Posted by Suzanne McMinn @ 5:05 am | Permalink
Daily Farmhouse Journal
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and remember that somebody asked me a question in the comments and I forgot to answer it and I feel terrible! Then by the time I get up in the morning, I forget again! My kids have an orthodontist appointment today and 14 said, “Are you sure you’re taking us on the right day?” Cuz last time? We got there and the office was closed because the orthodontist was working out of his other office that day and it was not our appointment day. Last week, I woke up in the middle of the night and thought, Aren’t I supposed to be giving a speech in Detroit? I don’t even have a plane ticket! Only then I figured out that’s April next year. I’m supposed to give a talk at the West Virginia Writers Conference in June and I lost the packet the coordinator sent me, and I hope I can even remember to go.
But as forgetful as I can be sometimes, I never forget how much I appreciate each and every person who comes to my blog and especially those of you who leave such kind, funny, inspirational, and helpful comments. And if I forget to answer questions sometimes, it’s because I’ve lost my mind along with my credit card bill. And, if you have a question you want to ask me, ask away! I’m going to tie a string on my finger today and not forget to answer a single one! (And I’m going to ask you a question, too!) There are a few questions that come up over and over, so I’ll try to answer them first. Here’s the most popular one:
“How do you cook all that fatty food and stay so skinny?” Or, as someone commented yesterday, “With all you cook, you must weigh at least 350 lbs. Or do you jump a lot of rope?” This is one of the reasons I love all of your comments-sometimes you are so funny!
First of all, I love fatty food! All of my recipes can be altered to substitute low-fat or non-fat ingredients if you prefer. I just like to post the fully-fatted versions because, well, it’s the way I cook it. I love food. Bread, by the way, is over-villainized. I tried going on a no-carb diet once and ended up sticking my head in a bag of bread after three days. We need bread! And bread is not bad! It’s what you put on it and how much you eat of it and how it’s balanced in the overall diet. I love bread. Also, I’m not skinny, but I don’t weigh 350 lbs. And I don’t jump rope. I do try to, like, not eat entire pies in one sitting, and am successful most days. I am almost always the one holding the camera, but you can see a picture of me taken a couple months ago here. This, by the way, is my favorite picture because I think I look like such a tough country girl. I’m Faye! I’m a mountaineer! Except not really. And another thing-I have three kids and they eat a lot, so I don’t have long to be tempted by food around here. I also give my baking away to my cousins and other people sometimes. I love to bake.
Notice how I managed to get “I love fatty food” and “I love food” and “I love bread” and “I love to bake” all in one paragraph? Is there really anything else you need to know about me???
And then there’s, “When are we going to see a picture of 52?”
When I can talk him into letting me post his picture. He likes to be a shadowy figure or he’s shy or he’s a spook for the CIA and he isn’t telling me!! (That last possibility sounds exciting, doesn’t it?)
Another question I get sometimes is, “How did you buy/build that farm/house?”
I didn’t do it by myself. I had a lot of help and it’s mortgaged to the hilt. I’m in debt up to my eyeballs. I think I need a chocolate truffle now….. This is why I’m making seed pots out of toilet paper rolls and incubating chickens and planting asparagus and blackberry bushes. Of course, I love doing all of that, too-it’s fun! But it serves a purpose. My goal is a frugal, self-sustaining lifestyle. Because I have no money. You’d be surprised how low the pay is for all those books about accident-prone sheep barons in olive groves in Papua New Guinea.
And so now I have a question for you! I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to earn a living on the farm. Like, I could sell eggs and handcrafted herb pot markers and asparagus! Except I’m only one person and I’m not sure I could pay the gas bill with that. I do accept advertising on my website. (Commercial message: Advertising on my website is affordable, effective, fun, and cholesterol-lowering! If you or anyone you know would like to promote their website, blog, book, product, or service on my website, click the “Become a Sponsor” links in my sidebar. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.) I only have one real skill and that’s writing. For some time, I’ve been tossing around the notion of doing some sort of “Chickens in the Road” book. A non-fiction book. No Spanish castillos. Not a cookbook, or at least not just a cookbook. Some kind of combination of what I do on my blog-country stories about the old farmhouse and new farmhouse, people and history and outhouses, interspersed with recipes, crafts, gardening ideas, and chickens. But I haven’t been able to quite wrap my brain around what that would be. So, if any of you have any suggestions you’d like to give me for a “Chickens in the Road” book, let me know! Also, if you have any other ideas or experiences about earning a living on a farm in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road on top of a hill, I want to hear about that, too!
And could I end this post without some gratuitous cat photos? I think not.
Don’t you love how that one cat is just zonked out despite the activity going on right in front of his face? Cats. I want to be one when I grow up.
