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Leslie
Farmgirl in Training
16 Posts
Leslie
Hartland
Wisconsin
USA
16 Posts |
 Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 2:15:22 PM
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Hi All! Sunshine sent me over to introduce myself, and I'm nothing if not obedient (ha! my husband & I have a good laugh over my telling people that.) I live with my hub on 4 acres in southeasternish Wisconsin. We have a Jack Russell, who is a good boy for that breed, and 8 chickens, who are currently all suffering from chronic respiratory disease and all sound like 3 pack a day smokers. More stress than I like to live with, trying to get them well. Anyhoo, a year back I read an article in Mary Jane's mag about a woman who started a cut flower business, and my dream was born. This spring my husband cut the sod and rototilled me six new beds, and I planted them using techniques I learned from a woman gardening author in England. I sold flowers, with the modest goal of just paying for the seed. I made that goal, and next year, look out!! I sit by the side of the road late afternoons on Fridays, and sell little bouquets. It's fun, it's pretty, people love flowers, and I like that. I also have a few raised beds for veg, and this year used a new technique for tying up tomatoes and cukes, if anyone's interested.
In the winter we live in a one room schoolhouse on a barrier island in Florida. It's great after 45 winters in Wisconsin to have sunshine an relative warmth in winter. (No S.A.D.!) I look forward to starting another vegetable patch in a couple of months - perfect growing there.
I love my life. Things that cause me stress are: development, too many people, busy roads, noise. Our beautiful area is losing it's farmland and horrid subdivisions are going in their places. It breaks my heart. But it seems folks want new houses more than beautiful farmland to look at. I can hear the announcer and the crowd at the local high school's football games, it's so loud. And I'm a mile away! That's my gripe, my sadness, my cross to learn to deal with.
So, more than you all want to know, I'm sure, but here I am, chicken poop on my shoes and all! (Joke with my best friend and neighbor, Christa, and fellow keeper of chickens - you look down and you're at the grocery or at someone's house or church, and you've got chicken poop and shavings on your shoes!) |
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Tina Michelle
True Blue Farmgirl
6948 Posts
Tina
sunshine state
FL
USA
6948 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 2:26:28 PM
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Welcome to the group Leslie! I don't think anyone here is gonna mind the chicken poop on yer shoes, we'll just hand ya a little scraper/pice of cardboard and let you take care of it and walk on in!..ha
you are welcome here!Good to have ya join us!where at in Florida do you winter at? I've been all over Florida..born and raised in the Sunshine State.
~Seize the Day! Live, Love, Laugh~ |
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Mumof3
True Blue Farmgirl
3890 Posts
Karin
Ellenwood
GA
USA
3890 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 2:27:37 PM
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More than we want to know? Never. The life stories of fellow farmgirls are what connect us!!Congratulations on the success of your little flower business. That is all it takes- 1 small accomplishment and it can make you soar.
Glad you found us, Leslie!!
Karin |
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flowerchild
True Blue Farmgirl
52 Posts
Erica
Oregon
USA
52 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 2:28:16 PM
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Hi Leslie- nice to meet you! Would you believe I saw my very first live and up close chicken only about 2 weeks ago! (I'm 38) Of course I had seen them on tv, in pictures, books etc. But never once have I actually seen one live and in "chicken"- ok, bad pun. I hope yours get well soon!
Are they hard to manage?
Erica  |
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Leslie
Farmgirl in Training
16 Posts
Leslie
Hartland
Wisconsin
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 2:35:13 PM
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| Thanks, girls! Your welcome warms my heart! Chickens are easy, usually - I've had a rough chicken summer, with dog attacks and such, and now this. I got them originally for eggs, but I don't even care about that anymore. There is NOTHING like the sight of "the girls" toddling across the yard in pursuit of buggy goodness. And running chickens - LORD! there is nothing that will make a smile break out on your face quicker - they look exactly like armless fat ladies at the beach running for all they're worth. So there, that's the joy of chicken-keeping in a nutshell. |
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Miss Bee Haven
True Blue Farmgirl
4331 Posts
Janice
Louisville/Irvington
Kentucky
USA
4331 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 2:49:24 PM
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Hello from a fellow 'newbie'! I'd love to hear about your flower planting techniques, as well as your tomato tying tricks. Your description of your chicken ladies made me laugh. Thanks for a happy end to a dreary, rainy work day. :)
"If you think you've got it nailed down, then what's all that around it?" - 'Brother Dave' Gardner |
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newheart
True Blue Farmgirl
471 Posts
Margie
Owings Mills
Maryland
USA
471 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 3:01:26 PM
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I was laughing out loud picturing your chickens coughing like 3 pack a day smokers.....I could not get the picture out of my head..... funny,funny,funny...Like to hear about your flowers.....Everytime I plant Flowers my DH goes back in a day or two to "help" me and digs up all the seeds, says he is tilling,,,, One day I am going to till him..Welcome and hugz.......
newheart.....margie |
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Nancy Gartenman
True Blue Farmgirl
9092 Posts
Nancy
West Seneca
New York
USA
9092 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 3:26:33 PM
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Leslie,
Welcome and sounds like you are where you want to be, except for the hacking chickens,I don't think I ever heard a chicken cough. But then I really should get out more. Next year when you sell your bouquets of home grown flowers, put a pretty ribbon on them, and might even want to see if you can find a whole bunch of used fruit jars and put them in those. GARAGE SALES!! Well that is my bit of wisdom for the day, Glad you came across us. Keep posting, and pretty soon you will know alot about alot of us and a lot of stuff.
NANCY JO |
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daffodil dreamer
True Blue Farmgirl
805 Posts
Jayne
Hamilton
Victoria
Australia
805 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 3:28:24 PM
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Welcome Leslie - I laughed at your chicken ladies description and thought you are exactly right! My girls always make me feel better, watching them do their thing in the backyard. Either that or watching my garden grow - on warm days, I'm sure you can hear them growing! I've always got chicken poop on my gardening boots - that's why they never leave the backyard - poor boots, they do all the hard work and they never get an outing!! All those lazy shoes in the cupboard get to go into town and do the shopping!!
I love your get-up-and-go attitude with just deciding to grow flowers and doing it! I think I will have to follow your example and just do want I want to do!
Best wishes and warmest welcome,
Jayne |
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Buttercup
True Blue Farmgirl
1433 Posts
Talitha
Vermont
USA
1433 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 3:35:37 PM
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Leslie,
What a hoot you are!! So glad you found us and so glad you joined in! Sounds like you have made a wonderful life for yourself and I look forward to hearing more about it as time goes on! Welcome and I hope you enjoy this place even half as much as I have!
Hugz!
Talitha
"If we could maintain the wonder of childhood and at the same time grasp the wisdom of age, what wonder,what wisdom,what life would be ours" |
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Leslie
Farmgirl in Training
16 Posts
Leslie
Hartland
Wisconsin
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 3:40:35 PM
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Ha! Ahead of you, Nancy Jo! That's what I put the bouquets in, little ball jars that I get at the local Sally Army. I tie a little ribbon of jute twine or craft ribbon around the jar. Excellent ideas! Keep 'em comin'! :)))
As for the tomats, craft two regular cross braces using whatever poles you have around, I used dead saplings from our property, and run a pole between them in the "V" created at the top. When you put the tomatoes in, tie one end of twine around the pole above the plant, and run the length of it to the ground and fasten in the ground next to the plant with a garden staple or stake. As the plant grows, "twiddle" the plant around the twine (good time to pinch, too.) I call it "pinch and twiddle". I was amazed how well this worked, how little effort it took and how nice it all looked - the plants were healthy and productive, and it was so easy to harvest. I'm a fan.
I started all my seeds it "guttering" (English word) using cheapo plastic gutters from our local big box hardware store. It was like $4 for a 10' section. I cut them in half to make two manageable 5' sections, taped the ends (which were open)with duct tape, filled them with dirt and stuck the seeds in. My God!! This beats the pants off filling little pots...filling flats...piddling around with all that foolishness! What have I been doing for 20 years? The gutters are deep enough to leave the plant in there, no transplanting, and when it came time to harden them off I put them on a sheet of plywood on top of a boat trailer, and just rolled the whole shebang out in the sun in the morning and back in the barn at night! I mounted little plant lights over the top to keep them warm. That whole operation is usually tons of work, but this was so easy! I'm hooked!
Enough already. |
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sunshine
True Blue Farmgirl
4877 Posts
Wendy
Utah
USA
4877 Posts |
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Leslie
Farmgirl in Training
16 Posts
Leslie
Hartland
Wisconsin
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 4:01:04 PM
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Thank you so much! I really love hearing other chicken gals out there, and gardeners, and lovers of the land. What a breath of fresh air! Jayne - I have allotta shoes - all lazy little buggers, they are.
Except the incredibly stinky worn every day all day long rubber garden clogs. Love them. |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Sep 18 2006 : 5:19:43 PM
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Welcome Leslie..you sound great! I can't tell you how often I get caught out somewhere with manure on my shoes...peeyew!! Or a big swath of cow slobber across my chest..that isn't too attractive either!!
I love the flower thing! I have always wanted to have a little herb and flower thing going..with a roadside stand. There was an adorable one near where I used to live. The gal took pictures she took (mostly of flowers and farm animals) and made notecards and bookmarks and sold them too, as well as eggs and some fresh produce at the cutest little white clapboard roadside stand..it even had a tiny "yard" with a little picket fence! Cute cute cute. I love the idea of your bouquets in jars! I am glad you found us!!
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
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BarefootGoatGirl
True Blue Farmgirl
1495 Posts
Corrine
North Carolina
USA
1495 Posts |
Posted - Sep 19 2006 : 09:56:08 AM
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Hello, Leslie. Welcome! You seem so full of great ideas! I am currently looking for a farmgirl business, so keep them coming. I love idea fairies! Oh, yeah and chickens.
Trina
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Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds. Proverbs 27:23 |
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Leslie
Farmgirl in Training
16 Posts
Leslie
Hartland
Wisconsin
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - Sep 19 2006 : 12:55:20 PM
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| This is so nice, to read about what other farmgirls are up to - I say, keep your mind and eyes "peeled" for that spark, that idea that hits home and says to you "hey! you could do that!" And be patient until it comes. Part of the journey is that wait, that patience, until our path becomes clear. I quit my job and had to wait four years. I was feeling bad, aimless, like I would never find anything. Why hadn't anything come to me? Or revealed itself to me? I had opened myself up to hearing it, it just wasn't there. And then, it was! And I knew it when I saw it. For those of you looking, keep the faith. |
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Kelly43
True Blue Farmgirl
349 Posts
NJ
USA
349 Posts |
Posted - Sep 19 2006 : 6:41:38 PM
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Welcome, I loved the chicken poop on the shoes comment, it happens to me ALL THE TIME!!!!! You're going to love it here, you will fit right in!
Kel |
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Hideaway Farmgirl
True Blue Farmgirl
1553 Posts
Jo
Virginia
USA
1553 Posts |
Posted - Sep 20 2006 : 05:14:06 AM
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Welcome, Leslie! You certainly have a way with words...do you write? Your descriptions are so vivid, if you aren't writing, you should be!
You're a welcome addition the the forum...look forward to hearing more about your world.
Jo |
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tsalagi
Farmgirl in Training
19 Posts
Jo
Cedar Park
TX
USA
19 Posts |
Posted - Sep 20 2006 : 07:57:19 AM
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Hi Leslie! WELCOME from another newcomer! Hope your "girls" get well soon. And thanks for sharing your garden staking techniques! You're gonna love it here!
Jo
!! Imagine !!
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Leslie
Farmgirl in Training
16 Posts
Leslie
Hartland
Wisconsin
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - Sep 21 2006 : 2:57:37 PM
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Well, I might do OK with the writing, but seeing Page 2 just happened today! Sorry! Thank you very much for the compliment - I have no idea where the writing comes from - fast fingers on the keyboard - and I'd love to write, but I don't know how to get started. Once in a while I send a fire and brimstone letter to the editor of our local paper because I get enraged over all the farmland getting sold to developers, but that's about it. Thanks again for the encouragement! And what about two Jo's, one from Virginia and one from Texas, writing in one after the other? Are you two on the JO wavelength, or what!!?!
Lastly, my favorite memory of new-chicken-momhood is when I still belonged to a gym, and looking down at the footpads of the eliptical trainer and seeing that I had left like a cup and half of chicken shavings and poop on there...
And the girls (and woos boy) are doing a little better, thank you for your kind thoughts!
Leslie |
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Sep 23 2006 : 9:16:27 PM
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Hi, Leslie! I just love reading your stories! - glad to have you here with us, and the chicken "doo" on the elliptical trainer definitely made me laugh. I'm glad I haven't joined a gym yet - the poor person who used the machines after me would have much the same problem - but add a few sheep and a cow! Welcome!!!
XOXO, Libbie
"Nothing is worth more than this day." - Goethe |
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**Welcome Wagon: Hi All! |
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Hi All!
