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!

Summer Days

I have survived my week of Girls' Camp and am now enjoying the easy summer days at home.  The kids and I have been going to the pool in Albany a lot.  They enjoy seeing friends from church and school there.  And I enjoy being able to sit back and observe without being in the water (its cold!!!) the whole time. 

Our animals are growing steadily and thriving.  Bella is still scrawny next to her new sister, Meadow.  But she is growing and seems happy enough.  Bella has been shedding, and now that much of her longer hair has shed, she looks much better. 

The twins are happy as ever.  They were recently weaned, and did  NOT like missing babas.  But they are doing fine without them.  They enjoy all things mischievous, including climbing into our vehicles and on the lawn mower, escaping their pen, and head-butting cats.  That is so funny to watch!  Thank heavens they have yet to attack our garden... knock on wood!

The chickens look like adults already!  I know I need to begin looking for eggs soon.  Wow!  Our roosters are starting to "crow", although it sounds kinda pathetic.  They are NOT quite fully developed yet.  Almost!

Our fruits are growing, although it has rained seldom and they need a good rain.  We have squash that can be eaten any day now and have our first cucumber.  Yeah!  We need to get the knack of gardening here.  The soil is rich and absorbs water, but we have little vermin to deal with (moles, field mice, rabbits, raccoons...).  We are still learning!

Tomorrow is Cole's 7th Birthday!  He is so excited!  We need to make it fun!  ;)

Next week:  My best friend Tasha is coming with her kids to visit!  I am SO EXCITED!  I miss her and the kids SO BADLY!  And Cole and Emma miss their best friends Scott and Brooklyn.  Aubree cannot wait to see her sweet baby, Tayven (neither can I)!  Happy dance, happy dance!

Summer Break On the Farm

I haven't posted in awhile.  Whoops!  I have been busy with end of the school year stuff and the first week of summer vacation.  And my husband is officially living here, so I have been enjoying that immensely!  I kinda like having him around for some reason... ;)

Farm News:  We now have 2 little ewes (female sheep), Bella and her new "sister" Meadow.  Meadow has been here for nearly 2 weeks and is adjusting fine.  At first she was a bit freaky.  Not only is she HUGE next to Bella (momma milk, I suppose), but she had been out to pasture all her life and was NOT tame.  At all!  She would go barreling through, ramming her head against fences, to get away from us, etc.  Thank heavens for Bella!  Meadow has been used to being a part of the flock and follwing all they did.  Bella is very tame and lovey, so Meadow has learned to tolerate me and follow me into her pens.  I still am not allowed to touch her, but she doesn't freak out when I am nearby.

Bella and Meadow

Meadow being shy

All of the other animals are doing well.  They are growing quickly!  Our chickens look like adults.  The roosters (there are 3, oh heavens!) are starting to crow a bit, fight a bit, and one is even "acting his part".  Blech!  We will keep one, maybe two.

Our chickens are growing up nicely

Capt'n Dudley Haddock (Cole named him) is watching over his ladies

The twins are so cute and fun!  They are into everything and are little Houdinis!  We have to make sure their enclosures are VERY secure!  They love playing around, climbing on everything, and head-butting anything.  Emma made the mistake of playing "head-butt" with the twins one afternoon.  She ended up regretting it (sore bum and forehead)!

Cheese & Sprinkles are growing quickly and loving life

The twins love torturing the cats (head butting them), and Ruby is ever vigilant

Fun stuff:  We got are garden going with tomatoes, swiss chard, green beans, yellow squash, zuchini, cucumbers, and watermelons.  Yum!  It was HARD WORK (especially when the ground hasn't been worked in a few years)!  We had to till several times, hoe into into rows, plant, and mulch it (straw).  But it looks nice.  We cannot wait to get some veggies!



We now officially have baby grapes!  We have 3-4 old Concord grape vines going strong.  How awesome will it be to have fresh juice and jam?!

A nice close up, the bunch is about 2 1/2 inches long

Glorious, glorious grapes!

The coolest thing...

We have a PEAR TREE that is producing highly!  We didn't even know we had a pear tree!

AND we have TWO.... drum roll, please... APPLE TREES!  Woohoo!  I am just a bit excited.  Can't you tell?

Okay, okay.  The fuits are only about 1 inch long right now.  But how cool is that?!

I should probably say something about my kids... they love summer!!!

Barnyard Babies

Okay, so I LOVE living here!  It is so much fun to see all of my little barnyard babies growing up.  They are so adorable and entertaining.  And of course they are work.  But that's a given.  Any mother knows that.  I have 5.  I am no stranger to work.

Chickie babies:  I love my chickens and it's apparent that they love me, too.  Every time mommy goes into their run, they go crazy, running and crowding around my feet.  It is not uncommon to have them fly into my arms momentarily, then fly back down to my feet.  I can hardly take a step without someone squawking, because I accidentally squished their toe.  It is both funny and annoying.  Last night would have been quite humorous for someone to watch.  It took me a good 20 minutes or more to get them into their broader house for bedtime.  They would only go in their house if I went in and as soon as I'd try to leave, some would escape with me.  Stinkers!  To top it off, our cat was stalking the run and waiting to catch a tasty snack (like she could actually do more than scratch them -- she's the size of a large kitten!). Needless to say, it was not so funny to me.

Baby Bella:  jealousy, envy, spite... this describes her focus right now.  Those twins have stolen her spotlight and she will have none of that!  She has been kicking, head butting, and nipping the girls.  Not nice.  Thank heavens she only has a few flat teeth on the bottom!  For mommy, me, she mostly avoids me or nips at me .  But if one of the girls come near me to snuggle, she pushes her way to me to reclaim her throne!  I swear she reminds me of my Emma...

Cheese and Sprinkles:  Sweetie pie babies!  They are so fun to watch as they frolic and play.  They are little acrobats and climbers.  Cheese seems to be our most inquisitive, precocious, and mischievous of the two.  She is our natural leader.  She doesn't miss a thing and has to be in the middle of it all. No wonder Zoe chose her for her own, they have a lot in common!  Sprinkles is our laid back, affectionate girl.  A little reminiscent of Aubree...

Yesterday Cheese was showing off for us.  She would go running really fast and skid to a stop on the concrete porch.  She did it a number of times with a look of satisfaction.  On her next attempt, she lost her footing and fell over, skidding on her side to a stop in the grass.  We all laughed and she was pleased with the response.  She immediately arose and did a few acrobatic jump and flips that only a goat can do.  So cute!

Chicks N Such

Thought I'd put up some recent pics of the chicks and other animals.  They are getting so big!

The golden ones (Buff Orpingtons) are SO much bigger than the others...

This Barred Rock is watching the excitement.

These ladies are dining in tonight.

Princess Bella is growing so fast!

Our sweet Ruby has proven to be quite the flock guardian!  The other day some of the ladies escaped and we caught her with a chick in her mouth!  But on closer inspection, she was NOT biting down, she was carrying it to us!  The chick was fine and since then , Ruby warns us of impending danger.  She even reminds us to put them up in the evenings and check their food and water!

...And you've seen our new twins... Cheese and Sprinkles!

Double Trouble

May I introduce our newest additions, Swiss Cheese (Cheese) and Sprinkles. They are twin doelings, female Alpine dairy goats, about 4 weeks in age. And they are doubly sweet! And double the work! LOL.

We bought them on Tuesday. Zoe was able to pick her favorite as her birthday present! She named hers Swiss Cheese, Cheese for short. Naturally we wanted to name the other one something that would go with Cheese. The kids picked Sprinkles. Its a line from the movie Rio...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ObyZxbavuw&feature=youtu.be

They are nearly inseparable. They are very affectionate and lots of fun. And of course they will be making lots of cheese and milk for us in the future. Yum!

Bella has been bitten by the green eyed monster lately. She is NOT pleased to be sharing the spotlight with the twins. She avoids them and has made it clear she is avoiding me, except at feeding time. She is especially annoyed that she has been put on a "diet" since their arrival. We have been apparently feeding her too much. She looks like a beast next to the little squirts. Poor Bella! ;)

Welcome to the family, Cheese...

And Sprinkles!

We love you!