Charolette Toppled....

It's been so long since I have written. Time has gotten away from me on a daily basis it seems. 

I promise to try to do better with that as I go along.

So today (naturally while I was at work) Charolette decided to have her piglets! 13 small bundles of joy. My daughter called all exstsatic  because 3 of them had gotten out of the pen and were playing. Morgan left from work and made sure they were rangled up and secure. He was able to snap a photo and send it to me...(because you KNOW I have to see things exactly when they happen.

Here is the introduction photo to Charolettes babies.

I hope to have more real soon.

Ms. Bertha..

Animals. They are pretty much inevitable when you have a homestead. I mean, seriously, they kind of go hand in hand. 

With animals comes a wide array of other things that are inevitable. Baby animals, broken fences, feed bills, vet visits, funny animal antics, and sadly, death. 

When you care for these animals on a daily basis, watch them give birth, watch them grow from babies into adults, set in the mud with them when they are struggling, nurse them back to health, feed them, give them bath's, walk with them, and yes even talk to them you get very attached.

One day something happens. The tables turn and you have to make the choice whether to allow them to suffer or whether to use them for the purpose they were intended for and use them to feed your family.

 This choice is always very hard for me regardless of the situation. I never find it easier. Whenever it happens I find I grieve just as if I had lost a dear friend. Memories are shared with these animals. I have watched my granddaughter love them and play with them. I have watched myself grow and flourish with them. They become a part of who you are, what you stand for, all you believe in. They become a part of your dreams and hopes for your everyday life.

I have heard people say how they just don't see how I can shed a tear over a pig, a goat, a chicken, or one of the other animals on our farm. For me, I don't see how someone couldn't shed one. 

Needless to say I have shed a lot of tears today. Morgan and I had to make the hard decision to let one of your babies go to the butcher shop. She had piglets a few months back and had a hard time rebounding from it. We finally got her over that hump and she got a cut on her foot. We had a hard time getting it healed up. Lastly, she prolapsed. We agonized over the decision and rested on the fact that rather than allow her to suffer we would do what was right, not only for her but for our family as well. 

Tonight, when I got home from work Morgan loaded Bertha into the pig trailer and took her to the butcher shop. I have cried so many tears today that it seems like my eyes should have nothing left to cry.

I am grateful for Bertha. I am thankful for the laughs and love she gave. I am thankful for the joy she brought my granddaughter. I appreciate all that she has been to me. I am thankful that her piglets are outside and that she will live on through them on our farm. I am thankful for the pictures I have in my memories of her frolicking in the pasture as she free ranged, of her giving birth to the piglets, of the laughs my family got when she had her piglets and I was brave enough to get in the pen with her and she chased me out over the fence....I never new a fat girl could move that fast...but her and I were both at top speed.

The animals here on the homestead bring so much more with them than just the thought of food. They each have a personality. They each share special things with you. They know when you aren't feeling well. They are happy to see you regardless of what your hair looks like or if you have make-up on. Animals aren't judgmental like we humans are (unless, of course, it is a mother pig that just gave birth to babies...she was a little judgmental that day)

They mean so much more than just food on the table. This is one of the reasons I love homesteading. There is no disconnect with the food on my table. I know how they lived. I know what they ate. I know how they loved. I know how they spent their time. I know that they enjoyed their life. I know that they had a good life here on the farm. I know they had human interaction and weren't stuck in a pen with a million other animals just being fed out and shipped off to a lonely feed/stock yard. I know what medicines went into their body. I know what joy they brought people and the other animals on the farm.

For in everything there is beauty....even in a pig.

Forever be Ms. Bertha. Thank you for giving all that you did to our family.

Frugal Warmth During Our First Snow Flurries

We are getting our first flurry's of the winter this evening. I, personally, love snow! It is always so pure, so white, so crisp. A blank canvas where beautiful nature seems to whisper "look at me"!

I am excited. I know it won't stick and we won't have any accumulation, however, I am enjoying the beauty of the different shaped flakes falling to the ground.

With that being said, we are having record lows in my neck of the woods (It is 8 pm and it is down to 19 degrees with a wind chill of 5). We burn wood so this can be a problem if no one is awake to stoke the fire in the middle of the night. I will be setting my alarm to get up every 2 hours to add a log and make sure that the inside of the house stays warm.

My main concern is the water pipes. Every year we have several breaks. It can be costly and irritating. This year we have been turning our water off at night where it comes into the house and draining all the water out of the pipes by leaving the spouts open and flushing the toilets. We haven't had one break this season and we also haven't had any frozen water pipes to deal with either!

To keep ourselves warm and toasty in our beds we use electric throw blankets. We each have one. They cost about $20 at Walmart. I prefer the throws over full sized electric blankets because if the weather is cool enough to need a little heat up on the feet or legs but not cool enough to waste wood in a fire the ones who are cold can just grab their throws. We turn them on about 20 minutes before going to bed. When we crawl in bed it is warm and comforting. It costs only about $1 a month to run an electric throw blanket. With 6 of them running in the house we use about $6 worth of electric heating our beds over the course of a month. That is a pretty reasonable price for sleeping comfortably. The dogs pile in the beds with us and all cuddle in for the evening. It's a cozy and wonderful time of year here on our homestead. (It is also my favorite time of year. You can always add clothes to warm up but taking off clothes to cool down isn't always an option).

How do you frugally save money during the winter time?

Free Kindle Books Today

Amazon often has books you can read for free on Kindle. If you don't have a Kindle you can get the Kindle App on any device. These were free at the time of posting. Make sure to check the price BEFORE clicking buy now. 

If you like a book make sure to buy it for FREE so it is in your library to read at a later date. 

Herbal Tea

Housekeeping For The Soul

Chicken Coops

Gardening Magical World of Self-Sufficient Living

Minimalism

365 Days of DIY

Homesteading: A way of life that's not for everyone

BeeKeeping

Self Sufficiency: A Beginners Guide To Self Sufficiency Box Set 4 in 1 (Tiny Houses, Backyard Chickens, Homesteading, Mini Farming)

Homesteading Tools! Expected verses Actual

So with all that has been going on I have kind of gotten off track of keeping things together homestead wise. With working 2 jobs and the farm and the kids and just life in general happening I have gotten just mired down.

I realized this yesterday and just decided I needed to regroup and readjust where I am and what I need to get done....I have a lot of people ask me about tools and such we use on the homestead. We made a list years ago of things we would need. We have worked slowly on getting those items built up. We had a set limit of money we would spend on each item. As we find them for that price we buy them if we have the extra money.

Here is that list.



The first item is the item we needed. The first price is what we anticipated paying. The second price (if there is one) is the price we actually paid.




Green House $200

2 compost piles $50 $40

Chainsaw $100 $169*

Bone Saw $20 $5

Gardening Fence $200 FREE

 2 Plum Trees $60 $30 

 2 Apple Trees $60

2 Peach Trees $60 $12 (still need 1)

Good Barn $500

Bow Saw $20 $5

Horse Trailer $1000 $1400

Wood Stove $300 $65

Heirloom Seeds $100 $79

2 Spade Shovels $50 $6 (still need 1)

2 Regular Shovels $50 $6 (still need 1)

6 Quilts $500 decided to make on own

Tractor $3000

Tiller $300 $70 (auction)

Wheel Barrow $100 FREE

15 Rabbit Cages $300 $60

2 Freezers $300 $65 for one the other free

Hoe $25 FREE

Broad Fork $50

6 Oil Lamps $100

Cast Iron Cookware $100 $60*

Canning Jars/Lids continual cost per year

Welder $200 $50

Torch $50

Pressure Canner $150 $79

We overspent on the chainsaw. However, we did get a bigger one than we anticipated and I bought it for Morgan new for Christmas as a gift. I did use a coupon and it was on sale. We had figured we would have to buy a smaller used one so we came out ahead by spending the extra money and getting a larger new one for not much more money.

Morgan got me my cast iron set (I had many pans already but wanted to add to them) for Christmas the same year we got the Chainsaw. It was on sale the day after Thanksgiving.

The freezer at Church started frosting inside really badly. The church opted to buy a new one. They gave us the old one and we figured we would have to replace the seal. We unloaded it in the drive way where it had to set for 3 days until we could get it inside. This warmed the seal up enough that walla it went back into place and so we had to pay nothing for it.

We paid more for the horse trailer than we anticipated, however, we got a chance to buy a bigger one that was much newer than we had planned which would do us a lot better for just $400 more. We got this from a friend and were able to make payments on it.

The bone saw and other saw we got super cheap off of a Facebook group where a guy was selling out a bunch of stuff because he was moving out of the country.

The wood stove we bought off of a Facebook selling group. It wasn't the exact kind I wanted but it worked for what we need. In a few years, after we get a few other things bought up, I will purchase a new one when it goes on sale for the end of the season.

The rabbit cages came cheaply because we had some wire given to us and we bought some other wire on sale. It was MUCH cheaper than we had anticipated materials wise.

Heirloom seeds will be a constant, however, we won't have to buy the same kinds of seeds every year as we can harvest from what we grow. I do anticipate it costing us about $50 per year to add new things and such.

We add to this list as we find other things we might need and as we learn of things that would just make our homesteading life easier and better.

Hope this list inspires you to make one of your own and figure out what you need! Planning is definitely key to Homesteading.

Bertha decided to bless us with the piglets a little after midnight on Friday night. Of course, she does this because I worked 15 hours and had just gotten home and laid down and needed to be up to go work the auction in just a few hours. 

She had 3 adorable little ones. 2 guilts and 1 boar pig. Mama is doing a great job. She is a seasoned mom but when you weigh over 700 pounds its kind of hard not to lay on the little ones.

We will be keeping all 3 on the farm. The red and white one is the male. The final photo is mama. I tried to get into the pen to move those two bricks but Bertha wasn't having any of that. 

Warning about the photo: cuteness overload

I'd done a lot of things different.

I have had an ongoing conversation with myself today about life. Life in general, life in reality, life in dreams.

How I anticipated, at the age of 15, what life would be like. How it was at 21 and how different I figured it would be. How 30 seemed to be the limit of how long I wanted to live. How life at 44 is certainly not as I planned it out to be. 

The truth is that my life, today, is nothing like I had ever planned it to be. There were lots of chances I took that I look back and wonder "What was I thinking". There are lots of chances I didn't take and I have some regrets over the way things turned out.

My plans were much different in high school than they are now. I planned on being single, having a law degree, living in a big city,  childless, and doing whatever I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. I was going to advocate for women and children.

In reality, I am not a lawyer, am married, have 3 children of my own, 2 step children, 3 grandchildren, and live on a farm.The only advocating I do is why bedtime needs to be 30 minutes earlier. I am not convincing a judge but rather trying to convince kids and grand-kids that they need more sleep. (For the record, convincing a judge would be much easier.)

I slop around in mud with pigs and goats who are trying to have little ones. I get dirt under my fingernails working in the garden. I mow my own yard. I try to cuddle with my chickens. I have a trailer house..a far cry from the large house I had planned. 

When I look back at my life, although I do have regrets and often wonder where my dreams went, I cannot imagine life any different than the way it is right at this moment. I can't imagine waking up and getting in my truck without chickens under my feet waiting to see if I brought out a treat. I cannot imagine life without a baby goat in front of the wood stove in the winter. I cannot imagine life without noisy screaming pigs in the pasture waiting to see if they can have an extra bucket of feed. I cannot imagine life without my grand-kids calling my name.

I set tonight and wonder how many of my friends find their lives to be exactly what they TRULY wanted instead of what they THOUGHT they wanted. 

Today I am so very thankful that God knew what I wanted and provided that over the dream I thought was perfect for me.

God's Grammar Rules: 

1. Never put a period where God puts a comma. 

2. Never put a comma where God puts a period! 

Joanna Weaver