Cat In Glasses, Weird Dog, and Walk Your Chicken Day

We recently discovered that our cat, Milo, loves to be dressed up. That is, he doesn’t resent it very much. Okay, fine, he doesn’t hate it and tolerates it more than ten seconds, which could indicate ‘love’ for a cat. Anyway, Milo was dressed to the nines this week, all while sitting in a tiny wicker rocking chair with a doll blanket on his ‘lap’. Amazingly enough, he never objected to any of this treatment and we all came out of this photoshoot with no bloodshed. Maybe in all the spare time I have (HA), I’ll make a cat calendar. Then again, probably not.

Later in the week, Nancy ‘remembered’ an old trick of hers: Bring us the dog food bowl and whack us on the legs with it until we fill it. It’s cute when it really is ‘cookie time’, but can get slightly annoying when, thirty minutes after she eats, she is already beating your ankles with her bowl. Still, I have to say she is a smart dog who knows what’s important in life. (FOOD)

We ended the week by putting a chicken in a dog harness and seeing what would happen. Things can get monotonous in the country sometimes, so you have to spice it up a little. As you can see, Rae did very well for his first walk. Really, it’s much like ‘walking’ a cat, which is to say, you put it in a harness, pray it doesn’t go berserk and scratch out your eyes, and follow it wherever it wants to go. Again, no bloodshed other than at the 0:11 mark, my child is attacked by fireants. We awarded Rae with a cabbage leaf covered in baby cabbage worms, and yes, he ate it down to the rib.

Have a fabulous pre-Thanksgiving weekend friends! I’ll be decluttering more, bathing dogs, and probably walking chickens.

Facebook, Redneck Trees, Creepy Garden Dwellers, Sewing, and Hygge…

and this is how the past week rolled here on the farm!

I had started week two of Facebook freedom, and it dawned on me that I did not have any way to contact a particular group of friends other than Facebook.

Sigh.

Feeling fairly defeated, I have logged back on. BUT, I have only been checking it twice a day. I think that is better than my former record 4,537 times a day and every time I went to the bathroom.

Do I still think it is possible for life without Facebook? ABSOLUTELY. I now realize that I didn’t have a good back-up plan for contacting folks (other than Facebook) which I have been working on correcting this week. I have only been looking at my group of friends page, and not my feed. Otherwise, I’d be back to spending a ludicrous amount of time on there.

Moving on!

I finally found a sign that I love after a four year search for the ‘perfect’ sign for my kitchen wall. It also helped that it was 50% off at Hobby Lobby! On the very same day, my food order with Mary Jane’s Farm arrived. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was. I have been an official “Farmgirl” with Mary Jane for five years, and following her site/magazine subscriber for eight. I had never tried her food before and I have no idea why I hadn’t before. I also had forgotten that as an official Farmgirl I get free shipping! Hello!

So, I got a sampler pack that lets you try the Budget mix (think: Bisquick on a heavenly, organic level) and then a couple of instant meals that you just add water to the bag! They are intended for on-the-go or for camping/backpacking. All I can say is: WOW. Simply…amazing. In fact, I have already restocked yet again. More on that later.

Here is my sign and some of the food items.

Then the next day, I planted lots of pansies and violas in my gardens. I am not sure why I never (!) have planted pansies before but I love them so much!

And as I stepped out to check on the garden that evening, I saw these critters. We have a cute little toad and a massive spider. I have only seen three of these spiders in the nine years we have been here, but counting his legspan, it is easily as wide as my palm. Ack! It’s a good thing that I like spiders. Perhaps even more creepy is how well this little feller mixes in with the background…

With all of this extra time I now have (thanks to my Facebook reduction), I decided to get back to sewing. I have a love/hate relationship with sewing. There are times when that’s all I want to do, and then when it gets frustrating, I want to throw my sewing machine and all the fabric and sewing notions right into a burn pile. I had to use my seam ripper more than someone SHOULD on this dress. To be quite honest, I had to go to the store to get another seam ripper as I dulled my first one, if that tells you anything. Anyway.

It is a Dottie Angel design; Simplicity 1080, if you’d like to see the pattern. I plan on throwing on some leggings and doing farm work in it. I had read several critiques of this pattern and they are not unfounded. There are definitely parts of the pattern which just seem overly complicated. I still have to hem it and then figure out how to fit it properly so I don’t have the ‘back bunching’ that I have going on now. Losing 10 pounds would help, but until then, perhaps some well placed darts will do.

Later in the week, influenced by my dear friend “Big Rig”, I went to the dollar store to get some holiday “day-core”, as we say. Of course, all of the fall/Thanksgiving items were gone with exception of a lonely package of plates, some fall napkins, and a vinyl tablecloth, despite the fact it was only the first week of November. Actually, I want to say it was November second, perhaps? So a word to the wise, if you need autumn ‘day-core’ at the dollar store, you’d better head up there in August, I guess.

Even though I was pretty peeved that it looked as though Father Consumerized Christmas had just upchucked his wares on half of Dollar Tree, I just could not pass up the gold glitter deer head. So then I had to pick up a tiny dollar tree, a tiny strand of LED lights, and some gold ball things in the floral section. I grabbed a roll of gold glittery tulle (hint: UNWRAP IT OVER A TRASH CAN, unless you want your entire house coated in gold glitter). Yet, one deer head was just not enough.

Then it was a trip “up to the Wal-Marts” for more deer heads and tiny pinecones. All told, it was under ten dollars for my little redneck tree and I love it.

To finalize my week, I have been re-reading about the Danish concept of ‘hygge’ (pronounced ‘hue-gah’ or ‘hoo-gah’, depending on who you listen to). I had looked this up several years ago, being the trendsetter that I am and all (NOT), and I love love love the idea of hygge.

What is ‘hygge’? From what I gather, hygge is:

Snuggly blankets
Fireplaces
Wool socks
Cinnamon buns
Cake
Hot tea/coffee
Candles…many candles
Friends
A purring cat
Soft lighting (read: more candlelight)
Books
A cozy chair
Togetherness
Unfinished pine wood
Anything you can find at IKEA, surrounded by purring cats, lit candles, friends and family wrapped up in ‘cosy’ blankets wearing wool socks in front of your roaring fireplace, shoveling cinnamon buns and cake in their mouths while drinking hot tea/coffee and reading long, engaging and meaningful novels in a room preferably with either unfinished pine walls or an unfinished pine table.

And that, friends, is ‘hue-gah’ for you! So I would like to present my little snippet of farmhouse hygge to you. We have a purring cat in his cozy bed in an IKEA bin. Please note that this IS in a room with unfinished pine walls (unseen in photo).

For more hygge ideas, there are now a bajillion books, e-books, and websites dedicated to this 2017 word of the year, or, you can simply order a free IKEA catalog, curl up on your couch with a warm blanket and hot coffee, and peruse the pages at your leisure.

Until next time!

A life without Facebook: Week One

The Question:

Can it really be done? Can you still live in today’s world without the constant updates, “Vague-booking” posts from friends and relatives, those famous family Facebook fights, mindless scrolling, privacy-invading user tracking, and endless ads?

Yes. Of course you can.

The Issues:

Do you ever find yourself going to check “just one thing” on Facebook and then you look up from your Facebook fog and it’s two hours later, your coffee is freezing cold, and you’re still in your pajamas?

Have you ever been scrolling along and you see a friend/family member post something so offensive to you that you wondered how you could ever be in the same room with them again?

Did you ever find yourself in a heated comment debate with a random person (or maybe not-so-random) and you wished for a magical moment in time where you could reach through the screen and slap someone?

It’s not worth it.

I have wanted to leave Facebook for years, but I stayed on, mainly because of my direct sales customers. However, this changed early in 2017 when I decided to take a break from direct sales altogether so I could focus my time and energy on family and our homestead. This made my decision to quit social media much easier.

My Reasons:

Facebook Drama and the Resulting Stress: If the 2016 election taught us anything, it was that the old saying “Never discuss politics or religion” still needs a place in our society. I saw some of the most venomous things ever come from the keyboards of Facebookers. Another source of drama: Posts from family members/friends that you don’t quite agree with. Not necessarily my own family/friends, mind you, but this is a very real cause of stress that I have seen/heard about ever since the beginnings of Facebook. Many things…A GREAT MANY THINGS…are better left unsaid.
Wasted Time: I would be utterly embarrassed and ashamed to tell you the amount of time I spent on Facebook in a day’s time, so I won’t. However, I can tell you that in this last week alone, I have accomplished things that have needed attention for months and even years. Let’s just leave it at that. And if you enjoy research, look up dopamine and Facebook, and why it is so addictive.
Endless Sales Pitches: From the annoying side ads to sponsored posts to direct sales requests from our dearest friends…it is all just too much. Don’t even get me started on sales groups and being added without my permission. I can’t even touch on that without a bad word. The fact of the matter is, I am a frugal person trying to pay off all of my debts. Even a dollar spent on something that is not a debt is slowing down my debt pay-off progress. I LOVE to support small businesses and friends in any way I can, BUT, financially I just can’t do that with any regularity. This leads us to the last reason, which is:
GUILT: Whether it’s not being financially able to support your friend in her business or seeing the endless parade of homeless animals that are within hours of being euthanized and that you would love to adopt, but cannot, there is that awful emotion of guilt. As a mother, I already have to deal with Mommy Guilt. I really don’t need any more to add to my day. Then there are the events you are invited to, and can’t attend. Or perhaps it is a fundraiser for a great cause, and you were added to a FB group, but you have no extra funds or even a desire to donate. There is that dang guilt, just waiting around the corner.

The Wrap-Up:

I once read that the most annoying Facebook post is the one that says, “I’m taking a break from Facebook.” If that’s true, I apologize for being annoying. Still, I hope that you will consider perhaps taking a break from social media if you find yourself in a similar boat! I’ll be right here in my own happy corner of the web, living (mostly) guilt-free and working on my fall garden.

Vacationing with no Facebook updates (ahhhhh!):