This is the story of a homestead deep in the heart of the Piney Woods of East Texas. After being enslaved by a mom and pop retail store smack dab in the middle of the D/FW metroplex for 20 years, they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly.... the Hills that is, the Hills of East Texas. Pa is something of an Uncle Jed. The eldest child is definitely an Ellie May...a beautiful blonde that has quite a way with animals. The youngest, well, our Jethro Bodine is a lovable, double-naught-spy-in-training. And i guess that make me Granny. Kinda scary. But, i have to admit that i can see it. Which is giving me chicken skin.
So we moved to the middle of nowhere, relatively speaking, acquired a small bit of land and a "Custom Home" (you will come to appreciate the humor of that in time.) And then dairy goats. Chickens. Ducks. Donkeys. A llama. Rabbits. Oh. and Dogs. Big Dogs. Lots of Dogs. A pack of wild dogs. And an ebbing and flowing tide of barn cats. Most of them (except the goats) are rescues, all of them beloved. Well, most of them.. There have been one or two that were pretty cranky. But we still love them.
This life has taught us much about animal husbandry, and in particular about animal health care, and humane butchering practices. We have grown gardens, and learned food storage techniques. We have learned how to amend the homeschooling process to suit each of our children. We have learned how to live on one income, and that we don't need "stuff," but that we do need each other. And we have learned what we truly believe in, and who our friends really are.
Last year we reached a milestone in our process, and i began writing emails to share what was going on with some friends, and one thing lead to another, this year the mailing list has grown significantly. My mama used to say, "If one person calls you a horse, ignore them. If two people call you a horse, think about it. If three people call you a horse, buy a saddle." Well, after this years initial letter, i got three suggestions of posting my story. Actually, only two mentioned a blog, one suggested Facebook. But since i am the orange Vega with brown doors and bald tires trying to merge onto the information superhighway, i am going this route. This is frightening enough for someone as technologically challenged as myself. That Facebook thing just fries my mind.
For i while, i am gonna be unfolding the story with current events alongside the past tense and ancient history, until we get all caught up. So bear with me in the beginning. This is way more computer exposure than i am used to. Anybody wanna take bets on how long it takes me to figure out how to post pictures? Them what know me are laughing their socks off right now.......
So....This is to be our story. Something for posterity. For my babies. For my friends and family, to maybe be a part of their lives by sharing mine. For others trying to homestead, that they may either learn from my mistakes, or find a new trick for providing better care for their animals. But mostly as a kind of funky prayer of thanksgiving to my Father for the Great Good Blessings He has bestowed upon me in this poop rich environment.
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