Life on a Homestead Part 2

After writing part 1 of this post, I read Peggy's blog that day. She had "one of those days" at her homestead. You can read about it here.

There is another side to this story which many of the comments on the other blog brought up. Ginny told me that she felt the romanticizing is what keeps you going in the hard times. I agree. There is just something about sitting down to the table and eating a meal that came totally from your hands and farm. It is satisfying in a way that is very hard to describe to someone. There are lots of other joys as well. Melanie made a post a while back saying a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are some pictures of the joys of homesteading. I will add words to some of them though. =)

Have you ever held a baby lamb, felt it's soft nappy wool, smelled the lanolin?

Sunshine (the Mama in this picture) was the only white lamb born that year on her farm. I can still remember the thrill when my husband came in one morning and told me that Sunshine had her babies. I went running out to see them. They were 2 white ewes. I went around the rest of the day singing ... "Two white ewes, two white ewes, Sunshine gave me two white ewes" to the tune of three blind mice.
McCoy and his women.
Have you ever had an animal that was so glad to see you that they hopped up to be near you?

Have you ever gotten to see the miracle of birth? Then to see the miracle of a brand new baby try to stand and wobble its way to its mother teats? Who can see that and not believe in a God.
Who could not love this little guy. He was really tiny. His mother rejected him and we bottle fed him. Our dog, Belle, adopted him as her own. She was so funny to watch.
Have you ever tried to ride a cow? This was Buttercup's first calf. She and Joshua were best buds.
Look at those faces. They think you are their mom or dad and they follow you around goosing you in the rear end looking for a teat. I have had them follow me all the way across a pasture doing that. I just knew the neighbors were watching and laughing.
Have you ever received a box full of chicks in the mail? Their constant peeping drives the people at the post office crazy. They prefer that you come and pick them up early. They are so tiny and soft and fluffy. Our dogs LOVE them. Star really loves them and trembles with excitement as soon as she hears them. That is her in the first picture above.
Have you ever had to go out and find a calf hiding in tall grass? They lay really still and they are very hard to find. This little one just stood up because she knew she had been spotted (pun intended).
I still remember the joy of finding our very first egg. It is still exciting to find eggs. Especially these days as an egg is a rare commodity.
Here is one little goat taking her bottle. It is fun to feed four at at time. You hear all this sucking noise and see all the little tails going back and forth like crazy.
There are some hard things to do on a farm. There are days you keep praying end soon. It is hard to lose an animal to death. However, there is great joy and I wouldn't want to live any other way. I think it is a wonderful way to raise children.