Top 10 Things We Love About Country Living

As I consider thankfulness this fall, I thought I'd do a Top 10 list of what we love about living in the country. I asked J to write his without looking at mine first!  This is a compilation of what J and I both agreed upon and wrote down in separate lists.  I could not believe the striking similarities!

The bug collector checking off his finds.

skinned knees summer 2012

 1.  at the end of every day my kids get plenty of exercise (and so do I) and we are always dirty and tired...tired and dirty! 
J--

Raising our children on land where they can run, scream, have animals, and get close to nature,

            being part of something that could link generations, having a wife that loves the country

Skeeter plays in the mud in the watering trough

2.  We eat a lot of things that we raised/grow.  There is nothing like fresh eggs and melons!

J--- Livestock/Pets-watching a hen peck around and use her beak like a surgeon uses a scalpel, smelling a horse as you hang around their neck and feel more strength than you will ever possess, watching a calf nurse and get a milky, frothy nose, feeling an egg that is still warm, watching a calf be born and standing for the first time, letting your dogs run. Wow, can't believe my man wrote that! So proud of those showing not just telling details!

blackberries!

Millie and Cay

3. Wide open spaces and fresh air make you so much happier...and you can make a lot of fun noise while screaming on your trampoline.

J's addition:  Garden-planting a tiny seed that grows into something that feeds your family, picking and eating berries, etc.

4.  No neighbors too close!  We can go out and yell (good and bad), and wear just about nothing or anything out there!
J's thoughts: 

Freedom- I can pee in my yard, I can put what I want on our land, I can shoot stuff, I can burn stuff, NO HOA or POA...this would NOT work for us. 

5.  we can have lots of junk...that comes in handy!

From J:  Tools/Equipment-riding 4 wheelers, operating tractors, skid steers, track hoes, mowers, owning a truck for a reason other than taking off the trash, having a reason to buy tools.

camping at the creek (top) gang ready to go to creek (bottom)

6. lots of critters can come and go and brighten our lives and teach us things

7.   having the falls and the creek to play at/in!

Fun with Friends at the falls

J's Thoughts:  The Creek- fishing at the creek with the family, watching the kids swing on the rope swing over the creek, exploring the waterfalls, catching snakes, frogs, toads, crawdads, etc. at the creek with the kids, building dams, playing in the sand.

even old folks swimg

 8.  Views-seeing the peaceful cattle graze and hearing them moo while I teach my children.  

J's thoughts:  seeing the stars is easier in the country because of less artificial light, seeing the sunset because there is not someone else’s house in the way, watching my children enjoy the country!

9.  Well Water and lots of Trees- drinking fresh, freezing cold water out of the spigot on a hot summer day that is being pumped from 300ft below

Trees- splitting wood by hand that you cut with a sharp STIHL chainsaw from a dead tree that was

            begging to be productive just one more time, being shielded in the backyard by your woods

            from a cold wind, being shaded by your woods on a hot day.

10.  Clearly, this addition was not mine but I see its validity.  

Training in progress

Hunting- Sitting in a deer stand freezing to death for just a glimpse of a “grey ghost” (I will

always be amazed at how a deer can magically appear like a premonition and then disappear

like smoke), watching deer that don’t know you are there, hunting squirrels with the boys, 

snow days getting pulled by the 4W

My baby girl home sweet home

Random Skeeer Funny:  On the way to school lately we've been rocking some oldies like "Do the Locomtion," "Rocking Robin," etc., and when we get near Je-Je's school he yells "STOP YOU ARE CRAZY."  Sister, yells out while getting down in her carseat, "NO SHE'S NOT!" We all just died laughing...all but Je-Je.

Summer fun

Catfish catchin!

rope swing fun!

Fishing boy!

This girl loves to ride the boat.

Chillin'

When he is mean to sister he writes what he loves about her!

When a girl has a brother sometimes babies are in danger.

Another one bites the dust.

Fun summer; I miss you today!

I love our lake couch in the pic!

Now that is a watermelon! Our largest one yet. Each year something different is great and something different fails in our garden. This was the year of watermelon and okra.

Farming and Failing

If you haven't failed at enough things in life, then you should take up farming.  We learn more lessons around here than you can find in any textbook.

"Country folks know a lot of stuff that ain't wrote down nowhere."  And, this is why I like raising my kids in the country!

We have some really funny books by Judge Roy English and I'll use some of his quotes here!

We went horseback riding and had a great time.  Later that night we were resting when we heard a loud mooing sound. They were all happily grazing many acres away as we rode, but the ONE GATE on the opposite end of the farm that we left open--they FOUND-- and then ended up in my front yard only an hour later.  When I flipped on the front porch lights is was like a seen from the show Mobbed.  The bushes that I spent the summer "saving" were trampled and eaten, but hey, the yard is greener than ever.

We go down to pick up 8 eggs with kids and then we make it home with 4.  Oh well, the dogs enjoy them.

We planted blueberry bushes near our pastures....well, the goats break out and have enjoyed those blueberries and I think I have had one.

I was standing on some soaking wet ground once and let a metal chain in my hang swing into the electric fence BY THE CHARGER.  I was shocked so bad that I got out my cell to call my neighbor and tell her in case I did not make it home...funny now...but not then.

"A rooster does the crowing while a hen does the work."  Isn't that the truth-ha!

We bought some young "hens" from someone despite that we said, "they sure do have a big comb, are you sure they are hens?"  Well, Henny and Penny became Lenny and Denny quickly and then ...J ate them.

"Don't ever name a pig you plan to eat."  Well, we did and Barbie is delicious about  twice a week!

We found a cat in our freezer--alive--after 4 hours of enjoying snacks.

Donkeys make great guardian animals...well, that rarely works out.  Ours tore up fences, fought with the horses, and stole calves she was supposed to be protecting.

We built four nice laying boxes for our chickens, only to find out that they prefer laying in the goats' hay (where eggs get trampled), and all 14 of them prefer to use the same box (must be like ladies always wanting to go to the restroom together--must be instinct).

"Stuff tends to break when it's loaned or borrowed."   We have repaired quite a few things that are not our over they years and we have never gotten back and gotten back damaged farm goods from quite a few folks!

Then, there is the garden.  So that we won't feel bad about all the stuff that coons get and that we let rot, we got a pig last year and that was a good remedy for that "failure."   It never rains enough here for good melons really, but we still keep trying and our cantaloupes really made us proud a few years.

Our lawn mower takes so much time to repair that I am seriously considering bringing the goats up to visit this summer.  "If it ain't broke, chances are it will be."  This is the mantra of my hubby!

We had some new friends over recently and the next morning I went out in the yard with the kids to find something really welcoming.  There was an enormous cow femur that was next to our sidewalk!  I suppose from the looks of it that a coyote had enjoyed it and then our dogs brought it home.  I am surprised our new friends did not go straight home.

"If at first you don't succeed, try raising rabbits..."  Maybe that is a thought for next year.

The Ladies of Spring

Dumbo....those ears are just too much!

 I don't worry much about J having affairs with other ladies, but he does love these girls. 

One of the cow J loves that came from out West.

Pretty Lady

While we were adopting Molly (the same week) this Mama lost her baby, but that has not stopped her from allowing another woman's calf to nurse.  This calf actually has 2 mamas.

Daisy-my favorite cow.

Dumbo with Gertie, her mom.

Our latest addition.

Love that bullseye

If there was plastic surgery for hefers, I am SURE that she would want these horns removed.  They just don't do anything for her.

I call her Mocha Frap

Lovin' and Lickin'

Nothing like a milk nose.  This little fella was not born too long ago, but he is growing like crazy.  No wonder!

This guy is just pitiful.  Skunky, we call him.