MDR, Open and Exposed

This month marks the fourth year on starting over here at the Mini Farm.

We came from the farm to this nice house in the city. We hung on as long as could.

To a little place out in the country with a lot of potential where we started life all over again, you could say city life was not for us. Life happens so we ended up going back to what we knew best. It was going to take work, but we were up for it. We had a blank canvas to work with and a fist full of ideas to go on.

The end result after four years was this, a fully working, self sustainable homestead.
I cannot count the man hours, money, drops of sweat, tears and blood we have poured into this place to make it what we dreamed it would be. We have came along way in a short amount of time. Just about everyone who has ever came to the Mini Farm has wished they had something like it.

Many projects and experiments litter the back yard. Some worked like planned and others still need a little tweaking to prefect the design that was once in my head. There, on the bench in my shop sits a folder filled with ideas and dreams yet to be built. The dust has already started settling on not only the folder, but the ideas within it.
A couple of months ago we sold all the animals, we are trying to save for a new air conditioner unit for the house. Sure, we still have a few chickens in the yard and now we have one donkey for some reason, but as I sit on the patio we built four years ago I look across an empty and quiet field that once held so much life. I also see the barren gardens we worked so hard to maintain and if I look hard enough I can just see inside the empty barn that once held so many living creatures, now it only holds a stack of empty feed bags. I see all this and wonder to myself, am I done.

Next month marks the Fourth year of Modern Day Redneck. This post is the 850th post I have written. This blog as 294000 visits from all over the world. It gets close to 11000 visits a month. MDR has been featured in many chat rooms, forums, web pages and even mentioned a time or two on pod casts. On top of all that this blog has 252 great family members. If you would have told me this four years ago I would never have believed it.
Saying all that I think it's time to introduce myself. My name is Jerry Ford, I live near the small North Texas town of Pilot Point.
I am a conservative, a husband, a father and most importantly, a daddy. I will also soon be a grandparent, I don't know what I want to be called yet but I am working on it. I have not excepted the situation nor do I like it, but I have to man up and deal with it.
My day job is in construction building highways, I don't like it much, but it's good money and a job.
I spent some time preaching the word, but soon fell from grace and now I am trying my best to start that steep walk all over again one day at a time. I struggle with everyday problems from bills to demons. My main struggles are with hate, racism, grudges and bigotry. These struggles and my non-willingness to bend my so called principles has torn my family apart. To escape some of these problems I do the worst thing I can and find relief in the bottom of a beer can. I have preached on everyone of these issues and know what they do to yourself and the ones you love. Like I said, one day at a time and he will get me through it. I guess having my girls all back together again this weekend triggered something inside. I want that again and I realize now I am the one that is keeping it from happening and it's not worth it.
That is about as exposed and as open as I can get right there.

The words put down on this blog are all true in the way I see it, remember it or take it. Is it all exactly word for word the way it happen, some yes and some no, but it's how I recall it to be. Deception is never the intent. I have lost many friends and pist off many family members with this blog. Probably out of embarrassment for themselves more than anything, but it is what it is. I have been called fake, also called a scammer, to me I am what I write and I write what I am.

In the beginning I wanted to post everyday. Now I am lucky to get one a week. What is there to post about when you are doing nothing productive? Nobody wants to hear about the everyday struggles we all face. I may mention them, but I try to never dwell on it. Same goes for religion and politics, there are many other blogs out there that can do a better job than I can when it comes to those. I have my beliefs and views and I promise you they are different than yours so I keep them to myself.
So I sit, several times a week looking at a blank screen wondering what I can write about. Finally when nothing comes to mind and I give up, I wonder if I am done with this chapter in my life as well.


Until then,
Jerry, MDR