Barefoot Hillbilly Wife to a Redneck......

It is Simply life....... Its been busy around here lately! I have been sick and the girls have been too. My middle DD had pneumonia and I have ear infection. I have tried everything natural and finally gave in and went to a regular doctor well its not working either...

So anyway we have had babies like crazy we are up to 8 lambs, 4 calves and 5 goat kids. Girl to boy ratio is high on the girl side!! Lol Of course I seem to influence that having 3 girls! Lol Anyway I have 3 bottle babies and we did lose a little lamb that was so small or it would have been 9 lambs..

We also have geese now.. I have pictures of everything and my farm girls!! it was 60* yesterday and 34* today.. big difference and its COLD!!!

Here are the 3 bottle babies in confinement!! Lol They are now outside and think they are so very mistreated!!! They cry for attention!

Here are the bottle babies. Thinking they are still horribly mistreated to be outside.

Look at those Bellies!!! The black one is on the left is grandma to the little buck born a couple of weeks ago that was so colorful. The other is one of the Boers here.

Smug little bottle Sheep Fiona!! She played the "I am tired" card and got carried up the hill when we went to take pics and check on the pregnant mommas.

Here are the twin boys and momma............

Bottle Babies helping!!! Lol We took them out with us today. So they were out of their little world.. It was alittle scary for them at first and we couldnt get to far from them. I am debating on selling them now or waiting......

Our Jr. buck Caspian. I thought his silhouette was cute with his little beard. He wont have as impressive horns as his sire due to breaking the one off last fall. But he is cute one.

The new babies. The boy is in front the girl hiding. He doesn't have anything on his mouth its little black spots or freckles! Lol His mom has them too but they are not as dark.

Babies again!....... I couldn't catch the other boy from the triplets in a pic.

My Full Blooded Nubian's April and Hope. They have about a month to 6 weeks to go before babies. April gets HUGE!!!

Here is Handsome!! He was licking my hand and I tried to get a pic of him with his tongue hanging out but he was to quick! He was all lovey today and enjoying the scratches around his ears. it took washing my hand Several times to get his "cologne" off of me! PEEEUUUU

One of the Muscovy's that May be a boy.... I don't know...... I have given up trying to figure it out!! Lol I guess when they start laying eggs I will know!!

Our geese. I forgot to say before they are Toulouse Geese! They make me think of the Disney movie Aristocats.

They were making all kinds of noise here. They stay at the pond though so not annoying to hear all the time.

The one in the middle was getting a little upset with me. I am not sure why except maybe they were expecting food!

The ducks sunning on the pond bank..

Cows were soaking up the rays too!! Hey its January we don't complain about sunshine!! Especially warm sunshine!!!

My 2 remaining silkie hens. to think I started out with a bunch of them.. Well okay 6 white ones 2 years ago and 6 black ones this last year. The cats took out some of my first white silkies and then the dog and the nest box falling took all but these 2....... I love them though.

The 2 black silkie roosters, the hen and behind them, the little Ameracuana banty(Wild Woman!) She is crazy.

Bottle babies, LGD puppies, The little Hobo, and 2 of my farm girls!

And we wonder why the bottle babies think they are human.....

One Farm Girl got caught taking her socks off!!! The rule is they can go out in long sleeves but no jacket on days like this but They must have socks on with their boots or slip ons. This kid always sneaks out with out the socks, or the jacket or "loses" them like she has here!!!

Another farm girl with the bottle babies and the dogs! Relaxing in the hammock soaking up that sun!!!

Fluffing' up and settling in for the night. These boys either escaped the butchers block or weren't big enough to begin with. The ones we wont for breeding are with the hens and they do a good job of keeping these boys away. Even though some of the hens do escape the roos in the barn and make it up the yard to visit these boys!! Lol

Here is our puny dog... The vet said it was probably something she ate but its not worms or anything like that.. SO that's good...

Here is Hobo one of the little strays that come up. We live by a dog pound/humane society and people drop dogs off all the time. She is so ugly she is cute.. She is also our alarm if anyone pulls up outside or twitches or wiggles!!!Lol

Here is a few of them last night.The twins and one of the singles.

One days eggs. They weren't laid in there I forgot to take a can with me so confiscated a food dish filled with hay to carry them back to the house. I am getting anywhere from a 12-20 a day not bad for winter time..

This is them finishing off the centers of the round bales. I thought the little goat there looking at the other was cute!! I will have to take a picture of the hay "racks" now that they have new bales in them... The only thing I have a problem with is the younger goats (9 months to about 2 years) can get their horns stuck in them. They reach to far in at a certain angle and then try to pull back and get stuck!!

This and That

Here is the little Macho man!! He thinks the world is his playground!! lol He comes up and taps on your leg with his hoof to be petted!! Such a lovey boy I am glad he is not going for meat...

Here are the 3 bottle babies in confinement!! Lol They are now outside and think they are so very mistreated!!! They cry for attention!

Here are our geese!! We have one mature gander and 3 geese. Then 2 ganders that are younger. They are so pretty on the pond. And the ducks have bullied them so far! LOL

Here they are Eyeing the food on the bank but haven't got the nerve to come up yet...

Here they are trying to decide which pile to eat out of!!

Here they are in the pond!.......

I wish I would have had a camera with me when I brought them home. I had 6 orange beaks looking back at me in my rear view mirror. Doing 70 miles an hour down the interstate! Lol It was so funny!

On a personal note I am getting a new car... Well Its from the salvage yard that my brother works at and he has fixed it. Its a KIA mini-van. Kids ain't gettin any smaller!!Lol It gets really good gas mileage too!! I would not ever buy a new car especially now that he works there. That is where we got Kyle's work truck too.

Okay I am off to bed!! Good night!

A Few Pics Today........

More babies.................

Here is Peanut... I guess we should have named him Chunky Peanut Butter!!!

The Boys full bellies and its Nap Time!!!

One little lamb.... I have the twin in the house.

Here she is copying momma!! Good Girl!!!

Marigold and her Expressive ears!!! She is grinning for the camera too if you can see.

One gray Muscovy duck......

This is the one that when we got them as 3 week old babies he/she had a hurt leg. You would never know now...

Here they are all huddled up this morning...

Nic still looking at the camera. Anna looking like she is in trouble.. She isn't... Not right now anyway.... They had been out in the rain earlier this morning.

Here is the Lone Ranger! Our female Dinah got hit the other night up on the Highway. Our fences in one field aren't the best to say the least(another project in the works)But when I dog can climb a fence its hard to keep them confined. I didn't think they were going that far but she was hit and so we now only have Sam and the pups.. He has been very good though.. In the pic he is watching up on the road was a car stalled out. He was keeping an eye on them. He looked back when he heard us in the barn.

One red ear slider under the ice.. I didn't think the turtles would move around much but we have seen turtles under the ice several times now... Aren't they suppose to hibernate in winter?? I will have to look that up!

Snapping turtle.... Bad thing to have in the pond with livestock around!! This was a good sized one too!
That's it for today.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!!

Pictures!

Here is Daisy and Velvet this morning after I had milked... She did better this morning. I got over a half gallon. She is finally letting her milk down. Velvet kicked me though!! Little stinker!

Here is Nina and Mora(2nd calf born) out in the field this morning. They have a light frost on their backs which is okay because it kind of helps to insulate them.

Here is Aleta and the first calf this year Sirloin. He is about 2 months old now.

Here is Iris and Peanut snuggling with chickens. LOL The little hen was laying by peanut and then Iris cam up and started nibbling on her and she just sat there and let her!

Baby kisses!....LOL.......

Twin boys come to see whats going on.......................

Awwww let me chew on you too.......................

I am not Spoiled in the least bit!!!...........................LOL

One of her favorite spots to sleep! Right next to the wood stove!.........

The headboard Kyle built last night!! Cost nothing but time and screws to put it together. It also needs to be stained now. I want to try this homemade walnut stain its dark but sooo pretty! But that will be a while.

The winter weather is definitely here! I made a pot of deer chili last night and it was GOOD! We had it for lunch today too. This is the best tasting deer we have had in a while of course its young and hung for about 3 days before we put it in the freezer. Well off to do chores for the night! Good night all!

Busy Weekend Turned COLD!

We have decided on names for her siblings. Her name is Marigold so her sister is Iris which means Colorful or rainbow in Greek. The boy is named Peanut Butter... Peanut for short. I am still undecided about the twin boys.

Slept in some this morning that didn't sit well with Daisy the cow!! Cant even sleep till 8am with out making some one upset with me!! She got over it when I filled her pan up with the treats for milking! Of course I am surprised the little house goat let us sleep that long with out hollering for a bottle. But she didn't. I worked outside for most of the day trying to make sure every thing is settled for the storms. We have thermo cubes to plug the water heaters into. Those things are so cool! It comes on at 32-33* I think and shuts off at 45*.. I think I would have to read to be sure. But it saves on electric because those heaters can really suck up the juice!! lol 0

Apparently there are some kids with to much time on their hands!!Hmm Imagine that! This is the mailbox that they pretty much destroyed!! I could find them something to do....

We made sugar cookies tonight... We forgot the paint brushes to put the icing on with so we just drizzled it on. Can you tell which ones are moms and which are the kids? LOL We encourage individuality around here......

We have had freezing weather. Starting with rain and turning to winter weather mix. Not much accumulation. Boy do the animals know it!! They are eating like they are starving!! (They are NOT starving!) On top of that its a full moon! I was putting out the D.E. and Sea Kelp and they just about run me over trying to get to it!! LOL I will get new pics of animals up. I am looking forward to Christmas this year. Of course all I have to get is a few stocking stuffers and I am done. We got our short little fake tree decorated. Its cute though.. I don't usually like fake but its was small and cheap. Since we moved we ran out of space to put it.

Four of my Americauna hens. The dark one on the end is a pretty one. The 2 that look alot alike my girls call the twins!! Then One chicken butt!

One Americauna, Spangled Hamburg Rooster, White crested Polish Hen and Spangled Hamburg Hen!

Baby that was born around 2 months ago. He is growing like crazy! And very friendly!! So not like his momma!

Some of the pics are a little blurry sorry about that... But here is one of the Katahdins that is looking very pregnant!!

Peanut and Iris all snuggled up!!....................

The as of yet un-named twin bucks Being woke up by the intense camera flash!! LOL

Iris up close!.........................

Sam and Dinah Napping. They are very active at night especially when its a full moon and we also have bad weather!.

More Pregnant Mommas!............ I would have thought the White St. Croix would have popped by now. But Nooooooo...

When we left for church last night it was about 45* when we came out less then 2 hours later it was 21*!!! Its so cold it hurts!! We are way above the ice storm line though! Just snow and sleet for us.. Oh Joy!! LOL But its better then an ice storm!!The high today is only 18*

I worked outside yesterday afternoon for about 5 hours getting ready. We put new hay out. We had to use the panels around the hay to make a baby pen so they wouldn't get stepped on and to give moms time to recoup. SO they really ate the one bale we had in there and played confetti with it.. You know run around the barn with a mouthful and throw it up in the air!! lol Of course those pregnant girls are more like rolling around the barn!! So I found 2 more panels and we scrapped up all the loose hay and got the cow a good layer of bedding down. Checked all lamps and thermo cubes. Checked on the pigs. They are in a new spot I will have to get pics some time today because it was getting dark last night and they kept blurring!

I did have a little more success with Daisy yesterday morning. I let Velvet in when I went to milk and she was nursing off one side and I was milking the other. I kept having to push her on her own side but I got as much off one side as I had been getting out of the whole with out baby there to help. So we will see if that will start making her let her milk down. I can see her walk away with a bag full even though I have been milking for 10 minutes. They are different from goats. I really prefer milking goats. But I would like to have cows milk to make butter.

well I am headed out to milk after I put on all the layers because fo the cold. Have a good day everyone!

New Week!...

The owner of the farm we manage will be here this week!!! Its her first visit since we took over a couple of months ago!... I am a little nervous. We do stay in almost daily contact through email but still in person is much more nerve wracking. We have had everything happen from goat with a broken leg to one of the LGD's going after my daughter..... We have been flooded, had disagreements with the hay guy.... Its been a rather eventful 2 months.

We are also going to a swap meet. Talk about hillbilly entertainment!! They have everything you can think plus a few you never thought of!! LOL Some say its 40 acres of animals, people and stuff! I guess we will see....

Plans for our 14th wedding anniversary in November is to get in the little truck and drive to a part of Missouri we havent been to... Which I have been to alot of it seeing how I was born and raised here but North of the Missouri river is almost unseen by us... Its been years since we went some where just the 2 of us. We usually stay home and send the kids to Nana and Grampies house. But they are staying here and watching kids and animals. I think it will be fun... We enjoy time together and like talking to each other. We usually talk each other's ears off after a while... Its great to know someone values your opinion and admires you Especially if you are married to him!! LOL

I am feeling much better today and so is my youngest DD, she was sick too. That is her last night out with some of the goats. They had her surrounded and was begging for hugs and pets!!

I am Back!!!

It is Simply life.......

I am back on the site. So much has changed in our life since I had closed my blog... Well I am opening it up again. I am no longer on Dial up! YEAH!! We have also moved. We are managing a farm that is Certified Naturally Grown. We are raising Milk and meat goats, hair sheep,Dexter cattle, Red Wattle cross hogs, Chickens and Muscovy ducks. We also have some LGD"s that are Komondor/Anatolian cross. They have worked out great. We are closer to town and so not so much gas is being used. I am going to try milking one of the dexter's along with the goats. She has a halter on and will lead some. She is very food oriented! LOL

We are still homeschooling and have changed a few things with that. We have added unit studies and we are really enjoying it!! Its added to what we have already but they had gotten a little bored and needed more. I have the Story of the World series ordered to add too..

I am looking forward to renewing some of the friendships I had started before here!

This And That!

SO I will start with 5am this morning... I was woke up to go deer hunting this morning and as I do every morning when I get up I look out to make sure everything looks okay with the animals... well it wasn't okay!! My aunt who lives around the corner has 2 Great Pyrenees that are about a year old.

Well they were in my goat pen with the goats and horse rounded up! They wouldn't let them move. All my girls are pregnant too about 3 months now.. I had ran the dogs off about 10:30 last night and didn't think anything else about it. SO I go out and lock the goats back up. Kyle and I chase them off and thought they had headed back home. But NO we go out at about 6am and they are out behind the pens in the field and they follow us barking at us!! So it is scaring the girls and aggravating my husband. I go back to the house to call my aunt and Kyle and the girls head out to the woods.. Well the dogs follow them out to the woods. So they pretty much ruined the hunting for this morning. My uncle comes to get them and in the mean time they run to my parents and chase the horses.... I hope this does not become a habit!! I will not tolerate it. So after they were finally gone we tried to hunt but we were pretty much wore out!

We came back to the house and rested for awhile. Then went out and worked on the chicken house! YEAH!!! It is now snug and tight! All it needs is some paint on the outside and tin added to roof to get it weather proof. I was so happy about that as we have a chance of snow next week.

Yikes I am not ready for that!! After they roosted tonight we moved them inside the house. I think we will have to do that for a few nights to get them to start roosting in there. Its not huge but it is good enough! My hubby did a great job!! I wouldn't have got near as much done as quick as he did!! He is so much better at building things then I am!! It was dark when we finished and I still had supper to fix. But that's okay it was well worth it! I just hope those dogs don't come back!!

the goats were so tired that they slept in the barn till after 9am! Which is not them at all. I even stood at the barn door and talked to them they just looked at me and went back to sleep! Poor babies! Anyways that was what happened today!

I tried something new to use for butter for bread or whatever else. Its probably not anything new to some of you. But you take a pound of butter and a 16 oz bottle of olive oil and blend it together to make your own margarine.

It is healthier for you and still has the butter taste just not as much.. We will see how well it goes over Thanksgiving!! I am making a big gooey chocolate cake!! Kyle told but me there will be pie..

I am not a pie person!!! LOL

I do get to cook everything on a New to me glass top stove!! Its only about 2 years old so its very nice and pretty!! LOL It will be nice to cook on it!

Thanksgiving Suggestions???

I have been down with the stomach flu since Monday! Not a good thing!!! Yesterday was the worst! But my girls did so good. They did chores first thing and then they did all their school work and then picked up the house and did a few other things... all with out me even asking. Now my girls are good but like any normal kid need some prodding to get going sometimes. It felt good to know when things had to be done they pitched in without fussing and did a great job. I just had to brag about my kids. I am feeling better and up and around today.

I just realized earlier that it is only 2 WEEKS to Thanksgiving!!!! We are spending it at home this year. YEAH!!! I am doing the traditional thing! Turkey, Sweet potatoes, and other stuff plus pumpkin pie! There will probably be some sort of chocolate too! LOL Anyone have some ideas for Thanksgiving recipes??? I like to try new things or an easier way to do things.

For Christmas we are also going to be home and I am cooking a turkey too but instead of all the stuff to go with it we are going to have sandwiches with all the fixings and a big salad that we can eat on all day. We will have a big breakfast too. We spend all day together relaxing! We are all sorry when its over!!!

I learned something new to try with my Laundry soap. I haven't tried it Yet. But you add a little vinegar to the mix after it is all mixed together.. I don't know how it reacts yet with the soda I will have to try a small amount and see. I hope everyone has a great night!

Busy Day

Its been a busy day today. I was going to work on the chicken house but wasn't able too. Our new goat brought in lice so guess what I did today... I gave everyone a shot of Ivomec and cleaned out the barn. Its not suppose to be real cold the next few nights so I will wait till Monday to put down lime and then cover it with bedding. I hope I dont have to deal with this all winter! Since I was getting everyone on the stand I went ahead and trimmed hooves some needed it, some didn't. My dear hubby helped me clean the barn out too!! It goes so much quicker when he helps!! LOL I can do it, just takes me a little longer. I added all the stuff to the garden. I figure I would do that all winter till about February and then let it set till the end of March and then till it under. We will see how that works.

I let the chickens out for a little while today too. They really liked that. I haven't let them out to free range since we got the pen built as they are young and I wanted them to be good and use to the pen... Sure enough it started getting dark they all went right back in. Yeah! Of course they probably wont always do that! They will have to give me a hard time sometime!! LOL

We did have a problem Thursday Night. The transmission went out on our truck... the same truck we use to haul wood for winter!! So We now have no way to haul it till we get it fixed! We are not sure when that will be, soon hopefully! I am putting it all in HIS hands! That is all I can do right now!

My parents took all 6 grandkids to the salebarn today and came home with the bacon!... They bought 6 little pigs!! They will be yummy come next spring!! They are cute now!

Hubby went deer hunting today too. Its still just bow season and he hasn't gotten anything yet. Next weekend opens rifle season though. Last year he got 4 deer. We do all our own processing now. It really helps with the grocery bill!! Its also very lean and good for you!

This is what has been happening in our neck of the woods. Hopefully I can get the chicken house done this week though!

Whew what a week or two.....

To start things off my PC is burnt up. It is a manufacturing defect. I am past all my warranties and they do not provide the parts to fix it even if you are willing to buy them!! Its an EMachine that are now part of Gateway Computers. But because my PC was manufactured before Gateway bought out EMachines they will not cover it or provide replacement parts. SO I am out of a PC that is less then 2 years old and with the money situation it will be about 3 months before I can replace it. I am borrowing a friends PC till I can get one. She has a laptop she uses most of the time. So I am just glad I can get back online!! I can also get all my info off of the old PC. I had Homeschool and animal records plus over 2000 pictures on there! I am just so disgusted by the whole deal..

Anyways on to other things! We have recently acquired a pony, His name is Ely. He was under nourished and hadn't been cared for very well but he is already getting sassy from having food on a regular basis.. He is in with my goat girls and some of them don't want anything to do with him and he has made himself at home in the barn and the girls don't like it!! I guess I will have to start locking them up from now on so he can't get in there. I can't have goats with pneumonia!! My great Pyrenees took off! When we were unloading Ely she took one look at him and hit the end of her chain and was gone!! We haven't seen hide nor hair of her since!! It snapped the collar so she doesn't have our phone number on her either. Hmmm well I guess I didn't have to worry about her chasing livestock......

We have had a buck in the yard every morning lately... Its before dawn so hubby can't "hunt"!! LOL But he is coming right up into the yard and eating! We have seen them in the fields around us but never in our yard!!

What I Have Been Up To!!

Well Since last Thursday I have had at least 3 extra kids at my house.. Saturday I had 9 total all under the age of 11 down to 4... Mostly girls!! It was fun but boy was I tired!!! 3 of the girls that were here live in town and dont get to play with animals much!!! They absolutely loved it!!! They carried cats around and hugged on the dog and milked goats!!! They thought it was great. We had a 4H wienie roast and hayride Friday night and they got to go there too. We also got to see the 4H leaders goats. They had a very nice buck!!! He was huge. It was a boer named Bob. He was a sweetheart. Then they had their first baby out their and his name was BobJr. LOL He was only 2 weeks old. Such a sweetie!!! I can't wait for babies!!!

I haven't sold my buck yet. The lady never called Sunday like she said she would... You know if you don't want it just say so... Anyways I think I will keep him and any of his girls that I keep this next spring I will wait till I get a new buck to breed them the next spring... Plans , plans and more plans. LOL we might possibly be getting a pony he is only a yearling but the people who have him now can't afford to feed him and he is really skinny. He is only halter broke and will need to be broke the rest of the way but between me and my husband I think we can handle it. I am sure my girls will get in on that too. He will need to be gelded and he needs fed!!! But he is very sweet and I think once given the proper nutrition will look very nice.. Their kids play with him now and climb all over him.

We have started planning our easter drama at church. It is the weekend before Easter. We took a break last year and so hopefully everyone will be ready for this year. It is sooner then other years because Easter is in March this year. I am over the props like I have been for a few years now. I started out just helping and then the lady over it moved out of state so I ended up doing it. I like it alot. This year we are setting the animals up outside so before and after the visitors can come see them. Last drama we had around 1500 people in 3 nights come to see it. It is a cast of about 70 people in all plus the technical crew and all the behind the scene people... It is a big thing at our church. I will be providing the goats, sheep, chickens and pigeons for it. We are hoping to get a camel. We bring a donkey in for the man who plays Jesus rides around for one of the scenes. I do believe its one of the favorite parts of the crowd. Anyways I am excited about it this year because we are going to set up the animals in front of the church and before and after the drama people will be able to come see the animals. We will tell them a little bit about how they were used in Bible times!! They will be able to pet them but probably not feed them. It will be fun. But after 3 days of nothing but that we will be wore out!!!!But it will be worth it!

So anyways that is what is going on around here I hope everyone has a great day!!

Soap Question???

My day so far!!

Well I didnt do the decorating!! They didnt check it out and Our pastor wasnt going to be able to be there because of a family obligation that no one checked out till later!! Almost to late. Their oldest daughter is in the high school band and they couldnt miss the game tonight. I understand your family comes first! But I am sure there will be some who dont! But I was relieved that we didnt have to decorate. I havent really been in the mood to decorate. Not till the weather cools some.

Hubby and I will have some "us" time this weekend though. Kids are going to nana and grampie's tonight and will be coming home tomorrow afternoon!! YEAH!!! LOL I love my kids but some time away can be good for all of us! I am hoping to talk him into going down to the Amish bulk stores and bakery. I can probably still get a few fresh things too... I got bell peppers last time and froze a bunch. I am hoping for more potatoes and a big bag of brown rice. Its about $20 for a 50lb bag. It will last us all winter. He is going to go grocery shopping with me. Which we dont do very often! Its usually me by myself and him at home with the girls!!

Update on my soap! and Various other things!

I have used it and so far no problems.. Its still not as thick as regular soap but works just the same. I figure they put all kinds of stuff in commercial soap anyways to make it more "normal"!!

SO on to other things! I am trying to sell one more goat! Its my buck because I want to find a registered Nubian next spring. So I have to make room! I have posted some pics in my photo album of my girls, goats and other stuff. I still havent quite figured out all the stuff on this website but I have met some nice people already! I will get it eventually though.. It just takes me a while!

Its my hubby's birthday today. He turns 30. I will have to put the picture of him and his friend in the tree stand in the front yard in my photo album!! Yep he is definitely a redneck. BUT I love the guy! I am making one of his favorites for supper and he has an ice cream cake from DQ on the way! I figured thats the least I could do on his birthday!

I am off to music lessons for the kids. My oldest starts back up with piano today. The twins each take lessons too. One is playing drums the other guitar. They really like it!