Introductions Please!

Well, I caved in! I had planned for some time now to start a Blog of my own after being a 'blogstalker' for awhile now. I figured that one day when I had kids I would start one as a way for everyone to keep up with the 'youngins' but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to start one BEFORE all of that (maybe to make it routine, maybe to make me feel more important - haha - who knows?)

Let me start out with a little about myself since I like to know about the people I read about, I figured others might like the same!

My name is Ashley and I am 26 - almost 27. I live in a small town in Virginia. I moved here when I got married in December 2003 because this is where my husband is from. I grew up in East Tennessee on a farm. When I was younger I always wanted to live in a city - just because I had never experienced that kind of lifestyle - but the older I got, the more I craved the 'country' lifestyle. My husband and I just bought our own piece of land a year ago - 12 1/2 acres as our 'starter farm'. Not much of a farm but good for us for now!

We have quite a few animals living on our 'mini farm' (and in our house...). We have 2 dogs - Beau and Appy. Beau is a beagle/mutt and Appy is a German shepherd/lab mix, 2 cats, a turtle, 2 rabbits, and 2 horses - a Quarter Horse and a Thoroughbred. I am seriously going to have to devote a whole posting to our crazy animals and introduce each one. Characters I tell you! Characters!

My husband and I live very naturally and as Earth friendly as possible and are very proud of our 'green' lifestyle (although we could improve this and add on greatly!). We grow a pretty big chunk of our own food and I spend my summers gardening and canning and freezing (oh yeah - I am a teacher by the way - so I get the summers off! I don't intend on this blog being about teaching for practical/privacy reasons however!). It is such a good feeling knowing that I grew and took care of what is going in our bodies! We recycle close to everything that comes into our home that we can and are able. A lot that doesn't get recycled gets reused (remind me to show what we do with those awesome cat litter tubs!)

A lot of our recreation and hobbies revolve around the outdoors. When it is warm, we do a lot of hiking, backpacking, camping and thanks to our super horses, trail riding. My husband Logan seems to think we are going to get into barrel racing and pole bending the horses so we'll see how that goes! I also like anything and everything artsy and crafty! I was an art minor in college and spend a lot of time painting, drawing, scrap booking (not as much as I should!) and recently have gotten back into knitting since there are so many cool and neat patterns available now!

Hmm, I think that was a pretty good introduction! The more I type the more ideas I am getting so bare with me while I figure everything out and find out where I want this to go! Hooray! Have a good weekend!!!