Hello From Wisconsin!

Discussion in 'Introductions' started by Mary Miller, Aug 16, 2020.

  1. Mary Miller

    Mary Miller Very Well-Known Member
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    My main focus is my hobby farm. I bought it thinking my kids would want to live there. Middle daughter is autistic but was great with horses. Youngest daughter could watch over her and things. To make a long story short, youngest mowed the 4 acre lawn once and moved to Denver. Middle daughter stayed on for 5 years but wanted to move to Vermont to be by oldest daughter. Basically I have been renting out the farmhouse to pay the taxes. But there is a lovely antique barnhouse that we renovated and a pole building so plenty of room for critters. Youngest daughter just moved home after eight years with a truckload (literally) of rabbits we raise for meat. I have chickens which keep feeding themselves to foxes. I leased out my last horse to a lovely woman from England. And after putting up my last cow, I found that I missed her so just bought a new calf! I am 70 years old, for pete's sake. I must be nuts. But I am having a good time. Anyone want to come to pick beans this week?
     
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  2. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Glad you joined us, Mary.

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  3. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    That sounds like a wonderful and exciting life, @Mary Miller , and welcome to the forum ! I am looking forward to hearing more about your farm and your livestock as well.
    What kind of horses did you have, and is there a lit of good areas for you to ride them up there (before you sold them) ?

    I am an Idaho transplant now living the city life, here in Huntsville , Alabama; but miss living in the country.

    Also, I am a greeter on the forum, so if I can help with anything while you are getting used to the forum, just send me a message.
    If you click on your name in the top right hand corner, a little box will drop down with options for adding your avatar, and setting your preferences for the forum.
     
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  4. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    Howdy, Mary, from the Lone Star State!
     
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  5. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    Hi Mary-- Welcome
     
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  6. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    Hi @Mary Miller ! Welcome to SoC. Are you picking string beans or butterbeans? I'll help you pick string beans but I draw the line at picking butterbeans. But if you pick'em, I'll shell'em. :D
     
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  7. Ed Wilson

    Ed Wilson Veteran Member
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    Hello Mary and welcome. Always nice to hear about life from a different perspective.
     
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  8. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    Welcome, Badger State Lady!

    California Hal
     
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  9. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Mary Miller

    Welcome! My Grandpa had a sort of wanderlust, moving back and forth between Chicago, where he applied his trade as a tailor, and Wisconsin, where the family lived on several different farms. My Dad, the oldest of 5 brothers and sisters, vividly recalled two places: Necedah, moved there when he was in the 3rd. grade, 1909, and they all gaped at the town's electric lights, which were still foreign to them in Chicago. At 16, they lived near Strongs Prairie, on 360 acres with a 2-story farmhouse heated only by my Grandma's cookstove. He swore a glass of water standing on a nightstand upstairs overnight had a thin layer of ice by morning!

    My Dad drove me there when I was 10, 30+ years after he lived there, and the place was abandoned. Two years later, we returned, and that magnificent boyhood farmhouse had been burned to the ground......my Dad had tears in his eyes.......On that trip, I climbed to the top of Petenwell Rock!

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  10. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Welcome to the forum, @Mary Miller. I was born in Marinette, Wisconsin, although my parents lived a few miles north of Wisconsin, outside of Wallace, Michigan. They preferred the Marinette hospital to the one in Menominee. I grew up on a farm and my dad raised horses, too. He had twenty-one at one time. I live in Maine now, though.
     
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    Last edited: Aug 17, 2020
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  11. Mary Miller

    Mary Miller Very Well-Known Member
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    I have a very eclectic taste in horses. I have had an Arab that anyone could ride, a Tenn Walker that only I could ride, a quarter horse in a Saddlebred body, some ponies we would load into my truck to take to birthday parties etc and my last boy, a true black overo paint quarter horse (berry handsome). I did not have a trailer so I mostly rode close to home.
    What horses do you have, Yvonne?
     
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  12. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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  13. Mary Miller

    Mary Miller Very Well-Known Member
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    Handsome lad!
    Well, Frank, I have made part of my antique barnhouse into a little apartment; an off-grid 'tiny house' without wheels. It had a brick chimney so I just replaced the wood stove with one from Montgomery Wards (1920) I believe about the ice on the water. When I stay there overnight, I stoke the stove a few times or it would get mighty cold. When we took out the old drywall (people lived in the barnhouse after a fire burned down the main house in the 50's), the only insulation was TAR PAPER. No longer had an outhouse so we put in a waterless toilet.
    I can feel akin to folks like your grandfather and dad. I teach wild foods and could feel quite at home there but I KNOW my hubby would never leave the comfort of our modern house and I would hate to leave him behind now that I have him broke in good.
    ; )
     
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  14. Mary Miller

    Mary Miller Very Well-Known Member
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    Hey Yvonne,
    I wrote a reply to your welcome but I seemed to have lost it.
    Anyway, I had an eclectic life with horses. I had an Arab anyone could ride, A Tenn Walker only I could ride, A quarter horse in a beeeutiful Saddlebred body, a few ponies we loaded onto my capped pick-up to take to birthday parties and events and my last horse is a true black overo quarter horse gelding. (berry pretty). My challenged daughter ground broke him herself after watching Parelli dvds incessantly.
    There are places to ride here but I did not have a trailer. Since I had to bum rides to shows etc, I did not go anywhere often. Mostly rode in the closet.
    ; )
    So, what horses have you had?
     
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  15. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    It sounds like you have had a good variety of horses, @Mary Miller ! Right now, I don’t have horses any more, but I have had horses since i was 10 years old, and lived mostly in the country, until we moved out here to Huntsville, where we live in town.
    My first horse was a Welsh Pony, who did a good job of educating me about ponies. After reading the Black Stallion series by Walter Farley, I was in love with Arabians, and as an adult that is the breed that we mainly had.
    Eventually, I went to a horse show and saw a Peruvian Paso, was allowed to ride one afterwards, and then wanted a Peruvian. It is still my favorite, but I also love Tennessee Walkers, and riding a gaited horse of any breed. When I lived in Missouri, I had one of the Missouri Foxtrotters, and she was a great riding horse also.

    This is me with my Welsh Pony, Dandy, and if you look close , you can see my little dog, Sugar, happily sitting in the saddle. She often went along with me on rides, and when she got tired of running alongside, I would put her behind me on the saddle and she would ride there until she was rested up and wanted back down again.
    Fun days...... I miss them.

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