As I drove in to work I found Sunny 95 is playing Christmas songs now! It's great that I can flip between stations now. That being said, I don't want to conflict with anyone else's feelings about the "season." Another blog really put me into thought, but rather go into wasting thier space, I'd blog myself (NOT in debate). Please remember that inflection and such do not come across in black and white...or white and black.
I know. I'm ONE OF THOSE weirdo's who enjoy Christmas when others are thinking of what to wear for Halloween, even sooner than that! But I really think my most favorite day is Thanksgiving. I've only always thought of it as the day the pilgrams and indians got together in peace or whatever (Go Hammy High c/o 93!!). Although there is more a feeling of true thanks-giving for some, it's always been a day of good food and togetherness for me. Honestly, I think there have only been MAYBE two times (if not only once) I've heard a prayer in my house growing up. That was by my mom at Thanksgiving. The rest of us just wanted to dig in.
Thankfully (hey, there was something to be thankful for!), the next day began the CHRISTMAS rush. Once again, the true meaning of traditional Christmas-ers was lost, getting lost in the commercialism and so on that irritate people today. I always looked past that, put up the tree by myself since I was a youngin, and laid under the lit tree in the dark, maybe listening to christmas music, trying to feel the love and giving of the holidays...I mean Christmas. I had always had a void in my life "religiously," always longing. That feeling I got at Christmas really did that for me (too bad back then I only thought I felt it once a year!).
I know people dispute whether or not to celebrate such things because of traditions. I don't put much more christian aspect to Christmas than any other time of the year. And I still think of Thanksgiving as a day of great food and good company (hopefully;)) because a lot of days I'm guilty of not taking the time to be thankful as it is.
I can't wait to spend Christmas week with Anna's family! I'm really growing to love this time of year. We've been listening to the Christmas music also!
We are having a wonderful time! Thanks! I was just listening to that too! My mom for some reason is really liking christmas this year...not that she doesnt every year she is just ready for christmas I guess!:-)
Amen to the Christmas music. Why don't they play it 365 days a year...I quess it they did I would eventually get sick of it. I'm a fanatic when it comes to Christmas...I know I'm a fanatic period...but I love tree's in every room and decorations all over the place. I loved my old house because we had the beautiful staircase with decor all the way down, 3 fireplace mantle's with all the fixin's and many, many, trees. Then go outside...the lights on the fence, the 1st story, the 2nd story, the dormer...It was magical!! Not sure what I'm going to do this year with a 9ft tree in a 6ft house, but I'll try to think of something. I feel like Lot's wife...I just turned into a pillar of....POOF!
Reading your blog really made me sad. I felt that way a little last night when we were talking about it. Putting the tree up yourself. Laying in the dark looking at the tree trying to feel the love that you obviously needed to feel. I wanted to cry for you. I am sorry that I am not as crazy about christmas as you are. I will try to adjust my attitude. I don't want you to feel like you did when you lived with your parents! I love you!!!! Have a great day! I miss you!
It's beginning to look a lot like christmas!!!!!! The snow here in the hills is beautiful!!! Big full flakes, they are still hanging on the trees. I know it won't last but what a great first snow!
Like I said, I love Christmas! I just like for the other holidays to get their due and xmas come at it's designated time. I love decorating and the carols and the baking and the shopping. I even get the after holiday, let down, blues! :)
Deer season is here, bow season has been actually. I like to wait until it gets cool to go out. I get dressed up and I don't like to sweat out there hoping a deer doesn't catch wind of me. That's not to mention around this time is when the boys are chasing the girls. I've been waiting for this time, got my gear washed in scent free stuff, put on a little fire to create a smoke screen when it comes to my scent out in the field, actually sighted in my bow to make sure I don't give another buck a flesh wound. I know to some it sounds like preparation for a macho-fest, gearing up for senseless blood shed, or whatever someone who may oppose hunting would think. And there are those who say "I need to feed my family" yet pass up deer for that trophy. But these are arguments for other's to post on there site. I'm just tellin' a story! I want to fill my freezer, buck or no buck.
I had my first afternoon out yesterday. The deerstand held up well since last season (even though I should have taken it down...oops!). My usual dislike of heights was actually no where to be found. I got up, straped in and sat for the long haul. I heard the usual forest chatter, and avoided being seen by the squirrels. They can really be annoying if they find you. I had to get used to the sounds, especially animals jumping around in the leaves. But once that deer comes through, you know exactly what's coming.
Fastforward about two hours just sitting, I hear THE sound. It comes from behind, walks from my right to my left, just over my shoulder. I got excited, started breathing kinda heavy, but I really thought the deer caught my scent despite the smoke I was still smelling on myself. I pull my grunt tube out and give it a blow, then slowly put it away. You know what? Someone was interested enough, they came back! I heard the footsteps, the saw the limbs below me shake. I was breathing hard, and now I started shaking. Buck fever nothin, I have a chance so soon into the season to bag my first deer, my first time out! The sounds move more to my left, and what do I see out of the corner of my eye, but a big bodied buck, ruff looking mostlikely from the chase of a female. He looks at me, but I do my best to stay calm, and he bought it! He jumped through the fence and positioned himself in front of me like it was meant to be...
Yes I made good contact. One of my problems is I tend to get so excited I get down and start looking. But I actually waited, and a couple guys from work came over and the search was on. And then off cause it was dark and we lost the trail. And the next day they came over and we found more to the trail. Then we lost the trail completely. As wasteful as it sounds, we called the search off and counted it as a loss, not to mention the trail leading to someone's "No Hunting" land.
I try not to be too greeding with my prayers, only asking God for an opportunity to see a deer pass in front of me. But I have a great time sitting, albeit freezing sometimes, thinking, listening, thinking somemore. It would have been better since I lost time with family that I could drag a buck up to the front porch (one of the worst things about not getting him home is how excited Jake was to see him). It's a great thing I can just walk out my back door and hunt! But there's plenty of time to "fill my tag".
So while I'm out being one with the earth, momma's been having a rough time, with kids, prego pains and other emotional issues. What better way to make a pregnant girl happy than getting her a steak! Of course at this point in her pregnancy, Amanda's eyes are much bigger than what fits in her stomach, but there's alway room for a little nightcap! StarBucks! Which brings me to my question, why do they put the most talkative person at the window? I've been inside StarBucks, thouse people hardly look at me, let alone talk to me. But the drive thru person hangs out the window, almost into mine, talk-talk-talk! (No offense Drive through workers!:)) Well, I might not have gotten my buck, but I got a happy momma. (Love you!)(That's for Amanda:))
My favorite girl, egglayer that is, was found in a slobbery heap last night. Amanda found the dogs hovering over her, so I put her in a Walmart bag and let her go on down that gravel road (in a trash truck the next day). Big has been very tolerant of the girls, but the pup really needs to know boundries, or in otherwords have a little training. What's been more dissapointing is that she's been one of my main layers, so I really see a loss of production of eggs. She was pretty, but lets face it, she's a dirty, nasty chicken...though the eggs were pretty good!
One thing I've been thinking about tonight is my 11th grade English teacher, Mrs. Harvey. She's the one you hear about the moment your feet cross the threshhold your freshman year. The one "everyone" hates, who assigns all the homework, makes you read all the books (even that long boring one, The Deerslayer), belittles you, etc. But then I got to her class. Did she have high expectations? Oh, yeah. Until then I had never really knew what school work was. Even when you thought you were done with your work, you could go to her desk with a big smile like you accomplished something just to be sent back to yours because there was other work to be done. It was never ending. And she expected me to do it on my own! Not be spoon fed like all my other classes up to graduation. This was more like college or real life, like someone was making me grow up! How dare she!
I liked her for that.
Once in a while when I feel inundated with a to do list that never shortens only gets longer, I remember Mrs. Harvey. Push on through to the next job. Trying to do some things around our land to be more self sustaining isn't all the hippie-wearing-a-straw-hat-spending-all-day-cutting-flowers. Sometimes I feel real lazy about what I haven't done, but then I realize that there is a need for me to be with the family, too. Fannie's gone, but I have 19 layers, 19 broilers, 1 guinea, 3 dogs, 2 cats (those are Amanda's cats, by the way!;)). Well, not to mention my family! Through all the concern of "getting things done," it's nice to put the kids down, sit on the couch with Manda and just be happy with what we have.
Great post. You gave me a big giggle with the "hippie-wearing-a-straw-hat-spending-all-day-cutting-flowers!" That was great and perfectly sums up what some people seem to think it is all about. I love this life, but I have never been so tired and Ben is the one doing the heavy work! I think it will be a bit easier in a few years, after all the "beginner's lessons" are over and things are rolling, at least I hope so.
Is this the first one the dogs have gotten? If so, really watch them now!
I love my dogs, but they take more work and destroy more than all the other 50 animals we have combined. (Almost cost as much too!) I used to think all farms "needed a dog." I am rethinking that now :)
Like my lovely wife said, dogs can be a handful. If we hadn't paid so much for seiler, I'd just put her up on ebay and go ahead and get another gun or two and a donkey to be with the goats.
We're, hopefully, going to be putting in some electric fencing soon, so that should help keep the animals in and the dogs out.
I used to craft my entries, but I've really had a case of writers block, or too many ideas at once or ideas I might have felt a little too zealous to write. But we've had a few things going on around the homestead...
A few weeks ago my dad said he just stopped into a hatchery in LaRue and ended up leaving with 20 chicks for me (and Amanda). Actually, he had 19 broilers and 1 Guinea hen. Yeah, one of those who lets you know when predators are around, or in terms I am thinking of, nervous and loud. Until recently, feed was starting to eat up our budget. So this unexpected venture (raising broilers) was, at the least, more a hobby. But thankfully to my big girls (the layers), we're starting to get about half a dozen eggs a day. Slowly the younger ones are starting to lay, and selling their product is starting to put us ahead on feed.
Around the same time we got the chicks, I gave into a craving of Amanda's, one she has everytime she's pregnant. We got a little brother for Big (our St Bernard)...a 5 month old 70 pound St, (maybe named Moose, but I don't know yet). He's VERY laid back, more submissive, yet playful and loving. I laid on the floor and wrestled with both the boys last night and it was great!
Last week we added to our list of new things the Beast. Rocket, named by Jake, the van just wasn't workin' for us. We couldn't get a handle on the problem, got plenty of advice, but after research decided to just trade her in. The Beast, a 2001 Suburban, is a nice truck. (Yes we know the gas milage it gets). It fits our family better, although we really need to get that smell out of there. It's like a used car salesman rolled around in it...
Other than that we had a couple dragons and a lion for Halloween, and you can still hear the roars!
I'm already getting ideas for next planting season, thinking of a good way to compost and also looking into plans for an inexpensive green house possibly. I don't know, but like I said, I've got lots of things on my mind.
Be thankful you only have one guinea :) We have 5 and they are crazy and LOUD. Let us know if you want another to keep it company. They really are fun birds and the only thing that eats ticks. Did you know that you can put them in your garden and they will only eat the bugs? I should have put a fence up around our garden this year and tried it.
We have friends selling a 92 Suburban. We would love to get our hands on it, but it will have to wait- unless Ben's "Ol' Blue" gives up. Right now we have a game going to see if my volvo wagon or his F150 will make it longer.
I had a big ol' blog typed out, but they just weren't the right words. Although Sept 11 is date that is remembered with heavy heart by America, it is a date that I made one of the best steps in my life. Four years and we've had some experiences! Are we still in the honeymoon phase? I think we should be! Love you!
Thank you! I agree we need as a married couple to grow closer. Sure, we're only in our fifth year of marriage, and I know I'm going to be beating a dead horse. It's hard to hear from couples who've been together decades scoff our love and say it will change. I know to expect my relationship to change. I know it will change to an extent, but that we'll no longer call each other babe and so on...maybe that's just how they justify their relationship. But it certainly isn't encouraging as it should be. The funny thing is, my parents have been together for almost 45 years and still act sweet on each other. One of my greatest influences with how I treat my wife is from my father who isn't even in the church.
I think that it is a great testament to our relationship when Jake refers to us as honey or babe! That is what he is hearing on a daily basis not nasty things that some people say to eachother. I love you so much HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! LOVE YOU LOTS!!!
