Going to the Country
Y’all may not know, but Hunny and I are frantically remodeling our home in order to sell it. That’s right – we’re going to the country. Is this really a surprise to anyone? We have backyard chickens and a duck. Hunny is an avid gardener. We spend at least one weekend a month at our homesteading friends’ farm, learning, and enjoying their livestock and dogs.
Y’all know I battled cancer all last year. What a sweet ordeal. Yes, sweet. Y’all made it a bearable battle, and I thank you. My point is, we’ve been talking for a decade about getting a few acres so we can have livestock and an orchard and so much more. It’s going to be work. We’ve always waffled out of moving. Too much work. We’re not getting any younger. Didn’t want to fix up our own home to sell. Blah blah blah. And cancer happened. It changed my priorities.
Hunny came home from work one day, about three months ago, and I announced that we were selling the house and finding some land in order to homestead. Hunny wasn’t very sure about that. But I was. I started packing the house, selling our stuff, buying things to replace what needed replacing. Found a great realtor. And here we go.
Livestock Guardian Dogs
But I had ulterior motives for wanting to move to the country. Y’all, I’ve been talking, here on the blog, for YEARS, about getting a livestock guardian dog or three. Preferably Great Pyrenees. I LOVE THEM. How could I not? But they’re working dogs. They’re protectors. They giant dogs with thick coats. They love to be outside, protecting flocks of things. They love to roam. In other words, our little house and yard aren’t the appropriate place for them. Plus, I’d need way more birds and critters to justify having them. This dog. I want this dog, right here.
And this is the Jones Natural Chews blog, after all. I need to be able to ask Jones, every month, to send me Dino Bones. They’re HUGE. And venison jerky. And twelve inch Windees. Right? For big dogs! *sigh* That would be a dream come true. I need giant dogs in order to make this dream come true.
Goats and Calves and Turkeys and More!
We don’t stop at chickens and ducks. Our homesteading friends did caution us to master one animal at a time, not to get all the animals at once. We have fowl down pat, I think, so we’ll be doing that right off. And we accidentally bought a calf a month ago, so that’s our next animal, once we have a place for it. Y’all, it’s the sweetest little guy EVER. Adorable. And Hunny is IN LOVE with Mignon.
Eventually, though, we’d like to raise milk goats. Like these guys.
Goats are cute and bratty. They eat a lot of things they’re not supposed to. But the cheese we can make from their milk? AMAZING.
Gonna Eat a Lot of … Pears?
Another beautiful thing about a farm is being able to plant an orchard. I helped our homesteading friends harvest pears this weekend. They’re not ripe, so we didn’t harvest too many. There’s a timing issue, see. You have to pick them before the squirrels do. So there are several in brown paper sacks in my kitchen right now, ripening.
Aren’t they lovely? We’re looking forward to planting pears. Not sure, yet, what else. And Hunny will probably plant potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Giveaway
So I’m a busy little bee. Painting, tiling, laying laminate floor, replacing light fixtures, you name it. Our house will be amazing when we’re done. I’d say we won’t want to move, but I want livestock and their guardian dogs, darn it! I also want to give away treats. So if you click this sentence, leave a comment on the new post, then click the box and click I Commented, I’ll be choosing a treat winner next week! What is Jones Natural Chews giving away? Woofers! The ultimate hamburger for good dogs! Do your dog a favor and tweet about the giveaway, too. Most of our winners are via tweets.
Do me a favor and let me know what you think we should plant and/or grow on our little farm? I’m curious what y’all would grow. 😉
Spreading the good chews …
Flea
