15 Years...Who'Da Thought?

Hello everyone.  It's Tuesday, the 4th of December, and only 4 days to go to the Woodsies 15 year anniversary!!!  Holy Smokes!  I know plenty of people who doubted, questioned, scoffed etc. and all I can say is, I am the luckiest, most blessed girl in the world!  I've got my Mr. Right and a wonderful family, awesome friends, amazing memories and so much more to look forward to.  Ain't life grand! :-)

So, on the farming end of things we are moving slowly.  The animals seem to be happy and healthy which is our priority, obviously. We are still keeping our eye out for a companion for Belle, she must get so lonely.  She does get time with us and the birds.  She seems to enjoy her time with the turkeys and ducks.  We also need to get a shelter up for her.  She goes in with the birds if it's really bad out.  Oh, and it looks like two of our "new" chicks are roosters.  That will make three with only four hens...I believe we're gonna need more hens...

 (Our sweet Cora is still missing.  I still find myself getting choked up when I see pictures of her.  She is such a goof.  I continue my prayers knowing each day the chances of seeing her again diminish substantially.  Three weeks is a long time.)  

Being winter, even if the Montana weather says differently, we are focusing our activities inside the home.  We've got quite the "laundry/honey do" lists and they seem to grow faster than a new puppy.  Cleaning the carpets is this week's priority, I've gotten quite a bit done so far.  As I'm always looking to save $$$, one can imagine my pause when facing the cost of steam cleaner cleaner.  It's outrageous and doesn't really work so good anyway.  Pet Lover's or Professional formulas, my fannie.  So, yesterday, I decided enough was enough.  I did a little researching online and decided to go with simple, inexpensive and readily available.  I used my homemade laundry detergent.  Yup, homemade laundry detergent, you read it right.  So far, so good.  I am also using my homemade stain remover on the tough spots.  Not sure how that will work out but the areas I did yesterday look good and, get this, NO PET SMELLS!!!  I detest spending my day laboring over the carpet steam cleaner only to smell the bouquet that can only be created by pets and heavily scented cleaners (cover ups).  I'm actually more than a little excited about it.  Cheap thrills, huh.

Well, I'm off to do some more steaming.  Hoping everyone is having a good day.

~Ash