Life is never dull.

Mooky was working on his woodworking (Christmas gifts) project and sliced his first finger on his left hand pretty deep, at and below the knuckle. It was a razor knife rather than a machete this time. And the bleeding still hadn't stopped after 3 hours so we took him to the doctor who put 6 stitches in. There was some concern that since by then it had been 4 hours and it was still gushing blood, he might have cut an artery. If it is still oozing in the morning we will have to go back in.
Gotta go get the truck loaded for an early start in the morning...

Links, etc.

Hey, Kiwi has a link to a contest too! Go check it out!

Well, I got the Vision Forum Banner up on the right and today is the LAST day to order and receive an instant rebate.

Mooky had a MUCH better day today! And the weather was so nice. We got 10 more chickens butchered, and the kids played outside for hours. It's amazing how rarely that has happened lately. Mooky just hasn't felt like playing, period. This afternoon we mailed some MNAF (click there to learn about Michael New) packages at the PO in Harper, then we went to Erinn's friend's house to pick up a goat that we are borrowing for the goat show. It's a Tiffany X Splash kid, so she is half LaMancha, half Nubian, (and that is why I sold her!) but has EXCELLENT conformation.

GB is able to sleep in her bed again! So, she called and said Kris could go pick up his chair. He is asleep in it and I suspect he is going to give it a warm welcome home by sleeping there half the night! That recliner does not look that comfy since it has wooden arms, but it is the MOST comfy chair ever.

I've only gotten 2 to 3 pounds of milk from Mad Cow the past two days. I really haven't seen her hanging out along the fence line where Aileas can stick her head through and nurse, so I am wondering if the young heifer that is on the FAR far back fence line might be pulling the same stunt? Weird. And annoying.

Hershey, who was really sick yesterday, is better today. Somewhat. Not well enough that I plan on taking her to the show though. Erinn is disappointed about that, but she understands that it would be too hard on Hershey, and we can't risk it even if she seems well by then. So, we just need to clip #1 tomorrow, since we didn't get it done today like we should have...

Vision Forum and Amazon

I have found a way to earn a little money (hopefully) to help pay for school books and educational materials for the kids.

If you are going to order from

Amazon.com or Vision Forum

and you get there by clicking on one of the links in this blog,

we will earn a small percentage.

So, if you already planned to order something, please do it through us!

It won't cost you anything extra, but it will benefit our "scholarship fund". :o)

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Also, we have a

Special Giveaway Offer

from Vision Forum!

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This offer ends on December 19 so please enter right away by leaving a comment on today's blog (Dec. 13) so I can get your name in the drawing.

The prize is: The League of Grateful Sons (DVD)

The winner will receive the DVD, shipped directly to them from Vision Forum. This contest is only available to those of you who read this blog, so you're not competing with everyone in the entire world!

I am working on getting the links set up in case someone wants to order, but in the meantime go ahead and enter the contest by leaving your comment below!

10

Erinn helped me butcher 5 of the biggest broilers. I would have liked to grow them out a bit bigger, but the feed bill is WAY beyond acceptable. She got very cold and wet so I sent her in and did 5 more on my own. I really wanted to do 15 today, but the weather was frightful. Mooky helped me get things set up, but felt awful so I sent him in to clean the kitchen instead. He did a pretty good job!
Mad Cow got sent down to the back pasture. She wasn't choosing to stay out of the rain anyway, and I got tired of her pulling entire hay bales down out of the attic. That meant Aileas could be let out of the pen she was reluctantly sharing with Danny. (She immediately took off into the rain and didn't come back for hours.) And so Danny had his pen to himself again, the sick goat had the kid pen and the rest of the goats shared the barn with Thunderific, who took over MC's job of pulling the hay out of the loft. As soon as we use up the first 6 bales they won't be able to reach the rest.
Hershey is the goat we clipped last week and she was standing hunched up in the barn this morning. I gave her colloidal silver and Power Punch. Then after chores I gave her some kefir and massaged her rumen to try to relieve the pressure. Propped her up on my leg so her front end was higher than her hind end and she burped a few times. LOL. She started eating hay after that so hopefully she is on the mend. Who knows what caused that? (Karen thought it was pretty funny that I burped a goat today.)
We are getting 10 to 12 eggs a day now! ut, today we got 18. YAY! And I have all the nest areas blocked off to allow chickens in, and keep Hannah the Egg Thief out. Honestly, besides being nearly deaf, that is Hannah's only downfall.
Erinn and Mooky started their first fire in the woodburning stove today. They did a great job, of course, and it is so much warmer in here now.

Wet and Cold

Sick goat.
Nauseous boy.
Freezing cold rain. North wind.
Cold animals needing extra hay to keep warm.
Not enough barn space since some of them must be separated from others. Buck away from does, calf away from cow. All of them make way for the horse...
$90 spent on 10 days worth of chicken feed for the broilers. ($9.05/50 lbs, the cheapest unmedicated I can find.)
Solution: Butcher as many as possible over the next 3 days. Take a break on Saturday for the goat show, then get back to butchering again!

Nausea again...

Please pray for Mooky! He was 85% free of nausea and stomach pain from Thanksgiving to Dec 7, and we are so thankful for that time of him feeling "not too bad".
I don't know how or why, but the nausea is back with a vengeance. He struggled with it all day today and finally at suppertime it was so bad he couldn't eat more than a few bites. I made some peppermint tea for him, and after drinking it he went straight to bed.

For Teresa:

Aileas loves bread, although Mad Cow won't touch it. Hannah is begging for a piece!

The Victim

Here she is, the victim of my mistake.

#11, AKA "Hershey". Erinn's Boer doe.

You see, I thought the goat show was the 8th, rather than the 15th, which means she'll have to endure another clipping next week.... we'll also have to clip #1, AKA "Number One".

#1 belongs to Mooky and he decided that rather than giving her a real name, he would just call her by her ear tag number, and maybe that would inspire her to be a winner!

Red

Kiwi, did yall teach this dog to sit? She is super intelligent, and here is a picture of her "meeting" #1. She is pretty good about leaving the chickens alone. Sometimes I think she's chasing them, but she claims she was "just following!" She's never tried to actually grab one. If I see her "following" one I tell her to stop and she does.

Feeding Frenzy outside the Milk Room.

Aileas and Erinn

$935

from the Dollar Stretcher: the average American spends $935 for Christmas gifts every year.

!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!??? Holy smokes. I do believe you'd be giving a much better "gift" if you teach your children, by example, not to go into debt, and that expensive things don't buy happiness!

Here's a couple pics from Thanksgiving.

Sophie



Nanay feeding Deet.