Hug a Farmer

Dear Friend,

In about five years you will read a story that I wrote with a scene that was caused by a farmer’s depression.  (And yes, it will take me this long to get it enough self confidence to print it out, hand it to my “special” people, who will then engage in a dance with me for about 5 more edits and changes, and then the story will meet my rejection quota to finally be self published. #ccfarmerwriterlife)  Since today is National Hugging Day I thought it would be a great time chat a bit about my favorite occupation other than writing, farming.  Farming is not without it’s problems.  According to an article about farmer suicide from 2014, farming has the highest occupational suicide rate.  HIGHEST.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/terezia-farkas/why-farmer-suicide-rates-_1_b_5610279.html

What can you do?  The first thing I would suggest is hugging.  It works for me.  Sometimes we can not do anything else but sit, hold a hand and hug.  We can’t fix problems overnight.  I have a new friend named Nancy.  (She councils me every wed at the same time because she knows that I have OCD and try to keep everything as a routine.  Ok so I have not been diagnosed with OCD.  I have diagnosed myself as COW BRAINED.  I panic less when I have a routine. #ccfarmerlife) Anyways, I am only going to her because I was trying to get rehabilitated to get a part time job. (Which is basically because of my autoimmune disease I would fail at being a teacher, which I have been trained to do so then I need to fall back on my other skills to keep myself from feeling like a failure and achieve what my limitations will let me. Counseling is to help me ACT.  Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).  I wish that Nancy would be available to farmers.

Are there councilors that live in rural areas that accept food/crops as payment and travels to the farmer, where the farmer is and in more likely to have counseling sessions at night, very early mornings before milkings, and or when it is storming outside???????Basically when the farmer is not trying to survive or make a living?

Since I have no brilliant solutions to farmer suicides , and I know that hugging makes a person feel better, I have chosen to hug my farmer.  What about you?  Have you hugged a farmer today?

Sincerely and God Bless,

-Annie

3 books on Amazon

Yes, Folks.  You read this right.  Three books on Amazon.  If you type in Pastoral Vinaigrette you will find me, C.C. Farmer right away.  Otherwise it is going to be a long time until you get to the page where I am hidden.  A few pages back from the Farmer’s Almanac.

When you purchase a book on Amazon you are getting a sweet edition to your collection and every twenty five cents I get from a book sale goes to furthering my children’s talents.  You are supporting the arts of a farming family.  I thank you sincerely.   -Annie

Selecting Calves for Oxen

I must follow this site to help me with what I have dreamed of doing for years, and now that we have Eloise I can try these. I put the horse collar on her upside down for the first time the other day and she didn’t even look at me like I was crazy. Maybe because she stands to let the girls paint her hooves with glittery toenail polish she expects these things from me.

Ox Hill Devons

Selecting the right animals is a big factor in the success of your oxen.  Second perhaps, only to the amount of time and skill you put into training them.  You have to give a great deal of thought about what your goals are for your oxen in order to decide what animals are best for you.

What work will you do with your oxen and what size and activity level will it require?

Do you plan to show your oxen?  If so, then you may want historical looking or just unusual looking oxen.  To some people, a Holstein is a Holstein but if you have something unusual you may get their attention.

Do you want horns or not?  This is an odd question to most teamsters including myself but I have included it since there seems to be more interest in using polled or dehorned oxen lately.  I feel an ox should have…

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Elijah cont. BE HUMBLE

Today we sang with the adults before sunday school.  Noble and Dignity were not there yet and Puddleglum was with his Grandma for the day.  He was going to Grandma’s church and then the child would go with his great uncle fishing out on a boat.  That left Yuri and Periwinkle under the Farmer’s care.  We sang “Jesus Loves Me” and followed it up with prayer then finished off with “Go Tell It On the Mountain.”  Farmer sat at the piano and pressed the key for the beginning note.

From there we went and sang Happy Birthday to Dignity.  Violet came down from the upper class to one hand Happy Birthday for us.

Obviously, the Farmer needs to think of a way to get the kids piano lessons.  (Anyone want to buy any books?  Look for C. C. Farmer on Amazon.  Every 25 cents helps.)

Once again we prayed before we started class.  Our prayer consisted of “Dear Lord, before we get on youtube, please don’t allow us to see any inappropriate advertisements.  Amen.”

And yes our prayers were answered. Since it was my Anne account there were only documentaries.  I did feel awkward because I had my Dairy Promotion Team as my background.  I guess I was thinking that since I am in God’s house with my computer I was opening my soul or private life to the kids in my class.    Anyways I apologized for stating that a bull was at the table with Jezabel.

 https://ccfarmer4u.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/god-vs-baal-sunday-school-correction/

Then we watched a youtube video.

After which we turned to Matthew 18. And we read parts of the chapter and talked about steering clear of temptation.  I used the example of an animal sanctuary.  If I drove by it everyday I would bring home animals, therefore to keep myself away from temptation I would take the few minutes longer route and stay away from the temptation.

We talked a bit about how to let the Lord take vengeance and resist “teaching the other person a lesson.”

Then we hurried and cleaned up, had a quick snack and hurried over to the sanctuary for Grandparents Day.

During the service guess what happened?  Dignity stood up and sang a song that blew me away.  Gorgeous voice.  Gorgeous.  Then guess what bible verses Pastor L read?  Yep it was from Matthew 18.  Be Humble.  Be Humble. Be Humble.

 

Mirrors of Albion September 9th

Reaching level 55 in Alice in the Mirrors of Albion I realized that I still have not turned in the battleship collection.

(Hmmmm guess I can not psychologically deal with war of any type.)

Anyways I am having trouble finding the two blue tokens that are in the “necessary to turn in the Paradise Island collection.”  This quest was at the beginning of the game and I have yet to complete it.  My actions are to spend my little gold coins to find a spyglass to give to the decently dressed sailor to try to get the pearl to trade to the orange dressed, with awesome hat, tourist lady, but have yet to receive the blue tokens.

Mirrors of Albion Poem

Oh Alice, You have fled far.

I am still looking for the blowing obscuring mist away jar.

Against the clock I doth race.

How can anyone keep up this finger flying pace?

Of this game Lewis Carroll never knew.

I wonder if he would approve?

-C. C. Farmer

God vs. Baal Sunday School Correction

Sunday School Lesson for 9/3/2017

God vs Baal

Prayer is important to us.  We started prayer, (after the hot chocolate and chocolate covered pretzels snacks were consumed.  I really need to think about their snack selections.)

We prayed for Periwinkle’s foot.  Puddleglum’s depression.  Noble’s brother who is the air force and who is in a dangerous place finding bombs.  All the Hurricane Harvey’s victims and Noble’s Uncle and Aunt who were safe but still have much to clean up.  We prayed for C.C. Farmer, who does not deserve a sewing machine but wants one, to accept  God’s answer.

Bible Verse: Proverbs 17:17 was given out to be memorized this week.  Bible
A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Next week:What does this mean?

The scripture was from 1 Kings  Chapter 18.    This is where I really started to rethink my letting them have the snack first.  Of course Noble and Dignity were perfectly respectful and sweet but the three Farmer children were….wired.  I can say this because I am their mother.   Yuri and Periwinkle were in charge of helping to draw our story characters on the whiteboard, playdough was used to build altars and I read the story out loud.   New Heart English Bible
Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel to Mount Carmel, and four hundred fifty of the prophets of Baal, and four hundred of the prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.

I guess this was at the point where I was trying to keep Periwinkle, Puddleglum, and Yuri from bouncing off the walls because when I read it in class I read it….” and 400 hundred of the prophets of the Asherah, who EATS at Jezebel’s table.”  facepalm.

The KJV, I read to myself later, said there were 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the groves, and all these prophets ate at Jezebel’s table.   Therefore, I interpreted it wrong and had a bull named Asherah eating at Jezebel’s table.  Which could be true but is not a fact, so I need to correct that.  That is what I get for watching the Sacred Egyptian Animals documentary the day before. hmmmm….I better not go down the thought of internet influences on our culture and beliefs right now.

 

We touched on Pantheism without saying the word, people worshiping God’s creation over God himself.  Combining everyone’s playdough altars in the middle of the table, we pretended to pour water on it.  And right at the catalytic moment on verse 37, I closed my bible and said that they had to go clean up and go get ready for service.

They are to finish reading the chapter at home.

In conclusion for next week they are to know the bible verse Proverbs 17:17 and have finished reading chapter 18.  I also need to correct my mistake of the bull eating at the table with Jezebel.   sigh.

Next week we will finish Elijah vs. Ahab, God vs. Baal  It is Grandparents Day

September  17th I will not be teaching.  My sister will be teaching the class.  By which time the sunday school curriculum will be in and we will be set to go and there will be no more mistakes of bulls eating at table.

 

Babysitting Orphan Kittens ep. one

The Day Three Kittens Came episode one.

The day after Queen Mom read a FB post on how the animal sanctuary closed in Wellsboro, Mama Cat went splat on the road at Empress Granny’s house.  Queen Mom had a house to clean, four children to feed and a tortoise that was long overdue for some attention.  But with the animal sanctuary closing and the fear that Empress Granny would either lose her mind or turn into the neighborhood Cat Lady, she offered to take the kittens for the weekend.

Princess Rose was overjoyed.  Princess Lilac was not sure.  Prince Reuben was excited, for he had named the yellow kitten Shine.  Prince Lindsey gave a how to care for orphan kitten commentary while reading “Big Nate Comics”.  Queen Mom was hoping that the kittens would keep Princess Rose from getting into trouble while she accomplished her to do list and that her loving, kind, sweet, manly, genius, not fond of any animals in the house other than an obedient dog, precious and forgiving husband would be able to cope with them for the weekend.

 

Queen Mom was hoping that the kittens would keep Princess Rose from getting into trouble while she accomplished her to do list and that her loving kind, sweet, manly, genius, not fond of any animals in the house other than an obedient dog, precious and forgiving husband would be able to cope with them for the weekend.

 

To Be Continued……..

 

 

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HOEDOWN with Misty Simon

There are days where I almost cry because I spent all my book money.  Here is a book that is going on my wish list and it’s not just because of the title.

• Ivy Morris Mysteries – Hoedown Showdown

With the Tasty Tomato Tournament just days away, the small town of Martha’s Point is all abuzz. This is the first year without a sure winner, and the competition is fierce to gain the judges’ approval, even before the tournament starts.

But when Ivy finds one of those judges dead in a shed across the street, things go from bad to worse. All she wanted was seven glorious, kid-free days of messing around with her husband. Instead, she’s going to be tracking down a killer, staying out of the way of a pickle-obsessed farmer, and dodging the new cop who seems out for her blood.

Rating: Spicy

Excerpt

“Myrt,” I said patiently, as if talking to a small child. “First of all, this wasn’t the tomato crusher. It was Judge McIntyre.”

I didn’t even get to the next part since she started wailing. “Oh, my stars! I’m never going to win the Tasty Tomato Tournament now! It’s the fiftieth anniversary, and I wanted at least one chance before I die! And now I will never win this! I’ll be a dead woman long before I can ever show my face again in the tournament! And this was supposed to be my year!”

Not only was that a lot of exclamation points, but she also dragged the last word out until it sounded like a cat dying. I tried to calm her down by settling my hand on her shoulder. She shook me off while dropping her cane at her feet. With a ton of creaks and cracks, she knelt down beside him and started babbling about how sorry she was.

“I don’t think you should touch him.” I said this while definitely keeping my distance. I did not want to touch him more than I already had. To be honest, it had been some time since I was involved in anything more than feeding and playing with my kids or running my store and being a wife. Occasionally I would help Ben with a case or two in his work as a private investigator, but it was more paperwork than anything else. I did not want to even know what had happened to the judge, much less who had done it. Ben was not going to be pleased. At all.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. McIntyre,” Myrt said with her face close to his, her hand patting his chest. There was a crinkling noise, but she was still talking. “So very sorry. When Irma died last year in her sleep after winning her forty-ninth straight tournament, I thought I finally had a chance, and now I hit you, and I’m so very, very sorry, and I can’t believe I mistook you for a burglar.” She twisted her hands together like she was wringing out a dishtowel. And she was going to draw blood if she continued biting her lip in between babbling some more.

I had few choices right now. I have to admit here that I had no desire whatsoever to call the police. I didn’t want to be involved in things. I had plans this week. This was not going to keep me from swinging from the freaking chandelier if I could.

Of course, I could go across the street and call from the house, or have Ben call and then remove myself from the situation altogether. But that would be completely unfair to Mrs. Crandall.

I couldn’t help myself. I let out a scream that would have brought down an opera house, something between frustration and fright because, at that moment, something furry ran against my leg before shooting into the bushes.

In the end, the decision of what to do was taken out of my hands because the police came tearing up in the one marked car in town, screeching to a halt at the curb. A man in uniform was out of the car before I could blink again. And I’m glad I didn’t blink because I would have missed the way he jumped from the car and then did a forward roll across the front lawn as if he was in some crazy-assed shootout.

 

Website: http://www.mistysimon.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/misty.simon.18

Twitter: @MistySimon

Buy Link: http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/4892-hoedown-showdown.html

Author bio: Misty Simon loves a good story and decided one day that she would try her hand at it. Eventually she got it right. There’s nothing better in the world than making someone laugh, and she hopes everyone at least snickers in the right places when reading her books. She lives with her husband, daughter and three insane dogs in Central Pennsylvania where she is hard at work on her next novel or three. She loves to hear from readers so drop her a line at misty@mistysimon.com