heatherlynnky
Power Conserver
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2012
- Messages
- 238
- Reaction score
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- Points
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sSome of you might have chatted with me on other forums like BYC or backyard herds. I use something pretty close to my username here on all the forums. I don't like to hide behind multiple identities because frankly I can't remember that much info. I am a mom to 4 great kids, and 5 goats, and tons of chickens, ducks, geese. I have a sweet little jersey heifer named Bessie who is one of my pride and joys. Just gotta watch her tongue. She is a very heavy kisser and she will pin me quicker than anything to bestow one on me.
My husband and I moved out to my parents farm when I had my last child 3 years ago. We rented out our house in town and moved into their attic of all places. Its actually a pretty nice attic since my dad never does anything half way. But we decided my parents were older and needing us here most of the week, it just made no sense to live far away. So we made the best decision ever and its a lifestyle that is still evolving. We changed everything about ourselves for the better I think. My husband fell in love with a wide open starry sky. He cannot get enough of it. I have my animals which are my form of therapy. Apparently i cannot have enough things to love. I might have overloving syndrome. Pretty good possibility, or at least my husband thinks so.
So over the past 3 years a wood furnace has been installed, as basement cleared out to eventually become more bedrooms, a barn built, a workshop built. We are studying solar right now and really hope to implement that soon. In the summer almost every veggie we eat is from the garden. I hope soon we can say that year around. My kids gorge on blueberries right off the bush. We have planted several dozen nut trees and almost as many fruit trees. I learned to can foods. My husband learned to process a chicken for the freezer. We are all studying youtube videos on goats giving birth in preparation for the arrival of our baby goats soon. With that will come goats milk and a further change in our life style. My parents gave in to the chickens pretty easy. A good bit of fighting went into me getting the jersey heifer which I had wanted for the longest time. I danced around like a little kid at Christmas when I bought her. The goats were not much of a fight because i told them it was either a goat kid or another real kid. They voted for a goat kid. Goat math is amazingly like chicken math. Now my husband is working from home and during his free time working on the farm. Its fun saying the farm. My parents always called it that but its really starting to be one. I started studying herbals and reflexology and looking at taking a hands on class on accupressure. My daughter has expressed interest in studying natural medicine so not just mommy can take care of the family. My 12 year old wakes up early all on his own to take care of his hens and do animal chores. The kids are all excited when I mentioned learning to do fecals on the goats. Just another way to take care of them AND save money.Slowly but surely we are working toward a self sufficient life style. Its not been a fast trip but we are enjoying the stops along the way.
Another part of our lifestyle change was we started working on becoming debt free. We are now 6 months away from that goal. We are down to my student loans which just got put on the fast track to payoff. Amazing what simply deciding to move out here meant. We are not the same people at all and our kids are becoming such very useful, self sufficient people. Frugality isn't just something their grampa Glen preaches about, its part of their belief system now.
We also left our mega church where we were pretty content but not very inspired and found the cutest little country church that really just has pushed the family in new and exciting ways. I have older kids begging to go to church meetings on Wednessday night now and volunteering for trips to the nursing home. Best of all we are having so much fun here. Its a happy place for us. My son even talked my parents into coming to church with us and they fell in love with the church people there.
Moving tot he country was the best thing we ever did. It allowed us to get in touch with the better parts of ourselves and hopefully that just keeps going. Still lots of improvements to make. I am struggling on this whole clean eating thing and still fighting anxiety, the kids sometimes miss the convenience of living in town but its been good to us and a great experience so far. Even the hard parts i would not give up for anything.
My husband and I moved out to my parents farm when I had my last child 3 years ago. We rented out our house in town and moved into their attic of all places. Its actually a pretty nice attic since my dad never does anything half way. But we decided my parents were older and needing us here most of the week, it just made no sense to live far away. So we made the best decision ever and its a lifestyle that is still evolving. We changed everything about ourselves for the better I think. My husband fell in love with a wide open starry sky. He cannot get enough of it. I have my animals which are my form of therapy. Apparently i cannot have enough things to love. I might have overloving syndrome. Pretty good possibility, or at least my husband thinks so.
So over the past 3 years a wood furnace has been installed, as basement cleared out to eventually become more bedrooms, a barn built, a workshop built. We are studying solar right now and really hope to implement that soon. In the summer almost every veggie we eat is from the garden. I hope soon we can say that year around. My kids gorge on blueberries right off the bush. We have planted several dozen nut trees and almost as many fruit trees. I learned to can foods. My husband learned to process a chicken for the freezer. We are all studying youtube videos on goats giving birth in preparation for the arrival of our baby goats soon. With that will come goats milk and a further change in our life style. My parents gave in to the chickens pretty easy. A good bit of fighting went into me getting the jersey heifer which I had wanted for the longest time. I danced around like a little kid at Christmas when I bought her. The goats were not much of a fight because i told them it was either a goat kid or another real kid. They voted for a goat kid. Goat math is amazingly like chicken math. Now my husband is working from home and during his free time working on the farm. Its fun saying the farm. My parents always called it that but its really starting to be one. I started studying herbals and reflexology and looking at taking a hands on class on accupressure. My daughter has expressed interest in studying natural medicine so not just mommy can take care of the family. My 12 year old wakes up early all on his own to take care of his hens and do animal chores. The kids are all excited when I mentioned learning to do fecals on the goats. Just another way to take care of them AND save money.Slowly but surely we are working toward a self sufficient life style. Its not been a fast trip but we are enjoying the stops along the way.
Another part of our lifestyle change was we started working on becoming debt free. We are now 6 months away from that goal. We are down to my student loans which just got put on the fast track to payoff. Amazing what simply deciding to move out here meant. We are not the same people at all and our kids are becoming such very useful, self sufficient people. Frugality isn't just something their grampa Glen preaches about, its part of their belief system now.
We also left our mega church where we were pretty content but not very inspired and found the cutest little country church that really just has pushed the family in new and exciting ways. I have older kids begging to go to church meetings on Wednessday night now and volunteering for trips to the nursing home. Best of all we are having so much fun here. Its a happy place for us. My son even talked my parents into coming to church with us and they fell in love with the church people there.
Moving tot he country was the best thing we ever did. It allowed us to get in touch with the better parts of ourselves and hopefully that just keeps going. Still lots of improvements to make. I am struggling on this whole clean eating thing and still fighting anxiety, the kids sometimes miss the convenience of living in town but its been good to us and a great experience so far. Even the hard parts i would not give up for anything.
