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Monday... and other fairy tales....

2/6/2017

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My Mondays have a rhythm to them. I focus on computer work, homeschooling, and menu planning. I also try to get my weekly planning done today, which seems to make the flow of our week easier.

Google calendar rules my life. 

These days I'm struggling with the addition some unexpected research. As Trey's homeschooling progresses, I'm finding deficits and looking for solutions. More research, more questions, more time... I feel stretched. Off-balance. Frustrated. 

Bring on Monday. 

My eyes are searching for a cardinal, a sign that reminds me that God is with me. I know He's always with me, but it's comforting when there's a visual reminder, don't you think? 

Have any cardinals to share? My heart could use the encouragement... 

(Have to add.... Go Pats! Such a great game - talk about a comeback!!! My brother Dave (RIP) loved his Patriots - it was fun to watch the game in his memory... )
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Snow... and other beginnings of our day

2/1/2017

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"Mom! Can I go sledding?!" 
I remember being so excited for snow as a kid myself. One of the many aspects I enjoy about homeschooling is that we can be flexible with our daily schedule. So today, Trey started his day out in the snow, taking his sled up and down our hill for 40 minutes or so. 

​Wednesdays in February are our computer science days, when a local computer hardware
expert comes to the house and gives Trey a 1 hour tutorial on disassembling and learning the parts of a desktop computer tower. As Trey's strengths and weaknesses begin to become apparent, I find that he does best with one-on-one, hands-on learning.
This discovery goes hand-in-hand with his reading and writing struggles (more about that later), and offers me with many options for celebrating and encouraging his talents. 

​
Puppies!! 
When Trey and I both began to suspect that Fannie Grace was pregnant, we would look at each other, clench our hands excitedly and squeal, "Puppies!!!!". 
Tom would shake his head. He couldn't understand why were were so excited. 4 1/2 months later, Trey's pup, Dove, is coming along as a lovely little dog. 
Pictured here with her sire, Ranger, you can see she has grown quite a bit! 
Our next challenge with Dove is teaching recall. So far, we've had minimal success - so I'll be kicking her training into high gear this month. In my experience, the best way to teach recall is to put the pup on a long leash and with a partner, take turns calling the pup, rewarding them when they come, and then the partner repeats the process. The long leash ensures that if she gets sassy, she can't go that far. 
​Training takes quite a bit of time, but it's always worth a well-trained dog! 
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Self-Sufficient Living

11/11/2011

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Saturday morning cartoons were interrupted by the phone ringing. "How many points does it have?" I asked into the phone. 

"Eleven," Tom replied, "But there's a little problem. Think your horse would drag it out of the woods for me?"

"We can try," I said, my mind already moving into building a harness. "Let me get Trey around, and we'll be over."

Two hours later, Rory and I stepped out of the woods into the field, the huge buck coming along behind us. Neither of us had worked that hard in quite a while! 

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As Tom told the story, he had taken the shot with his bow and at the last minute the buck turned - and a clean shoulder shot became a messy 'gut' shot. Two hours of tracking later, they found the buck. Up and down the foothills of our mountains - steep climbs, leaf-covered slippery descents, ravines, creek-beds and washed out footpaths - this was the trail we took in, and out.

Rory and I worked together to drag the deer out - me at Rory's head encouraging him, and Rory contending with a lariat looped to the roping saddle. The makeshift harness had plenty of padding, but a 210lb dead-weight buck is still heavy. Tom followed along, keeping the buck from sliding off the edge of the ravines, breaking it free from trees and brush.

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We're a team, my husband and I, and we used our best skills to together bring home over 140 pounds of meat for our freezer. 

To me, the true definition of self-sufficiency is when a family works together to meet their needs. Whether we accomplish that by working the land, raising our own meat or hunting; or for urban dwellers, creating a family budget and working together to put family first, when we are working together - we are self-sufficient.

Next post: A family that butchers together, eats together!

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It's Cheaper than Losing your Mind

10/22/2011

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View from my saddle
In celebration of our fiscal-focus this month, I wanted point out an obvious point: It's cheaper to re-set than lose your mind. 
As many of you will agree, often we focus so hard on saving money and being frugal that we neglect our own well-being. It's certainly a temptation. 
Thankfully, I was single long enough before marrying and producing the boy that I am aware of my emotional and physical needs. 

Re: I can be selfish. 

Sometimes, that's not so good. But there are times when my need for self-preservation kicks in. Like right after harvest season. 

Or right after canning. 

Or before the holidays. 

Or after the holidays. 

Or after I've folded 15 loads of laundry. 

Or washed dishes. For two hours. 

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Helmet went on after this picture. Please, always wear one.
Needing the aforementioned re-set, I purposed that it is indeed cheaper to spend the money than go nuts. God agreed. Out of seemingly nowhere, a cheque appeared in the mail. 

Now, my idea of re-set involves horses. Not just any horse - I have my own crazy, old trail horse. No, I need a quiet, calm, well-trained horse that wants to have fun. So took myself up to Tioga Trailrides. They are one of the few trail riding outfits left in our area. Talk about peaceful. 2 hours of riding through valleys, poplar groves, wind-swept fields, and hilltop vistas. 

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I hope you find your re-set opportunity. Because the holidays are coming, the dishes need to be washed, and I guarantee that somewhere in the near future, you'll be working through some laundry. 

Take the time. 

Remember, it's cheaper than losing your mind. 

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So peaceful...

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I can breathe out here!
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The Trick - Successful Household Spending

10/1/2011

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Caught in a financial spider web?
It was the worse day of my life. I had to tell my husband that I had bungled our finances so badly that our 'bank' was in need of a bailout. It was not a good day. 

But from that really bad day, came some surprising blessings. My husband and I started talking about money, instead of hiding from the topic. We attended a Financial Peace University course. And we found the Trick to successfully managing our household spending. 



Mrs. Lynette Trick, to be exact. 

Now you know me - I can't keep a good thing to myself. My goal is to share what works for us, in the hopes that I can encourage you. And Lynette? This woman is a really good thing. 

Lynette is a sweet woman, with short grey hair, a compact body, and a no-nonsense manner. Her God-given gift is financial counseling and she operates from such a state of humbleness that every conversation is about how to improve our financial situation - never judging our past decisions and actions.  This woman is the safest person I know of to talk to about finances. 

She's a certified financial counselor with Financial Peace University (a Dave Ramsey course), and offers Financial and Personal Spending Counseling. 

Since this month is all about finding financial balance, I asked her: 
What are the top four things people can do today to improve their financial situation? Her reply:

  1. Create a spending plan:

    - Make a list of all the fixed bills.
    - Save receipts/track discretionary spending - gas, eating out, groceries, kids, household - and use them to create a plan for the next month.
    - Work down to a zero balance, all your income should be assigned to a category.

  2. Compare to spending plan to monthly income:

    - Need to make some fast money? Start brainstorming ways to make money: Ebay, part-time short term job, cut discretionary spending.

  3. Review your paycheque:

    - Are your tax deductions calculated correctly?
    - Are you withholding TOO MUCH money? (Lynette's suggestion to us was to lower our yearly refund. She increased our monthly income by 15%. Her comment was this: who is more qualified to manage your money- you or the government?)
    - Do you have some short-term financial emergencies? Consider pulling your 401K contribution until you get it under control. Why?: You have a credit card that is charging you 21% interest. Your 401K contribution is costing you money every day you don't use that contribution amount to pay off that card. This is just a short term solution - don't do this without a plan.

  4. Spend Cash:

    - Are you over-spending because it's too easy to whip out your debit or credit card? Consider stashing the card and working out of envelopes. Each category is given it's own envelope with a certain amount of money in it. When the money is gone, it's gone. For us, we use the card for gas purchases, but spend cash for everything else. 
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If you're struggling with managing the finances, if you're worrying constantly, feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, and waiting for the other shoe to drop - it's time to approach your money the same way you approach your other 'farm girl' tasks: You. Can. 

Start small and work your way up to forecasting expenditures and saving for long-term needs. Build up a savings fund so when you have an emergency, you don't have to throw your plan out the window. 

I don't know about you, but we needed help to get that all under control. Having someone experienced, caring, and committed made all the difference. Having a mediator to sit down with my husband and me to work through the spending plan was simply brilliant. 
 
What do you think? Are you ready to live with one less thing to worry about?


Contact: Lynette Trick, Williamsport, PA 570.327.9460/financialhope4u@gmail.com 
Lynette makes house-calls, will work via phone calls, or will host you in her own home office. She'll work with your family one-on-one, she'll come and talk to your community group, your small group, your sunday school and your group of best girl friends who are sick and tired of feeling frustrated about finances.  


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Raising Rabbits

9/22/2011

2 Comments

 
Rabbit meat is my husband's favorite small-animal meat. Rabbits and duck are the two most cost-efficient meats you can raise on small acreage. (Ducks need a bit more room than rabbits but are ready to butcher at 10 weeks. We'll talk more about them a bit later.) 
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Young meat rabbit
Truly grass-fed rabbits require only alfalfa pellets, salt blocks and fresh grass/weeds (hay during the winter months). Yes, you can buy expensive rabbit-chow, but for meat production, your rabbits' nutritional needs are simple.  
Young rabbits are ready for butcher at about 12 weeks, and whether your take them to butcher or do it yourself, you can fill your freezer with nutritional, tasty meat. 

Rabbits can be raised out on pasture in wood-slatted-floor cages. You can put them out without the bottom, but there is a chance they will dig out. If you have neighborhood dogs that roam into your yard, you'll need to keep an eye out - some dogs will break into pens. We have our watch-dog, Jennie, who keeps our homestead critter and four-legged-visitor free....

If you keep your rabbits in cages, you can pick weeds and grass for them - they'll do well if this is 50% of their diet. 

Some value-added opportunities to compliment your meat rabbit venture:
  • Compost the rabbit manure and bag it for sale - all natural compost for raised beds and patio gardeners.

  • Time your breeding schedule just right and sell some rabbits as pets around Easter. Worried about irresponsible bunny ownership? Offer to take the bunnies back if they don't work out. (No refunds.)

  • Have a handy husband (or teenager)? Ask him to build you some cute cages - and have them ready when you sell the Easter babies. (If you're handy yourself, there's no reason you can't power up your tools as well!)
Looking for a creative, farm-girl way to lower your grocery bill? Rabbits are a great place to start. Want to chat with other people about how to get started? Head over to the Reader Forum to join the conversation!

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Young meat rabbit
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"We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well." 
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