| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| westernhorse51 |
Posted - May 01 2005 : 10:08:34 AM
Hi! I was just wondering if there were any farmgirls out there around my age & still working towards the "DREAM". At 53 y/old family members keep telling me i'm crazy abd why would I want to work so hard now. I have never wanted anything else & I feel it coming closer all the time. I do get a bit discouraged at times but I never give up. Does anyone else ever feel that way????????? Michele |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Jun 19 2005 : 9:26:30 PM
I agree..my issue came yesterday and I am loving it!
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things! |
| BamaSuzy |
Posted - Jun 19 2005 : 12:49:42 PM
Mollie, it would be great to have an extended family to help....but I don't....
This month's BACKWOODS HOME MAGAZINE has a whole section on WOMEN who are homesteaders....some doing it alone some with husbands.....it's a great read and very inspiring!
You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt! |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Jun 19 2005 : 09:38:27 AM
yay! Another Utah gal!! I am not sure where Herriman is...I am in Manti.
The petting zoo sounds like so much fun. There was one like what you describe you do in Calif in the area where I used to live. They would be set up alot of times at festivals and all too...my kids loved it even though we had much the same animals at home!
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things! |
| ivieacres |
Posted - Jun 18 2005 : 11:39:16 PM
I turn 50 this year and have my dream. My husband and I purchased minature farm animals from all over, and started a traveling petting zoo. We rent ourselves out for any event; birthday parties, fairs, company parties, and whatever else comes along. It's fun and entertaining for people of all ages-we live on five acres...I was not raised on a farm, but have one that is growing by the day! |
| Mollie |
Posted - Jun 18 2005 : 9:48:16 PM
I can only say that at 58 my knees aren't what they used to be and I had back surgery a couple of years ago, but in good health and reasonably fit, BUT farming is a lot of physical work. If I were in my 40's I would be very able to tackle all of it but in my late 50's I do wonder about the physical demands some times. Also, if you don't have an extended family or lots of friends, farming can be lonely especially if your husband has a career off the farm. When I grew up on a farm, my mother and father's siblings and grandparents lived on neighboring farms or small towns, so when large jobs to be done, they all came out and helped and we helped them. My mother and her two sisters would kill lots of chickens, pluck, and get them into the freezer. It would be sort of a "group" project and easier and more fun with help. Don't get me wrong, I love the farm, but it is hard work, don't under estimate it, especially if you are doing it alone. If your husband is away at his work in town, I would consider trying to find a "helper" even once a week for the really big jobs if you are older at least until you get the farming life established. Mollie |
| BamaSuzy |
Posted - Jun 17 2005 : 8:35:23 PM
Hey----and I milked a goat for the very first time last Sunday and it went just fine! Jodie had a whopping big boy Saturday who was only nursing on one side...I'd only read how to do milking in J.D. Bellenger's book and a couple of other books but Jodie and I made it just fine. Believe me I was sure tickled when that stream of milk started coming out! So ad another first for this 53 year old! (although I've been homesteading for about 20 years but I'm learning new things it seems continually!!!!)
You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt! |
| PJJ |
Posted - Jun 17 2005 : 8:26:24 PM
I'll be 46 in August. Ya'll are making me feel I can accomplish anything. I'm so glad to be back ... !
Paula J.
Paula J., with Ty, Cara, Brody, Blue, and Fidget |
| connio |
Posted - Jun 04 2005 : 2:22:05 PM
Hurrah Bama Suzy!!!! Your words are so true!! Connie
cozycottage |
| BamaSuzy |
Posted - Jun 02 2005 : 8:21:20 PM
I turned 53 years old last Friday and during the last two weeks I hammered in 19 steel fence posts and dug post holes for FIVE wooden 4 x 4 posts on my little homestead....I just have to pace myself....People can generally do what they really THINK and BELIEVE is important....
I knew I had to get the fence finished because I must move the Billy Goat out of the pen with his girls before the babies come....that was the incentive to keep on working!
I have so many dreams but dreams will just stay dreams if you don't put ACTIONS to your thoughts! If you've always wanted to live in the country the ONLY one stopping you is YOU! You may not can have 100 acres but you can have some acres and work on your little homestead and continue to dream.....
We often limit ourselves by not doing what we really want to do because we're afraid, make excuses, use other people as our excuses, and more....sometimes responsibilities temporarily prevent us from having our dreams but they are still DOABLE!
You dreams can come true no matter what you're age IF you're willing to work really hard to make them come true.
You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt! |
| quiltedess |
Posted - Jun 02 2005 : 12:37:04 PM
Michele: I couldn't resist this topic. I just turned 49 and I have formulated a "new" attitude. I figure I am only half way through life, there is so much more to come! The downside is that my body doesn't have the strength or flexibility it once did, nor does my brain work quite as quickly (but I'm STILL smart). The upside is that I've got a huge jump start for the next 50 years. I figure I can get where I want to go a lot quicker. I am more efficient. I don't have, nor do I desire to have, time to waste worrying. Now is the time to DO! (and it doesn't have to be perfect) So I say . . . less tv and more weeding!
Nancy (stepping out to rake some weeds) |
| MeadowLark |
Posted - May 20 2005 : 07:18:03 AM
I like the way you put that Suzy..."sharing our values, traditions, and lifestyle". That sums up what farmgirl truely means...
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." Rumi, 13th century. |
| pnwchica |
Posted - May 20 2005 : 06:35:46 AM
Good Morning y'all,
I'll be 43 this summer and still working towards that dream ... one baby step at a time. My guess is that many of us started on one path but for some reason or choice made by another, which ultimately involved us, well ... oops! life turned upside down for abit. I've learned to create goals, let myself modify those goals as needed and not to create expectations that are not reasonable for me. I am fortunate in that I get to go to work each day. My ultimate is to be able to work at home, in the country doing my writing, 'life design' workshops and of course, the best part ... digging in the dirt and helping those wonderful things from seed bloom. I brought some rhubarb into co-workers the other day and left them in the associates lounge; some of the non-americans had not seen or tasted it before. So now this Sunday I'm going to bake them a pie and bring in on Monday. In the meantime I brought them some recipes ... all part of being a farmgirl -- sharing our values, traditions, and lifestyle.
Bless,
Suzy
Looking for new beef recipes, frugal & gardening tips, farmhouse remodeling & ez home recipes. |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - May 20 2005 : 05:05:40 AM
Sleepless - land here in Florida is through the roof, too. The real estate market is crazy right now! My hubby and I laugh because we cannot even afford our own house(if we were buying it today)!
But I will always stay a farmer at heart - I do not know how to be any other way, and for those of you who have land and animals and larger gardens - you are blessed. It may be hard work, but you have the land.
jpbluesky
O, cease to heed the glamour that blinds your foolish eyes,
Look upward to the glitter of stars in God's clear skies.
from God's Garden by Robert Frost |
| sleepless reader |
Posted - May 19 2005 : 10:34:32 PM
I'll be 48 in September, and I am still holding to the dream of five acres of good land, just trying to be as self-reliant as we can. Sadly, in Southern California, the five acres is currently (and may stay) out of our price range. Who knows what the future holds? It is good to know that there are those of us out there not willing to let our aging/maturing/ripening take the dream away!
Sharon |
| cecelia |
Posted - May 19 2005 : 6:54:28 PM
I am not giving up on my dream, no matter how long or how much work it takes.
Cecelia
ce's farm
"Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery" Victor Hugo |
| connio |
Posted - May 05 2005 : 5:23:41 PM
Hi everyone... I am 53 year old single woman and moved to my little piece of rural America on my 52nd birthday. I escaped Dallas after living there for 23 years.
It has not been easy, but I must say that I have never been happier. Money has been very tight because I took a 25% salary cut at my new job as a librarian in Fort Worth. I have dealt with a leaking roof and electrical problems in my little house, tried to restore the floors and made a mess, and have had to learn how expensive it is to hire someone to mow my land and build fencing and kennels for my many dogs. I have also been "rooked" as I had fencing and a tiny barn built.
However, it has been worth everything that I have gone through in the past year and a half. I drive 80 miles round trip to work in my very old car and hope that it will keep going for a few more years.
I have finally found a nice neighbor who is leasing part of my land and is growing hay so the mowing issue has been solved. My brothers are putting a new roof on the house, and I am shopping for linoleum remnants in the hope that I can do the floors myself. I have learned to use a weedeater in the immediate area around my house (yes I had never used one--always hired someone in Dallas) and have actually moved some bales of hay by myself. I hope to begin planting fruit trees for a small orchard in the next year.
Slowly but surely I will have my tiny dream farm. I have already named my place Cozy Cottage Farm because this is how I feel about it.
The air is clean, the stars are bright and the silence is soothing.
I encourage you all to follow your dreams.
PS I ran across this today when I was doing some research and intend to contact the foundation---Harry Chapin Foundation 631 423 7558. The foundation provides funding up to $10,000, I believe, to support individually-owned farms.
cozycottage |
| cecelia |
Posted - May 05 2005 : 1:22:31 PM
Lorij, you couldn't have said it better. As we age (don't like to say "get older", I rather like to think of it as "maturing" and "ripening") we need to become more adaptable. I used to think that when I was younger I could adapt to any situation which came along, but now I find that as I age (I'm 57), I have a better idea of what I want and how to get there. I would dearly have loved to work in the environmental field when I was younger, but it was all but closed to women "back then" - or I couldn't have lived off what the pay was. I no longer think it feasible, or necessary to have my dream of a farm, but I haven't given up, just adapted to my age, physical abilities and income limitations. I have a husband who is not interested in the same things I like, so I don't live in a rural area (yet!), and I can't have chickens, etc. but I do keep a garden, herbs, etc. and keep up with my crafts, sewing, etc. I don't have the time I did when I was younger, to bake, can, etc. but now I have a better income, so I can buy into a share of an organic farm here; I haven't energy sometimes to do things, but I have adapted (walk instead of jog!). Times change, we adapt, but the dream lives on in different choices.
Cecelia
ce's farm
"Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery" Victor Hugo |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - May 02 2005 : 5:51:44 PM
Hey Michele...I spin outside when I can too!! I love to be out by the animals...just feels so right!
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
| terese |
Posted - May 02 2005 : 4:47:45 PM
I am 45 and after years and years and years of working in the flower and farming industry. I am starting to see some hope on the horizen. Three years of being in business for myself and the phone is actually ringing daily for work...I believe if you say it and see it in your mind long enough it will come true. Perhaps not exactly as you dreamed but, close enough.
terese
beginnings |
| westernhorse51 |
Posted - May 02 2005 : 4:40:40 PM
Hello farmgirls, I love the input from everyone. jpbluesky hit the nail on the head w/ bringing the country to her home. I grow veggies and herbs in my very small yard. Sometimes I take my spinning wheel outside to spin when the sun is shinning. I have collected many older farm tools over the years & still use them. When not in use I display them. My daughter (14 y/old) and I bake bread togetherand she is learning some crafts of yesteryear now. Yes, we must always bring the country TO US wherever we are. Michele |
| westernhorse51 |
Posted - May 02 2005 : 4:32:48 PM
hello bramble, thanks for the advice. I am trying to volunteer at a produce farm. I may even see if one of the living farms around here want a volunteer to spin or weave. Thanks for the input. Michele |
| jpbluesky |
Posted - May 01 2005 : 5:07:40 PM
I am 55, and find it so comforting and reassuring that my dreams are still living in my brain! The journey towards the dream is so much fun - I love to lie in bed at night and picture the land I would like to have. I see in my mind what it would look like to step out of my backdoor early each morning and into peace and country. I am so thankful for my dream, even if it never comes true. Though I hope my life does not end before I get the chance to REALLY live out in the country. Until then, I am bringing the country to me on my little 3/4 acre wooded lot that is beautiful. And I keep picturing that open grassy field, and that little copse of trees, and the breeze, and the barn, and .....:)
jpbluesky
O, cease to heed the glamour that blinds your foolish eyes,
Look upward to the glitter of stars in God's clear skies.
from God's Garden by Robert Frost |
| Kim |
Posted - May 01 2005 : 4:47:35 PM
I'm 43 and still dreaming. The closest I am to my dream is the fact that there are some farms around me!
farmgirl@heart
Be at peace with yourself and the rest will follow |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - May 01 2005 : 4:30:11 PM
I am 46 and I have often been frustrated too...that I never got my childhood dream of a farm of my own. But..I have had rented land to work with lots of times and now have our little "mini-farm". I am content most days but still....if only....I am glad I am not the only one!!
Jenny in Utah
Bloom where you are planted! |
| bramble |
Posted - May 01 2005 : 2:59:39 PM
Michelle-- I am 45 and have lived both lives and am presently in suburbia about an hour from you. I find that when I have those days I get frustrated with not being where I want to be, I make plans to go there. Whether it is to the beach, to paint at a scenic old mill near here or to help out at our living history farm these take me away for the day and I return renewed because I have nurtured those parts of myself that needed attention. We are complex and diverse women with many facets and interests.Probably more than the average person you meet and I think sometimes it is hard to find kindred spirits who "GET IT". My house is small, my yard generous but I fit alot of
country life into our days here and until it's time for a change,
this is where I have to bloom. Don't give up or give in, just make it the best it can be for you.
with a happy heart |
