I know that the other forums have introductions and I'm sure that many of you who visit here have listed information elsewhere (so did I). Thing is .. I would like to share the introductions you list here on our website, too. If that isn't okay with you, just let me know and you're info will stay right here! And if you have pictures you can attach in an email to me, so much the better!

So since I started this, here's a little about us. I'm 45, will be 46 on July 1st, My wife Cheryl is 44, will be 45 on July 26th, our oldest daughter Jessica will be 12 in a few days (March 28th) and our youngest daughter Kaitlyn will be 5 on August 27th. We all live in a big house on our 40-acre farm/homestead with my mom, June, who will be 69 on September 24th. We have two inside cats (Nala and Shadow), our outside dog, Kringle, several barn cats, somewhere in the range of 125 laying chickens with 100 more in the brooder, about a hundred in the incubators here and 300 eggs getting ready to go into a friends large incubator. We have several Muscovie (sp?) ducks, 8-10 guineas, my pigs (Harley, the boar, Aploosa and Babe, the gilts), and last but definitely not least, Cheryl's California/New Zealand cross bunnies (2 bucks, 5 does, two does to add to the "flock" and lots of bunnies for the freezer).

For several years I drove a truck for a living and my wife worked at various administration jobs over the years. We've always wanted to be out in the country, teaching our kids at home, raising most of our food and spending all the time we could together as a family. We're doing our best to live that life now here on our piece of heaven! I still have to work outside the home from time to time, but we hope to get past that after this year.

I'm sure there's stuff I forgot to mention, but it will be more detailed on the website pretty soon, with pictures and everything! Sure look forward to "meeting" you folks! Thanks for listening, and have a great evening!

-- Phil in KS (pemccoy@yahoo.com), March 08, 2002

Answers

Hi folks! We also live in a three generation household, out here in East Cental Illinois. We have 30 acres or so on this road, and Pop has another 18 on the other side of the section; we gave my Uncle a few acres a year or so ago. We used to have a working farm before the government took most of our land through eminent domain to build a huge recreational and flood control lake. With the land they left us, my parents started a commercial orchard; raising apples and peaches, I added strawberries and annual crops to the mix as I got a bit older. We no longer have the orchard, as my respiratory system can no longer handle spray dope of any kind; but we do still have the berries. Our ground is a mix of tillable, woods and pasture. What little tillable ground we have is mostly planted to row crops in the old corn, bean, wheat rotation. Our critters consist of 2 dogs - Hazzard the German Shepard and Bentley the Sheltie; 5 billion cats (outside/barn) a pet bunny and a dozen or so hens for eggs. First time I can sneak away from Hubs to the farm store, we'll be adding some baby chicks and ducks to the menagerie!

Family members include Pop (Russ), almost 74 yo, who is a retired union electrician. He's had a interesting and varied life including being a medic in a MASH unit in the wrap up days of WWII, picking peaches in GA and apples in WA, working in a jet airplane motor factory, owning his own neon sign business and then going into the construction electrician's union. My Mama passed away 12 years ago; before she left us, she worked as a CFO for a pattern (tool and die) making company, then as assistant to the Dean of Music at a local University. She had also worked as a bookeeper for many years.

Hubs (John) is 42 and is a motorcycle mechanic. He enjoys racing motocross, but 20+ years of whoops and jumps have beat up his knees to the point where he now races on 4 wheels (quads, ATVs) instead of 2. It's been my pleasure to introduce him to the joys of country living in the five years that we've been married. Readers of Countryside magazine can read about how I accomplished this in the May/June 2001 issue, page 102! We hope for him to be able to quit work in 5 or 6 years and stay home to open a little shop, plus take care of the farm, which we'll then expand the activities of. Hubs and Pop co-exist peacefully here, as each of their skills balances the other's; plus this way - each of 'em only has to do HALF the chores on the Honey-Do list!

Sis (Jessie) is my 17yo daughter. She is a senior in high school (only 11 more weeks to go - YAY!!) and is involved in every activity known to man. Thank heavens she can drive herself to most of 'em now, plus the practices - that way I get to sleep just a little bit longer before I have to head out to the games or plays or dance or cheer compititons or whatever! I regularly trip over teen-age bodies in my family room when I come home from work on week-end mornings - I expect my budget for soda and frozen pizza to drop precipitously when she heads for college! She plans to be a chip off the old block and go to nursing school, and has been accepted at 5 good schools; but plans to take a year off to work, while picking up some basic classes at our local community college. She has worked in a nursing home for part of the last year; and enjoys working with the geriatric population, but isn't sure what type of nursing that she wants to go into yet.

I'm 43yo and work 12 hour night shifts as an RN at a 200 bed rural hospital 27 miles from my home. I work mostly on the psychiatric unit, but float as needed to most of the other units in the hospital; except OB - babies scare me! I work quite a few extra hours on our medical/surgical/cardiac monitored care floor; arranging my hours and days so that they don't conflict with family or gardening. I like night shift as it gives me a lot more time to spend with my family and out on the farm - heck, who needs sleep, anyway!? Besides, I'm allergic to neckties, and those seem to show up a lot on day shift! I really like my job, and expect to continue working until retirement time; plus my job pays more than Hub's, has better and more flexible hours, covers our insurance, has more opportunities and provides me with a chance to see how wonderful our life out here on the farm really is!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), March 09, 2002.

Hi, Phil and Polly.

It's nice to meet both of you.

My name is Dianne and I live in Mass with my husband in a small town outside of Boston. We have two cats and a dozen hens. We raise most of our vegetables ourselves and can, freeze and dry anything we can. DH is an engineer and commutes about 45 minutes (one way) to work. I take care of our home. We have two grown children and two grandsons.

I've been reading and posting on several "country-type" forums for about a year and really enjoy hearing about what others are doing and maybe even contributing a little along the way.

My favorite treads concern frugality and simplicity. I strive for both in our day-to-day lives.

Thank you for starting this very interesting forum. I look forward to learning more about others.

Wishing you enough.

-- Trevilians (Trevilians@attbi.net), March 09, 2002.

Hello Folks,

I'm Ernest! My wife, Melitza and my daughter, Caroline hail from the Southern Missouri Ozarks. We moved here several years ago and have been building a homestead in a remote part of Ozark County. We are on the grid as I like the convience of it but, other than that we are pretty much backwards when it comes to technology.

We built our homestead from undeveloped land all by ourselves. Yes, we have an outhouse, a toolshed, a chicken moat, and several gardens. Our water comes from the nearby creek, which has a pump and 450 ft of pipe connected to it. We heat our home, water and cook on a woodstove. We recycle everything as we do not have garbage service out here and I do not want to have a garbage pile anywhere on my land.

We just started watching TV again after a two year sabbatical. I brought the TV out of storage and hooked up an antenna that we got at a yard sale for $5.00. We only get three channels and two of them are very fuzzy. We are happy with the one that we get....PBS!

We hunt, fish, and forage in our beautiful wilderness not just for pleasure but, to help supplement our gardens and the poultry that we raise. We may raise a couple of goats and a hog this year as I believe we are ready to expand.

I work as a self-employed handyman and also do odd jobs here and there. I also salvage recyclable materials and sell them to the nearest salvage yard, sixty miles away. I build doll size furniture and sell it on Ebay. Maybe this year I will try to sell some of it at craft shows.

Melitza stays at home and does just about everything you can imagine to save us money. She raises our daughter, whom is two now and being potty trained, she quilts, (working on number five now), she makes lye soap, (sells some of it on Ebay) and cooks all our meals from scratch. She bakes bread, makes soups, kills and butchers chickens, and anything else that suits her fancy. She is also over three months pregnant with our second child!

We are building an a-frame which though is not completed, we moved into last September. The a-frame is two story, complete with a cellar which Meli and I also built using the same techniques that the Nearings did in their book, Living The Good Life.

Besides all of this we still have time for reading. Right now I am reading Economy by Henry David Thoreau, this time I am underlining all the important parts! Melitza is reading Volume One of The Mission Earth Series by L. Ron Hubbard. It is a wonderful science fiction satyre composed of ten volumes, (Dekology).

Though we both lived in the city of Orlando before we moved here we both have country roots and knew that Orlando, (or any major city) was not a good place to raise a family. I grew up in the rural Carolinas, worked tobacco fields, went to the bathroom in an outhouse and pumped water from a pitcher pump. Melitza grew up in a small fishing village in Puerto Rico where everyone knew each other and spent a lot of their free time cooking seafood on the beach. Moving back to the country has brought us back to our senses and we are quite happy with all we have accomplished.

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), March 09, 2002.

Hi, my name is Thunder. I am 33 yrs old. I am 5'11" weigh in at 170 lbs have black curly hair and sparkly blue eyes and a smile to melt the coldest of hearts.I have a year round tan thanks to my travels to all the exotic spots in the world. Have been told I could be John F. Kennedys identical twin brother (little John). I am very educated. I am employed as Chief Quality Control Engineer. I am finacially secure.

OOPS! sorry, forgot I signed off the dating forum.

George from Walpole New Hampshire. I am 41 years old and do not even come close to looking like John Jr. instead I look like Andy Gibb (when he was living). I am employed in quality control and who knows maybe in the very near future may have the full fancy title of chief quality control engineer (is there really such a title?)I got most of my education from life and reading outside of the classroom. I have a great sense of humor, and really enjoy people who share my interest in country living.I am in a 14 yr long relationship. I grew up on a farm and after living in the city for 20 yrs am happy to be back in the country. I am the only one who lives here who considers what I am doing as homesteading.I have written a book about my life growing up in the country with my very large family. I am in the process of editing the book now (much harder than actually writing the book! Mistakes, mistakes and oh my gosh even more mistakes!)I enjoy this forum, countryside, country families and dairygoats forums very much. I also enjoy getting to know all of you.

So, am I still welcomed to the forum lol

-- george nh (rcoopwalpole@aol.com), March 09, 2002.

Sorry, George, you have to leave now..... but THUNDER can STAY! :-) LOL! Glad to see such a fine sense of humor!

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), March 09, 2002.

I grew up in the country and have lived there for 61 years. Never used to think of myself as a homesteader but I reckon that was what it was. We now live in a small town in the Baptist parsonage but there is a half block of back yard that backs up to the country for garden. This is the first time in over 50 years that I don't have any animals. I do miss them but it is pretty neat to be able to be gone overnight with out hunting for a sitter. The wonder woman and I agreed before we got married in 1963 that we'd live in the house and the critters could have all of the outdoors. For us, it has worked well. We've had about every kind of animal you'd find on a farm at one time or another.
I love these homestead forums. I love the comradery and the give and take that goes on. I never cease to be amazed at some of the questions that are asked and even more so the answers. We make notes of some of the crazier ones and share them with some of the old farmers in our church. It really lightens some of their days. We have to remind ourselves that many on the forums have not had much experience but it is offset by enthusiasm.
I don't post too often but I do some lurkin' and enjoy it. Phil, thanks for a nuther place to hang out.

-- charlieS (charliesap@pldi.net), March 12, 2002.

Don't think I have ever done an official intro... although I lurk quite a bit, and have posted sporadically. Live in south central Missouri south of Lebanon, with my husband Chuck and daughter Dana. Have a son in Alaska who is in the Coast Guard. We have 9 milking goats which we are waiting to kid, a wether and a buck. A horse of course :). Working on a chicken coop and tractors. Am getting a beehive this April. Waiting for my berry plants and other various perennial vegatable to arrive to add to the garden and orchard.

Really need to thank everyone for all the info that has been given. You all are a weath of info and I have referenced it many times for ideas. Will try do better as things progress here and write more on these forums. Lacey

-- Lacey (cddllt@webtv.net), March 12, 2002.

Hi, I'm Kelly, I live in Kentucky. We have four generations living in three households on 35 acres of land a mile off the blacktop in a rural county. My husband works full time in town. I'm home most days-occasionally I will fill in as a substitute teacher. I have two kids a ten year old son, and eight year old daughter. We built our own house, part of it is still under construction but we are in it anyway. We are on the grid, though every year we try to wean ourselves a bit more off. We occasionally pick up a very fuzzy ABC station-we went a year with no tv at all, but after 9/11 we thought maybe it would be good to see what was happening, and we watch an occasional video.

Becuase of food allergies and my paranoia about processed foods I cook from scratch. Every year I put up more food, and expand my garden space. We have terrible clay rocky soil so, I do deep mulch raised beds as much as possible.

I quilt, crochet and knit. I make a lot of our clothes and huant thrift stores. I have made candles-I'm trying soap this year. I make wine, and my husband brews his own beer.

I homeschooled my children when they first started learning, but when we moved here three years ago we found a really good country school where kids are made to behave and they recite the pledge everyday, and no one gets out of this school with out learning to read and write! Classes are small so kids get the attention they need. I volenteer there one hour, four days a week doing reading in the primary grades. I'm also very active in our county extention homemakers club.

-- Kelly (homearts2002@yahoo.com), March 12, 2002.

Hi! My name is Vickie and I live in Arkansas with my husband Charley. We moved down here from Kansas a couple of years ago. Although we don't have any livestock, we do have two cats and two dogs. (All outside). I have never posted to Countryside before, but do try to read it everyday.There are some great subjects that come up and a lot of good information I hope to use. Charley puts out a garden every year which we enjoy. I have never canned foods, but have froze them. My son bought me a pressure canner for Christmas, so I might get brave enough to try it this year. We have four children, all grown, and five grandchildren. All of them live either in Kansas or in Missouri. I work outside the home and we mostly just enjoy being in the Ozarks. Charley is 55 and I will be 52 in August. (Noticed your last name is McCoy. My mother was a McCoy. Could we be related?)

-- Vickie in Arkansas (grannyc@lakenorfork.com), April 05, 2002.

Hello. We are the Hill family. My husband, Ron, is a truck driver, and a farmer. We have to work off the farm or we'd never make it! His goal is to farm full time. He loves this land, and I hope it works out soon for us! My name is Judy, and I was a city girl. Until experiencing the Forum on Countryside, I must admit that I was a rather reluctant transplant! I work as an Anger Management / Parent Educator, and am going to school to earn a degree in Social Work. ( Then Ron really can retire the old Freightliner! :) ) We have 2 girls, one is 12, and is my step-daughter, and also a 4 yr old. Brittany (12) loves to read, and teach school to her sister. Chelsea (4) loves to have her sister teach school, and is a computer whiz. We sold our house in the city last August, and bought Ron's family land for way too much money. We really want to make a go of it, and I want to support Ron in his dream to live on, and farm, this land. I have learned a lot about frugal living from the Countryside forum, which will sure help us with our struggle to keep up with the HUGE payments, without losing ourselves in the process. I would love to give you a picture, but I have no idea how to hook up the scanner I have to this new computer. I could hook it up to the girls' computer, but I will not hook up internet, so I can't send it anyway. I don't want the girls on internet without immediate supervision, due to all the dangers associated with it. ( Unfortunately ) Ron works very hard to keep everything afloat, and I am grateful for it! Hope that explains us in a nutshell...Judy Hill

-- Judy Hill (hillsacres@sk.sympatico.ca), April 05, 2002.

Hi,

Haven't been on the forums much lately but believe I remember a nice invite, a while back, to this one. What a great and informative site, Phil and Cheryl! I especially like your daily herb info.

My husband is 60 and I am 45, and have been married for 24 years. We have three sons that are 23, 20 and 14 - all three were (with one still being) homeschooled and are still at home (mostly). Our oldest is working and saving for a place of his own. The second oldest is in the Ohio National Guard and has finished one semester of college. Our youngest has Down Syndrome and what a joy to have around! We still have several years of homeschooling left with him. We are trying to talk my Mom into coming to live us.

My husband is originally from Eastern PA but lived in Oklahoma from 1973 until 1991 (where we met) and all three boys and myself were born in Oklahoma and lived there until our family moved to Maryland in 1991. We have lived here in NW Ohio for four years now.

Our homestead is two acres with one small barn and another outbuilding. We are in the process of fixing up our 100+ year old farmhouse. We have raised beds and regular tilled spaces for our vegetable gardens and grow herbs too. Our only pet is our German Shepherd puppy (almost 5 months) and we have Red Flemish/Californa meat rabbits, Light Brahma chickens and two pygmy goats. We want two Nubian goats for milk once we have our barn arranged for them.

We are interested in learning and doing more things than we will ever be able to do in our lifetime :-), but we enjoy all that we are able to get to. We had planned on raising our first pigs and a calf this year but seems that the work on the house has taken priority at this time. There is still hope for the calf, though.

NW Ohio is very pretty country but has been bit hard for us to get use to the flatness and the WIND. We have always lived (yes, even in OK) in an area that is made up of large hills or rolling hillside and woods. Mostly this area is farmed in corn and soybeans. We have plans on moving in about four years, to either SE Ohio or southern Missouri. I think at this point we are leaning towards Missouri and hoping to meet some of the wonderful people there that post on some of the country forums.

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), April 06, 2002.