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Showing posts from 2013

The Year in Review

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Cliffy and his new pal Molly Magoo     Once again, it is December 31st. Once again, I say "where did the last year go?" My grandmother always said, the older you get, the faster time goes, and she was certainly right. I can not believe it is almost 2014.      So, I will do one last blog for the year, and will make it a recap of the fun and frivolity that happened here at Homeland Farm in the last 12 months! Ferg the pot belly pig came to live with us Goat on the glider, ei ei ooooo Doober dog on the well Stewbeef roasting on an open fire.. Cowboy Cliffy rides again skinny alpacas came to us from an auction a wild chupacabra came to live with us in the spring Speaking of spring, strawberry season was divine.. we were very busy all year..making jam by the case hay by the ton warmed baby pigs by the dozen.. paraded down Main Street..no really! took care of baby bunnies painted corral fences fix

I gave birth...to a book!

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Here, just in time for Christmas, is the book I wrote about 20 years ago. It is certainly a long time in coming, but it is here and I am celebrating! (Note the bubbly). SO in honor of the release of my published short stories...a little poem...Ahem..  Twas three days before Christmas,   and all through the farm,   Champagne was a flowing,   And doing no harm.   The book it was done,   a reason to party,   the author just hoped,   she would look like a smarty.   She wrote of horses,and pigs   riding, and chickens,   Ok, so it is pretty simple reading,   and certainly not Dickens.    But give it out as a present,    the author surely does plan,    Christmas is near,    and it is probably better then jam..    So the children all snuggle    deep in their beds,    and hope that the sequel,    won't fill them with dread.    'Cause the next funny book will be,     about Brogan, Cameron and Liam,     featuring flying squirrels, and half dead bats,    and

Middle of the Night Musings by a Menopausal Mainer

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       Ahh, menopause..you are such a hag. My sleeping habits have not been my own since I turned 50. I used to fall into bed and sleep like the proverbial log all night, back in the day. Now, I am hot flashing, and tossing and turning all night, every night.       It is the same thing about every evening. I go to bed chilly, with cold feet as the floors in this old farmhouse are always cold. I slide into bed, and sigh a happy sigh as the electric blanket has done its job.      "Ahh, nice and warm," says I..at that moment. The Doober dog (Annalee) will usually come in and join me on the bed, and I shove my cold feet under her butt, as that is the quickest way to warm them up. I fall into blissful slumber, and soon hear Cliffy come in to join us. We push and shove the dog pile around to make room for him, although I often feel like the innkeeper in Bethlehem, telling him there is no room at the inn. Umm..my toes are lower, dog..       We have one dog, Annalee or Doober

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

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  Ahh the holidays, my favorite time of the year. It is easy for me to say that since I am inside cooking, cleaning and doing other domestic goddess stuff, while the rest of the kinfolk are OUTSIDE during the cold and snowy mess. I have long retired from the daily "chores", now leaving that to the other more able bodied folk here at Homeland Farm. Besides, BLOG I MUST! But, oh man, I have been terrible at this. Liam-pro snow shoveler Cliffy hauling poo, a cold winter job Brogan hauling sawdust, while I take pictures..(someone had to do it!) Ree Drummond, my personal blogging hero, does such a great job. She blogs every day, often many times. It certainly isn't that I don't have much to say, as I am well known to never shut up really..but it seems hard for me to make time to plant my bum in my computer chair long enough to get an update down for all in cyberspace to read. I like to blame it on my newly evolving dialysis schedule (see KIDNEY K

# NEVERSLEEPING AGAIN

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     I don't have a twitter account, but I sometimes think of the random stuff that happens to me, and how it would be a "fun read". If you have been following my blog, you know the kind of "random stuff" I am talking about. Not sure, oh..well, let me give you a small example.       I went to bed tonight at 8 pm, as I was tired after a long day. I am pretty sure I was asleep in 2 minutes. I was awoken, ummm no, I was JOLTED out of bed 2 hours later by a SCREAM beside me. Ya know that term, "blood curdling"? Let's just say, my blood is sufficiently curdled.        I bolted upright, and snapped on the light, expecting the worst. I think I kept saying "What?? What?? What???" over and over again in fear and dread.         I look at Cliffy beside me, who has his arms up in the air in defensive mode saying.."Horses were going to fall on me or something..." and then rolled over to FALL.BACK.ASLEEP.         So, if I were going to &

Fall is upon us

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      Cliffy and Mabel, our free range draft Holy smoke, where did summer go?? I think it seemed even shorter then usual this year as it was such a rainy year. I managed to spend most of it on the road going to dialysis training, or so it seemed. Made the 4 "off days" extra busy as I tried to cram 7 days worth of work into 4. Funny how much you find out you do when you don't think you do much.        The kids are back to school, or should I say kid. I am down to one child still in school, and he is in seventh grade this year. Hard to believe..Makes me feel O-L-D. Liam enjoys school though, and that makes it easy for me. He is very prompt and organized, unlike his mother. I don't even have to make his lunch, or get him up. He has to get ME up, if he needs papers signed or we have a teacher meeting. Did I say O-L-D? That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Liam on the first day of school         Cameron and Brogan have both returned home to live..(all

Mabel

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       I awoke the other night for a quick bathroom run, and ended up sitting there for an hour while I penned this poem. I have to say the poem turned out well, but it wasn't pretty when I went to stand up an hour later. I almost tore the skin off my bum, and I swear there was a deep line ringing my nether regions for a couple hours later. Gives new meaning to "a ring around the moon." So, without further ado..my latest nocturnal ramblings...                                       Mabel              Mabel is a Belgian horse              who came to us one day,              scared and hungry and of course              really wanting hay.              We took her in as anyone would               if you have a heart at all,               and lead her to the big horse barn               where she quickly picked her stall.                          Mabel is a big old horse,              the biggest we've ever seen,              she is missing lots of weigh

A Soggy, hoggy summer

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A beautiful rainbow after MORE RAIN        What can I say..So far the summer of 2013 has been a lousy one for us folks in Maine. We have had rain, followed by showers, followed by torrential downpours ALL SUMMER! Now, I am certainly a fan of everything being nice and green, but it is starting to look like a rainforest around the old farm. The corral is a swampy mess, the weeds have taken over my flower beds, and we have a bumper crop of mosquitoes from all the standing water pooled up around the place. The only creatures that seem to enjoy all the watery, mucky mess are of course the pigs...they can't get enough. Happy as a pig in...MUD!           The pot bellied pigs are loving the water holes to wallow in at their leisure, and they have been doing plenty of that. The humans are not so enamored with the muck, as it makes for difficult manure cart pushing!            I should mention that when it is not rainy, damp, and cool, it has been almost one hundred degrees out.