Mostly photos

Snow had her pups on 2/6/13 5 altogether, 4 boys 1 girl.




 
 


 
 
We had more chicks arrive in the mail last weekend- Golden Laced, Silver Laced, and Blue Laced Red Wyandottes and a freebie Dominique.

I hope to get some regular meat bird chicks in a few months. The pan friers take entirely too long to grow out to eating size, not that we had many last year to butcher after the foxes, so I think we're going to go with the cornish cross that take about 6-8 weeks to reach butchering age or something like a Red Ranger broiler. Given that they take so little time however, I'll order them when the weather warms up and they can be in the shop in a brooder. Right now the brooder is shoved in the hallway bathtub and it's a real pain to shimmy out being wedged so snugly in there. Although, sometime this week they can probably go down to the basement to the back room where it's about 62-65 consistently. Right now they are pretty cheap to raise though being upstairs, all I have on them is a brooder lamp and a regular old 70 watt bulb. Moving them to the shop even with a 250 brooder bulb would probably not be enough to keep them warm right now with our temps and moving them downstairs may require a hotter bulb. May as well keep them upstairs where I know they are toasty, even if it means listening to peeping while ya pee! Any idea what they are saying? "Food, food, water, water, food, food, water, water." That's the extent of their vocabulary until they become old enough to lay and then it's "food, food, water, water, I just laid an egg!". The simple life, right?

The glass on the woodstove suffered a bit of a mishap last week and was broken. Ordering a new piece from a company in Wa. saved us about $160 as opposed to ordering it in town. With shipping it was still $80 and although it only took 5 days to get here, those 5 days had me sick and tired of that furnace!

We're still growing fodder for the goats, pigs and chickens down in the basement. We're still not growing as much as I'd like to. I'm at about 2 trays total a day, I'd like to be up to 6 but it's working very well so far and I am pleased with the results. We're not on an automatic watering system as of yet so I haul water down everyday. It doesn't require too much, about 3 gallons 2 times a day. The valve is there to install a hose from the pressure tank, we just haven't gotten to it yet and with the sump down there, I just dump the water straight to that though eventually once I find a tub that fits well in the shelving until, Jeremiah will just plumb a pipe from the tub to the sump.

Jeremiah's been gone 3 weekends in a row, last weekend being the first full weekend he was here. He's been trying to come up with ways for the students to raise money for Skills so if they go to Nationals again this year, they would have to come up with little to no money. Being winter and all (is that what this is?), we figured firewood may be a worthy sale and being as how we have LOTS of wood that would just go to waste if left to sit and rot, we had 3 students come over last weekend to help split and stack. Our wood pile was looking rather pathetic really, which isn't entirely a bad thing. It allowed us to use up the wood that would not have been "FIFO" (first in, first out) because we stack from back to front. We should stack side to side but anyway, the log splitter worked really well and we got about 2 truck loads split and stacked and enough rounds of hedge pulled out of the woods to give them at least 1.5 good size truck loads full, it just needs to be split. It's well seasoned as it is and ready to burn and that hedge, if you're not aware, burns LONG and HOT! It's our favorite for night time fires and there's always really nice coals in the morning.

All of this seems very redundant and boring to us, day to day living, you know?

I mentioned around Thanksgiving we installed an invisible fence for the dogs since their desire to wander had become increasingly irritating and we'd had enough and the choice was find a solution (not that we hadn't been trying) or re-home them. That fence has worked wonders and we've not had an escapee since they day we hooked it up and had the settings set correctly. Don't tell King, but he doesn't even wear a collar, we never did end up getting a second. Snow wears the one full time but I am fairly sure I could take it off of her or unplug the unit and both of them would still be where they are supposed to be in the morning. Though, I am not going to chance it for one, or teach them them to test it, though Snow won't go far now at least for a couple months with her new pups.

With the dogs staying put, there was no need for the back yard fence to remain and Lord knows those panels are expensive enough so we went ahead and took the panels down in the back yard. There was a locust tree that has been dying and needed to come out so last weekend Jeremiah felled that with the panels gone so it wouldn't hit it. I think there were 7 full panels that came off the fence and a few shorter pieces. With spring around the corner, I want to get a green house up to get some seeds started. I've seen several ideas using cattle panels bent into a hoop shape and covered in thick plastic. It was the intent last year to get one underway and we bought the plastic but it never came to fruition, this year however, I am bound and determined to get it done and next weekend is the date! The front and back will be plywood and it'll be sort of framed up with lumber. It's a little hard to explain but I'll take photos as we go along. It need not be elaborate but it needs to be something! Every season puts us a little bit farther ahead.

I fully do not expect to have a summer of average rain fall again and running the sprinkler non-stop so the plants won't die just isn't working. We have several blue plastic food grade barrels, one of them with a spigot already on it. My plan is, since the main garden sits on a hill, is to put the barrel in the highest corner and run drip irrigation lines from it to the rows. Filling the bucket with the hose is easy and it may need to be done once a day, maybe less? Jeremiah put in that water spigot in for me last summer near the garden & pig pen and it's made life so much easier! Little steps =).

I occasionally let the pigs out to graze in the orchard and they have done a good job rooting up a bunch of bermuda for me. We had picked another location for the garden originally but the bermuda was to thick and too much of a hassle to try to get up so we moved it to the hill. However, if I can keep the chickens off of the place the pigs have tilled up once I plant, I'd like to put in row crops of corn and other tasty treats for a "pig and goat" garden. I planted some oats last fall but I don't think we got enough rain for them to germinate before the turkeys came through but I'll try again in about a month or two here and see if we can't harvest a little hay. It's more of an experiment than anything.

We've had 4 goat kids born so far. One of the buck kids went to his new home at a week old as a bottle baby. Iris fell ill during her last 2 weeks of pregnancy. How's she's still here, I don't know but I swear that goat is determined to get as close to dying as possible and rebound. She drives me nuts, truly. She's not making a lot of milk and to feed a buck kid who would probably end up in the freezer when I don't have another goat in milk and the freezer supply quickly dwindling, it was better to send him off early.  And a nice family from near the Ok. border was going to use him as a home milking herd breeder so it was win win. The little girl is a sweet thing and has nowhere near the CBB (Crappy Bottle Baby) personality that the full time CBB's have. I am sure that has a lot to do with the fact she may still get some milk from Iris and she's left full time with her, or maybe it's just her. Who knows. She was sick at about a week old. I am still not entirely sure what from but this weather we've been having reeks havoc with everyone in regard to respiratory issues! The cold again hot again, single digit nights above freezing nights just throws everyone off. I had wool and cotton goat coats but ended up tweaking my pattern a bit and changing fabrics and came up with these dandies...

That's Dawn's doe kid, by the way. I call her Roxie. She's full of it but super sweet, very outgoing. I think we're going to keep her. She has spots, they are dark right now but they will lighten and Dawn has such a nice udder, I am glad we kept her. Andy is the kid's sire and it's a bit of a line breeding on the kids but I think they turned out really nice and Andy has thrown so few doe kids so far that I'd really like to keep what he does throw to see how they turn out. His kids are always really growthy and mostly spotted. His doe kid from FD last year grew out so well we bred her to freshen as a yearling. We'll see what the udder looks like on that one! His buck kids put real nice meat on quickly and I've debated selling him as he can be such a pain in my rear in rut but he is herd king and when all the bucks run together, I can understand he wants the others to know who's boss. For now, I think we'll keep him around.

Iris' doe kid, we call her Mischief, is on the mend, though has suffered a bit of a setback growth-wise but she'll catch up, I'm sure. She gets 3 bottles a day right now and is almost 4 weeks old. She's not as jumpety as the others but I did pump her full of stuff to save her, most of which was immune support. She'll probably be like her mama, determined not to die no matter the circumstances!

I have had people calling from Mo. and Ok. and Kansas of course for milkers and I just don't know that I can fill the requests this year for everyone asking. Most of the does have not even kidded yet but we did, or I feel we did anyway, such a herd cut last summer and fall when hay was still high that what we've got is a lot of what I'd like to keep! Though, I do have a few does in mind so we'll see.

Other than that, Jeremiah is finishing up writing all of his test questions for the state revamp that he volunteered for. He has one more meeting to attend, probably in Denver again. His students did pretty well in Mo. those 2 weekends he was gone for that. I don't think he's attending the Tulsa competition this year. The only student who wants to go is being taken by his parents and really, Jeremiah needs time off from traveling.

We've had some major issues with his blood sugar being entirely too high the past 3 weeks.  I was unaware he was not taking his evening medication while we were gone to Ca. as he was afraid of his blood sugar dropping while driving. For a while his BS was in the 400 range and normal for him is about 120. He saw the dr. a couple weeks ago and had to take his BS 5 times a day for about 10 days. Toward the end I could recite word for word what he'd say about his "poor fingers" each time he got his meter out. It's slowly dropping and we're slowly getting it back under control, it takes a while for the medication to do its work but the dr. still wasn't pleased it wasn't coming down fast enough so she put him on something in addition to his regular but that was just a couple of days ago and we've not picked it up and just the past 2 BS readings have been almost "normal" for him (and he had low BS at work the other day when all he ate for lunch was a salad and skipped his soup) so I'm almost reluctant to have him take the new medication seeing as how it just looks like his body needed more time than "usual" to readjust (and just because that run on sentence wasn't long enough, I thought I'd add in that it was a very long winded sentence, wasn't it?). Who knows though, it has literally been like ALL over the place and there's been no rhyme nor reason.

I am sure the stress and constant go go go we've been experiencing the past 2 months has not helped matters. We really need to get things under control. We've been fortunate enough that he is not insulin dependent and I'd like to keep it that way, for as long as possible anyway.

It has made us more aware of the ever constant battle that is diabetes...and health, for that matter. We've been fortunate that he is not worse. Our biggest issue is not crappy food, it's portion control! People who don't love food scare me. All kidding aside, we're determined to get more cardio activity because despite the grunt work we do around here, the cardio is what we need. So, here's to getting our heart rates up and keeping them up for it to do any good...unfortunately, the military was not kind to Jeremiah's knees and shins so we'll have to figure out something for him as even walking is kind of high impact. As for me, walking my happy butt around the pastures is sufficient! It's getting out and doing it...same song and dance, I know. Jeremiah wants to know why I bother to clean stalls by hand when we've got the tractor...I figure it's at least a work out...it's just not exactly the kind I need. But with warmer weather on the horizon (not that it hasn't been on again off again warm), I'll make it happen...somehow.

Well, I guess this turned in to more than just a photo post. Like I said, all pretty mundane to us. We've talked about putting up a new milk barn. The school's building construction will build us a custom shed if we come up with the materials first. I don't know if that will get done this school year as we really don't have a spot for it yet.The lean tos are still in good condition but do need some work and since the southern lean-to does not have access to any of the pastures, I think we'll disassemble it and put the milk barn there.

The assessors just came by here recently and with our nice hike in taxes (due to a stupid school bond), our taxes went up. I think we'll just keep the same footprint and call it a day so as not to see our taxes jump any higher! There is already electricity run to that shelter, no water but that's easy enough! It's nice for the bucks in the winter to be able to run a de-icer for their water but those things get expensive running them all the time and the past 2 winters have not really been bad enough to need them much anyway. Anyway, it's not a big deal to run electricity and water to the northern shelter (which is accessible from the western pasture), it's just a matter of doing it. However, that lean-to needs more work than the southern one and I'd like to cut the pen down some anyway so we may as well sort of reconfigure it and maybe, finally, finish out the 3rd pen we started when we put up the high tensile fencing and either turn that into additional buck area or make it pig area.

I like the pigs a lot I just don't know that we'll keep them here for breeding. Granted, finding them at a decent price was not entirely easy but keeping them is not entirely cheap either with the drought! I'd like to see if maybe we can try to pasture them over the spring and summer in the back corner of the woods and see how that goes. The fencing is electric and they have been trained to it. It would require fencing off two sides to form a grid square but that's easy enough by just running some t-posts or fiberglass poles and aluminum wire. They take so little care and there would be plenty to eat out there. Trucking water would be required but that's not a big deal every couple of days with a big enough tank and the glorified lawn tractor. Or heck, 2 buckets morning and evening and I get a good work out! It just takes time, not something we always have a lot of but I am sure we can make something work!

I started talking about the garden and our plans this year but didn't finish my train of thought. The drip irrigation lines will be run to the individual rows and each row will be covered with straw, hopefully that will cut down on water waste and time by avoiding having to go out there and change the sprinkler location every couple of hours. We were loosing a lot of potential growing room too with where the sprinkler wasn't hitting and watering plain dirt is a waste. Live and learn what works! I should not have to do a bit of tilling thanks to the pigs! They have tilled that entire garden right into the corner...saves me from having to run the 'tiller and ya can't beat that. It would be nice to move the pigs and use their pen for growing corn, but it's not something that has to be done right away, if at all this year.

Well, I suppose it's time to get going. The kids have a birthday party to go to and then it's back home to work around here. We may get some rain later today...no snow since New Years though we did get a real nice thunder storm a couple days ago...didn't drop a whole lot of rain but any is better than none. It was really foggy yesterday morning and below freezing so all the moisture froze on the trees. Even when I went in to town about noon it was still very cold and all the trees looked like they were coated in glass. Kinda pretty.

Hope all is well for everyone. Have a great weekend.

Birthdays!

 

Rachel turned 9, she celebrated her birthday with new baby goats being born. Another set was born this past Saturday. We'll probably have a party for her when the weather warms up.

Iris' babies (a buck and a doe)

Jeremiah is done with his 3 weekend in a row traveling stint and the weather has been pretty nice! We had highs upwards of near 70 yesterday and some rain and fog in the morning. I am not complaining!

Our computers have been on the fritz. The main computer is having diode issues...whatever that means. It's dying basically but in the mean time, the laptop's power cord went kaput and so I was without a computer for a few days while someone was looking at the main computer and we've been able to limp along on it for a week while the new charger came in.

Because of the work being done to some of the school's in the kids' school district, their school day has been lengthened by half an hour. Normally they'd get out of school at the end of May. This year, however, they get out May 2 and I was just thinking the other day, that's JUST around the corner! They won't go back until after Labor Day and then this will be the last year at OB.

We came back from Ca. to welcome a little bit of a snow on the ground. It was incredibly cold while we were gone but our neighbors took such great care of the place and the animals. We're so thankful so have such awesome neighbors like that!



 

The animals don't mind the cold too much. We're finding ways of dealing with ice issues in regard to water. Both the does and the bucks have tank heaters but the chicken coop does not have an electrical line nor do the pigs. But, we make due, breaking ice in the morning and/or filling up water buckets AM and PM and they just learn to drink their fill while the gettin's good. The tank heaters are not the cheapest thing to run so generally I judiciously reserve the right to use just one for the does and break the ice for the bucks every morning. Fortunately, the temps haven't been that bad to warrant a whole lot of breaking really...in the mornings yes, but day time temps are usually above freezing which makes life easy! 

The chickens don't mind the cold and the dogs LOVE it. Snow is about ready to have her pups, we're about 2 weeks away so there's lots of new life here on the farm!

 

Silver Laced Wyandotte pullets (August chicks). See how their combs and waddles have still not developed? In a short period of time they will grow a single waddle (the dangly things that hang like a beard) an a short comb and it will turn bright red when they are about ready to lay). Wyandottes are supposed to be better for the cold because of this single waddle and short comb...less to freeze as opposed to the double waddle of some breeds and longer comb. 

  That's all for now...busy busy busy.

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:




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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.

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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