Happy Birthday to me... I get to downsize!

With my thirty third birthday coming up, my wonderful and sweet Justin decided to get me the most wonderful gift.  It's even in keeping with my desire to downsize our possessions funny enough.  :)  A Kindle.  We had discussed possibly getting Kindles for ourselves for some time and after Christmas, Justin took his Christmas gift money and purchased his own Kindle with 3G.  After checking it out, I admitted I would kind of like to get one, though without the 3G as I really don't need to purchase and download books while out of WiFi range.  I had even more or less decided to purchase my own after tax returns came in.  Anyhow, my honey went ahead and bought me my very own about a week ago.  Yay!  Now comes the fun of slowly replacing our "must have" books with Kindle/ebook editions and selling off or possibly donating our paperbacks and hardbacks.  Each Kindle can hold up to 3500 books, a huge space savings for us in our rather cluttered 1000 sq foot home (give or take).  We had already gone through and brutally cut back our collection, giving away about about a hundred titles, mostly paperback fiction, to our library's book swap cart, and donating a few of my old college texts to the library in the hopes of helping future students out in their research.  Now, as spring approaches, my daughter starts walking about the house, and our limited space begins to feel all that much more limited, I think a further purge will be coming.  Some titles may just be put back in boxes for the moment, books more sentimental to us... but more than a few can be passed on to new homes I think.

With the book purge, I want to further our DVD purging as well.  Since we subscribed to Netflix and can now stream the majority of movies we want to watch, our DVD collection has become more dust collector than entertainment.  Again, there are the few movies, my Harry Potter collection comes to mind, that I would prefer to keep a physical copy of, but many, if not most, could be sold off to free both shelf and floor space (getting rid of the extra shelving would be a wonderful bonus!).

So happy birthday to me, I get to clear out space in my crowded house and give myself and my family some much needed breathing room.

Piecing together memories...

For about two years now, I've been saving our old tired and worn out jeans in the hope that I could eventually reuse them... well, I'm finally doing that.  I'm currently cutting up the old jeans into 6 inch squares, many of which I've started to embroider designs on.  With a stack almost 10 inches high, and about 15-20 embroidered squares, I'm seeing the beginnings of a patchwork quilt or maybe even a rug/play mat for my daughter.  I have been thoroughly enjoying my embroidery, though that's not unusual... it's something I've taken up since my Grandma Erma Lee passed away a few years ago now as a way of remembering her.  She and my Granny Jessie, both passed on now, were avid quilters and did many quilts with embroidered designs that they lovingly hand stitched... now I'm helping to carry on the tradition and the memories I have of them to my children.  Hopefully soon I will be able to take a couple pictures and add them here for all to see.  All the embroidery has even got me considering to do genealogy blocks as well... not sure yet how best to organize something like that, but I think a quilt with our family history embroidered on it, even just the names and dates of family members... I think that would be something absolutely wonderful to make.  Perhaps making it with the denim squares would help to make it last longer as well.  Anyway, I will try to start adding pics of my embroidery here soon.  And if I'm stuck here at work much longer tonight, I may just ask my honey to bring me some dinner and my embroidery box so I have a chance to work on some squares.

Ah, here are a couple pics of some of the embroidered blocks I've done so far.  They are all pretty much free hand designs.  I've used some buttons as well (my daughter loves to play with buttons and the like... and chew them, hence the exceptionally large ones) and a cute patch I've had for ages.  I've started a couple more and may add a bit more to some of these still.  As work progresses I will try to do an update with new pics.  Anyhow, enjoy.  Criticisms and suggestions welcome.

Butterfly patch and huge buttons.  Might look for another butterfly patch to add... just feels like there should be more here.

A funky moon that may get a little added to it later.

One of my favorites... part moon, part dream catcher almost.

Our little sea turtle, because turtles are just too cute.

A patch made on a separate piece of denim and sewn on with a little fringe cut that will fray in the wash.

Dragonfly button and funky leaves.

Paisley!!!

Mobile butchers... helping to make local meat more affordable

Just read an interesting article from Mother Earth News (an awesome website focused of helping people homestead and become more self sufficient).  Anyhow the article "Demand for Local Meat Brings the Butcher to the Farm" talks of how some small butchers have started to mobilize themselves in order to stay in business and help meat the demands for local meat.  I think this idea is BRILLIANT!  I remember the days of living on the farm, lovingly raising our livestock and then having to traumatize them trying to get them on the trailer to take them to the butcher.  Most livestock like the open spaces, and they inherently aren't of much a mind to leave those spaces for cramped smelly trailers... and they certainly aren't fans of being in moving vehicles... ok, maybe there are a few out there, but not many.  :)  Anyhow, the idea of being able to call in a mobile butcher to come right to the farm, fully process our livestock to neatly packaged meat, all without herding everything into cages or trailers... that is so much easier, and likely CHEAPER.  Hauling animals anywhere is not a cheap undertaking.  First, there's the expense of having the equipment to haul the animals... a good sized trailer (couple thousand at least), vehicle capable of moving the trailer (think Ford F350 or similar, $28,000+ new), gas/diesel for the trip (averaging nearly $4+/gal, this adds up fast), processing fees by the butcher (varies, and I've not priced recently)... the list goes on.  With all that expense, no wonder a lot of local meat prices are higher than your typical Walmart meats.  Have a look at the article and I will try to look up some mobile butchers to list here.  Perhaps there's one near your farm.  Let us know if you tried this service and what you thought about it.

Also for those interested in the USDA requirements for Mobile Butchering Units, have a look here at the compliance guidelines.   It will require Adobe Acrobat to read.

Mobile butchers as found on Google... most didn't have much info, so call your local butcher and ask.  Perhaps enough interest in a mobile unit in your area would convince them to try it if they haven't already.

Thrush Processing LLC-AZ Pricing varies by weight and distance, but they do estimates over the phone.  Also, reportedly family friendly and glad to let you watch the entire process.  They process livestock and game meats and require an inspection of your animals for butcher to prove ownership by the AZ Dept of Agriculture.


Stockham's Mobile Butchering-ID No website listed for this one, but we do have an address and phone number. 150 Colorado Street, Gooding, ID 83330-1059 Phone: (208) 934-4028

Butcher's by state, not necessarily mobile (I may add more to this list later, these are mostly just outside my area)
MD

Cracked Cork Llc
301-791-2882 8 E MAPLE ST
FUNKSTOWN, MD 21734

PA
Cessna's Butcher Shop
814-847-2749 3327 MAIN RD
BEDFORD, PA 15522-3916

Guyer Ed Custom Butchering
717-532-8038 10125 MOUNTAIN RD
ORRSTOWN, PA 17244-9413

Landis Butchering
717-369-4211 2417 SHIELDS RD
CHAMBERSBURG, PA 17202-9138

Mellott's Butcher Shop
717-328-2232 7826 CHARLESTOWN RD
MERCERSBURG, PA 17236-9752

Miller Meats
717-375-2344 250 ALLEMAN RD
CHAMBERSBURG, PA 17202-7236

Rosenberry's Abattoir Inc
717-264-8255 1711 GABLER RD
CHAMBERSBURG, PA 17201-9566

Starliper's Custom Butchering
717-328-5125 13787 BUCHANAN TRL W
MERCERSBURG, PA 17236-9451



WV
Nelson's Meat Processing LLC

2561 Yates Crossing Rd

Milton WV 25541

Primary: 304 743-5400

VA

Blue Ridge Meats of Front Royal
540-636-6050 2391 GUARD HILL RD
MIDDLETOWN, VA 22645-3957

Mts Equipment
540-662-5927 116 BRUCE DR
WINCHESTER, VA 22601-4213

The Butchers Choice
540-722-9606 3107 VALLEY AVE STE 106
WINCHESTER, VA 22601-2675 

Goodbye uncle Allen...

Late last night I got the news that my uncle Allen, who had spend quite a long stretch fighting cancer, had lost his fight.  Uncle Allen was an interesting part of my family.  His wife, my aunt Doris, was from a rather "country" farm family, where you can imagine her brothers hog tying someone for hurting their sister, all while having a laugh and a beer in their soiled blue jeans and button up jean shirts.  :)  Allen, well... he always struck me as the hippy of the family, and yet he was always right there beside us when we worked the tobacco fields.  He was always lighthearted, silly and playful.  I remember his near constant smile... a big goofy grin that couldn't help but his eyes and leave you with the sneaking suspicion that he might have just come up with or pulled some devious prank.  :)  I remember going for a drive in the convertible loaner that my aunt Darlene had one Christmas Eve... Uncle Allen, my cousins Jamie and Stephie... the snow falling and Allen talking us into dropping the top down. 

Fare thee well uncle Allen, may you find rest and peace, may your smile live on in our hearts forever.  You will be missed by many.

Struggling through... and finally seeing a little progress

Do you ever have days, weeks and months even, where it feels like you're not so much walking through your day as much as plodding through vast amounts of mud trying to reach your goals?  You know the days where you find yourself exhausted just thinking about your goals, let alone actually working toward them.  Over the last couple months I've been in the mud flats so to speak, struggling to keep the strength to keep moving forward on my goals... goals to make my life simpler, to get my debts paid and gone, to get my home more organized, and so on.  Thankfully despite having to drag myself through the mud of doubts and obstacles, I'm making progress.  In a month I will pay off my LAST credit card.  Completely paid and gone.  And trust me, I've no plans to ever bother with that scam again.  Over the last 10-15 years, I've come to the conclusion that the credit industry is one of the worst industries in our country.  Credit has become so easy to get, that hundreds of thousands of young people are starting their colleges careers with more and more debt.  College itself isn't cheap, and without credit, it's not accessible by the majority of American youth, but to add credit card debt with it's ridiculously high interest rates on top of college loans... well, it's no wonder our economy is having issues.

Anyhow, it was this realization (some ten years ago... oh has it really been that long), that got me to first set the goal of getting myself out of debt.  I, like the rest of the herd, started college and picked up a handful of easy to get credit cards.  Visa, Mastercard, Sears, Lane Bryant, Walmart, Value City, Dell... so many little pieces of plastic and that little tiny minimum payment... recipe for disaster 99% of the time.  Anyhow, since I first set on the goal of becoming debt free I've paid off around $15,000 in credit debt.  This next payment (which will include a large portion of my tax return, again) will pay off the last credit card I have.  It's been a slow process, filled with struggles between low student incomes, having grocery money, keeping up utilities and all the little and big disasters that make life "interesting".

So I'm happy to hit this milestone.  It leaves me with my car to pay off next... not too bad, a couple of retirement loans with wonderfully low interest rates, and my student loans... a mountain that has been chipped at as best I can while trying to get rid of the nastier high interest debts.  Here's to trudging forward through the mud, hoping for a few sections of easy effort from time to time, and eventually meeting my goals one at a time.

Looking at ways to bring 4H to the city...

I don't know if anyone reading this was a 4Her, but as a 4H alum in WV, I've noticed that the majority of our clubs are rural and livestock centered (rabbits, steers, goats, chickens, pigs).  Anyhow, these past 10 years I've been a member of the urban community.  I live in town, have a small yard, and a smaller home... and aside from the possibility of a couple chickens or rabbits, livestock just isn't a real option for us.  So I've been trying to look into ways of bringing some of the agricultural fun I remember from my farm days and years of 4H into my urban home and family.

Looking back at the projects I participated in of old... there are some that work just fine in town (sewing, canning, cooking), and others that either aren't feasible or have fallen out of favor (livestock, especially pigs and steers, and tobacco growing... yeah, I was a tobacco farmer/non-user, helping to feed the nicotine addicts out there).  We're currently members of a rural club, which is great and all, but I find myself wanting to put more and more effort into reaching the kids in my neighborhood.  The kids my son goes to school with, who've never seen a farm or don't really know much about gardening.  The teens who are trying to avoid the dealers and need safe, fun activities where they are, not 20 minutes outside of town.  I've been thinking about how I can get our family more involved in our immediate community.

Currently I've been bouncing ideas off our county extension agent... things like all ages Karaoke Nights or concerts with local talent, community gardening projects where club members start a school garden or maybe a small veggie plot in a park (maybe even have the kids take their produce to the Farmers Market to sell), sewing and crafting classes to teach youth how to make the most of limited means.  Anyhow, I'm looking for ideas on how to make 4H more relevant to city youth.  For country folk, the livestock and gardening all make sense because a lot of rural families have the space and are often already doing some of these things, but for those (country and city) youth with limited space and often limited income, we need to be finding ways to bring the principles behind 4H to them through activities they can get interested in.  So among my efforts to simplify my own life and work towards creating more self sufficiency in my family, I am going to be working on ways to adapt and promote 4H for the youth nearest me.  And if anyone has an idea to share, please feel free to post your suggestions... the more ideas flowing the better.