Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[lorihadams]

Okay, so it's Wednesday night and my darling husband has been talking about getting cows and more chickens and trying to start a small farm ALL night. WTF???

I even mentioned bees but he is allergic so he definitely was not for that idea! He is definitely open to goats but he loves Jersey and Guernsey cows. We have been on the computer all night looking at different breeds of cows, goats and chickens. He just keeps talking about quitting verizon and being a farmer more and more. Craziness, pure craziness.

I figured that I would have to convert him slowly but this is happening way faster than I ever could have imagined....

 

[keljonma]

I'm the beek in our family. DH is the support and photographer


ETA: Highland Cattle are popular here. One of our friends has them - beautiful animals!

 

[lorihadams]

Chad says that Highlands are too hairy! Says they don't even look like cows

Well, today is just beautiful! I have washed everything my washing machine and clotheslines can hold! I think I'm up to 7 loads now...it's all a blur. I was so excited that it was going to be in the 60s today and partly cloudy with a light breeze don't I sound like a weatherman? It is supposed to dip back down in the 40s tomorrow and rain all weekend and they are even calling for some snow mixed in on Sunday. Yuck! C'mon SPRING!!!

I'm sitting on my front porch in short sleeves and barefoot while my children play in the bouncy house that uncle Alex got them last year. The chickens are scratching around underneath the porch and clucking softly (competing with the keystrokes, no doubt). Maggie is laying at the foot of the steps waiting for someone to throw her a ball and the cats are snuggled up on top of the feed bins in the sun. What a glorious day!!! The windows are open with the ceiling fans on and the laundry is blowing softly in the breeze....meanwhile my poor husband is at the accountant's house helping him sort through all our tax stuff. Poor thing, I'm gonna treat him to pork chops tonight, we haven't had them in a while and he loves them. Toss a salad, make some rolls, and make some wild rice and veggies....yum! Easy peasy....no stress today, it's not allowed!

 

[keljonma]

Sounds like you're having a wonderful day!

 

[Southern Gardener]

Yes, we are hoping to sell the pups and pay off part of our credit card. I hate debt....Everytime I turn around I keep hearing myself say "I guess we'll have to put it on the credit card".

We owe about 4500 and I can't wait to get rid of it. We also have a 1972 Volkswagen superbeetle that I am thinking of selling. I want to get at least $3500 out of it because we have that much in it but it needs a little tweaking. My hubby hit a deer and did some body damage to the front end that we got repaired but we haven't painted it yet and I don't want to put the money into it if we're just going to sell it anyway. Otherwise it is in great shape. Hubby drove it to work when his truck started acting up. Now we have a new SUV so he is driving my old car to work and we still need to get rid of his old truck, 93 ford ranger that needs some engine work. At this point I am willing to donate the truck just to get it out of my yard. I was hoping I could sell it for parts but I have to look into it.

Our last litter we sold 6 of the 7 pups...gave the last one to our neighbor down the road. We pretty much did the same thing with the money from that litter too, come to think of it. Just paid bills...boring huh? I'd love to go buy a new sewing machine but it's just not in the cards right now.

I have to HAVE the puppies before I can SELL the puppies!

Still waiting on Maggie! She's been licking some today so maybe we're getting closer!!! Cross your fingers!

Lori

 

[modern_pioneer]

Hi Lori/Chad, I wanted to go back a little and talk about people being slaves to money and your life. Everyone has a story to tell, and I am hoping that what I am about to tell you about me and my life will encourage you or give you hope for the future.

There are two things I know alot about, hogs and how to raise them, and copper as I make my living as a Coppersmith. Raised on a hog farm till I was 14, lost the farm to the bank in the 80's. Had to move to the big city with my real dad. It would be four years later before I would ever see a star again in the night sky. I was in the Army then, and had to get up in the middle of the night, as I crawled out of my tent, the night sky blew me away. I think that was a defining moment in my choice of lifestyle I wanted to live.

After my time in the Army was up, I moved back into the city with my dad, my mom had since past. I started to learn a trade making $5 an hour, I took that and started selling copper pot racks on ebay as extra income. We have two children, and wife couldn't work, day verses her wages. Money was tight, real tight. So she started to study glass, and soon we were at auctions several nights a week. On the weekends, I would make stuff from copper in my little 8x16 shed.

In Sept 03, my little copper business was bringing in $175 a week extra. From the middle of Nov. till Dec 23 03, I sold more than 9k of goods. I worked a 40 hour day job, came home and made stuff till late at night, weekends 10 hours a day. DW had purchased my website domain for me as a xmas present, and in the begining of Jan 04, we decided to go on our first vacation while the kiddies stayed with my folks. During this vacation we talked about how nice it would be to have our own internet business and not work a day job for any company but our own.

When we returned, kiddies back in school, DW worked on building our website 8-10 hours a day, while still packing the goods I was making. In Feb 04, after talking about making the plung, I walked off my job. I was almost sick to my stomach driving home that day, I had only know how to live paycheck to paycheck. On the bright side, it felt good to tell my boss of many years, well, to shove his job.

In April of 06, business was booming and we wanted so bad to get away from the big city, Newport News VA. So we drove up here to PA where I was raised as a child. We looked at 30 different homes, but the first one was what we really wanted. The house was built in 1966 by a farmer and his sons, so it was a real fixer upper to say the least. But it sat on 5 acres over looking a valley one one side of a hill. It had a workshop that was 5 times bigger than my old one. A fishing pond, and a nice field that was usable for a garden.

In July 06, we moved to our new home here. Setting a business back up, dealing with well problems, water in the basement issues, and a number of other things, was pretty tough. But it's all for this piece of heaven and beautiful skies. We spend our evenings on our HUGE side deck that over looks the valley in the summer. When it is raining, we have a back deck that is covered. When I want, I go up to the pond and fish. In the fall I hunt deer to provide meat. This is the second year for my garden. Last year I put up canned/froze 70-80 pounds of veggies.

Some days, we're lucky to see 5 cars drive down the road. Since we have moved here, I started my second business, and continue to employe people and keep money coming in. I know I will always be a slave to the dollar, but how much of a slave? Well that's what were working on now. Prices for food never stop rising, so that'swhy I started my garden.

This year we are adding 4 hens to our homestead, just for eggs and pets for the kids. I am going to be building my coop here soon, from wood that came off my land. For $70, I had it sawed up and have enough wood to build 5 coops. I look forward to having them around and working in my garden this summer.

I sit here right now and I can tell you and Chad that it can be done. You have to find your way, and live your dream. Sure it takes a lot of hard work, money and effort in the begining. But once you start reaping the many different rewards, it doesn't seem like to much effort anymore. It becomes a lifestyle that gives back rewards.

 

[lorihadams]

Thank you so much for that! We keep going round and round about what we want to do and where we want to go. Chad is doing well at the guide service but he is afraid that it is taking too much time away from me and the kids. I want him to give it one more season just to make sure. He is tired of being the only one that gives a dang and does any of the leg work. His "partners" if you can call them that, just want to show up and hunt. They don't want to make phone calls or book hunts or go to shows or do any paperwork or go scouting or anything. On top of that, if they hunt during the week he pays them to guide for him because if they take off work they don't get paid. He has never paid himself, ever. The finances are all handled by us. It's frustrating cause he is good at what he does. His first goose calling contest he placed second in the state of Va. He works with Zink and Avery very personally and has cultivated lots of business relationships. No one else does anything. He is the only one that sells t-shirts, calls, choke tubes, decoys, blinds, etc. He is essentially working for free. I think that if he could get the other guys to relinquish their parts and let him take over the business and just pay them to guide that it would work out a lot better.

I would like to raise chickens both for meat and eggs and possibly get into breeding and selling chicks too. I am very interested in organic, free range, pasturing methods. If we were to get into beef or sheep or goats then I would want to do things as naturally as possible. I don't use antibiotics on my chickens and they are perfectly healthy. I want to use what land we may be able to get in the most efficient way possible. I want to research it more and we definitely need to get a different piece of land than what we have now. It's alright for the 8 chickens we have now but I want more...we want to raise our children in a positive environment away from all the crap in the cities. Sometimes I just want to put up a map and throw a dart at it and move, you know?

 

[modern_pioneer]

I am up for a meeting with a client in UAE, United Arab Emirates in the next half hour.

Let me say this, if his partners aren't doing any work, why is he doing it?

If he is better than them, and has done his homework, why is he providing a service to others?

If Chad is doing all the leg work, why would you provide a service only to get kicked in the face?

Hey nothing for nothing, but I have a price for my service. If you don't want to pay for it, that's okay.
If you want my services, than you will pay for it. (advice to chad)

Dump the "partners" and go solo!!

 

[lorihadams]

He is planning on holding a meeting next month and telling them that either he takes his stuff and gets out and retains all rights to the t shirt designs or he wants them to get out and just guide for him for a daily rate. He is considering getting out of it altogether because he is afraid that it is taking too much time away from the family. He just hates it cause he is really good at it. :/

Saturday Feb 28

Today was my son Tyler's 4th birthday. It was a very low key day, he got a new rainforest board game from us and we took him to Friendly's for dinner and ice cream. To give you some idea of what my son is like here is what transpired at dinner.

waiter "so, today is your birthday?"
Tyler "yes"
waiter "well, how old are you today?"
Tyler "I'm just 4, but I'll be 13 on my next birthday!"

Too cute, why do they always want to grow up so fast? Then we took him to Petsmart so that he could look at the fish and frogs and then went to Toys R Us. He picks out an Animal Planet toy that has a diver, fish, camera, and giant squid. I think he may grow up to be a marine biologist someday. The lady at the counter said "Oh, are you getting an octopus?" to which he replies, "No NO NO! This is a giant squid, this isn't an octopus...octopuses have eight legs and this is a giant squid, see here --points to box--this says giant squid." He is obsessed with sea creatures! Wants to know what the names of all the different types of fish and whales and sharks and coral and eels and crabs and etc etc etc are. I just look up a lot of stuff on the computer and try to get books from the library for him. We are going to try to go to Baltimore for a weekend and take him to the aquarium this summer. Should be fun and educational too!

 

[justusnak]

Awww, Happy Birthday to "Little man" Tyler. I am sure going to the Aquarium will be a landmark in his summer! Heck, might even be a landmark in his life. I bet he will have a BLAST there. Better plan on it being a 2 day trip! LOL