The next chapter.....

.......in the snake saga.

We are trying to sell our little Fiat car. Colin opened up the engine area to check on things and found this.

It was a BIG black snake. It took Colin over half and hour to get it out of the car because it turned around and went down in this area that he could not get at very well. It finally came out underneath the car and Colin pulled it out with the rake (after it crawled back up again once) and killed it.

The car is still for sale, if you know anyone that might be interested in it.

We are not responsible for any hitch-hikers that come along with the car.

Rachel

Garden 2010

For those of you that are interested in our gardening adventure, here are some pictures from this year. Things have really gone well, even though we planted the whole garden about a month late.


Plowing up the area. We extended the length of the garden this year

Pictures of the blooms and fruit of the various plants.

We grew our beans, long beans, and some cucumbers on arches this year.

A "volunteer" sunflower that was really beautiful.

That's all for now, God Bless!

Rachel

A Blogging Problem

I have now tried to update my blog several times. It won't work. What I would really like to do is to change my background and layout to something more fallish. In July I wanted to make it more summerish. The problem is that I live far enough out of town that my internet signal is too weak to accommodate the new Blogger Template Designer thingy. I left it sit for 45 minutes one day hoping that it would eventually pull up. No go. So, this note is really for all the people in charge at Blogger.com.

PLEASE remember those of us who are still without uber fast, 2 trillion MB's per second, internet before you make any more "improvements" to the system!!!!

Now I have to go to the library to make any real changes to my blog.

You all know how high on my priority list that sits.

So, until I have a lot of time to kill, please forgive my "springish" layout.



Rachel

Update For the Last Month or So

First off I have to say that I agree with the opening paragraph of Jessie’s last post. Not only do I think that I must bore you all to death with the mundane details of farm life, but it also drives me nuts to try to come up with some exciting way to write things up for a post.

That said, it has been over a month since I posted, so here is a bit of what has been going on in our lives.

Well, summer is flying by for us, and is (as usual) very busy. The garden is growing like crazy (I am working on a garden post with pictures, stay tuned) and even though we got it in late we are enjoying fresh cucumbers, squash, green beans, and peppers.

Our animal “experiments” of the year are also going well thus far. We are very pleased with the Red Waddle Hogs, and are looking forward to trying the meat. So far they have grown faster than we thought that they would. My parents decided that theirs were big enough (around 300lbs) so they went ahead and took them in this week. The hogs weighed in at 360 and 380! Now we are wondering if we need to take ours in early too.
The turkey adventure is doing great as well. Turkeys are a lot different than what I thought they would be. They are really calm birds and are for the most part a quiet bird too. Since I really dislike chickens, I was prepared to feel the same way about turkeys, what a pleasant surprise to actually enjoy them!

We had a goat adventure this week when one of the goats broke a horn off at 6:30 in the morning. Yes, it bled a lot, and no, none of the vet offices were open yet. I always said that I would never have goats with horns because they cause so much trouble. Well, it happened through a series of events that we did not get this ones horns burned, and then I just kept putting off going into the vet to have them removed, and so on Tuesday morning I had a mess to deal with. I was not a happy goat owner most of the morning. At 7:30 I was able to talk to the vet, take the got in, and have both horns removed for good. Now I am back to a horn free herd, and am much happier.

The only other excitement since the last post, has been the continuation of the snake saga. After the bull snake adventure, I was determine to pay closer attention to were I walked, and watch out for more snakes. I guess you could say that it payed off.

Snake #2~

~was a large black snake, taking up residence in my herb garden. I tried to shoot it, missed several times, and decided to stand guard over it until Colin got home and could take care on it. Thankfully he was only about ten minutes form home, and was able to remove it form the premise for good.

At this point in time I decide that I need to practice up on the 22, so that I can deal with any snakes that come up when Colin is not there to do it for me. So the next time that he and O are practicing, I spent some time putting hole in old canning lids. After that I felt confident that I could deal with whatever came up.

Snake #3~

~was another black snake. This time it was sunbathing on the tree roots two steps frome my back porch. (Side note: I am dressed for town in a skirt, blouse, and dress shoes. Not exactly the best snake killing outfit) Having just locked the door in preparation to leave, I calmly turn around, unlock it, get the 22, shoot the snake, (it crawls under the Fiat badly wounded, so I get a 2x4 and lay it on the snake so that it can’t go any further) relock the door and leave. Colin removes the dead body when he gets home later.

Snake #4~

~is a King Snake (or a salt and pepper snake). I am watering my melons at 6a.m. and it come sliding out from under the mulch. I have a momentary thought of racing for the 22, but figure that it will be gone by the time I get back. The snake is double timing it for the woods, so I let him go. He wasn’t overly big, was actually rather pretty (did I just say that???), and seemed to understand that in the woods, he would be left to live.

So far there has not been a snake #5. I will keep you posted.

I did suffer through several nights of snake dreams. I am not sure which is worse, the real snakes, or the dreams.

Well, that is about all the news here. I think that I had better get moving on cleaning the house.

God Bless,

Rachel

My Bolg Is Not Dead!!!!

It just seems that way. Anytime that I slow way down on posting (or just don't post at all :), it is because my life is too full of other (more important) things, and I just don't have the time to give to blogging. That said, life is very busy at the moment. However, as it is extremely warm outside right now, and most of the "more important" things that I have to do are outdoors, I am taking a break in the much cooler house, and blogging. Now, having bored you to to death so far, I will try to move on to more exciting things. But no promises. Everyday life is usually not all that exciting. Thank goodness, because if it was, we would all be worn to a frazzle very quickly.

Okay, so the news form here. The garden is in, the animals a well and healthy, the dogs are very lazy, the pigs are even lazier, the weather is too hot, the baby goats are all sold (except the two that we are keeping), I am tired of summer already, and Colin cut his finger today and had to get three stitches in it.

One of the less mundane, more exciting events (those that do not occur on a regular basis) is this:

*

A couple of days ago Lizzy was over here to help me with some gardening (and watch a funny movie) and we found a large, gray snake in the yard by the milking shed. She watched the snake while I went for the gun. The 22 was handy, having just been used in defense against some bad birdies that needed to go bye-bye, so I grabbed it. Unfortunately it was jambed, and while I struggled to fix it (Liz hurrying me along), the snake disappeared into the (very) tall grass of the goat pen. At first I was not too bothered. It was a bull snake, not dangerous, and it had headed for the woods. Then I started to remember more about it, thinking about how small the head had looked compared to the body. I told Liz that I though it was full of eggs, and that I was glad it was gone because I did NOT want it to lay them under my stacks of hay in the barn (mentally picturing myself walking in one morning to do the milking and seeing snakes everywhere). Alas! I spoke too soon. Later that evening, Colin and I were down by the pig pen talking, as we headed back up, I wasn't paying much attention to where I stepped. I had just passed the exact spot where the snake had been earlier when Colin says, "oh look, there's the snake again". You can imagine my reaction. Standing on top of a pile of 2x4's I asked him what I could do to help him kill it. We got the gun and shot it (okay, HE shot it and I stood in the 2x4's), but the snake was not about to give up. It disappeared again, and we knew that it was in the milking shed. After examining the blood trail, we discovered it (you will never guess), under the pallets that hold the hay. I won't go into the gory details, but I will say that it was very determined to make it all the way under, and we were very determined not to let it. We won. Half an hour later, it was finished of for good, and the multiple eggs that it was carrying were finished too. After thinking about it for a while, Colin decided that it must have been in the barn for several days, because the cats had refused to sleep in there, and would not even come in at milking time to lick up the extra milk. This did not contribute a good feeling to my already disturbed mind. What did help was seeing the corpse thrown over a cliff, and knowing that snakes do not run (or would it be slither) in pairs. Now the cats are back in the barn, and I am carefully checking the floor over before I enter!

Well, time moves on, and so must I. Check back when you get a chance, my life may slow down a bit and I'll try to get some pictures up.

God Bless,

R.

*No, I did not pause in my snake killing to take a picture. This is just one that I got online, that looks like the one we killed.

My Other Spring Post

Okay, here is my repentance post. As you will see there are many things that I like about spring, and this is just a partial list.

1) Color. Most of you know how much I like colors, all colors. I have never been able to pick a favorite, but all tones of green rate very high on the list. Coming out of the grays, whites, and browns of winter, the greens of Spring fill me with joy everyday.

2) Rain showers. Not storms, but the delightful "spring showers" that clean the pollen off of everything, and make the grass and flowers grow.

3) Baby animals. Need I say more?

4) Starting the garden. I like working in the dirt and watching things grow.

5) Flowers. Gathering up what ever is blooming, and filling a vase.......

6) The smell of newly mowed lawns and hay fields. If the color green had a scent, that's what it would be.

7) Blue skies and puffy white clouds.

8) Hanging clothes out on the line.

9) Having the windows open.

10) Bonfires and starlit nights.

There, now I have everything evened out. However, before I move on to something else I would like to add a P.S. to my last post. Right after posting it (as in only a matter of hours), I had a tick bite me under one of my socks, killed three hornets in my greenhouse, sneezed until I lost count, and saw two snakes. One snake was a copperhead of about 2' or so, which I killed by crushing it with a large rock (I couldn't shoot it because it was curled up on a big bolder). So, my complaints were valid, although it is not everyday that so many of them occur at once!

Now, on to some pictures.

Our new baby chickens and turkeys. This was taken several weeks ago, and they are both much bigger, and much uglier now. :)

I have always wanted a dogwood tree in my yard, so you can guess at my excitement when the "mystery tree" in our front lawn bloomed out to be one that first spring! Now it is something that I look forward to each year.

This land is literally covered with redbud trees. They add so much to the woods and riverbanks.

A sampling of the violets that grow all over the yard. I have never seen so many violets before, and I really hate having to mow them down. This year I transplanted some more of them into my herb garden and flower beds where they can bloom without fear. :)

Well, that all for now.

God Bless,

Rachel

My Spring Post

It seams that every blog that I visit (or at least most of them), has some lovely, thoughtful, beautiful post up right now about the wonderful season of Spring. There are pretty pictures, lists of things that are wonderful about spring, and general gushing about how great it is. :)

So, just to be different, I am putting up everything that I hate about Spring.

1) It means that summer is getting even closer. I really don't like summer.

2) The thick green layer of pollen that is on everything.

3) The allergies (coughing, sneezing, itching eyes, can't breath, sleeping for hours and still tired kind) that the a-fore said green pollen causes.

4) The emergence of hornets, wasps, and carpenter bees. All of whom live solely to terrorize me.

5) Wind from the South.

6) Bad storms (do they always have to come in the middle of the night, or when I am home by myself?).

7) Ticks.

8) Snakes.

9) Temperatures over 70.

10) Mold growing on everything, everywhere, and causing even worse allergies than the pollen.


Okay, now that I have had my little rant, I feel better. And a little guilty, after all, who can truly hate Spring? So, next post will be a list of what I like about this season. I am sure that if I think hard enough, I can come up with a few things...... :)

Ta ta for now.

God bless,

Rachel

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

Two years ago yesterday.......

......on a cold and cloudy evening, we were married (yes, it was an outdoor ceremony) . The wedding was beautiful and perfect in every way.



The two years since then have been wonderful. The Lord has answered so many of our prayers, we have met new people that have been a help and an encouragement to us, and we have grown closer to each other and the Lord.

We look forward to the years ahead and seeing what the Lord has in store for us.

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

Thea's Wedding Shower

I don't have as many pictures as I would like (I took most of them on a camera that wasn't mine), but here are a few to enjoy. Everything went very well, and I think that everyone had a good time. Thank you too all who helped get things ready, set up, served refreshments, and kept things running smoothly!

Snow and Freezing Fog

After the last big snow that we had, Colin's family came out for some fun. First they built a huge snow tower, so much more fun that the traditional snowman right? The tower just finished melting last Thursday!




Then it was time for snowball fights. The rules were everyone against everyone else, and you were never sure who was going to turn on you next!

One Wednesday I got before it was light and while listing to the news, they gave out a freezing fog advisory. I didn't think much of it until I went outside just after dawn to do chores, then I turned right around, went back inside, and got the camera. Here are some of the results.

It was one of the most stunning sights I have ever seen, and gave me such a sense of awe at the beauty that the Lord puts around us, even in this broken, ugly world. Later when the sun came out all of the little ice crystals came sparkling down through the light. It was truly overwhelmingly beautiful.