Tips and Advice on all things Homestead related

 My whole life I was crazy about horses, dreamed about them, talked about them in every sentence and every 5th word out of my mouth, begged for one, planned how to get one, read every book and magazine about horses that I could get my hands on, plastered my wall with horse pictures..... you get the idea....  When I was about 11 my parents finally got tired of my horse obsession and told me that if I could get permission from the mission base director and if I could earn the money to buy and keep the horse then they would let me have one. Challenge accepted. We came to the States on furlough right before I turned 12 and left right after I turned 13 which was very convenient for my horse savings fund as I only requested money for those birthdays and saved every penny. I also worked as hard as a 12 year old girl could, mowing lawns, babysitting, starting a dog walking business, washing cars. Every dime went into my envelope with the words "Horse Savings" written on the front. By...

This story is about a very memorable time at the largest rodeo in Brazil.  During the time of this story I was working with Cowboys with a Mission in another state even farther south, where it actually gets really cold in the winter. Every weekend we would go to the rodeos and bull ridings in the small towns in the interior parts of the state. Our team was small, less than a dozen of us,  but we loved the people we ministered to and the two or three rodeo circuits we followed. If you don't understand about rodeos, a rodeo circuit, at least in Brazil, is generally put on by the same group of people, the same stock contractors, the same competitors, just different towns each weekend. They compete throughout the year and then generally hold some sort of finals competition where the points accumulate and there's a grand winner.  We would travel each weekend with these rodeo people and host Bible studies for them, pray with them before each rodeo, help them in any way needed b...