frugal fashionable farmer: birthday week! yowza!

Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

-Mary Oliver

This is my birthday week!!! Saturday I will see number 41 come strolling in.... I am enjoying looking back on a few changes from the last several trips around the sun... The biggest one for starters was was when we bought this farm when I was 37 - and this was the absolute best day everrrrrrrr!!

Little recap here...I started out in 2010 learning about farming and food and where mine was coming from. Then in 2011, a friend and I rescued two very sick goats (Eli & Ellie) from South Carolina. The goats stayed on my friends farm where I would go daily and learn about farming and gardening. A few months into this and Ellen was born. A total surprise! Within a week I went out and got Misty & Milly - two little doelings that would grow up with Ellen and hopefully one day be my milkers...

The next several pics are from 2010-2011.....

(LOOK at baby Eli!!!!! He was so sweet and sick in this pic.... He pulled through and now is a BIG boy with a BIG attitude! Lol!)

(Baby Ellen!!!!)

Ellie & baby Ellen!!

Then in 2014 I was (finally) able to move my chicken and goats to my own farm! I dreamed it, and it happened! Although my little Milly passed in 2015 (from neurological complications related to the meningeal worm), I must say my little goat family is pretty happy, and as much as I got them with intentions of having my own milkers, I have come to terms that would be too much responsibility for me, having a full time job and all....

... the purchase of the farm also meant we had to start really conserving on our spending.

Living with less has been a thing that has been difficult for me, but we started minimally with things like vowing to never buy paper towels again, cutting back on buying new clothing, and eating out less and cooking at home more. One of my favorite things to do now for food is roasting veggies...

The gardening thing didn't work out so much this year because I had a lazy spell....

The hardest part of changing our lifestyle this way for me, meant cutting out Target for home essentials. I would run out to Target for toilet paper and come home with shirts for Baby (the dog), a dress or three that was on clearance (for myself), and other things that I only bought because they were 'on sale'. I now use my Amazon Prime account for coffee filters, laundry detergent, toothpaste, and other home staples, and Target is a thing of the past....

When we bought the house, we also decided to make more of an effort to be more efficient with our 'man-power'... The house came with a dishwasher, but we opted out of having one so that we could have extra space in the kitchen, and we sold it on Craigslist and made extra space, and some extra cash! It hasn't been so bad doing our own dishes, and has actually even made me be more aware of reusing the same mug throughout the day instead of doing what I used to do which was grab a new glass, mug, or cup for each different thing I would drink throughout the day....

We had been living without a microwave (mostly due to lack of space in the kitchen - it is tiny!) up until last year when we gave in and got one! Oh, well... last Summer was BRUTAL and reheating food in the oven or on the stove-top was torture, not to mention that we had resorted to quick meals that didn't heat up the house more often, such as sandwiches and chips (not so healthy)...reheating roasted veggies IN THE OVEN doesn't work out so well.... Now we shall stay cool while eating healthier AND enjoying our leftovers! So, while having a microwave might not seem like an energy efficient move, it actually is because we use less AC because the house doesn't get heated up nearly as much as before...that is my rationale anyway ;) !

I am looking forward to many more years and many more improvements at the farm. Slowly but surely it is on it's way to being maintainable instead of so much work making it into the way I want it! Hard work but so rewarding. Every day I learn something new and cannot wait to see what the next trip around the sun brings!!