February 19, 2015

Returning.....




It has been many months since adding a new post.  With the passing of my Father, family needed to come before blogging.  It still does, however, with time comes healing and an ability to not only get back into life again, but to also take the time for the little things that take quiet concentration like this blog.  

Much has happened on our homestead since my last post and God has truly walked beside us every step of the way, picking us up when we stumble, dusting us off and pointing us in the right direction again and again as often as we need it.

Our little homestead has dove deep into the fun adventure of really raising rare breed poultry and all that it entails.  We have completed a few construction projects along the way and added on to the house structure too.  Currently we are working on another building to house many of the poultry breeds we have fell in love with and are working diligently to improve on by extremely selective breeding and hard culling.  

In the midst of all of this, we were blessed to be able to attend some fun fiddle events with our daughter who competed in several contests last year and did extremely well.  In her Junior division, she is now second in the state of Missouri, second in the state of Oklahoma, second in the Grand Lakes National Championships, third in the Mid-American Fiddle Championships and fifth in the great state of Texas.  She also came in first in many local smaller competitions.  Not too bad for her first real year of traveling to these major events.  The young man that actually placed first ahead of her in several of the competitions listed, was the Grand Master Fiddler in Nashville and plays a mean fiddle, guitar and banjo.  We are friends with that family and that's the wonderful thing about this circle of musicians, it is never truly a "competition" when your heaviest competitor will set down his fiddle to pick up his guitar to back you up when it is your turn.  We love the incredible network of the "fiddle family" we have been adopted into that is nation wide.

Today we have been house bound due to the ice and snow for almost five days.  It is beautiful and I am not sure I ever get tired of being at home.  The past few days we've had chicks hatching and have also been kept busy filling the bird feeders outside. 

In my absence, I have continued to take pictures constantly of everything we are doing, including yummy recipes that are irresistable!  So stay tuned! 

13 comments:

  1. Hey there, welcome back!
    Family, and events come first here. The blog is something I get to when I can.
    I'm so sorry to hear about your Dad's passing.
    A big congratulations to your Daughter with all her hard work, and winning in the Fiddle events.
    I'm looking forward to your future posts.
    Blessings,
    Sandy

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    1. Hi Sandy! Thank you! I may do some posts just on these fiddle events because they are really a lot of fun. We hope to show some poultry and/or her rabbits at the state fair competitions this year......but we get overloaded so easily that we are finding that the simpler the process is, the better for us :-) Thank you for your encouragement!

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  2. So glad you are returning. Love your posts. Am looking forward to your recipes and all about your animals and building projects. Also love to hear about your daughter and the "fiddle family."

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    1. Thank you Levona! Sometimes all we can do is blog on the "boring" routine of life, but it is those simple moments that life happens and I love reading about others routines and projects too!

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  3. Can't wait to hear all about everything! Love pictures too. Lots of them. :)

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  4. Hello! Its wonderful to hear from you but my deepest condolences for the loss of your father. I pray that God will continue comforting and healing you and yours.

    I do have to say I cannot wait to see all the pictures you've taken and to hear more of your adventures.

    God bless,
    Rebekah

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    1. Thank you Rebekah, it has been a difficult valley and we are finding our new normal. Thank you for your encouragement, I look forward to connecting with everyone again!

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  5. Welcome Back! Congratulations to your daughter, what an honor! I look forward to hearing about your many chickens and other homestead happenings. ♥

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    1. Thank you so much! We have lots of chicken talk around here, so by the time it's all over with, y'all may be tired of it!!

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  6. I would love to see some video of your daughter playing the fiddle. Sorry about all of your personal trials as of late. Welcome back to Blogland.

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    1. Thank you Joy! I will see what I can dig up for you, however, she isn't crazy about me posting anything since there have been many more hours of practice since our last video. I pulled one up and played it and she said "NO, don't post that, that's terrible!"

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  7. So sorry to hear about your Dad.....glad you're here. <3 Hope the spring brings you lots of newness and love.!
    Eileen in Chile

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