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I can’t help it, I have to share my favorite new song with you. Jason Aldean has managed to make a song about tractors the sexiest, steamiest thing I’ve heard in a while. It is amazing and I can’t stop listening to it! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hsuK93W_4U&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00] What’s your favorite new song?

My Mom is the best. She is why I am the way I am, or at least a big part of why. She is why I knit. She is why I can sew (a little bit). She is why I make homemade laundry soap. She let me raise chickens for FFA in her basement even though I never built a coop like I was going to…that was a really smelly summer (you’d think I would learn, now I have turkeys in my own basement!). She taught me how to grow a garden. She is why I put up trim in my house and paint without waiting for Brian to do it all. She is why I recycle. She does not laugh at my hair brained ideas and she doesn’t think I’m a hippie for doing the things I do (or at least she doesn’t voice those thoughts 😉 ) She pets my cat and comes to visit us even though she can’t stand dog drool or cat hair. She even let my puppy sleep on the couch with me at her house. I can always call her even if it is late or we’ve been fighting, and she will listen

Just in case you haven’t heard, there is a new forum in town. Nature’s Harmony Farmer’s Forum has just been created and I’m already addicted. Check it out! Respond! Share! Enjoy!

Look what I found this morning! Lily, one of the first two lambs we brought to the farm, now has her own lamb. This one is a ewe lamb, and she is jet black. I thought the other baby was black but she is more like gray compared to this little girl. Who knew!? I’m off to work, just wanted to share the good news!

My Mom, knitting happilyJust thought I’d share a few pictures from that sock knitting class we took. Last Saturday was the last of 3 sessions. We were all sad that it was over! We all had our socks finished or almost finished and felt confident enough to start another pair on our own. I’ve already knitted a baby sock for my cousin and started on a pair for Brian. The project I’m working on in the picture is a large felted tote bag. That was technically a Christmas present for Brian’s Mom only it still isn’t quite finished. MeThis afternoon I’m started a new class to make “felted clogs”. They are like thick slip on slippers. The class is only two sessions and I thought it would be a great way to replace all the slippers Brian had that Maci chewed up. I’m also hoping to meet some new people since my Mom and my friend Steph were the only other people in the sock class. Here’s Steph! What activity do you use as an excuse to get together with those you love? Have any knitting projects you want to share?

Since pig raising has fallen to the bottom of our list after getting our own lambs to market and raising broilers, we still buy ham from the store. Brian goes once week to the local meat market and gets lunch meat. A lot of their meat comes from local raisers so it is nice place to buy from. However, the costs add up even when we buy what’s on sale, and you never really know if the special came from here or out of state. Awhile back we picked up a ham at Meijer. Meijer is large chain store that has its headquarters here in Michigan. I really like the stores and they seem to carry a lot of locally grown and processed foods. Anyway, we bought a $20 fully cooked boneless ham at $2.79/pound. Here’s what I got out of that: 10 thick ham “steaks” = 3 dinners for us plus leftovers for lunches10 thinner slices = 2 weeks worth of lunch meat2 end cuts chopped up = 1 batch of ham soup or stew I froze them all in labeled bags for future use. We had the first set of ham steaks tonight and they were delicious! I’m

Not much of a post, but here is something I just thought of. Over at Farmer’s Daughter they are talking about naming a horse. How exciting, by the way! Anyway this got me to thinking – I’ve never clarified how to say my name. I was forever being called Jean-a by substitute teachers so some of you may think of me as Jean-a. However, my name is Jen-a. That’s Jen, and then an “uh”. Thank my Mom for the original spelling! 🙂 So what assumptions might we have made about all of you that you could clear up?

This was brought to my attention last night at a chapter meeting of the Michigan Vet. Med. Association. Apparently there is a link between the improper disposal of euthanized pets and the death of eagles and other wildlife that may consume the pets later on. At the same time there comes the proposal of Davie’s law. From just skimming the bill it appears that this law would require injectable euthanasia of shelter pets in place of using gas chambers or other means. I don’t disagree with that law for shelter pets only, and if they are being properly disposed of. However, at the vet meeting they suggested a similar law would expand to require injectable euthanasia of all animals. I don’t see that ever happening due to rights of owners to do what they want with their own pets. I can’t find any information on such a proposal so I suspect the vets were overreacting to Davie’s law. Obviously such a requirement would make the incidence of accidental deaths more common and could ridiculously affect the safety of our food supply. In any case – please be aware of this issue. I know it isn’t pleasant to think about but

Okay this is a little late for V-day but I saw it over at Farmer’s Daughter and thought it looked like a lot of fun. Play along if you like! Me and My Valentine What are your middle names?Brian’s is Keith. Mine was Marlene but I changed it to Rose (my maiden last name) when I got married. I figured I was lucky to have a name that could work either way and I wanted to keep it. No one uses your middle name much past 8 years old anyway. How long have you been together?I think we started dating in September of 2006. So let’s see… 2 1/2 years. Married 6 months on Monday! How long did you know each other before you started dating?Almost a year. I thought we were just going out as friends, who knew I was slowly being seduced!? Who asked whom out?Well, actually my cousin asked Brian if he would take me out, but I was standing right there at the time. I wanted to go to the John Deere dealer’s grand opening and you had to be invited. Carrie knew that Brian had an invite, and he was nice enough to take me

Brian went to bed early, he’s still not feeling well. I stayed up until after midnight cleaning and reading. I finally woke up at 9:15 this morning thanks to a barking puppy. I knew the cat had been sleeping on my head and when I turned around this is what I saw. Apparently my head had been on that little spot there between his front and back legs. Thanks buddy, I didn’t really need my pillow anyway! 🙂