Coupon Mom Whole Living deal

I just love Coupon Mom I got two years of this magazine for $7.98 cents. I use her Facebook page to find great deals on magazines I would love. I got Country Living for the same price and there are new deals each day. You can even get 20% off each day with the code on all magazines.

It looks like if you wait long enough you can get most of the magazines with very great deals so I plan to just buy them as the 3.99 a year deals come up. I will be on the look out for the organic and farming magazines so I can read up and share articles and experiments here.

I am looking at at least two more years before I can get the country home I would like so while I am waiting I will see what I can do with my little piece of property to make it more of an Urban farm. If I do it at my home I won't have to worry about long drives I can work anytime I am free and at home.

While I plan to volunteer at the Schooner Farms again I will need to do it on my own time table. It is a 40-50 minute drive there and quite frankly I hate working in the rain so I plan to head out on nice days. I won't be a volunteer they can count on to be there all the time but I love working there so as long as they will take me as an occasional volunteer I will be there a few times a month. I met a lot of great people out at that farm and I would like to keep in touch and help out!



www.youravon.com/csund
http://csund.scentsy.us/
www.goherbalife.com/csund

It has been a while

Sitting here this morning watching my silly cat....you know the one that made a dog person into a cat and dog person..I felt inspired to write on this blog today. I was watching Loki run around unraveling his yarn ball and then picking up a hair tie and batting it everywhere in this little home and I started dreaming of a house in the country again.

I have been busy trying to get three businesses off the ground if I have any hope of getting a home in the country someday I have to make some money now and save so we can buy a country home without a loan because caring for more animals can get expensive. I had lost sight of my dreams though I keep forgetting what I am working towards and get bogged down in the day to day stuff that makes me feel like just giving up sometimes.

I am also working on getting in shape if working on the farm last spring and summer taught me anything it is that you kind of need to be in shape if you want to last more than an hour or two out there. Of course there are many other reasons I want to be in shape such as decreased health risks and higher energy levels.

My hens are still laying about an egg a day and all seems to be well with them. The kids in the area love to feed them and watch them through the fence. Asuka, my dog, and Loki, the stray cat the won us over, are getting along very well. My hubby is on his third week back to work so all is pretty well here.

I would like to get more income from my businesses so I don't have to keep reinvesting much of my profits. I know I can do this I just have to be patient and that really is not my strong area. I would much rather buy that country lot now and start building a house on it and move once it is ready but I really do  need a more steady income first.

I have been evaluating my farming ideas and decided that since we are probably staying in Ohio and I really hate the cold months we are going to have to keep it simple. That means when we get that country lot it doesn't have to be huge just a 2-5 acres and I am leaning to 2-3 and we will keep chickens and maybe add a few other animals but not a full scale mini-farm. There is a lot to take care of and I really hate to do a lot of outdoor stuff in the coldest months so a lot of animals means a lot of outside work.

So the idea is to try really hard to increase my sales especially internet sales and save much of what I earn to go towards our dream house. If you would like to buy something her are the links:
Scentsy
Avon
Herbalife

So as part of my plans for a better life I am going to try to post weekly updates here and as it gets nicer I will get out there and get chicken picks to share and some tricks and tips I have learned about the animals we keep. It really helps to remember what I am doing all this for!

Moving

I am moving sorry for the lack of updates.

EGGS

After several months of waiting I am getting 2-3 eggs a day right now and I should get more soon. They are tiny except there at this point I am guessing the first layer is laying a medium sized egg. I am really excited because my hubby broke the first two that were in a nice shell and we have two in the fridge. I plan to eat eggs for lunch today. There was a chicken in the nesting box when I went out this morning so I should have at least one more egg I am hoping for two more so the hubby and I can each have two eggs. I am thinking I will either scramble mine or make an omelet. I am really happy now it seems worth all the trouble. 

Well even if it was not worth all the trouble it has been fun to watch friends and family bring their children over to play with the chickens. For whatever reason most of the girls seem to love them but the boys are a bit scared of them. I really need to get some pictures guess I should charge the camera up and get cracking on taking pics.

Summer is Flying By!

Well my life is crazy again. I have a Premiere Jewelry party next week and I will be talking about my Herbalife products as well. I have so much that needs to be done before people can come over. I also have a garden that is growing like crazy and I work on a farm one day a week. I also have grant research to do for a domestic violence group as well as studying to do. Then there is the trying to get back in shape and go back to church thing. I have to get priorities straight and set a schedule.

Right now the most important things are my Health and my Faith. I found an easy daily devotional to start with, it is quick and I can do it every morning by the date. I can start small and keep a prayer journal as well. Then I am done saying yes to anything that gets in the way of me getting at least 6 days of working out in. Well at least until I hit a healthy BMI. Weight wise that is 132 only ten more pounds to go then I can let up a little if I need to.

Oh I forgot I also have a dog, a husband and six chickens to take care of and lucky for me with my hubby laid off it is not as much work as it was when he was working. My hubby takes pretty good care of the chickens and he can at least feed himself and he walks the dog a ton. That means I only have to feed the dog 2x a day and let the chickens out in the morning. We still have one escape artist chicken and if that keeps up we will be to 5 chickens.

So right now this week I will be spending the next few days working hard to get this house in order and make a bunch of ice cream for the party next week. I can not believe how bad I have let parts of this house get. Not so much dirty but all cluttered up and out of order. I also have to work on my presentation for the Herbalife products and I am also looking at selling Avon since I already know people who would buy from me. I really need to work on a business plan with my hubby off I some one needs to make extra money and if we don't want it to affect my hubby's unemployment it has to be me. He is looking for a job but one that pays more than unemployment.

I am really sorry the updates here have been few and far between but I just have a lot going on. I am going to have to rethink everything I am doing and figure out what needs to go. That includes excess computer time and right now blogging is not a priority. Unless I find a job soon things should slow down a bit the 2nd week of August.

Rethinking My Farming Goals

I like going to the farm to work but it is taking a lot of my time. Right now I am going two days a week and that is at least 3 hours of travel time a week. I have also started my own business and volunteered for an agency researching grants. Then there is my house and my yard and the giant garden at my moms and the porch garden. Not to mention my weight loss program and the thoughts of taking some more classes to become a well rounded wellness consultant.

I am starting to think I won't be able to do it all and right now I really need to focus on selling some of my products. It has been over two months since my hubby was laid off and he has no job leads yet. If I can sell enough to take the courses I want to take I can get a good business going and then I can relax a little. My goal is to become a personal trainer but I really have to get myself fit first.

I still want 4 or 5 acres and plenty of chickens and maybe some other animals. I do know that I don't want something large scale. I want a very large garden but not acres of food growing. I want to grow enough food for myself and some friends and family. It is a ton of work and I don't know how the Schooners do it. I would like to get a great portion of my fruits and veggies from my own garden but I am also good with finding other farmers for thing I would like such as raw milk and grass feed beef. Who knows maybe if I have a few extra chickens I can trade for something eventually.

The only thing I am really concerned about at this time is that my hubby and I find a way to make some money before we really strain our savings. If that means I need to focus more time on learning how to sell I am just going to have to do that. I need to do something to generate income as unemployment will not last forever.

If you want to help out by purchasing products here is my website. They offer a lot of products but I am using the weight loss products and I have lost 5.5 pounds in 7 days.

Dog, Chickens, Farming and a Shameless Plug

Asuka the Best Dog Ever

After a bit of training our German Shepherd, Asuka, is able to be out with the chickens at any time. Now we don't leave her out long unsupervised but we can let her out to go to the bathroom and come right back. She doesn't even chase the chickens much anymore. She will go find them for me if I don't see them right away but she just casually moves them along.

I love my dog she is doing so well with very minimal training. Plus she is just a great dog and I am so glad to have her.

Stripe the Dominant Chicken

Now we have one chicken we call Stripe because when she was a baby she had a stripe on her back. Now has the most unusual coloring of the bunch and she is also the boss of the chickens. It seems to be the way in the chicken world but Stripe has a strange tendency to challenge the dog. My dog takes it rather well and just barks at the chicken but I wonder what is going through that chickens mind when it stares down another animal at least 10 times larger for a marshmallow or nut. It is really funny to see now that my dog just brushes her off.

Stripe and White Birds

Asuka Guarding Her Chickens

Then There is Farming....

Well working at the farm is great most days. I don't like working in the rain at all. I am finding that I can deal with the heat a lot better than I can the cold. I don't like it when it is raining but I can tolerate rain if it is warm but not if it is cold. I wimped out on the day I brought my hubby with me last week. It was very cold and wet and I stayed like an hour. I was in a very wet sweatshirt and jeans and I just couldn't get warm.

Other than the crappy days I have learned a lot out there. I have also been able to try some veggies I have never tried before. I have to say kohlrabi is now one of my favorite veggies now and I had never even heard of it before. I am still going out two days a week but somehow I have become extremely busy.

Business and Other Stuff

Well I am starting to sell Herbalife products now. They have a line of weight management products that I wanted to try. In just a little over a week I have lost 3 pounds and I feel great. I am full of energy which makes it easier to work out. I have a website if you would like to order any products. You can contact me at sundcarrie@yahoo.com if you have any questions or visit My Herbalife Store.

Other than that I have been fighting with some companies that have ripped me off and worrying about fixing the duplex we own that was broken into and the copper pipes cut out of the basement. I suppose I should be grateful that I am getting some of my money back from the con-artists and that the thief's turned the water off but it just comes at a bad time. It is driving me crazy that I have to sink time and energy into these people when I really want to get my sales business off the ground so I can work to buy that farm of my dreams.