Have been in a writing slump, but have been following all of my favorite bloggers when I can.
Sending out my wishes for Happy Holidays to all of my online friends. Take time to breathe, and enjoy the precious moments when they come.

October 2010- Life these days.

I continue to be MIA when it comes to blogging. I guess because I always intended this blog to be about homesteading and even though I have not lost my passion for the subject, I regretfully have done nothing in my life lately that could even be slightly considered homesteading. About a week ago, I wet a bunch of little peat pots to fluff up and plant seeds in but they still have not one seed started. I found a lead on person who might teach me how to make the old fashioned wool hook rugs or felted rugs that I have always wanted to learn how to make but I have not called her. So I drag my feet about updating the blog, feeling like I have nothing of interest to contribute.

Fortunately for me you all are so inspiring, when I get online and read what all of my favorite bloggers are up to, it occurs to me that I really just want to see what is going on in their lives, the good the bad, the ups and downs I like hearing what is going on with my far away friends and I feel genuine concern, joy and frustration along with them in all that they encounter and are willing to share with me. I love hearing about the weather in other parts of the country or the other side of the world, I like seeing what people are cooking up in their kitchens, or what their kids are doing in school. I enjoy seeing their families their dogs, cats and other assorted menageries of animals. I love the similarities as well as the differences in all of our crazy lives.

Also, I am reminded that part of the reason I blog is purely for my own need to chronicle the journey that I am on. So very much in my life has turned upside down but in the midst of it all life still goes on and I am determined to remember to enjoy the journey not just focus on the destination. I know a year or two from now I will look back on what was happening now and appreciate those obstacles that seemed so insurmountable that turned out to really be stepping stones on the path to wherever life is taking me.

I have been spending most of my free time in academic mode. Because I went back to work in the ICU, I had several educational certifications to renew including ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) and have decided to pursue getting my CCRN certification (Critical Care). The test is very difficult and to prepare for it I am taking an online course through the Critical Care Nurses Association that requires a commitment of a lot of hours online and reading. So most of my time is spent trying to memorize things like which lead on the ECG machine reflects the electrical activity of each area of the heart. Oh so exciting! The whole process has gotten me more motivated to go back to school and finish my Masters in Nursing, I dropped out of the program I was in when my husband and I separated. Lately I have really begun to realize that at 47 I am no spring chicken anymore and I can't see myself doing the physical labor involved in bedside nursing for another 20 years. Having that degree would allow me to go into teaching which I have always wanted to do.

In my fantasy world of the future, I live in the mountains of New Mexico, I have a working homestead that is at least partially self sufficient, the chickens are back and clucking happily around the barn, I teach online classes from the comfort of my home office while the dogs sleep at my feet, and when I want to escape it all I ride off into the sunset on my trusty equine friends. Hey a girl can dream can't she??

Since the weather has cooled a bit here in Florida I have had the chance to do the thing I love most in the world, ride my horse. The new foal has not been weaned yet and probably has a few more months on his mama so she is not able to be ridden, but good old faithful Red my 25 year old Quarter Horse has proven once again that he has been worth his weight in gold. I have been getting out on him and exploring the great riding trails right near my new home and he takes on every new trail we find like an old pro. I have been warned over and over NOT to ride alone and I know I really shouldn't but if I waited around for someone to ride with I would never get to ride. So off we go and so far it has been nothing but the best way for me to escape it all.

One of these days I will proudly post a picture of the new veggie garden I have started or some other homestead related blog worthy topic, but until then I'm just taking it one day at a time and trying to appreciate the journey.

When Life Hands You Lemons...

I don't know why I have had such a hard time finding anything that I feel is worth writing about. There have been so many big changes in my life over the past two months and originally my intention in blogging was to chronicle my journey, I should be blogging about all of it. I think, that I have had a mental block about how to continue this blog when it has gone so far away from it's original intention.

My life has changed so dramatically, moving from the country with no nearby neighbors to living in a development with next door neighbors only yards away, from owning to renting and all that goes along with worrying about another persons property, to the loss of my precious livestock. Don't get me wrong I am not whining, I am grateful for all that I have and that my family and I are healthy and happy. However, I am grieving the loss of the dream for now.

I also have changed jobs again and have been settling into a new routine, at least this was definitely a change for the better. I found out I am not meant to be a home health nurse, I learned so much from the job and met so many great people but I am a hospital nurse this much I have learned. So I have taken a job at a hospital 9 miles from my new home in the ICU and am finding it a much better fit for me.

The challenge for me now is to figure out where to continue with my dream of some self sufficiency, maintaining the homesteading mentality in the middle of upheaval in my life.

There are tons of wonderful websites and blogs about urban homesteading and I have got to glean from them a path that is right for me. I need to just jump in somewhere and begin, whether it be planting a few seeds for a kitchen garden, making a batch of soap, candles, or learning a new skill of some kind. Wish me luck!!

In the spirit of re-focusing, think I will change the title of my blog to "Laura's Urban Homestead Adventures", what do you think?

New Beginnings

Beginning to get settled in the new house, still lots of loose ends at the old house but slowly it is all getting sorted out. My big excitement this week started when the two horses I have moved to the new house disappeared. My youngest son went out to feed them and they were gone, busted down a fence and took off. I drove around the neighborhood all morning, called animal control and the sheriff's office but no word of them. I really was worried since the mare Karma was about to have her foal. Thankfully I live in a horse community. The horses had decided to take a trek about 2 miles down the road where another neighbor found them and put them safely in her pasture and through the grapevine someone got in touch with me to let me know where to find them. What a relief. When I got my Karma girl back she looked like her adventure had taken it's toll on her and she was going to foal any time. So in the early hours of Aug. 27th around 2 a.m. my youngest son who had been out to check on the horses woke me to say we have a new colt. The young Quarter horse that was hia father was a light buckskin color so he may stay this light color. Hia eyes are a pale blue but I am assuming they will change color as he gets older. I have been out handling him every day so that he gets used to people, he likes the attention. I am hoping his name will come to me in time, in case you read this post earlier you might notice that I had to make some changes in the text. Turns out she was a he, it just took a little while for things to settle and reveal themselves.

He is adorable, aren't all baby animals....I'm in love.

Thanks!!

All of you blog followers and friends out there who have sent me words of encouragement, Thank You!!

You have no idea how much it helps to hear you thoughts.

On to new adventures soon

Did I mention that my Karma horse,the paint mare, is preggo?? Waiting on a foal any day now (although I have no idea when she got pregnant, she came to me that way)

It was a huge surprise in the midst of all the chaos in my life lately to look at her one day and realize that she has milk veins and is bagging up.

Pictures soon as soon as I figure out which box I packed the camera in.

The Long and Winding Road

I heard that song a couple of days ago and it has been stuck in my head, as I sat down to write this post it seemed a fitting title.

This post is long overdue but it was very hard to sit down and write, I have been dreading writing it because by doing so I have to expose myself and my embarrassment. However, I knew eventually I would have to pull my head out of the sand, face the facts, live my life out loud and all that good stuff.

I sadly will be leaving my homestead. I have been working two jobs for over two years now trying to keep my head above water, after going from a 2 income home for the last 27 years to just me trying to keep it all going, I finally had to admit to myself that I can no longer keep up the pace nor do I want to. So I am allowing my home to go into foreclosure. I tried several attempts to get the bank to modify my loan but they won't do it. I am way upside down in the mortgage now that housing prices have bottomed out in my area and my home is falling apart literally lol!! I probably am looking at around 30,000.00 just to fix the things that need to be fixed to keep it and it is simply not worth it. The land is the heart breaker, I love that land with a passion, I pray that I someday will be able to have another homestead and begin again, in the mean time, I am determined to find ways to do an urban version of homesteading on a much smaller scale for now.





I have found a really great place to rent in a horse community so I can keep the horses and two of my dogs and still have room for my kids and grandkids who are all still living with me. With great sadness, I have been finding homes for all of my other critters, so far the ones I have given away have gone to great homes especially the dogs which is such a relief to me.





Going through 16 years worth of stuff is challenging to say the least but little by little I am making some headway. I rented a big storage shed and I am sure it will be filled to the rafters before all is said and done.





So, this blog has taken a turn in a new direction. I will still be following all of my favorite bloggers, living vicariously through the posts of people I have come to admire. I hope that a year from now I will have landed on my feet and be moving forward again with new enthusiasim and vision, but for now I am just trying to take it all one day at a time and do what has to be done to keep from losing my mind.

You say Potatoe, I say.......

My daughter in law Casi was so thrilled to see that there actually were potatoes growing under those plants, i'm so glad to have somebody else around who appreciates my efforts!! Here is the first batch we pulled up, a little too soon, so there were many small ones but the ones most recently are coming up bigger. I am trying to leave them in the ground and not pull them until we use up the ones we have out but at some point I am going to have to get out there and get the rest in before the bugs eat them. I have to figure out the best way to preserve some of them. Any suggestions?

Thank you to my eloquent friend at the Wild Magnolia for giving me this Versatile Blogger Award. I believe in passing it along I am supposed to tell something about myself, so here a some things about me that are not in my profile.



I was born in Oklahoma City but when I was two I moved with my family to a suburb of Los Angeles California where I lived until my late 20s. I lived for about 6 years in a beautiful town up the coast from Santa Barbara Calif. not far from the infamous "Neverland Ranch" I still miss California very much but don't believe I will every return to live there again. I have lived in Central Florida for about 15 years and have grown to very much appreciate the ebbs and flows and more relaxed pace of the South, I will never ever love the humidity here and find summers to be miserable still. I hope someday to move to the mountains of New Mexico a place I love.


I love to read, especially period pieces that take me to another time and place and teach me something historical, I love movies like that as well and big epic pics like "Seven Years in Tibet" and "Out of Africa" are some that I loved. Although my favorite book has no historical significance at all it's "Lost Horizon" by James Hilton. I have no idea why that one struck such a cord with me but it did. I love blogs for the same reason they take me to different places, teach me new things about the world around me and let me take a peek into how others live.


I am a music lover, all kinds of music although I have no musical talent, I am a closet singer. I am proud that I passed that love along to my children.




When I was 18 I backpacked through Europe with a girlfriend, it was a great adventure and one that I am so glad I had the chance to do before I came home and married and had babies.


I believe in compassion for others and really try my hardest to have a live and let live approach to life even when it's hard to do so.


Alright enough about me, on to who to pass this award along to which is a really hard choice to make, I follow so many amazing blogs and continuously surprised and inspired by all of the talented a caring people out there in blog land. Many of the blogs I follow faithfully have already received this award so I am looking beyond my usually circle of blogging friends to some others that enjoy.


Although she has huge huge following and is actually bit of a celebrity I have to give credit to Jenna at : coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/2010/05/good-morning-from-cold-antler.html

I first read an article by Jenna in a homesteading magazine I can't remember which one and it mentioned her blog. Her blog was the first blog that I started following and I was hooked from then on. She has a variety of interests and she writes in way that pulls you right into her life and has you rooting for her. Jenna is a published author with a book and multiple magazine articles and a beautifully illustrated blog.

The next blog is the girls at: http://stickhorsecowgirls.blogspot.com/2010/05/c-when-opportunity-knocks.html two great friends who post about anything and everything and often leave me thinking or laughing. Intelligent and witty they feel like women you want to hang out with.


The next blogger lives in New Mexico not far from where I hope to move in the next few years so I live a bit vicariously through her posts, and i am in love with her little Donkeys , see them at http://www.the7msnranch.com/



Hope to have introduced you to some new bloggers,



Laura

Remembering why we celebrate Memorial Day and Piggies to Market

Remembering all who have sacrificed it all for this land we call home and our freedom.

Before I run out the door to work, I had to post that I sold two of my male piggies at the auction on Saturday night for $50 each, for a little tiny rural auction that was a good sale, and paid back my investment of $30.00 each for the male and female I originally bought to breed. The money went right into bags of feed to finish off the two I plan to keep for meat. I gave the only two females of the litter to the woman who gave me the horses who in turn gave me two little Peking ducklings. I have 3 more babies left to sell and will take at least two of them next Saturday to the auction.

I met an older man at the auction who was wanting a baby goat for a pet but could not afford one, I heard through a friend that he was a nice old guy who would be good to his word, so I loaded up one of my two buck kids and took him to him on Sunday morning, he was thrilled to say the least and I got to see his really beautiful veggie garden and know the little guy will be well cared for.

Sunday it rained buckets so i was forced to stay inside and ended up doing nothing, nothing of any use that is. I guess I needed an afternoon like that, I can't remember the last time I did that.

I should have passed along the "Versatile Blogger" award that I received from a very gracious woman, but I was too brain dead. I will have a hard time choosing who to pass it along to since there are so many great bloggers out there whose posts I love to follow, but I will do it soon.

Hope everyone who gets Memorial Day off enjoys time with family and friends. I am off to work, still sick people to see even on the holiday.

The Harvest Begins

As usual my pictures are out of order, but I give up on trying to fix them.
Please ignore the weeds around the bed, they are out of control, but I wanted to show the enclosure I made to keep the chickens out of the raised beds, I was going to cover the top as well but so far they have shown no interest in bothering the beds so I will wait and see. I was thinking that in the winter I will try covering it with plastic to make a mini green house for lettuce and spinach etc. It was really cheap and not to hard to make. Next time though I will cut all my pvc pipe in 2 foot sections and piece it together with connectors, if the sections are too long the pvc wants to bend and bow, I think shorter sections will be easier to work with and not as unstable.

I have been able to begin harvesting things from my garden and was able to make my first meal from the farm. I should have taken a picture but I did not think of it at the time. I had roast chicken, green beans and red potatoes all grown or raised here on my little plot of land. What a sense of satisfaction seeing my hard work return a yield. All of my kids are back home with me and along with a good friend have participated in one way or another in helping me keep it all going. I am so thrilled that my two grand-sons get excited when they see they find a big green bean to pick or that Logan the four year old snuck out and planted his own pumpkin seeds, imagine my surprise when they started coming up in the middle of my herbs.

Pictured are some of the herbs I have growing in the water trough raised bed, thyme, rosemary, basil, lemon balm, along with some of the green beans from another raised bed. Yes those are pumpkin vines threatening to take over the whole trough. I have a large plot of ground where I have been growing the potatoes, black eyed peas, tomato's, squash, peppers and a few other things. Additionally, I have two wood frame raised beds, I built this year. I have to say the things in the raised beds have grown so much faster and look so much better then my in ground plants. The soil here in Florida is so very sandy, it may take me years to amend it to my satisfaction, for my purposes raised beds are the way to go, great soil from the beginning almost no weeds and at a better height to work with. Well worth the investment of time and money to make them.I have lots of things getting ready to begin ripening, I can't wait to pick the first tomato.

I did not take pictures of the chicken processing, I did five white rock hens that I ordered from Murray Mc Murray, I let them live longer then I should have I think they ideally should be done at around 6-8 weeks to be the most tender. I procrastinated. If I am honest about the whole thing I will have to admit that I am not 100% OK with the killing of animals for my food purposes, I struggle with the whole thing a bit but keep coming back to either going back to being a vegetarian and give up meat all together or raise my own giving the animals the best life I can. For now I am trying to do the latter and hoping that I become more comfortable with the whole idea. The actual processing is not that bad for anyone thinking of doing it there are lots of places to find info, I am sure there are you tube videos out there. My only word of advice is to be prepared, have everything you need ready ahead of time. I used a deep fryer to have boiling water ready, a large table covered with a clean plastic drop cloth, a clean five gallon bucket a de-boning knife, an ax and a tree stump, I am sure every one knows it is not the most pleasant of events but when my five hens were all packed in freezer bags I was grateful for the experience. I am thinking about ordering another batch of 25 meat birds, but am not looking forward to raising another batch of chicks quite yet.

On a completely unrelated note, can anyone tell me how to get the blog spot to allow you to load more pictures?? If I have more then three pics and any text at all the blog program boots the pictures off. This post started out with three pictures and as I added text it bumped them off, to who knows where. It seems like I can type the text and then add the pics but then they all end up at the beginning of the post instead of spread throughout. Irritating!! I love seeing every ones pictures of their farms, kids, creative projects, cooking and critters and would like to post more of my own without having to create a post for every one of them. I am sure it is operator ignorance on my part lol, but I have no time to sit here trying to figure it out, there are baby goats screaming to be fed.

Just saying a quick hello to my blogging friends.

I really hope all of my great blogging friends out there are having the best spring ever. My life has gotten so hectic and full of things that have to be done that there has been no time to post and no time to follow any one's posts. The little farm has blossomed but with all of the new life and growth comes tons of work as I know you all are well aware. Besides that, my new job has me spending hours on the computer every evening charting the events of the day so by the time I am done I don't want to touch a laptop. But I miss the give and take of the blogging world and hope to find a way to make time to catch up soon.

Blessings to all!!!

Laura