Good Things Come In Three's

It was a pretty good around here today. We finally got a live person on the phone and told them that the person they were trying to reach did not live here. They told us that they would take our names off of the calling list. Good thing #1.

We FINALLY got all of the burrs out of the horses manes. Good thing #2.

Oh, and good thing #3?



We got a saddle on Scout for the first time!!!! He done really good too! We found out that if you went slow with him, he would get spooked. But, if you would just throw things around him, he didn't really mind. Sure he shied a little when I went to place the saddle on his back, but it was a big scary thing getting ready to attack him. After putting the saddle up close to his head a couple times, he didn't mind it at all. We cinched him up tight and everything. I'm sooooo proud of him. Hopefully we(Hubby) will be riding him before the weekend.

I will do any ground work when it comes to horses. That is my favorite part. Since I worked at the racetrack in Columbus Oh, I have loved ground work. I don't need to ride the horse to enjoy the training. Plus, since I have gotten older than 18, it hurts to hit the ground(Imagine that). Not that I have ever been thrown from a horse before. I haven't. But I have bailed a few times. lol. I was thrown from a donkey before, but that's another story for another time.

Anyway, three good things have happened today. Now, if only we can keep it up this whole week.

So until next time.....

Small Farm Girl,wanta be horse trainer.

"Press One Please"

I am sooooo behind on my blogging! We have been kinda busy. Hubby has been fixing fence for a few days now. Those vines can take over! They can pull down a fence in no time. He started out with a weed eater. Then he moved on to a chainsaw. Finally he started to make progress. It's started to look pretty good around here. Well, at least in the back field. lol.

We were going to kill some chickens today. We have a few that are getting long in the tooth(or long in the beak), and they haven't been laying much this year. So instead of feeding them through this winter, we thought that THEY could feed US through the winter. Anyway, they got a stay today from the executioner's hatchet. It was too winding to keep our fire going under the pot of water for scalding. Man, they were lucky. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

So instead of killing chickens, we worked on getting burrs out of the horses manes and tails. Now that's a job! Scout was full of them. His tail looked like a possum's tail. We didn't get all of them out today. Scout isn't used to being handled for long periods of time. He'll get use to it though. We plan on putting a saddle on him in a few days. That should be interesting. I'll try to get some pictures.

Oh, I wanted to tell you about a phone call we got around 8:45 last night. It was a bill collector. Well, it was a recording of a bill collector. They were looking for a person that doesn't live here. So the recording said,"If this is"the person's name", please press one. If this is not "the person's name", then press two." I pressed two. Then the recording said," If "the persons name" is there and you need to get that person, press one. If "the person's name" is not there, press two." I pressed two. Then the recording said, "Please call the number 1-888-xxx-xxxx to talk to a customer serves rep. Good bye." So I thought I would call that number and inform them that the person they are looking for doesn't live here, so they can take our phone number out of their system and we wouldn't get the annoying phone calls. I got another recording that said, " This number is no longer in service." AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!

So every other day or so, we will get a bill collector call our house looking for this person. As soon as I can talk to a live person, I'll tell them that the person doesn't live here. Until then, I'll just pick it up, say "Hello," and then hang up.
Oh, well.

So until next time.....

Small Farm Girl, phone hanger-upper.

I Hate Them!

I love fall. There, I said it. It's my favorite time of year.The beautiful leaves, the crisp air, and the first smell of wood smoke rising from chimneys.But,(you knew that was coming)I HATE spiders coming into my house! Springtime? The eight legged creatures are a welcome site in my garden. I don't even think about stepping on them. I know they are there to catch and eat the unwanted pest that make my garden their own personal smorgasbord. I don't mind them there.

But,(there it is again), don't come into my house. In a few short months, spiders go from being my friend, to my sworn enemy. They go from,"Oh look, a spider. Hello little spider." to "OH MY GOSH! A SPIDER!!!!!KILL IT! KILL IT!" My Hubby is busy laughing at me as I come flying out of the bathroom naked, screaming my fool head off, begging him to kill the monster that dared to crawl into my bathtub.

He says they are coming into the house just to get warm. I DON'T CARE! If they want to stay warm, they need to gather little twigs during the summer and start them a small spider fire to stay warm. They could spin themselves some spider coats,hats, and eight gloves out of spiderweb. They don't need to come into my house.They can keep themselves warm.

Now I am done ranting about the eight legged monsters. So until next time......

Small Farm Girl, arachnophobia

I Can't Sleep!

It's a quarter to four in the morning and I am wide awake. Not because I want to be, it's just so hot in the house tonight. If you have a wood burning stove you understand. You start a fire in it because it's a little chilly. It feels so good when you first start it. Just takes the chill off. Then you throw a few sticks of wood on for the night thinking it will get colder. But, ooooooooooh no, it doesn't get cooler it gets warmer. Now I'm setting here with the doors and windows open trying to get some cool air in from outside. The weather is hard to predict this time of year.

Anyway, nothing really exciting has happened around here. I canned 11 quarts of apple butter a few days ago. It came out pretty good, but I think it needs more cinnamon. I will put more in the next batch. I make it in a big turkey roaster. It's soooooo easy that way.

This is what Hubby has been up to lately. I just love when a man does manual labor. lol.He has a lot cut and split. I look for it to be a hard winter so he is making sure we have enough.


Two weeks ago, we decided to go to an herb festival that had been advertised for some time now. It rained hard the night before. So when we arrived, they were having people park miles down the road, and they would bus you in. They had an old school bus driving back and forth delivering people to and from the festival. They also had a tractor pulling a big buggy full of people back and forth to their cars. We found what seemed to be a nice place to park. We paid our 5 dollars(yes 5 dollars to park) and started to go back into the field where everyone else was parking. Hubby asked the man taking the money if the ground was to soft to park there. We had out little Honda Civic(to save on gas,it was an hour drive to get there)and we didn't want to get stuck. "No problem," the man said,"Just follow that truck going in there and don't stop." Me and Hubby looked at each other and thought,"Okay, if you say so." Well, this is what happened. We got stuck.



Not only did we get stuck, but the white car got stuck. And if you look in the back ground, you will see another car that got stuck. The man just kept bringing in more cars and more cars kept getting stuck. It was the slimy clay mud.I know it doesn't look like much in this picture, but, it was like trying to drive on ice. The ground affects on the car was touching the mud. Notice how deep the white car had sunk. We asked the ladies in the car if they had talked to the guy taking the money. They told us that he had someone on the way. That was a 1/2 hour ago. So Hubby went to talk to the man himself. He was blaming Hubby for stopping his car. He said that was the reason we got stuck. I say the reason we stopped the car was BECAUSE we were stuck. People now a days.


Anyways, the cavalry finally came in the form of this big dump truck full of wood shavings.


This guy hooked a chain onto the cars and pulled them out. (And yes, that is an Amish driving the bobcat)



By the time we were pulled out, the festival was closed for the day. We were not happy campers. We did get out 5 dollars back though. We sat in front of his gates until he gave it back to us. (Yes, I'm a little bull headed)

But the next day, I had calmed down some and talked( tricked) Hubby back into going again. I really wanted to see all the herb stuff. So this time, we took the truck. Yes the gas mileage was horrible, but we were not going to get stuck this time. By the time we got there, a lot of the mud had dried up. We could have taken the car. Once again we paid our 5 dollars and went into the festival(which was held at some guy's farm)The flier that we saw said there would be 150 vendors. AAAAhhh yea. There might have been 50. Three out of those 50 had something to do with herbs. The rest were selling food or crafts or antiques. Don't get me wrong, I like those things too. But, I wouldn't have come back for crafts and antiques.(Well maybe the food, but that's a whole other issue that I have. lol)NO HERBS! Why call it an "herb festival" if you aren't going to have herbs? I guess we learned our lesson.

So until later....

Small Farm Girl, Mud Runner.

P.S. I'm going back to bed now.

I know, I know, it's been a long time since my last blog. I could say I've been busy with the garden, but, we have already had a hard freeze and the garden is done. I could say we have been canning all kinds of food, but, I'm out of things to can, except apples. I could say I've been busy with kids, but once again, I don't have any. So, I'm going to chalk this one up to just being lazy.lol.

Okay, do you remember this horse? She likes to eat, a lot.


One day I noticed she was laying on the ground. Now, her being a lazy and fat horse, she doesn't normally lie down. So, I went over to her to see what was up. She was laying on the ground groaning. Not good. I pulled on her halter and she slowly got up. She couldn't stand up normally. Not good, again. She acted like she was stiff and didn't want to move. I checked her stomach for sounds. There were sounds, no colic. That was a good sign. Then I tried to move her. She would walk, but she acted like it hurt her.

To make a long story short, she was foundered. How? We have no idea. It's not a bad case of founder, but a case never the less. What do you do for founder? First off, we have to get the weight off of her. At least 300 lbs. Yes, that is 300 lbs. She is way too fat. The next thing we do is to get her to stand in some cold water, twice a day, for about 20 minutes. This helps with the heat that builds up in her feet. Here are some pictures I took today as Hubby had her in the water. Check out the color of the trees.



She is a very affectionate horse.


It's been a few weeks since she foundered herself. She is slowly getting better.


Oh, and I thought I would throw this one in just for you "Slow Dog." We have a pretty sky here too. lol



So for now....

Small Farm Girl,being lazy.

How did I get here?

I have been trying to check into my ancestors. Not to see if I'm from some famous king or anything. I'm just asking my aunts and uncles, Mom and Dad, and Grandpa, what they remember about their childhood and the people in it.

For example, I found out that my Great Grandma Lawhun was an Indian princess from the Cherokee nation. My Great Grandpa, whose name I still don't know, traded goods to her father for her hand in marriage. From what I can gather, she was very young when he done this. Grandma always held a grudge toward Grandpa for taking her away from her family. I can say, I don't blame her.

Another thing I have found out about my family, is that my Dad's side of the family is from London England. But,(and here's the kicker) they were caught doing something illegal and was given the choice of moving to Wales or moving to the "New World" as indentured servants. My ancestors picked the later. They decided to go to the "New World." But, once their feet hit the soil, they took off for the hills of Appalachia. That is how we came to be here. For years the family would travel from one homestead to the next. They would clean the land and basically get it ready for the real owner. Then they would move to the next homestead that needed cleaned. It wasn't until later, when my dad had been born, did they buy land and settle on it. That land is still in the family today.

I still have more digging to do. It's amazing what you can find if you do a little bit of talking and listening to older relatives. Just ask them about what they remember about their family when they were growing up.

So until next time....

Small Farm Girl, royalty or convict, you decide.

Hi everyone! Just thought I would stop in and catch up on a few things.

I have been making loaves of bread! I've been "afraid" of yeast for years. Why? I have no idea. It's not like it can eat me, or pull off my toe nails one at a time. It's just yeast. But for some reason I have skipped over any recipes that had yeast in them. So, I faced the almighty yeast monster, and I came out the victor!

Hubby says it taste very good. I really can't be sure, because when I make a new loaf, for some reason, it doesn't last long enough for me to get more than a small slice. Maybe we have a bread eating monster around here.

Now that I have conquer my fears, I want to try different recipes. I would like to make a lighter, fluffier, bread. I would like to make a sweet bread. Maybe, even make some cinnamon rolls. Yummmmmmmm. Maybe I shouldn't have faced my fear of yeast. Now, I'm going to have a new fear,a fear of the bathroom scales.

So until next time.....

Small Farm Girl, baker.

P.S. If anyone has a good bread recipe out there, I would really appreciate it if you could give it to me, or at least point me in the right direction. lol