I've been bad

I've been terrible at posting, absolutely terrible. Here's a pathetic attempt at updating:

I think all of the does, as of April 13th or so, have kidded. I say I think because we put a buck out with the does to run with them while we were gone in Ca. but I don't think I left him long enough to "clean up" which is just as well as it is we had 10 does to kid this year and that just seems like way too many.

We're looking to downsize, in the process of actually.

The weather has been crazy, on again off again cold and for the next 5 days it's supposed to be over 90! So in one week's time I'll have gone to using the wood stove to the A/C!

I had wanted to start getting the garden in this weekend but our rototiller's carburetor needs a good cleaning so Jeremiah took it in to school with him and it didn't make it onto the docket before the weekend.

I have been sick fighting some sort of sinus/respiratory nastiness. It all kind of hit Thursday with a cough. Our last cough lingered for a while but there weren't any major issues with it. Drew had it something bad. I almost took him to the dr. just to get him something to quiet his cough so he could sleep but I found an alternate home remedy that worked just dandy! As for me, yesterday my head ached something awful and the Tylenol I took took forever to finally work and for the first hour didn't even take the edge off. I am sure I had a pretty high fever too, I could feel the heat radiating off my face. Nevertheless, I honesty cannot lay in bed, it makes me feel worse so I got up and did regular chores yesterday morning and a few things here and there. I feel a little better today.

Bees: I have been in touch with the individual/company that we'll be getting our bees from. This might tell you how bad/long/crappy the winter was, as of 3/4 of the way through April, they were still about a month out from separating the colonies to sell off because there wasn't enough flowers out yet for them to eat from. We ended up building the hives ourselves, we're almost done for them. I have photos I'll post once they are and painted up. It wasn't too difficult and we're happy with them. I am very excited for the bees!

Kids: Their last day of school was Wednesday. We got a letter in the mail with their new school assignment which is where everyone else from Obee will be going also.

2 weeks ago Wednesday we attended band sign up for Rachel to see which instrument might be best for her. She tried out the flute (which was her first choice originally before trying any of them but she has a widows peak in her lips which doesn't make playing impossible but it would take extra determination to learn to account for that. As a downfall to having beautiful lips, it makes it harder to play the flute, or so we're told. Oh well, she leaned she liked the clarinet better anyway so we're buying her a clarinet and she goes to band came for a week in May. Tomorrow she starts an hour long poetry class at 10:30 to noon with a friend of hers at a bookstore in town. Drew and I, I guess, will hang out at the library.

Drew's 2nd grade class always attends "The Magic Treehouse" (series of books) field trip. The 2nd grade teacher's parents have this beautiful piece of property about half an hour west of town they have turned into a kid's paradise. Jeremiah took off work to go this year and we had a blast.

The farm: The piglets are 2.5 months old now. All but 2 have been sold. Of the 14 born eleven made it past 2 weeks old and it wasn't pleasant having them in February. We had to rig up a brooder to keep them from freezing to death so I don't think I will farrow again in February...or March! As it is we are on track for the sow to farrow again in Sept. and I consider selling the pigs off completely but now with this swine disease going around, I have to wonder if that's really the smart thing to do. We kept a gilt (female) and barrow (castrated male) back to raise up to butcher out. Keeping a boar is expensive for just one sow an a few neighbors and I are considering keeping one between us to use.  We have a friend about half an hour away who has one we could borrow but the whole swine disease kind of has me scared about using outside services at all.

Who knows what the best answer is. Pork prices are only going to soar, just like beef did- Supply and demand. It's not even the finished product that is the issue, it's finding the animals to raise up to begin with! 50 lb. feeder pigs were going for as high as $200 an individual at the sale barn last month! Keeping 2 sows and no boar would be more cost effective but a boar has to be available. 

Onward and upward though....we got our delivery of 160 meat chicks in the mail day before yesterday. They are delivered to the post office and we go and pick them up which is usually a late night proposition. All 160 are not for us. We went in on a group buy. We kept about 50 some and in about 6-8 weeks we'll be butchering again!

Rental property: We're on track for the rental property to close on or about May 16th. We have to get the septic tank pumped and do some general yard clean up but we won't rent a dumpster until a busted pipe has been fixed in the downstairs bathroom wall. Otherwise all it needs is some kitchen cabinets, appliances, carpet if we can afford it (otherwise what's there just gets a good cleaning) and some paint.

Jeremiah: One of his students won gold for welding sculpture so he'll be going to Nationals at the end of June for a week in Kansas City.  He's also signed up to finally take the CWI (Certified Welding Inspection) class and CWE (Certified Welding Educator) the first of June at the college for a week.

His college classes are almost done (or are done) this week.

I'll update with photos later but I want to get this posted before I forget and it sits as a draft like all the other well meaning posts I've been meaning to get posted.

I'll end for now. The heat is supposed to be near record breaking this week in the 90's+ so I'd like to get started on chores before it's too hot to!