Aileas

The reason I put Mad Cow down in the back pasture with Aileas is because when I milked this morning I got less than a quart and a half of milk! I had no idea why she had dropped in production so suddenly, so I thought I would put her down with Aileas and maybe having a nursing calf would encourage her to produce more. After I came back in the house Mooky told me that he had seen Aileas stick her head through the fence and try to nurse. He said he didn't think to tell me about it because Lily stepped away immediately and swung her head at Aileas. Hearing that changed my mind about having Lily down there, so I brought her back up here around noon. Later in the day Erinn was feeding Aileas handfuls of oat grass out of the garden and she saw Aileas stick her head through the fence and nurse. Bummer. I don't know WHAT to do now!
Mooky's stomach is hurting really bad tonight. I gave him a haircut at 8pm and then he took a shower, so he's up much later than usual.

Kris called and said that he is enjoying visiting with Jordan (his nephew) out at the cabin. He'll be home in the morning! It's been a long 2 days without him home. The kids are disappointed that they won't get to see Jordan on this trip, but since neither one of them is interested in hunting they didn't go to the cabin. You'd be bored to tears if you weren't hunting.

Erinn helped me make soap today. We have a new mold with a doe and kid on it. The soap turned out REALLY nice looking!

Viking Tales

by Jennie Hall

Mooky says this is a good book. I assigned the first chapter as mandatory reading. After that, he just started reading several chapters a day on his own.

MILK

Hmmm, seems like the twins had a birthday five whole days ago and I still haven't seen a single picture! (I don't want to hear any excuses about how the party isn't until this weekend.) We were promised pictures of them in their matching knitted outfits, for goodness sakes!! :o)

Got Milk?

Don't Even Try It!

Mooky caught a few older chickens for me this morning so I can get busy on the first step to making chicken broth. He is really looking forward to some delicious gluten free dressing for Thanksgiving. He felt pretty bad yesterday but is better today. He got up at 5:30 and ate a nice healthy breakfast of venison, onions, eggs, and cheese on top of corn tortillas. Then he went out and caught chickens, watered the animals, fed the pig, carried the dirty clothes out and helped me move the chicken pens. Most of that was done before it even got light! Then he came in and did his math. I guess he forgot that it's Saturday, and I certainly didn't remind him. :o) We actually do schoolwork no matter what day of the week it is if he is feeling good because you never know when he is going to be feeling too bad to think straight.

Persistence pays off!

Our Bible memory for this week:

The kids are already pretty familiar with this so it shouldn't take long.
Psalm 23 KJV

1The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Birth Verse

Birth Verse (Click here, and enter your birthday to find out your "birth verse".)


2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV
If my people, who are called by my name,
will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin
and will heal their land.

Good links

Chickens on their roosts.

Some reading that I have enjoyed lately. Thanks to Mum and Kiwi for these links.

Priorities.

Homemaking.

Suffering.

Holy Experience.

Kris left at 4:30 this morning to go to the cabin, so I went ahead and did some of my outside chores after we got the ice chests into the truck. It's pretty cold, but at least there wasn't too much wind. The broilers are a hassle to keep warm, but they seem to be doing well. We still have all 50 of them!

Yesterday the kids and I piled the wagon high with hay that was on the barn floor. (The Cow drops a lot when she is eating.) The sides on the wagon are pretty high so you can cram a lot of hay in there. We took it up to the pig pen, with Lily chasing us the whole way!

When the pigs were little we let them sleep in the barn with the goats and they'd burrow so deep into the hay that you couldn't even see them. So, I figured Bacon might like some hay to keep him warm, although I suspected he might just root around in it and scatter it everywhere. Which he did. Oh well, so much for that idea! (So I thought.) Later in the day I went to check on the situation and the hay that had been scattered everywhere was now neatly piled in a 3'x5' oval. NO KIDDING! And there was a hollowed out place running the length of the oval. It looked like a huge hot dog bun made of hay. :o) There were a few bits of hay here and there among the rocks, but he had done a fine job of gathering most of it up. Maybe I should invite him in to clean the house for me?

Grand

Here's an old picture of Erinn reading "Black Beauty" on Grand. She was such a great horse for learning on. She also was easy to catch and easy to load! Thunder is not very easy to catch and won't load at all. Maybe he would load in an open stock trailer like his previous owner had, but he hates the dark little two horse trailer we borrowed from Tommy.

On Monday when I went to town the truck suddenly wouldn't start, and it turned out to be the battery. Kris bought a new one with a 3 year warranty, so it wasn't cheap but it was the smart way to go. And, believe it or not, I actually put the receipt in the correct file as soon as he handed it to me. Wow.

Alex's new glasses, and her Weird Uncle. :o)

Happy Birthday to Kris, Deet, and Sophie!

SOPHIE

DEET
Deet and Sophie are one year old today!! And Kris is not. :o)

I must confess that I stole your pictures off your website Halcy!

I had a really long post written earlier. I was working on it in between my other chores, whenever I got a chance. Blogger usually saves it automatically, but this time it didn't. I had some weird "windows error" and it disappeared. Gggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

April '07

Gabby, Erinn and Alex feeding Toastie, Tex, Arkansas and Little.

Gabby got the giggles when they were feeding the kids, and could barely hold the bottle because she was laughing so hard.
The musicians! (Notice Gabby's flyswatter violin!)

Two Kids

Dancing Tree Ranch Diamond


These are the only two kids we are keeping that were born this year. Diamond was given to us as a 3 week old. Her mother only had half an udder, so the stronger twin got all the milk. When we got her she had a bad case of pink eye and although I treated it aggressively and most of it cleared up, she still has a spot on one eye. I kept her quarantined in the kitchen for 3 weeks to be sure that none of our other goats caught it from her, and she became a little pet. We don't intend to keep Boers, so I may eventually sell her if I can find just the right home. OR, we will just keep her to produce meat kids, but the problem will be finding a Boer buck to breed her to.

Four Mile Velvet River Valley

The one and only purebred Nubian kid born here in 2007.

She's a keeper!

Oh shoot. We were going to town today to get groceries and a few special items for Kris' birthday dinner, and Mooky said he'd like to go with us. But, now he is terribly nauseous and his stomach hurts, so he may have to stay home. I swear. He was laying on our bed this morning and he said, "It's like having a year long stomach virus and you're so nauseated that you wish you could just throw up and get it over with."

Sunday 11-11

Almond kissing Erinn, and one of Erinn's Silver Laced Wyandotte hens. She has two SW hens, plus quite a few banties. Mooky has two Dark Rhode Island Reds, that he doesn't care about. :o) Really, the only animal he likes are cats. (is cats? are cats? oh boy, it's past my bedtime.)

This is what the cinnamon soap turned out looking like. Not too bad, just soft.

After having NO MILK yesterday, I was hopeful that Lily would have the regular amount today, but she didn't even have a gallon. Better than nothing (and I was thankful to get it after getting NONE yesterday), but I gave her some extra alfalfa pellets this afternoon to boost production. Since Dana hasn't totally bounced back to having enough milk for twins, and extra for us, we really need that cow milk! Thankfully, Dana is feeding the twins plenty now, though. I didn't even give them a bottle at all today. Since Lily is fine with any calf nursing we are considering getting a calf for her to raise. But, we would need to wait until February so that we will have plenty of goat milk to replace her milk, and she may be too far along in her pregnancy by then to raise a calf.

Mooky finally had a better day! His left knee was killing him, so he had trouble walking,

but all-in-all he felt better. Still starving every minute of the day though. HELP!!!

Bull

YIKES.

I was making cinnamon goat milk soap yesterday and got a little distracted. I forgot to put the safflower oil in!! The whole mess started seizing up in the pot, so I quickly started spooning it into molds... but before I was done everything in the pot got way too thick to move.

I had to cut/scrape it all out and into the crockpot to rebatch. It was a big mess. I hope it never happens again! And I hope I got all traces of it out of the crockpot afterwards or I wont be able to cook in it again.

The soap turned out rather soft, but it smells good. I guess it will just take longer to cure. (?)

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