Aba on NAIS

"If in the rare case that the government does this conspiracy(NAIS) and take over our animals, and our food, then rest assured that your ancestral bootlegging blood with kick in to full gear. Stop pissing and moaning, and find a spot in the middle of nowhere and distill your own livestock. There will be be plenty of folks around to drink it up. Brothers and sisters, prepare to drape your cattle in confederate flags and we can all stick it to the man!!!"

Well, guess I am going on The List today!!! Thanks, Aba

Calling my brain, where are you???

I do not know why this happens, maybe it is the lack of sleep over the years that have finally build up, or I have finally gone over the key number of disappearing brain cells from pregnancies, or that I am always multi tasking to the point where I don't know quite what I am doing. Let's recount my idiocracies of the evening, shall we?

I stared at the Tractor supply fence calculator for 20 minutes trying everything I could think of to get the freakin' thing to work, clicking here and there, typing, ctrl + clicking - everything I could think of, and when I finally gave up Aba came over and pushed the power button and it was raring to go (now, how come I didn't see that button in the 20 minutes I clicked on everything else possible on the screen)???

Or the conversation Aba and I were having about the pigs he wants to get, (Walter I think we are going to try and get them from you, and yeah now it is more than 1, Thanks, for that, really, thanks) and how we will keep our animals from running away. Aba said we should just fence in the whole perimeter of the property instead of little pastures, and let the chickens, cow an pigs wander where ever they want - well except for the market garden, that wouldn't be good. I countered with how I thought he wanted wildlife on the land to hunt, so we shouldn't fence in all the land, but then again, we don't really want deers though because they would kill all the animals. Yeah, that's right I said because we don't want the deers to kill all of the animals!!!, that makes tons of sense, right? I meant Bears, not deers, and yes I know they are different. Aba just gave me a weird look and started laughing " Yep, you gotta watch out for those killer deers!

And you don't even want to know how I attempted to put out the salmon tonite that I accidentally flambeed. Note to self: Blowing on the burner will not put out flames, you must turn off the gas, and move the skillet away.

I think I should just go to bed now before I mess something else up.

The real estate chronicles...

As most of you know we are trying to sell our home in suburbia in order to finally move to the country, something we tried to do 3 years ago but failed because we had 3 days to find a house, and it was Easter weekend, and there was a record blizzard raging, which prevented our agent from taking us to see the homes on acreage we had picked out, so we ended up in a "planned community" ie tract house in suburbia. Anyways...

The inside of our house is now boring beige and white (goodbye custom harvest colors), half of our belongings are packed (the china, 98% of the kids toys, all family pictures taken down, half our clothes - to make the closets bigger you know?, etc.) Aba dug up all the bulbs we have planted thru the years and stuck them in the fridge (yep, a whole shelf is now full of flower bulbs!!!), the toy room is no more, our dining table is in the dining room, so we now eat standing around the counter, or picnic style on the floor (the dining room is carpeted, not a good idea with kids, especially since it to is beige as well). I scrub all day, and tell the kids not to touch anything, it is tons of fun here!!!

So we have done essentially all we can do. And now we continue to wait. Wait for someone who sees this house as a home for there family. Yes, I know the market is slow, but where we live it is still a sellers market (just barely, but it is). The hardest part though is that our neighbor decided to place their house for sale as well. We both have the same perks, cul-de-sac, walk out basement, 4 beds, 3 baths, etc. etc. etc. But she works, has 2 kids that are in school all day and at her ex's on the weekends, and doesn't cook like I do. So she is not being run ragged by the process like I am. That doesn't really bother me, I know this is all only temporary, but what I don't get is why she had 17 showings last weekend, and we had 0. Yep, zero, she has a showing or 2 everyday, and we have had 1 all week.

Why would some one not look at both? Especially since our asking price is less!!! Okay, sorry with the ranting there... (It has been a long few months).

Anyways we are ready to move on, we know where we want to go, we are hoping no one puts an offer on it before we do, or before our house sells and pushes us out. Aba is ready to go - planning in his head, figuring what he needs to do once there, researching and reading about things he needs to know more of (like bees); the kids are ready to go - dreaming of fishing at our own creek, collecting eggs in the mornings and begging for horses (yeah, we are not getting horses); I am ready to go with seed lists to order; and even Master Hunter is ready to go and have room to roam.

We are living in Limbo, neither here nor there, waiting for the next step, waiting for an offer, waiting for an acceptance, waiting for the next ball to drop. Waiting for our lives to continue. Just waiting...

No, I am not nuts, maybe just a bit crazy

Inspired b y the post at Absolutely Bananas

The future: we were promised robots and hovercrafts and vacations to mars. But we have none of these. The future was always painted as a happy place where all was perfect. Where is all of that? All I hear about lately is war: Iraq, Afganistan, and now Iran!!! Global warming, how the ice caps are melting, the ocean is rising and stronger hurricanes!

Now I know some people say the American economy is doing great, and others say it is sinking. I don’t really know. But what I do know is that I want to do everything I can to provide my family with food and shelter. Along with a safe place in which to live and grow, and they have a lot of growing left to do! The other day for Breakfast a dozen eggs, 4 potatoes worth of hash browns and a pound of sausage and they were asking for more (Duggars how do you do it?).

It is no wonder so many people are turning back to the land, not to escape, but to try and improve not only their quality of life, but life for all. Now there are many ways of doing this from the most severe of going completely off grid, raising everything you eat and homeschooling, to doing small things like buying locally grown, switching lightbulbs out to fluorescent bulbs, and the 3 R’s : reduce, reuse recycle. Now don’t panic,.We are not going to the extreme here. Personally I am not really into homeschooling; but I am into gardening, and chickens. A garden is easy to grow – if you have the room. Chickens are fun and easy – again if you have the room. A cat would be great (I have always wanted one) especially if it stays outside and keeps the rodents out of the garden. And who knows what else will arrive ( I miss the goats we had to give away in the city). Best of all the food our kids eat will be clean. Organic. Fresh. Pure. Anyways…

Every little change each of us makes can help everyone. It is a combined effort people!!! So one day soon, once our house in suburbia sells (fingers crossed it will be soon) we will move to our own little piece of land and live one of the earliest American dreams.

Aba wants a pig

Yes. you read that right. Aba wants a pig. Yes we are orthodox Jews and have no use for a pig or pork. But Aba wants a pig.

I have told him no on several occasions. But we all know what happens when I tell him no, and he has his heart set on it, like with the TV in his car? He gets it anyways. So Aba wants a pig, although he is not sure what type he wants yet...

He says they are great! They can eat all kinds of leftovers including spoiled milk and rotten meat! ( We have tons of that sitting around, right?) They can turn a pile of manure into compost in the dead of winter! ( yep a pile of manure) All great reasons to get a pig, right?!?!? Oh and he was going to get a pair, but I have talked him out of that since they reproduce every 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days. That is a lot of pigs!

Now don't get me wrong, I love pigs, in fact my first word was Pig ( betcha didn't know that) and I remember playing with the piglets on my uncles farm when I was little. But I also remember the smell, and the flies. And pigs get BIG.



I definitely don't want a pig! But it looks like we will be getting one sooner or later ( yes I know we live in suburbia, but we are moving to the country someday soon...) I have been informed it will be coming home as a "surprise" as well.

Aba will build a pen, get a dog (pig) house, and bring it home. And any questions that I may ask will be answered with a knowing "You'll see" Great. I guess we will be getting a pig.

So does that mean I can randomly bring animals home too? Well as long as I "secretly" build a home for them first?

So when looking for our house just look for the house with a mezuzah bigger than your head, and a pig in the yard.