The Little Trailer House on the Prairie – Page 2

Before and After #2

We’ve been diligently working away on our little trailer house on the prairie. Several months ago, I showed you our first before and after, and now, several months later, I have another. It’s a slow process.

Although the place we bought and are working on is a D-U-M-P, it does have some good qualities.

Like the wonderful fruitless mulberry that I am going to transform into my whimsy tree. A whimsy tree is a made-up word from my sister Jolea who first created a tree of whimsy in her backyard. It is simply a tree that is adorned with whirligigs and doodads and thingamiggers and whatchamacalits of all shapes and sizes. Jolea then began sending me whimsical ornaments to hang in my trees to create a whimsy tree. I have plenty of trees here where I live now, but none of them are whimsy trees. They’re either too straight, their trunk is too tall to reach the limbs, or they’re dead. It takes a special tree to be whimsy tree. And none of them fit the bill.

But I have one at our Little Trailer House on the Prairie.

A whimsy tree needs adornments hanging from it lovely branches, but I decided to add something to the base of my tree as well.

Base of Whimsy Tree Before:

Base of Whimsy Tree After:

I love my flamingoes!! A lady from my church named Susan paints these little boogers. I bought one for myself at a craft show. I figured if I’m going to be trailer trash, I might as well do it up right.

Nothing says trailer trash, like flamingoes in the front yard.

I giggled with delight when my sweet friend Suzanne gave me the other one for Christmas.

They’re perfect.

And whimsical.

And they make me smile.

Four Things

I have few things I want to share with you today.

First Thing:

We’re studying the water cycle in science up at the elementary school. You remember your second grade science class don’t you? Or has it been many moons? For a quick review, here’s a song about the water cycle sung to the tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands.

Ready?

A one, a two, A one, two, three, four…..

Water travels in a circle, yes it does (clap, clap)

It goes up as evaporation, forms a cloud as condensation, fall to the ground as precipitation, yes it does! (clap, clap)

I was reading the Bible this morning, I am still in the book of Job. At this point a young man named Elihu is ripping into Job, tearing him a new one, putting him into his place. He’s telling him about how awesome God is, and then he says these words:

Take a long, hard look. See how great he is—-inifinite, greater than anything you could ever imagine or figure out! He pulls water up out of the sea, distills it, and fills up his rain-cloud cisterns. Then the skies open up and pour out soaking showers on everyone. Does anyone have the slightest idea how this happens?

I read that and was bamboozled. It’s the water cycle, right there…..evaporation, condensation, precipitation. I don’t know why I was so surprised to find this in the Bible. I mean, God is the creator of everything after all. What took scientists until the 16th century to learn and label with big, scientific sounding words, Elihu knew 2000-1800 years B.C. Awesome, isn’t it?

Second Thing:

I’ve never been a magazine subscriber until recently. I spent a good $50 on magazine subscriptions when we bought our Little Trailer House on the Prairie.

These magazines will teach you how to garden, can food, cook chickens, milk cows, build solar panels, bake bread, make hammocks, and asundry other very informational things. Someday I fear us younger generations are going to wish we knew how not to depend on commercialism.

Some great magazines to read if you’re wanting to learn how to live off the land and become more self-sufficient are the following:

GRIT

Mother Earth News

Hobby Farms

Mary Jane’s Farm

Today I received this new GRIT magazine in the mail from my grandmother-in-law.

We call her M.O. It’s all about turkeys.

She also sent this book home with Jason recently.

It teaches how to make home-made beer. Among other important things.

But the item that I received in the mail yesterday that made my heart go pitter-pat, was new sticky return address labels.

With my name and address of course.

But these aren’t just any old kind of return address labels.

They have pictures on them.

And not of flags either.

But farm animals.

A chicken, a cow, and a rooster.

And look at this. Doesn’t she make you want to just snuggle up with her?

I’ve never wanted a pig. Never ever.

Until now.

I can’t resist him any longer.

Help me, help me, help me.

Third Thing:

I’ve been unsubscribing to a lot of my emails lately. I click unsubscribe and a box pops up that says something like, “Thank you. You won’t be receiving any more emails from us” But then suddenly, an alert of a new email message pops up from the exact same company who just lied to me telling me I won’t be receiving any more emails from them that says, “We’re sad to see you go, would you please fill out a short survey letting us know what’s wrong.” Or “Oops, did you mean to unsubscibe from us? If it’s a mistake, please click here.” That’s a little bit annoying to me. Just needed to vent.

Fourth Thing:

I read a little snippet today that the earth’s rotation is moving in such a way that our zodiacal (if that’s even a word) signs are changing. So guess what? You may no longer be a Leo or a Sagittarius. I was a Pisces, but now I’m an Aquarius.

Don’t let it shatter your world. I think it was just a bunch of drunk on home-made beer farmers that decided it.

Here chicky, chicky, chicky

It’s cold today. The sky is dressed in a blanket of gray clouds. The trees have long been stripped of their flashy wardrobe. They look bleak against the gray of the sky. But there is a sense of beauty in a bare tree. A glimmer of hope for the coming spring. The smell of snow hangs thick in the air. The birds are low today. They are perched in the trees and sitting on the lawns. An old weather lore claims, “when birds fly low, expect rain and a blow.”

Speaking of birds, I want a chicken farm.

I said a chicken farm, not a chicken ranch guys.

After scouring the internet, perusing magazines, and reading old books for information on everything I need to know about chickens, I still have no idea what I am doing. But I’m learning.

So far I’ve learned I’m scared of chickens.

And the snakes their eggs might attract.

And racoons, coyotes, hawks, and owls.

Our new place already has a hand-made, southern-engineered, make-shift chicken coop and some nesting boxes, but it needs some work. My plan is to fix it up, but not buy anything new. I’m going to use all old materials that I can scrounge up.

I have a few pictures of what I have to work with.

This is the front of the coop, which I’m going to leave alone. I like these rugged, half-painted side board planks.

Here are 10 nesting boxes for the little layers. Throw in some straw and make it cozy for them.

This prickly pear needs to be dug up.

The back and the side is made of this old tin, also the roof is tin.

I’m going to leave that alone as well. There is chicken wire surrounding the coop and there is a little chicken run for the flock to get out to get some sunshine. I’m going to secure the wire and make sure predators can’t sneak in, I also plan on covering the top with chicken wire to keep the hawks and owls out. On the days I’m home, I’m going to allow them to free range out on the acreage.

I’m going to add some perches on the inside of the coop and I’m going to add on one side of the coop a little window with a ladder so they can climb in and get in their nesting boxes.

Kind of like this coop. But not at all, really. Isn’t this the most elaborate chicken house you’ve ever seen? It’s nicer than the trailer I’m soon to be living in.

Last night I ordered my chickens. I am giddy with excitement. They are expected to arrive on March 14. I scheduled them to arrive spring break, since I have to be their little chicky mama. They will only be 1 day old when they arrive. They will need a brooding box for several weeks while they grow. I had to get a minimum of 15, which is entirely too many for my little family of 2, but I am preparing myself for some fatalities. Death is a part of living. I made sure that I ordered cold hardy birds, with a docile temperment, who are decent egg layers. All female. I’m not quite ready for a rooster yet.

I got 5 Barred Plymouth Rocks,

5 Buff Orpingtons, they are the color of man’s golden pocketwatch.
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And 5 Black Australorps.

Of course like everything else in my life, this will be a learning experience.

Boy, oh, boy, am I excited. March 14th can’t get here fast enough!!

Home Improvement

Continue reading “Home Improvement”

Finally….

Dear Friends,

You’ll never guess what I’ve finally got my hands on.

I’ve been wanting one of these.

I’m going to hang it in my house.

Yes, I do believe I heard a barely audible shriek from my sister all the way in New York City.

To attain this gem, all I had to say was “I’d like a cow skull to hang up. With horns.”

And waaa-laaa.

J-Dub found one right in the pasture for me.

He even got a free rope out of the deal and everything.

Fortunately the coyotes have already eaten off all the flesh.

And the worms and bugs have cleaned up all the skin and hair.

So now I won’t have to dirty up my stew pot boiling it up.

I’ve got the perfect place for it right on the dining room wall.

Don’t forget I’m available for decorating assistance if you’re going for the edgy cow town/chic trailer trash look for your place as well.

And we hope to see you out to supper real soon.

Love,

J-Dub and Auntie

The Winner

The winner of the $25 gift card is Brandi Cayce!

Brandi said,

How about”The Promise Land”. Those folks suffered through some trials and tribulations too. And, who would not like to buy some home grown veggies from “The Promise Land?”

This was a fun contest and I enjoyed reading all the responses.

There were funny ones like “Oleo Acres—The Cheap Spread”
“Habitat for Insanity”, and
“Hillbilly Hell” .

There were faith based ones like
“Hope Acres”
“God’s Acres”
and “Beulah Land”.

There were lucky ones like
“The Branded Ace”
or “The Golden Nuggett”.

Thanks for all the ideas and we’ll do this again soon!!!

A Give-Away!!! Enter to Win!

Remember in the movie Forrest Gump when Forrest buys his shrimping boat and he discovers that shrimping is hard. He only catches five shrimp, and the black man jokes that a couple more and he could make himself a cocktail?

Remember that old black man says, “you ever think of naming this boat? It’s bad luck to have a boat without a name.”

So he names it the most beautiful name in the wide world: Jenny.

Recently me and J-Dub bought a place. A trailer house in the country. I love our little place. It’s my quiet oasis. An escape. Our little ranchette, our ranchito, our little trailer house on the prairie.

But as much as I love it, we’ve been having some bad luck:

Day 1—I sliced my hand open ripping up carpet (blog to follow someday).

Day 3 and 4—I was home sick from work throwing my guts up.

Day something else—our guinea bird that we inherited broke his leg and then was eaten alive.

Day something else—Jason’s horse got sick

Day 4 or 5 days later—-Jason’s horse got sicker

Three days ago—-Jason’s horse died (blog to follow someday).

Too much sickness, death and pain for 4 weeks.

I’m a tad bit superstitious, so like Forrest, maybe it’s bad luck to have a trailer house in the country without a name. Because right now we just call it “The Place”.

J-Dub calls me up. “Where you at?”
“I’m out at The Place.”

Or I might ask him, “What are your plans.”
“I’m going to work on The Place.”

“Where’s our broom?”
“I took it to The Place.”

Even my mom is calling to say, “I’m coming out to help you work on The Place.”

We’ve gotten accustomed to it so far, but it just doesn’t sound very homey and I don’t think it will look good hanging on an arch above a cedar lined entrance. Someday.

Jason and I have tossed around a couple of ideas, but we are having trouble roping the right one.
So I’m having a little contest right here on my blog.
I’d like all of you who read this to submit suggestions of names for our place.

Bring on your ideas. Stop our bad luck!!!
Give us a name for our new little homestead and you could win a $25 gift card from Lowe’s Home Improvement. Since that’s where I’m spending most of my money right now, it only makes sense.

To enter to win, just think of something clever, cute, original, homey, ranchy, or catchy for us to call our new home, make sure it has good luck attached, then leave it in a comment with your name and you could win.

We’ll pick our favorite from among the entries, and if we hate them all, we’ll just pick a winner at random!!!

This contest is going to run for a week so all you creative minds can think, and think, and think, and think.
Enter to win with as many names as you can think of.

Winner will be announced sometime next weekend 🙂

Isn’t this fun??????

Now leave a comment on here.
Down below.
See that blue comment word?
Click it!

Before and After #1

My husband and I have been engrossed in a trailer house remodel since the beginning of the month. It is hard dang work. After hours and hours of grueling labor, sweat, dirt, and eating vienna sausages from a can, I finally have a before and after picture to show off.

Front Door Before:

Prepare yourselves to be amazed by this transformation!

Front Door After:

To be continued…………. 🙂