Life at Homeland Farm

     I have been writing my blog now for just over a year, and I have to say it has been very interesting. The website I use, BLOGSPOT, lets you read your "stats" regarding your blog and they tell you all sorts of interesting facts about your readers. For example, what country your readers live in, how many readers have ever read your blog, how often they read your blog, how they find it etc.      I am proud to say I have a huge following in Latvia. I had to ask my son where the heck Latvia even is. Yes, there are 28 people in Latvia that love reading "Life at Homeland Farm." Huge following, I tell you! Actually, I am quite popular in all of Europe. Germany, Great Britain, France, Ukraine all host readers of my blog. Of course, they could all fit around my dining room table, but it is interesting to think of them reading about my crazy stories.      That is not counting my Russian friends. My second largest readership after...

  I know the calender says it is spring, but here in Maine it sure has not felt very spring like. So, I found a few videos that will hopefully help sustain your spirits until June. Please forgive the person doing the filming. Chances are she will cough, sneeze, shake, or forget the camera is even running. Thank you for watching.

Is this the face of someone easily embarrassed?       If you have read many of my blogs, you may have picked up on a theme, or pattern, of sorts. It seems that I have a certain talent for unintentionally embarrassing myself, and others in my circle of friends and relatives. It is a miracle anyone will be seen with me, in public or at home.        You remember the story of my cousin Zenya and I slapping the cop at the fourth of July parade. Well, I slapped him, Zenya was my "accomplice", as it were. I think that was one of the last times she went to the parade with me. Odd.         Then of course, there was the time I totally embarrassed myself by slamming a nice old farmer on the noggin with my tailgate. Knocked him right off his feet. He was very gracious about it, but as they say in many magazine columns .."WAS MY FACE RED!"          I was equally em...

Nanny and her calf     My grandmother, Althea Green Smith Crook was a wonderful, kind woman. Nanny, as we grand kids called her,  had a calm, good natured  way about her, and was very well liked by all that knew her. She had a delightful sense of humor, and I don't believe she could have been mean tempered if she wanted to. I just don't think she was capable. She was, in my opinion, as kind and humble a woman as there ever lived.    Which brings me to the initials at the top of my blog. W.W.N.D, as you may have already guessed, stands for "What would Nanny do", my own personal take on the famous W.W.J.D, which of course is "What would Jesus do."     I try, and I emphasize the word 'try', to live my life in the way that my grandmother did. I am not trying to BE her, nor do I think anyone should, as everyone is their own person, and has their own personality and traits. What I do think is that if everyone were more like her, in the w...

  Time for a new poem. I know you are scared, and you should be. Here we go...               Spring on the Farm    Spring is near,    and makes me cheer,    and I am not a hog.    If I were a hog,    I know I would log,    many hours in a mud hole.    If I were a horse,    I'd need to be brushed,    spring means shedding, and shedding and shedding of    course.     If I were a calf,or maybe a    cow,    my cud I would chew,    along side the sow.          If I were a goat,     I'd go here and there,     and shoulder, nary a care.    If I were a boar,    I know I would snore,    sleeping the day away.        If I were ...

Digging in! Poor thin alpacas       Homeland Farm has been a hopping joint lately. We have had a lot of critters arriving that need a good meal, and some that have had plenty of good meals, but needed a new place to stay. We had a whole herd of Alpacas arrive that fall into the former category.        The poor 'pacas are just skin and bones, suffering from extreme neglect. They are still cute and friendly, despite their rough past. They are so sweet, and are cute to watch. They look like a bunch of camels (minus the spitting), and when they eat, they hum and make little baby sounds. They enjoy their grain and beet pulp, as we start trying to get them back up to proper weight. Did you say you have FOOD?         We also have three big ole hogs, two females and one male. The girls are called Petunia and Penelope, and the big boar is Pig Newton. They were in a small pen and were...

Cliffy and a much more well behaved Standardbred- Sabre     I went to the doctor 3 months ago for a very painful ankle. She ordered an x ray of the offending ankle. Later, when we meet at her office, she tells me that the x ray was not clear enough to really show her what was going on. Time for an MRI. I endured the MRI, (no fun, by the way)  and return to the office a month later. Hmmm....might need to now have a cat scan, to absolutely show whats going on in there. I was pretty sure the MRI would do that, but off I went for the cat scan.      Back to her office. Again. Dr says 'well, I'd  really like you to go see another doctor.' WHAT THE!! Yes, apparently it looks like I need to have surgery, but she is not quite sure "how much" surgery, so she wants to get another doctors opinion. Does that make me feel all confident in my choice of physician?? Umm..NO!       While I was sitting on her exam table this last...

        I had an interesting trip to the pharmacy the other day..Well, I thought I was in the pharmacy. By the time I got out of the aisle 5, I wasn't sure if I was in the grocery store, a local bar, or on vacation. Let me explain.        I was in need of a fresh bottle of body wash, so I moseyed into the local pharmacy, found my aisle and then, got lost. Well, I wasn't really lost, but it felt like it. I stood in front of the vast array of bottles, and was overwhelmed.       First of all, do we really need row after row of choices? I remember having a choice of "Ivory" or "Zest". Now, I had so many choices I almost forgot what I went in for by the time I left. A bottle in every size, shape and color stared back at me from the vast rows of liquid soap. Then, came the names. This is where it went crazy.       I really wasn't sure what I should do with most of them. Somehow bathing with them seemed all wron...