New additions to the farm

Well, here it is April 12, 2011, and this is the first update I have done in along time.  I am trying to retire and find myself running like crazy.  We have 3 grandchildren who stayed the night with us last Saturday.  Ages 9, 6, and 22 months.  Pat me on the back, we made it to the 9:00 church service ON TIME; yeah for me.  We ate (I use the term eat losely) lunch at the Cracker Barrell; went home and put Emmeline (our 22 month)down for her nap, along with my husband (over 22 months); then, I went outside with the 2 older grandchildren; we worked with the horses for over 2 hours; Emmeline woke up and was ready to go.  Maybe I should have taken a nap instead of my husband.

For those of you who do not know, we are in the process of turning our farm back into a working farm.  Since my last posting, we have added 2 cows (both 5 months bred); 2 goats (one 2 months bred) and we already had 4 horses; 4 dogs, 3 catas, 8 chickens and we added 2 brother roosters.  Personally, I did not want any roosters; however, these are 2 brothers and they have turned out to be nice roosters.

Our Quarter Horse, Lady, has gashed her back left leg and my granddaughter Ali and I have been nursing her back to health.  I do want to admit prior to November, I have only been on a horse twice in my life; now, April 2011, I have become a horse woman, thanks to my husband and my good friend.  The best advice given to me is the horses are like 2 year olds and they need to be treated accordingly.  We have 4 horses - 3 of them were trained by the Amish to drive buggies but I think the term trained has been used loosely on riding them.

The other day the Vet came to check them out and determined that they need more training - which the grandchildren and myself are trying to work with them on a regular basis.  We had to float (grind) Taffie's teeth.  This was a first for me along with holding her tongue while the very tiny female vet put a file in her mouth and proceeded to "float" her teeth.  It was an experience. 

The other new procedure I have been introduced too was removing the horse shoes and trimming their hoofs. Even our untrained 2 year old Dixie was good.  Lady, our Quarter Horse, was not so easy; she did not want to participate.;

The chickens have been a "hoot".  I love them and enjoy working with them.  They are so good to lay their eggs and we have really enjoyed them.  Since we got them in September of 2010, they have layed over 1,000 eggs.  Our friends and family have really enjoyed us sharing the eggs with them.

I am now planning the garden.  I love to can and freeze food for the family. Depending on what the new calfs will be, at least one will be in the freezer if they are bulls; hopefully, they are females.

Also, we have added 2 bee hives to our collection last week.  They are very busy collecting honey.  My father-in-law had over 6 hives on the farm and hence the name "Honey Acres".

We are expecting over 75 people for Easter - thank goodness we can let the kids run and play.

Remember!!!  All of this is being done while I run our family business.  I don't think I will ever have time to sit on the couch (thank goodness) or retire full-time. 

Pictures will be posted next entry - hope it won't be so long.  

Still trying to retire or semi-retire to the farm

Retiring is a very slow process, especially, when you enjoy working.  I am a work-alcoholic but not to the point I put it before family.  I had a friend tell me to write down my retirement goals so I would have something to look forward to when I retire and not flounder.  I agree with that.  In my head, my goals are gardening (both flowers and food), canning, a greenhouse (a place of my own), honey bees which includes building an apiary for the honey.  When my father-in-law was still alive, he had several bee hives and would collect the honey.  Our farm had a woods fire one time and burned down the barn along with all the bee hives.  We live in the country and thank goodness an off duty fireman saw the smoke; investigated; called the fire department and saved our farm house is over 200 years old in the original part. 

Part of my retirement plan is to turn our farm back into a working farm.  We are in the middle of repairing and running new fences so we can get cows and goats this Spring.  We have 4 buggy horses and are in the process of looking for a better horse for our granddaughters who love to ride; ages 9, 5, 20 months old (who does not ride yet). 

Next time, I will post pictures of our progress.  I am new at blogging and my skill level is low but will continue to learn.

3 day of ice

The farm is covered in a sheet of ice - I have never seen a snow/ice storm like this one.  All the pastures look like an ice skating rink.  The ground shines and glissens.  The chickens and horses do not like it; that is for sure.  I cannot get the chickens out of the coop.  They have only given us 4 days per day since the snow started - very low for our top producers.

I am ready for sunshine and no ice on the roads - thank goodness I did not have to go to Atlanta.  My office is 5-10 minutes from the house. How nice is that?

My sister had such bad cabin fever that she willingly came to the office and wrote out bills for me - that is a sure sign of boredom.  What a nice sister.

Snow/ice storm hits the farm - AGAIN

We had about 4 inches of snow and ice hit the farm during the night - the farm looks like a winter wonderland.  How beautiful it is. 

Of course, doing the feeding this am and pm was very cold. 

My chickens, whom we call "The Ladies" did not come out of the coop today.  They were not interested in the snow.  They did not have their chicken boots on.  They were nice enough to lay 5 eggs for us.  We have 8 chickens - just enough to keep us and the family in eggs. 

We had a piano tuner come to the house the other day and he wanted to know where we got our pink chickens.  We have 3 dominic leghorns and with this red Georgia clay - they are definitely not white anymore. They lay the biggest white eggs.  We have 4 Rhode Island Reds and 1 Red Star.  Of course, these 5 lay brown eggs.  For those of you who do not know this, please use the brown eggs just like a white egg.  I gave some of my precious eggs to a friend who I found out later threw the brown eggs away because she did not know what to do with them.  I thought at first she was kidding - NOT!!!.  No more eggs for her.

This is a picture of my husband and our oldest granddaughter.  for those of you who have seen the Hannah Montana movie, Ali wanted to paint our chicken coop with bright colors just like the one in the movie.

This is an inside picture of the barn during the morning feeding.  Our granddaughter loves the horses, in particular, Lady, her horse.

Can you believe this is Georgia?

All the children and grandchildren came over today to play in the snow.  We cooked homemade chicken and rice soup with a pone of cornbread.  I love to cook and it is difficult to cook for just 2. They have all gone home now and the house is so quiet. How quickly the years have flown - I so miss my small children.  Thank goodness they live close by so I can see my children and grandchildren when I want to.

I love my family so very much. 

I will sign off now and go look at seed catalogs and plan my spring garden.  I do love to garden and can.  My Grandmother and Mother taught me how to can. 

Renewed Thinking on Retirement

On January 9, 2011, I received a phone call from one of my dear friends who informed me that our friend's husband passed away from a heart attack.  I was stunned and shocked - he is the same age as my husband.  He wanted his wife to retire and enjoy travel and each other; now that will not be an option.  What a horrible realization that has slapped all of us in the face.

Earlier that day, I had just read an article regarding "what matters most".  In the article, he referred to his Aunt who was going to semi-retire and her husband passed away 2 or 3 months before her semi-retirement started.

Why is it so difficult to see these signs but still think you have to be at the office or it won't survive without you?

This is a picture of our farm the day after Christmas, December 26, 2010. This is very unusual for us because the last time we had a white Christmas was in 1993.

Today, January 2, 2011, the temp is 49 degrees w/strong winds so it seems colder than the 49 degrees. I worked outside for awhile but decided the wind was too strong to make it enjoyable being outside.
This morning when I woke up, I went downstairs as usual to start the coffee and look out the french doors to see if there are any deer; however, today, to my surprise, I was looking at our 4 horses who decided to get out of the pasture and take a walk-about. Thank goodness they decided to stay on the farm instead of going visiting.

New Year - First Year of Semi-Retirement

Today is January 1, 2011, the first day of the beginning of my semi-retirement. I am going to phase into this taking off every Wednesday and weekends. This is a big step for me since my business requires 24/7 attention. Running a business one day and turning over the reins to someone else the next day is very difficult for me to do. So, I am taking baby steps.

However, I have plenty to keep me busy on the farm so I will not retire and sit on the sofa watching TV. That is not my nature. I cannot stand to sit - what a waste of time.