Life on the Hippie Chick Farm, the ever-changing saga

 Random thoughts from the Hippie Chick Farm. Life out here is pretty great. Sometimes I forget. Yesterday I was reminded that this little slice of paradise is just what I prayed for. When I have to acknowledge the reality of the condition of our "yard" I feel sad and ashamed, like maybe I'm not really grateful for this place since I'm not maintaining it like I think it should be maintained. Strike one is my health, but strike two is the fact that we need to replace the battery on the riding mower. Since we haven't been able to do that, we've relied on the help of others to beat back the weeds and crazy grasses on we call our lawn. Another reason to solicit the help of people who are virtually stangers is the ole knees. How could I forget about my health?! Having surgery is a major slow-me-down. I have not bounced back as quickly as I did with my previous knee replacements. And apparently, that is to be expected. I haven't healed like I thought I would. It's slow going. And I've lost some mobility. There's this cycle my knee tends to go through, stiffness, swelling, work it more, get's better, keep working it, stiffness, swelling... back off a bit. Well I hit the back off a bit, and it never really seemed to get through that stiffness, soreness phase and I just didn't jump back in soon enough. At this point, I have lost the ability to straighten my leg completely. My knee wants to stay bent a little. And walking... it's slow and I look crippled. I start out very slow and bent over, and as it loosens up I get more human-looking and walking. And I try to walk through the pain and practice walking the way I "should" and not just how my brain says I should walk when I'm tired or in pain. Because that seems to be a majority of the time lately. I tell myself... "I just got a little bit off track with my stretches and PT exercises... it'll all even out yet." But I don't know that. I've been off-track for long enough that I have a lot of apprehension about gaining back my mobility. So that was a side venture into anything but gratitude. Fear. I have fear about the condition of my knee. It's also a prayer request. If you are the praying sort, please pray about my joint health in me knee (knees). 

I'm grateful today for baby chicks. I had myself convinced that my incubators had crapped out. And one of them I just bought last Spring. That would have been a real bummer. But I just had a successful hatch. Still about a 50% hatch rate, which is average, so not something to take too seriously, except for awhile I was having a LOT higher hatch rate, like 85-90%! So in being honest here, I can easily get off track and fret about why I don't have a higher rate. But I don't right now. So I'll just remember to be grateful after two settings of the incubators to which none hatched, I'll choose to be grateful that we're hatching now. Baby chicks are inspiring and I'm excited about moving them out of the incubator later today. Holding their tiny little fluffy selves is just what a person needs to feel good about the state of our world today. And goodness knows, I can use reasons to feel good about this. 

11 baby chicks arrived over the last couple days

Goats. Have I mentioned that we've actually been milking our goat? The goat we bought in July was in milk and we planned to start milking her. But we were not really sure how all this milking was going to work out and, well, we are good a procrastination. However, we had baby kitties with no momma. And I started bottle feeding them with Kitten Milk Replacer formula (KMR). Which is not cheap. I read that kittens could have goat's milk instead of the KMR, because goat's milk is lactose free. Translation: time to postpone the postponing and get busy learning to milk a goat. So we learned. And the kittens drank goat milk. And they grew up and became kitties! Ha! They are not yet grown, but they are weaned and growing like weeds. They are totally adorable. I still have three of these cutie kitties looking for homes. Flame, Gypsie and Venus are looking for furrever homes. They are super sweet, and purr like crazy when held. These are all females. 

This is Parsley. Our milking goat.

Gypsie

    

Flame

Venus

Speaking of kittens. We have more. And they are fluffing up nicely. They are fat. And they are fluffy. And they are so, so cute! They'll be ready for adoption soon. About three weeks or so. Which will go by in the blink of an eye! I haven't named any of them yet. And I'm very glad they have a mom. 

Momma cat: Silver. Babies are not named yet

I've been struggling. Of course, mentally. But also, financially. These two things are intertwined actually. When I am financially struggling, the mental struggle grows. And when my mental anguish looms large, I have a harder time making financially responsible decisions. Which comes from where I'm talking about.... the start of this downward spiral was perpetuated by financial irresponsibility. I know that. I'm aware. But it isn't the sole reason. Because the truth is that the world of economics is changing, not favorably. We are steadily having an harder time making ends meet, no matter how hard I squeeze. There's not enough there. You know, you can't get blood out of a turnip. Or whatever. Last month I juggled enough stuff that nothing got shut off, that was good. But some things that didn't get paid when they should have, had to get paid when I got paid. Well, long story short.... I was out of money by the 3rd of the month. How crazy is that? Sickening kind of crazy. Well, at least, typing this twists my stomach into knots and makes me feel more than a little bit sick. bleh.

So my focus tends to be on the biggest, brightest-burning fire at the moment. Which is our home owner's insurance. I need to $245 in my account before the premium is drawn on the 22nd. Tonight I have $180. So there's that. If you want to contribute my cashapp is: $carriehippiechick. Once I get past the focus on the current fire, then it's on to the next one. Which I think would be the Evergy bill. Wait. I think it should be overdue. I haven't gotten notices for it. So.... (she pauses and opens her evergy account to see what's going on....) it says the balance due is $0 and the due date was September 12. Oh wow! I am feeling very, very blessed. Like a little (lot) giddy! I just stopped what I was doing to text the kids. We were talking about this very thing tonight. Not because I was talking to them about the bills so much as I was talking about how my skin-on, real-live, lives in my town best friend and I prayed about this just this morning. And whenever I come before the Lord asking for him to rescue me out of the money pit that is my life, I am reminded, with gratitude, that He has taken care of me 100% of the times I have asked Him to. How amazing is that?! I am feeling at this moment how everything in our life is connected. I'm reading the Psalms with a couple friends and several times after I've read it I have the song for that particular Psalm stuck in my head. One of these was from Psalm 8, which starts out... "Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth..." and if you've ever been exposed to any sort of worship singing, you are now singing along. Because these are the lyrics that are floating through my brain now. I can't saying "Thank you!" enough to the God who keeps His promises to me. How many prayers have I prayed that haven't gotten answered? Well, it is more than none. But never has God ever failed to take care of my basic needs.... food, shelter and clothing. I am currently pretty ecstatic. Becuase lets face it, I am such an empath. If I don't feel it, is it even real? But if I feel it, man, that is real life! So joy is running free right now, maybe even rampant. And I am so glad. Because I felt robbed of it just this morning thinking to myself of the heavy burden of the financial obligations I am facing currently. I'm not sure where this paragraph is supposed to end. It has gotten kind of tangled up in the emotion of the moment and that's okay. I write like I live and there's a lot going on at this moment. I confessed to the kids today that our trash service was likely getting suspended this next week. But another miracle happened. Someone is paying the $80 payment to bring us current again! So another "excuse" to say how good God is! Isn't God good? all. the. time.

When you have a lot of pets, you run the risk of flea infestation. Ugh. We've been sooooo lucky the last couple summers. But we didn't make it unscathed this year. Last year, we put cheap treatments on the dogs and they worked! And it saved our hides since we didn't have the fund for the good stuff. This year, we're not so lucky. One dog doesn't seem to have many fleas. And one dog has a ton! Another pup (Little Man) has had flea baths besides the flea treatments. And that seemed to help. But the little girls, Maddie and Alice, are still flea ridden. I'm treating the dogs, and spraying the good stuff (the purple can of Raid) on furniture, their blankets, their beds, in their kennel.... anywhere I can think of. I looked for fleas on Maddie tonight. I was successful in finding them, but I could not catch and/or kill the ones I saw and now I am soooo itchy. I am not sure how much is the power of suggestion and how much is that I angered the little buggers and they jumped away from her and ended up on me. I just remembered that I found a chewable tablet for fleas in the pet-care drawer. I am going to try that next. But lets be honest, we need "the good stuff" for fleas, Frontline or a comparable liquid treatment. But right now, I'll keep doing what I can, and pray for a super natural result. Because, I mean, God can. You can finish that any way you would like.... God can inspire others to help us with this flea situation. God can take my efforts and make it enough. God can drive all the fleas and blood-sucking pests from our home. God can. Whatever I ask, imagine, desire, dare I even say... need. God can do it. Fix it. Eliminate it. Renew it. Re-do it. 

Little Man, one of our small-ish dogs

Alice. She's the alpha of our dogs. Also small-ish

This is Violet. I love her heart shaped nose

Ed Sheeran, aka Eddie

Pluto. I also call him Big Pluto, Big Boy, and other names with the word Big in them. He has to have some Maine Coon in him. He is size large.

For this land, and for these animals and people who live here, I am grateful. This is God's little piece of paradise bestowed upon me, to treat as a gift from Him. Today I'll do my best to... remember this is a gift and enjoy it; remember those who have in the past and are in the present making our life better today... those friends are gifts from God. 

Beggers are sometimes still choosers....

 I chose a lot of the life I have today. But here I am, begging again. (Big Sigh) Did I worry when I got a puppy that I knew would turn into a dog the size of a smallish horse? Mmmm.... a little. And I don't know if this a true or not.... But I felt at the time that the Lord told me that we should get Duke. And he is good for my mental health. I was suicidal at the time that we got him. And you know, that poor pup probably shouldn't have had that responsibility thrust on him, to give me the will to live. But hopefully he never knew. My prayer is that all he knows is that I love on him regularly, give him a treat here and there, and that I sometimes try to boss him around. What he knows is that he can only be bossed around by choice, it's not an accident. He's big and he knows he is big and gets to listen or not listen at will. He's a goofy ole lug. He eats us out of house and home. He eats more than a 30 pound bag of food in a month. He's also waiting on his booster shots. He got his first round of vaccines in May, with a follow up appointment being made for right around the time of my surgery. So I ended up rescheduling. Or did I? I don't actually know the answer to that. I either reschedued and forgot or said I would call back to schedule, and then forgot. If you want to contribute to the way-too-fricking-big-puppy fund, you can order dog food on Amazon. You can also use the cashapp handle listed below to contribute to his vet fund. 

So what happened anyway? Well, summer happened for one thing. When my income on top of my little pittance for disability is dependent on school being in session, summer break is a detriment. So there's that. And the fact that six family birthdays happen in July. Thankfully, I mostly hand make stuff, but even just making sure I have supplies adds up. And let's face it: tariffs. I notice that a lot of the items that I buy at "the Walmarts" has gone up, about $1 per item. And I think to myself.... "oh it's just a dollar..." but those dollars add up and when theres 50 items on your order that went up by a dollar or more, you're spending noticeably more on groceries. If you're not working class, or poverty level income, it may not affect you. You might be able to get away with your snarky little comments about your president's tariffs not being a bad thing, but if you live a life on the edge like I do, the current president's tariffs just put you (me) over the tipping point. Where I was borderline making ends meet.... now I'm not. 

I got last months evergy bill paid so they won't shut us off. But now there's this months bill due, and I'm out of paycheck. Yeah, I spent the bulk of my check "catching up" things I got behind on last month. So I'm out of money to pay for the things that are due this month wihich means that we are facing another month of robbing Peter to pay Paul. And the truth is, we're looking at two more months really because I only worked 2 1/2 hours in the month of August at the "extra" job. So that check will be no more than $40. When I get paid for working in September, on the 15th of October, that is when I anticipate seeing some real change. That is when I can finally (hopefully) make a dent in the debt. But I'm telling you, this is uncomfortable. And I don't know how I used to live here all that time. With all this discomfort. For one thing, I feel like a failure. I am trying to contribute. I'm trying to do the extras needed to make my life more manageable. But I am not succeeding. I feel like so much of a failure for that. Right now we're on the Average payment Plan with evergy. But it's cehaper this month, next month and in November to pay the flat rate. There's a payoff amount to get out of this. But looking at my bill, I think I owe evergy less that $60 on the flat rate plan verses the average payment plan which is $276 right now. I just gotta figure out how to get back on that plan and how I'm going to hustle up the money for that pay off part. That's all. That surely ain't too hard. Right? Except my heart rate is way, way up just from typing that. If you want to help this account in some way, here's some information: evergy.com login: clhorn; 68Carrielynn! or call them at: 800-383-1183; Account:5332467245. I don't believe there's any way you can defraud my account having this information. So I'm just putting it out there for anyone and everyone. What are you gonna do, log in to my evergy account and pay them some money? I'm okay with that. 

Finally, I have two insurance payments coming due that I do not currently have the money to cover. I don't know how to make them accessible. But I'm planning to pay them on my cashapp card (just as soon as I get some money on it). If you want to help with that, here's my cashapp: $carriehippiechick. 

Other ways to contribut include: buying cards from my card company: Hippie Chick Creations at the Hippie Chick Farm. That is the facebook page name. Or ordering tyedie, which also has it's own facebook page: Tiedye For. There are several Tiedye For pages and groups, so look for the one with a profile pic of a heart pattern on a t-shirt that is a golden/orangey colore with a fuchsia outline. I can make you about anything.... okay, I'm not as versatile as some of my friends, but if you don't see exactly what you're looking for on my page, hit me up and I can let you know if it's in my realm of possibilities. Someone recently asked me if I can do a pot leaf, and I said no. It's a lot of turns and twists and I'm just not confident that I can do that. (Maybe someday, right?). Now is the time to order for Christmas, while I can still get outside in the sunshine and there's some warmth to the afternoons yet. 

So... in summary, I know I am ultimately responsible for my debt. Do I believe that there are factors outside of my control that have been and will continue to press in on me and make it more and more difficult? Yes, I do believe this. But God promised to take care of me no matter what. so there's that. And sometimes when God does that, he does it through people. So I'm just putting it all out there. And most of all, pray. Please pray for these things: Healthy humans on the Hippie Chick Farm; Healthy animals on the farm; homes for all these darn kittens; funds to spay all our famale cats; funds for tending to medical needs for animals and for their food needs too. Pray that God would help me to find creative ways to fill the gaps and make the money we need to get through the next few months. I believe God partners prayers with actions. But I might need some direction on what actions to take. So pray those ideas and opportunities might fall into my lap. Pray for mental fortitude. 

I guess that's all for now. So much going on on the Hippie Chick Farm. I'll try to be more faithful to post. But time keeps on ticking and I really better get rolling! Thanks for remembering us before God. It's important. 

My puppy Duke (and yes, he's still a pup, about 6 months old in this picture)

find more cards on facebook

A recently made card.