The circle of life.

I remember clearly the day I asked where sue was.  (Sue was only one of the several pigs at my Paw Paw's house. ) 

Plain as day... as we were eating breakfast..

Paw Paw said... right here on the table!

I told you not to name those animals, he said!

The next thing I know... not a few weeks later he is taking me to the slaughter house to pick up beef.

I think while the subject was fresh; he wanted to drive it home.

He did!

I remember the first time I went to his house with my dog (Traci... she was a perfect Mini-Schnauzer) Paw Paw just about had a FIT... he yelled, he preached... (I was married about one year at that point) You should be having children ... he grumbled under his breath.... Besides Dogs belong OUTSIDE and they need work! 

Knowing Paw Paw always had Catahoula lepards,

 Great Pyrenees,

 or Rhodesian Ridgebacks. They all served a purpose but my sweet little schnauzer was a pet and he could not stand PETS! 

Why do I mention ANY of this... well because I feel badly that  I tried to stretch what I was taught of animals.  I thought I could have a pet cat and a purpose driven barn cat all in one.  This did not prove to be true.  I no longer have Jacapo, and it was not his fault!  One of my other animals saw fit to keep him out of the pature, away from me, and into a next life.  I will not go into detail but I can say... I will only have cats at the barn that are not socialized so not to subject any more to the pain Jacapo and I both experienced with the ending of his life with us.

Maybe some animals are purpose driven.  While others are here to feed our souls as their purpose, I shall not mix the two again.

Animals, Jacapo...

Ok... so my mornings normally start with the horses and the cat now.
I feed the cat first thing, allowing him to eat in peace as I  feed the horses and them I come back and love on him.

Well this morning, no cat!
I yelled and yelled... I searched the ditches, I walked through the woods and finally I started to drive up and down the road.

This cat cries all the time, why I could I not hear him anywhere!
My fear got worse and worse; as time seemed to weigh more and more, I felt as I was moving faster and faster trying to find this cat.  He is the same color as the dirt/clay around here, what if a dog got him? What if something happened to him? OH no... I hate to think of him as hurt not able to cry for once.

JACAPO... I yelled and yelled again.
KittyKITTYkitty I yelled and yelled again... finally a faint cry ...
I got out of the truck, and followed this sound up the hill, through the woods, over to a neighbors house.
a cry.. YES that is Jacapo...
Are you behind the wood pile? NO
Are you on the deck? I looked but then it sounded like he was under the deck, I looked
I yelled again. I looked everywhere!


I stopped and backed up ... and heard a really good cry!
Jacapo.... CRYcryCRY....

OH MY %*&^(&*^)*(&)
HE was in the chimney! peaking out with only his sweet little head CRYING... directly at me!

OH CRAP! How can I get him OUT of the CHIMNEY!  ( they heat their house with fire by the way)
These neighbors had already left for work!
They for some reason had their dogs inside!
I walked up on their deck hoping to find something to stand on, I noticed the railing of the deck and a small gate to close off the deck.  I climbed the railing, asked the cat to come... and as miracles can happen; he did! He walked right over to me so I could grab him.

He smelled of smoke, my sweater was soiled by soot, but he his fine dirty but fine! 
Oh dear I do hope this is not going to be a regular thing!  
Oh how I hope he will not do this again.

A New Family Member

NO I am not! I will never be!....
Remember I am the animal woman not a woman who bares children!

While Jerry and I drew the line at pets, there are certain things that call for animals!
A Barn is ONE of them.
If you have feed, hay, and it is in the middle of nothing you are going to have field mice and or rats! So We got a cat!

I got a cat from a Lovely Lady in Plesantview TN.  She knows me and she knows ALL of her cats. She has a life calling to save animals and make sure they all get good care and nice homes.  If you are thinking of a cat... Please give me note or a call.  She can help match up personalities and needs and you will know the cat has been exposed to the best of care, and living conditions NOT living in a small cage untill someone let it out.

Meet my new little boy....
they called him Raymond but there was no response to the name.

I call him Jacapo  the great confidant and defender of  the Count of Monte Cristo....

Yes... around here all the names are basicly characters of books, movies or fairytales. 

He is a LOVING little boy, and will cry if I do not pick him up love on him as I am feeding and caring for the horses.

He has choosen to live up in the hay for the time being.  Although he has his own little quaters with food, water and warm bed for any cold nights.

He loves it when I climb up to see him!  But generally I am only climbing so high to get hay from the top of the pile.

He is a good little boy and has already left me presents at the door!


Yea... for cats!

Life is good when you know you need help, you are giving help, and can make sure we all live in peace.

Jacapo matches all the clay around the barn,  He matches all the wood on the inside of the barn and is hard to see if out and about.  I can only assume summer time will be a different situation. 

Looking forward to his being more and more a part of our little animal crazy family.

1. Teallie... love bird
2. Lolita... Quaker bird
3. Maya... Parrot/ maxamillion pionus
4. Sweetpea... horse
5. Navarre... horse
6. Jacapo... cat. 

OH dear... a parent of 6?

To Do List for Animals.

When Traveling ? this is just the Tip of the Iceberg....It goes on and on...

Animals feed bags... horses . Done...
     Sweet Pea need 15 Bags.   full scoops
     Navarre needs 15 Bags      not even 1/2 scoops
          They get two flakes each in am then again in pm, at pm extra two flakes due to extra time without food.
          Water is to be scrubbed each day, as it gets green very fast this time of year.

     Birds have bags of food, DONE in freezer...
 but they need to eat all the food in their bowls before getting any more.
          Tealie gets meds.... clear/ in water once a day or every other day as long as it stays clean
          Lolita gets meds... clear / in water once a day... her water is always nasty... ? I 'm not sure what she does to it but it's always bad.
          Maya gets food/ water NO MEDS no worries. She seems to be my easiest bird!

Emergency Cages in their room / on the floor next to their purple cabnet.

Notes for house and animal sitters.
Birds Black Mountain Vet's on main road... numbers on bird room door.
Horses, Joe if you need anything... Vet... Ford,  Ferrier is Miller.  you have numbers... so no worries there.
Emergency supplies in Trailer AND in Black Tool Box IN the barn.  Needels, Meds, and temperature contoled issues... on top of book shelf in living room by door... it is all anyone should EVER need... from hammers, pullers for shoes to eye bandages... all within dates. Double Checked ... Done.

Horse Transport, call Karl he has keys to trailer, property etc... CLEANED Done.. no hay mangers, because if a horse is sick I dont want it eating.
They have there own spot in the trailer now too... SweetPea is only loaded on the right.  it has chest and rump bars. 
Navarre is only loaded on the left, due to his being so happy he goes under or over chest and rump bars so there is nothing to hold him in.

Magazines.

I find one of my HUGE fetishes is magazines!  How did this happen? Why do I love them so much? What good do they do me?   All very.... good questions, and quite frankly these are questions I get each time I try to share a magazine with someone face to face.

Lets see... I think it all happened from the basics of being a child.  Didn't you love that new notebook of paper for school, how perfect it was, and to imagine what you were going to do with it.  A New Notebook pad for school made me want to do more homework, be organized, and look as pretty as my new clean notebook did.  

Of course... I always got as sloppy as I was before, but that doesn't mean I didn't try each time I got something new.  And truly I knew how hard it was for my parents to come up with the same supplies for three children.  They always played fair... if one of us got something so did the others. 

Even at Christmas, as ADULTS we got to ask for what ever we wanted from OUR PARENTS and Daddy always made sure that what ever the most expensive item was..... the other two got EXACTLY the same amount of money.  Down to writing us checks for pennies. 

So to get a new magazine makes me more happy than getting a new pair of shoes, a dress or even a hat. ( I love hats)

My first magazine is one I only have 4 of them, but reference them for ideas all the time.

Artful Blogging    Art full Blogging Mag information
Visually Inspiring Online Journals
        I enjoy this magazine because I inspires me to take pictures I would not normally take. I took photography as a kid, developed films...black, white and yes color, learned to manipulate photos as I was developing them in the dark room.  But after getting out of high school I never touched a camera, unless I was on vacation.  what a waste! Life has so much to offer in the everyday! It's my passport into my imagination... I look, read, and dream! So I get this magazine as it feeds my soul every four months...

OK... so my next favorite mag is again another I am happy to share, would love to give this as the perfect Christmas Gift, but few in my family think the same way as I do... except my Mother's husband Bill and Daddy.

 number TWO is... Urban Farm  Urban farm online information

I don't care who you are this magazine has something in it you can try! 
Who doesn't love home grown tomatoes?
Who wouldn't enjoy a cheaper grocery bill?
Even if not any of the above, it assist you in searching out local foods so you support your local area, have better quality foods and get out!
Of course every magazine out there that has anything to do with the out doors is pushing composting! so to is this one... but it also gave me alternatives to my composting decisions.  slow, quicker, and as quickly as possible.
Balcony gardens... ?  this is all I had for YEARS... and I've been known to throw plants in the back of a uhaul if I had to.
At any rate it brings the outside challenges down to any ones level as where Hobby Farms is WAY over my head although I have a "hobby farm" expecting someone to have the perfect land, animals, fences, machinery is WAY too much for me to be challenged with.

I have six acres and an OLD gravely no one wants. Do I need to spend 12,000 dollars on a tractor? I wish I could but reality is, I'll be doing most of my work by hand, truck, horse, or gravely so reading magazines that make me feel like I have to keep up with "the Jones'" society does me no good.  so yes I like hobby farm magazine but I no longer get it as it only made me feel worse about my own inabilities.

I can do what ever this magazine has to offer.  I see its ideas and want to apply them in the small scale they are being offered for.  It helps me to dream about the expansion of my little stall barn into other things...

xmpl... using chickens to keep the bugs down on the estate.

I could use them but they would also supply us with eggs, we eat on average an egg and a half a day! It's an average.  Jerry eats ONE egg a day,every day for breakfast.   I eat several if I eat any!

This magazine is only ... like the last published only every season.  I miss having it more and maybe it will grow as time and companies allow! 

So the third mag I get... is Hobby farm HOME...Hobby farm home info...

This one is an in between magazine for me. It gives me ideas, helps with out of the box management of the estate.   BUT it gives me wonderful ideas of how to make money out of my house, or save money within my house, or how to live a little more simple life.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy the finer things in life, but going to a museum, or seeing things displayed beautifully is more rewarding to me than having to keep them clean, make sure nothing happens to them.

I live in a world... that if I am not going to use it, it needs to go!  This applies to everything from closes to fine china.  If it has no purpose, it has no place in my life.  (I will have to post my packing routines soon, as a few have asked of late.)  Although my life of fewer things is more like the rest of the world as apposed to the aggressive practices of most US citizens...
Although taking or saving less physically is starting to become more the practice of more U.S. Citizens each year. 

Personally I am not concerned with the entire world, I am simply trying to do what I can to stand on my own two feet if I need to...AND doing all I do physically is better for ME than paying for a gym membership I would never drive into town to use!  I'd love to have a membership to the Y but ? would I ever get up and go?  probably not.  So why spend the extra money when that money can go into creating a place cheaper for my horses, and then start to support me more than me it!    It's just a dream but... I'm on my way.

Rush of the Holiday!

While everyone else is rushing around, worried about having all the normally forgotten last minute items, my life is as normal and steady as any other day. We are NOT traveling to our families for the Holiday, and not even preparing any large meal for us to share. I am saving my calories for exotic foods later in the year, and I am not sure of Jerry’s reasoning. 

I took the longer way around to and from the barn today as I was afraid to get into the lines that are regular the day before Thanksgiving. There is a nice little farm store on Sugar Hollow, that provides the area with all the free range turkeys, and any other meat you prefer for the season. But with the killing, plucking and cooling of turkeys that gobbled just yesterday, people were sure to be lined up to get their lbs ordered.

It is nice knowing where your food came from, how it was raised, and how it was humanly put to rest. This little store prides it self with Cattle, Sheep, Goats, Chickens, Pigs, and Turkeys.  Note, most of cute animals on the side bar of this blog are of their animals, happy, healthy, loved and cared for. 

Not only does this farm store provide the area with abundance of meat, they have apples of all types, home made cider, soaps, locally made pottery, and other nick nacks that one might like for home and garden and the satisfaction of knowing you are supporting the locals with every purchase.



 
 
 

 

 

This little place is Hickory Nut Gap Farm, in the apple season, provides daily horse rides, petting zoo, games, along with the seasonal pumpkin picking, and corn maze. This place is truly one of those little treasures that if not venturing off the main road one would miss the wonders that could be shared with family and friends.

 
 
 
 
IF you come to the area a trip to Hickory Nut Gap Farm is one that should go on your list. As when NOT the apple season the store is open on Thursdays but if you call ahead a Horse ride (they have a variety of horses for ANY skill level , over 20 horses) can be scheduled on most days except Sunday. This place even has one of the best summer camps around offering horseback riding, clay, drawing, acting classes; it is an amazing place!