Liebster Award

               And now, we will depart from the topic of preparedness for what my children used to call  "a little minute".    Thank you to Kymber and Jambaloney from Framboise Manor for nominating Rational Preparedness for a Liebster Blog Award.

I will do my best to answer the questions they posed in accepting the award.  The Liebster Blog Award recognizes blogs that are favorites to someone, and strives to being them to the attention of others.
We have also spoken of some pretty serious subjects of late, and the readership could probably use a breath or two !

 1. what do you like best about blogging? 

I like that it is an opportunity to communicate, to educate, to share, and to network with others. I often think that blogging shows the internet at its best.

2. what is your favourite time of year and why?
I honestly think that the Autumn is my favorite time of year.  Spring is nice, Summer is too hot here, and Winter is......well Winter, but Autumn is the time of year in which the plants, the trees and the animals prepare to sleep with the hope of the continued promise of renewal once again the following Spring.  Even though my youngest son passed away in the Autumn, even that was a lesson, that although we might sleep now, there is hope, restoration and renewal another time.

3. what do you want to be when you grow up? (we are all still kids at heart!)
I think when I grow up I want to be a very tall woman who is a farm veterinarian.

4. what is your favourite animal and why?
I like giraffes.  They are tall, gentle, and enjoy being fed by hand. They have great big purple tongues  and they drool when you feed them. They are truly an example of God's amazing engineering ability in creation. I like to think of them as giant African short haired alpacas, because facially they look like camelids. (Of course I still love my horses, dogs, cats, alpacas, ducks and chickens)

5. if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
I would like to live in a particular village in Nova Scotia, because I think it's likely what Heaven is like. Contenders for second place would be Montreal, because it's got the best shopping and restaurants and is reasonably priced. Moscow, would also be in second place running, because it is so interesting and has wonderful architecture, and seems very safe despite everything we have always been told.  Vancouver, BC looks pretty fantastic too.     Virginia is third place but only because it hasn't yet seceded and become its own nation. It is still impacted by the overspending and craziness of the federal government in Washington, DC.

6. it's a lazy, rainy sunday - what are you going to do for the day?
After I take care of the dogs, the horses and the alpacas and my husband takes care of the poultry friends, I might visit with one or more of our kids. They are always doing something interesting and I love to see what they have done with their homes, projects, or plans for something.

7. what is the most exciting project you have planned for the rest of the year, or next year?
I don't have anything exciting planned.  I am outlining a new book, but I am still cleaning and re-organizing the farm after neglecting it as I wrote two books last year !

8. what is your simplest pleasure?
Stroking the velvet nose of a chocolate colored horse.

9. what's the best meal you have ever had, either at home, at friends' or family's houses, or at a restaurant?
I don't think that any one meal can take that prize.   It would be a tie between the roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes with gravy and peas that my mother made in 1977, with homemade cheesecake for dessert.  It could be the Chicken Caesar Salad I had in a restaurant here in Virginia. I would have to include the crepes made for me at Hotel Vladivostok in Russia, when I had been there a month and needed something for dinner and didn't want something large. They made me thin crepes, and I had them douse them with lemon juice and sugar and roll them up and serve them with a pot of tea, as my mother did.  The hotel had never done that before and it became something they decided to put on their menu in case anyone else wanted them. Pizza at Pizza M in Vladivostok was superb.   Chicken Kiev with a baked potato and an artichoke in Moscow was also fabulous.  One of the best meals I have ever had, I don't normally like much.  I could not eat for more than twenty-four hours when I was in labor with my son Adam.  When he was born I had missed another meal and I didn't want to wait until the next one.  The hospital brought me chicken a la king with mashed potatoes, green beans,"cotton wool" bread and butter and a slice of peach pie. I think it might have been the most welcome meal I remember.

10. are you a cat or dog person?
I am primarily a dog person, but I have loved cats and I do now. I don't hold a creatures species against him. I take each creature as I find them, just like people. I will admit to liking most animals more than I like most people.


11. what do you like most about yourself?
I like that I am a nice person because I am kind. Being kind in the world is underrated.




It should be said that Framboise Manor is a pivotal blog, a bit like a wagon wheel in that many different types of people and blogs converge and visit often.  Kymber and Jambaloney are a lot like a lighthouse in the blog world of cyberspace as they encourage others to write and express themselves.  They attract great interest not only from those who have an interest in living simply, but living frugally as well.  They attract those with an interest in purposeful living, disaster preparedness, gardening, as well as gourmet and international cooking. We are all lucky to have found their blog.   I would have nominated it for a Liebster Award last year myself but they had more members than the particular award I was asked to give, permitted.


I must also call the readers attention to other Liebster Blog Award Recipients who will definitely not disappoint, and are listed in random order below.

Please visit:        

 SciFiChick over at Bacon and Eggs

Sweet Sandy over at Oklahoma Transient

Michele from Mystic Mud

Linda from Practical Parsimony

Sue from The Little Acre that Could

JUGM from Tales from the Clothesline

Jamie from My Adventures in Self-Reliance

Jen from the Double Nickel Farm

Dani from Eco-Footprint: South Africa

Wendy from Little House in the Big Wood