A "Red Neck" Christmas

I have a friend who calls me a red neck.  She isn't being mean about it but that is the me that she sees.  She is a small cute little thing that paints her nails, has perfect makeup and always looks (and smells) like a girl.  She buys $15 nail polish and some juicy couture swim suits that cost her more than my car cost me.  I shop for my clothing,  tractor parts and other farm supplies all in the same store and the only paint that my nails see comes from a can labeled semi-gloss. 
I must confess that I secretly give myself a high five when I come to work with what could eventually become some great compost all over my shoes, and she gets all city girl on me. 
This Christmas season she presented her friend who, we have affectionately dubbed "boy toy", with all kinds of manly must haves like clothes that have buttons but no hoods and drinking glasses that are not actually salsa jars.   My husband and I are not huge gift givers.  He buys what he needs and I do the same.  This year, I bought him a new seat for his tractor and he bought me a hoist that I can haul dead animals into the tree to cut up.  Upon hearing the news of this gift giving exchange, my dear city friend was actually rendered semi-speachless.  This, if you knew her, is no small feat.  I, however, am happy as a clam to have something that not only is practical but makes one of my more unpleasant jobs so much easier.  That and I have the bonus of not having to dust it!
I gave her a hand painted ornament with an angel on it...very girly.  She gave me a body care set that smells good.  It isn't a very flowery smell, more like clean laundry...She said that it was a start.  My husband thinks that she has her work cut out for her and she probably does as my heart will always be in my barn and my shoes will always be covered in "compost".

My Leap of Faith

I have thought of starting a blog for some time.  I was encouraged to do this by one of the speakers at the Small Farm Today conference in MO last year.  The talk was titled "herbs" but he chose to speak on the subject of blogging and websites.
I almost left the room. 

Anyone who knows me is well aware of the fact that I don't understand technology, use it as little as I can get away with and am reminded everyday that if something has a plug in, chances are it will hate me and treat me accordingly.  I chose to stay in that room that day, took some of the suggestions to heart and thought that the worst thing that could happen is that my ignorance would be entered into the relm of cyberspace and kept there for all eternity to be found by some relative doing research on family history. 

My daughter, who blogs for her photography studio tells me that this is easy.  Things come easy to her...she is like her Dad that way.  Everything that they touch, they do well.  I am the reason that they made duct tape and white out. 
So...at the risk of embarrassing some relative that I will never meet (in addition to the ones who already know that I am clueless) here goes my very first blog entry.

As I was talking on the phone to daughter number 1, the one that does everything well, I looked outside and saw a full grown bald eagle just sitting in my backyard about 30 feet from my deck.  The thing just sat there and stared at me like he owned the place.  I told this to daughter #1 and she yelled at me  "MOM...this is the perfect blog moment GET A PICTURE".  I ran for the camera, couldn't find it where I was so SURE that I left it.  So daughter #1, thinks fast on her feet and tells me to use my cell phone (yes, I have evolved that far).  I can't figure out how to use the camera.  She said that there should be a button on the side.  There are 5 buttons on the side and of course I can't find the one that I need.  I found my volume buttons, one that used to have a flap on it before I ripped it off looking for the camera button and two other buttons that I still don't know what they do.  No camera button.  Bald eagles are amazing birds to see.  They have the most amazing timing too.  The bird took off right as I found the button that I was looking for.  I have wonderful picture of the southern end of a northern bound bird and one semi wonderful picture of my finger.  I think that I am getting the hang of this technology thing!