You never know what you have...

...until it's gone. 

Today, a cousin of mine, Trey, died. He was 24 years old. He was in an accident July 3rd. He fell from a moving vehicle and hit his head on the pavement. Over the weekend, it seemed that he would come through it, but there was an aneurism on his brain preventing his waking up from an induced coma. This morning, about 4:30, the aneurism ruptured. 

Please pray for our family during our time of mourning. Pray especially for his parents and sister. 

Thank you all for the prayers. I appreciate them so much. God bless each of you. 

Farm Life: Ups and Downs

So, we've been doing some work in the garden. (Or rather, I've been sort of working in my Granddad's garden, the big pretty one) and it got me to thinking about life on a small country farm. And from this, I decided to write about the ups and downs. 

1. Goats

Ups:

     •We have fresh milk. 

     •We know that it is organic

     •Fresh cheese

     •Cute baby goats (and they really are adorable!!! <3 )

Downs:

     •They only milk for part of the year

     •They eat a lot 

     •Contrary to popular belief, they do NOT eat everything. They taste everything but they are actually very picky eaters. 

     •The baby goats grow into...you guessed it...adult goats (not near as cute) and sometimes the adults can be ornery. 

All in all, I've enjoyed having goats. It has been a pleasurable experience (for the most part) having goats. 

2. Next up: Chickens!!

Ups:  

    •Fresh Eggs

    •Again, organic, we know pretty much what they're eating but you can never tell with chickens. 

    •They eat almost anything. Leftover vegetables from the table, vegetables that go bad, pretty much anything!

Downs:

    •They eat almost anything (including the things you really don't want them to eat...umm, also including my cherry tomatoes that finally got ripe :(

    •They make messes that you wouldn't believe 

    •They are some of the dumbest animals you will ever see. 

But, chickens are a pretty good investment for us, I suppose. 

3. Gardening

Ups:

    •Fresh veggies!!!!! (Who wouldn't like that!)

    •May not be an up for everyone but I enjoy the harvest and putting vegetables in the freezer or canning them

    •The sunshine and spending time with my granddad. 

Downs:

    •Weeds. I don't like weeds

    •Weeds is all I can think of other than when vegetables start coming in you can NOT have a busy schedule or you'll have lots of bad vegetables. 

I personally love gardening. I haven't had much time this year, but I like to garden and work with vegetables. Wherever I live in the future, I hope that I will be able to have a garden, even if it is tiny. 

I hope you have enjoyed my post on small country farming. Maybe I'll post more about it later. Right now, fresh cooked veggies are calling my name!!!!

Ciao!! 

P.S. This is a photo of the basket I took to an Aunt this morning. Isn't it pretty??