Feb 14th, 2008 by Manerva
My message today from The Universe was a good reminder to be true to myself and go with my heart!
Love where you’re at.
Love how you think.
Love the power you pack.
Love all that you seek.
Love all that you feel.
Love your rocking emotions and the thoughts you make real.
Feb 13th, 2008 by Manerva
With all of the truck related questions running through my head night & day I have been thinking way too much!! So, this evening I am playing with some photos and giving you a few pictures of my trip to my parents a few weeks ago. My mom has 9 pet deer that she and my dad feed on a daily basis- at a rate of 100 pounds of deer food a week.
Mother & Babes
Coming in for breakfast
The Olson Milk-house
I was reading on another blog about how things were not as good in this bloggers life as it was looking like they really were, which got me thinking about 12 Happy Chickens.
Things are always not rosy around here either. I don’t mean that anyone is dying or ill, but I do mean I am not as happy as I could/should be. I try not to be all “Gloom & Doom” as my mother calls it but when do you say OK I want something more than I have right now or something better for my life? My daily thoughts have included this saying for the past 6 months or more and I can’t find an answer to it or shake the feelings.
On one hand I love my husband, my animals, and this farm– I have a hard time thinking of being anyplace but here. I also love the fact that I have a home based business that I have built from the ground up all by myself.
On the other, I am running out of patients with the whole NO money thing. All of my money goes into the business, and there really isn’t much left over for me right now. Since we married, husband has always kept things as what is his- is his, and what is mine- is mine. And that would be fine if he didn’t want me to be at home day in and day out and quit what I use to do. It seems you fall in love, blindly change your life to be more compatible with the other, and all of a sudden you notice- hey I got the short end of the stick! None of that was my idea–the short end of the stick part anyway…and I have run out of patients. I want things in life and I would love to be able to go buy a thing or two for myself every now and then.
I look back 6 years ago and I was making $46,000 a year + insurance. Now married I live pretty close to poverty with no health insurance and I’m sick of it. Don’t get me wrong here, if I really need something husband would give me his check book in a second, but there are also things I really don’t need that I would like. Plus there are things like new carpeting in our living room, new windows for this old cold farm house, some kind of curtains for our kitchen to keep the heat from going up in smoke, and generally things to keep this place from falling into the ground which are not much of a concern to husband… They all cost money.
So, Friday I made the biggest decision of my life. I am going in debt and buying a truck and trailer so that I can make my own money. I will still keep Wild Wind Soap Company up and running. I will have to do most of the work in the evenings and on weekends and if/when the company is making good income I will come back home and continue what I started.
I have 8 weeks (give or take) until I get my truck and trailer. The truck is the one you saw here as my latest & greatest, the trailer will be a grain trailer so that I can haul locally.
What a crazy life I lead… more to come on that.
Feb 9th, 2008 by Manerva
Just found this this morning and thought I would pass it along. Don’t know anything about it as of yet, but mebbe it’s worth looking at. Wicca TV
Feb 8th, 2008 by Manerva
Photo Fridays name of the game is What is That? So here we go…
Feb 4th, 2008 by Manerva
Every day without fail I have chores to do. With two horses, (one of which I sold yesterday) and 15 chickens I am up and going early because I have babes that are waiting for breakfast. My normal feed times are 7am and 4pm and usually by 6:30am & 3:30 respectively the horses are staring down the house or the soap shop (they watch me like a hawk) and they start calling to let me so I know it’s time. My hens are still a bit groggy when I arrive in the morning but they come alive when they hear the feed bin open up as they gobble up what ever the horses drop.
It’s been snowing all day and even though it was quite warm out this morning I decided to make myself a good breakfast after feeding everyone else. Luckily for me I had fresh eggs right off the chicken this morning or hot off the press if you will.
My hens are very tame and I can sit and pet them while they are working on making or should I say delivering an egg, and as I was loving her up she kind of stood up, squacked, and laid an egg right in my hand. How lucky is that?
I kind of felt bad when I scooped it up as I was thinking ”breakfast” and she was looking under herself wondering where all the hard work had went. Oh, well I ended up with a wonderful breakfast of fried egg on wonderful sour dough bread and then took out the hens a bunch of kitchen scraps for all their hard work.
So, as it stands I have sold Betsy Sweet Showdown (left) and have one more horse to go if I can bare to go through with it. Kassy is my baby, and I have had her the longest so it’s going to be tough! With the drought last summer hay prices are sky high, and the people selling the hay don’t seem to have any qualms with jacking the prices.
Jan 30th, 2008 by Manerva
One thing I have been doing the last couple of years is switch our living around to a more healthful way. Happily I am down to a couple of cleaners for our home and my soap shop. I use Seventh Generation and borax to clean just about everything I have in our household, getting rid of all chemically based cleaners–and I don’t miss them one bit. Plus you should see all the room I have under the sink these days.
The other thing I have done is change our eating habits. We buy our meat locally by the quarter or half, until I can get rid of our horses and buy something that will give back a bit more. We have our chickens for our eggs, as we don’t eat the girls and I grow a good portion of our food that we have for the winter months like tomato’s, potato’s, garlic, onions, winter squash, beans (green & dried), and beets. BUT, I still need a bit more in the cupboard to get us through the winter/spring months and that’s where my food co-op comes in.
Generally I buy all organic or local, with only a few exceptions to the rule (husbands cereal, milk, cheese) and luckily my mother is starting to get on the band wagon too! While I was up north this past weekend my mom turned me on to something new and so delightful I had to share with all of you!
Tomato Soup! I had quit buying Campbell’s Soup quite a while ago because of all the corn syrup in it and we have been missing a good tomato soup ever since. Pacific Natural Foods has the best soup hands down! It is creamy, fresh, and very satisfying! Here’s the run down on Pacific Natural Foods vs. Campbell’s Soup.
Ingredients: ORGANIC REDUCED FAT MILK, FILTERED WATER, ORGANIC TOMATO PASTE, NATURAL CANE SWEETENER, CARAMELIZED RED BELL PEPPER FLAVOR (RED BELL PEPPERS, SALT, BUTTER), ROASTED GARLIC, ROASTED RED PEPPERS, SEA SALT, SODIUM CITRATE, RICE FLOUR, GARLIC POWDER, ONION POWDER, SPICES.
Ingredients: Tomato puree, (water, tomato paste) High Fructose Corn Syrup, wheat flour, salt. spice extract, vitamin c (ascorbic acid), citric acid
I have been tagged by the wonderful Connie for a 7 things meme and since it is way too cold to venture outside right now, I am going to sit my rear end down and do this! So, here we go!
So, who’s next? Anyone who wants to play along!
Jan 25th, 2008 by Manerva
My Latest and Greatest 12/07
Photo Friday name of the game is: The Machine. These have been some of my trucks over the years. To me, (I know a lot of people will think I’m crazy) but this is more than a machine- to me they are a work of art. I love trucks. I’ve been either riding around in them or driving them since I was 3 years old and if I wasn’t married I’d be running cross country right now. I have been to every state except Hawaii and Alaska. I have saw many things good, bad, and well some I can’t even say here (but I should have wrote a book) and I would never change any of my experiences because every single mile was all grand!
No mans Land - New Mexico
My first ride out in my brand new truck Marshall MN
This was my baby- Tuscon Arizona
Jan 18th, 2008 by Manerva
When I think of Disastrous (which is the name of the game for Photo Friday) I think of how lucky my friend and neighbor was to come out of this with only a couple of bumps and bruises. This is what happens when you don’t pay attention to what is going on around you. Luckily she didn’t have any of her kids with her and the drivers side window was rolled up, keeping her inside of the truck.
