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This past weekend we took a huge step in moving forward toward our dream of being more self sufficient. We purchased a family cow! We purchased a Dexter Heifer named Violet from Clover Bell Farms in Vanleer Tennessee. Linda Reeve, the owner of the farm had made the process so far so easy that we are breezing right through what we had imagined to be a very stressful purchase! Violet is not yet a year old so she will be staying at the farm until she can be bred near the end of July. She will then be put in with a handsome bull named Roshambo and after a few weeks we hope things will progress nicely. So, if all goes well Violet will be seen by a vet in October and if she is pregnant then we will be bringing her home! We are hoping to have all the necessary purchases made before she arrives but right now we do not have the funds to do all that we would like to do. The cow purchase took all of our savings so we are trying to sell a truck we had planned to keep for the kids use someday so that we can purchase fence, hay, troughs and the necessary supplies for milking. It is hard not to worry but I know that God knows our needs and he will supply a way somehow. Some of the things we think are necessary really are not but are more to make life easier so if they do not get purchased then at least we will have a bred cow! Right now we are reading the Little House series and I know that a lot can be done with very little! They kept their family cow and her calves on picket lines (no fence) and milked her right out there in the field (no stachion) so I know that it can be done with what we already have. We have also moved forward with our poultry plans. 25 various chicks were delivered on June 23rd and all are doing well. We have still not figured out who is who with a lot of them but we do have know a good majority of them since they were primarily Delawares, Buff Orpingtons and New Hampshire Reds. We have several cockerls in the bunch and once they grow out we will chose one Delaware Rooster for our planned breeding and two other roosters for eye candy. We have two Cockoo Maran that we had to purchase as striaght run and one is looking like a rooster so we will probably have to add him to the Delaware broilers or try to sell him. He is pretty friendly and turning out to be larger than all the rest so I may end up keeping him even though that will mean we will have six roosters in the yard! Two are Old English BB reds that are the girls pets so they are not very loud and then we will have one Delaware, one Silver Polish (DH's pet) one Speckled Sussex and then the Cockoo Maran. I also added two Mille Fleur which also were straight run but thankfully they are both looking like pullets. So by this time next year we should have all the eggs we could possibly need and hopefully will have enough to sell as well. We will also have our Dexter and her calf who may just end up in the freezer and in that case we will be set for food next year as long as I learn to milk and the garden goes well again. This year with all the high prices for everything it has been such a struggle to purchase healthy food for all of us. I have had to stop purchasing organic and it has been so hard to live with that. God has a plan though and he is working things out for us so that we will have a more healthy life in the future so I know that this too shall pass. Things are looking good!
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