Psoriasis

When I was young, preteen and early teen years, a very very close friend who I thought of like a mother developed a condition that as a child I'd never heard of. Psoriasis. Back then there wasn't much in the way of psoriasis treatment available. I think back then that most people hadn't heard of this problem, although I assumed it was just me. I think even now that many people aren't aware of this condition unless they suffer with it, or know someone who does. Thankfully there are much better ways of dealing with it thanks to the advances in medicine, and better awareness and support for those diagnosed with the disease. I wish these things had been available to Peggy back about 35 years ago, but knowing how she suffered the embarrassment, and lack of treatment, I'm very glad that those out there who need it can get the help they deserve.

Making Traveling a Breeze

Almost all new cars now come with one of the most interesting gadgets I could ever imagine anyone coming up with--gps tracking. I got to ride in a friend's pickup recently that had this device and I love, love, love it. So what do you do if you have an older car that doesn't have one? Buy it and install it. I have to find one because my sense of direction tends to be really bad. I'm fine if I'm headed someplace and don't stop anywhere, but if I turn off a highway, or what have you, into a gas stop, or a restaurant, I easily get turned around. Plus dealing with big, paper maps is a chore especially if you're on your own. Hubby is on the lookout for a new truck, I sure hope his comes with a GPS system when he gets it. If not, that has to be put in too, because it would make traveling to shows, and other farms a breeze.

Save Money While Getting In Shape

Some people may consider having exercise equipment in their homes a luxury, even if they're on a diet, or serious about getting/keeping fit. I don't think that's the case, at least for me it's not a luxury. Instead, it's the best, and even cheapest way to go. My reasons for feeling that having my own equipment is the right choice are:

1)I don't have to travel to the gym. This is a big thing for me since the closest real gym is almost 45 minutes away, and that's at country backroad speeds. So having my own equipment saves me money in gas, and it saves me over an hour and a half of driving time.

2)I can workout whenever I want. Because the gym would be so far away, I would have to really schedule when I wanted to work out. For me, with being self-employed, and also working on our home farm, my schedule is awfully tight. Chances are extremely good that even if I did join the gym, I'd have a really hard time making the time to get there. With the equipment here at home, when I feel like working out, I do it. If I have to stop to get something else done, I can, and I can go back to it when I'm finished. That may not save me money, but it makes working out possible. I guess, it actually does save me money too. If I spent hundreds of dollars on a gym membership I never/or rarely use, that's like throwing the money away.

Those are just two of my reasons. To me they're the biggest and most important ones. I love my home workout equipment. I wouldn't trade any of it for

Which Would You Chose For A Logo?

I need a little help making a decision. I've needed a new logo design for our farm for quite some time and I found a terrific place online where you can make your logo and even create business cards from them. I followed their easy 5 step creation process that you can try out for free and made a cool new logo. You get to pick your graphic from a large selection of graphics and even styles of graphic, then pick the print style for you lettering, and finally the coloring. It's easy and fun.

Here's what the easy creation template looks like with my final logo at the end of the process

Here's where the problem comes in. There were a lot of business card styles to choose from. A lot more than I thought there would be. I narrowed it down to three of my favorites but I can't decide which one I like best. Any thoughts? Which would you pick?

I'm leaning heavily toward the second choice, but the third one is really nice, and the first one has such a flair and really puts out our red/white farm colors boldly.

Branding the image of our farm name, the product we produce--in our case Boer Goats--and our identifying colors by creating an imaginative logo, and matching business cards that we can hand out at shows, conventions, and production sales will help us to get our name out there and become more prominent in the industry. We've been involved with goats for many years but just started out with Boers last year, so it's very important to start getting out name out there and visible.

I really liked LogoYes for it's ease, and very stylish end product. The end result is very professional looking and that's just as important as branding your name on people's minds. If they associate you with poorly made products with a raggedy image and jagged edges because you cut your business cards on the kitchen table with a pair of scissors, that's how they will perceive your product whether it's good, or not.

Okay, so which one? Card 1, 2, or 3?

A Different Kind of Strength

I was really hoping to get the new set of yoga dvd workouts that I saw. Yoga is the ultimate strength workout that goes even further... it is great for strengthening muscles, but also relaxing and stretching them. Stretching muscles is so important and often either overlooked when using other forms of strength exersize or equipment, or done too quickly, and not enough to really get the benefits of it. With Yoga you do it all, and you do it all at the same time. Afterwards you feel almost glowing because not only to you get the strength workout, and the stretching, but it is extremely relaxing. You don't even realize you're getting a heavy duty exercise routine most of the time. I have an old Yoga video that I use, but I really need to upgrade a bit. My old worn-out tape has given me more than my monies worth time and time again.

Muscle gravy

With my new-found 'healthy' lifestyle came a lot of changes. Everything from the types of food I eat, and how I cook that food, to a room full of strength equipment to train on daily. For me, having it here at home makes sense. Cost wise, it may be a little more expensive than a health club membership, but where I'm at I'd have to drive over 45 minutes each way to get to the nearest health club. Add in the cost of gas and buying my own made a lot of sense. Couple that with, after the first few weeks, having to drive all that way would begin to wear on me. Having to fit a lengthy trip an workout into my schedule would begin to get difficult. So daily visits would turn into three times a week, would turn into twice, to once, to monthly... and so on. Having it right here, I can use it whenever I want. Break up my workouts to several times a day if I wish. I don't have to drive, spend money on gas, and I can use any piece of equipment I want without having to stand in line... bonus.

Even if you can't afford an entire room full of equipment like I splurged on, have the basics and you're much more apt to get the workout in, and do it regularly. Hey, if you can afford to spoil yourself with a fancy gym membership too, go for it, but personally I place at home equipment a higher priority. The rest is gravy.

Room To Spread

All my life I usually thought of rich and famous people traveling first class and getting big penthouse type hotel rooms, or staying in Condo Hotels. More and more that's becoming more the 'norm' not just for the wealthy. It makes sense really. I mean who wants to be cramped into a little box, especially if traveling as a family? With a condo you can spread out and make yourself feel as comfortable, maybe even more so, than if you were at home while enjoying the new surroundings. Coming home from a day long 'adventure' is a lot more fun when you are coming home to a nicely furnished condo rather than a teeny little box with a bed. Since I'm really picky about what I eat lately it helps too that I could have my own food in the kitchen, and cook myself. Vacations now beat the old-fashioned types we took when our kids were small. Once I even made a 'crib' out of a hotel room dresser drawer for my six-month old daughter. Okay, it made for nice converstations over the years, but having room is much nicer.

Single Handledly

Sometimes it seems as if I'm feeding the entire Swiss Army here even though it's just me, my husband, and my son. My son keeps telling me he's a growing boy, but he's a grown man now, so he can't have much growing to do. He's thin as a reed though. I'm not sure how he does it when he eats constantly, and all the wrong things. I think someday it will catch up to him--but not today. Then of course there are all the animals to feed every day. So it seems like if I'm not fixing human food, I'm fixing up critter food. Everything from goats to horses, to geese and chickens, as well as a few barn cats, and my indoor cats too. Single handedly I'm keeping the animal 'chow' industry in business. At least it seems like that some days.

New Skin

I'm definately at the age where noticing new wrinkles on my face has become a pasttime. It seems like every day there's a new crease, or a deepening one. It's interesting that you can find wrinkle cream reviews to decide which of them actually work, or work better than another one. In present society, short of getting your skin pulled back to your earlobes it's the best alternative. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just someday go into a booth and press a button, and viola, new skin?

I need a drink

Living on a farm is interesting at the very least. Kidding season, which is when all the baby goats are born, has just begun. We had two beautiful little twins born yesterday, but still have quite a few ladies in waiting. For the past three weeks all the moms to be have been keeping me on my toes. I'm gonna kid, no I'm not, just kidding... haha, yeah right. I'm not laughing. I could use a good stiff drink right about now. A nice glass of wine might be good. It would hit the spot. Maybe I should just join a wine club and have it on hand all year-round. After all, goats are never at a loss for ways to make me pull out my hair.