Farmgirl

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Liz James · August 23, 2022 ·

Happiest of birthdays to my best friend, my love, my life partner! 60 is a big number and it looks good on you. For many people, they see 60 as a negative place to be….. God is truly refining you in your years, and I’m thankful you have chosen to lean into His refining process and you look forward to what’s to come instead of backwards at what was. With age, comes wisdom, and wisdom trumps youth any day! You’re gonna rock the next era of life, and I’m looking forward to it with you!

If you know Charlie, you know he is a good man with a heart the size of Texas, a love of Jesus, an encourager extraordinaire, a guy’s guy, a lover of people, and holds a work ethic that just doesn’t quit. What’s a great memory you have of him?

Happy Birthday

to my favorite person on the planet

Memories Are Sweet

Liz James · July 16, 2022 ·

13 years ago, and so much (and so little has changed).

Audrey Overcomer , one of our sweetest of friends (who took this pic) met Jesus in 2019…. ten years after this pic was taken.

Foster (the pup in this pic) is romping with all the other pups who have gone before him to heaven too (yes, I do believe heaven is loaded with creatures great and small

). Foster was an amazing dog, and his responsibilities were assumed by Daisy and Spanky ( who are still with us). Yes, it took two working dogs to do what Foster did… he was one of a kind intelligent!

That lawnmower died and was replaced twice.

Same farm…. it would take a circus train to move us

. We’re closing in on 30 years of homesteading. Lots of trial and error experiments have gone on out here, along with learning to live with and accept the idiosyncrasies of nature.

I don’t feel like Charlie and I have changed much in some ways, but in others, we’ve definitely spread our wings and leaned more and more into understanding God’s will and desire for the both of us….. I’m laughing at myself this morning as i wear the same shirt (i love this tank!

) doing morning chores. Clearly, wardrobe is not high on my priority list

Happy Saturday friends!

xoxo

~ liz

Is Your Soil Healthy?

Liz James · April 12, 2022 ·

I found this cutie in our garden today. She’s a salamander! It’s the first one I’ve found in the 27 years we’ve lived on our farm.

We’ve worked really hard to keep our farm as chemical free as possible, and finding little critters like her living in the soil makes me extremely content and happy.

Salamanders have extremely absorbent skin, and are very sensitive to chemicals because of this trait. Pesticides, herbicides, really… any chemicals will kill or injured them. More than half the world’s salamander species are on the endangered species list.

I have no idea what species this little one is? Maybe one of you know? I’m just thankful that she’s here (ha ha! Maybe she’s actually a he

?) She’s our canary in the coalmine….. evidence that we are treating our farm with the love and respect it requires to be healthy from the ground up.

Here’s a little more info on salamanders:

https://www.savethesalamanders.com/

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Loyalty Programs make Me Happy

Liz James · December 31, 2021 ·

I just did a happy dance in the parking lot of Tractor Supply because I got $50 credited back as a “Neighbors Club” member. TSC is one of our all time most visited stores….. we love them, and they love us because we drop so much 💰💰💰at their doorstep for our farm-ily’s needs. 🐕🐱🐄🐎🐓🐣
As I was driving home, I thought about how silly that was of me to get all excited for saving $50. Broken down, I believe that $50 credit represented 5 months of $10 back for spending regularly at TSC. …. $10 back per month regardless of how much we spend there. I humbly submit to you that Charlie and I have the dubious honor of being on this Tractor Supply’s list of “Top 10 Patrons” (yes, we have THAT MANY animals)…. so let your imagination run on what our monthly feed and animal supply bill looks like.
….And then my mind wandered to the Loyalty Program that Young Living has. Because we have used Loyalty Rewards (being a monthly patron of Subscribe to Save) for more than 25 consecutive months, we now get 25% back on all of our orders. (10% back for the first 3 months, 20% back for months 4 thru 24). I did a quick rough calculation in my head and found that in 5 months, I had been able to “buy ” approximately $750 in products for free, just by being a valued customer. Wow!!!
Sometimes it’s easy to forget or take for granted what we get each month. I’m always amazed by the freebies gifted to us with qualifying purchases each month, but I admit, I sometimes forget about how much those points help our farm-ily take care of ourselves. We have dogs on Sulfurzyme and BLM…. massive amounts for two 🐕🐕of our older large dogs. Neither one would be with us today without these two supplements. That $150 YL credit more than pays for their needs.
Hidden blessings friends….
Tell me, how do you score in money back from where you shop?
xoxo~ liz

Kittens Are Good Medicine

Liz James · November 17, 2021 ·

Fostering kittens….. anyone in need of a bundle of fluff or two (or 4)? Letterbox trained, socialized, and already showing strong signs of being bookworms😁.
xoxo~liz
#kittensaregoodmedicine
#didyouknowpurringisahealingsuperpower
#caringfortheleastofthese