Random...ness

If you would have asked me 2 weeks ago if I thought I'd be sitting in the living room thankful to have a fire, the answer would have most certainly been 'no'. Good thing you didn't ask me, I would have had to open mouth & insert foot.

It's probably in the 60's out but darnit, it's overcast, and drip drop rainy and it just feels cold. So, by the fireside I sit...warm...and cozy.

So much going on...I had lunch with Drew today. I went to school specifically to have lunch. The children get to eat lunch at school once a week, any more and they would hate me. My lunches are better and it's not everyday they get to gross their ham and cheese eatin' friends out (while teaching them about REAL food) when they open their thermos and have warm red beans and rice, or tomato soup or things like that. What kid (other than a select few) would dare admit they like tomato soup, after all. Speaking of red beans and rice, it's been a long time since I've made it. I'll have a recipe up one of these days for it if in the event you feel like making it too.

Our layer chicks arrived yesterday...25 of them. I sold 2. I don't need 25 layers! I don't need 23 either but I figure we'll loose some. They are silver laced wyandottes and let me tell ya, they are cuter than the average chick for sure! See?

Course, the model doesn't hurt either. Wouldn't you want to take a chick home is a kid like this was trying to pawn it off on your like a girl scout cookie? Yeah, me too! Come to think of it, forget the chick, I'll take the boy.

Right now the chicks are living in a large water trough in the shop basking in 250 Watts of heat lamp with water and food at their disposal. The butcher roos moved out to the chicken tractor in the barnyard and we've yet to loose one, which is a good thing...loosing one means not eating...kidding. 

We're up to 8 baby goats- 4 boys 4 girls. We had 5 girls but one left us last week. Such is life on the farm. We've still got over half the does yet to kid with one holding out for God only knows what reason. Their photos can be seen on the farm site (www.marmaladehollow.wordpress.com) if you're so inclined.

Rachel reads up a storm, in case you didn't know. She reads every night before bed. I suppose we should take a hint, but watching TV is more mind numbing and who doesn't need to be numbed before slipping off into slumber? I'd drink, but TV's cheaper. Anyway, back to Rachel, she made it to the '100 point' club 2 weeks ago and today received recognition and her t-shirt. She's actually up to 108 points. I told her if she made it to 115 points before the end of the year we'd go out for a steak dinner. Books vary in their worth by how hard they are and each book has a test to take which turns into points depending on how many questions were answered right. At her last parent/teacher conference, I believe her teacher said she was reading at a 6th grade level. It blows my mind she can pronounce words like 'victorian' and not bat an eye or have to sound it out.She just flies through books and it's fun to have her read outloud as most time she will even

Life is...going.

The kids' Sunday school teacher mentioned to her husband, who mentioned to Jeremiah, that our kids our kids are so well behaved. What the heck does that say??? It tells me parents need to lock their children in the closet more often. Kidding. It means we are doing a terrific job and not only are we doing a terrific job of raising well behaved children, more importantly we're raising good people. All parents should be like us <gafaw>. Lots of people say it so it's not like she's nuts or something. Our kids really are great, and while I am bias, it has little to do with the fact that they are great people and yes, thankyouveryuch, I do take great pride in this because it's the hardest (yet most rewarding) most important job we have! Everything else takes a back seat to our two great kids.

On to other news. We've gotten a lot of rain the few weeks. Yesterday morning I was in the barn doing chores and it just POURED. It's such a nice sound. The thunder was pretty cool too. Jeremiah and I watched a really cool lightening storm one evening around 9 PM off to the east. The storm just skirted us so it was amazing to watch the sky light up over and over while we stood in the front yard in our jammies and it was pleasantly warm too! It reminded me of our living room in El Paso. The window faced north towards New Mexico (which was literally a stone's throw away). We'd lay on the couch and watch the storm come up and over the mountains that cut West El Paso from East El Paso. The lightening would crack across the valley and light up the sky, cool stuff. I love thunder storms. They are really neat here too.

Well, I guess that's all for now. It's Easter weekend. I mentioned to Jeremiah that if the turkeys didn't shut up and stop waking me up at the crack of dawn on my days to sleep in, we'd be eating them for Easter. I think they heard me because they've shut up! We're having steak, and potatoes and a host of other yummy things for dinner. We did an egg hunt at church last Saturday. I can't imagine they are egg hunted out so I suppose we may hide some eggs too! Tomorrow (Friday) unless this doe decides to kid, we're going to try to go on a drive. You now, it's amazing, despite the drought last summer, the wildflowers sure are prolific this year! I should get out and mow the barn yard because they are nearly as tall as the goat's backs. But it looks so picturesque to see them walking through back high wildflowers.

I have mowed the 'yard yard' 2 times in the past week and a half. Last year I think I got lucky to mow the yard yard twice the whole of spring and summer!

Little Moments Like This

Story of our lives

One word: Busy. All in all we're not too busy, we take time every day to spend time as a family, somehow.

Drew has been on again off again sick with this nasty bug going around. There is one bad thing to say about a milk winter for sure and that's that it's not cold enough long enough to kill off all the nasties.


Off topic, but truth be told, I feel like I haven't seen my husband in months! He's been gone all the time for one thing or another. I won't get in to why, the reasons are many.

We've been really enjoying the record temps here...spring has sprung really and I hope it sticks around.

We've had new babies born- 2 on Sunday and 3 yesterday (2 does and a very large handsome buck). Rachel's (hopefully) last dr's appointment for her leg was yesterday. They took final X-rays and gave her the all clear to run and jump as long as it didn't cause her any pain. We've been waiting on Apricot for what seems like 2 weeks with daily and nightly checks. All in her own time 2 days past her due date she had a kid on the ground by the time we got home. I hadn't planned to come home, I had planned to go take the kids right to school but as it happened, Rachel wore stained play clothes instead of school clothes so as fate would hate it, we got to see two of them enter the world.

Toddy had 2 flashy buck kids on Sunday. I won't talk about them too much as their fate is  pretty much sealed. One of them though I call "Bitchy Boy" because he just doesn't shut up. Or rather, he has spurts where out of nowhere he'll squawk, then stop...like, someone disrupts him or the wind hits him wrong or the sunlight isn't in the right position. The kids think it's mean to call him that. He was doing really well until yesterday, then it seems he didn't want to eat a whole lot. He knows where to get food and seems eager to go get it but looses enthusiasm. I tried to bottle him but he didn't want anything to do what that either. It may be that he's just a bit slower to get going than this brother who's now robust and doing all those fun goat baby things at only 3 days old. I gave him a little oral pick-me-up and we'll see how is today.

We expect rain much of next week. It's welcome! Our pond has standing water in it and I do hope that this drought does not continue.

I have been making and selling goat's milk soap. I find it rather fun. In fact, I have a new website for all goat/farm/soap relate stuff: www.marmaladehollow.wordpress.com Eventually I'll change it over to a "dot com" address but if you happen to want to check it out, be my guest. I'll continue with the blog here, but in trying to keep the farmy stuff separate of the family updates, I'd rather keep personal life, personal (even if the world is free to read here) so this one will remain as is.

We have our chicks ordered. Me and a couple of other families went in on a large order of 'pan fry' birds. We'll be raising about 25 of them strictly for butcher. They are all roosters and hefty discounts are given since, like most male species, the world doesn't need but a few. So, we should be putting some home grown chickens in the freezer in the fall.

I also ordered my layers as well- silver laced wyandottes. I don't know if I or Rachel (for those of you who talk to Rachel) told you the story or not, but last year when we were getting hay I heard Rachel screaming from across the yard. Course, we all thought it was funny that she was being chased by a rooster and there was a split second where I didn't realize she really thought she was running for her life. It was one of those "funny but not really all that funny" moments. After that split second I, of course, ran over to run the rooster off but after that she wanted nothing to do with chickens ever again. She still doesn't but in reading up on chicken breeds I found the SL wyandottes not only to be very attractive but also good layers, good dual purpose (meat and egg) and very cold hardy due to their small close comb. I ordered only pullets from the farm store. I had wanted some roos as well but I waited too lat to order online and the minimum order from the farm store is 25. I don't need 25 additional roos! So, I am hoping from this 'pan fry' order of 150 or whatever it is, there will be at least SL wyandotte in there so that I can have a roo for my females. Laying hens are VERY popular around here. Not that I intend to start selling layers, amongst all the other stuff I do, but eventually I will need to replenish the stock.

Never mind that we don't have our coup built yet! I'm hopeful at some point that happens.

As I sit here and white this in the dark, the cat is licking the bowl of cereal milk. Guess I won't be finishing that!

Read Across America & Celebrating Dr. Seuss' Birthday With Crazy Hat Day!

Tracks & Footprints

It snowed on Tuesday, as I already mentioned. By afternoon, the temperature had fallen enough that it was sticking. We got a decent enough covering for the kids to go out and make some dirty snowballs and require their snow clothes to be washed. Yay, more work!

Speaking of work, as some of you already may know, the principal of the kid's school called me a week ago a wanted to know if I wanted a job. I don't really need another job, but they needed someone and were in a pinch and so, after 10+ years of being out of the outside workforce, I am now a district employee. Strange how that works. I swear, if you want work, come to Kansas. There's jobs (and general work!)  here! Shoot, sit at home and they'll call you, apparently!

The school receives grant money for fresh fruit and vegetables. That produce needs to be washed, cut and divvied up between classes ('three-school' (friday's only), pre-K (2 classes, AM & PM), Kind., and 1-6th) and since I do that on a smaller scale at home, they need someone now and I am free (sort of), I figured, why not? So, hi ho hi ho, off to work I go to do what's necessary to calm the fiery dragons keep the kids healthy and fed. Tuesday I counted raspberries....I don't even want to know how many I counted. Yesterday I cut and counted cauliflower and then apples and I did a good 150+ apples- cut, core, slice, divide. I was beat! BUT, the cool news in all of this is, the goats benefit too! Guess who gets all the 'throw away' goodies?

Since there is often much to much for the girls, it's yet another reason to get some pigs! I hadn't even thought of the school cafeteria for excess food. This should work out real well and if we're lucky, these pigs will cost us near nothing and provide a lot of yummy bacon...and imagine this, it may already come pre-apple-seasoned <grin>!

It'll take some time to adjust my schedule and certainly Rachel and her leg has thrown a bit of a monkey wrench in things in that we're taking them and picking them up but on the days I work late enough, I'll just stay and hang out and help in the classrooms until school's out.

They asked me if I wanted to be a back up cafeteria aide (if someone were to call in sick (there's only 2 of them!) and I quickly nixed that, they have to be in at 6:30! Not that 6:30's a problem, goodness knows by the time stamps on some of my posts, but with milking chores (and kidding coming up) and store business and work + general life, there's no way. And to be on call? I just can't (and don't want to) do that. I love being at their school, I wish everyone could attend a school like this but I have to draw the line!

On to snow though, here's some photos of the kids out playing. Yesterday Rachel asked me if people with broken legs can sled. I told her people who sled end up with broken legs. I'm so not fun! Bwaahahahahaha

Note the crawl tracks on the left and the footprints on the right. Oh, and the kitty prints on the far left.

Notice Rachel tasting the snow!

Tom's cabin on the river

While in California, one Friday, Grandpa Hargett, Debi, Jeremiah, Auntie Lo, Becky the kids and I trekked up to Tom's place along the Consumes River. It was GORGEOUS! The water was especially chilly and high but it was a lovely afternoon with great company nonetheless.

I spent the better part of the first half decidedly tippled from a single glass of wine! I won't be drinking at Tom's again! I haven't decided if it was the atmosphere or some unusually potent wine. I know it wasn't an empty stomach as we had eaten sandwiches by the American River in Coloma only about 2 hours before. At any rate, the hike was lovely and we didn't even need bread crumbs to find our way back. Although we did wonder a few times if a search party would be necessary.

School Days

I love and hate this photo all at the same time. I love it because it encompasses everything there is about (my thoughts) on school, mostly romantic notions (if school can be thought of that way). At the same time, I feel like it takes something away from me.

If you click on this photo it should show it in full screen. You'll see how happy the children are, truly truly happy. They come home like this EVERYDAY! I feel truly truly happy (for the most part).

I meet them everyday at the end of our drive, I wave to the driver to let her know "I'll take it from here, thanks!", and take their hands and they vie to tell me about their day.

I love this photo because it shows how happy they are to be home, happy that they've had a good day, happy about life. I hate this photo because it symbolizes time lost, time gone by, growing up, memories missed.

I hate that they ride the school bus for just a couple of reasons. It's a tug of war with my heart. Maybe it's silly.

First of all, it's good that they are going to school. We did not nonchalantly decide to put them in school. There are a few reading this blog who are home schoolers and you'll know we did not come to the decision to send them to school lightly. Not that I value (or don't value) your opinion, but these are our kids and this IS the best decision for them (right now). But I'll discuss that some other time.

Throughout preschool and Kindergarten we took Rachel to school and picked her up. While it was a pain in the rear at times to often drop what we were doing (often times delivering a goat or working in the yard) to go get her (I know that sounds kinda bad but it is what it is), it was a time when we got to see her come out of class, talk to the teacher, and experience school in that respect.

I kind of miss that now. I miss the interaction we may have with their teachers. Knowing daily if there was a problem I could find out right then and there if one of the children had a bad day right from the horses mouth. Now, we don't have that interaction. I send them off with a driver, they are dropped off by a driver and shuffled around by people all day long. Entrusting the lives of our most precious children to others is extremely difficult, let me tell you.

We don't have to send them, I REALIZE this. But it's good...for everyone.

Anyway, there it is..

Every morning at 6:45 our alarm goes off. I get up, I normally wake Rachel up, Jeremiah gets up. I walk into the kitchen to make lunches, Jeremiah dresses and comes into the kitchen to make breakfast for he and Rachel.

While Rachel eats, I finish their lunch, pack it into their lunch bags and put Rachel's in her backpack. I do her hair, help with shoes if need be and we see Daddy off to work at about 7:20. There's been just one day where we've actually been standing outside waiting for the school bus but all the rest of the days we hear the "beep...beep...beep" as the bus backs up into our driveway and Rachel races out the door, me following behind trying to get shoes on, as she races across the yard and waits for the bus to completely back up and stop before she waves goodbye, throwing kisses and boarding the bus with a smile and saying good morning to the driver. I wait until she's pulled out of the drive and walk back into the house.

Rachel is the last pick up on our road and so the driver backs up into our driveway, which is nice!

Early morning routine complete.

Andrew wakes up, we feed the goats and his school bus shows up at 11:30 on the dot. He's the first to get on. I wave goodbye and then it's back to work. The driver for Drew's bus, Mrs. R., comes from the east and since their school is west of us, she just pulls over, picks him up and continues straight. Our driveway has a pretty big shoulder so it's safe.

In the afternoon they ride the same bus home that Rachel rides in the morning with the same driver, Mrs. B. (the preacher's wife for a local church). If Drew didn't have siblings at the school, he'd ride the little preschool bus home and I suppose he still could but this is easier.

Anyhoo, so that's school life here.