First Spring Pictures

In case you haven't notice, I love taking pictures. There is something about capturing (I should say trying to capture), the moments of beauty that the Lord gives us, that is so very exciting to me. So, here is a sampling of what I have gotten so far this spring.









Spring means Daffodils, one of my all time favorite flowers. Every year I try to do something different with them. This is what I came up with this year, after finding these great old jars in amongst some newer secondhand ones I bought.

One of the fire baskets from our wedding. They also make "rustic" looking suet feeders for the birds, when they aren't full of snow that is! :)

This is why I held off on my gardening last month.

All of the "snow" pictures where taken on the day after the first day of spring. I want to take them on the fist day itself, but we were in town and it took us so long to get home through the snow and ice, that it was too dark to by the time we made it back.

These baskets where part of the decorations at Thea's wedding, and I was thrilled to be giving one after the wedding. Not only are they beautiful, but they are even more special because her mom HANDMADE all of them!

My idea of a "good" picture (and my personal goal), is to take one that doesn't have to have any kind of editing done, it is the best that it can be from the beginning. That said, it is fun to play with the pictures sometimes, just to see what you come up with. First we have "Faded" (above), the we have "Enhanced" (below).

And finally, some goat pictures, just because I like my goats so much, and because I had to take them for registration forms anyway, so I thought I would share them.

Luka, our "baby" goat from last fall. She is the first Kinder that we have had born here. So far she looks like she is going to be a really good goat.

Luka, having run all over the pen several times, jumped on or over everything that she could, and gotten all of the other goats as worked up as possible (yes, this was while we were trying to get pictures of some of them. Oh well, maybe next time.....) She was so hot she started panting like a dog.....right before biting first Lizzy, then me.

Well, that's all for now folks!

God Bless,

Rachel

So much happening....

Justin and Thea are married! And I don’t have a single picture to post of the wedding :(
I did take my camera, but because I was busy pretty much the whole day, I never got it out to take a picture. I can’t complain though, since I was busy fulfilling a dream of mine; doing the hair styling for a bride and her bridesmaids! Thank you Thea! I can say that the wedding was beautiful, everything went smoothly, everyone did great, and the only tears were those of joy (at least until J&T left). So, one wedding down, three (as of now :) more to go!

Well, the weather this week is making it really hard to hold off on planting the garden, but I keep reminding myself that if snowed last year on April 15th, so waiting a little longer is not going to hurt anything. I do have some radishes, spinach, and mustard greens going in a cold frame, and I started the tomato and pepper seeds yesterday. We are trying some new things this year and I am really excited to see how everything does.

Another new project here is heritage pigs. We wanted to try Gloucestershire Old Spots, but we weren’t able to find any in this area to get started with, so we went with Red Wattle Hogs instead.

There are several reasons we choose to go with a heritage breed instead of a commercial breed. The heritage hogs are hardier, better at raising their offspring without a lot of help, good scavengers, and their temperament is MUCH better. Our pigs are very calm, nonaggressive, and even like to have us scratch their backs. Compared to the pigs we did last year, these guys are saints. We did get a breeding pair, so sometime this fall we should have a litter of little squealers running around here!


Aren't they cute?

We have also acquired some New Zealand rabbits. These are a meat breed, which is why we have them.

In goat news, we have several things going on. We got a new doe last week. She is not a Kinder, but she is a small goat, so she fits in well here. Technically, Willow is a Mini Saanen (Saanen Nigerian Dwarf cross), but she is just a first generation so we got her for a good price. She, along with at least two of our Kinders, are due to have babies in the next 4 to 6 weeks. I am also suspicious of Maria. I think that she may have some “surprise” babies on the way, but all I can do is wait and see.

And finally, a random, funny story that I have been meaning to get up here, and keep forgetting about.
One day when we were coming home from my parents place, we came upon some cows (about 15 or so) that were wandering down the road right by our house. At least, that is what it looked like at first. On closer inspection, it was discovered that they were actually being driven along by......

.....a wild turkey.

The said turkey was not just walking along with the cows, or trying to go around them, he was moving them on down the road. He would turn them to one side or the other by moving to the opposite side, sticking his neck out, and gobbling at them. And it worked. It was just like watching a dog herd cows along. In order to prevent an accident, and not knowing who’s cows they were, we stopped, and with another neighbor got them to go into a pasture until the owners could be located. The turkey helped with this process.

After they were locked in we went on up the hill to our house. As we waited for the owners to come, we could see the turkey moving the cows across the pasture, towards the next farm. After awhile they disappeared over a hill and we thought that was the end of it. But I guess the turkey like to the grass on this side of the hill better, because in about twenty minutes, here he came again, driving them all back. Eventually someone came and got the cows (I don’t know if they took the turkey too), and that was the last that we saw of them. Needless to say it was one of the strangest things I have ever seen, and I am glad that I had the camera!

Well, that all for now!

God bless,

Rachel

Just a Note.....

......to say that our blog is not dead, and there will be a "good" post soon.

Lately my thoughts have been going in so many directions at once that I don't know which one to fallow through on and post about.

Also, it is very nearly springtime on a farm, meaning that things are very busy here. Our day starts a 5:30 (a.m.) and ends around 9:00 (p.m.) or so right now.

Project(s) report:

Living room~coming right along, slow and steady wins the race.

Goats~milking one right now and making yogurt and cheese. New babies will be arriving in April!

Chickens~we are getting between 11 and 14 eggs a day. Glad they slowed down for the winter! (ha ha)

Cows~ever growing, always eating, and good producers of "garden soil enhancer".

Dogs~I think Ollie has stopped growing taller, but he is still filling out. At the last vet visit he weighed in at 140lbs. His latest achievement was killing a skunk that has been hanging around. He smelled horrible, but we are proud of him. Dozer limps and coughs and tries to get in the house on cold days (or at least get some sympathy for his "aches and pains" :) Gracie just eats and sleeps, except at night when we are trying to sleep, then she barks.

New additions~Rabbits and pigs, both for meat purposes. More on them later.

Garden~I have started the early plants, and they are all up and doing well. We are planning a lot, so we will see what happens!

Well, thats all for now. I need to go start some cookies and then make supper.

God bless,

Rachel

Life, Christmas Plans, and a Facebook question

Point 1: Life. Life is normal. Busy, fun, stressful, exciting, crazy, and just um, normal. We got another goat, a little buck named Darcy. He came from the Smith’s, and is Leepers replacement. He is really cute and fun, and fallows us anywhere we will let him go like a little dog, right at our heels, waiting to be petted.

In the livingroom Colin has gotten up some of the dry wall, and we are ever moving ahead. The dry wall has been a very interesting experience (okay, that is the nice way to say it, really it has been a pain in the neck, but we won’t go there :) Because this is an old house, and because it was moved to this location from somewhere else, it has several issues that make remolding difficult. For instance, the floor in the livingroom slops from one side of the room to the other, and the ceiling, being plaster and lathe (and sagging slightly), is a different hight, at each measurement. All of this combined, means that you measure for your piece of sheet rock, cut it, and then go to put it up, and find that you can’t get the top of it to the wall because it is stuck against the ceiling! So you take it down again and cut off enough to get past the ceiling, get the piece to the wall, pause to consider the gap that now exists at the top, and wonder what this room will look like with wide trim around the ceiling instead of narrow. Overall this has been a challenging, learning experience, and has given us plenty of stories to tell.
Bottom line: If you are planning on remolding anything, count on it taking at least twice as long as you think it will, and even longer if it is an old house. And keep a good sense of humor with you at all times, it is essential! :)

Point 2: Christmas Plans. We are staying home for Christmas this year. My grandparents from Ohio will be coming in, and we have all of Colin’s family here in town. It is both really nice and really crazy to have so many relatives close by. It means that you get to see people more often, but it also means that there are lots of places to be on holidays. Christmas eve we will see Dad C’s side of the family for dinner, Christmas Day we will have our Christmas, go to my parents and have Christmas with them, and then go the Colin’s parents and have dinner with Mom C’s side of the family. The day after Christmas, we will go back to my parents and open presents with grandpa and grandma who will have arrived sometime in the wee hours of the morning after diving most of the night. Doesn’t this sound like a great Christmas!!!

Point 3: A Facebook question. For those of you who know me and my stand on Facebook, this point has aroused your curiosity and you may have even skipped Points 1 & 2 just to see what this was all about first. That is not really fair since this is Point 3, and not Point 1. However, what’s done is done, and rather than torment you by delaying getting to the point of Point 3 (which I could do for quite a while [insert evil grin]), I will move a head.

I must say first, that my question is not my own, but it has to do with one of my biggest oppositions to Facebook. The question actually comes from one middle aged lady talking to another middle aged lady in a local used book store. I was standing a few feet away looking through some books and caught this part of the conversation.

Lady 1 “Well we need to get going, but it has been so good to see you again. I am so glad you are on Facebook, it will be so easy now to keep it touch now!”

Lady 2 “Yah, it will. Isn’t technology amazing! My husband talks with people in different countries all the time now, he knows people in England a Romania that he talks with regularly.”

Lady 1 “It’s just incredible, we can keep up with all the people that live to far away to see. Like the B’s, you remember them? They move to N and since we are in W it is just too far to try and get together, but we Facebook all the time.”

Lady 2 “I like how you can share so much, pictures and stuff I mean.”

Lady 1, with slight hesitation. “Do you think it is gossiping to talk about what you see on people’s walls?”

Up until now I have not really been paying a whole lot of attention to with is being said. Because these two ladies are standing on the other side of the bookshelf, I hear what they are saying wether I want to or not. At this point however, I stop looking at books and deliberately listen.

Lady 2, after a pause, “I don’t know, I guess not. I mean they put it up there for everyone to see right?”

Lady 1 “Yah, I guess so.”

Since I can not find the book I am after I move to a different section of the store, but in my head that questions keeps playing over and over. “Do you think it is gossiping to talk about what you see on people’s walls?” At first I was inclined to agree with Lady 2. Hey, they put it out there, if they don’t want it talked about, they shouldn’t put it up. This is true, however, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there is more to it than just that. Let me use a real life example (minus names and issues) to explain what I mean.

I am not on Facebook, but many of my friends are. One day I get a phone call.

“Have you heard what so-and-so has up on their facebook page?”
“No”
“It says -------. Can you believe it?”
“They can’t be serious.”
“I don’t know, why else would they post it for everyone to see?”
“I don’t know, but -------- doesn’t seem possible.”
“I know, but there is this, and this, and this, and so-and-so said this, so maybe they mean it.”
“Hum, have you talked to so-and-so? Maybe they know more.”
“No, I am so upset I don’t know what to do.”

The conversation was much longer, but you get the point. A rumor was started, someone was hurt, and yes gossiping was occurring. If this was only a one time thing, I might still agree with Lady 2, setting this issue aside as “the one bad against the many good”. But it is not. There have been many times when someone has come to me with the latest juicy details off FB, which they communicate in lowered tones. Yes, someone did post it on their wall for all to see, but the way that the information is being passed on to me, is not right. It is gossiping, and in one way, I believe that gossiping is what facebook promotes. Now before you facebookers out there get mad at me, I challenge you to think about this issue. I very rarely hear positive things passed along from those who are on FB to those aren’t, but I hear many shocking, startling, hurtful, upsetting, and angering things. And I see many people who are on FB, only so that they can know as much about everyone else’s lives as possible. Isn’t that the same as the town gossip of old who was always on the party phone line so that she could be the first to know everything and pass it on? Amazingly she is never viewed as “keeping in touch”, but as sticking her nose in other peoples business. So, I want to know what you all think, those of you who are one facebook, and those of you who aren’t. Please, I don’t want to know why you are on FB, what is great about it, or how many friends you have. I only want to know “if you think it is gossiping to talk about what you see on people’s walls” whether or not FB adds to gossiping, and how we, as Christians (facebookers or not) should deal with this issue.

As a final note, I would like to add this (as a bon for those who are saying that they will never read my blog again :) I do think that FB can be used well in certain circumstances. I don’t have time to go into that, and other issues now, but may in the future. I do not hate facebookers, most of my closest friends are on FB, but I do firmly believe that there are many dangers with FB that need to be considered.

So, until next time,

God Bless and Merry Christmas!

Rachel

As Usual......

It has been too long since I posted.

I have a million reasons for this, but not enough time to go through them all.

Our life is busy and full of interesting things, but now that I sit down to write about them, I can’t remember half of what I wanted to say.

Oh well, I will give it a go anyway.

Our summer was great. Colin was working part time, so we had a lot of time together, as well as time to get some things done around here. The garden did good, especially considering the tremendous amount of rain we had this year. Everything is done now, excepting a few fall crops, and even those will be finished soon.

In goat news, things have been kind of up and down. In the spring the goat that we were raising for meat died, and then in September our buck, Leeper, died as well. But in good news, we had the fist baby goat born here on October 5. Her name is Luka, and she is so much fun and really cute!!!

We have also added cows to our animal inventory. Cinnamon is a really sweet heifer that we are keeping to provide us with calves later down the road. The other one we call “dinner” and try not to become too friendly with him.

On the house we are still working on the living room, but it is coming along great. We are almost ready to put in the insulation and then the drywall can go up! I will put up a “beginning to end’ post with pictures when we are done.

Right after we started tearing the living room apart, Colin got a new, full time job at Webco in Springfield. This has been a blessing for us, and we are very thankful for the job. He has gone back to doing electrical stuff which is nice for him, and is also getting a chance to learn some new things. Please keep him in your prayers, as most of the guys he works with and around have very messed up lives. This gives him a chance to be a witness for Christ, but also makes the work environment hard to be in.

Well, that is all for now. I will get some pictures up as soon as I can.

Rachel

Signs of Spring

Spring is officially here! This happens to be one of my favorite times of the year. It is always amazing to me to watch things sprout and grow, and reminds me of what a wonderful God we have! Here are some pictures of Spring at our house this year.

The Daffodils are up and showing off their colors wonderfully





My yard is so full of violets that I have decided to move some of them to the flower beds rather than mow them down each week.












The broccoli and cabbage plants waiting for the rain to end so they can be planted outside.





Our newest arrivals, and a very sure sign of spring!





The only thing cuter than a fluffy baby chick........





.....is a duckling. Unfortunately this little guy belongs to my brother, not me. Maybe I could just go over and barrow him for a while......






This is "Buck" Leeper (think the Mitfford books :) Although he is small now, he will grow up to be the "Daddy" goat of our heard.

Isn't he cute?





Meet George, the (new) official mouser and bird defense system for our milking shed.

Last, but not least, what is a post without an Ollie update? Yes, he is big. Yes, he will get bigger. Yes, he does eat a lot. Yes, he is a great dog, and just keeps getting better!

Additions

Here are some pictures of the latest additions to our "farm".

Bella

Maria (the bigger one)

Lena

and Jack

They are Kinder (pronounced with a short "i", not long "i" sound) goats. A breed developed for both milk production and for meat use, Kinders are not big goats, but are high performers, or so our research says. Jack and Lena are Maria's babies. We are milking her a little, and they are still nursing. We plan to fatten Jack up for meat next winter, and raise Lena to be a mama. Bella decided to have her babies a little earlier than they were ready to come, and in the middle of wintriest night so far this year. Needless to say, they did not make it, but we will give her another chance latter this year (when it isn't so cold!).

Below is a picture of Oliver. He is now bigger than our beagle and almost too heavy to pick up. He is 10 weeks old this week and had no idea what to do with the snow at first. Now he loves it and has a lot of fun scattering it around with his ginormous paws.

Well that's all for now, I have cookies to bake and snow to go walking in (finally!).

God Bless