"Tails" From The Farm Part 13

You can start reading part 1 here.

Not all the “tails” on this farm end in merriment though. We met the Jones’, people who lived in the area that had goats. They showed their goats and had quite a reputation as top breeders. Mr. and Mrs. Jones both had some health issues for a time. We and another family took over doing their chores for them for a couple of months. Joshua and I would go in the mornings and another family would go in the evenings. Michael always helped out when he was home as well. We were happy to be able to help. They did things a bit different than we did them. They were quick to give all vaccinations, or to give medications quickly instead of trying natural ways. We usually tried the natural ways first and then used medications as a last resort. We did or do no regular vaccinations on our animals. We have never had a problem though. If we did, we might do what was needed to prevent that problem. Anyway, the Jones tried to find ways to give back to us. Mr. Jones had a great reputation for trimming goats hooves. We asked if he would be able to come over and show Michael the proper way to do them. They both came over and Michael got a good lesson in how to trim properly. The Jones were talkers. We are talkers. We all stood outside talking and talking and talking. We did not know what night they were supposed to come. So, when they showed up we had all been doing something. I had been steam juicing grapes from our vines and making grape juice. I used a steam juicer that looked like this. (By the way, I will be carrying these in our store.) You put water in the bottom pan and let it boil. The fruit goes in the top part of the pan which has a bottom like a colander. Then there is a cone that rises up in the middle part that allows the steam from the water to come up and steam the fruit. The juice drips down into the middle section and you siphon it off with the tube into jars. It is a great tool to have in your kitchen. There are cautions all over the book though that tells you to NOT LET THE BOTTOM POT BOIL DRY!!!! So, here we are outside talking and talking. I smelled something, but still never thought anything of it. Then someone mentioned they smelled something burning. We looked at the house and smoke was pouring out of the kitchen. It was at that second that I remembered what I had been doing when they arrived. We went running inside and there was a HUGE mess. Someone had given us an old electric stove. We had wired an outlet for it. The juicer pans themselves were stainless steel. The bottom pan had an extra layer on the bottom outside that was aluminum to keep an even heat. It had melted onto the stove burner, the bottom pot was totally dry and the grapes in the top part were crispy. Any juice that had been in the middle section was ruined or evaporated. I was half sick about the pan. It was ruined or at least the bottom portion was. Since then I have bought another one and I am almost comical at how many times I open the bottom up to check it or to top it off with water. I learned that lesson well.

We had bred our goats again. We liked to have April babies. It has warmed up some in April, but there is no real fly problem yet. April can be a very fun month here on the farm. Baby chicks, baby goats, baby lambs, baby cows…. It is a good time to visit if you love baby animals. Ellie, the goat, had been acting strange all day. I could see no real signs of labor, but she laid around and made funny little noises. She usually took everything in stride. She was our miracle goat after all. After it happened on and off all day, I decided to call Mrs. Jones that evening just to ask some questions. It was already about 8:30 PM or so. She insisted that they come right on over. I tried to talk her out of it, but she really wanted to help. We saw them pull up and we all went out to the barn to meet them. Right away she wanted to go inside her and check out her cervix. That was the way that they did their goats and I had no problem with it, but something inside me told me that it wasn’t a good idea. However, I kept quiet because she really did know a lot more about goats than I did. She checked her and said she was not dilated at all and would not be having a baby that evening. Do you remember how I said they talked and talked? Well that happened again. After talking for awhile, Mrs. Jones looked over and saw Ellie doing what I had described to her. She watched her for a few minutes and decided she better check her again. I had stronger misgivings about this time, but still kept quiet because I did not want to insult her. However, I am telling you, if you are ever in a situation like that, SPEAK YOUR MIND!! I should have and regret it to this day. She went inside and checked her again and still nothing. However, I think all the messing around down there started some premature labor. Since the cervix was not dilated the only thing making it through and coming out was a sack of water. Things went from bad to worse and they had to birth 3 kids by forcefully pulling them out. Poor Ellie, our dear sweet miracle goat who stood and ate grain while being stitched, screamed and writhed in pain. The three kids all lived, but it was like all the sparkle went out of Ellie. We pampered her the best we could and tried to tempt her with little treats. She would just stand and stare. A couple of days later, I had another friend who had goats come with her dear sweet daughter who wanted to be a veterinarian. As we went to put Ellie up on the stanchion to look at her, it became obvious that she had a bad infection. We got the vet to give us some antibiotics to give her. She did recover, but she never showed the spunk that she once did. All the lessons we learned in this journey were learned the hard way. This one unfortunately was hard for one of our animals as well.

Michael and Joshua had gone out to the back of our property which was up in the woods. They were gathering firewood for our winter supply. The two of them were up there working and there were a lot of mice running around the wood pile. Star was with them and she was chasing every mouse she saw. Michael saw one of the mice right by Joshua’s foot and then all of a sudden it disappeared. Joshua made a noise and Michael looked up to see a shocked look on his face. In fact, he told me that he wished I could have seen the look as it was priceless. Joshua reached down and quickly grabbed his leg. It became clear to his Dad that the mouse had run up Joshua’s pant leg. He had it trapped about knee level. He asked what he should do. Michael told him to “drop em”. =) Michael grabbed on and held the mouse in place while Joshua dropped his drawers right there in the woods. The mouse was not so lucky. In his panic, Joshua had squeezed the little bugger a bit too tight.

This story reminds me of another one that happened while we lived in that house. My dear sweet husband would get up VERY early every morning to drive 1.75 hours to go to work. He is a very loving man and he very willingly and uncomplainingly drove that far every day so that we could live on a farm. He also let us sleep in. One morning I woke up to hear this loud pounding. I was a bit disoriented coming out of a deep sleep. As I came to the surface, I could still hear it. Someone was pounding on something and they were pounding very hard. I got up to go investigate. There stood Michael in the kitchen totally dressed except his pants which were in his hand. I asked him what was going on. He said he was getting dressed back in the bedroom and he had heard a sound. It sounded like a fly caught in a cobweb. He looked around for it, but could not find it. He said no matter where in our room he went he could hear it. Then he went out in the kitchen to get his coffee. He heard it our there too. He realized it must be on him somewhere. Then he felt a tickle on his leg and he reached down and there was a big bump on his leg inside his pants. It was a big bumble bee. We all have something that is our one main thing that we just “don’t do”. For some people it is snakes, for others it is spiders, for Michael it is bees. He was out of those pants quicker than a flash and the pounding had been him making sure that the bee would not crawl out of there alive. =) This story like so many of our other stories was later told to his co-workers or family. They all get a kick out of the “city slickers turned farmers” stories.

Have you ever taken a drive out in the country and all of a sudden there is a strong manure smell? Many times it is because farmers will take the manure from their barns and put it in manure spreaders and take it out and apply it to their fields as fertilizer. Even though we live out in the country, it is not a smell you ever get used to. One morning on his way to work, a farmer was out spreading manure on his fields in the early hours of the day. He had crossed the road from his barn to his field. There was a lot of manure on the road. Michael drove right through and never thought a thing about it. When he got to work, he got out of his car and smelled manure. He figured someone must have been spreading manure around there as well. After he got a short way away from the car, the smell went away. It was on the car from where he drove through it. He wondered how many of those city people figured out where that smell was coming from. He gets teased a lot anyway and called Farmer Blue!!

"Tails" From The Farm Part 12

You can start reading part 1 here.

We had to put up a fence around our garden. The cows got out occasionally, and Star was not trained to stay out of it. We found someone getting rid of some chain link fencing. We went and got it and cobbled together a fence. It was nice having the garden so close to pasture. You could throw tasty morsels to the chickens while you were weeding or picking produce. The bad part is that all the animals were in the same pasture. If I had a particularly large pile of stuff for the chickens, I would just wait until I was done and walk it over to them. I would walk to the fence and call out, “Here chick, chick, chick!” All the chickens would come running, all the goats would come running and the cows would come running. The whole barnyard would sit there and stare at you. If it was something really good like apple peels or apples that had gotten shriveled, Buttercup declared her Queenship and knocked everyone else out of the way. I was never able to train the goats and cows that they were not chickens.

Speaking of gardens reminds me of our “miracle corn” story. This actually happened while we still lived in Florida. Michael planted corn in our garden in Florida. He worked just 7 mins. away so he would come home for lunch. After lunch, we would go out and walk through the garden. His corn was not coming up very well. There were maybe 3 or 4 corn plants total. He was really bummed. One day, my son and I were at Lowes. I had never seen corn plants for sale with the veggies before that day and have not seen them since that day. However, they had corn plants. We bought a bunch, ran home planted them and tried to smooth the dirt and hide the plastic trays they came in. We went out after lunch to stroll through the garden. I had to walk a few steps behind him, because I was having trouble keeping the smile off of my face. When he got out there and saw the corn, he said in a voice full of disbelief and excitement, "Marci, LOOK at the corn!!!!" I said, "WOW, you've got to be kidding me!!" in my best surprised voice. He turned and looked at me, then at the corn and then at me again. He then said, "You brat." with a big grin on his face. We call it his miracle corn. We did not have enough room to plant corn in the garden at this house, so we just bought it from local people.

One day Buttermilk, the calf got out. Just Joshua and I were home. How she got out of the fence, we didn’t know. It was a 6 strand high tensile wire fence that was electric. She headed up the hill toward the back of the property. Joshua tried to go up around her to herd her back, but if he got anywhere near her, she took off further. He went and got an empty feed bucket and brought it out. At that time our cows were still grain fed. He went out toward the back and called her name. She turned and looked at him. She saw that bright blue bucket and literally charged at him. I was out there watching this wondering what he was going to do. I could not believe he just stood there because she was running very fast and right at him. He just stood his ground. She stopped right in front of him and put her head in the empty bucket. He grabbed her control halter and walked her back through the barn and put her back in. She went out in the pasture and we watched her. She went up to the fence and stepped right through it. It moved enough to let her out and she was off again. I did not think that the bucket trick would work again since he did not have any grain for her. He called her again and held up the bucket. She charge him again and the same scenario happened. This time we stuck her in a stall that did not have pasture access and waited for Michael to come home and test the fence. It ended up that it was unhooked in one spot, so it was not electrified. He fixed the fence and tested it all the way around. We got her out of the stall and put her back in the pasture. She looked at us and sauntered up to the back and started to go through the fence again and ZAP!! She turned around and found her Mom and started grazing. =)

She was still very spoiled. Joshua would go out in the pasture and she would come and find him. He would sit down and not look at her. She would nudge him in the back with her nose until he got up and started scratching her neck (her favorite scratching place). Oh, she enjoyed those scratches.
Here she is nudging him while he is trying to pay attention to Shiloh.
It got her what she wanted.. aaahhh, that feels so good!!!!
He loved playing with her.


Buttercup had calved again. It was a little bull calf that was half angus. We were going to raise him up for meat. His name was T-Bone. We bottle fed him. He went in another pen. We had learned with Buttermilk and we did not want another calf that never forgot how to nurse. We also got a couple of other jersey steers from a local jersey dairy farm. We were going to raise them up at the same time and sell them to pay for ours. After a short time of bottle feeding them, we trained them to the bucket. The 2 pure jerseys caught on really quickly, but T-Bone had issues. He would suck on your finger and you would slowly lower your finger into the milk and he would start sucking away and drinking the milk. However, if you did not hide your hands and he happened to see your fingers, he would immediately raise his head and try to grab your finger thinking that was how he got milk. If you have ever been around a calf drinking milk, you will know that they are a bit slimy with all the milk. He would get it all over you as you would once again, lower your finger into the milk. Then you would have to take your hand away really quick and put it behind you. =) Even then sometimes his head would come up and he would be looking for that finger. We had put 3 t-posts out in the yard. We would bring the calves out one by one and hook them to a post. Then we would bring their milk buckets. Oh, you should have seen the milk dance. They would start dancing side to side with their heads bobbing up and down. They could not wait to dive in the milk bucket. It was so fun to watch. This also kept them very tame and they would come to us. Here are a couple of pictures of T-Bone.


We started a 4-H club. Joshua decided that he was going to raise a market hog. We had no idea what to shoot for and what to expect. We asked a few questions and went in search of a hog. We started working on a pig area up behind the current pasture. If you ever build a pig pen or an area for pigs, keep in mind that you want to be able to back the truck or trailer right up to the pen for easy loading. We did not keep this in mind. Remember in the story above about Blackie, that the area between the garden and the pasture was narrow and there were trees in it. We could not get close to the pen with a vehicle. Getting the pig up there would be no problem, because he would be small enough to carry. We did not think beyond that. We had read of one farmer who kept his pigs in with one electric wire. We were not that sure about it, so we put up 3 strands of electric wire. The shelter was all ready, but we did not have the fencing quite in place when we brought the hog home. We had stock panels and made a pen in the front yard. A stock panel is 16 feet long and these were about 5 feet high. It was pretty heavy to lift. We connected the corners to make a pen, added a tarp over one corner for shade and put the hog in there. We were going to finish the fence and get him in his new pen the next afternoon.

The next morning was Sunday. We were up fairly early. I looked outside in the yard and did not see the pig in the pen. I asked Joshua if he had moved him. He said no, so we went out to look. Sure enough that pig was GONE!!! We were not sure what to do, but we fanned out and started looking for him. Up behind the pasture and on one side of it was a field of high weeds. Star heard him in there and alerted us. Michael went up the back way and Joshua and I went around front. We were trying to figure exactly where in the weeds he was. Then I happened to look down and saw him crossing the road and heading down our neighbors driveway. This particular neighbor, Mr Beeman had planted a whole forest of pine trees on the front of his property. He lived way near the back of the property. I hollered to the guys and told them where he was. Joshua and I were closer, so we headed down the driveway after the pig. Joshua went off into the woods on the left and was coming up that way. We tried to get Star to do and herd it toward us, and she took off running toward the pig. When she got there, and the pig did not run, she just gave him a lick and sauntered off looking for things in the woods. I finally got up and around the pig. He was looking at me and I was trying to distract him so that Joshua could sneak up from behind. Now remember this is VERY early on a Sunday morning. I told Joshua if he got a hold of him to NOT LET GO for anything. He lunged and caught a back leg. From that second on that pig SCREAMED!!! It did not grunt, it did not squeal, it SCREAMED!!!! Michael was coming up the driveway and he and Joshua took turns hugging and lugging this pig home. He was still small, but he was no light weight. His scream was almost deafening to me, so I can’t imagine having him right there against your chest. He took short breathes, but did not stop his screaming until we put him in a stall in the barn. Then the silence was deafening.

We fixed his fence that afternoon and went to put him in. All the animals came up to that end of the pasture and were watching. It was like a scene out of Babe. Even most of the chickens were staring like they were all wondering what in the world this new animal was. He again screamed the entire time they held him. We put him in the pen and quick put on the electricity. He went over to the fence and got zapped and he squealed. He did it again and squealed. Then he backed up and charged and he was out again. We went through the same scenario. We had to follow him and catch him. We put him in the barn again and went and bought some hog fence. We put that up and thought the problem was solved. He rooted out from underneath it. We had to catch him again. Joshua and I went and got some tent stakes and put them all around the bottom of his fence. He was finally contained. Joshua named him Houdini. =) Here are some pictures of Houdini.

For the fair, they wanted lean long hogs. Taste was not an issue. Many of the young people would take their pigs on walks. We had a neighbor that gave us some tips. After, Houdini had gotten used to Joshua for awhile, he decided to start trying to walk him. When you are in the show ring, you have to walk your hog around the whole time the judge is in the ring. You use a cane to steer your pig. You have to train the pig to respond to the cane. If you pat the pig on the left side, you are trying to get him to go more to the right. We all got ready for the first attempt. Star wanted in on the excitement. Joshua had his cane and swung open the gate. Star was waiting outside the gate. Houdini saw the opening and took off. Well, Star thought he was after her and she took off with Houdini hot on her heels. It was hysterical. After a bit the hog veered off another direction and Star breathed a sigh of relief. Joshua was in hot pursuit. The hog ran all through our woods. It finally got tired and then Joshua was able to start training it to the cane. For most of his training, that is how it happened. The pig would run until he was tired and then Joshua would steer him around with his cane. After he started responding better, Joshua would take him for walks down our road. People would see me at the store and say, I saw Joshua out walking his pig. =)

"Tails" From The Farm Part 11

You can start reading part 1 here.

The chickens were truly free range. They came out under the gate and wandered all over the place. I did not want them in the garden or on my porches. I would see a bunch of them out and I would call out the window, “Get in your yard chickens!!” Star would come running from where ever she was to chase them. They learned that when I hollered, Star came running. People thought we had trained them, because whenever you told them to get in their yard, they all made a bee line for the gate and raced each other to get under it.

One of our roosters, Fireball (he was one we brought from Florida) made a noise whenever anything flew over head or was thrown over his head. He had started it while we still lived in Florida. It sounded like he was saying WOWwwww! Once one of the neighbor’s banty hens flew long way, he just kept saying wowww wowww wowww!!! We were cracking up. We told people that he did this and they did not believe us. We would throw something over his head and sure enough, he would say WOWwww!!. That is him in the picture above. They thought we had the smartest most well trained chickens. =)

One of the neighbors around the corner moved away. They left a peacock behind. I don’t know if they couldn’t catch it or what. On the end of our barn that faced away from the road, there was a big plate glass window. That end of the barn had been a workshop for the Amish that lived there. There is a reason that they say someone is as proud as a peacock. He had the biggest ego of any critter I ever saw. He would fan his tail out and admire himself in that window for over an hour. He would also go up in front of the chicken coop and fan his tail out as if to say, “Poor birds… you are no where as beautiful as I am!” Peacocks are LOUD and MESSY!! We did not want him hanging around. I could talk to him. He made one noise that sounded like someone hollering, “Play Ball”. I would go out and holler that and wherever he was, he would answer me. He made another noise I imitated pretty well. Joshua caught him one day in our feed in the barn. He brought him up on the porch so that we could get a good look at him. His feathers were beautiful. What an awesome Creator we serve. He went out of the way to create beauty for us.

Star knew that we were fussing at the peacock when ever he was in our pasture or barn. She learned the word, “peacock”. Star hung out under the back porch in the shade whenever it was really warm out. We would open the door and say peacock and she immediately flew off looking for the peacock. The peacock would see her coming and take off. It did not immediately take flight. It had to run a little ways before it got air born. Star would chase it until it hit the road and then she would stop. One time we allowed her to cross the road to the field and continue the chase. She caught his tail feathers, but he broke free. We did have one tail feather for a souvenir though. The peacock also got smart to us opening the back door when he was in the pasture. He would take off as soon as he heard the door. We started opening the door very slowly and only opening it a crack. We would then just whisper, “peacock” and off Star would go. The ladies who lived next door adopted him and even put a mirror up for him in their barn.

One day, Joshua and I were out doing some things in the yard. Our pasture went up behind the barn and was fenced. Our garden was also fenced and there was a narrow area between the two. It was probably around 30 feet. There were some trees in that area as well. We were standing in that area working on a project. We heard this sound like someone screaming. We looked around and could not see anyone or anything out of the ordinary. It did not really sound human, but we weren’t sure what it was. It happened again and was louder and more sustained. All of a sudden a miniature stallion came running and screaming up our driveway and was coming right at us. It was very scary for a minute because you had no idea what it was going to do. We both jumped back and it went running by and went up behind the pasture and into some tall weeds. Joshua ran to get his lasso and I went to look down the road to see if someone or something was chasing it. Joshua chased it all over our property and the neighbor’s property. It would start to walk and when he got close it would take off again. He tried for quite a while to get close enough to lasso it. I grabbed a bucket and put some feed in it. I went down the road to see if he could bribe it with the grain. It saw the bucket and came walking toward me. I turned around and started walking back toward our house. It followed a long like a puppy. I hollered back to Joshua that I was going to walk into a stall and that he needed to be ready to close it behind us. I went right into the barn and into a stall. I put the bucket down and he went right over and started eating. I got out of the stall and Joshua closed the door. We knew everyone on our street up until the main busy highway. Very few people lived out there. None of them had a miniature horse. We called some people who had lived in the area for awhile and none of them knew who he belonged to. We called the police and they had us call the local radio station to see if they would announce it. We finally got a call from a lady who said that Blackie belonged to her and she would come and get him. We told her where we lived. When she got there, she was just a little slip of a woman. She probably weighed 80 pounds soaking wet. She looked to be about 8 or 9 months pregnant. Another lady had brought her in a car. I was trying to figure out how they were going to get him home. It ended up, that the pregnant lady sat in the open trunk and held his lead and the other lady drove really slow. I asked where they lived. It was about 2 miles away and you had to cross a fairly busy state route. The next day we had a visitor… guess who? Yup, Blackie had come back to visit. This time we waited for Michael to come home and loaded him up in our trailer and took him home. She asked if we wanted him. They were trying to get rid of him. We had no need for a miniature stallion, so we declined. That was the last we saw of Blackie.

"Tails" From The Farm Part 10

You can start reading part 1 here.

We had good friends from New England, the Candy family, that came to stay with us about 2 months after we moved in. Mr. Candy and his boys were such a help that week getting things done. There were some barn siding that needed replaced and some work out in the barn and around the property. We had some good snow (for us it was good, for them it was nothing) and the children all got to sled. Even the Dads got in on the fun. They would go down the driveway and cross the road. They put a small ramp of snow across the ditch on the other side. There were contests to see who could go the furthest. We got some good pictures. We girls spent a lot of time in the house by the warm stove. I taught Mrs. Candy and her daughter how to play a song on my dulcimer and they played for us.

We had put in an order to have them come and hook up our electricity. The poles had already been put in, but they needed to hook the wires to the box in the basement. One morning we were all still in our jammies and robes. We did not hear trucks out front. All of a sudden there was a man’s face in the kitchen window. Now that window was well off the ground, and no man could stand there and see in, so it was a bit of a shock. They had come to hook the house up and he was in a bucket being lifted up to hook up the wires up on the house. We were so glad we had our robes on. I was excited to get the electricity, but there was also a side of me that was kind of sad. I loved living the way we did. They hooked it all up. An electrician had already been there and put the box in and also he put in a total of 5 outlets. We had 2 in the kitchen, 2 in the office and 1 in the basement. We had to clean out our fridge. It had been turned off in Florida (it was used up to the last minute) and it had not been left open to warm up. It was FULL of mold. Mr. Candy set the boys and himself to clean it up. Once that was done, it was plugged in. I had not realized just how quiet my house was, until we heard that motor running. It was amazing just how loud it was after the silence. We used the other outlet in the kitchen for a lamp or if we needed to plug in a mixer or something. We hooked up the computer and I put in an order for internet service.

Other than a lamp in the kitchen and one in the office (both very small) all of our lamps burned kerosene. I had to learn to trim wicks and remember to keep them filled and the chimneys clean. We also had flashlights in several key places for quick use.

We had all of the animals in one pasture. The chickens we brought with us just roosted in the barn. We ordered more chicks in the spring. We were going to build a chicken coop before they got too big for our brooder. Our brooder was a large cardboard box in the basement. We had the heat lamp down in it and then covered it with beach towels and blankets. Star has always had a love of baby chicks. She trembles with excitement when they come in the mail and she loves to sit and watch them. She would always go down to help deal with the chicks. She would jump up and look down in the box. The chicks grew fast and we had still not built a coop. They really stunk up the basement. We had ordered Buff Orpingtons. We made a very small moveable pen for the yard to buy some more time. Joshua had expressed an interest in learning about framing. We bought him a book all about it and he was anxious to try his hand at it. We decided to make a homeschool project out of building the chicken coop. I had built forts and other little structures with my brothers. We found the plans for the chicken coop we wanted. I had Joshua make a materials list and I made one as well to see if we matched. We did and I think it surprised him that his Mom had come up with the right amounts. We went to the local building company. It was a very small operation in a very small town, but they were so helpful and friendly. They helped us get everything together and loaded in the truck. They even had some old second hand doors and windows we bought for a couple of bucks each to use. Joshua and I looked at building this coop from two different view points. He saw this as a great framing project. Joshua has a cabinet maker’s eye. If he does any work for you, it WILL be plumb and even and perfect. To him this coop was his first work of art. I love art and I like for things to be fairly plumb and even. However, these chickens needed to have been in this coop 2 weeks before and they were out of room in the little pen we had them in.

Here are the chicks in the cardboard box brooder.

Here are a couple of pictures of Joshua and Star taking care of the chicks.

We decided where in the pasture that we would put the coop. We got started with putting the floor joists on the skids. There was not much disagreement with the flooring. Then we started on the framing for the walls. I would hold something up and say, hammer it. He would get out the level and say, it needs to be moved a bit. That was OK at first. Then it got old on both sides. We never did fight over it, but I ended up trying to make him see that this was a chicken coop, not a house for people. It did not need to be plumb, but it DID need to be done so that our large chickens in their crowded quarters would have a home that they could move around in. So, then we made a game of it and called ourselves “The Close Enough” chicken coop builders. We made up sales slogans to go with it. We did a great job. The inside had 2 rooms. One was just a narrow entry area that we kept the feed can in. It was separated from the main part of the coop by a wall of chicken wire. The human door went into the little room and there was a screen door to go into the main part of the coop. We also had a small chicken door on the front that could be opened from outside with a little ladder for them to get down to the ground on. We made the chicken door as small as we could so that the goats would not try to get in. We had actually seen a goat do a version of the army crawl back in Florida to get in through the chicken door to get their feed. We did not make it small enough, though. Dear, dear Ellie was trying to wedge her self in through that door. We nailed a board across part of the opening from the inside. The chickens could still go in and out, but goats could not. The goats drove us nuts the whole time we were building it. They would jump up on the coop floor and dance around and playfully butt us. They left goat berry gifts all over the floor that we had to sweep off. We were finally ready to put the chickens in their new home. We caught the 4 in the barn that we had brought from Florida. If you wait until a chicken roosts for the night, they are very easy to catch. Then we put the Buff Orpingtons in the coop and closed it up. We left them locked in for several days, so that they would know it was home. The chicken dilemma was over.

We decided that we needed to paint the coop to help preserve the wood. The barn was also just plain T1-11 that had not been painted. We went to the small hardware store in the next little town. We asked their opinion on paints, etc. They suggested that we stain it to help preserve it. We brought home a brochure that had lots of color chips on it. We each took a turn looking at the colors and studying them. Then we each went off by ourselves and picked our top 3 favorite colors. Number 1 got 3 points. Number 2 got 2 points and Number 3 got 1 point. Now, if you know me at all, you know that I LOVE blue. However, I chose the blue as my second favorite. A dark red, was number one. One of the guys picked the same blue I did as their number one choice and the other also had it as second choice, so the blue won. We painted the barn and the chicken coop. I love to paint on things, so I added some touches to the coop and barn. I painted sunflowers on the big door to the coop. I also painted “Poultry in Motion” on the door. Then over the little chicken door I painted, “Thou Shalt Not Henpeck”. =) The end of the barn that faced the road was just plain. So, I painted on a board to look like a window. Joshua made some shutters for me and we put up a board with our farm name on it as well.

Here is a picture of the coop after it was painted.

Here is the end of the barn facing the road. I also had put up some shelves with old buckets and pots on them. I was going to plant flowers in them.

This picture is after I put the fake window and the sign up.

This was the side of the barn that faced the house. See the hitching rail?

To be continued…

"Tails" From The Farm Part 9

You can start reading part 1 here.

The only heat in the house was wood and no stove came with it. We asked Reuben (the Amish man that owned the house) if he thought a Pioneer Maid cook stove would heat the house. He lit up like a light bulb and got all excited. He asked if we had one and we told him we did. Pioneer Maids are Amish made and that must have made him happy.

We talked and prayed and talked and prayed some more. It was more than we wanted to spend, but we were going to make an offer for what we felt we could spend. We had never owned a house before and did not really know what we were doing. Our real estate agent was very helpful and assured us that we could offer what ever we wanted and wait and see what they would say. We submitted the offer which included the diesel engine and the water softener. They made a counter offer and we in turn made a counter offer to that. We told them we could go no higher. He said that he had to meet with his Dad and Brothers as they had helped him with the mortgage on his house and his new house. His real estate agent picked him up and took him over to his Dad’s house. They did most of their discussion in Dutch, but every once in awhile the realtor would hear them say something he understood. He told us later that several times things seemed to get really heated up and going no where and Reuben would mention “Pioneer Maid” and then they would all get excited and start talking again. They came back and accepted our offer. I guess us having that stove helped seal the deal. We had noticed a small local bank in a town between my brother’s house and the new house. We went in on my birthday in early December to apply for a loan. The people at the bank were so warm and friendly. They told us all that we would have to do. We got started and since the house was empty, we closed in a very short time.

We had our pick-up truck and stock trailer to move things with. First of all, we had to go and put some sort of stove in so we could warm the place up to work in. We purchased a wood stove that was on the smaller side just to get it in quickly. The Pioneer Maid weighed 680 pounds with all its packaging and would need to be carried up a flight of stairs, so we would need help. My baby brother and his family came up and helped us hook up the stove and do a few things. They loved the house and were thrilled for us. They offered to come and help us move the Pioneer Maid in and the piano. Joshua and I started making trips in the truck during the daytime. We were emptying out the storage unit as we were able. We would go up and start a fire to warm the place up. We could not turn the water on yet because we were not there to keep a fire going and the pipes would freeze. We found out where the closest bathroom was. I felt like I was living a dream. I LOVED that house. It was a gift to me from God. I had always dreamed of a log cabin with a big wrap around porch. I still love log cabins, but would be every bit as happy in a big old Amish style home. The living room was very large and spacious, as was the kitchen. There was an 8’ X 10’ walk in pantry with 2 counters for working on along with some cabinets. The master bedroom was off the living room and there was another small bedroom attached to it. This had been the nursery, but we would use it for the office. Upstairs there were 4 bedrooms that Joshua got to choose from. =) He picked a corner room with good views out both sides. We chose a room to keep as storage. There was an attic, but they had never cut a hole to get up into it. Who needed an attic with all the extra space? There was a full walk out basement as well. We had gotten a really good deal on the piano. The guy held onto it until we had the house. He then delivered it to the house, but only put it in the basement since it was a walk out. The house was on the side of a hill. The walkout was in the front. As we unpacked we realized how many items we had that needed electricity of which the house had none. All of our ceiling fans, and lamps, etc were put in the storage room.

A couple of times we picked up Reuben to help us out and show us some things, plus he had a few things stored in the barn he wanted to get. He would ask us questions. You could tell that he was trying to figure out what box to put us in. He asked if we had a TV and we said no. He was really surprised at that. There were 2 ladies who lived next door to this house. They had loved on his children. They let them watch TV and he was not happy about that, but he still let them go over there. They had taken the children up to Cleveland and taken them up in high buildings to look out. They took them on train rides. They bought them bicycles that had to be kept over at their house since this particular parish did not allow bikes. When we talked to the ladies later, they did their best to expose those children to the world. That in itself is sad, but they were allowed the freedom to do so. That is sadder. You could tell we really confused him. We brought up lots of things about God. We had ready so many books about the Amish and assumed they were all Christians. We have found out that is not the case at all. He did not know much about God, but he did know what his church believed and what their rules were. His family and several other families had split off from the local parish and moved farther south because they wanted to be able to smoke on Sundays. I don't think they wanted to smoke in their meetings, but afterwards. The people who still lived up around this house did not smoke on Sundays. It confused him as we talked about our relationship with the Lord.

Here is a picture of the front of the house after we put lattice up across the bottom.

It was coming down to the end of the year and we wanted to be in before New Years Day. My baby brother and his family came up to help move the stove into place. It took a lot of work to get it on the trailer. Then driving the hills with the truck bed full as well as the trailer full was quite a trip. There was one long hill that several times the truck was down to about 15 MPH when we hit the top. They got the stove out and put it at the bottom of the porch steps. They did try to put some bracing under the steps, but they were still wobbly. Doug (my brother) said he would take the top side and Joshua and Michael would be on the bottom side. Only by God’s grace did the three of them get that stove up those stairs. It about killed Doug, because he had to bend all the way over, step up and pull. We got the stove up and in the living room and they hooked it up. We got a fire going and we were in business. We did not have the heart to ask him to help with the piano. They were all worn out and huffing and puffing. That had been a major feat. We got pizza from a local place and they stayed and our first dinner in our new house with us. We sat around and talked awhile. The boys all went looking at stuff. They put up some quick fencing so we could bring our animals. Doug & his family were invaluable in helping us get set up in that home. We celebrated Christmas with family, but we were doing everything we could to get in by the end of the year. We ordered hay and it was delivered to the barn. They 2 young men even put it away in the barn for us. We had stalls rigged up.

It was New Year’s Eve and we got the animals up there and were going to be spending the night. As they went back for a second trip, I was making up beds. We had turned the water on and they had started the hot water heater fire. We had wiped everything down. I was putting dishes away in the cabinets and filling the pantry. They got back and said they had one more load to bring and asked if I wanted to go with them. I was so tired, but there was so much to do, I told them I was going to stay there. I had Star with me. When you came in the front door, there was a staircase right in front of you. It was a closed stair case with a door. If you went to the right, you went in the kitchen and if you went to the left you went into the living room. From the front door, you could see the master bedroom door and if it was open, you could see the bed. I was totally spent and went in to lie down on the bed. I had my back to the door. Now, if you know me well, you would know that I really don’t like animals in the house. They are NOT allowed on my bed at any time for any reason. Star would sleep with Joshua in his bed, but I think it is gross to have a dog in or on your bed… or any other animal for that matter. I guess I fell sound asleep. Michael said that when they got back they wanted a camera really bad. I had my back to the front door and was out cold. Up on the bed, curled against my back laid Star, sound asleep with me. =) They thought it was hysterical.

We were in. We were not unpacked, but God had given me an earthly home to settle into. He not only gave me an earthly home, but one that was WAY beyond my wildest dreams.

Here are some pictures of the living room after we had our furniture in and situated.


We settled into a routine. Joshua would go down and start the coal fire to get the hot water heater going. They would load it up with paper and then put coal on top of it. Then they would put diesel fuel on it. When he lit that thing in the basement, you would hear it roar up the chimney like a rocket taking off. That is how Reuben showed us how to do it, but I never quite got used to it. One time it blew the pipe right out of the wall and the basement started filling with smoke. We had to get it back in place quick. We were really good at first about making sure we used the hot water and not let it get to hot. As time went on, we became more relaxed about it. Then we would start to hear the pipes pinging. We knew we had to hurry. We would run and turn on the hot water tap in the hallway sink and the kitchen sink. The steam would come billowing out and fill the room starting at the ceiling. Many times the steam would come well down below our waists. You think that we would learn. It made for some REALLY hot water though. You had to be very careful to not burn yourself.



The stairs to the basement were steep and a bit wobbly like the porch stairs. There were no side railings or backs on the stairs. Star had not been in a place with stairs before. She wanted nothing to do with them. We would try to coax her up with treats or a promise of a ride in the car, but no go…. She did not want to go anywhere near those stairs either going up or going down. There were 3 stairs to the back porch and that is where she liked to come and go from. Joshua would pick her up and “help” her walk up the stairs or down them. She finally got used them and would go up or down at a break neck speed.

The basement was divided up a bit. There was a long narrow room where the coal stove and hot water tank were. There was a door to the outside from that room and from the main room. At the back of the main room was a small bathroom with just a toilet and another room that they had used for a root cellar. In the root cellar room was what I got to use for a refrigerator. They had taken cement and made a rather large square bathtub shaped thing. It had a drain pipe that stood up several inches from the bottom of the tub. There was a spigot for running water. You would turn the water on to a trickle. It would fill the tub up to the top of the drain pipe and then drain away. It was a man made spring house set up. You would sit your items down in a water proof container or jar in the water. The water came up out of the ground at around 50 degrees. It was constantly running through and keeping cold. I would put smaller items in little plastic baskets to keep them from going all over the place. This worked really well at keeping things cold. It had a couple of downsides though. Number one, the water that went through there had not gone through the softener yet and it was gross. It stained all my containers and jars. The other downside was that it was in the basement back in this dark room and we did not have any electric lights. You would have to go the basement with a flashlight, get the stuff out while it was dripping wet and then carry everything (or make many trips) back up to the kitchen to use. We thought storing meat would be no problem, because it was winter in Ohio. We were going to buy the meat and keep it in a cooler on the porch. That winter was very mild and most of the time we had to buy the meat on the day we were going to fix it.

We lived without any electricity for a couple of months. The way the house was set up made it easy. The only two things I really missed were my refrigerator and my computer. I love the kerosene lamps. They gave such a soft warm glow. We had a couple of Aladdin lamps that would get pretty bright, so we could still see well. I loved having the glow of lamplight in the bedroom. It made everything seem so cozy and snug. You would go in and turn the light down and then blow it out before getting into bed. I have to say that the time we lived there were some of the happiest times of my life. I loved that house and that life.

To be continued…

"Tails" From The Farm Part 8

You can start reading part 1 here.

We finally made it to my brother's house. We got the animals in the barn and all squared away. Our new home for the time being was my brother's pop-up camper. All or at least most of our stuff was stored away in a storage unit. We had the bare necessities and that was it. It was still quite hot in Florida when we left. Ohio was warm, but we knew that those cooler Autumn temperatures were not long in coming. We had to find a house and get settled in before it grew too cold for the pop-up.

My brother and his wife had just had their 5th child. She was still a baby and her brother was only 17 months. I love babies and was thrilled to be able to hold and cuddle them often. I had not been around their youngest three as much as their older three. There was a good time of getting to know one another. We wanted to be a help and not a burden. There was one bathroom in their house. We had to make sure we did not wait until the last minute if we had to go. =) On Sunday mornings, it was quite a song and dance letting everyone have their turn in the bathroom. Our church started later than theirs, so other than just going to the bathroom, we would try and wait for the bathroom until after they left. We ate our meals in the house with them. I would take my turns at cooking. We had lots of fun while we stayed there. They had horses and Joshua and his cousin Carli would ride in the neighbors field. Joshua had only ridden a little bit, but he would fly on that horse. He enjoyed the time of having some siblings. Being an only child is not always fun.

My parents were up in Ohio at that time. They used to spend their summers up here. They came out the next day to see us. My Dad had been saving real estate magazines for us to look at. The first one I looked in had this house in a town called Big Prairie. It said Amish made house, 6 bedrooms, all oak kitchen, walk in pantry, barn on 5 acres. It was a really good price compared to other properties. However, when we looked on the map where Big Prairie was compared to Michael's work, we said NO WAY!!! It would be about a 2 hour drive. That house kept coming up. We started looking for property. We had a set amount we did not want to go above. The prices anywhere within one hour of his job were way out of sight. We wanted no less than 3 acres, but would like more. We wanted some sort of barn or shed already there. Our animals had come from Florida and this was mid September. They needed a shelter. We would also have liked some fencing, but were willing to put that up. Joshua and I would drive around through the day and look at the properties. Anything that was worth looking at, we made note of and would go back with Michael. We had a great real estate agent. We had tried a couple of different ones and they all basically told us to go fish when we told them what we wanted and the price we wanted to pay. She was the first to say she could help us. She gave me quite a print out of properties to look at. We looked and looked. Nothing seemed quite right. We were really not being picky or at least we weren't trying to be. So many of the houses needed a lot of work before winter and we were not sure we could get it done in time. Or there would be a 35 year old mobile on a bare 5 acres without a shed or anything on it and the price would be out of sight. We did find one house. I loved that house. It was a big old home with brick walls at least a foot thick. It was 175 years old. Johnny Appleseed had actually stopped there many times and had Bible study with the first owner. There were still a couple of apple trees up on a hill that he had planted. It had a spring house and a running spring. Both are things I had dreamed of for my homestead. The price was right and it came with 20 acres. The original property that was for sale was about an acre that the house was on and then the other 19 acres were across the road and had been sewn in crops, so there was no pasture. They were selling the whole huge farm though. We asked if we could get 20 acres around the house and include one of the old barns that was there. The man was a pastor and was very sweet. The farm was his wife's family farm. They agreed to that and we wrote up an offer. We found out by including the acreage around the house, that it also had to be approved by her sister. She did not like our first offer, so we countered and again she said no. We asked them what we could have and the pastor and his wife outlined an area that we agreed to. We wrote another offer. This time they told us that the sister was digging in her heels as she did not want her sister to sell the house they had grew up in. She wanted to still be able to go there for Thanksgiving, etc. So, they withdrew the property from the market. This had wasted about 6 weeks of our time. We were very discouraged. All of our stuff was still in storage. It had gotten too cold to stay in the pop-up, so were staying at my other brother's house. He had a little apartment on his big barn/garage. We would have to drive twice a day to go and take care of our animals. It was not that close either. I just wanted a home. I wanted to be able to make my bread and grind my wheat and all the other things I loved to do. I kept telling God, that I needed a home. I was so discouraged and just wanted a place that I could call my own. We were trying so hard to keep everything as nice as possible at my brothers. The carpet was lighter colored and there was no porch or overhang. There was a very small square of linoleum when you walked in the door. You had to take your shoes off before you could even shut the door. It seemed like there was lots of mud. I was so stressed we would mess something up. My attitude just went down and down.

My husband told me that Michael Card was coming to town and that he wanted us to go. We love his music, but I do not like big crowds and really did not want to go. He kept trying to talk me into it and I said no. He did something very unlike him. He bought tickets anyway. I could not believe it. I really didn’t want to go. Then the night of the concert came and I really didn't feel too hot. My stomach was unsettled and I had a headache. Michael, again very unlike himself, told me that I WAS going. It was a divine appointment. If you ever get to see Michael Card in concert, GO, it is great. It is like he is sitting across the coffee table talking to you and every once in awhile, he sings a song. There is no showiness at all. Everything he said that night or sang spoke to my heart. I started crying from the very beginning. He brought up things that ministered to old hurts. Some of the things he said were things I wanted to share with Cordelia Rose. I was crying for her and for me. Then it came to the last song of the concert. He looked out at the audience and said, “There is someone here tonight that is saying they need a home. God wants you to know that He will be your home.” He then sang that song...

"I Will Bring You Home"

Though you are homeless
Though you're alone
I will be your home

Whatever's the matter
Whatever's been done
I will be your home

I will be your home
I will be your home
In this fearful fallen place
I will be your home

When time reaches fullness
When I move my hand
I will bring you home

Home to your own place
In a beautiful land
I will bring you home

I will bring you home
I will bring you home
From this fearful fallen place
I will bring you home
I will bring you home

I sat there and just sobbed. That was a direct word to me from my Lord. I made a new commitment to just wait and trust Him in looking for a home. He would be my home until He brought me an earthly one.

There was a bread store called Great Harvest in a nearby town. They sold bread that was made from freshly ground wheat. We were so hungry for real bread and we were thankful to find a place to purchase it. My mill to grind the wheat and everything else I would use was in a storage unit that was piled high with boxes. God provided for us through this store. We would drive down and get 3 loaves. They were big round loaves and they were often still warm from the oven. We would take out one loaf and just start pulling off hunks. It would be almost gone by the time we would get back home.

It had started to get really cold and any warm clothing we had was in storage. We had no idea it would take us this long to find a house, so we had not prepared for cold weather. We just kept out the fewest amount of things to get by. Most of my dresses were cotton and thin. Even with a slip on, I was getting very chilly. I did not have one warm outfit. I really didn’t want to go out and buy a bunch of stuff, because I already had it, but just couldn’t get to it. I prayed and asked the Lord for some warmer clothing. The next day I got a package in the mail from my dear sweet Mother-In-Love. It was a warm knit jumper with snowmen on the front and a pair of stirrup pants to wear under it. Again, God provided. He had provided before I even asked, since it would take more than a day for it to have been mailed to me. He is so faithful.

We called the real estate agent and asked her if there were any new properties to look at. She told me that there wasn’t, but there was still that house up in Big Prairie. I told her that I would talk to Michael. This was already the end of November and we needed to do something. Michael told me to set up an appointment to see the house. He was going to time how long it took us to get up there. The house was empty and had been empty since March. Have you ever gone in an unheated building in the winter? It seemed colder in the house than it did outside and it was a bitter cold day. The house was an Amish, non-electric house. It was GORGEOUS!!! I fell in love with it right away. I did not say that out loud though. I did not want to put any pressure on Michael. It was a lot bigger than we needed as well. It had 6 bedrooms and there were 3 of us. It was in the right price range ( a bit higher) and there was a barn and a pasture. It did not have any fencing, but we were willing to put that up. The setting was beautiful and the area around was so picturesque and had lots of hills. Before we left, the realtor that was listing the place told us that he could set up an appointment if we liked to talk to the Amish man who owned the house. We left and Michael timed it back to my one brother’s house that would be on his route if he drove to work from this new house. He knew how long it had taken him to go to work from there. We got to my brother’s house and he looked at his watch. He said… NO WAY!!! It would take him 1.75 to 2 hours one way to work. So, we were back at ground zero. We asked again about new properties, but there were none.

One day out of the blue, Michael asked me to set up an appointment to see that house again with the Amish man. So, I did. We met Reuben at the house and explained how everything worked. The hot water was coal fired. The coal fire heated the water in the hot water heater. It did not have a check valve however. He said that you had to pay attention and make sure you used the water you heated, or you could have a problem. The house did have running water. It was all drained out when we were there since it was empty and the temperatures were freezing. To have the running water, you had to start a big diesel engine out by the barn. It would build up pressure in a pressure tank to push the water through. You needed to do this about once a day. This particular little Amish parish (each little group has their own church and their own rules) would only allow you to have 2 things in the bathroom. Most of them chose to have a toilet and a bathtub. The sink was in the hall outside the bathroom. In some ways this was handy. If someone was in the bathroom, you could still brush your teeth or wash your hands. It was also in a little back hallway that led to the back door. On the wall between the sink and the door were 2 levels of pegs for coats. The children could all come in the back way, hang up their coats and wash their hands.

To be continued…