All I have to say

is WOOOOWHOOOOO...
I am very pleased with the results of the election...It was a wonderful victory and I truly have Hope that this man will be able to change things...Although the mess he has to clean up is truly horrendous. I Hope he is able to get it done.
History was made last night, something I Never thought that I would see in my lifetime, it made me Proud.
Go Obama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a while

It seems time has flown by with so much going on...My cousin and her daughter are here for good now. We have had lots of fun, but are working on getting back into our own daily routines..It makes it hard to do that when it has been forever since you spent time with them...So everything has been in dissarray as I still feel I need to entertain, instead of get everything done. But I am sure things will eventually settle back into place...I am so thrilled that they are here with us, I am getting used to them being here now and can't imagine them being anywhere else now.

Halloween was so much fun, we took the kids house to house in town and they had lots of fun, they were all 3 exhausted but had a blast.
Our congregation had a hay ride and weinie roast and everyone had lots of fun as it turned out to be a really chilly breath seeing night, so the fire was much appreciated.
We also had a weinie roast and smores at my aunts homestead place, it was lots of fun and all the cousins got to play and had a ball...along with the adults. They have been working very hard out there and it is looking great, can't wait to help them work on getting their home built.

As for us as a family, it has been rather quiet, except for a trip to the ER on saturday night...we had gone to bed a little early to hopefully enjoy our extra hour of sleep we were gonna get...but plans changed...lol
I had decided I was done reading, so I turned off the light and turned over and had started to doze, when I felt something start to crawl into my ear, I panicked and jumped up, and stuck my finger up into my ear just in time to feel what I thought was a lady bug go into my ear..I freaked out because almost instantly I felt this excruciating pain set the side of my face, ear and neck on fire and it just got worse from there...I have 2 words for you on this subject...Excruciating Pain...I have to say it was really bad and just might be up there with an exposed nerve in your mouth....I was screaming and crying the pain was intense and bad...I have had a broken wrist that didn't hurt that bad...so anyways after several attempts to boil the bug out with peroxide, and it not working, I just could not tolerate it any longer, so off to the hospital we go...They were wonderful, I got in immediately and they were so kind...It took 5 nurses, 1 doctor and 9 attempts at flushing that bugger out of there but they finally got it out....I was so relieved that I started bawling again, they all felt so bad for me that I got lots of hugs from the nurses...and my lady bug turned out to Not be a ladybug...it turned out to be one of those nasty ol water beetles....and it done alot of damage to my eardrum and inside my ear...they have what look like little hooks on all of their legs and just shredded my ear up...so I was given cipro ear drops, it's an antibiotic and some lortab for the pain to follow...The doc said my ear was gonna hurt like heck the next day, and you know what? He was Right...it did hurt pretty bad and is still pretty sore today...And as much as I hate to admit it, this experience has left me with yet another phobia...lol
It was always one of my worst fears...and now that it has happened, it just let me know why I was so afraid of it...I never wanna experience that again, EVER...
I have now started sleeping with cotton balls in my ears...LOL
Well I hope you all have a blessed and lovely day,
Love
Tonye

What a week...

Wow, what a week this has been...
So far we have welcomed a new family member into our lives, my cousin and his wife delivered a sweet baby girl Haily Ann on the 15th, what a blessed occasion...Abby and I are both sick again...I broke a tooth in half and am suffering terribly as the nerve is on the verge of being exposed and that is the worst kind of physical pain I have ever known (worse than a broke ankle..lol)..and to make it worse, the dentist can't see me until November 3rd... ughhhh I honestly don't know if I can stand it that long :(
I also found out I am going to be an aunt again...my sister in law and brother are expecting again...their baby is 15 yrs old..so there is quite a bit of difference in age there, but all will be fine...I am Praying hard for her baby bean to stick, as she had a late miscarriage about a year ago...it really hurt her and took a toll...Sadly I have plenty of experience with miscarriages to be able to help her thru alot of the emotions and feelings as they come up. So if you read this, Please keep them and their precious baby in your thoughts and Prayers

Adam didn't have school yesterday or today so it has been fun around here with both kids home..They love each other to pieces but fight like cats and dogs. Although today with Abby being sick and it being kinda cool outside they spent most of the day inside playing and watching movies...Adam is such a wonderful big brother and I do Pray that when Abby is old enough to understand she will truly appreciate him. There is almost 9 years difference in their ages, and Adam takes his job as big brother Very seriously...lol almost too much like a daddy sometimes...not really sure why he does that, but he has to be reminded that he is the brother occasionally...lol
well I will go for now because my tooth is really hurting and I need to find something to ease it up some...
Much Love,
Tonye

Come walk with me

I think that Fall (well Oklahomas version) is finally here, I do so love this time of year and it is my favorite...if it were fall all year long, I would be happy about it.
Seems like so much that people do can be gotten past and forgotten this time of year...Fall is romantic and whimsical, all the daydreams I had as a child were always related to fall somehow, it just seems like such a special time of year, and if I don't say so myself, I do some of my best photography this time of year...I feel called to do it more now than any other season, probably because Mother earth has so much to share with us right now.
If your interested you can see some of my work at www.RedBubble.com just type in Gentlerain in the search window :) I tried to put a slide show up, but I cannot get it to work :(...I would be greatly apprecitive if someone could tell me how to do that.

We should be starting on getting our goat pens up on the side of the hill soon...seems I am putting it off for right now, probably because I know it is going to be miserable and cold work before I am done getting that fence put up...but better to do it now that to wait until it get's too cool even during the day to get it done...without having to come in and warm up...since only the kids have good winter coats.

Danny (my beloved) worked on my clothes line again today...LOL that poor ol thing is about southern engineered to death...I think we will just have to make due for a bit longer, but should be able to get some good supplies before the winter and get it up good...lol right now the poor ol thing is pitiful...it's a long lead rope tied to a big ol oak limb and the doorway to the chicken yard, with an oak limb down in 2 cinder blocks in the middle keeping it from hanging too low...LOL it really is about as make due as they come...but it works somewhat :)

Sadly we lost one of our best laying hens...not really sure what happened to her other than she became a snack to a coyote or something along those lines..We let them out during the day, but 2 of my girls made a habit of getting out of their yard and going up into the woods(my bad, I didn't wanna clip their wings)...well Penny came back, but Henny never did...we hunted until dark and then the next day me and Adam went to hunt again, and we never did find her or any remains...so we like to think she is up eating tons of nice juicy bugs and greens up on the hillside somewhere :)

well I guess I have completely bored you to death by now if anyone actually does read this mess...but I need to go get ready, tonight is the school halloween (fall) carnival...Adam is so excited and we really do enjoy going...lol it's like the town social or something

Lions and Tigers and Viruses, OH MY!!!

Today started off with a bang...lol a bang of coffee of course, but then it proceeded to become interesting when I tried to get online to check my email...noticing for the last several days the computer was acting funny, I quickly thought, well my virus protection will take care of it...unbeknownst to me, that our virus protection had expired, and me merrily gathering viruses by the boat load...decided to continue on and never gave it another thought, until....well my computer just decided it would not work unless forced...I think some might call that a strike...I call it deserving of being thrown across the room...but since it really does not belong to me, but to my husband...I decided to try and check a few things out...When suddenly, there it was...Virus Protection Expired!!!!!!!!!! Ahhh well, yep that might really be a big problem...so after several minutes, which may have actually been an hour or more and 5 complete and unprovoked shut downs, I finally found what I thought was a Free AntiVirus...now let me tell you...they were full of bologna...nothing about it was free except for the stupid little annoying bar it downloaded above my screen...Anyways, I was really becoming distraught as I do have a little bit of my photography on here and I know I would never be able to retrieve it...I call my beloved and oh so smart husband Danny to come home (it was 10 minutes until his usual lunch time) and help me figure this out before I completely destroy everything...lol
So in his kind and gentle way of putting things, I heard Good Grief Woman, what did you do? LOL
He was so sweet though and helped me fix the problem by buying a program to get rid of all the gunk that had built up over the course of no protection at all...and installed it for me...I was so relieved to actually be able to get the computer to start and not crash within 10 minutes after it took me 8 just to get online...only to find out the reason for all the problems...145 different viruses were invading my computer...WOW 145, almost made me feel like I needed to go take a bath...LOL...so now our laptop is running smoother than it has for many days and I feel, well Safer... :)

But on to a different subject...
I have exciting news...well it's exciting for us...
My cousin, who is actually more like my sister will be moving back up here soon...she has spent the last 5 years down in Texas, and I have missed her every single day...but she had her reasons for going and a momma does what she has to do...
She has decided to buy the house that is on our land, that my fil moved there to use for rental property...it is perfect for her and her daughter, and she wants to homestead right along with us...I figure 25 acres is more than enough for her to get in here and get dirty right along with us to :) She is very happy and I am so thrilled to have my women folk close to me again. I have spent many years dreading certain seasons, because all my people were gone and even when you make the best of it...you always have that longing for the ones not there with you...
She came in last week and brought many of her things with her...lol it was so funny to see her pull up in a midsized car, that was packed and loaded down like it was an SUV...lol I had to tease her about blowing the spring hinges on her doors...So we did alot of unloading and getting things in the house and in the rooms they belonged, but we ran out of time to unpack them and we even started painting her kitchen, it is a beautiful shade of a soft green and I fell in love with it, although she still isn't convinced...maybe it will grow on her.. Anyways, we had a wonderful part of the week and weekend thru monday..many good laughs and just good quality time all together as a family...Oh and she went to church with us sunday morning and evening worship services as well...she even went to the ice cream social after services with us and got to meet everyone...I was so happy to see my little family there, I felt so blessed that I just broke out in tears, although I didn't miss any of Danny's sermon...lol
But the fun had to end sometime and she had to go back down to texas monday afternoon...but it has worked out even better than expected because tuesday she got a call from one of the places she turned in her resume up here and they offered her a nice job with enough pay to live on...she was thrilled and called to let us know, she was turning in her 2 week notice to her employer and would be here a month sooner than expected..which completely made my day...I so love getting good news like that...but the bummer to the end of the conversation, was she was supposed to come back down this evening to bring some more of her things (the big things, fridge, bed, couch, etc...) with a trailer and truck that her blood sister was suppose to bring to her, but never showed up for some reason, so now she won't be able to be here till either late tommorow night or sunday evening...and then turn around and be back down to texas on monday evening... :(
Well I reckon I have talked your ear off enough for now and since it's late, words are becoming foreign to me, so I guess I had better get to bed for now..
Love and Peace :)

Trying this again

well I thought I would try this one more time, since my 2yr old decided to delete my entire blog as I was getting ready to post it...She was in terrible need of an early nap today, so she has been put down for a good nap and will hopefully feel better when she wakes up...I def. think 2 yr old girls should come with a manual...lol

Here we are in the midst of some scary economic times and I find myself worried, but I worry about everything anyways, it's just part of my allure, lol, not really but I do find myself worrying for others who are losing their homes, jobs and cars...I feel the need to reread the Grapes of Wrath, I am sure things will not get that bad again since most of us as humans do not care to be That uncomfortable for that long, so I would imagine something will happen last minute to make things better for some...But if you haven't read the book or at least watched the movie, it would be a good way to spend an evening...Maybe if more people realized how easy it would be to become a character from that book or movie, then maybe things would change a little...

After a discussion today something has been on my mind that is bothering me. So here goes,

I guess I just don't really understand the need to keep up with the Joneses...I never have..I don't understand how bigger houses, bigger suv's and more toys is bettering one's self? It's a false sense of bettering yourself, I would think, but then again I have never been driven to keep up with them Joneses...I could care less what kind of vehicle I drive as long as it's safe for me and my family and it gets us there and back...I could care less how many thousands of sq. feet my house is, if we're safe and happy...I never bought the idea that we need to have more to be more in society...if I have to live in a big nice fancy house and drive a super nice and expensive car to get your attention and to be a good person, then maybe I don't want you there with me anyways...because you won't respect or value the same things I do, so it would be like butting our heads together...and I have heard that gets painful after a while...lol

We were dirt poor when I was growing up, and I do mean dirt poor, both of my parents worked 2 jobs a piece to make ends meet, and we still barely survived... so I know what poor is, some people sadly think that I have a poor person mentality that I don't feel the need to better myself...(I was informed of this today...lol) because I choose to live on a homestead, raise animals for food, grow a garden, etc... but the truth is, I don't feel like I need all that STUFF to better myself...it is only Stuff...will it help me and my family get into Heaven? will it help me be closer to the Lord? I don't think it does...

I tried living the all american dream, even though I didn't really buy it, I thought there must be something to it, and you know where I found myself? I was so far from happy and peaceful that it was painful, not only to me but to my husband...I didn't keep a good relationship with God open because I was too busy keeping the dream alive...until one day it slapped me in the face, it had been calling my name for a long time and I chose to ignore it...I wasn't happy living like so many others...I wasn't peaceful and was def. too busy to include God in my daily life...I knew something had to change. So we found our little metal shed/haybarn up on the bottom of the hill, next to the woods and converted it into a home and have been out here for 10 years...I guess what I should say is I am happier than I have EVER been...my husband is happy and my children are Happy & Thriving, on not much Stuff...but something else that is important, Everyone has a right to be happy and if keeping up with the joneses makes you happy, then have at it and I hope you get everything you want...but don't look down on me or think I'm lazy because I don't feel the need to follow in those same footsteps...because if someone told you homesteading was easy and for the lazy...LMBO...They LIED to you...lol I work harder out here, than I ever dreamed.

So I guess this turned into more of a rant than I really intended...but sometimes things just need to be said...even if just to get it off your chest :)

Well...

Where do I begin?
I am so new to all this, that I really have no clue where to start...I guess I will start by introducing myself...My name is Tonye (pronounced Tonya) my dad misspelled it and I have been stuck with it every since. I have 2 beautiful children an 11 yr old son and a 2 yr old daughter...They are the lights of my life and I have no idea what I would do without them...I have been married almost 15 years to the same wonderful man and he keeps me sane...lol


We have only been on our homesteading adventure for 1 year now, but I am still so in love with living like this. We have had dissappointments and tears, but we have also had so many joyful events and triumphs. We do have a plan, and it is to be fully self-sustaining and self-sufficient one day.

We have chickens and really enjoy them, the kids still think it is a treat to go gather eggs and feed them. We will be adding goats HOPEFULLY sometime this fall...we are still working on the fencing for this journey...lol and a couple of hogs HOPEFULLY by the spring...If you notice I say Hopefully Alot...lol I have learned in my short year of living on a homestead that everything will get done eventually, but usually not in the time frame that I think it should be done in or even the one I would like for it to be done in...but it Does get done...

We will be tilling our garden down soon, it is pretty much done for the year, besides 2 okra plants that are still trying to put out...Here in Oklahoma our okra keeps producing until the first frost usually, but this year our weather has been rather odd...lots of rain and cooler than normal temps, and left us with very little okra, I hate to till them down, because they are such pretty plants with beautiful flowers, but they haven't given any okra in over 2 weeks so I am sure it is probably time to say goodbye to them for the season...

Well I guess I will end this for now, as I really don't know what all else to talk about right now, but just give me time, I am sure I will be talking your ears off :)

Spending My Day

Doing as little as I can get away with today, as I now have a full blown 1st head cold of the season, and it was so graciously shared by Abby. And where did it come from? you guessed it, her 11 yr old brother Adam, who has yet to have a single symptom, not even a runny nose, He just brought the germs home to share with me and sister :) We did however get the chickens out, fed and watered and part of the bathroom back in order, but I have decided that bending over would surely make my head explode, if I had to do it for much longer, so the children are fighting happily amongst themselves over which disney movie to watch, as I sit here, wishing I were able to crawl back in bed for a while. Now back to the movie situation...lol I have yet to meet an 11 yr old boy that wants to watch Cinderella repeatedly...but Abby who has crowned herself "Beautiful Princess" seems to have escaped the lesson on sharing and being nice about it, and well Adam caught the lesson, but it tends to escape his memory at times...So off to the fight we go...and it soon leads to the tears and cries of "MOMMA!!!!!!"....No actual phsyical fighting is going on, but it always seems to be on the realm of possibility for the "Beautiful Princess", she is my bruiser with the tiara and snowwhite dress on, where Adam on the other hand is my Great Prince of PeaceMaking...LOL the two could not be more different from each other and it's a very interesting combo, how they came out so different I will never know, but it happens... The weather here has been exceptional and for it to Not be hot in Oklahoma even during September is rather odd...it is strange to go out on the porch before it is full on evening and have a nice Cool breeze blowing, very strange in deed...It has been in the lower 80's and we have had many cloudy days, now don't get me wrong, I am MORE THAN HAPPY to be receiving such a beautiful gift as cool weather this time of year, but I can't help but start to get giddy about the upcoming fall..Could it be that I might actually get to experience my first fall weather? and not go from burning up hot to just down right gotta get a jacket on cold? We will see. At this rate the leaves might actually change and I will have enough time to get out and get some photographs before they all come tumbling down. Danny (my man) seems to really be in love with his new job, and well I can't really blame him...We are really happy here and have had a great response to the things we would like to get to work on...At our ladies bible class on sunday afternoons, we have many things planned and in the works and I am rather excited about it myself. The new congregation where we are now is a good sized church of Christ for this area, we are averaging (sp) about 90 every sunday morning. We have so much hope for everything now it seems. To give you a little bit of back info about the new congregation, Dans' dad was the preacher here for almost 24 years, we really really struggled with whether or not to even apply for the job after Dannys dad and mom both passed away in feb. it was a devistating blow to us both and actually thought that moving off was the right thing to do, since there was no one here for us to care for now...But things have a way of working out and it did...we sent in his resume and it took a while but they hired him. We had so many worries about being compared to his dad and mom, and that is just the nature of the beast...If your congregation has a Great Preacher, then no matter who comes along, you will be stood up there side by side with them and measured...It isn't as blatently obvious as we feared and everyone has been really great about things...We love everyone here, but we do miss our last little bunch of breatheren...We had for the last 10 years preached for a small congregation of about 40 on any given sunday..and they became so important and part of our lives after 10 years...I can't help but miss them...I just hope they know they are loved and missed in this house... Well I guess I will go until another day, seems the children are getting along for a minute so I think we will read a book together or colorOh and I told ya to give me some time and I would be talkin ya'lls ears off...LOL :)