?

We will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary on March 30; we've been together since January 30 of the same year..........so we've been together for 15 years and 2 months!  hehe




♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?

Ummm, well we knew each other for about 6 months, but we were both dating other people during that time.



♥ How old are each of you?

He will be 38 in July of this year, and I turned 34 in January of this year.



♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most?

I have one sister and he has 5 siblings (step, full, and half).  I'd say we see my sister more, even though it isn't all that often, we for sure see her more than his siblings.



♥ Do you have any children together?

We have our beautiful Youngun who we love very much!



♥ What about pets?

We have three dogs in the house, as well as a barn cat, a horse, two G.O.S. hogs, and three goats.....right now..........oh yeah and a betta fish and some sea monkeys!


♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?

Hmm, nothing really.  We are a force, a solid wall against any and all opposition.  We are a pretty darned formidable team!  When we first got married, the first year, that was a bit rough.  But we really truly are joined as one.  If he has a problem it is my problem and vice versa.  We don't let ANYTHING or ANYONE come between us as a couple, so I think that keeps things from stressing our "couple-hood".




♥ Did you go to the same school?

No, we didn't even live in the same county.



♥ Are you from the same home town?

Again, nope.




♥ Who is the most sensitive?

That would be me, although he can be a big ole softy at times!



♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?

We like to go to this little hole in the wall diner, The Sunset a coupla towns over.  Great service, good food, super cheap and we can go there after working outside all day without a shower first! ;0)


♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?

Myrtle Beach South Carolina




♥ Who has the worst temper?

Hmmm, well mine burns hot and fast, and shows up lots more than his does, but when he does finally let loose, buildings have been known to explode.............I'm just sayin'


♥ Who does the cooking?

That would be me........


♥ Who is more social?

Neither of us.  We don't really "do" people..........LOL!


♥ Who is the neat-freak?

That would be him, but we both like to keep things neat.  I like things neat and orderly, and a mess makes me nervous, but he has a problem.........he's a stacker.  When we first got married, when it was close to time for him to get home from work, I'd lay the phone book down on the floor and without missing a beat, as he came in the door he'd stoop down to pick it up!  Papers on the desk or counter?  They have to be perfectly stacked for him! 

 ♥ Who is the more stubborn?

I'd say we are both pretty stubborn, but since I'm the Goodwife, he has final say on everything.  If we are doing a project he will listen to my ideas and opinions and oftentimes we do things my way, but if he KNOWS how he wants to do it, nothing will sway him and I respect that!



♥ Who hogs the bed?

I prefer to say that I'm a cuddler and leave it at that!



♥ Who wakes up earlier?

I do.  I'm an early bird.  Of course that's only relevant on weekends cuz we get up before the crickets go to bed during the week.



♥ Where was your first date?

Steak n Shake........he picked me up in his horrendous car, we got a flat tire, got it fixed, went to eat, went back to his house and I never left!  About a week later, he asked me to marry him in a Wendy's parking lot in said car while the song "I Hate Everything About You" was playing on the radio. 

 ♥ Who has the bigger family?

Sibling wise, he does, but we both have pretty good sized extended families.


♥ Do you get flowers often?

Twice in 15 years, I don't need flowers......


♥ How do you spend the holidays?

Christmas and Thanksgiving with family, the others..... simply together!


♥ How long did it take to get serious?

Um, see the above questions.......it took about 5 minutes.  Sometimes you just know you've found "the one".


♥ Who does/ did the laundry?

I'm a homemaker so I do most of the house stuff, although when he's on vacation, or weekends when we are both very busy 'round our homestead, he has no problem pitching in and helping me out.

K, so that's that!  Anything I didn't tell you you'd like to know?  Just ask.......my life is an open book.  As disturbing as that may be.................

God Bless..............

A Few More Goat Thoughts..........And a Couple Episodes of Confessions of a Goodwife...

I thought I was done expounding on goats, but Mountain Mama brought it to my attention that I hadn't mentioned disbudding, so here we go!

Disbudding sucks...........BUT it is a must around here.

Now it's time for an installment of  Confessions from the Goodwife duhhnn, dunn, duhhhh......

Part of the reason I got so frustrated and wanted to give up on my beautiful little homesteading life is because of disbudding.  There I said it, and it's true.  You can laugh, you can scoff, you can make fun all you want, but it really, truly is true.  It's a failing in my character that disbudding my kids makes me physically ill.  I get the shakes, I get sick to my stomach, and I feel awful.  Then to top it all off, after all that stress on me, it has NEVER ONCE WORKED!!!  I've disbudded two crops of kids and every single stinkin' one of those babies has had a glorious set of horns, just with no tips.  That's right, not scurs, tipless horns.  This stressed me out and made me feel like a total and complete failure, not to mention made me feel like I couldn't sell my kids to the public......

  I've had people say, oh you aren't gettin' the copper ring.  But I saw copper ring and the horn tip is very neatly gone, as well as scabbing over, breaking off and bleeding like it should.  Anywho, after lots of thinking about what I did wrong, I've decided the tip of my disbudding iron was too small and it wasn't getting the entire root of the horn, thereby just killing the tip

.  Whatever the reason is, I just can't do it.  I felt like if I couldn't disbud my kids then I shouldn't even be raising goats.  But now I've decided to stop beating myself up about it and just hire somebody to come disbud them.  Mucho less stressful on me that way!

Now that we've talked disbudding, lets talk about those handsome bearded menfolk of the goat kingdom.........the bucks!

Bucks are gross.  They are the goats that stink and they do some really gross stuff to themselves in the name of keeping themselves prime for the ladies, the LEAST of which is peeing on their faces and drinking their pee.......("Is it 'nessary', for me to drink my own urine?  Probably not but it's sterile and I like the taste.......if you know the movie that came from you'll know why we changed Tommy's name to Tommy O'Hoolihan) anyway, I digress.  Let's just say that buck goats aren't shy about their parts and making sure they work correctly.  However, bucks can also be lovable funny critters that you just can't help but love. 

My only experience is with Kinder or Pygmy bucks which are little. Having to wrassle them sometimes has made it very clear to me that I wouldn't want a big buck to have to deal with!

This brings me to my final two points........(yeah right Goodwife, you couldn't shut up if you tried).

Another episode of Confessions of a Goodwife.....that's right, it's a twofer in one blog!

I'm not a goat expert (in case you couldn't tell that).  May will be only my 4th crop of kids. I've only had dairy goats since the fall of 2007.  I hope I didn't come across as a goatie know-it-all and I've tried to stress that this is the stuff that works for me, not the end of the word on goats.  I don't know anything at all about any breed of goats except Kinders, more specifically MY Kinders.  I know my goats, that's it.  I don't know if they are typical, or atypical or if what I do will work on any old goat or what, I only know it works on my goats.

If I were to give any advice to somebody wanting to learn about goats, particularly dairy goats I'd tell them to read, read, read, read, read.  I'd send them to Fiasco Farms and tell them to read some more.  I'd tell them to read every goat article they can find online, every pamphlet, every book, every blog, every nugget they can get their hands on.  I'd tell them to talk to other goat folk.  Then, now here comes the most important part, I'd tell them to use the brain God gave them to weed out the crazies and make the best decisions for their animals. 

Everybody has an opinion and you know what they say about opinions right?  You have to do what's best for you and your situation, not what's best for me or any of the other folks whose blogs you read, even though they may be telling you otherwise.  Use common sense and listen to what more experienced folk are telling you, but don't get caught up in hero worship of those folk.  They are human, and they started sometime too.  They don't know it all (even if they think they do).

You have a brain....now don't be afraid to use it!  ;0)

God Bless.................

 

Did You Order This??

If you did, I'm going to return to sender!  I'm just kidding, I don't really mind.  We've got wood for the fireplace, snug barns for the critters, and it's really so pretty to look at!  I'll try not to dwell on the fact that is was sunny and in the 70's just three days ago......right.......I'm not going to dwell........

It' supposed to snow from here until Tuesday...........I'm going to be like this little robin and not let it stop me or get me down!  He was busily building his nest impervious to the snow falling......

Join in on Farm Friend Friday over at Verde Farm!

God Bless...............