Wise Advice

Wise Advice from a Farmer's Wife
(written by author, George Steffner)

Whenever you return a borrowed pie pan, make sure it's got a warm pie in it.
Invite lots of folks to supper. You can always add more water to the soup.
There's no such thing as woman's work on a farm. There's just work.
Make home a happy place for the children. Everybody returns to their happy place.
Always keep a small light on in the kitchen window at night.
If your man gets his truck stuck in the field, don't go in after him. Throw him a rope and pull him out with the tractor.
Keep the kerosene lamp away from the the milk cow's leg.
It's a whole lot easier to get breakfast from a chicken than a pig.
Always pat the chickens when you take their eggs.
It's easy to clean an empty house, but hard to live in one.
All children spill milk. Learn to smile and wipe it up.
Homemade's always better'n store bought.
A tongue's like a knife. The sharper it is the deeper it cuts.
A good neighbor always knows when to visit and when to leave.
A city dog wants to run out the door, but a country dog stays on the porch 'cause he's not fenced-in.
Always light birthday candles from the middle outward.
Nothin' gets the frustrations out better'n splittn' wood.
The longer dress hem, the more trusting the husband.
Enjoy doing your children's laundry. Some day they'll be gone.
You'll never catch a runnin' chicken but if you throw seed around the back door you'll have a skillet full by supper.
Biscuits brown better with a little butter brushed on 'em.
Check your shoelaces before runnin' to help somebody.
Visit old people who can't get out. Some day you'll be one.
The softer you talk, the closer folks'll listen.
The colder the outhouse, the warmer the bed.

Hygge, Crafting, and Missing Old Friends

This weekend has been all about hygge (pronounced heu-guh), the Danish concept of coziness. I had plans of working on building my new composting system, but the rain interfered with that.



I have 3 hens who love scraps. This composting system, theoretically, allows the chickens to peck around and enjoy the bits they love (lowered section, on the left), scratch and poo around. When they are bored, it gets scooped into the middle section to begin breaking down further. The chickens can get in there if they want, but they usually aren't too interested in it once it starts to rot away. The 3rd bin, (far right) is going to be my experiment. The ladies won't have access to this section. This section will have vermiposting going on. Little red worms that break the compost down into black gold and leave casings that are rich in nutrients. This will be built inside my chicken yard with ease of access from inside and out.

But....

It's pouring down rain. And my husband didn't really want to start another farmish project until we had another lease signed on this rental house. Which, is coming up at the end of this month. So instead, we've been relaxing. I've been crafting away. I have 2 crafts I've been working on. A rag and yarn rug:



And of course, my holiday felt table runner. I'm almost done with it. We don't have a fireplace in this rental house, so last Xmas, my husband bought me an electric fireplace. So I worked on my felt right by the electric "flames".


Last night we had beef stew bubbling away in the crockpot, electric fire going, music playing, crafting going on with little dogs in my lap...it was very cozy...very Hygge!

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about friendships from the past. The older I get, the harder it is to make good, long lasting friendships. I haven't really made any since we moved to Oregon...which has put old friendships and the losses of them in perspective. You don't truly realize how precious some friendships are until they are gone. It's amazing how, when I was younger, I would let little things cause me to let a friendship go. Well, they seem so little now...but at the time, they felt huge and hurtful. Rather than work through them, I would walk away. Now that friendships are so rare at my age, I wish I hadn't been so hasty. Maybe have worked through the issues. I'm just not a confrontational person and tend to let things fester, rather than confront and deal with things. Once the festering gets too much, I had a habit of walking away and letting the friendship go to the wayside. Now I miss those friends dearly....hindsight.