Huge Overhaul

Hey! I've been having a super deep think about my blog, it's direction, what I post about, and most of all if it's actually what I set out to do in the first place.

I've found that the more I look at other lifestyle blogs I keep thinking "why isn't my blog like that?" full of cool events and cute little cafes, reviews, hauls, marble backgrounds in the pictures, insanely gorgeous Instagram feeds, interesting and conversation starting tweets...And I've kind of come to a conclusion on that.

• My blog isn't full of events, because I don't go to any other than Barn Dances, Vegetable Festivals, and farm festivals /celebrations. 
• I don't do reviews and hauls in particular, because my monthly budget doesn't stretch that far to be able to try out new things that I'm not sure about.
• I don't have any marble backgrounds in my instagram -or any - photos, because my house is an old semi-detached house in the middle of the fields on a farm and hasn't been majorly redecorated for years, and I don't feel like spending money on my blog just yet. 
• I don't really get into huge conversations with people - even though I really want to - because when I do get into a conversation, after a few tweets I feel like I'm annoying that person.

My main goals of this blog were to help others and to document my life to look back on in years to come. Telling people about how this lifestyle changes you as a person, makes you appreciate the little things and the hard work that goes into it all. Giving my experiences / opinions on things that have happened to me and my family, hopefully to help others going through the same thing. 

This doesn't mean I'll only be posting about veg, ducks, chickens, and farming in general. I'm going to be writing about other things like family, cleaning, cooking, etc. much like I have been until now. I just feel the focus of my blog has shifted through nobody's fault and I've lost sight of why I started and where I am.

Having said all this, I'm sure you've gathered that The Life of a Farmer's Wife will be changing. For starters the name has changed too.

The Homesteading Life

This is what me and B do. We're not full time homesteaders, we don't spend our days in the veg garden and making home-made lavender soap - however much I want to! - but these factors are definitely big things in our life. 

As this is a lifestyle blog, it doesn't make sense to write it without including our major lifestyle choices and circumstances. I was at first embarrassed or worried about posting about vegetables and livestock, mainly because I've got one foot in the Homesteading community and one foot in the lifestyle blogging community.

I have also decided to move over to Wordpress. This gives me more opportunity to control the look and appearance of my blog, although I've had to read a few tutorials on it all. 

You can find the new blog here

I realize I will lose following, I will lose readers and I'll lose any ranking my blog had made up until now, however small or big that may be. I'm not too concerned with ranking and google searching, it's just numbers to me at the moment.

I do care about my followers, my readers, but I also don't want to build up a reputation while doing something I'm not entirely happy with. I can't write the best posts, or give the best advice if I'm not happy doing it. I'm sure many others can understand that.

I've been blogging for around three months now, and to be honest I think this is around the time most bloggers start to find what makes them happy, what makes them want to blog more and more, what their readers like & don't like... It's like the first three months of blogging you get swept away into the magic of the blogging community and meet all these wonderful people, and then you start to settle into a routine, start to know what you want to blog about for definite, find the right way to portray yourself as close to reality as possible.

I suppose this is the time for me to do that too. It's starting to sound a bit like I'm saying I'm leaving but I'm not. I'm changing for the better and making this stay something I enjoy doing instead of viewing it as a job.

If you stick around and come with me on my adventure, I would really like that. I do understand that homesteading and farming isn't what everyone wants to read about, so I know some won't want to continue reading if this becomes a main feature, but as it's the main feature in my life it's going to be a main feature on my lifestyle blog.

Thank you for reading, and I'd love it if you went over and had a look at the Introductory Post on The Homesteading Life.

Bella x

A Farmer's Wife

I've decided that it's time to talk a little more about what my blog is centered around: the lifestyle of a farmer's wife. It's pretty obvious that that is the type of lifestyle that I talk about, but for some reason I've not made a post about it in particular yet. I'm going to talk a little more about having a farmer as a boyfriend -might as well be husband - and what it is actually like being his girlfriend.

My Farmer is a pig-farmer, or a "Pig Reproductive Technician". In words that you and me understand, B artificially inseminates guilt's -female pigs that have not had piglets yet - and sow's -female pigs with one or more litters of piglets under their belt - with predetermined genetics to breed the healthiest piglets possible.

He's good at his job, and loves doing it. It's quite interesting when you get into the in's and out's of it -that sentence just took on a whole new meaning - but I won't be going into that today. If you'd like to find out more about what B does and what goes on down on the farm, I'm able to write a more specific post about that with pictures of the pigs, piglets, and boars and the farm in general.

Pigs like to fill their drinkers up with stones, B is clearing
 out this drinker for them.

What's it like having a single duckling? - Part 2

What's it actually like having a single duckling? How do I prepare for ducklings?

What nobody tells you about ducklings

If you're incubating 5 to 10, you run the risk of being left with only one duckling (or chick). I found myself in this position with Bob (you can read up on as to why in Part 1) after only incubating 5 eggs.

You know that thing about ducklings imprinting on the first thing they see? Yeah, it's true. So unless you plan on having a minimum of 2 or 3 hatch around the same time, I recommend you don't incubate eggs without a mother duck.

What's it like having a single duckling? Part 1

What is it like having a single duckling or chick? - Why would I have only one duckling or chick? How do I look after it for the first two months? What do I need to do?

Hi there! This post has turned out to be a lot longer than I thought, so I have divided into two parts.

First of all, I will explain how we have ended up with only one duckling from a clutch of 5. It's quite possible that the same thing could happen to you if you are incubating a small amount of eggs, or have a high disease risk.

Our duck eggs were given to us by a good friend who also owns a farm. We believe both parents are crested ducks, which is a tuft of soft feathers on their head caused by a gene in the parent ducks (I recommend reading this wikipedia article). Unfortunately, both parents having the crest means the ducklings have a higher chance of having the gene twice. This means they tend to die before hatching.