by A Farm Girl | Sep 12, 2018 | Family, Farm Life
For anyone out there who has a dust buster (the small, handheld, battery powered vacuums), I have a wonderful discovery to share. Anyone who doesn’t have one, you should get one. They are awesome!
We have one because the kids can use it and have been vacuuming cereal and other crumbs from around the table since they were each about 2.
Anyway, here is my life hack. You know how annoying it can be to pull the lint trap out of the dryer and have it drop stuff all over the top or floor (depending on where your trap is)? This is especially bad living on a farm because there are always wood shavings in the trap. They go EVERYWHERE! Also, sometimes, it can be hard to get all of the lint off of the trap itself.
Well, grab your dust buster! Vacuum the lint trap itself! Vacuum up everything it drops out of it. Vacuum the opening to the place where the trap goes in. It is awesome!!
That’s it!
by A Farm Girl | Sep 3, 2018 | Farm Life
I wanted to share some of my initial thoughts about small farm life or homesteading or whatever you might want to call it.
We currently “only” have a dog, 2 barn cats, 12 chickens, 1 rooster, 3 horses, 3 ponies, and a very ornery 6-month-old goat. We also have almost 7 acres of grass and 11 acres of woods. I only have 1 tomato plant in a pot. I decided that I was going to hold off on putting in a garden this year. This fall, I am hoping to plow a big garden bed and mix in all sorts of lovely animal poo 🙂 to compost over the winter. We also have a 68-year-old Ford 8N tractor (it still runs really well) and a small garden tractor that have to be routinely tinkered with.
So… my thoughts… okay… here goes.
It is a LOT of work!!! We are tired before the end of every day. Sometimes it is a struggle to get dinner on the table at night. Grass grows really fast sometimes. Weeds grow even faster. Animals have to get fed several times each day. Animals need regular attention and exercise. Fences need to be built and routinely checked. Barns and sheds need to be repaired and maintained. Equipment needs to be kept in safe and working order.
This is all on top of having a house and 2 little kids to manage too! Life can be very overwhelming. I mean REALLY overwhelming. Balancing priorities becomes vital. Whenever I get too much on my list to get done in a day or a week – I try to pray and then remind myself that God comes first, DH second, kids third, animals fourth, everything else can fall in line after that. I have found that putting repetitive activities on a rotating basis helps too. I also try hard to do less on Sundays.
The biggest thing that has helped is realizing that things can wait. As long as my family has enough clothes for the next day (even if they are currently in the dryer), and everyone has been fed something throughout the day, it is alright. It’s okay to let things slide some. A rainy day or crazy hot day or snowy day will come along and I can catch up.
But with all of this, it is SO TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!! When I look out the window and see the animals happily playing or munching on grass, all I can do is say a prayer of thanks. When my kids are belly laughing as they cover each other in more mud that they have made, all I can do is smile and laugh with them – then spray them with the hose. 🙂 When I see my happy husband finding projects to do or tinkering with the tractor, all I can do is love him more for tackling this crazy project and sharing this wonderful life with me. God is so good!
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