Well I just wanted to share a bit with you , I am feeling good about this old place for the first time in a long while .This year has been tough ,a death in the family , hardly no garden , rainy cool weather , the lose of lambs and calves.

We have been working are butts off to get some things done before winter .We totally gutted are house 3 years ago and have been putting it back together ever since .Within the last 2 weeks we put in 2 new windows,a new front door ,new storms downstairs and my porch is almost done [ no more climbing on cinder blocks ].

There is still lots to be done such as a real bathroom with running water , installing are furnaces , sheetrock .It funny how when you go without for so long you enjoy the little things so much more! Almost forgot we will be straighten out the barn and closing it in soon ya hoo ! Hopefully before snow falls .

Have you done anything that has made you happy this summer ? How was the garden ? Animals ? Home improvements ?

Thanks for letting me share with you .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 06, 2000

Answers

Hey Patti, Good goin' girl! Every step forward counts! As for me, The porta-potty is gone from the front yard, and the plastic will be on the windows anytime soon. ( they may never get replaced!) To each his.......and every year is a new adventure!

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), September 06, 2000.

This was a bad year for me. The bunnies didn't breed well for Easter. I never got the pigs. My garden was major weeds, producing nothing else. And because I put up a pool, it rained and now I have some major landscaping to do.

On the bright side, I finally got a couple of Boarer Mix does for that pen I built 5 years ago. And with that major landscaping I'm doing, I will no longer fall down the hill in the winter to feed the animals. Hopefully the riding ring will get fixed at the same time.

I won't talk about the firewood that is still setting in the woods as full tree tops. I hope they are still good after all this time.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), September 06, 2000.

Hey Patty, We too gutted our house 3 years ago! Only ours was about 10 pickups full of trash. House works now, not everything is completly done but we are thankful. The glass windows was the scariest part. My best thing this year was painting outside. We had a warm spell early and I painted ALL the buildings and cages to match, Red Rock Brown. I thinned and thinned the paint and I used only 7 gallons! Old barn wood just soaks up the color and it looks like 500% better here. Before everything was all different colors. What a difference! And I have been planting flowers all over that I had not time to do before. Ones that come back every year. I have 30 rose of sharon trees I planted 3 years ago and they have been in full bloom ALL summer! And morning glories everywhere. The 3 years of mulching with poop and grass clippings has really worked. For the garden too, it is still loaded and green. Animals are great, no stressed fecue grass this year. No drought. Have ALLOT to get ready for winter. I am not willing to let summer go just yet! Oh, and we got Rosco the Jack, which my husband rides all over the place, they look so CUTE!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), September 07, 2000.

Some how you just feel better you are not the only one struggling to get a house done .Sometimes I can get all caught up with ow poor us we have so much to do , the house is such a pig sty .And then on bad days its we should of burned it to the ground ! I'm glad to hear others are getting things done to make them feel better .And as winter approches warmer too ! Good luck to all.

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 07, 2000.

I understand perfectly. My husband and I are building our house (has it really only been 4 years?), and the girls are beyond tired of it. The good side is that almost anything is an improvement. We went from a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house to a 30 foot motor home--two teenage girls. No electric lines, no water. As soon as the dome house was waterproof, we moved in (18 months in the camper), and everything we add now seems like a luxury. Generator. Solar panels. Toilet (flushes if you carry water for it). Shower stall (pour water on your head and pretend). I'm having a good time, husband loves his job, and it's good for the girls. It must be, since I tell them all the time.

-- Teresa (otgonz@bellsouth.net), September 07, 2000.

I guess I feel good that I got over some of my struggle about completing things this season. I had some rather aggressive goals, and felt frustrated when I didn't accomplish a lot of them. However, the ol' homestead is still standing, I am now getting in a decent harvest, my animals are healthy, and I got to enjoy a lot of hiking that I never would have done had I felt like I had to stay home and finish everything. This must be a big life lesson for me, as I have to "learn" it over and over again!

I'm looking forward to fall... and getting back indoors. (I had better save this post to re-read in about February, huh?!)

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), September 07, 2000.

The terrace is complete; the new herb beds are producing, mostly medicinal herbs; the new greenhouse is a success and the garden is finishing up with lots of pumpkins for the grandkids and my younger students; I got to know my 1 1/2 year old granddaughter better. She has spent alot of time here because her baby brother is so ill. I was bemoaning the fact that I hadn't accomplished much this year! It looks as though I really accomplished alot. Thanks, Patty, for reminding me of it all. I do believe my day, which will be spend driving to the hospital and back, will be better now because I really have done alot and today will not be a waste. Thank you.

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), September 07, 2000.

Rebuilding? Sounds familar. My son got tired of waiting for my husband to start painting his room (he didn't understand we had to gut the room first, and husband was not looking forward to it) so he decided to paint his room himself. Now he's sleeping on the couch, but the sheetrock is out of his room and his new window is in!

My son has also learned the lesson that you don't get into the poster paints without permission, and you don't paint yourself while you paint the room!

The best part of the story is that I've been trying to get husband to get back to work on the rebuilding for months! annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), September 07, 2000.

Well this has been the funniest year for us. Garden an utter failure, house being sold, Being evicted. All these things have been nothing but a blessing though. Just courage to do waht we want to do anyway. Life is nothing but exciting right now for our family. We are 21/2 weeks from M-day. Things just seem to be falling into place for us and I am so thankful. Hubby has a great Job and he got another offer yesterday. We already took the first one and the other one is too far from where we want to live. This is such a blessing. I am sad about leaving my family. I wish they would all come with me, but I know that is just wishful thinking. My family doesn't see things the same way I do, but I love them dearly and I wish it wouldn't hurt so much to leave. I know however that this move is necessary for my immediate family's health and welfare, so I am confident in what we are doing. Not looking forward to telling my Mom goodbye though. You know I always dreamed of having my Mom near by so we could get together and can and sew, but with Dad being a pastor, that hasn't been possible much. They go where they feel God wants them and so do I. Maybe someday.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), September 07, 2000.

LBF , yes moving away will be hard but if in your heart you know it's right for you you'll be fine .Its been 2 years and I still cry when leaving from a visit , and we get back home about every 6 weeks !

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 07, 2000.

We are having relatives from Chicago visit us this coming Christmas, so our on-going remodeling plans have been placed in fast forward! This 70+ year old farmhouse was in bad shape when we purchased it in March 1999 and we have been doing a lot to get in liveable shape (ripping out old carpeting, sanding hardwood floors, painting, building closets where none existed before, etc.)

It has taken us over a year to throw out all the trash left from the previous owners. Perhaps they thought that the nine acre farmette was the town dump? Anyway, we demolished the dilapidated barn on the property (only 2 years old and also built by the previous owner!) and built a new, attractive barn. Needless to say, we have been extremely busy, but happy to have accomplished so much!

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), September 07, 2000.

we started the 5 yr. plan now we are up to the 10 yr. plan!i have gotten use to the 1/2 finished look maybe one day it will be all the rave.i wanted the bathroom done so i decieded if i hung a little wall paper it would work well mistake #1 the wet wall paper made the plaster fall apart so i took it all down now we have a 1\2 finished bathroom. the girls room walls were realy bad so we painted them blue w/ a sponge got a green rug and painted fish on the walls and bubbles on the ceiling now they live in a fish tank!

the good thing about the 1/2 finished look is when people come over you have a reason the place looks a mess.

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), September 08, 2000.

We're working on our kitchen. Hopefully it'll be done before it gets cold, because I don't know if I can stand another year of the wind blowing through the north wall (which is a single layer of fiberglass roofing), and the pipes freezing! Not to complain, at least it is a roof with walls! It was only meant to last one winter(temporary), and it has lasted at least ten!! As for the rest of the homestaed, things have been fairly good. We got our first really good crop of cucumbers,so I have been making pickles for the first time, and a great crop of beets, but none of the zuchinni came up! Great big onions this year,too. We were also blessed with a beautiful baby boy about a month ago.

I guess the main fly in the ointment has been with the goats.They are all pretty healthy, and nearly all had twins (about 80% bucks!!),and one of my best does finally conceived on an AI breeding, but the market here for goats is terrible this year, and we are losing money as we can't sell them, unless we want to sell good milkers for meat. Meanwhile, they are eating a LOT of grain, about 50 lbs every two days! I had arranged for a prominent goat judge, Harvey Considine, to come and evaluate our goats, but when the day came for him to see them, we never heard anything from him! I think he just plain forgot us, maybe next year. Oh well, there's always the fair, right? Not this year, they scheduled the goat show on the only day i couldn't show them, Saturday. Well, how 'bout the big fair in Spokane? Nope, missed the deadline. I have the nicest goats I've ever owned, from the bloodlines I've always wanted, never dreamed I would actually have!, and can't seem to get anything done with them. Maybe next year things will be better, though, the goat market seems to go through cycles here. But, we are truly blessed to have each other, and there have been a lot of good things, too, like elderberry jelly, morning glories bigger and better than ever before, daylily seedlings, and this year, for the first time, the darned voles have finally left our potatoes alone and we get to harvest them!!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), September 08, 2000.

Finally located my pad of graph paper under a stack of waiting-to-be-shelved books down in the basement. Found my list of "Projects 2000". Hoo, boy - did I have a good laugh! Not ONE thing on the list got accomplished this year! (Although there's still a chance!) But, then again, a whole lot of things got done without being put on the list - I'm thinking maybe the list is a kiss of death - whatta you think!?

The chickens are happy and healthy scratching around in their tractor and I'm getting 5 eggs a day from 6 hens, so no complaint there. Sis's bunny is eating my dandylions for me and providing me with manure fro my worm bed. The raised bed garden got put in and has drawn visitors out from town to take a look at it (weeds and all) and provided a lot of food to be eaten fresh and put by. The shed has been mostly cleaned and organized of its 40 year accumulation of junk and 3 households of "stuff" in umarked boxes has been whittled down to manageable proportions. The clothesline is up and operational, the yard has been mostly mowed all year. There are still a lot of weeds in the berry patch, but there are still 7 1/2 more months til berry season. I have enough empty canning jars and lids left to put up some apples and apple pie filling in a week or so.

Life is good, out on the farm.

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), September 08, 2000.

Well, our entire crop of Rainier cherries split. Mind you, it was the tree's first year and the crop consisted of exactly ONE cherry, but the tree has beautiful form and we have high hopes for next year. The blueberries were good & more plentiful, the ducks were tender when roasted and were generous with their eggs. One hatched out three little ducklings in a nest up in a slash pile...awfully cute, and I didn't have to do the heatlamp routine! We acquired a wonderful if snarfbucket(she'll even eat raw onion!) Australian shepherd as a buddy for our big doggie Augie and they ADORE each other, and lately an orange kitten named Pogo who is an absolute doll and we hope he will be a big mouser.

But right now the best thing that happened this summer just happened last week. My 16 year old cat was diagnosed with feline infectious peritonitis and the vet gave him 24hrs or maybe the weekend to live. I consulted my homeopathic books and fortunately I had the necessary remedies on hand, and within 24 hours he was on the road to recovery! He seems to be pretty much okay now -- he yammers for food as of old, rolls in the sun, purrs and trounces Pogo when ambushed. It may not last - it has only been 8 days - but every day extra I get with my little boy is icing! Homeopathy rocks!

Oh, one other thing: I got my husband to accede to my intention to keep goats. Maybe next spring...

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), September 08, 2000.