Farmers Love

Farmers maintain a special relationship with their livestock.  We provide for them, care for them, pat them, hold them when they're sick, help them from their shell when they're stuck during hatching, help them birth their calves, foals, be there as needed.  It can be our lively hood, hobby, or provide sustainable, healthy food for our friends, family, and neighbors' tables.  It's also more than that. 

There's a mutual love and respect for God's green Earth and beautiful creatures.  It can be hard to explain until you feel that warm earth in your hands with the sun beating on your back as you work your gardens and crops; or when you hear your first "I laid an egg" song from a pullet you've raised from hatch or even conception and your heart swells with pride.  You might do a happy dance in the  middle of the field or yard, you may call your father or grandmother and give them that smile from their own farmyard memories.  Just a warning, my friends, once you've felt it, there's no going back!  You're one of us, a farmer, a caregiver, a provider, and there's no going back!

Along with the companionship and nourishment we receive comes a lot of responsibility and strong commitment.  The sense of that varies in different degrees from farmer to farmer but to maintain a successful, healthy farm it must be there in good measure.  It doesn't matter if your farm is on a 1/4 acre lot in a city or on 100 acres in the country, any farmer worth their salt must have that something that drives them to get up at the crack of dawn or rooster's first crow and get the work done. In terms of livestock, we all know there's feeding, watering, providing medical care, housing, and safety from predators and harm.  It's hard work and a lot of it but it's oh so worth it!  We're always learning, striving for improvements, talking to each other, and working some more! 

We're starting a series on The Egg Basket blog about taking care of the poultry on our farm- the chickens.  I'll be blogging about some recent events that set us back, made us catch our breath, and realize just how much this farming thing means to us.  We've had to work harder than ever to save our little chicken farm and get it running back on track in the healthy, sustainable way we feel God intended and with that learned some things on care and health and a lot more things on what's important and how to protect ourselves and our flock. 

I want to share those things with our readers and friends.  I want to be real and not hide our challenges.  Things go wrong on a farm, things break, you meet less than honorable people, predators test your boundaries.  What we've learned is it's important how you handle the challenges and prevent them from happening in the future. 

We don't want to hide the hardships or the struggles from our readers.   We want to share them, discuss them, and learn from each other.   If our difficulties can assist or prevent another farm family then why not share the knowledge we've accumulated? 

When I was a little girl it was common to watch as other farmers came by my father's farm to talk about the cattle or the drought or come asking for help to round up a stallion that had jumped the fence.   There is a community of folks in farm life, the only difference is now we're not limited to our next door neighbors.  Thank God because now it's hard to always have neighbors that have the farm love that I mentioned above.

 Not everyone understands the need for small scale and family farms and the sense of joy and accomplishment that comes with them.  We do have the Internet and our circle of online friends and co-farmers to share with so that's what we intend to do!   Stay tuned to learn what we learned the hard way and I pray it may help you with your own flocks.

Love & Blessings,

Tiffany  

Pallets?

Have you seen all of the pallet craze out in blogland?  Or on Pinterest?  It's one of the new things I think to upcycle, repurpose pallets!  It's been all around and loving to surf the web for ways to craft, save cash, and help the environment the way I do, I've been feeling the need to try one out.  Then two weeks ago my dear hubby comes home from a landscaping job and what do I spy with my little eye on the back of his work truck? 

PALLETS! TWO OF THEM!
Me, "Whatcha' gonna do with those pallets, babe?"
Dh, "NO!"
Me, "I didn't ask you a yes or no question, babe, I asked what you were doing with those pallets!"
DH, "NO!"
Me, "No, really!"
DH, "I'm taking them to the dump, I"m throwing them away, we do NOT need anything else you are thinking of doing something with sitting around here, so NO you can't have them for any crazy idea you found."
Me, "That wasn't nice! I simply asked what you were doing with them!  Why would you react that way?"
DH, "What do you want them for?"
Me, "I don't know but I've seen lots of cool stuff out there I want to try."
DH, "Are you going to let this go?"
Me, "No, babe.  But I'll be super happy if you just let me have them since they WERE free."
DH, "Get C (our 10 year old) to help you with them and I don't want them sitting around! And nothing off the wall crazy, okay?"
Me, "Okay babe, I love you so much! Thanks!"
DH, "Mmmhmm.  Love you too but please, Tiff, don't leave them all sitting around."
Me, "I'm not babe! Thank you! :) :)"

Hee hee! ;) It always goes like that ;).  That's why we are 15 years married and happily counting ha ha!  Now, here's my problem, I haven't done anything with them!! They are still in the back with some free landscaping rock I also talked him out of later that week because I HATE to be so careless and wasteful.  I think that's a wise and noble way to be, DH on the other hand doesn't like to come home and see things I'm going to "one day use" sitting around.  Respectful opinion I must admit.

I'm all over the net today looking for pallet ideas and feeling completely overwhelmed.  Man!  There are some amazing ideas out there!! I'm so happy that I'm being sustainable and not clogging the landfill but feeling I need to keep my word to my sweetie and move on with doing something with them.  What do you think?  Have you done any of these awesome pallet projects?

I must decide - preferably even get started- soon- today would be better...it must be easy enough for me to handle without bothering him (it's our busy season for landscaping so working two jobs like the knight in shining armor he is I don't want to harp on him for a LOT of help) and something useful, pretty, awesome enough he will agree it was a good idea to save them lol! 

Here's some of what I found online in case you, like me, happen to have some pallets laying around or maybe you are going dumpster diving soon to look for some!  I will update you as soon as I decide what I'm doing!  Or he kills me first! :) <3 nah...then who would cook and homeschool the kids? :)

Little Lucy Lu has a great idea for creating bookshelves for her little one out of pallets- I must admit this one looks pretty simple- I can even use the saw myself although I think I'll sneak and use his power tool instead of a handsaw. It's adorable- it involves painting for pretty which I LOVE. I think this is top on my list right now to try!

Backwoods Home Magazine has cute birdhouse ideas to make from pallets,  I love the ideas but the directions are a bit lengthy lol- sad I know, but for this I want in and out instructions with some good DIY photos of the steps and be done. :)  We'll see on this one.



Compost bin from This Garden is Illegal for $15 using pallets! LOVE this idea! Not sure I want to take this on first but it's awesome!

Here's a great idea for building almost free planters with pallets - another non-photo tutorial though so it's not my pick but for the less visual learners , there are great instructions!

My Pet Chicken has building plans for a chicken coop using wooden pallets.  The plans are $15, not for me, I don't want to purchase plans and if I get any more chicks anytime soon I'll have a lot more to worry about with DH than these pallets! :)

OH! This pallet plate rack is so shabby chic! I LoVe it! This idea is from Apartment Therapy.

I'm also totally infatuated with this modern coffee table made with a pallet by papernstitch - the blog!   

The DIY Pallet sign at Blue Eyed Yonder is super doable- that's going to be #2 on my list next to the bookshelves. I have two coastal themed rooms in my home that I LOVE for relaxing and this would be perfect for either of them!

Hmmm... speaking of DIY pallet beach signs... I think I could easily make the pallet pieces work for ANY of the beach signs shown here at Completely Coastal.  This is a great little montage of beach signs from recycled wood.  This could keep the kids and I busy for some time. I love things they can be involved in also...maybe my first pallet will be broken up into several pieces for these so we can have some summer fun.  The weather here is perfect today :)

Oh by after reviewing my Pinterst Pallet Reuse Ideas board, I can't forget about using at least one for the Pallet garden.  I love the sustainable idea of this and the simple directions.  I am a great gardener (humbly stated) so I know I can accomplish this and DH will love it! <3 Great idea and clear directions on this one from Life on the Balcony!

And of course, I can always rely on my good stand by website, Better Homes & Gardens for ideas for just about anything!  I should have known they would have a photo slide show for pallet ideas.  I probably should have went there before google! Loving the Make your own potting bench idea.  The directions look fairly simple but I'm a bit scared of all of the power drill action!  My 10 year old is pretty good at using it alread- chip off the 'ole block of my DH for sure!  Thank the Lord for His blessings!

I'm now going to do the unthinkable- get off my bum and actually GO outdoors and GET to working on a project and inspect these pallets instead of just pinning, blogging, and dreaming of what could be!  Making life happen, folks!  I will update on which project I actually try/accomplish and how it goes! 

How about you?? Anyone up for trying some recycled pallet projects?  Have better ideas or already completed one? I'd so love to hear about it!  If you are interested in trying, I've pinned all of these ideas and any new ones I find/come up with on my Pinterest board, Pallet Reuse Ideas!  Happy upcycling~!!

Love,

Tiff