PeeperKeeper
Power Conserver
So this is about "me"?
I'm old, or at least I feel that way. Born in 1950. So many dreams, so many plans.... still have dreams and plans.
We bought our "farm" in 1972. It was being sold as a "hunter's delight". Weeds, scrub brush, poison ivy, ground hogs and their holes everywhere. No electricity, no running water. Attempts to dig a well found prehistoric sea water. Yes it was very salty to the taste.
Now, 37 years later, we have rural electric co-op lines, city water with a meter 1/2 mile from the house, a telephone line and a lot of mowing finally subdued the poison ivy.
When God looks at us, he chuckles!
We started out hoping for self sufficiency, but it seemed that everything was very expensive in the 1970's so we had to "settle for".
Food was kept in large Tupperware keepers held down in a deep spring with big rocks. Bath water was hauled up from the spring and heated on the stove and we started with the cleanest child in the wash tub and so on and so on.
We tried growing corn for the animals only to find racoons liked it better raw. Hay was difficult to get to dry as we lived in a valley and I would be able to see the fog rise right out of the ground before I could get it raked or baled.
I learned that cows are difficult and believe the grass is greener in the next holler, chickens would rather perch on the porch then any kind of coop you could provide, goats gave great milk but could destroy a fruit orchard in the same amount of minutes that it spent in years to grow.
And never slaughter pigs or chickens for the freezer or curing when you are pregnant! The rememberance of the smell makes you nauseated for a whole year!
We raised RIR one year and then the next we tried Domineckers. Always had good egg output until the predators got in the coop. "Who forgot to shut the hen house door?!?!?"
We were struggling and the kids needed things...like food and clothes. So after 4 years of trying on the farm, I went back to school for my degree as a nurse.
The ducks and chickens were given away, the goat herd and beef cows were taken to the auction barn and sold. Each summer we decided how much mowed yard we wanted and the rest of the fields were mowed just enough to keep snakes and mice from venturing too close to the house. The 14 acres on the hill top that we struggled so hard to clear for hay was let go and is more heavily overgrown now then back in the 80's.
I went to work in critical care units, the building recession was over and DH was happy at work again. We took our first vacation in 1988. My oldest child was 17 and the youngest 7.
So , who am I? I am a lot more than can be told by asking me what my favorite color is. Hopefully this journal will eventually share with whoever reads it what makes PeeperKeeper keep on smiling when she opens her eyes in the morning!
I'm old, or at least I feel that way. Born in 1950. So many dreams, so many plans.... still have dreams and plans.
We bought our "farm" in 1972. It was being sold as a "hunter's delight". Weeds, scrub brush, poison ivy, ground hogs and their holes everywhere. No electricity, no running water. Attempts to dig a well found prehistoric sea water. Yes it was very salty to the taste.
Now, 37 years later, we have rural electric co-op lines, city water with a meter 1/2 mile from the house, a telephone line and a lot of mowing finally subdued the poison ivy.
When God looks at us, he chuckles!
We started out hoping for self sufficiency, but it seemed that everything was very expensive in the 1970's so we had to "settle for".
Food was kept in large Tupperware keepers held down in a deep spring with big rocks. Bath water was hauled up from the spring and heated on the stove and we started with the cleanest child in the wash tub and so on and so on.
We tried growing corn for the animals only to find racoons liked it better raw. Hay was difficult to get to dry as we lived in a valley and I would be able to see the fog rise right out of the ground before I could get it raked or baled.
I learned that cows are difficult and believe the grass is greener in the next holler, chickens would rather perch on the porch then any kind of coop you could provide, goats gave great milk but could destroy a fruit orchard in the same amount of minutes that it spent in years to grow.
And never slaughter pigs or chickens for the freezer or curing when you are pregnant! The rememberance of the smell makes you nauseated for a whole year!
We raised RIR one year and then the next we tried Domineckers. Always had good egg output until the predators got in the coop. "Who forgot to shut the hen house door?!?!?"
We were struggling and the kids needed things...like food and clothes. So after 4 years of trying on the farm, I went back to school for my degree as a nurse.
The ducks and chickens were given away, the goat herd and beef cows were taken to the auction barn and sold. Each summer we decided how much mowed yard we wanted and the rest of the fields were mowed just enough to keep snakes and mice from venturing too close to the house. The 14 acres on the hill top that we struggled so hard to clear for hay was let go and is more heavily overgrown now then back in the 80's.
I went to work in critical care units, the building recession was over and DH was happy at work again. We took our first vacation in 1988. My oldest child was 17 and the youngest 7.
So , who am I? I am a lot more than can be told by asking me what my favorite color is. Hopefully this journal will eventually share with whoever reads it what makes PeeperKeeper keep on smiling when she opens her eyes in the morning!
