Ever Changing, Ever Growing....

I have spent many years in an environment that has kept me out of my "comfort zone."  I married a guy that grew up completely different than I did, and have stayed in an area completely different than I grew up too.  There have been many arguments, many times that I wanted to walk away and never look back.  I believe those were some of the most trying times of my adult life.  I've also spent years trying to understand myself, my personal beliefs, and trying to find out who I want to be.  None of this has been easy, and I've found myself at many cross roads.

Although I am not completely happy with who I am yet, I am happy to be making continual progress.  I have seen and experienced enough to know that everyone, and I mean everyone, is happy to criticize and find fault when you are trying to find yourself.  It has taken me years to get to the point of not caring what other opinions are.  It's not always easy to brush off what others say to you, even if you know it to be untrue or just cruel.  Everyone has their own thoughts on how you should do things, live your life, and even how you should behave.  Sometimes, opinions are thoughtful and come out of curiosity and concern, others times opinions are someones closed-minded perceptions of what they believe you should be/do.  During my continued journey, I'm finding that there are many who are insecure with themselves so they project that onto everyone around them.  This I believe is where the saying, "misery loves company," comes into play.  We don't play into that theory. 

As I get older, my kids get older, and my relationship evolves; I am finding that although we came from different backgrounds, and different geographical areas...we are a lot more alike than we are different.  We have very similar beliefs, we have very similar goals in life, we have identical theories on raising our kids, and we are working very hard at our communication issues.  I know everyone talks about how important communication is, but we have found that having serious, open, and blunt conversations; it helps us to grow in our relationship, helps us to understand the effects outsiders have had on us, and it even helps us with better heated discussions.  : )  I can say we don't argue anymore, but it's not to say we don't have heated discussions and there are times we have to agree to disagree.  We have respectful heated discussions instead of outright mean arguments, and there is a huge difference. 

I still have times I miss my city life, and all the "excitement" that went with it, and some of the friends that I had that think I've completely lost my mind.  However, you find out as you get older, who your real friends are.  They are the ones that know you've lost your mind, but are happy to share a laugh, are happy to visit with you, they don't mind that the horses are nickering or the cow bellowing while you're talking on the phone.  You may not talk to them for months, but you can still pick up conversations like you just spoke yesterday.  They have accepted the life you have chosen, they may give you static about how different you are but are still supportive.  They don't criticize you just because you have chosen a different path than they have, and even different than you had originally began.  True friends don't care how much money you make, they don't try to compete with you or tear you down.  True friends know who you are, even if you change daily.  You can have many acquaintance friends, but true friends that will be there through thick and thin, aren't in large numbers.  Too many "friends," want to compete and show off their knowledge or lack thereof.  I have some great true friends.  Although, I am finding that some of the people I thought were true friends have turned out to be strictly fair-weathered friends. 

I have days when I can accept whatever challenge comes my way and then there are days when a single challenge is all it takes to break my spirit.  I have days when I just can't deal with anyone else's drama and I don't want to deal with my own either.  Most of the time I brush off drama and lack of common sense, and then there are times I'd love to reach out and "high five someones face!"  I am not perfect, nor is anyone else.  Despite their own arrogant thinking, just because someone has a different way of thinking, it does not make them any less content with their discussions. 

As a family, we do a lot of unique thinking.  We talk openly with our kids about finances (even though the youngest doesn't care at 3!), we discuss our goals as a family and for our farm, we talk about growing as individuals and as a family, we encourage the kids to question whatever they feel they need to, and we believe that how we live our lives is the best way for us.  We get questioned about this on a regular basis, we are criticized regularly, we are constantly expected to explain our thinking and on the rare occasion that someone gives us a compliment...we kind of celebrate that someone actually understands what and how we are trying to live.

The days that I miss my life prior to be married are very few, but the days I count my blessings for the life I live now are beginning to increase.  There is always work to do when it comes to relationships and raising kids.  However, for me as an individual, I am glad to have learned so much, proud of the person I am working toward, and proud that I can raise 2 amazing kids with so much personality and individualism.  I love knowing when I go outside, I can enjoy the chickens as they scamper through the yard looking for worms and bugs, the cow's bellow everyday is a welcoming sound, and getting out with the horses and taking off on horseback to spend some quiet time and some peace building time is amazing.  Letting a horse eat feed out of your hand is such a peaceful time.  Even the cow headbutting/ nuzzling against you is an unimaginable feeling.  Having my gardens is my "therapy."  I can get into nature, play in the dirt, have time to finish a thought, pray, or to just be.  When I wake up every morning, I hear birds singing, the cow bellowing, the stomp of feet coming in for water, and I don't hear tons of traffic, people bickering, or the blare of horns.  We don't rush around for schedules that are decided for us.  Our day begins whenever we wake up, we eat when we are hungry not when we are told we can, we can take field trips during times that everyone else is at school/work, and even though R works a regular job....many of our activities are flexible as is his schedule.  We enjoy our 3 hour actual school days, with 2-3 hours of "fun school work."  Whether it's learning about plants/trees in our yard, reading, watching some kind of movie, learning about cooking/baking, our oldest learning from his grandparents/great-grandparents, talking to people with different cultures, visiting with other farm friends, or whatever we happen to be doing on any given day.  We enjoy the freedoms to customize our days to fit what we need and want as opposed to having others tell us how we are going to spend our days.

Yes, as many have told us, our views/morals/thoughts are antiquated from the views of current acceptance...we are happy with the overall way our lives are going.  We are overall happy, healthy and progressing with or without the support of others. 

As a person, I am working toward bettering myself everyday.  Every time I reach a cross road in my life, I ask myself where I want to go.  Whether I choose the path that has been traveled many times or the path that is overgrown...I choose the path that fits with where I want to go.  It is based on our goals/values that we have made to fit our family. 

I hope that someday everyone will be as comfortable with themselves and their decisions as I have become with mine.  As Robert Frost said in his poem, " I , I chose the road less traveled."

Robert Frost - The road less taken-

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

~Salli~ 

Hayfield Homestead News

It's always such a beautiful morning in our little hayfield.  Chcikens having their morning conversations, the horses meandering up the pasture to the water tank, and the beckoning of the cow for attention.  I love looking out my living room windows to see our beautiful animals and the precious views of looking over our hayfield and not seeing any other people.

Our chick project that began in early May has been a learning experience and an interesting trek.  Our original order was 36 meat birds, 12 Black Austrolorpe, and 13 White Rock.  When the order came in, they ended up sending us 39 meat birds, and doubled the order on the others.  So, hubby came home with 86 little birds.  At the time I was REALLY concerned about having so many little ones.  It proved to be a good thing that we got so many.  The first 3 days we lost 15 of the black ones, and 2 of the white ones, and none of the meat birds.  We've had foxes and coyotes galore around here.  We eliminated 1 fox and 1 coyote, but had another surprise this morning.  We moved our meat birds to an outside pen as they got too big for our brooder.  Bright and early we went out to feed and found something, presumably a cat of some sort, had gotten 3 of the meat birds.  I am very disappointed!  So, we have lost quite a few chicks.  The company we purchased these chicks through has said they will refund us for the majority of our loss since there is no reason we should have lost 17 of the layers, except the stress of shipping.  It's just been a huge learning experience.  I do believe we will get a rooster and let our hens just hatch their own!

We are also venturing into other livestock areas here at our homestead.  We are waiting on the delivery of our pregnant gilt.  She is due to pig in June.(I believe that is the right termonology!)  From all the research  that I have read and continue to read, they can have 8-12 little pigs - this is normal.  So, we could have 9-13 pigs to take care of in just over a month.  I remember going to a girlfriends house when I was a kid and loved playing with her family's pigs.  I was young enough that how many then had and how quick they had them didn't mean much.  Boy, do I wish I would have spent more time learning about the pigs instead of riding on them!  I guess we'll learn as we go!  I am rapidly learning so much with our quest to become food independent!

Our next venture is purchasing a milk cow.  Did you know how many different breeds there are?  Holstein, Brown Swiss, Jersey, Guernsey, Ayershire, Dexter, that's just to name the ones I can remember!  I have even read several articles that people are milking their Angus cattle.  Not sure if this is something I really want to try but I suppose cow milk is cow milk.  We had found several different dairy cows over the last few months but now that we are seriously ready to get one...we can't find any that aren't hundreds of miles away!  I guess we'll keep looking and in the mean time I will continue learning everything I can about dairy cows (and pigs!). 

We have turned our black Angus into our pasture and are gearing up to have her bred this fall.  We also hope to find another Black Angus to add the mix so we can have plenty of heifer to raise calves and put in our freezer!  Add in a few pigs a year and some chicken...we'll be all set for Winter. 

As for the gardens...very happy to say that all 3 are replanted!  Even with no rain lately, the new seeds and plants are growing and doing great!  The vine garden is missing a few of the things I really wanted, but the storm wiped them out and there weren't any left in the stores.  So we will be minus blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and asparagus.  We have replanted pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers, squash and zucchini.  Not to mention I have 3 patches of Sunflowers that survived the storms!  The lower garden which includes the kids garden was almost a complete loss.  Many of the kids plants were wiped out, and all the beans(outside of a few scattered) were gone.  We've since replanted our beans - green, kidney and horticulture.  Most of them are coming up already even without rain!  The upper garden wasn't hurt too bad, but we did add 30 tomato plants, 12 green pepper, 4 jalapeno, and 4 cheyanne pepper plants, and 8 cabbage plants.  This added to 6 rows of corn, 6 rows of peas, beets, onions, radishes, and potatoes.  I hope it produces well so I will have LOTS to can/freeze this year.  There is such a feeling of accomplishment when you go to fix a meal and everything you make, you grew or raised yourself! 

The next few projects have been off and on projects for a while.  December 3rd, we bought 2 fillies that were needing serious groceries.  They were thin and looked rough.  These 2 young ladies will be a year old in June.  We have begun working with the girls to train them to lead and will slowly over then next year work them into being horses we can ride.  December 18th, we went to purchase a Mustang that I absolutely loved and was offered a deal to purchase the other 3 horses in the pasture to just a small amount more.  We ended up with a 15 yr old Mustang and 3 - 4yr old, Registered Quarter Horses.  The 4 big horses hadn't been messed with for a long time.  They were kind of wild and only 1 was broke to ride - the Mustang.  So, this Summer the plan is to break the 3 Quarters to ride and have some manners.  Then, trying to find a horse our son could ride, we headed off to another sale.  Earlier this year (February or March), we ended up bringing home another Mustang.  This one is 12 and was in the Extreme Mustang Makeover.  So, we have 2 Mustangs broke to ride, 3 4 yr old Quarters that need broke this Summer, and 2 fillies that will be broke to ride next Summer.  Needless to say, we will be spending lots of time on horse back in the coming years. 

Hubby bought a tractor last November.  It was one that needed work but was bought cheap.  I am very glad he's a fix-it type of person!  He has spent a little time each week working on it and finally brought it home this past weekend.  We now have a Ford 8600 as part of our homestead.  He did some work around here Sunday and found out that the PTO clutch was bad....the one thing he hadn't torn apart and fixed!  So, mowing hay is postponed until the parts come in to fix it...hopefully this week!  We will be mowing about 10 acres or so of hay. 

I suppose I should get moving along today.  Have to make a trip into town...yuck!  Picking up one of J's friends again to spend the night. Then it's home to work on house, gardens, animals, and getting meals prepared.  Oh the fun!  Wishing you a day of progress! ; )
~Sal

Simplifying...not so easy anymore!

As with so many others, our lives have become so busy.  A few weeks back my husband and I began talking about simplifying our lives and taking stock of what our time is spent on.  Since we always seem to be busy and we can't ever seem to get everything done, we have kept track of our days and the projects we are doing.  When we looked over everything, we figured out real quick the only thing we were doing that was wasting time was the time spent on face book and the time spent on the phone.  Since I refuse to be completely unconnected to family and friends that live a ways away from us, we decided that eliminating face book would free up about 2 hours every day. 

As I posted yesterday on Face book about leaving, it occurred to me that I really don't want to be disconnected completely.  I want to stay connected with those that I care about.  Many times the only way to do that is on Face book.  Although we went many years without cell phones, and Internet, and Face book...it seems to be more important to keep up with Face book than to let it go.  So in a mutual decision, we decided to keep the face book page associated with our web site active.

So, as to simplifying...some aspects are easy and seem to be a natural transition, others are much more complex and require some compromising.  For me personally, I have never been real good at compromising.  I like things my way, and right now!  That just doesn't work well when you have a spouse, children, a farm, and extenuating circumstances.  So, as it goes, I am still learning all the time. 

Although we have a goal of being 100% self-sufficient, at least in our food supply, we are slowly working towards that goal.  Our oldest bought his first calf in September of last year.  That calf has become the first of many we hope to raise.  Richard had been asking around about the cost of purchasing a pregnant sow/guilt.  As it happened, our former landlord, has one that is out of his breeding schedule and he is looking to unload her.  She is due to have her litter of piglets in June.  I believe that we will be working on a pen for her this weekend.  Then we just have to continue our search for a dairy cow.  We have found a few locally, but they are either really expensive or they have sold within hours of being listed.  We have our minds set that we do not want a Holstein.  We are wanting either a purebred or a cross of Jersey, Ayrshire, Guernsey, Brown Swiss or Dexter.  I am having to learn so much so quickly because our family's goals require it. 

There is a lot of work that goes into our lifestyle.  It isn't a lifestyle for everyone, but it's great to get support for the lifestyle we have chosen.  We don't buy much at the stores anymore.  Just the absolute staples.  All treats, bread, and meals are prepared from scratch when possible.  I'm not saying that our diet consists only of homemade, since we still love to roast hot dogs over the fire (Beef only), and occasionally we will eat out when necessary.  When we do, I have to prepare for it though, because without fail, I will spend a couple of days sick.  When you go through and eliminate the white sugars, white flours, white rice and anything else that has been bleached or has an ingredient list 3 miles long...your body goes through a withdrawl.  It is an honest to goodness thing.  It takes usually 3-5 days to get past the dependency those foods create.  The first few days that I went without soda, sugar, and store bought bread...I ended up with a 3 day headache.  By the 5th day, I felt pretty good, and by the end of the first week, I started noticing some energy returning and the occasional stomach aches were gone.  After an entire month, I think my body was thanking me.  Many of the aches and pains I had felt were gone, and even my complexion cleared up.  My moods leveled off and my other body functions also leveled off and became consistent.  Once in a while, I still crave "junk" food.  I will crave a greasy burger or greasy fries, a snack cake or those cursed doughnuts at the grocery store.  Typically, I prepare for getting sick if I eat any of them though.  I do still have an occasional jack and Pepsi....but it's pretty rare. 

There are days that I really just want to throw caution to the wind; not read labels, not have to plan every night for the next days meals, not have to spend 1 whole day baking so we have snacks for the week, not being so tied down to our home that we don't get vacations or weekend trip, or the convenience of living closer to town.  However, those days don't happen very often.  I look at our life as, what we are doing is being done to keep our family healthy, keep our kids safe, and to teach the the responsibility of living an intended life.  We work hard, each and every day.  We work to raise chickens for eggs & our freezer, we work to keep our calf growing, we work to keep our horses exercised and keep up with our yard.  We check fences about everyday, and now we will be adding a pen, and a pig and babies.  Once we get our dairy cow, we will be milking daily, and eventually raising calves from her as well.  It's work, but it's very rewarding work.  We look at our gardens and see the seeds of labor growing, we look at our hens who lay 3 dozen eggs daily, we look at our baby chicks of which 38 of them will be in our freezer in a couple months, the rest will be our new laying hens.  We have 2 broke horses that we can ride, and 3 other adults to train to be ridden, plus 2 young ones that we have begun working with.  Although our efforts are occasionally slowed down by finances or weather, they continue to move forward and will continue to do so. 

I am anxious to keep updating you on our progress, at least it's progress for us.  Even though some think we are crazy.... I am very happy to have "simplified" our lives.  We don't have the regular stresses of working to work or keep up with neighbors.  We work what we have to and focus the rest of the time on our family. 

Wishing you all a simplified life of faith, family, friends and health!
Salli

News perception....

Adding some insight to my already very opinionated blog, seems like an oxymoron to me...but I am going to do it anyway!  As I began this blog to simple allow my family & friends that live a ways away from to keep up with our goings on, it has evolved into a blog about our homestead, home schooling, politics, recipes, natural health and so much more!  It's my goal over the next 2 months to reach as many as possible and watch the followers of this blog increase and to increase the viewers of our website - hayfieldhomestead.com and the facebook page - hayfield homestead increase. Please help us out and follow each of these!

Today, as I read through all the different news, groups, blogs and posts on Facebook that I have/get, I have to be a little reserved as to their content.  There is so much information that can really help you grow and accomplish whatever goals you set.  However, there is information that can cause you to feel overwhelmed and a bit nervous too.  As someone who has serious control issues, I don't like to feel like anything is out of control, or beyond being able to be fixed.  I have serious organizational issues...as in I need organization, but rarely get it lately.  I write notebooks upon notebooks of notes, recipes, or any information that can possible be used at some point.  I am constantly struggling to gain organization, control of certain situations, and eliminate clutter.  I like simplicity.  I like people to say what they mean, and mean what they say.  I don't want things sugar coated, and I don't like being lied to.  I will not judge anyone, and I don't want anyone to judge me.  Just because opinions may differ, it doesn't make either opinion right or wrong, normal or odd.  I am a firm believer in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.  I am one of those that is considered a " God fearing, gun toting, Constitutionalists that is firmly planted in less is more!"  I worry about the future of my generation, and the future of my children's generation.  I am very proud that our family is sticking with a future of being self-sufficient and that we have learned and are teaching the same antiquated morals and values.

So, with all of that being said, here are some topics that have really stuck in my mind today.  The first article was about the Department of Homeland Security purchasing multi-millions of rounds of 40 caliber hollow point ammunition.  While the article was a little stressing to me the way it was presented, however, you can look at it from several different perspectives.  The article phrased it more as a paranoid "the government is planning to wage war on the American people."  You could also look at it as they are buying that much so that the supply is lower, and the prices will go up, and it will slow down the amount of ammunition that is bought by the American public.  Either way, it throws up a bit of a red flag for me.  While the article presentation stresses me at the thought that our elected officials could get so power hungry to do this, I just can't see how that would happen.  Especially since there are more households in the United States with guns in them, than not.  However, if that is the case, are you prepared for that kind of catastrophe?  On the other hand, if it's a supply/demand issue, this happens all the time.  This has become a staple move in America.  When prices are stagnant, or a product needs to be sold in bulk, the prices are lowered and the supply in minimized.  However, when the producers of a product want to increase prices, they slow down the production and increase the price.  This is the exact reasoning of the oil barrel prices, food commodities and and any product you purchase.  If ammunition is selling as quickly as the numbers appear, I can only imagine that our government wants to slow this down.  Our government has increased it's hold over so many markets in the past 25 years, that having their hands in ammunition just makes sense, that they'd be trying to limit supply & demand.

On the theme of government intrusion.  As many of my own family is divided along the political lines, I am of course somewhere in the middle on some aspects and extremely conservative on others.  I am a firm believer in working hard, being personally responsible for your life, not depending on handouts, and not depending on the government for anything.  I know, I am stirring a pot here.  I have family that are firm supports of the Democratic party, and family that are firm supporters of the Republican party.  Myself.... I am a FIRM supporter of our Constitution and Bill of Rights.  I don't negate giving a hand up to those who need it, but I am FIRMLY opposed to constantly giving a hand out to those that just live off the system.  I believe American families need to have full truth from our elected officials no matter what party, department, or organization.  I am laughing as I reread this paragraph.  I sound like an idealist.  That's OK... I may be but this is my opinions.  I believe marriage is between a man & a woman but it's not up to me to judge other lifestyles or place laws that discriminate.  I believe that conception is when a baby is a baby and a human life, but it is NOT my place to judge someone who doesn't want to carrying the child, has been raped or molested, or is irresponsible.  I have total faith in a Godly power, but I will not sit in a building with a bunch of hypocrites claiming to be Christian, yet judging everyone for every move they make.  It is not Christian to judge anyone for the things they do!  There is ONE judge, and it's not me!  I don't believe it's the governments job to tell me how to raise my children, nor is it their job to educate them.  My future, their future, and the future of any generation later is based on what they are taught at home...not by the television, not by the government, not by pharmaceutical companies, not by a federal department that has overrun their power.  It is our job as parents to teach our children right from wrong, it is our job to teach them to be responsible, and it is our job to instill morals and values in our children.

I see so many children that have zero parental guidance in their lives.  Being a parent isn't a right of passage to make yourself a "grown-up,"  it's an ongoing responsibility that can be overwhelming but can be the most rewarding experience of your life.  When you have children, there is never a dull moment.  No matter what your situation is, kids must be taught or they learn by watching.  A quick story about how kids behave lately, that I personally watched and cringed!  A few weeks back, we decided to take a trip into one of the bigger towns in our area that had a Wal-Mart.  Because we have to go after my husband gets off work, we decided to stop off at McDonald's(not a smart choice, I know!).  While we were sitting there, there were 4 young boys.  I would guess 10-13 yr olds.  The 4 boys weren't bad.  They were sitting there eating and laughing and having fun.  shortly after a group of 4 more boys came in and all hell broke lose.  They all started acting up, and there wasn't a parent to be found!  These young boys were loud, obnoxious, belligerent, and rude.  They were cussing, yelling at the top of their lungs, grabbing food off the tables around them and cramming it in their mouths, throwing stuff, and generally making complete asses of themselves.  I did complain.  I was told that these same 8 boys have been thrown out many times for their behavior and that the parents drop them off and leave.  These boys are young!  I know some will argue with me and say they are old enough to be on their own...I've already heard this.  However, these boys are at impressionable ages.  I couldn't help but wonder if their behavior was innately learned by watching the adults in their lives or if the parents were even aware of their behavior since there wasn't a single one of them around.  Quite honestly, if either of my kids behaved like that...they would be in SERIOUS trouble.  Not that it would happen to start with because I will not allow my children to be completely alone like that.  As I said before, it is the parents job to teach these kids.  Kids need guidance even beyond the magical age of 18.  I know I personally still turn to my parents and my in-laws for guidance, even at 37 years old.  When my parenting adventure began, I can remember saying I wanted more for my kids than what I had.  Over the past 11 years, I have learned that although I do want them to have more...I also want them to have less!  Contradictory I know!  I want them to have more, as in education, independent thinking skills, true leadership skills, financial knowledge, self-sufficiency, and understanding that less is more.  I want them to understand that what others have is great for them, but competing with what others have is time wasted and not smart.  I want them to know that it's a privilege to have the knowledge to think outside the box and that even though some will think you are odd or weird...it doesn't matter.  I want them to be happy with who they are and the accomplishments they make.  I have been very blessed to be able to stay at home full time with my kids, but I know that this too is antiquated.  Although everyone needs a break, I would not change anything in our lives.

The next topic is one that is dear to my heart.  Supporting Local businesses and farmers.  As we have begun our homestead, I am finding it so important to buy local.  We are fortunate to live in a farming community surrounded by life long farmers.  We have been blessed with several acres of land to allow us the freedom of raising our own food.  Although we are not 100% yet, we are getting closer everyday.  We have our beef, we have our gardens, we have our herbs, and we are soon to have our pork and dairy covered too.  Yes, this is a lot of work.  There are days when it would definitely be easier to just go to the store and buy a bunch of this stuff.  However, I am a stickler for research.  Having researched and learned so much...the less I have to buy at the store, the better!  I am constantly learning tricks that I'm sure my grandparents could have taught me, but I am personally reviving as a way of life for our family.  We have so much we could learn from our Elders that lived through the Great Depression.  During those days, life was tough for sure, but the family unit was stronger than any other time history.  They didn't have much, but yet they had it all.  They learned how to make things stretch, they struggled, they eventually overcame and thrived.  They had family, and as long as they had family, they had a strong foundation to which to build.  Although my kids seriously have so much, we don't just go and buy the latest and greatest.  Many times, we will find really fun things at yard sales, not to mention finding great deals on clothes.  Why on earth would you spend the price of brand new, when you can get great looking second hand ones at a fraction of the cost?!  You can call this thought cheap, frugal, or whatever but I personally call it smart, common sense thinking.  Whether you are attending yard sales, the local farmers market, or any number of local businesses/home businesses...you are supporting local families.  The big retail stores may offer a thousand square feet of stuff...all you are doing there is lining the pockets of that CEO or those in another country making the goods sold at those big box stores.  When you shop local, you are buying American made and that is an amazing feeling.  I would be willing to bet that most people couldn't find 5 things in their homes that are American made.

What do you know about the community you live in?  15 years ago, I didn't have any idea about my community...and honestly didn't care!  Now, on the other hand... I LOVE to learn more about my community and also about the surrounding communities.  Our local community is really interesting.  It's made up of all kinds!  We have some farmers that have been here for generations, we have what I refer to has the transplants from other areas, we have Amish, and we have Mennonites.  With such a diverse community, you can learn so much!  We live a long way from any town, but our scattering of farms gives me a chance to truly diversify my life.  Although our Mennonite families and Amish families are different that what I could live, there is so much to learn from them.  They are communities within themselves.  They have the majority of businesses, they have their own formal education, they have their own beliefs, and yet they are still happy to support local business.  Although I haven't had the pleasure of truly getting to know my Mennonite neighbors just yet, I can't wait!  They are really remarkable at the abilities they have.  This brings me to another story.  We moved into our homestead Halloween weekend 2011.  We had lived in our new area for about month when we had 2 visitors.  The first was a neighboring farmer about 1/4 mile down the road.  although he caught in the middle of a lot of projects and I wasn't real nice...he stopped to offer any help we needed.  It was a nice gesture.  The second came closer to Christmas.  It was our Mennonite neighbor.  His wife, every year, made a plate of homemade cookies for each of their neighbors.  This actually brought tears to my eyes!  I couldn't believe that there was still areas that took the time to think of others and to plan the way they must to accommodate that amount of cooking into their regular schedule.  This was an eye opener for me.  In our area, we have about 12 farms scattered over several miles.  I honestly don't know how many plates of cookies they made, but I for one, was warmed clear to my core!  You can bet that this year, I will be doing something similar for our neighbors.  I hope to get to know many more in the coming years and look forward to learning and growing.

OK, on to my final "hot" topic for today.  A statement that I have heard so much since we began our home school adventure.  What about socialization?!  Wow!  If I've heard this once, I heard it a million times.  I can appreciate the concern that some have, but before anyone judges I encourage everyone to understand.  Home schooling for us, was a choice out of necessity...not just because.  We made the choice after a bully hurt our oldest.  We have spent 3 years now trying to reverse the damage that 1 year of bullying did.  We did a lot of research and still research regularly to make sure we are doing what is best for our kids.  However, once my husband and I made the choice, almost everyone became an "expert" on what was best for our kids.  We have heard every negative, and ignorant opinion possible.  I say ignorant because some of the opinions have been from whatever ill-reported stories they had seen on television or some misconstrued perception they had.  Yes, home school was not in my plan for my kids, but that is how it has worked out.  As for the socialization, this is yet another area that is categorized to include being around other children their own age and making sure they are involved in every club/group/event as possible.  Although I agree that kids do need some time around other kids, I don't feel that it's necessary.  Have you seen the way most children behave now?  I personally don't want my children behaving like that!  This goes back to my earlier story of the boys at McDonald's.  My kids have friends their age, but it is not a requirement.  We have offered our oldest to be involved in sports, 4-H, or any other event and if either of our kids chooses to that is fine.  If not, that is fine too!  I will not force my kids to be involved in everything possible just to live vicariously through them.  That to me undermines their ability to be independent thinkers.  We feel that too many activities causes kids to be too stressed and not attentive enough to do the best they can do.  We believe that kids have to grow up too fast as it is, and it's important for them to be kids as long as possible.  Our way of thinking, and doing things may not be right for everyone, but it's what works for us.  Everyone has their own needs and ways of doing things.  It's important to be respectful to each other.

As our homestead continues to evolve, I hope you follow our progress, our blog, our website and our Facebook page.
Salli

Life, gardening, weather, and more

As our homestead continues to change and fit into our personal goals, it's amazing how so many things are affected by Mother Nature's whim.  We tilled up 3 areas to use as gardens.  These areas were on a hill so we figured that any rains we got would just run off and our gardens wouldn't flood.  It was a brilliant thought and plan.  Then Mother Nature decided to throw a monkey wrench in our brilliance!  Over the course of 4 days, the end of April and beginning of May, we received about 8 inches of rain and it turned cold.  So, in all our brilliance, we tilled up 1 garden to be vine plants, pumpkins, watermelons, and other fruits.  That "vine" garden now has 6 inch deep ruts through it, the blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and asparagus are now somewhere in the pasture!  Our lower garden which held green beans, kidney beans, horticulture beans, and the kid's garden...has a few spurts of plants, but has rain tracks all the way through it and the seeds either rotted in the ground or floated away.  The upper garden which held corn, potatoes, peas, beets, onions, and radishes.  So far everything in the upper garden is doing ok.  However, we decided this year to order some heirloom tomato plants, climbing spinach and trees from a catalog.  All the plants, were supposed to be nursery grade plants ready to plant, and the trees were supposed to be 3-4 ft and ready to plant.  Needless to say, what we thought we were getting and what we actually got are 2 different things!  We ordered 4 different kinds of tomato plants, 9 beefmaster, 9 early tomatoes, 12 siberian tomatoes, and 3 cherokee tomatoes.  Then there were 3 climbing spinach that would be able to be picked all Summer.  We ended up with 9 beefmaster, 9 early tomatoes, and 21 cherokee tomatoes, and 3 climbing spinach.....ALL were seeds!  Not to mention we got 14 trees that were maybe 3 ft at best, and 10 of them were broke in half.  Needless to say, I was pissed!  The order got here 2 months after I ordered it, and not to mention that I didn't get them till 2 weeks after they were shown to be shipped.  I have sent an email requesting that the company make this right and I am still waiting to find out how they will fix this.  So, in an attempt to get to  plants to get into the ground on time, we made a rush trip to a local garden center to try to find some.  It amazes me that the beginning of May, there aren't many plants left to be found, and zero seeds!  So, I am on a mission to find more seed!

It amazes me how even though Richard and I grew up in different lifestyles, and a different geographical area, we have so many of the same goals.  Although the goals have evolved more over the last year, they have evolved and somehow come together on a single path.  We have been about 25% self-sufficient from the beginning.  We have had a decent garden since we've been married.  Now that we have our own homestead, we are planning to be completely self-sufficient within a year.  We have our angus calf, we are looking for a dairy cow and a bred sow.  We have our hens for eggs, and are growing our cornish birds to put in the freezer.  We have our horses for pleasure and relaxation.  As I grow personally, I am finding such peace in my time outdoors.  Whether it be the time with the chickens, the time with our horses, or my garden time; I find peace in all these.  I have taken my paternal grandmother and my aunts phrase and thoughts - Garden time is my Garden Therapy!  We work together and do as much naturally as possible.  It makes everything go a little smoother and a lot more efficiently than when we were doing things seperately.

As I said before, the weather has taken it's toll this Spring.  We had a fairly easy Winter, and early Spring was nice and warm.  Since about the end of April, the weather has returned to more normal temps and even a little cooler than normal.  That has stunned not only our garden but also the hay ground.  We are hoping that the weather levels out and gets back to normal soon.  If not, it will make for an interesting and expensive Fall/Winter/and early Spring next year.  As you can see, living a life of self-sufficientcy is planning for a long way out but still having to live through the here and now.

We have been in our new home for 6 months and I am not unpacked.  I am still going through boxes everyday and not making any headway!  Keeping up with the everyday stuff, trying to finish unpacking, working with our animals, now our garden, the kids and our homeschooling, keep me pretty busy.  I am working towards making home made soaps and other products to offer on our homestead web site to help suppliment our income.  We have decided that working outside of home for me, is really not profitable enough to do any good.  Especially with the hourly wages being what they are, the cost of daycare, and trying to keep up with the everyday stuff here.  I'd have to make a great deal of money to make it worth while.  I'm not giving up on my dream of getting back to work in the nuclear field but that is a long slow process since it's a federal thing.  Otherwise, I have my 2 businesses that I try to find time to work on when I can, and the home made items that I am making as time allows.  If you haven't been to our web site, check it out!

Wishing you happy growing and happy learning!
Salli

Setting Goals for our homestead

Good Monday Morning!  I know that's kind of an oxymoron.  The way I see it, is that every morning is a fresh start and a new gift. 

As we began our homestead(in October), we had a few general goals.  Get the site ready for our home, get some sort of shed, get the perimeter fences, get moved in, and get a few animals.  Very general goals, that were mostly met.  We began working on our homestead October 2nd.  By the 17th of October we were ready to have the house delivered.  The house was delivered October 24th, and by the 1st of November we were moved in...not unpacked or settled...but in, none-the-less.  November was spent getting the trim done outside the house, getting our laying hens,  new gutters, fencing the front half of our property, and unpacking enough to have Thanksgiving.  December brought our horses, more unpacking and preparing for Christmas, and readjusting to having something that was constantly being done.  January we finished our loafing shed, worked more on fences, more unpacking, and still readjusting to our new home.  As we finished out Winter and welcomed Spring, we spent time working on more unpacking, I made a trip to Alabama for a job interview at a nuclear plant, Chloe turned 3, and we got to visit with all 4 of my parents.  April was a seemingly insane month.  Not too much new happened, but had a lot of repairs to fences, still trying to get organized from the move and holidays. Planted a few seeds indoors and got most of the gardens planted.  The beginning of May brought us a severe storm that dropped almost 6" of rain, washed out 2 of 3 gardens, left flash flooding, and a really muddy yard/driveway, and our venture at raising baby chickens. 

It was shortly after we moved into our new homestead that we began setting goals for ourselves, our family, and our homestead.  We have gardened since we've been married, and I learned how to can/freeze the stuff from those gardens early on.  As we both started learning more about the toxins put into our foods, we started making a switch to more natural and homemade foods.  When we decided it was time to purchase a place of our own, we had very specific goals and plans.  1. keep our mortgage as low as possible so we could afford whatever animals we wanted, stay in the county we have lived in for several years, have plenty of room for our kids and whatever animals we wanted, and be able to pay off our mortgage in 15 yrs or less.  We were able to meet all of those goals when we bought our homestead.  This year, we have set some new goals.  We want to be as self-sufficient as possible.  To do this, we will need to raise our own beef, pork, chickens, dairy, gardens, and fruit.  Although we aren't going to his the goal of growing our own fruit this year, it will be happening next year.  We have our chickens(meat & eggs), we have an Angus heifer, and we are currently looking at dairy cows, and breed pigs.  I am making most of our food from scratch, and buying in bulk has helped to keep some grocery costs down.  We are also working to pay off every debt possible(outside of our mortgage and his student loan).  This goal will probably take another 8-10 months, but it's possible and going to happen.  We still have decks to build on our home, some minor indoor remodeling and decorating, some water lines outdoors to run, some electrical work to get power to the shed, and some fencing to finish. Not to mention waiting for it to dry up around here so we can gravel our driveway. 

I am very anxious to take on this new challenge of self-sufficiency, and learn more about the whole hobby farming thing.  I know many have told me that we aren't farmers because we don't have enough land.  That's OK, I'm not one to really put much value on others opinions. : )  What we do is farming, we raise livestock, we are dependent upon our own labors for food, we have the values of helping our neighbors, and in our little homestead, we have faith that we will be given what we need. 

As I learn, grow, and adapt to our new homestead, I will be sharing my own experiences here on my blog, as well as our homestead web site, face book page and my personal face book page.  Feel free to follow us on our journey.
Health, Happiness, and Prosperity!
Salli

Our Hayfield Homestead

As a person who loves to read and write...what better way to do that than having a website and a blog?! It has occurred to me that no one will find any value to either the blog or the web site..but I really think as people read through it, read this blog, and share with their friends...that more will be able to find it useful.

So, as the story goes, I am anxious to share www.hayfieldhomestead.com.  As of today, the site is still unfinished as I add to it virtually everyday.  It is live and I hope that everyone will find some valuable information and share it with others.

Happy Homesteading!
Salli