Little House on the Prairie??? Nah - Just the place I call HOME!

It's not uncommon for people to start talking to me and have a look of complete amazement, or more like "Is this girl for real?" To me this is life, it is my normal and I love it!  If you read my previous blog you know I am retired from my first career (yes I had 6 whole years in a row doing it!) which is where I met my husband - in jail....  Yes, jail - we both worked there duh!  He had 10 years in and was ready for a change as well.  So, as two youngest children in birth order (more on this another time), we took a leap of faith and quit.  We worked our own business and traveled all over, it was fun and adventurous and in 2005 we decided we should actually tie the knot.  By 2006 our first child was on the way and our adventure filled life had to figure out how to be more settled; so we both got real jobs again and started back at the grind.  That was pretty short lived and thank God for that because we're like a couple of caged animals when it comes to working for someone else especially after having our own business and that freedom that came with that.  Yes there were headaches too but the freedom was great.

Fortunately Jon's dad decided retirement was something he should look into and onto the family farming business we landed. Although it should be stated a farmer never really retires.  It was just what the doctor ordered.  So if you are going to be a farmer you have to have some animals right?  We started small, as in a couple of dogs and cats.  That was fine for a while it took care of the creatures that had once inhabited our 100+ year old home that sat vacant for 15 years before we decided to make it our project.  Then my wise husband suggested we get a few goats ya know just a couple to help eat down the weeds in the woods. NOTE - I am an animal LOVER! This sounded like a PERFECT idea to me, only one catch I wanted them to be babies so we could tame them.  Then came the 3 amigos as we so lovingly referred to them.  They were great! Until they thought climbing into my car was a good idea, and eating all of my recently planted flowers was a good idea. We could not keep them fenced (lesson #1 in goats - if water can get through the fence so can a goat).  So I learned, over taming a goat can be bad! Next came the "world's largest miniature donkey".  This was thanks to my brother who had a co worker who wanted to get rid of it.  Sure! I will take it! So my boy "BLUE" came to live with us.  We later learned after the vet came to geld him that he was a baby donkey not a miniature donkey and a standard nonetheless - hence the world's largest miniature donkey!  Then came the herd of goats; as in 60 bred does from Texas.. they were a learning experience but I quickly learned we bit off more than we could chew when Jon had a accident and I was left trying to manage it with three small children, bye bye goats!  So we were down to two dogs, a butt load of cats one buck goat that we couldn't part with, a donkey and our kids.  That was super manageable! 

Fast forward four years to the current day and our little nest of critters and children had maintained the same status.  Then the critter itch started to come back and needed to be scratched. If you know anything about youngest children the phrase "go big or go home" is sorta a motto.  I had always wanted a horse, the kids now 8, 6 and 4 seem like logical ages to get one - so as cliche as it may sound for Christmas we got the kids a horse aka momma got a pony!  Lika entered our family and it was great! So great that spring came and we thought hmm, wouldn't it be fun to have just a couple of goats again because we really DID enjoy them when we weren't overwhelmed by the volume we had once had.  So I called up an old "goat friend" and wouldn't ya know she had some babies for sale! SURE We'll take three!  When we went to pick up the sweet little girls wouldn't you know that she had a true registered miniature donkey that was only about a year old... and wouldn't you know she needed a new home!  For the first time literally EVER I said no to the sweet little donkey but my amazing husband took one look at her and said Heck Yea I want another donkey!  So enter the picture Little Lucy who for the first part of her life at our house despised me since I wrestled her down to put her halter on but she got over that and is now tame and loving almost like another dog! Then as luck would have it I came across a rescue site - how lucky am I? (please note serious sarcasm and I have been told to stay off the rescue site for a while)  I found ANOTHER HORSE!  It was risky but I was pretty excited - enter the picture Midnight our latest horse and thankfully he is very tame and well mannered!  Some where along the line I forgot to add the guinea pigs that snuck into our house of course in pairs as usual!  In the last ten weeks we have had 3 batches of kittens again! Two sets of 5 and one set of 4.   Even the stray cats have found there way here and made this their personal haven to hunker down at.  We have one that we called "Hisser" because she hissed at us when she first came but now she keeps a safe distance and has even let us pet her once in a while.  Not too long ago my husband introduced me to Mangalista pigs (google them) and this week we picked up three little pigs! Not a typo we literally have three little pigs named Sweetie Pie, Curly and Porky.  

And YES we love and care for all of these animals! Everyday twice a day and I wouldn't have it any other way!  This again is my little piece of Heaven on Earth! The place my mother calls "little house on the prairie".  I couldn't make this up if I tried this is truly MY crazy life! 

Darcy