Okay, I’m a day late with this. Yesterday my husband had the day off and the weather was wonderful, so we took advantage of it to get some major chores done on the homestead. My son was a huge help! He and Jeff cleaned out the goat barn, and let me tell you, that was a huge job.
Everyone was pretty busy yesterday. My daughter got her room clean so she could start painting (something she has been wanting to do since we moved in), I did a little work in the garden and helped with the goats, and by the end of the day, we were pretty worn out.
Outdoor Entertainment
In the warmer months, our favorite entertainment is to sit outside and just enjoy the farm. Jeff and I love to just look out at the woods and hills, watch the birds, and of course, watch our animals. The goats and chickens always manage to make us laugh. If you have never seen a baby goat bouncing around the yard, or a rooster dancing for his hens, you are truly missing out.
Hiking through the woods is always a great way to unwind as well. Some evenings we build a fire in the fire pit and sit out late, maybe roasting hot dogs over the fire. We go in smelling like a campfire, which we both love.
Entertainment Indoors 
It isn’t quite warm enough to be sitting out all evening yet, so yesterday after we ate, we watched a movie together as a family. We bought 47 Ronin, which was an awesome movie, in my opinion. First movie I have ever seen with Samurai and pirates. 🙂 Not really my daughter’s type of movie, but it was still nice to be all together. Jeff has some awesome speakers set up so it’s almost like sitting in a theater when we watch movies.
Recently, in an effort to save some money, we canceled our DirecTV account. We are always so busy between work on the homestead and the kids’ activities, it just didn’t make sense to pay $170 a month for the couple of channels we would occasionally watch. We decided to find a more economical way to watch what we enjoy on the occasions that we actually watch TV.
We have a Smart TV downstairs where we have access to NetFlix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and various other subscriptions if we want them. This allows us to watch most anything we want and still spend less in one year than we did each month on DirecTV.
When I went to Amazon to enroll in Prime, they had a page up to talk about their new product – Amazon Fire TV. It basically hooks to any TV and allows you to watch shows/movies on Prime, Hulu Plus, NetFlix, and many other subscriptions. You can also play games and music. I ordered the Fire TV box for each of the bedroom TVs, and I have to say, I like it better than the Smart TV downstairs. It is so easy to navigate, it streams seamlessly and it even has voice search. I am so happy we made this purchase.
Even though we get most of our entertainment outdoors when the weather is nice, I highly recommend Amazon Fire TV for anyone who wants access to movies and TV shows without the high cost of cable or satellite television. It connects to your Internet, it is super easy to set up, and it is only $99.
What are your favorite budget-friendly forms of entertainment?
Visiting from A to Z challenge. I rely on my local library for entertainment in the form of DVD’s and books.
We use the library as well, and that’s a great option for people with awesome libraries. 🙂 I could live in the library, and practically did as a kid. But I have lived some places with terrible libraries, which is so sad.
We canceled our directTV, too, now there is just the antenna and blu-ray player which is like having a smart TV. It’s easy to use so I am not tempted by the Amazon thing or Google’s Chromecast or even Apple’s set top box – don’t remember the name. I don’t miss cable.
Otherwise, books and just strolling through the city when the weather is nice enough.
I used to be such a book-a-holic but now I have a tendency to doze off. That is a problem when I am doing work related research. lol We watch a lot of movies when it isn’t nice enough to be outside(especially in the winter) and my daughter has 2 shows she loves to watch. So I was a little concerned at first about giving up the satellite. but I can safely say, I am happy with our choice. I actually like Fire TV better than our Smart TV. Seems easier to navigate for me.
Oh that’s good. I think cable is waaay over rated.