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¤t=ElfEmpersonator002.mp4 and here: http://s184.photobucket.com/albums/x263/mandicourt/Blog%20photos/?action=view¤t=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 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.
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