Autumn Around Us...

I haven't posted in months and I have been chastised for it.  Repeatedly.  I have been busy, but also just very lazy.  The kids started school in mid-August.  How nice is it to have ALL the kids in school all day 4 days a week?! (We don't have school on Mondays here...)  So nice that I have become lazy and spoiled.  My only 'job' is maintaining the house and caring for our animals.  And still I am surprisingly behind on laundry.  ugh!

This is the kids' first day of school.  Dallin would not cooperate.  Emma is in K, cole in 2nd, Zoe in 4th, Aubree in 6th (Jr.High), and Dallin is in 8th grade.  They ride the bus together to and from school.  It is so nice.

I cannot believe my baby is in school!

Our animals are doing well. 

Our 23 hens are producing eggs too well.  We have been gathering 18+ eggs a day for months.  We simply cannot give them away fast enough.  I have been offering hens to friends to alleviate the massive amounts of eggs.  Fried eggs, boiled eggs, poached eggs, scrambled eggs... Just the look of eggs make me feel queasy...

Check out this monster sized egg we found one day.  It is next to a medium sized egg.

On a good note... one of our hens hatched some chicks!  2 survived.  "HennyPenny" is currently raising her babies and they are in the "homely" stage.  One may be a rooster.

We lost one of our goats, Sprinkles a few months back.  We had tied her out and she strangled herself.  We were really sad. :(

Our surviving goat, Cheese, is healthy, but highly annoying.  What was once "cute" is now a nuisance.  She thinks it is precious to sit on our laps.  When an animal is 100+ lbs with horns... so NOT precious!  I have started tethering her in the yard, because otherwise she can get out of her enclosure in 1 second.  Allowing her to wander freely means tons of poop on the front steps and the possibility of a goat running in the house.  Both are uncool.  Trying to get a goat out of the drivers seat is always fun, as is trying to unload groceries.  I have to fight her for the bread and veggies every time.  And the most awesome thing: imagine welcoming guests to your door, with goat droppings everywhere.  "You know you're a red-neck when..."

Nice.

We had purchased another lamb as a sister for Bella to hang out with.  They love being with the goat, too.  The sheep (Bella & Meadow) are healthy, large, and so sweet.  Compared to our goat, anyway.  They are very attached to Cheese, so sometimes they get loose and get in trouble also.  But they are followers that are much easier to handle.  Fun stuff.

It is nearly time to breed the goat and sheep.  I cannot wait for them to be mothers. Meadow will be a wonderful mother.  She loves to "mother" the cats.  She even beat up my mom's pup when he pestered the cats.  LOL.

At least Cheese will earn her keep with some milk!  Mmmm!  Chevre...

My children have been enjoying school (mostly) and the wonderful Fall weather.  Of course it is hot some days and cold the next, but that is fun to us.  This morning we awoke to frost and ice everywhere! Emma had a blast "skating" across a mud puddle.

We had a Fall Festival with a Hay ride at the Branch on a nice cool day.  We had a blast.  Halloween was fun.  But as usual I did not take pictures.  We are looking forward to having Thanksgiving with the Branch at the church.  We love it here!