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Tag Archive for Farm Stuff

Surviving a Job Loss

Posted by html404 on December 27, 2011
in Blog Stuff, Business, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff

As many of you know, these days I wear many hats. Not only am I a wife and homeschooling mother to eight, but I also run two businesses, with a fledgling farm waiting to burst forth from the side lines.

It’s obvious that being a wife and homeschooling mother to eight is a full-time job in and of itself. Then why would I want to add a business…or two…or three…or four to that mix? It happened out of necessity nearly four years ago on January 3rd or 4th when my husband came home to say that he lost his job of 25+ years. What a shock that was!? It came out of no where even though we had been on shaky ground from the end of 2004 when my husband learned his boss of 24 years was selling the business. At that time we had no idea if we would even have a job once the sale of the business occurred and felt we had to do something as a back up plan… just in case.

Rewind a Few Years

I am going to let you in on a little secret, when I had three children three and under, I had a yearning to have a home business and have my husband home more to help out. Ha! It was hard work keeping up with my three little girls and all their needs! But by the end of 2004 we had 5 children and I had just experienced a pregnancy loss at nearly 20 weeks along. I wanted, needed something to help me survive the grief I felt. That is truly when we discovered that I was the “Idea Lady”. There was something inside of me that went into survival mode to keep our family afloat to survive the job loss. So we started an online Christian bookstore in early 2005, but obviously we were not the up to competing with the online giant, Amazon. We did keep at it for the fun and love of our treasured books, but finally close down shop in 2010 due to its lack luster sales and needing more time to grow our other businesses.

The Beginning of Unemployment

By 2008, we were expecting our seventh child when the layoff occurred. We had six months of unemployment and an extension. With the help and grace of God we embarked on starting our second business mid-2008 that would include both of us and use more of our skills and experience as Virtual Assistants. As you all know it takes time to build a business and while our little VA business did not bring in much to start, we were thankful for whatever work did come our way. Most of which came to me, not my husband. He picked up a few odd jobs here and there but nothing every panned out for very long. I also cleaned houses for a couple families to help offset our slow start.

Personal and Professional Growth

We both grew a lot, both personally, spiritually and professionally, while waiting for God to increase our income upon losing a good paying job that provided well for our family’s needs. But to be honest, by late 2009 we were very concerned, unemployment had run out, no jobs in sight and a family member was faithfully assisting us. So when my husband was offered his old position back, with less pay, for a new owner (the third one, if you aren’t keeping track) we felt we had to take it.

Recovering

We are still recovering from that nearly 2 year long period of being without a job, which is why I continue to work. Recovering from a job loss doesn’t magically happen overnight once a person does get a job. It has been an uphill battle. One we are still overcoming, by the grace and strength of God.

Business Today

Thankfully today between VA Clients, blogging and our essential oils business we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If you were a fly on the wall in our home you would see me online much of the day, emailing clients, writing, checking website statistics almost daily because not only are these stats important to our livelihood but that of my clients. Whether we are bloggers or other business owners, we all like to know how much traffic is coming to our website. There are companies like Omniture (Omniture.com) provide online businesses with website optimization tools necessary to make online marketing a success, which is very helpful.

We are grateful for the slow, but steady growth of our little online enterprises and the part they have had in helping us survive a job loss and slowly gain back the income we have lost.

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Mantis Tiller

Posted by html404 on November 29, 2011
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Gardening

Still haven’t got our garlic planted. We started, but my husband was using a shovel to over turn the soil, which is currently a grassy field. I told him it would take forever to get it done that way….should have let him go at it because my idea of getting our Mantis tiller fixed and working has delayed us even more. I bought the tiller with the knowledge that it had a leak in the gas line but my husband was unable to seal the leak with silicone gel. I think we are beyond his small engine repair knowledge and will have to take it to be serviced. Guess hand tilling will have to do before we get another freeze.

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Fatal Attraction?

Posted by html404 on November 25, 2011
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff

Talk about living in critterville….my daughter went outside this morning only to discover another dead mouse had joined the first dead mouse in the stainless steel bowl. Fatal attraction? Ha! 😉 Is it the itty bitty amount of food that is the attraction, the stainless steel bowl or a dead mouse spouse? My daughter just said that was awful but I am a little giddy this morning after my super hero candies! Seriously. We were given some candy this week and when my husband brought it home I started, “I wish you’d tell your mother not to send that stuff home.” Only to find out it was gifted by another. Ooops. Should have thrown it out but we have been eating it. Or should I say I have been eating it. The children had a treasure hunt yesterday with some of it.

Anyhoo….candy has nothing to do with the fatal attraction of the dead mice, only to do with my sugar high!

So what do you think is attracting the mice to the bowl?

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Unwanted Critters

Posted by html404 on November 24, 2011
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff

Happy Thanksgiving! (Still working on those two posts….)

Living in the country has presented a variety of critters around our place. Back in the summer we were all sitting around the dining room table and got a whiff of skunk through our patio doors. Yep, let’s just say that was unpleasant to say the least. From that time on our boys swore (not literally) that a skunk lived in one of the pine trees on our rented property! In reality we have no evidence of a skunk living on our property.

Then we have had some mice visit us. The first made its appearance in the garage, which was quickly vacated by a mouse trap. More recently one was found in our basement. We think the basement mouse was just a visitor because there was no evidence of him being there long…if you know what I mean? (I mean there was no mouse poop/droppings.)

This past week the boys informed me that there was a dead mouse in one of my stainless steel bowls they had used to take out veggie scraps to the compost pile but left the bowl outside….to catch a mouse. Uggh. Just what I need to lose a bowl over. Really. That bowl won’t be found in my kitchen again!

Road Kill Critters

Our road is really, really busy for being a country road and cars go really, really fast. So one weekend morning we woke up and one of the children had gone out to play (yes, they go out all times of the day and night now since there are no neighbors to bother!) and came running back in to say there was a possum dead out front (where the road runs by). Sure enough there was a dead possum almost off the road. Of course, everyone, but me and baby, had to go take a look at the road kill.

I can only imagine what that possum or skunk would have done if we had chickens!

Possum photo to come, but I have to change computers to upload it!

Unwanted Human Critters

The title “Unwanted Human Critters” is more in tongue in cheek than it is to sound mean. Living just 20 minutes from our old town puts us in a whole new culture. Seriously. In our townhouse community, as close as the houses are/were, we could go days without talking to anyone. That is townhouse/suburban culture. Here in the country we have had strangers knock on our door to see if we were selling our chicken equipment. Yes, all because it was in plain view.

Just this week we had a man stop and ask my husband if we wanted to buy his ten chickens because he was moving and needed to sell them. If it had not been fall and we had had our fencing, we might have considered it.

We did not know these people at all.

Then there is the fact that one of our sons decided to roll under our neighbors fence to say hi to their dog making him and unwanted human critter! Yes. Our neighbors on the same side of the road as us are probably an acre or two away and our boys after the conventional soybean farmer had harvested have played out in the acres behind our property (acres we are hoping to rent in the future). Our neighbor came a-knocking to let us know of our son’s escapade. Then they inform us their dog is a guard dog and has a history of biting the UPS man or anyone that comes on the property. Thankfully the dog was in its kennel at the time, but the neighbors have a surveillance camera since they have been robbed before and caught our son in action! We are grateful for the understanding of our kind neighbors, but our son(s) both got a talking to about respecting other people’s property.

Never a dull moment in the country! 😉 We are lovin’ it, in spite of unwanted critters!

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Planting Garlic

Posted by html404 on November 16, 2011
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Health & Garden Tuesday, Health and Garden Tuesday

Farming has its elements of convenience and inconvenience. I love the convenience we have now with living right on the property that we will be farming. It is convenient to grow our own food. The inconvenience comes with weather, the timing of planting and harvesting. For the purpose of this belated Health & Garden Tuesday, I will be covering the inconvenience of planting garlic.

The inconvenience comes in the form of waiting for the first frost and getting the garlic in the ground at the right time. How do I know what the right time is? My timing in most things is not the greatest. In the case of garlic, which is usually planted in the fall for a spring harvest, it is a mixed bag. My timing for ordering our garlic was actually very good. I had fun picking out a few varieties of garlic and making my purchase, but we are just getting to tilling, planting and mulching our 7 or 8 lbs of garlic. I fear if my timing is off it will ruin the quality and quantity of garlic we harvest next year. My inexperience makes me second guess myself no matter how many times I read over the planting recommendations. I am hoping we can complete this little project this week….but at the rate we finish things….hmmm….but it has to get done soon.

Nevertheless, I am excited! I am still a little shell shocked that we are actually farming our “own” land. It still doesn’t seem real. It has been three and a half months since we moved here and the farming aspect is not being lived out in full capacity. After all, we moved at the end of the growing season here in Illinois. At least the growing season for outside. There are many farmers who have high tunnels which allows them to extend their growing season….but that is a whole other topic!

Here’s to hoping the weather stays in the 50’s so we can get our garlic into the ground!

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Lose Your Bad Habits or Lose a Limb!

Posted by html404 on November 15, 2011
in Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Health, Health & Garden Tuesday, Health and Nutrition

If you were at a cross road in your health and knew you could lose a limb due to poor circulation probably acerbated by your diabetes, would you lose your bad eating habits? I know I would no matter how much of a struggle it would be! We have a family member who recently faced this very thing. Due to stints and skilled doctors though this person kept their leg, but doesn’t appear to be ready to drastically change their eating habits. This person has had several operations in the last couple of years and undoubtedly more to come if old habits do not die fast and hard.

I find it ironic that people do not want to change. This may sound awful but I understand how people can ignore the obvious problem – their eating habits. I would much rather eat healthy than give myself a shot of insulin. I would much rather have both my legs and eat spinach than ignore fruits and veggies only to chance losing my leg. Losing a limb is life changing. More life changing than simply eating more fruits and veggies. It is a known fact that Type 2 diabetes can be reversed/controlled through diet, exercise, and with the help of alternatives. I have heard of people even stopping their insulin shots! Yet people still choose their medicines, operations and ongoing symptoms over simply changing their eating habits. I don’t get it.

It would be a dreadful thing to lose a limb. Any limb. It is a scary thought. Our family tries hard to eat healthy but I admit we struggle at times too. It concerns me for our future health. I would love to eat healthier to be honest, but like most families our budget will only allow for so much. That is the very reason we desire to grow our own food and raise our own meat birds, laying hens etc. Besides the fact that farming also provides a natural means of exercising. Just working on the farm is exercise. No need to schedule a special time for yet another activity away from home because it naturally occurs….now that is my kind of exercise!

Today’s Health and Garden Tuesday post is to simply challenge all of us (myself included!) that the choices we make today determine what our future will be like. So eat lots of fruits and veggies and cut back on those sweets (my downfall)!

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You Know You Are a Farmer When……

Posted by html404 on October 12, 2011
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Gardening

I thought it would be funny (to us anyways!) to include a post about “You know you are a farmer when…” or “You know you live in the country when….” because we have had a few things happen that make us chuckle about living in the country/becoming farmers:

1. You buy a pair of overalls – for yourself, not your kids.

2. You are dragging home manure in the back of your van to fertilize your garden – not from the store mind you, freshly shoveled stuff into bags from a local farm!

3. Pet food costs nearly as much as your family’s food bill (not really but if we keep adding animals it could – for real!)

4. When the stars and moon keep you awake at night because they are so bright.

5. Your garbage pile is nearly as big as your neighbor’s manure pile. (Ha! Not really, I was just running out of quick witted things to list! But we do put out more garbage here.)

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What I Hate About Photography

Posted by html404 on October 5, 2011
in Blog Stuff, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff

I love taking pictures of our family, of our outings etc. Photos seem to make memories last longer.

What I hate about photography is is getting the image so it can be used in multiple ways. For example: I changed the theme of Faith and Family Reviews last tonight and discovered that I could customize the header. I thought, “This will be great because then I can use family photos and make it more personal!” Yeah, right.

I went through dozens of photos only to discover that many of our photos are completely useless in regards to being a header. As with the one featured, it is blurry. Bah humbug. So bear with me as I learn the art of taking photos so they make great headers.

Perhaps we will take a vote on this month’s header from the few that are sort of useable. I will try to remember to switch them out over the next week so please let me know what you think.

Just maybe I will get some shots taken that will be useful….either that or I will find out my camera is the problem…..

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$2 Tuesdays

Posted by html404 on October 5, 2011
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats, Health & Garden Tuesday, Organic

We recently discovered an organic raspberry farm in our area that has $2 Tuesdays. So this morning that is what we did – pick a few pints of raspberries. What fun we had! The children loved it and the farmers were very hospitable. We hope to go again as they will have berries for a while yet as they grow them in high tunnels, which they are doing in conjunction to a research project they are participating in.

This farm also had sheep they raise for wool, chickens that they had for pest control and they also hold different classes throughout the year. They have a couple I am interested in but I am not sure if the timing is right or not….have to wait to see.

We are hoping to put up some more jam if the berries last that long….

Of course, I forgot my camera yesterday and for some reason it is a pain to get photos off my phone, so while I have a few of us I did not get many nor did I get us actually picking berries. I had planned to go back but ran out of space on my phone, of course. The trials and tribulations of a mom trying to capture family memories. Any suggestions on how to be better prepared? Would love to hear them!

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Long Awaited Photos – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on October 5, 2011
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Gardening

Guess what I found at the townhouse on Saturday…..yes! The cord for my camera to connect to my computer! Yay! Here are some long awaited photos from the summer through yesterday and a peek into our lives:

Clouds over Mrs. A’s Farm.