December

About a month of news...in one post. Hang on! In no particular order... The kids' Christmas performance went really well. They were both fantastic. The video links below were from the dress rehearsal. It's very difficult to get the performance on video with all the extra people there. In fact, it's impossible so I do what I can at the dress rehearsal.





  I uploaded 2 photos of the performance, you can view/watch them here (hover the mouse over the link and click): http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x263/mandicourt/Blog%20photos/?action=view&current=ElfEmpersonator002.mp4 and here: http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x263/mandicourt/Blog%20photos/?action=view&current=ElfEmpersonator002.mp4  (make the screen bigger in the lower right hand corner of the black screen)


The pigs...the pigs are growing...still. We sold 2 of the pigs off, still have 3. Mea Hamm will be going to freezer camp here pretty soon but they are handling the cold well and life is good!

 
 

The kids are doing great in school...

The weather has been on again off again cold. We've had some really nice days (like yesterday, it was a high of 61!). But we're expecting a big cool off over the next week just in time for christmas.

We've been expirimenting with barley fodder.Why? Why not. Hay's beyond expensive at this point with 2 years of drought and barley fodder is relatively inexpensive and better for them. It's a bit more work on a daily basis but should cut the feed bill down by half...or more! You can read more about it here: http://marmaladehollow.wordpress.com/barley-fodder/ and here: http://marmaladehollow.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/day-1-barley-fodder/ , if you'd like. A real simple overview: it is sprouted grains basically. Soak your barley overnight, water it a few times a day for approx. 6-7 days and feed it...just like you would hay...roots, grains grass and all. It's up to 80% digestible, where hay is only about 30% digestible. The protein is out of this world and while I will have to work on the calcium, the amount of savings on top of how much better it is for them should save exponentially. We've just in the stage of experimenting with one tray for right now but things are looking really good with it. It's been a great learning experience for the kids if nothing else. They love to check the tub when they get home from school to see how much change has happened since they last saw it.

We went to Lawrence, Ks (near Kansas City) over Thanksgiving break. That seems forever ago. The university (KU) has a natural history museum with bones and all sorts of fun stuff. It was a wonderful day, warm too! Got an early start, took mostly country back roads all the way there (kids were a little peeves that it took 5 hours instead of the 3 we told them it would), had a lovely Greek lunch on main st. in Lawrence, saw the museum, met up with friends for dinner on the way home in Abilene and made it back in time to get the goat's and animals a night time meal around 10 PM. 

 

One night several weeks ago...



I was sitting at the computer in the kitchen and Rachel, matter-of-factly, came in and said, "Mama, what percentage of Indian are we and aren't we related to the Redneck Indians?" Yep, that would be us, the Redneck Indians.

 











Photos from the farm:




g



We had to cut down one of the locust trees in the front yard a couple weeks ago. I had no idea it was as bad as it was until one day I went out to check the mail and I heard a creaking sound. Not good. I walked over to investigate and the whole thing was hollow down the center! That'll give us some nice fire wood next year for about a week.Unfortunately, the whole base is mostly dead and like petrified wood to cut and so that stump may just stay there for a million years...the chainsaw was throwing sparks trying to cut it down further. That locust...it makes good burning wood if you catch it at the right time, let it go a day over and there's nothing that will go through it.

Well, I suppose I could go on and on about what's new, but it's time to tend to the animals and start the outside chore part of the day. 

Cheddar Potato Broccoli Soup

Lots of ways to mix and match this one. How much liquid you add depends on how thick (or thin) you like it. 4 pints of liquid for the amount of ingredients listed gives me the consistency I like. I used pints for measure as I had a pint glass handy. The conversion is 1 pint = 2 cups. You can add more at the end of cooking if it ends up being too thick for your liking.

We prefer our soup without chunks so I use a stick blender but you could certainly just dice your potatoes up small if you do not intend to blend it.

I try to make this soup after I've made chicken stock and used the chicken for another meal. It helps to have planned meals for things like this =).

1/2-1 medium onion, diced
1-2 cloves or garlic, diced
3-4 ribs of celery, sliced thin
4-6 Tablespoons of olive oil
8 medium russet potatoes, peeled and roughly cut
2 pints (4 cups) of chicken stock (or 2 bullion cubes and 2 pints of water)
1-2 pints (2-4 cups) of milk
1 16 ounce bag of frozen broccoli (you can also use fresh) optional
8 ounces of sharp cheddar (or more), shredded
1.5 tablespoons kosher salt (more to taste)
Scallions (optional)

Dice onion, celery and garlic. In a large pot, saute in olive oil on low/low-medium until soft. Meanwhile, peel and chop potatoes & add to pot. I like to let them cook a little too in the oil before adding liquids. Add all liquids and salt to the pot and simmer on low/medium until potatoes are still slightly firm, 15-20 minutes or so (depends on how small you've cut them). Don't set it and forget it, the milk may cause the soup to bubble over the top of the pot and you may have to reduce your heat.

Add frozen broccoli, bring back to simmer and cook until tender (approx. 10 minutes). Allow to cool some if you intend to use an immersion (stick) blender (which is what I do) or you can smash the potatoes with a potato masher or use an electric mixer. If you intend to use a stick blender or hand held mixer, DO USE CAUTION as it will be EXTREMELY hot! Once blended, add cheese, let melt and serve. Top with sliced scallions (optional) Makes approx. 8-12 servings.

Occasionally I'll make white or brown rice and serve this over. I try to always serve it with homemade bread or muffins (herb rolls left over from Thanksgiving is what we had tonight). Yum. The soup heats up well (think lunch tomorrow), we never have enough left to freeze after leftovers the next day, but I suppose it might freeze well without cheese.

Now accepting new clients!

Free gym membership today! Perks include: Cardio workouts that torch calories (up to 1800 a day!!!), burn fat, and help you look great faster! As you get better, your incentives will include: warm meals, toasty feet, and a lower propane bill, not to mention an all expense included personal trainer (A.K.A. your supervisor, A.K.A. moi). Feel the hurt tomorrow in your back, quads, biceps, triceps, abdominal muscles and know it's all for the greater good! Sign up today! Space is limited to axes, wedges and mauls on hand.

 

 

So much news...

...yet it seems rather redundant and boring to us.

I am sure if I told you we've been busy, you would would probably not believe me.

The dogs have found a way out of the fence. Despite it being only 6" from the ground, Snow managed to slip underneath. King followed suit and so they were gallivanting around the neighborhood.  It's always something right? A while back when it was just King, before Snow, we purchased an "invisible fence" which worked off radio waves from a buried wire, collar & transmitter that would send out a audible signal through the collar if they got within a certain distance from the buried wire and then a shock if the dog continued to get closer. Unfortunately, it was only for a 10 acre property or less. We were looking at the possibility of re-homing both of them since it was impossible to keep them in any longer but a friend told me about a more powerful invisible fence system that would cover 100 acres. I immediately bought it and we installed it a few weekends ago. Works like a charm! Snow got her chance first, only took 2 shocks before she would no longer even meet us at the gate and she didn't even offer to try going under the fence!

We'll need to get a 2nd collar, especially since I'd like to open up the area to include the front yard, but obviously that's not fenced so the wire will have to be buried. Right now, Snow does not wear one and I bnk on the fact she still thinks she is while King wears it. The issue with both of the dogs is, as soon as you turn your back, they take advantage if no one is there to tell them otherwise. They are good dogs, but they have a strong desire to wander and are strong willed and hard headed. A regular hand held correctional shock collar trainer would not work for them to know their boundaries and respect them. The wire and collar is their trainer when their regular trainer (us) cannot be around to watch them and reprimand them.

Keeping them in the back yard is absurd and is not fair and so this invisible fence was our last option. Having both of them in collars assures me that they will not test it if given the opportunity. It's a fair and consistent training tool and so far has been invaluable!

Last week I was sitting at the kitchen table and a coyote walked right across the back yard. Several weeks before that, a fox walked right across the back yard! We've lost 2 more chickens, but I think the culprit was a skunk...which I caught in a trap in my barn! We disposed of it but not before it took 7 shots to vital areas. That's kinda sad, it wasn't our first choice but the thing wouldn't die! Jeremiah thought people were joking when they say the bet way to put them down is to drown them. How they avoid being sprayed I don't know...but maybe they do and just deal with the consequences but this stupid thing sprayed anyway and the trap still smells to high heaven! I still think we have another one living in there but now that the dogs are out there full time, loosing chickens straight out of the coop should be a thing of the past. Now, if they wander outside of the fence, which they tend to do from time to time, that's another story but yet another reason I want the dogs to be allowed into the unfenced area of the yard. How we configure that though so the goats don't get out is a separate issue.

The pigs are well. We are selling 2 of the males. We don't need all these pigs. The hampshire female is still limping but getting around happily enough for food so until such time when she weighs too much to be amblitory, we'll keep putting weight on her and then send her off to the butcher. I opened up the gate between their pen and the garden about 6 weeks ago and they did a fabulous job of eating up the spent plants and tilled it from corner to corner. It's all ready for net year's plants! When we fences off their area, there was a 4 foot tall pile of compost. You know that thing has been completely flattened??? They tilled it under so nice for us so that will be ready to go on the garden in the spring. We'll probably let them back in there again to aerate it and till the compost under and then they'll be relegated back to their pen. I've also been letting them out in the orchard and they've done a fine job of tilling all that up too. I'll probably regret the decision to let them in there one the rain and snow come since it may be a soupy mess, but it looks nice right now anyway.

Baker Creek (heirloom seeds) was having a 50% off sale on all their 2012 seeds so I got a pretty good variety for around $30. I think we're just about set on seeds for next year's garden. And with the dogs now staying in the barn yard, we can take down the panel fencing in the back yard and use it for other things to include a panel greenhouse next spring which is basically a hoop house. Our winds are incredibly bad here, spending money on any type of green house that is not bomb worthy is a waste of money. For about $50 we can put one together that will withstand the wind and snow and be disassembled easily if we need it to be and reuse it for another project if we so desire.

I spent last Sunday cleaning and organizing our garage. The shop is still a disaster but one day over Thanksgiving we plan to get that cleaned up. I'd like to take 8 foot in the back and put up a wall to house at least a fridge for excess milk and eggs so milk and egg buyers can come at their leisure and just pick it up, whether I'm here or not. It'd be nice for veggies too. Rachel mentioned wanting to put up a veggie stand next summer. I told her it would take more than just sitting out there manning it for her to earn money on it. It would require their help in the garden too, which they were pretty good about last summer if we got out there early enough before the heat got to be too much. Next year's garden will be bigger now that the pigs have done such a good job of tilling up the outer 4' perimeter from the fence in. The ground was hard and full of weeds and I didn't bother taking the rototiller though it. Now it should be easily workable.

We're getting together with some friends for Thanksgiving. We're both cooking a turkey but sharing the rest of the cooking. We should be fat and happy by evening time and still have plenty to take home.

Our big truck needs a new tranny. Jeremiah's former student is able to get us a brand new one for fairly inexpensively and the school has graciously taken the old one out. It waits for the new one to be delivered from Tulsa next weekend to be put in.

The new truck we bought needed a bed. Jeremiah and his students welded one and Jeremiah is working on replacing a u-joint and new parts for the driveshaft this evening.

The day are, for the most part, staying fairly warm in the 60's and 70's. The nights are cool, usually hovering around freezing but we have had some fairly cold days as well and little rain. We had a storm drop about 1/2" the other night with thunder so loud above the house it sounded like it'd split in two. They are saying we have about a 60% chance of snow a week from Tuesday. I don't look forward to that but I suppose it's about time. We really ought to get started on putting up more wood, we just haven't had the time. Normally I start a fire in the morning before everyone else is up to take the chill off but soon enough the stove will be going non-stop.

Snow is due to have pups the first part of January. It's amazing to me their gestation is only 2 months! We'll see how all that goes this time around. Generally they dig a den and don't want anything to do with man made whelping boxes. If she digs another den, we'll put some straw bales up around the outside, build a waterproof roof to set on top of the bales and she should be fine. She'll go into the barn and that's a possibility too but I don't want pups in the house, they belong out in the barn yard.

Our first does are due the first part of January too. I know I swore I would never have kids so early again but there was a method to the madness. I had a couple of does we held over and did not breed their first year (dry yearlings). There is no sense in holding them any longer so I'll get about a month long reprieve from milking before it starts all over again. The kids generally do fine, even when born on bitterly cold nights, usually without human intervention but I don't particularly like to be out on such cold days! However, as time goes by and I get the proper clothing, it's not really such a big deal. The kids always grow better and are ready to breed sooner when they are born early anyway. It's still nice to have late spring kids though and be on hand for kidding wearing nothing but a t-shirt!

If this winter is anything like last, I'll be happy I bred for earlier kids. If it's anything like the year before, I'll be cursing. Whichever way it goes, I just know we need moisture! I try to keep myself up to date on weather conditions and developments. It's no surprise much of the US is still in a drought but the latest was that the climatologists still didn't know what ocean currents are doing and so predicting the long term forecast was difficult because they don't know where the jet stream will be. Never in my life have I followed climate like I do now that we live in a place where life depends on three words: "If it rains". The last almanac said it we'd have snow by the end of Oct. then the more recent one said it was going to be another mild winter. I don't put a lot of faith in any weather prediction and if a cold snowy winter is what it would take to get moisture, I'll take it! I won't be happy, but I'll take it.

A lot of snow would not be horrible. It's not like Alaska where it's cold from August 1st to July 30th of the following year. At least it starts to warm up come the end of March/first of April in a normal year here. All kidding aside, my friend Jo said it was a horribly cold and snowy winter last year in Wasilla, Ak. The summer was below average in temperature and it never stopped raining. Their first snow fall was in Sept. I think, perhaps the first part of Oct. I just couldn't take that! I get sick of ice on the water buckets and dressing up, dressing down, dressing up, dressing down & bringing in wood. It's fun for a little while, then it gets plain irritating. It's a lot better now that I know not to look forward to Spring at the end of November. I should wait until at least February!

We put 3 spring bucks kids in the freezer last weekend. Well, Jeremiah and some friends did anyway. The kids and I went shopping. We'll have meat for quite a while, the freezer cannot take a single bit more!I made chili the other night from a leg roast I hunked up. It came out really well, I thought. Kids couldn't tell the difference between goat and beef and I was not about to announce to Rachel what kind of meat it was. She's still not down with the whole "alternative" meat.

Rachel tried out for the single girls solo part for the K-3 musical. She got it. She's really a very nice singer and it's fun to be in the car when a song comes on the radio we all know. She should make a fine Mrs. Clause.

Anyway, we'll enjoy these next few days of lovely weather. We're headed up to Lawrence, Ks. (birthplace of prohibition) up near Kansas city on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We've promised the kid a day trip for some time and since the transmission is coming to us from Tulsa, we don't need to make a trip down to get it. Drew has not yet been to Oklahoma and apparently they have a fantastic aquarium but we'll save that trip for another time. We're going to go to K-State natural history museum to see dino bones instead. Friday of course is the big shopping day at Joann fabrics on Black Friday but I am not feeling like doing any black friday shopping...I value sleep too much and don't get nearly enough of it. Last year we skipped it. I probably should this year too, we'll see.

I'll end here for now. 

Wordless Wednesday: Stuff from little boys' pockets

Homemade Granola

4 tbs coconut oil (vegetable oil or canola would work too)
1 1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar (or 1 TBS molasses and 1 cup white sugar)
6 cups of rolled oats
1/4- 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, almonds, sunflower seeds, etc. (optional)
1 cup flax seeds or flax bran (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a shallow skillet on low/med, heat oil and peanut butter until combined and runny.  Remove from heat, add sugar and mix well. While peanut butter and oil are warming, in a deep dish combine oats, seeds and flax. Once liquids are mixed, add to oat mixture, stir to combine well. Spread out onto a cookie sheet, place in oven for 18-20 minutes removing to stir several times.

 Cool and store in a zip lock bag. Serve over ice cream, yogurt, with milk or eat plain.

Weekend

Last Friday Jeremiah had the day off work. Thursday was teacher conferences and he always works late that night. We dropped the kids off at school and then headed to Home Depot for counter-tops for the rental. By the time we showed up at 10:15 the tiler was already there. He showed us what all he'd be doing and talked for a long time about this, that and the other. We headed out about 11:45 to meet the kids for lunch but not before nearly missing a local cloth diaper customer for a pick up. She lives in town, it was easier for her to meet us there than for her to come all the way out.

After lunch we stayed for a while for recess. After a game of soccer I was ready for a nap! Jeremiah and I decided since there wasn't much we could do at the house as the tiler had a lot of stuff everywhere, we may as well get some work done at home. We had a huge brush pile from the weekend before in front that needed to be moved. The chainsaw chain is stretched out and the bar's bent so we can't do much cutting but we did get that huge brush pile onto the trailer and moved it all out to the brush pile in the pasture. I moved 3 lawn tractor trailer loads of wood to the pile and stacked some at the house for the cold weekend, the rest went to the "wood pile".

Friday night we attended a new 4-H group. It's farther away than the one e normally go to but I think the kids will enjoy it a lot more. Two years ago we met two girls a bit older than Rachel showing their dairy goats at the county fair. Rachel did not show this year at the county fair but we've seen the girls at different 4-H events so they sort of remembered each other. We felt a lot more welcomed in one night than we ever did in 2 years at the last one. Plus too, we have some other friends with kids just Rachel and Drew's age (who did not end up going this past Friday) but that makes it even more worth while going knowing there are lots of kids our kids already know! I think the day and time will work out better too. It's the first Friday of the month at 7 PM and while it may conflict with Salthawk football in Sept. and Oct., if we miss a meeting, it's not a big deal.

Saturday we attempted to go to an auction but it was 39 degrees at peak and raining while we were there. We had gone for a 3 point (adapts to a tractor) log splitter but it ended up not being what we wanted and since it was so cold, we decided to grab some lunch, some movies and head home. Saturday we hung out much of the day.

Sunday we were up early. The kids went to church with the neighbor and Jeremiah had a former student come over to help us butcher. We didn't get started until about noon on this goat but all in all it only took us about 3 hours start to finish. Nice to know there's plenty of meat in the freezer! The weather was actually perfect, cool but not freezing which meant few flies and no worries about having the meat out while we cut. The dogs were thrilled with the bones.

I think we've decided that the female pig will go into the freezer first. She's getting big and still has that limp, especially on cold days and I cannot see her being able to get around well when she's 200+ lbs. Plus too, I don't think we need two breeding sows. Pig breeder is not something I have time for! One to two litters from one sow is plenty enough a year to raise up for ourselves and to try to get one to two out of the deal to butcher. All the others will be sold. We may see how well the hampshire sow does. If she can get us one litter before she gets bad off, we'll keep a hampshire sow out of her and then send her off. So, it's all a wait and see. I prefer the spotted pigs so far based on body though they are a lot more demanding. People say the spotted pigs are easier on pastures. I don't know if that's true or not as the whole pen is pretty much rooted around in. Eventually we'd like to get them out on pasture.

Mia playing with an old plastic bucket.

I put a whole bale of straw out for them on Saturday in their shelter and temps dropped below freeing that night. They are cleaner than the goats who tend to poop everywhere making their bedding soiled pretty quickly. The pigs potty outside thus keeping their shelter cleaner so that bale should last a long time. They like to throw the straw up on their backs to cover themselves with it. None of them were shivering or had goosebumps on Sunday morning after the temps dipped below freezing. Some of the mornings last week I could see they were cold. I really think the straw was helpful in keeping them warmer, though I know a lot of people don't give them anything but enough to keep the rain off and that seems to be enough. I felt better about giving them straw.

Soaps- (left) citrus mist (fragrance) with black walnut hull for coloring. (right) Cederwood (fragrance/essential oil) with alfalfa (for color) and meadow-sweet. The little rounds are samples I made a while time ago that I forgot in the mold and just cut Sat. They are Strawberry.

After butchering the goat on Sunday, I had enough time to make 2 batches of soap. I pulled them out of the molds this morning, very pretty! Jeremiah TIG welded 4 aluminum loaf soap molds for me Sat. and I even got a little TIG welding in time too. Speaking of welding, we spent a little time cleaning the shop the weekend before last and it's finally organized enough to start welding classes. A gal we met 2 years ago when we moved in has a son who has been anxiously waiting for us to be ready so Jeremiah can give him private welding lessons. Several other people they know whose sons want to weld have also been asking Jeremiah about private lessons and it never fails, when people ask what Jeremiah does, they say something to the affect of, "I sure wish I knew how to weld." Well, now the chance is here! He figures he'll give group lectures and one on one individual lab time, mainly because we have just the one MIG welder. Eventually we'd like to get a machine that does all processes -MIG, TIG, & ARC.

Our little archer

 

You can make the screen bigger by clicking in the lower right hand corner of the video.

As you can see, Rachel is doing rather well. We were working on the cluster more than we were the bulls eye during the video. But as you can see, she can hit the bulls eye too! 

Drew's quilt

I made the top over a year ago and finally got around to quilting it. Winter's coming, my thoughts shift into keeping warm =).


 
 

Beautiful. Every little piece.

 

What happens when you give them an inch...

This may seem like a totally normal scene. Something is amiss however...

...Someone forgot to latch the gate back after the truck was driven out of the pen on Sunday....

...a gust of wind came along, opened it up and all of the goats got into the main back yard! - I thought it would be a very nice treat to allow them into the orchard (which is the penned area between the barnyard and the back yard (which is not fenced)-...

 

...You give them an inch and they take quite a bit more...

...and only 3 of them were greedy enough to come back for grain...

 

...the others I had to catch individually by hand! Awful creatures!

State Fair Goat Show & Such...

2012's show season is a wrap. I had considered going to the buck show in Mo. in Oct. but if you've seen - or better yet, SMELLED - my bucks here recently, I seriously doubt you'd blame me for not taking them.

Rachel talking to the judge. She answered all her anatomy questions correctly with special mention from the judge on how good of a job she did. Blue ribbon for participation! Yippee!

We brought home lots of ribbons from state fair, no blues. The main theme was that I have slow maturers. That may sound like a bad thing, it's not. It's what I am aiming for. The comments from the judge were all good. Validating, in fact! Slow maturers last longer. I just need to set them on a shelf, feed them well and wait...I can be patient...I see their potential. Aside from that, they are still productive now and will be productive for a long time to come. That's exactly what we want!

We've cut down the herd drastically. Rachel said goodbye to one of her bottle raised dry yearlings. I  didn't think that would be an easy thing and it didn't start out as one but let me tell you, this girl has matured so much in the past 6 months in regard to "farm life". We didn't hear a single thing about eating a rooster she named "Pigeon" other than to say he tasted good, and he did! And what made him taste better was the fact her was a jerk! The pigs, well, they are just something else to put on the plate too and the goats are producers, in some way shape or form and it doesn't seem to bother her one bit any more.

The amount of help I got from her at the show was tremendous! She was asking me all the time if there was something she could do, which is a far cry from other shows where I had to hunt her down to let her know her next class was coming up. She helped other people load and unload and clip and clean and primp. She filled buckets and feeders and exercised goats and more importantly she invested a lot of time before hand leash training the babies so on the big day they were all walking well...except for little miss Sugar. She decided she wanted to be a ballerina that day and walked on 2 feet instead of 4 almost the entire class she was in! In her defense though, she is just 3.5 months old!

I can't recall if I mentioned or not but my egg bread was 2nd place and Drew's cookie were 2nd place.

Every year I plan to have things made out ahead of time, part of the reason I did not have any sewing entries, I always plan to have things done well in advance if they can be, every year I kinda fail. Oh well =).

There's always next year =)...

State Fair Baking

We didn't enter any sewn items this year...too busy. We did however enter baked items!

My egg bread entry (brioche) was 2nd place! I didn't fold it right on the 2nd rise and it ended up with a small hole in the middle the whole way through the load, but it still tasted and looked delish. Apparently the judges agreed.

The kids also baked. Both kids made cookies and muffins. (Drew- chocolate chocolate chip cookies and banana strudel muffins. Rachel- ginger snaps and blueberry muffins.)

Drew won 2nd place for his chocolate chocolate chip cookies!

 

Wordless Wednesday: A cow on top of a cotton house goat on top of a chicken house

For those who appreciate "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou".

Rain, School, Goats, Farm

Rain: We've had some rain! Everything has greened up and the temps have dropped considerably. Except Sunday, it was 108! Most days are in the 90's and we expect a cool down for the 2 weeks of the fair, YAY!


Three nights ago and the night before last we had spectacular thunder and lightening. I just love thunder storms! We got 2/10th's an inch 3 nights ago and an inch night before last. That's nothing to shake a stick at! The lightening was right over top of the house and the power went out twice. The first time for about 10 minutes, the 2nd time for 2 hours or longer. We finally went to bed at that point but it was so hot and without even being able to use the fan, falling asleep was rough.

School: School is going well. The kids are in school an additional half an hour a day to make up for the shortened school year due to construction next summer. The bus driver wanted to pick them up at 6:50. Since the school is opening the doors at 7:15 now, Jeremiah has been dropping them off in the morning which allows us all more time to sleep! Getting the kids to bed early (Drew 8:00 PM and Rachel 8:30) has been key to the morning routine going well. Rachel is just like Jeremiah though, a night owl, and will often read for half an hour or an hour. Sometimes it's just very hard for her to fall asleep.

Goats: Goats are well, loving the new grazing that has come along with this rain. We had linear appraisal last Friday, and can I just say we did so much better than I expected! Actually, we did really really well!Linear appraisal scores goats against the perfect goat, in layman's terms. There actually is no perfect goat, but if there were, each goat is judged against that. Maturity often brings closer scores to what people strive for but generally anything over 85 with structural scoring of "E's" (Excellent) and "V's" (Very Good) are desirable. Only milkers are given numbered scoring. All young stock and/or does who have never freshened (given birth) is given just lettered scoring. All my milkers (except my yearling freshener) scored 87 and above including 2 home bred 2 year olds who scored 87! My bucks all scored well, and the young stock did smashingly! It was a good day.

The fair starts this weekend! I can hardly believe that's here. The dairy goat show is the 14, 15, 16th, the last weekend of the fair. Yesterday I was baking up a storm for entries in food. The children have entries due Sunday and then I am also entered into a "sandwich contest" put on by Fleischmann's Yeast, it's bake your best sandwich bread. Some of the contests are worth quite a bit of money.

The kids and I are meeting up with friends on Monday to spend the day at the fair. Dollar day is always tons of fun.

Farm: The garden is still growing great guns. The piggies are doing really well and starting to root up their entire pen now! 2 of my Feb. pullets are now laying. They both were laying in the wooden goat feeder in the barn until I caught one one day and stuck her in the nesting box on the coop. Since then I am getting one in the nesting box and one in the trough...still. I have another 5 pullets who haven't started laying yet. The Silver Laced Wyandotte breed takes a bit longer to mature and so they pretty much are right on time. I expect the others to start laying in about a month or so. We picked up 2 barred rock layers from a friend of mine about a month ago so we were getting about an egg a day out of them...not enough to sustain us but nice to have anyway! Now we're getting about 5 eggs every 2 days, not bad. As soon as these others start laying we'll be just fine.


We ended up butchering "Pigeon", in case you hadn't heard. -The piggy to the left isn't Pigeon, by the way, that's Earl (of Sandwich). Gettin' big aye?- I had had it with Pigeon chasing Rachel and she was none to sad to eat him for dinner, even if she did name him! We picked up another who's proven to be just as bad so as soon as we have a chance, he'll be going too. Then we won't have any roosters and maybe, maybe that's just the way it should be. We've yet to get a nice rooster and it's not as if we treat them badly for them to be behaving the way they do! Literally, all of our roosters save for one were eaten by that fox. Which, by the way, I did mention we caught him right? Since then, not a single loss!

So, that's all the goings on around here. Bye for now.

Message in a bottle Tuesday

“Saying sorry doesn’t mean you’re wrong, it just means you value the relationship more than your ego.”- Anonymous

Oinkers!

Added a couple new oinkers to the farm this weekend, the are just too cute! We're thrilled to introduce Ann Curry and Meatloaf!

Ann Curry

Meatloaf

FiRsT dAy Of ScHoOl

Wordless Wednesday: High as an elephants eye

New News

Well, let's see. Jeremiah the kids and I went to a farm auction 2 weekends ago. We always manage to hit these things when the weather is unbearable. The last one, in Oct. we froze to death and while I probably looked a lot less silly than my cousin, Lois, in Paris, I looked a lot stupider than the auctioneer's helper who had a blanket tied 'round her waist to keep warm. I had a quilt draped over my shoulders. Her blanket skirt wrap thingy was a lot cooler, I thought..er, warmer, as it were.

 While I don't remember the entire story about my cousin Lois,the short story goes like this (I hope this is somewhat close to the truth as I am sure she'll be reading this =). She became very ill while visiting Africa one year. After seeing a handful of medicine men and still not getting better, on her way back home, the layover was in Paris. She just had to go get some "modern" remedy for her ailments but it was cold in Paris and, after just coming from Africa where it was HOT, the only clothing she had was summer attire. Needing medicine so badly, she braved fashion crazed PARIS wearing summer clothes wrapped in a blanket! I about die of laughter envisioning this and while my quilt draped shoulders do not come close to the comedy of my cousin wandering the streets of Paris, it was still a bit ridiculous.

Anyway, so this time, in July, as I am sure you can imagine, we were not freezing. We were sweltering! I can't even remember the main items we were there fore but I'll tell you what we brought home: a bread machine for $6, in which I am making bread in it for the first time right now. I didn't know I kneaded (ha ha ha, very funny) a bread machine but a machine that does everything start to finish minus putting the ingredients in is pretty nifty (!), a manual meat grinder for a whole $2.50, some crap for the kids that they spent entirely too much for that I am sure will end up going to the Goodwill the next time I we clean up their rooms but it gave them a sense of pride to buy so who am I to say otherwise (?), a badminton set (didn't know we needed one of those either but it home with us anyway) and some hydraulic cylinders. Now, the stuff we usually go for in the first place (bale spears, cattle panels, things of that nature) always end up selling for a mint. Like, cost of new, mint! People are stupid, I guess.

The cylinders were the big buy saving us, yes I'm serious, over $500! Jeremiah is going to build a log splitter. Nifty right? The tractor we bought has rear hydraulics, meaning we can run implements off the back that require hydraulics...like log splitters! And God knows we need a log splitter who goes by another name other than Amanda and Jeremiah. Now, if we could get a log stacker who goes by another name other than Rachel and Drew, that would be the life!

You would not believe the old...er, older, geezers people out there. I am surprised the paramedics only had to come out once for someone with heat exhaustion. I guess those old Kansas farmers are used to that heat! The kids and I mostly hung out in the shade of the trees up near the house. These auctions are a hoot, really.

In other news, the kids start school a week from Friday. Their school day is being extended by half an hour (!)- 10 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon! They will get out of school May 2 and start back up again after Labor day in 2013. There was a new bond issue that passed recently that is putting a lot of money into the school district, the sad part is that the kids' school will be closing. I am heartbroken about this. They have 2 years left and honestly, I am just lost as to where to put them and after all the issues that went on last year with other students, and with the other schools being farther away than I would like, I seriously contemplate homeschooling. Course, I am not sure Jeremiah is all that on board with this, but it's not something we've discussed in depth.

It's been a busy summer and I can hardly believe it's almost over. Jeremiah's was even shorter! He spend a week in Kansas City, a few days in New Orleans and then, thankfully, this year's teacher's conferences were in Wichita so they just drove back and forth daily.

We've got some trips planned for the coming year- Christmas in Ca. and next summer in WV and maybe a spring break trip down to San Antonio to meet up with with my brother and fam. But, in the mean time we're gearing up for winter here on the farm. WINTER? Yep, winter. 'Round about this time we start thinking of all the things that are going to need to take place to  get us through. I do like fall, however fall means winter is no more a thing of the past and if you don't already know, I HATE winter! The mere thought of being a season closer makes me hate it that much more. But, if winter meant another chance at a decent summer, I'll take it...I guess.

We're quitting our 4-H group and we're going to attend another in Sept./Oct. I won't go in to too much detail about why other than to say we don't feel the one we're at is the right fit, hopefully this other one will be more suitable.

As I speak, I've got bread doing something in the bread machine. We're having pot roast and mashed potatoes for dinner. It's raining out and looks cold, but it's not. I am sitting at the kitchen table watching the rain fall into the pool and I can see the chickens out in the pen trying to figure out how to get through the fence. When the clouds were threatening to send rain down about 3 hours ago the girls wandered in from the pasture and have not left the barn since. Imagine that!

I had a gentleman stop by yesterday carrying a bunch of "Mother Earth" type magazines trying to sell me dental and life insurance...I think. That was super weird.

The garden is growing well...We almost have a few melons ready. I am planning next year's garden and setting aside seeds from some of my favorites this year to replant. Our potatoes look really good and I can't wait until it's time to dig those babies up!

The piggies are doing well. I thought one of the piggies had a case of pink eye. His eye was all red and goopy but I concluded that since the others didn't have it, he probably did not either being as how it's so contagious and he's had this now for at least a week. I am not about to go and try to pick him up. One squeal is enough to for me to just leave him the heck alone and let him be, he seems to look better today. They are friendly, although, I should share Rachel's sign...

She had gone in to the pen to do something or other and one of the piggies thought they'd see if her feet tasted good. Fortunately the pig was not intent on actually taking a bite but nonetheless, she felt it was important to post a cautionary sign anyway.

They like scratches and the male and female black and white one love to be hosed down. They spend most of the day behind their shelter and don't spend a lot of time in the mud pit at all so I stopped making it muddy and just hose them down when I go out around noon to check water buckets.

Well, I guess that's about all. Same old same old, with a little new stuff mixed in. Bye for now.

Geocaching

Some friends of ours (with 2 kids, a boy and a girl, nearly the same age as ours) told me about this world wide "treasure hunting" phenomenon called "Geocaching". Nowadays you use your cell phone as a GPS or a portable car GPS, put in coordinates, and go find boxes, bobbles, containers, and the like all over. They are literally hidden everywhere.

While Matt, Tonya and the girls (Jeremiah's brother, sister-in-law and their 3 girls for those who don't know) were visting in July, we set out to Carey Park to find such treasures. We found one, the  other -despite wading across the Arkansas River, loosing a shoe, and looking for a "camouflaged" container in the trees on the island- eluded us. But it was still fun!

The kids spend nearly the entire week building a fort in a grove of ceder trees. It was hot again this year for their visit...miserable!

Bethany and Rachel reading some of the helpful clues to help us locate the "cache"

Not all of them have goodies inside, sometimes they are just a log to write your name on but my understanding is if you take a treasure out, you put one back in. Not knowing what kind we'd find, we gave each of the children a coin to exchange for stickers.

left to right: Rachel, Bethany, Drew, Deana, Nancie