Leibster Award

Thank you, Kris for nominating me for a Leibster Award. Outback Farm is one of my favorite blogs and is the first place I go while I sit down with my coffee in the morning. I feel so honored.

I wasn't sure what a Leibster Award was, so I visited the site that nominated Kris, Clearwater Farm Journal. What a great blog they have too!

As I understand it, I am supposed to do the following:
Nominate 5 blogs with less than 300 followers
Share 5 random facts
Answer 5 questions
Think of 5 new questions for those you nominate

The blogs I'd like to nominate are:
Kelly at Happy Hollow Homestead http://kellyshappyhollowfarm.blogspot.com/
Jessi at Rising With the Son http://www.risingwiththeson.com/
Jane at Rational Preparedness http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/
Sunnybrook Farm http://sunnybrookfarmus.blogspot.com/
Range to Range http://forpeteysake.blogspot.com/

Five Random Facts:
1. I am a book addict. I have to limit what I pick up or I will get nothing else done. I think the Outlander series took a year of my life.
2. I am blond, left handed and Polish, so please don't expect me to be coordinated.
3. I am a foodie. Fresh, delicious food is one of my favorite things in the world. Throw in a good bottle of red wine and I'm in heaven!
4. I like lightning storms. Yes, I know they're dangerous, but they're so pretty!
5. I am a cat person, but I'm learning to love my dog.

Here are the 5 questions Kris had for me:

How long have you been farming? Or homesteading?
I have been gardening for years (my degree is in Horticulture) but I would say that I really started homesteading about 3 years ago when I got chickens. I already had a big vegetable garden and fruit trees but the laying hens led to the honeybees, which led to the dairy goats, which led to the broilers. I suddenly feel like singing "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly..."

What got you started farming or homesteading?
I think growing up "picking dinner" was a big part of it. My mom and grandfather always had vegetable gardens and fruit trees. I just took it a step further.

What's your favorite part about farming or homesteading?
Self-sufficiency. There is nothing like looking at your dinner plate and realizing that every last bit of your meal came from your land- and it tastes amazing!

What's your most dreaded part of it?
I loathe having to poke and prod at the animals. Injections, drenches, CIDR's, taking temperatures. It all just makes me feel like a big meanie! But I know it must be done so I pull up my big girl panties and forge on.

What do you most LOVE about it?
I really love sharing what I have learned. Like yesterday, we had a group of homeschool families out to play. The children didn't want to leave!

It does my heart good to see a child get to collect eggs and see that they come from the back end of a chicken not the back room at the grocery store and no, that's not gross. Neither is milk straight out of a goat gross. People in the past understood these things. It's been a blessing to get to share these experiences, that used to be commonplace, with people who've never had them.

And 5 questions for the people I've nominated:

What are your passions in life?
What experiences helped shape you into who you are?
What got you into farming/ homesteading?
If you could live anywhere and do anything, what would it be?
What do you find stressful and how do you manage it?