Hello from southern Indiana

[PJJ]

Hello Patti,

I happened upon your website a few weeks ago when I was searching on line for composting ideas, rain barrels, etc. You are an inspiration!!

I have been a pet groomer since 1987. I was manager of our local animal shelter from 9/04 to 4/07. I now only groom for a few of my favorite clients. I am unable to work full time due to health issues. I have two standard poodles and a mix breed and two wonderful cats. All but one of my animals are rescues. I also foster dogs.

When my children were small I always had a garden. I canned everything I could get my hands on. I was raised on a farm and and learned these things from my dear Mother.

As my children became school age, I went to worked to help support our family and gardening and canning were left behind.

I enjoy spending time with my family. My husband and I have 3 daughters and 8 wonderful grandchildren. I love to knit, crochet and sew. My 73 year old Mother lives on our property. She and I tend her flowers together. We are looking forward to turning a small plot on our property into a garden with raised beds. It is overgrown and has been left unattended for quite a while. We've been working on clearing it off so we can start building our beds.

A friend of mine is saving eggs for me to put in my incubator. (It's been in my attic for many years.) I can't wait to have chickens again!! I'm so excited!

I am looking forward to getting back to the basics and raising as much of my own food as I can. A garden, a few chickens and rabbits are just what I need.
I wish we had enough land for a couple of milk goats. I really miss have them.:(

Thank you for what you are doing. I believe you are teaching something that is very important. I also believe there will come a time when people that don't know how to raise their own food will wish they had taken the time to learn.

God Bless,

Penny

[gardengirl72]

Penny that sounds great! My husband and I live with his 86 year old grandmother. The stories I could tell. Needless to say it can be difficult. I have never hatched eggs with an incubator. I am dying to see what you do. Please take pics of the whole process and share it with us. I have wanted to do it as part of my education program but it always seems to escape me.

Please let us know more!

[RogueAPBT]

Penny, have you seen the mini dairy goats they are turning out now? I plan to try a "mini nubian", which is a nubian/nigerian dwarf cross, since I have always wanted nubians but don't have space for full sized goats to get really comfortable. I think my place will be plenty comfortable and enough grazing for two of those mini goats though. I plan to put them up in a pen like Patti has for night time, then let them graze at least part of the day, or tie them out to do my weedwacking for me, lol.

Cheryl

[plantoneonme]

Welcome, nice to have you with us. Take some time to read under each section and feel free to share.

Kim

[PJJ]

Yes Patti, it can be very trying living with elderly parents or grandparents. Really though, I wouldn't have it any other way. I get to spend a lot of quality time with my Mother.

I will take some pics of my incubator and eggs. I'm afraid my eggs won't hatch now though.:( We had a terrible wind storm yesterday here in southern IN. It lasted for several hours. Our power was out for about 12 hours. I wrapped my incubator in heavy blankets but by the time the power came back on the temp was down to 75. It should be around 100. I'm going to keep the eggs in it and wait and see how it goes. There are still many people without power in both IN and KY. One 22 year old young man was killed not more than 10 minutes from us. The paper online says that he was pulling a fallen limb out of a tree w/ a rope & it sprang in a direction they weren't expecting & hit him in the head. My son-in-law said a guy that he works with told him there was a 3 yo that was allowed out to play & got hurt & had to be life-flighted. I can't believe anyone would let a child outside the way that wind was blowing. Very sad. There was no rain or hail with this storm. Just terribly strong winds. I've never seen anything like it. Trees and power lines down everywhere. W had a huge maple tree fall in our yard. It tore down our chain link fence. We worked in the yard all day and still have a big mess.

On a happier note, I got 20 chicks at our local Orschelns farm store Sat. They are so cute!!
chicks

[PJJ]

Cheryl,

I have seen the mini nubians. Very sweet little guys. Have you seen the mini cattle? They are really cute. We went to the Indy state fair a few weeks ago. I was lucky enough to get to look at all the goats, sheep, and llamas. It was a lot of fun! If only we had more land here. We've got 1/2 a acre more or less according to our deed. I liked it better when we lived on our little farm. We only had 20 acres but had a really nice barn and a pasture and a large pond. We sold it to our oldest daughter and her husband 13 years ago. Now I wish we'd stayed there. We don't live in the city limits but only about 1/2 a block out and have close neighbors. We have really good neighbors though. We've been blessed. I might try to get by with a mini goat. First I have to get my chicken tractors and raised beds done before I start on another project. Right now our chicks are in a dog cage that we are using as a brooder. I tried to put a pic on my last post but it didn't work. I'll have to try it again.

Thanks!!

[PJJ]

I started a picture album on here. You can see a pic of my chicks in it. I still don't know how to put them on here. I'll figure it out sooner or later.

[RogueAPBT]

Penny, congrats on the new chicks...they are so cute!

I have seen the mini cattle. I love that idea, but have no experience with cattle at all. We actually have only 1/3 acre here, but luckily the house has a small footprint, so there's still quite a bit of land here that's usable.

Cheryl