Not my typical summer read

The Coming Revolution Signs from America's Past That Signal Our Nation's Future


By Dr. Richard Lee

History always repeats itself I have been told and being of a generation more tuned in with the now and future it is easy to ignore the past. That being said, The Coming Revolution Signs from America's Past That Signal Our Nation's Future, is a great resource for anyone interested in getting insight into what we could be facing as a nation in the neat future. Although it wasn’t an easy or quick read for me I really enjoyed it. I got a lot of information to digest and found thewriting easy to understand and follow. It is a great book for anyone who is interested in getting the basic information on the countries moral compass and the bias that is being shown throughout the government. I found it to be a little more detailed than my typical summer read, but well worth the time.

Foster Pottery

It isn’t everyday that something historical happens to me and I have developed a huge interest in history over the last few years. It has come to a point where I read mostly Non-Fiction about events in  my community and Historical Fiction about The kings and Queens of England 1490-1500’s.  On Monday when my dad asked me to go to a historical society meeting for our community I was extremely excited. I don’t know much about the small community I joined about 5 years ago but I knew that everything was somehow interconnected in a town this size. After the seminar, there were books for sale and like I mentioned above I am a book lover. The one I chose was specifically about our town and the potter who worked there 1865-1880. It took less than a day for me to finish the 60 page book and while I was mulling over the details I remembered a piece in my basement, similar to the ones discussed in the book.  A short cleaning session later and an email to the author of the book, confirmed I have an official piece of pottery from the 1800’s. To explain how excited I am to get some a unique piece is impossible, even though my handle is broke on my jug I am hooked. It was a lot of fun finding this piece and I hope to collect more historical pieces soon.

My new favorite poem

"Babies Don’t Keep"


Mother, Oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t her (OR HIS) eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

~Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Cattle drive

Our house has been blessed with the Flu bug this week, so in turn I have watched many many movies and basically maxed out my patience for dirty dishes in the sink and clutter everywhere. Along with Mr. Poppers Penguins (my choice) we watched The Cowboys with John Wayne (not my choice). I was surprised how quickly I got involved with The Cowboys, first it had John Wayne ( felt the cliché of his westerns was to much for me.) and Second it was hard to fathom traveling 400 miles on horse to get cattle to market. I know it was my intrigue in the drive that pulled me in. While on my internship I got to experience the joy of a cattle drive, we moved 300 cows 4 miles up the road to their winter pasture. Those 4 miles took all day and it was on a dirt road making it pretty easy. I remember the chaos that followed with the trip and the frustration on the face of the wife of the ranch owner. It was a learning experience both in horsemanship and patience. I have moved cattle using a truck, four-wheeler, horses and on foot. If I got into the conversation about which is better, there would be a large argument made for each option and how it benefits the cow/cowman better than the other. That being said, we move cattle on foot at home (apparently I am a glutten for punishment).

Back to the movie though.. We sell our cattle private treaty so the buyers come to our farm and that works out great leaving a few stragglers for us to take to market in the Winter. Our Market location is less than 20 miles away and with tuck and trailer the journey takes less than 20 minutes one way, giving us enough time to get all the other chores of the day done. Somedays it is hard to get enough time to manage even that trip! In The Cowboys, Mr. Anderson(Wayne) takes a group of young boys under 15 on this journey ending in a lot of heartache but the children all gain confidence in themselves and valuable cattle experience. I couldn’t stop watching the movie and thinking about how luck I am to not have to endure such hardships to make a sale. The scenery was lovely and I truly enjoyed it and would recommend the movie to anyone.



Below is a picture of how a drive is handled:

Tractor Travels

We (my husband, daughter and I) were hauling round bales yesterday a job that requires us to drive a few miles on backroads in the tractor with the bale wagon behind. As we were traveling I was enjoying the scenary, the sun was shining brightly  when it occured to me that at any moment if a bad driver came around one of these corners and hit us, it could be the end to our great journey. Below is a link to the National Ag Safety Database, which gives some insight into how we as farmers can make the roadways safer for traffic but also how drivers can help prevent accidents.
 http://nasdonline.org/document/1683/d001574/highway-transport-of-agricultural-equipment-preventing-public-road.html.

We live in the middle of nowhere and as far as I know there hasnt been an accident like that in years( knock on wood) but it was scary that while we are trying to work and feed the cattle an accident could happen to change everything. Please be very careful driving on backroads and even main roads, because you never know when there is a family trying to work and make a living on the other side of the corner.

Finally I have caught up with technology and have the blogger app on my tablet. More frequent posts will be comin'.

Stained Glass Heart by Patsy Claremont

The other day I went to the doctor because I couldn’t sleep. I thought he was going to tell me, that something was medically wrong with me. I was confident when I walked in and I told him straight away that I didn’t want any drugs. I was going to deal with my medical issue in a natural way. He took one look at me and said “I see you are a new mother.” “yes I said” beaming and then he started in about my daily habits, commitments etc.. The reason I could sleep was due to stress. I didn’t feel stressed, I felt great, I felt like I could do anything that needed to be done. The reality of it, is that life can be overwhelming and in the end you may not realize what it means to live life when you are caught up in the commitments and habits. I really liked this books, and when I feel overwhelmed I just take a moment to sit down in a quiet room a reflect on what god has given me and the blessing surrounding me. Take a moment to sit down and reflect with, “Stained Glass Heart”. I wont tell you what you will gain from it, because only god knows what you need right now.




I received this book for free from BookSneeze for this review as part of their blogger review program