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So why haven't I been blogging??? Well, from windstorms that took out our dish reception.... to negotiations with Hughesnet to get it fixed without charges..... to very poor service once it was repaired....to my daughter cancelling it because she was so disgusted with the service.....to trying AOL dialup and it not working very efficiently.... well, that is why I haven't been able to blog let alone down load pics to the blog either. And as far as our goat milking adventure, ho hum, it is quite a challenge. Starberry kicks and struggles and fusses and hardly lets out a drop. Havanah is very scared and seemed to let you milk her but now has to be dragged to the stand and then she squats down to not let you do it. How long can a person straddle a goat bent over the goat's behind trying to either milk them or hold them tight so someone else can milk them? Owwww our aching backs..... Does anyone tell you in the goat manuals how little comes out and how long it takes to get anything out? Nope, noone. I felt like such a failure today trying to go out and do my share and then wanting to have gyros for supper from goat meat later on, tee hee.....Ah well... we shall keep trying I guess. See you the next time AOL works or I am at the libary..... Blessings. |
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My youngest son Tim started a brand new life in Colorado last fall. He is going to an herbal college to learn about nutritional and natural healing. Although it has been difficult to find work out there he has found some income by working on an alpaca ranch. He finally sent some pictures to the family. The latest one is of his new mohawk haircut. They just had several snowstorms out his way.
A friend took this one as they were out hiking and caving, his new hobby.
It is beautiful out there in the Rocky Mountains.
Blessings. |
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The first baby goats are now three weeks old and the milking supplies have arrived and been gathered together. My daughter got up bright and early to milk Star Berry this morning. Last night began the preparations with first separating the babies into a separate pen from the mama goat. That went ok although they looked a llittle confused about it all. Later when checking on them they seemed fine. My daughter then assembled all the equipment on the kitchen counter. No, not the bananas but my daughter did say you can feed them to goats. I don't know who said it though.
Then this morning it wasn't as easy as hoped for since Star is a first time milker and so is my daughter. With wiggling, and struggling, and a hoof in the pail this was what she ended up with at the end.
This is a wide mouth pint size canning jar we use as a drinking glass. Anyway it was delicious. Dwarf Nigerian goat's milk does NOT have a goatee flavor at all. It tastes rich and creamy, a lot of fat percentage in it. So we all a sip of raw goat's milk today. YUMMY! Blessings. |
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Here are the doeling and buckling from exactly three weeks ago.
And here are the pair of doelings from today.
Blessings. |
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Here is a great site to visit and get a free newsletter. You can enter a contest to win a wonderful sewing machine too. It is called YOU CAN QUILT THIS! Blessings. |
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I actually saw the first robin of spring a long time ago when we had lost the internet. In fact I saw a pair of them on the grass. A few days after that I saw the first flock of robins of spring. They covered the farm there were so many. I scared everyone when I saw the first robin by screaming my head off...."there, look there it is, I winnnnnnnnnnnn....." or screams to that effect.
But then my world came crashing down. My son in law came home to tell me that Granny (my mom) who he had been staying with back then while working in the city told him she saw the first robin of spring. This was at least a week later after I saw my first robin. Granny was so excited and told my sil to be sure and tell me while explaining to him the whole family story of seeing the first robin each year. The problem is it never seems to count if someone else has seen one before dear Granny's eyes spot them. She will usually say she saw one before that even if it is January first. So for the record I did see the first one even if I am telling you weeks later. And Granny does not read this so she will never know. Blessings. |
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OK let's do this again after accidently deleting it. I wish I knew how to find stuff when I do that. This is our kitchen bay window with tomatoes, parsley, herbs, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and celery.
Our toliet paper rolls in a tray.
Our dairy cartons.
Our empty food trays.
Our cut in half gallon milk cartons
Our large tray of mesclun. If this grows good indoors we will leave it here.
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Blessings.|
Here is a link to understand your type of government. The governement has taken to much control lately. is it still a republic? You tell me. At Team Bettendorf find it. Blessings. |
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EVen though not too many people read this blog, mostly family to keep in touch, I am compelled to continue. And now that Hugesnet is restored and working right now this morning (who knows if it will work later as it didn't work right yesterday and the day before) I want to show you the old pics of the baby goats who are now three weeks old. My how time flies.
The doeling is black and the buckling is white. Mom's head is in here too. She had been a great mom. My daughter helping her out at drying them off. It was cold that night.
My daughter put off checking if labor had started all evening till about 9:30 or later and lo and behold what should she spy as she looked into the birthing pen. Two little baby goats already arrived. Noone got to see the birth so we are happy it went well but disappointed we did not experience it. The grandies were thrilled to see the babies the next day.
Another pic of the buckling later on in his life of three weeks. For some reason goat eyes come out blue in pics just like people eyes come out red.
The doeling standing up. They stand, run, jump, rear up, hop, skip, etc. all of it now. They chase each other all around and up and down the straw bale, so cute.
Our weather has been the greates lately but we are set to get the front that has caused blizzard conditions in Colorado. The weathermen don't seem to know how it will affect us for sure yet. Snow, some snow, rain, thunderstorms,they don't know this but they do know it will be cooler than we have gotten used to. And we always have the wind so that does not have to be predicted. Blessings. |
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Right now I am at the libary in town. When we had our last wind storm the internet went out and still is out. Negotiations are in progress in getting it restored. One of our mama goats had a doeling and a buckling a week ago Wednesday all by herself. No pics right now because of being at the library. They are so cute. The mama fooled us and acted fine and settled down for the night. She had been nannying all day acting funny so noone checked on her until later in the evening. My daughter then discovered the already born kids. In other news the weather has been great with spring like temps and warm sunshine. We have been working on the garden a lot and some spring cleaning. Hope to be blogging again soon! Blessings. |
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Wow time sure does fly quickly when I don't blog. We did have HughesNet issues for a few days too. Well today is a milestone in my life, another birthday. Not old enough for most senior discounts, not old enough fo social security, not old enough to be waited on hand and foot, gee what good is it getting older at this particular time in life. It is like a void you go through. You start to get older, get fatter, get wrinkles, get sags but still can't qualify for discounts and governement money.But I am old enough to make two sunbonnets for the girl grandies and forget where in the world they are. I cannot find them anywhere! Gee whiz! flowers for my birthday
Baby L loves the goats
Warning, graphic picture at the end of this blog of a goat's udder that had to be shaved. This was after my daughter finished shaving, graphic pic next.
This is what happens near the end of the pregnancy.
Blessings. |
Any day now we expect the kids.|
Although we have had a cold spell again here with temps in the twenties during the day and teens at nigh with that old north wind blowing I think spring is coming. One of the signs of spring are the return of the Red-winged black birds. We have been getting a lot of birds at the feeders through the end of winter: sparrows/wrens (never can remember which is which), cardinals, woodpeckers, starlings of course, and now a Red-winged blackbird. I could hear it calling high up in the maple tree one day last week.
We don't normally see them around here. Since last summer was our first summer here I might not remember seeing them along the highways. This summer I will be on the look out for them. Red-winged redbirds normally live by marshes but may nest in pastures. Some of the fields have small ponded areas or little shallow streams of water from snow melted and earlier rains, the perfect things to attract them. Plus we do have a creek within walking distance. These birds will breed at least three times per season. The male only has the black color with red spots and the female is brown and black. Wikipedia says the Red-winged blackbird population is declining because of loss of habitat and also poisons sprayed on the plants. They can be pests eating the farmer's grains but they also eat a large portion of insects so they are considered helpful friends also. Female
Some other birds enjoying the sunshine in spite of the cold spotted by our birdwatchers. These birds just don't like snow.
They all go together.
Any signs of spring where you are? Blessings. |
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I enjoy reading the local town's newspaper. Although our post office address is one town we actually do business in another town which is larger and only about ten minutes away. Since the local paper costs 75 cents per week and really does not have too much in it I read it online. Today I read this - The largest employer Baltimore Aircoil is closing its doors. 223 workers will lose their jobs by this summer.
The global economy has affected it enough to close. I often drove by their plant and wondered what they made. They manufacture items for air conditioning and refrigeration systems hence the name aircoil. TheBaltimore part of the name came from the company being founded in Baltimore. They have two other plants in Delaware and California that will remain open. Another company also temporarily closed its doors and laid off 70 workers recently. It seems things will only get worse before they can get better in the U.S. economy. She's not worried.
Blessings. |
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The tummy flu bug hit here and is making its way through a few of us. Hopefully some will be spared. HERE IS A GREAT SITE FOR CHEAP OR FRUGAL IDEAS! Blessings. |
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My daughter needs a name for their farm. She asked for help on her blog but I am also posting it here in hopes that she will get some good ideas. Her blog is here.
"So do you have any ideas?" said the goats.
Blessings. | |
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My bedroom was moved to the first floor. It is the old living room. The old foyer is now the living room, at least for now.
An old computer desk with doors is my new armoir for clothes, no closet in a living room. Sewing supplies next to it on one side. Misc. on other side on shelves.
There it all is, uh, except what is still in the closet upstairs in my old bedroom that has nowhere to go. Blessings. |
Sewing table under the window, reading chair with bookshelf behind it.
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Today is Paczki Day! In celebration we ate paczki (pronounced poonchkis by my family) stuffed with yummy filling.
My mom who lives in the Chicago suburbs bought some for us and sent them home with my son in law. Check this link out to wikipedia to find out the full story about them. We have been eating these on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wwednesday since my children were little. I read a book from the library about a Polish Wisconsin farm family to my daughter. In the book it talked about this farm family making Paczki donuts before lent. I told my mom about it and she started buying them for us then and still does. I have been trying to find the exact book through the library system but have not been able to since there are several written by the same author. I would have to check out each one and read each one and never got to finish all of them. Now that we are in a different library system I would have to search again. Maybe in my spare time, tee hee. Paczki were originally made to use up all the forbidden foods before lent started. They are similar to bismarks or jelly donuts but are suupposed to be made of a richer dough with even more jelly filling. Blessings. |
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So you don't want to waste energy baking. Or do you need something quick and you don't need the oven on to keep the chill out of the kitchen. No Bake Cookies
1 stick of butter 1/2 cup cocoa 3 cups Oats 1/2 cup peanut butter 2 cups sugar 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 cup milk Melt butter and add cocoa, sugar, and milk and cook until bubbles form around the sides of pan. Remove from heat and add the oats, peanut butter and vanilla. Stir together. Drop by tablespoon onto waxed paper Cool. Warning - Danger - I see you! Do not attempt to eat while still hot or very warm from stove. Use some self-control and let them cool otherwise they are hard to pick up and goo up all over your hands. I know this from uh, watching others do it. I would never do that. Blessings. |
I am Chocolate Chip Muffins today.
Ingredients
Directions
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What I am wearing today - the usual underwear,(I really need to get some long thermals for next winter.) flannel lined thick denim jeans, cotton turtle neck, wool sweater, micro fleece sweater, cotton socks, wool socks, and warm slippers. It is that cold today. After a high of 36 degrees when I woke up it just kept dropping down into the twenties throughout the morning. I had taken most of the ugly towels and rugs off of the edges of the kitchen windows one day when the weather warmed up. It hadn't gotten cold enough until today to wish they were back up there. They really had made a difference in keeping out some of that nasty wind. So the only solution to feeling unbearably cold was to dress in layers. That did help. My second solution was to do a batch of baking. Breakfast was baked oatmeal. My daughter needed three acorn squash baked to have on hand in the freezer for baby food so I baked them. We needed a supply of bread in the freezer so this was a good day to do that too so I now have, pumpernickel, whole wheat, partial whole wheat french, and white french breads.
One last one in the oven.
And now I do not feel cold anymore and I am almost done with the last loaves in the oven. Once that oven goes off it will again get cold in the kitchen since even colder temps are predicted tonight - 14 degrees with windchill much lower than that. The wind can get very annoying out here. I think there is a Sarah Plain and Tall movie where she mentions being sick of the endless winds and dryness. Unless it was from the book series. But here on the plains of IL it is WINDY the majority of the time. And that snowstorm headed here from the west did not reach down here to central IL . We received only a dusting of flurries that promptly blew away, where I do not know. The indoor garden - time to plant more cilantro as they all went to seed even in the cold window.
Parsley seeds came up wonderfully.
Chives transplanted from garden in late fall finally have a decent showing.
And one last picture of the goats sadly watching us leave them to go to the house.
Blessings. |
