Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[Beekissed]

Wow that sounded so wrong

I had to reread it. You did WHAT with your mom?

I'm so special....

Well...when it's time, it's time. It's either that or put them out to pasture until they die on the hoof. *sigh*

 

[Tomtommom]

If you only knew how many deer she has gutted, skinned and processed....literally hundreds. And chickens as well. She had 9 kids and started...mind you...started homesteading when she was my age (48) with 3 kids still in their teens and one still in grade school(me!). We moved back to a place in the woods with no house or utilities and built simple log homes, carried water from a spring at first and later from a hand dug well and they didn't get electricity back there until 12 yrs later and still didn't have plumbing. Grew all our own foods, harvested from the woods, had livestock, etc.

She would can up to 500 qts of food each year on a wood cookstove..in the heat of summer. You have no idea how much of a hero this lady is to me. At 79 she line dances and square dances several times a week, does all her own lawn maintenance...3 acres of meadow, a quarter mile driveway through the woods and pathways back through the 15 acres of land. She weedeats, mows, prunes and clears the deadwood~has her own chainsaw. She won't even let me do any of it, she loves it that much...although she does let me use the chainsaw and the woodsplitter now.

She also does her own roofing, home repairs such as plumbing and electrical wiring and basic car maintenance and detailing. No one can detail a car like she can.

They don't make 'em like that any more...that model has become obsolete and will be forever out of production. Yeah...she's MY hero too!

There's hope for me yet!

I'm 31... I think (seriously, I stopped counting after 25. What does it matter anymore? lol) I've always had the 'dream'. Grew up seeking out farmlife.. my mom had an allotment for veggies, but we had no livestock. Asked my mom for chickens and a pot belly pig, well into my teens. I was convinced I could make it work in an apartment.

Worked at the petting zoo, mucking stalls and coops.

Well, so far I am baking my own bread, raising chickens, growing a garden... I hope to learn to hunt in the coming years. I learned to 'can' jam and jelly as a kid, but it's not the American method, so I want/need to learn that one, as my mom's method is only good for fruit. When younger we got raw milk from a farmer friend, so we did the whole 'churning butter and cream at home' thing. I was handy with a hammer and a saw (didn't have a dad around, so you learn 'guy stuff'). Learned to solder and work with power tools in high school (do they do that in US high schools?) Got a bit of a basis to go on, but there is SO much to learn still. But if she could do it at 48, heck, I got some time to spare.

I want to grow up and be like your mom

 

[Beekissed]

Me too.

I'll never achieve what she has in her lifetime, though more than most in my generation...but I'll never be the woman she is, no matter how long I live. She's simply amazing and I feel honored to have even met her. She's a real sweety pie too...good travel companion, good friend, good work partner (she actually works circles around me because I'm too fat and stoved up now, so it's a little embarrassing), good mother. What there is to know about kids she's already forgotten but still knows more than most everyone else...she had nine and also helped raise the many grandkids.

There's hope for anyone if they just inject a little steel in their spines and common sense in their heads...that's what she has the most of, but she also has a servant's heart, and that is just as valuable. She has learned to be content with the things she cannot change and to work steadily past the things she can. It's a dying art but was more common back in her day.

 

[JerseyHen]

If you only knew how many deer she has gutted, skinned and processed....literally hundreds. And chickens as well. She had 9 kids and started...mind you...started homesteading when she was my age (48) with 3 kids still in their teens and one still in grade school(me!). We moved back to a place in the woods with no house or utilities and built simple log homes, carried water from a spring at first and later from a hand dug well and they didn't get electricity back there until 12 yrs later and still didn't have plumbing. Grew all our own foods, harvested from the woods, had livestock, etc.

She would can up to 500 qts of food each year on a wood cookstove..in the heat of summer. You have no idea how much of a hero this lady is to me. At 79 she line dances and square dances several times a week, does all her own lawn maintenance...3 acres of meadow, a quarter mile driveway through the woods and pathways back through the 15 acres of land. She weedeats, mows, prunes and clears the deadwood~has her own chainsaw. She won't even let me do any of it, she loves it that much...although she does let me use the chainsaw and the woodsplitter now.

She also does her own roofing, home repairs such as plumbing and electrical wiring and basic car maintenance and detailing. No one can detail a car like she can.

They don't make 'em like that any more...that model has become obsolete and will be forever out of production. Yeah...she's MY hero too!

Well, you be sure to tell her that she has a fan club now and that we look up to her. Grit, that is what she has! She should write a how to do it manual, I bet she has tons of tips that would benefit many.

 

[Beekissed]

Well, you be sure to tell her that she has a fan club now and that we look up to her. Grit, that is what she has! She should write a how to do it manual, I bet she has tons of tips that would benefit many.

I will! Just today she decided she might like to take horse riding lessons...said she always loved horses but just never had the chance to do anything much with them. Dad would never have allowed it anyway, but now he's in a facility with dementia so she's done all kinds of things she was never allowed to do. She learned to drive at 75, used her first ATM card the year after that, and gets to finally go to the library and have a library card any time she wants now. There's no telling what she will learn and do next...she was thinking about taking computer courses.

I'm only here to be her companion as she learns new things and to stand back and marvel!

 

[JerseyHen]

I will! Just today she decided she might like to take horse riding lessons...said she always loved horses but just never had the chance to do anything much with them. Dad would never have allowed it anyway, but now he's in a facility with dementia so she's done all kinds of things she was never allowed to do. She learned to drive at 75, used her first ATM card the year after that, and gets to finally go to the library and have a library card any time she wants now. There's no telling what she will learn and do next...she was thinking about taking computer courses.

I'm only here to be her companion as she learns new things and to stand back and marvel!

Amazing! She could have an online blog! I would follow it for sure.

 

[Tomtommom]

Amazing indeed. And I know just what it's like, to feel so free.

I lived with my mom 'til I was 22. She meant well, but was extremely bad about smothering folks... Then one year I flew across the Atlantic all by myself. Mind you, I had never been away from home more than a few days (and those were things like summer camp), or been on a plane! Never been to a bar, or stayed out past 10, never learned to drive... I was very, very sheltered.

Freedom .... it's a wonderful thing. Can't put a price on it.

Ofcourse my young and clueless self got married and ended up with a new control freak, this time in the shape of a husband

Ah, well... Learned my lesson after six years of marriage. Learned to drive, got a good job, lost a lot of weight and I was free once more! (and then I met someone new, had kids yada yada. But, he's respectful and enjoys growing and learning together. He loves the chickens and all my crazy wild plans)

Ya know.. I always wanted to ride a horse.

 

[Happy Chooks]

If you only knew how many deer she has gutted, skinned and processed....literally hundreds. And chickens as well. She had 9 kids and started...mind you...started homesteading when she was my age (48) with 3 kids still in their teens and one still in grade school(me!). We moved back to a place in the woods with no house or utilities and built simple log homes, carried water from a spring at first and later from a hand dug well and they didn't get electricity back there until 12 yrs later and still didn't have plumbing. Grew all our own foods, harvested from the woods, had livestock, etc.

She would can up to 500 qts of food each year on a wood cookstove..in the heat of summer. You have no idea how much of a hero this lady is to me. At 79 she line dances and square dances several times a week, does all her own lawn maintenance...3 acres of meadow, a quarter mile driveway through the woods and pathways back through the 15 acres of land. She weedeats, mows, prunes and clears the deadwood~has her own chainsaw. She won't even let me do any of it, she loves it that much...although she does let me use the chainsaw and the woodsplitter now.

She also does her own roofing, home repairs such as plumbing and electrical wiring and basic car maintenance and detailing. No one can detail a car like she can.

They don't make 'em like that any more...that model has become obsolete and will be forever out of production. Yeah...she's MY hero too!

WOW, she's super woman!

 

[Happy Chooks]

In a little over a week with meaties, I've discovered some things. First, EcoGlows don't work too well with them. Actually, for heat, they work beautifully. Problem is, they got on top of it and poop about 5 times the amount of a normal chicken, then lay in it. YUCK! So today, I've switched them to a low wattage heat lamp. 2nd, I'm not up for cleaning the brooder every 2 days..............did I mention how much they poop? So shavings just weren't cutting it. In 2 days they had a solid poop trail by the feeders and waterer.

They now have a nice, super absorbent horse pellet bedding. My friend that split the order with me did this, and she said it's working wonderfully.

 

[Tomtommom]

In a little over a week with meaties, I've discovered some things. First, EcoGlows don't work too well with them. Actually, for heat, they work beautifully. Problem is, they got on top of it and poop about 5 times the amount of a normal chicken, then lay in it. YUCK! So today, I've switched them to a low wattage heat lamp. 2nd, I'm not up for cleaning the brooder every 2 days..............did I mention how much they poop? So shavings just weren't cutting it. In 2 days they had a solid poop trail by the feeders and waterer.

They now have a nice, super absorbent horse pellet bedding. My friend that split the order with me did this, and she said it's working wonderfully.

My non-meaties are also spending more time ON the thing than under the thing.

Mmmm crusty poop cakes.