Job Seeker: 40 Something Hormonal Woman

How's that for a resume heading?? It's time for me to get ultra-serious about finding a job. I don't watch Alli near as much as I use to and my Mom can fend for herself during the day. As good as I have gotten with regards to saving money, this family needs more income.

Ahhh the days of 6 figures are long gone, and I really don't even desire to make that much money again. I just want to find honest work, with an honest company. 

I have dreamed of living off our land, raising goats, chickens and maybe a few cows. But I think I will try to work for the next 8-10 years with hopes of paying down/off the house.
I am ready to work again ~ I am ready to go back full time ~ God willing, He will allow me to find something good for our family.

Labor day weekend coming up... Tilling the summer garden, and fixing some fencing is on the to-do-list ...

Have a Spirit filled day

Do you smell that?? Smells like Fall to me :)

On this first morning in the 60's poor little Scarlett had to go to get dis-budded. (Burn her little horns off) But she is now back home with her momma and recovering nicely. My goal will be to have a polled (naturally has no horns) buck and a few polled does and that will hopefully limit the amount of trips to the vet for this awful procedure.


I am eyeballing some baby chicks ... I know I know, Dan has said No several times, but I think maybe I can get him to change his mind. With all this salmonella running around in eggs, I so want my OWN EGGS.
On a scale of 1-10 how bad would it be to get a fewww little chickens without ummmmmm telling Dan? I think it would be a couple weeks before he discover them :O...

Probably not the best idea I've ever had, but a good one none the less ....

Fresh eggs ...

I'm the laugh stock of all homesteading websites not having any chickens...It's really unAmerican.

On another note, my grand-baby Alli is walking now, and she LOVES playing on the piano. She is truly just the cutest baby on earth :) See for yourself:

You said what ??

Sometimes in the quiet morning hours after the goats have been watered and fed, the dogs have been fed, and finally I am able to sit with my coffee and my bible, God whacks me on the back of the head and says ... You did what ?? You said what ?? You thought what ??

I set my bible down, close my eyes and allow God to rebuke actions, thought, and words I had not repented for, nor did I feel I needed to repent of.

I am NOT in control ~ I am not more righteous than ANY other ~ For all have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Who am I to look down my nose at someone else. I am probably the worst of these. I am SO flawed. Sometimes I think flawed to my core.

When am I going to learn ??

God's grace and mercy allows me to fall face first into a pile of crap, and He will eventually lift me out, wash me clean, and hopefully show me the error of my ways. Ahhh the errors ~ why are they so numerous.

I am human ~ but I so desire to be more Christ like... Why is this so difficult for me ??

What I am so thankful for and feel truly blessed is that I hear God, I hear His words to me, I feel His love and His correction. THAT my friends is a relationship...that is what HE desires.

I find this blog is less and less about homesteading and more and more about the daily musings of my life.  I will try to stay on task more in the future.

** On the homestead front, hawks have been circling my goat pen. I fear they have their hearts set on a tasty "Scarlett" morsel. I have fended them off by shooting into the ground to scare them off, but the down side to that is it scares every other animal on my property. Once it cools down, Aramis will be outside more and he will not even let them circle the property.

Wheelin and Dealin and APPLES !!

I needed laundry detergent ( oh this is going to be such an exciting post ) so I scoured the ads looking for the bestest deals. I found a BOGOF at CVS. Sometimes these deals aren't the best, you just have to know what you would normally pay for the detergent. "Side Note" I was "making" my own detergent for pennies on the load but I find myself needing stronger stuff through the summer months.

Anyway, so I see that the razors are 8.97 with a 4.00 cash back reward so that would make the razor and blades 4.97... Which is a great deal if I didn't have enough razors to shave a small African villiage from previous great buys. So I say, NO I won't do it. However, I need the detergent AND I have a 5.00 off coupon for the razor, making the razor ... say it together, FREE. So when I get there I go up with my razor and 2 bottles of detergent and the lady says, OHHH I have an even better deal and runs and gets me a large can of shaving gel. She says "we you buy the razor you get the gel for free". The Gel is normally 3.97. Woohoo !!  So now I must ring that stuff up seperate from the detergent because I will use my 4 dollar cash back rewards on the detergent. Razor/blades and Gel ring up I owe 5 bucks ~ I get 4 bucks back. I put my detergent up 2 large bottles for 7.87 and use a 1 dollar off coupon with my 4 bucks rewards, and pay the lady like 4 bucks. So for a little less than 9 dollars I got a Schick razor with extra blades, large can of Schick Gel, and 2 large liquid detergents... NOT BAD considering just the razor would have cost me that much alone. So, stack your coupons and use your reward bucks wisely.

As for my apples...Yippee !! I have never picked an apple right off the tree and eaten it !! YUMMY ~ Now it is the first year they have produced, so I think they will be even sweeter next year, and I didn't spray as much as I should have so they have some spots, but all in all - they are YUMM-O !! I planted a yellow and red delicious 2 years ago and now have fruit... It's a beautiful thing.

I have fought with the bloody peach trees since moving here. Every year they get that brown rot stuff. I am seriously thinking of chopping them down and starting a new. If I don't spray MAJOR chemicals on them every 7 days the desease gets out of control and I get a tree full of nasty deseased fruit.  I think maybe starting over with desease free trees might be the best idea.

This year I will be planting pear trees and some more blueberry bushes.

Until later... God willing ... Think about doing a random act of kindness for a stranger OR just a strange person ;-P

Got Goats ... Some Info for you !!

After the loss of baby Kate, I have done a lot of research on what may have caused her neurological disorder and her blindness. It could have been a fluke, it happens. But I have read and studied how reputable goat breeders feed their goats.

As for my breeding does, I will begin giving BoSe Selenium shots twice a year as well as copper boluses . I will also be sprinkling their grain with some loose minerals that contains copper and selenium in it.

For us, and for you if you intend on having a buck, we SHOULD HAVE had a separate buck pen and grazing area set up for our boys. Note, if you are considering getting a buck ~ build a pen for him and his companion ahead of time that is FAR away from your girls. I have seen some people that build tiny little pens for their bucks. For me, I recognize he IS my herd and I must take good care of him. Give your buck good quality hay, very little if any pelleted food, and make sure he has clean water, minerals and baking soda.


I still don't know if I will be vaccinating. I don't plan on showing at this time, and I have not purchased a goat outside my original herd, so I just don't know how necessary it would be. Still under consideration.

Thats all for now ~ Hope this helps make your caprine happy and healthy !!

Black Week ~ Not day ... WEEK

Let me just hit the highlights:

Baby goat Kate didn't make it :(
Car broke down :(
Dryer broke :(
Storm came through knocking down a huge tree that in turn took out the power pole that in turn fell into our shared water house = NO WATER for 3 families !!

- We tried to fix goat - best attempts failed
- Dan got parts for dryer and car; worked in 100 degrees all day on his day off - poor thing his best attempts failed
- and NO water now - sigh

I am sure there is a life lesson to be learned in all these trials this week, but honestly ... not feelin like learning anything right now !!  Yes I know people have had a much worse week than I have ... doesn't mean I should not want to go underwater and stay for a while. CRAP !! What water ?? The creek is even too low for me to drown myself in. There's the horse trough...but I may need that water to flush toilets. Errrr Foiled Again !!

I'm not going to ask WHY God, it annoys me when people do that. He doesn't owe me any explanations and quiet frankly this seems more like the work from the devil himself. Loser...

MY God can do anything !! And I am really hoping MY God allows me to have water some time today.

So as not to leave the blog on a down note... wait ...give me a minute and I will come up with something good and positive to say.... ummmmmm... mmmmmmmm.... yeah, I got nuttin !!  Bygones !!

Romans 8:28

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

I understand this verse, I believe in this verse, I have faith that in the most horrible of circumstance, God will keep His promise to us. Two children were essentially orphaned today ~ God is good ~ I know He is ... Even in this ~ He is good !! The lessons to be learned in this situation are numerous. How we treat people, do we have any regrets for how we treated this man? Will we treat the next odd person better ?? Will it really matter if they show up for every pot-luck?? We should feel blessed to be able to provide a meal for them. But we don't feel that way. Do we? We are like "dude, you don't even belong to this Sunday school class. Or if you're going to crash at least you could have brought something." How will we treat our brother or sister in Christ ??  Lessons to be learned... Maybe that's the good? Maybe it will make "the body" more compassionate, more sincere, more ... Christ like.  I am changed by this experience. I will not sit here and say I loved him, or even particularly liked him, but I should have. I should have loved him. But I didn't. I didn't really...anything. Regrets, lessons learned...NOT to be repeated.

"My precious and Holy Father in heaven, FORGIVE ME. Forgive me for not outwardly and inwardly loving my brother in Christ. I judge, I criticize, I pick and choose ~ but thankfully YOU did not.  You gave Your precious life for selfish, self-centered, people like me. I pray the Holy Spirit will rise up strong in me so that I never treat anyone as if I loved them any less than my favorite of friends. Please Lord let me be a tiny bit of the good that comes out of this loss. Father PLEASE wrap your arms of love and protection around Chucky and Hannah Lord give them parents that love them as their father did, keep them safe in the palm of your hand.  Forgive me Lord. "  

" Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." Psalm 51:1-2