Hardly Working

Hard Workers

John 1 (King James Version)

John 1:1-5
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2The same was in the beginning with God.

3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Psalm 1 (King James Version)

Psalm 1
1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

The Land of the Gluten Free and the Home of the Brave!

The guys filled the barn loft with hay, and we had gluten free spagetti for lunch. There is a brisket on the smoker for supper, so hopefully Mum and Zoe will make it here by then.
The boys finished their chores and are now playing computer. They even got another verse memorized today. Things got a little hectic yesterday so we didnt get any memory work done.
The girls got their fingernails painted.... and... got an awful lot of playing done... and all the morning chores (animal feed, teeth brushed, and a few little kitchen jobs). But they have not made it any farther on their list. They are just having WAAAY too much fun! :o)
They did get the GF Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies made yesterday. They were EXCELLENT!!!!

Friday

More pictures...








More pictures...

PURPLE

We had a busy day today. The boys left at 6 AM to help Kris get a load of fire wood, and didnt get home until noon. The Ogeas got here around 10 and we made soap and the kids rode Thunder. Then we all had lunch. After the Ogeas left at two, we went and picked up 30 bales of HAY. Kris found some guy in Harper selling some good Sudan hay for $3 a bale!! 30 bales, with what we already have in the loft, oughta get us through the winter. We hope.

Then, Uncle Kris told the kids we'd take them to the river again. SCREAMS OF EXCITEMENT!!

This picture is of the Purple soap I made today - just for Teresa. :o)

Blurry Boys

Pillow Fight


I gave up on trying to take pictures for boys who wont POSE!!! And worse yet, when they see the camera they run, hide, stick out their tongues, cross their eyes or hide behind each other!
So, I sent Erinn and Tana off with the camera and told them each to take 3 pictures of the boys, with the threat that if they refused to pose they couldnt play computer. (Do I get Mean Mom Points?) And here's a sample of what they came back with...

Dalton

The boys are on the move so much that I can't get any good pictures of them! Most of them are blurry. Well,I suppose I could have taken a bunch of them frozen in front of the computer, but that would be kind of boring.
I'll try to get some pictures of them helping Kris stack and split firewood this afternoon.

Soap Making!

We had some small chunks of soap in molds that got spilled. Here are the cleaner-uppers! After it was all cleaned up, we made a big batch of soap, some of which we poured over those small colorful chunks. The resulting soap is really pretty!



Here's Tana doing some of the mixing.




I have never seen such a colorful batch of soap!! Pretty, huh?

Jeans

The girls went prepared to wade, wearing shorts and sandals, and waded in right up to their necks. The boys wore blue jeans! They moaned and groaned about how they should have worn shorts (hey, I warned them before we left!!) and Kris said that was no excuse not to swim, so in they went, blue jeans and all.

River

The boys got another chance to ride the four wheelers today, but they had to listen to a long list of detailed instructions first. :o) They were much more careful this time, and arrived safely at the river, 2 miles away. We followed them in the truck, not letting them out of our sight for even a minute.

Is that you, Charlotte?

Morning Routine

Milk the goats...


Then, you round 'em up on the 4 wheeler and lock them up in the back pasture.









If there are any stragglers who wont be "rounded" you simply give them a four wheeler ride! And, watch out for that cow!

Wednesday

Here is the result of the girls hard work! :o)















We had a great day Wednesday! As far as schoolwork, we did math (a computer game), handwriting and Bible (copying verses onto paper, and working on memorization). Science was smoke bombs and candling eggs. (Shh! Dont tell the kids that was school!)

Dalton and Mooky got up in the loft and brought down 3 of the banty's eggs for me to check and see if they are fertile. We only have one banty rooster for the 6 banty hens, so I wasnt sure if the eggs were any good, and I didnt want her sitting up there on duds! Two of the three eggs were fertile so the boys gave those back to her. Gently I hope, so the babies didnt get scrambled.

Tuesday night the back pasture gate got left open and Lily went down there and had a grand reunion with Aileas.
...grrr...


So, on Wednesday morning after milking the goats, we put them down there and closed the gate. Erinn went way back down there on Thunder to herd Lily back up to the house. There was no point in milking her at that point because Aileas had already gotten it all! I'm going to have to order a calf weaner for her so they can stay together. They both are upset about being separated. And I really want to be able to keep Aileas up here at least part of the time to keep her used to us. She has come so far in letting us pet her, etc, and I dont want to lose that. She is such a sweet calf. Let's hope Lily's mean ways dont rub off on her!

We did not get any soap made, so that is on the list for Thursday. The kids have been too busy to even make the Chocolate chocolate chip cookies!

The kids have been such a great help. Besides the usual chore list, they cleaned the stove top really well, put fresh hay in all the nests, cleaned off the deck, hung out a bunch of clothes, put all the ice chests where they belong, picked up little bits of trash from all around outside, and were an enormous help while still managing to have lots of time to run and play.






Erinn will say to Tana, "C'mon!" and every time Tana will reply, "I'm c'moning!"

Oatie, Astro, and Kuzko have gone back home. It was really weird to milk the goats without Oatie being there! I am milking 6 goats, and Oatie is such a good milker that it really makes a difference in the amount I get. Karen asked me if I kissed Kuzko goodbye since he is going into the freezer very soon. I told her NO WAY! I try very hard not to get attached to the wethers who are destined for the freezer, so kissing them is out of the question. LOL We are all looking forward to seeing the Ogeas tomorrow and hoping that Mum, Alex, and any tag-alongs will come too.

First things first.

Insurance Companies

We've just been given a good example of why insurance companies charge so much more to cover young men than they charge young ladies.
Erinn and Tana wanted to ride the four wheeler to look for Thunder. So, I cautioned them about going slowly, and how you have less control when there are two of you on there, etc. So, off they went calmly and enjoyed themselves muchly, and came back safely.




Later, Dalton and Mooky wanted to ride. NOT on the same four wheeler though! (Of course not.) They roar away after an admonition from Kris to take it easy. So, I flag them down ASAP and warn them to GO SLOWER. "Take it easy means not to go so fast, not to stir up so much dust, not to go so fast around corners, and not to get so close to each other, dont go near the animals, or the girls on the horse, and for goodness sakes dont get hurt!" (Did I make it clear enough?) Apparently not.

My definition of "too fast around corners" was somehow quite different than theirs! Mine meant stay on 4 wheels. Theirs didnt. !!!! Someone took a spill, and his name shall remain anonymous so as not to embarrass him. They'll have to find some other form of entertainment tomorrow. :o)

House full of LAUGHTER!

We're HOME!! It's so nice to have all 4 of the kids here together.
First order of business: See who is the tallest, and take a pic to prove that Dalton is gaining on Mooky! If they both stood up straight they gain a couple inches. :o)




















First thing to do for the girls was go look for Thunder. THEN, they stood still for a pic.

Monday

Monday

Mooky took a shower Sunday night before bed because he was nauseous, then he woke up about 2 AM feeling much more nauseous and took another shower! He is one clean kid. Monday was not a good day for him. He was extremely fatigued along with the nausea and he had a fever.
A friend asked me if he has ever been tested for cystic fibrosis. I looked it up since I know nothing about it, and found that the symptoms are usually respiratory, along with digestive problems. None of the symptoms really match except stomach aches.
Mean Lily: I got nearly 2 gallons of milk from her yesterday (I only milk once a day) and she behaved perfectly while I milked her. It makes such a difference to have the fly problem under control. There is a tiny banty hen setting on a nest of eggs up in the far reaches of the loft, so while I milk I am always listening for the up high peep of baby chicks. It's hard because there are plenty of little peeps coming from the chicks eating the oats Lily drops under her feeder. Three of Erinn's banty hens have hatched out Ameracauna chicks so far, but this one up in the loft escaped my attention for who-knows-how-long, so I didnt take her tiny eggs away from her and replace them with full size eggs. As soon as they hatch I will move her to the chicken pen for a few days, and then let her run free with the other chickens.
Garden: It's out of control!! A weed jungle. More volunteer tomato plants popped up than I can handle. And they are all tiny little cherry tomatoes! Last year we did a pretty good job of weed control... and I finally realized that it is because I had one more helper last year than I do this year!
So, I decided to let a few chickens into the garden. They ate tomatoes and bugs for 2 days before I let them out. Those stupid Cornishes ate too much and were drooling red tomato juice. Lovely.




Cheese: I went through the freezer trying to figure out which milk was in there before The (not so) Great Thaw, and which milk I put in there afterwards. I pulled out 7 gallons and thawed it all out to see what was good and what was bad. 2 gallons looked yucky so it went to the chickens and the pig, and I made a big pot of cottage cheese with the rest. This way, I can be sure that any milk I send to Mum/Kiwi/Halcy will be fresh and good. I was thinking about how I wish I could make cheddar cheese, and then I wouldnt be buying ANY cheese. And I decided to see how often I could substitute homemade cottage cheese for store bought cheddar. I made fajitas for supper and instead of topping them with shredded cheddar, I mixed some cottage cheese into the pan. Mooky and I ate ours on corn tortillas and Kris ate his on flour tortillas. It was GREAT! I used venison and homegrown bell peppers.



Tuesday

Mooky slept better last night, so I am hoping he will have a better day! He was out doing his chores at the first hint of light, so that's a good sign.

Dead Horse?

Erinn wanted to see how close she could get before he woke up. And she got pretty close!

Erinn went to Hico on Friday. She caught a ride with the Ogeas who were going right through there and graciously offered to take kids and/or cargo. On Monday she and Nanay (and Alex?) will go to East Texas and pick up Dalton and Tana! YAY!! Hopefully by Tuesday they will all be here.
Mooky and I have been keeping busy on various projects. Kris has been fixing an old JC Higgins shotgun that belonged to his grandfather and Daniel's 30-30. The local gunsmith is worse then useless so Kris decided to see what he could do himself. He can fix just about anything, so it came as no surprise to me that he just needs a part to fix the shotgun (if he can find one!)and one last missing screw to be finished with Daniel's gun.
This morning the lady we often farm sit for stopped by to say hi right when I had just started milking Mean Lily. I was very glad that the barn was clean and free of flies! Yesterday we spent hours rigging up chicken proof areas so the chickens cant roost right by where I need to milk. Then I used the pressure sprayer and cleaned that whole mess out of there. Why cant those stupid chickens roost in the chicken house? I am not going to feed them in the barn anymore. I have been putting their feed in the chicken house and only the ones that actually sleep in there have found it. The rest will go hungry until they find it!!!
After the neighbor left I fixed gluten free cheeseburger mac for Mooky and glutenized cheeseburger mac for Kris. Then I made some gluten free graham crackers to snack on and to use for graham cracker pie crust. I have some really thick cream that I want to try to make cream cheese out of. I also am making yogurt and butter today.