The Spring Goat Menagerie

Spring time goat kids are so much fun, I have a smile on my face everyday, whenever I'm out spending time with them during my three or four daily rounds, I always stop and take time to socialize with them.  This time of year we walk through the dandelions together, and I watch them all play just like little kids, they are sweet and funny, as they leap and twirl about, chasing each other and head butting their friends in mock fights, their all time favorite game to play is King of the mountain on the rocks or big stump. They will grow up unbelievable fast, all the more reason to take the time to simply enjoy being with them in the Spring.  I've been taking pictures and keeping daily records of what needs to be done on my schedule of disbudding, deworming, shots,  feet trimming, nutrition, and mineral needs. 

Zolena gave birth to twins, a doeling and a buckling on April 13th.  I was right in the middle of having family in town for a few days, and the time she chose to give birth was during a late afternoon when I was in the middle of  making dinner for 14 people.  My husband who was checking in on her told me she had just given birth to the second one when he peeked in on her.  I ran out along with everyone and we all got to greet our newest additions to the goat family.  We ate late, because I had to take the time to get my basket and tend to all of them and make sure Zolena delivered the placenta and both of them began nursing well.  She's a wonderful mother and our superstar milker is back to providing milk for our family, while at the same time producing plenty of milk for her kids.

We are keeping her! ... meet, Deegie

 Another "D" name, also from the Jean Auel Mother Earth Series,

 just like her mother's name Zolena is.

It's hard to believe that just 2 years ago we didn't have goats in our life.  They have become such an enjoyable hobby for us, and we have learned so much new information through studying books, magazines, websites and blogs.  Every trip to the library would bring home  new books on goats, second hand bookstores is where I've bought most of my collection of books on goats.  Both my husband and myself have been captivated by their wonderful spirits, and now we can't imagine a life without them. 

It has taken us time to fence three areas, one is a paddock and stall for kidding, another is the main pasture and barn, and the third is a buck pasture.  These came in stages over the last couple of years, and we have continued to work on all the parts.  It simply takes time to get all the things you want for goats, the cream separator is still waiting, the milking supplies, disbudding iron, tattoo kit, fencing, gates, feed, dewormers, and minerals were at the highest priority.  The time, labor and money it takes to raise goats properly with good quality feed and attention to their needs must be taken into consideration. 

One thing I had been asking my husband for was a covered movable feeder.  We looked at several designs and then he combined some ideas and came up with his own design.  It was made with scrap materials we had on hand, some wood from salvaged pallets, some from trees we had milled, along with left over roofing, just enough to cover it.  I'm lucky to have a husband who is always gathering building materials, as well as one who knows how to build strong things that are able to with-stand goats climbing all over them.

Joon and her doeling named Darlington,

 the other doeling is Donegal, and the buckling is Dartmoor. 

All names from the Brittish Isles.

Several days ago I started separating Joon and Jersey's kids at night and milking them both in the morning along with Zolena.  Finally I have most of my does in milk, they are still milking kids as well.  Joon gives about a quart or a little less, Jersey a little less than half a gallon, and Zolena about three quarters of a gallon (she's not separated from her kids at night).  I tried separating Danny and Dublin, Jersey's kids at night when they were two weeks old, I did it for two days and felt they were too young, I then decided to wait until they were a month old.  I actually began when they were 5 weeks old and Joon's were 4 weeks old.  They have all adjusted and actually have fun playing together.  I give them their own alfalfa pellets and grain, and the big does don't gobble it all down,  they have a feeder filled with alfalfa and grass hay, and they can take their time to eat, play, and all go in to sleep together on their side of the barn.  The first night I separated them it was rather noisy until it got dark, then they all settled down and went in to sleep. 

 Now comes the fun part of having goats, I have milk to work with... finally!!  My plans are to make cheese every other day and I want to start by making chevre, mozzarella, feta, cottage cheese, and yogurt. 

 



Hurray for Spring kids

and healthy milking does!

Egg Selling Stand

Our simple egg selling stand is finally up and running as of today!  I put one cooler out for the eggs to be in, and will bring them in every night and put them back out in the morning, unless they're sold out.  Plus there is a cooler for returning egg cartons.  The money tube is on the fence post and is made out of rain proof pvc pipe, it's on the other side of the fence and has a small slit to put the money into, it's easy for us to access it and would be difficult to get into from the side where the eggs are.    A couple days ago Kaley and I went around to several of our neighbors and gave out free cartons of eggs for them to try and told them about our egg selling stand start-up.  We're planning to go around to more neighbors, the one's who don't have chickens and give more samples to drum up sales.  Once people try our eggs they love them!!  Chickens that are free range and stress free have eggs with yolks so yellow they're almost orange, and the taste is just delicious!

I finally have enough hens laying eggs to see if they can pay for their own feed, we're getting around 19-24 eggs per day, so they're really adding up.  I've been watching on craigslist to see what other people are asking for farm fresh eggs, and most are at $4/ dozen, so that's what I'm asking.  I have some friends who are regularly buying from us, but we still need to sell more.  

Over the last couple days I spent time working on painting the egg selling signs, they're made out of pallet wood that was salvaged, then I put a poly finish on them to protect from the rain and weather.  We hung one on our street directional hoping to get a few cars to venture up our driveway.   This year I am so thankful for the overflow of abundance from our productive hens and the chance to share with other's some of the richness we have in our life because of them!

Joon's Surprise!

Joon's due date was technically tomorrow, but we got a big surprise Sunday morning 5 days early when I went out to feed everyone and didn't see Joon come out for breakfast, which is not normal.  I called her name and still no Joon, so I went to look in the goat stall and was I ever surprised to see 3 of the cutest little tiny goat kids all dry and cleaned off nursing her.  She looked up at me as if to say, "Look Mom, I did it all by myself, see I have triplets"!  Was I ever proud of her at that moment, I went in to say hi and welcome our newest additions, 2 doelings and a buckling.  The mostly black one is the buckling and the two with more white on them are the doelings.  Joon had their umbilical cords nipped just right and had licked them clean, they were all strong and nursing well.  Amazing little goat that Joon is!  I ran to the house and came in breathless to tell the wonderful news, "We have triplets"! 

I got my supplies and went back out to tie off and dip their umbilical cords in iodine, I also sprayed their feet with iodine, and gave them a BoSe shot (we are in a selenium deficient area of the country), some vitamin E, and a small dose of Probios.  Then I gave some attention to Joon to help her get all cleaned up and gave her some grain, alfalfa, and water.  I told her what a good job she did and how proud of her I was, she listened intently the whole time and loved being fussed over.  I then moved Zolena and Snowdrop out of her paddock, as I still hadn't separated them from her since I wasn't expecting her to have them for a few more days.  I wish I could have seen the birth and been there for Joon, but she seemed to handle it just fine, maybe with some love and support from her room-mates Zolena and Snowdrop.  We have doubled our goats from 5 to 10 now, with Zolena next up in the middle of April, I'm going to be ready early for her just to be sure.

My daughter Christina brings our grandson Roman over on Mondays for us to watch while she goes to work. We love having him here every week, he is now 4 and a half months old.  As he grows up he is going to love to come over and see all the baby animals we have here on the farm in the Spring.  The kids are only one day old here and this is their first time outside.  I let them outside for a few minutes for her to see them,  they are kept inside their stall the first week and then they'll be ready to go outside and play in the small paddock, I let Joon out for recess breaks and to stretch her legs.  I'll let Joon's kids in with Jersey's when I separate the mom's at night when they're two weeks old.  These kids are super friendly and love to crawl all over me and play, I've been going out several times per day to play with them they're so much fun and so cute!  We're thinking of D names, Diamond, Dazzle, Dasher for the buckling, none are for sure yet, we'll just let the names come to us as we spend time with each of them.

Jersey's Kids ~ Danny and Dublin

Danny and Dublin

Jersey delivered her twins early Monday morning around 3am.  During my sleepy 2am check I could see that she was in hard labor and getting close.  I watched her for a minute and told her "Jersey you're getting ready to have you're babies I'll be right back"!  I ran as fast as I could and got some fresh hay to spread around her side of the goat barn, it was already clean but I wanted it to be extra fresh. Then I raced to the house to get Kaley up because I promised her I'd wake up to be there for the birth, she woke up and quickly got dressed, I grabbed my basket of supplies ready by the door and we ran back out through the snow and dark to the barn.  Jersey was 2 days over due at 152 days, and I had been watching her closely, this was my second night checking on her every 3 hours.  I'm so thankful we were there for her, Kaley was a huge help to me holding the first one (an adorable buckling) as Jersey labored for the second one, which took an additional hour or more,  he came out just fine, but was in a breech position.  Kaley named the first one she was holding Daniel ( her brother's middle name, as well as a beloved uncle that is no longer with us) We'll call him "Danny".  The letter this year for the ADGA is D, so we're using names that begin with a D for all of our goat kids.

Jersey saying Hi to her new baby

Already wanting to play at one day old

As Jersey continued to labor, we were both getting cold, with temps around 30 degrees, snow on the ground, and it being the middle of the night, we felt the cold, plus there was wind which made it seem even colder.  My sweetheart of a husband came out just in time with a heater for the kids and a bigger lamp for us to see.  He put up plastic to cover the draft, and then it became toasty, Kaley also brought me a cup of hot tea, and my husband waited,  pretty soon out came the second cutest ever buckling "Dublin".  He's black with a white spot on the center of his head, white spotted ears, and brown accents on the belly, legs and face.  Danny looks alot like Jersey only with more white markings.  I was happy they both have floppy Nubian ears, being miniature Nubian's. 

Jersey as a new Mom was unsure of the first kid, we brought him around to her head for her to lick and clean him and hopefully bond with him.  We cleaned his nose and mouth right away, and then she ignored him for 10 minutes or so.  We wondered if she would have mothering skills, then instinct began to take over, she finally cleaned him, and we cut the umbilical cord, tied it off and applied iodine.  With the second buckling she knew right away what to do.  She has turned into a doting mother and after being skittish when they first tried to nurse, by the end of the first day she was an old pro.  It took awhile for the kids to get the hang of nursing, especially Dublin the little black one, he wasn't as strong in the beginning.  Now on the third day they're equally running and jumping around.  They are so adorable we all just love them, below is my son Jason and his girlfriend Taylor holding them.   Jason is holding his middle namesake "Danny", he liked him the best.  Well, we like them both equal. 

Jason holding Danny, Taylor holding Dublin

Today the kids were three days old and it was time to disbud them.  Pictured below is my husband Jarin holding Dublin as we're getting ready.  It was our first time disbudding, and at first when I was setting everything up, the brand new disbudding iron wouldn't work or heat up at all.  I was so frustrated that I called the company we bought it from to tell them about it and see if they could send me another one asap.  While I was on the phone, my husband came in and said he had it taken apart and was attempting to fix it.  In the end (an hour and a half later), he had it all back together and working.  I am so thankful for a husband who is always helping me solve problems and fix things.  The disbudder I own is the Rhinehart X50, which has removable tips, I have one for the Nigerian's and one for the regular full size goats.  I used the larger tip and it seemed to work fine.  As we got ready the goats hearts were pounding as much as our own we were so nervous. First I gave them a tetanus shot, second I trimmed the hair around their horn buds, and finally I had my husband hold them tight and I put the hot iron on to disbud.  Last year the two kids we had we didn't own a disbudder in time to do them in their first two weeks, which is the ideal time to disbud, actually the first week is ideal and around 3 or 4 days old is good.  I wanted to get it done and over with I was so anxious.   This weekend we'll do their ear tatoo's, I can only do so much in one day.  They seemed to calm down quickly and I took them to their Mom so they could nurse for comfort. 

Getting ready to disbud, Jarin telling Dublin that it will be ok.

Today I also milked Jersey for the first time, she got on the milk stand like an old pro, put her head in the feeder stanchion and I proceeded to calmly clean her, then milk her. I was thrilled she has turned into such a fine milk goat.  She  has a beautiful udder and was unbelievably good, no kicking or acting up, and she had perfect sized teats for milking.  After having her for a year and 8 months we're thrilled to finally be able to milk her.  I'm planning to separate the kids at night and milk her in the morning starting at 2 weeks old, then after the morning milking I'll let the kids run with her for the rest of the day to nurse when they want.  Right now I'm just milking her in the mid morning.  Goats are fine to start milking right away, it doesn't take away from the kids because goats make more than enough milk in the beginning of their lactation.

Little Danny

I'm a Gardener Who Loves The Month of May

In just a little over two months the garden will be growing again, the leaves will be new and lush, the honey bees will be buzzing again, and the flowers will be glowing... I can hardly wait for May and rhubarb pie!  Last year I took this picture around the middle of May, and a couple days ago I put in on my computer as the background photo to give my gardener's soul hope for Spring.  Today we woke up to a beautiful and sunny March 4th day, it's 32 degrees outside, and there is frost on the ground.  The animals though are all thrilled to be in the sun and are lounging and soaking it up as much as they can.  Which is exactly what I'm headed out to do, it's a great day to be working in the orchard, so I'm off to prune the apple and pear trees, and to plant the remaining young fruit trees.

The Calm Before Spring

We're beginning to feel the rumblings of Spring as the quiet of Winter is slowly winding down.  From the holiday's until about the middle of February is my calm, reflective time of the year, with the ground frozen and snow there's not much to do, and I thoroughly enjoy it.  Before I know it the pace will begin to pick up, and this year with 4 goats kidding, rabbits kindling, puppies being born, a garden to plant, and flower beds to weed, we'll be in the thick of it come April and May, and I'll  be happy and loving it all.   I sure am looking forward to the warmth of the sun again, and for the flowers and leaves to come back after their long winter's nap

Two weeks ago I finished milking Zolena, it was 2 months before her due date.  For a year and a half, she was milked daily, usually giving us about a gallon a day in the Summer and half a gallon of milk through the winter.  This one goat made all the milk our family needed.  Being fairly new to goats when we purchased her in milk, she continually amazed all of us, and her milk is so delicious and creamy, we all miss it now, alot.   Last winter I milked her through and didn't breed her, and my plan is to do that with both Jersey and her this next winter. Jersey our Nubian that I couldn't get bred last year is pregnant and due in about 2 weeks.  Her udder is forming and I am thrilled that I'll finally be able to milk her.  I'm also excited to see the kids that she will have, they'll be miniature Nubian's and can be registered as Miniatures.  Joon is due in a month and as you can see in the picture above, she's getting bigger.  The one I've been concerned about is Zolena, she didn't look pregnant, she's always been lean, but the last week I've been feeling better about her being pregnant as she seems to be growing.  Maybe she only has one kid inside of her.  Joon and Jersey both look like they'll have twins.  Our little Snowdrop was bred on the Winter Soltice Dec. 21, so she'll be later than everyone else and will kid in May.

We have 30 chickens right now, 27 hens and 3 roosters, the two young roosters were hatched out by Henrietta last Fall.  They began to crow a month ago, which is our signal that we need to process them and into the freezer they'll go.  This is just part of farm life.  An interesting tidbit of chicken information came to me last summer while I was at a small animal swap meet, I  met a woman who told me how to tell by the shape of an egg whether it would be a rooster or hen.  If the egg is long and pointy it is a rooster, short, squat and round it is a hen.  I'll be trying it this year with the setting hens, ideally I only want them to hatch out hens, so, this will be an interesting experiment to try this year.  I'm also planning to set up my egg selling stand in about a week.  We're up to 9-14 eggs per day and will be increasing as the days lengthen.

A week ago my fruit trees arrived from Raintree Nursery, I heeled them in right away and have been planting one or two per day.  Over the next 10 days I'll be pruning the apple and pear trees, as well as spreading compost on all the fruit trees.  It involves hauling wheelbarrow load after wheelbarrow load to each tree.  I also enlisted my husband to help me dig and plant a large old lilac that I wanted in a new bed.   I've been scrambling to move plants that need to be moved while they're still dormant.  Most are berry bushes that are getting huge and outgrowing the vegetable garden where I originally planted them.  I moved the Aronia berry bush, two Serviceberry bushes, a Highbush Cranberry shrub and I still need to move the Elderberry, it has turned into a tree!  I'm also moving out all the raspberries that had to be in there because of the deer, and forming to large rows behind the garden.  I have a lot of raspberries to move while they're still dormant.  Everything is beginning to show signs of life, thus the scramble. 

As you know a couple weeks ago we went from 12 rabbits, down to 4 in one day.  Our feed bill went way down, not that rabbits eat all that much, but when they're growing they have large appetites, which is normal of any young animal.  I was cleaning cages every other day, now I'm doing them once per week.  Right now I have 3 American Chinchilla's, 2 does and 1 buck, and 1 Champagne d' Argent doe.  A couple weeks ago I contacted a friend who I know that raises Champagnes and asked her if she had any bucks, or would she consider a breeding for Hazel.  She offered for me to buy a mature buck and doe, both pedigreed with cages.  We're going to look at them this weekend.  That would round out my rabbitry, with both breeds, and give me a couple extra large cages.  Then for each breed I'd have 2 mature does and one buck, all of them pedigreed except one, Serendipity.  I'm planning to start their breeding year this weekend, for kits due the first of April.  I'm also planning to set up a website just for my rabbits to help sell them, and will be joining both clubs and the American Heritage Livestock Breeds Conservancy, which has American Chinchilla's on the critical list.  Once I'm on the list people can find me to buy breeding stock. 

It's been an unusually mild winter for us, we did have snow on the ground for several weeks in January, but we do every year.  I know there's still a possibility of snow in March, but I'm hoping we're on the way to Spring!  

Little Monkey Lamancha

Who Me? You think I'm mischievous! 

Yes, you miss Zolena are the little monkey who plays with every gate latch, letting chickens and the other goats out to romp where you're not supposed to be if I forget for a minute to double latch the gate. When I find you, I can see you laugh, then run and leap with joy at your cleverness.  Running up to me you say "Hi Mom, we're all out and by the way the blueberry bushes are yummy, I'm helping you prune them!"

Sigh...I still love you though.

A Golden Romance

Last Friday I went to pick up Ace in the morning to bring him home for the day to hang out, it was a day of romance for Summer who was in full heat.   In the photo above you can see her flagging her tale and standing for him.   Ace was so excited to see her, he remembered her from a year and a half ago when we first bred them.  Back then we got them together 5 or 6 times, every couple days until it worked on day 14, and we only got in one breeding.  This time around we planned the visit to be in the good range of successful breeding, it was day 15, they got in two breeding's, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon, I felt lucky we only needed to get them together once this time.  During this time I'm there at a distance keeping a close eye on them, as soon as they connect, I make sure Summer stands still the 15-20 minutes they're tied, this is important for the safety of the male. 

Pictured below is Ace meeting Jesu for the first time, Father and Son, they loved playing for several hours in the middle of the day while Summer napped.  Josie wanted to get out and play with her Dad too but had to see him through the pasture fence because she was also in heat.  My Goldens will cycle the same time every year, the first week of February they go into heat until the end of the month, then again the first week of August until the end of the month.  Those 3 weeks we are extra careful with them, I'm thankful for our fences at times like these to keep roaming dogs out. 



Ace and Jesu, Father and Son, meeting for the first time!

Come the week of April 21 we should have puppies, the average pregnancy for dogs is 58-64 days.  Amazing isn't it, just 2 months is all it takes for them.  From our last breeding, our first ever, we had four puppies.  We kept two, one went as a pick of the litter for Ace's owner's, and one went to a good friend.  From that breeding we've had inquires from people wanting puppies, a neighbor of ours wants one, the other's puppies neighbors, and people who've taken our number down when my husband has taken them into town in the truck.  We let them know when our next planned breeding would be, it's nice to have people that we know or who will stay in touch with us be able to adopt our puppies.

By the end of the day both Summer and Ace were happy and tired.  The picture below is right before I took Ace home, if they could hold hands I know they'd be holding each other's hand as they walked together in the field!   

Rabbit Fur Tanning

I am both surprised and amazed by my successful first attempts at rabbit fur tanning.  So far I have finished tanning 5 of the 8 furs that I have, and will work on the remaining 3 over the next few days.  The furs are turning out simply gorgeous!  I am excited because they have turned out better than I ever imagined they would.  I sure do have a whole new appreciation for the contribution of rabbits and their many benefits on the homestead.  Each rabbit produced about three and a half to four pounds of meat, we put about 27 pounds in the freezer, and now these beautiful furs!

Tanning is one part of the process, and now the fun part will be making some new things.  I want to make a hat first, then my husband wants me to make him one, we're both excited to try them out.  With one of the black furs I'm going to make a purse, and from there I'll see what is left, perhaps a pair of mittens or a scarf. 

After a week of soaking in a 5 gallon bucket of tanning solution, I pulled the furs out and washed and rinsed each one and proceeded to flesh them while sitting by the fire.  It took me about a half hour per hide and the thin layer of flesh and tissues would almost come off in one piece, with touch up around the edges.  I spent 4 hours one day and did all 8 of them, boy did my fingers hurt after that. 

The furs went back into the tanning solution for another week, then I pulled out three to start drying, a good idea is to lay them out to dry the night before you want to work them.  The furs need to dry slowly, when they're ready to start stretching and working you will see white patches, you can then begin to pull softly in different directions.  You can pull and stretch the furs carefully over the edge of a chair, over your knee or any other firm soft surface, you will begin to see how it stretches.  I had some tears occur both during the fleshing and stretching part on a few of the edges, you will notice the soft parts on the sides, the middle is thicker and stronger.  The idea is to get the hide to turn all white, as your pull it in different directions it turns white and softens. 

The rabbit fur tanning method I used is the sulfuric acid formula (battery acid is diluted sulfuric acid).  There are many sites that talk about tanning furs with this method, and I originally saw it in a book called , Raising Small Livestock, by Jerry Belanger.  Here's a great rabbit site that I found and they have written out the process to tan furs, Rise and Shine Rabbitry.    The furs turn out nice and soft with this method.  I was impressed with the size of the furs of the American Chinchilla's, they stretch and get bigger as you work them, it took about one and a half to two hours per fur to work them fully.  I worked them throughout the day at different times, I spent time to make sure each one was soft and supple.

An interesting thing that I'm experimenting with is tanning the leg part on the hide (pictured below), I left it on all the furs, thinking I may use it for the drawstring on the hat, I will turn it right side out, so it has the fur showing.  I'm not sure if I'll use it in my design, but left it on just in case it works for creating something.  I have looked at a hat design on one of my daughters hats, and will cut the pieces out to fit the size of my head, then baste it all together first to make sure the fit is just right before a final sewing.  I'm going to try and use my sewing machine for the final sewing, but may have to do some parts by hand.   

All in all it takes about two weeks of sitting in tanning solution, and a couple hours of work to tan a fur, you'll have some sore fingers, but in the end a luxurious fur to create truly one of a kind things.  It's also one more way to give honor to the remarkable rabbits that we raise, and to use every part they provide us with.  They truly are one of the best all around small livestock animals, I now know why people for hundreds of years have liked raising rabbits, they have simply loved both their meat and fur! 

Fruit Tree Order

This time of year one of my rituals is pouring over my Raintree catalog and marking the varieties of fruit trees I already have, and making lists and circling the trees I want this year.  I'll spend many days at various times stopping to look and read the fruit descriptions again in the catalog.  I'll cross check pollination charts and ripening orders, inevitably I'll change my mind a half dozen times, and some will simply get put onto next years list.  The final cut is usually made the night before I place my order.  By the time it's placed the catalog is worn and dog eared, marked up with the order form filled out, items scratched, notes made, shipping and tax calculated, and the total added up. 

Every year when asked what I want for my birthday, even though it's already known, I let it be know again, yes, I want fruit trees.  My birthday was last week, so I got a little money to indulge.  February and March are all about fruit trees and berry bushes in my gardening year.  I've tried to place an order every year since 2006, and have ordered everything from their berry bushes and fruit trees to their nut trees and my grafting supplies.  One year, rather than order from the catalog we made the drive down to Raintree Nursery which is about 4 hours away.  It was fun to pick out our order in person, and see all their trees and edible landscape surrounding their greenhouses.

This year the apple tree I picked out is call a "Kingston Black", it is a cider apple, and one I originally bought back in 2006, unfortunately it is also one the deer got and so I wanted to try again .  I have a "Foxwelp" cider apple tree and have plans to yearly increase my cider orchard.  I also ordered more grafting supplies that I needed, some Doc Farwell's Seal and Heal, for sealing the grafts,  grafting bands, and permanent labels.  This year I'll be using some rootstock for grafting that I've grown over the last three years, and will be taking cuttings of scion wood over the next couple weeks.

If you're new to fruit trees, the charts throughout the catalog really help with correct pollinization and choosing varieties that bloom at the same time to cross pollinate each other.  You may want to plant an early, mid, and late season variety for each type of fruit to extend your season. There are fruit ripening order charts, along with ones that tells you the size the tree will reach at maturity.  As I research the pages and make decisions about what to plant where, and next to who, I can spend countess hours dreaming of the orchard while sitting by the fire in the middle of winter.

This month is the time of year I prune the apple, and pear trees, I wait to prune the plum and Asian pear until it warms up and the buds swell.  This is the also the month for gathering scion wood, labeling, and storing it in the refrigerator for the next month or two until you're ready to graft onto rootstock.  You can buy all the grafting supplies right through the catalog, even rootstock for all different types of fruit trees.

The European Pear I got this year is called "Orcas"  it will cross pollinate with one I got several years ago called Rescue.  I will plant them close enough to pollinate each other.

After much deliberation I decided this year to get one of each type of fruit tree, and focused on the one's I needed for pollination.  Asian pears do well in the Northwest and so last year I bought one called "Chojuro" and this year I got one called "Atago".  Asian pears are crisp and crunchy and will last most of the winter in storage.

I'm planning to plant the dog pasture with  4 cherry trees.  I already have one that I planted several years ago called "Black Gold", and this year I got one called "Hartland".  I'm making sure they won't block any sunlight on the rest of the orchard, because they will get big.  We have one now that my husband planted 25 years ago and it is so big the birds get the cherries.  I'm going to try to keep these trees pruned with branches low enough to harvest with a ladder.

The plum variety I picked this year is called "Kirk's Blue"  it's an English plum and is considered to be one of the best tasting plums there is.  It is a mid season ripener, I got it to cross pollinate with a plum I got last year called "Early Laxton", they are both English plums.  I have 4 types of Japaneses plums that I planted back in 2006, and they began producing last year.  They are "Shiro", "Methley", "Beauty", and "Hollywood".  One type I was going back and forth on getting this year is the Mirabelle plums, varieties like "Nancy" and "Metz" make a wonderful plum brandy.  Like my husband says, plum anything we love!!  Plums like our climate and do unbelievable well here. 

At some point I'm going to have loads of fruit, along with many varieties for grafting new trees as well.  One of my goals is to have enough organic produce to help my children when they have families.  With the price of quality organic produce it makes sense if you have the room, to take the time to plant fruit trees and take care of them.    Feeding the trees with good compost and mulch, learning to prune them for fruit production, and learning to preserve the harvest will be a small yearly investment.  In time that investment will pay great rewards with fruit to eat, store, can, and make into delicious fruit juices, wines and eau di vie's.

Rabbit Harvest

We raise American Chinchilla and Champagne d' Argent rabbits, they are both meat and fur breeds of rabbits. It was inevitable that we would have meat and fur to harvest at some point.  Much as I'd like to just have rabbits as pets and sell their offspring for a little side money, economically speaking it only pencils if you sell them between 8-12 weeks of age, then you haven't put a lot of money into feeding them quite yet.  I went through so much rabbit food the last couple months that even I had to admit, at a certain point, it would be wiser for us to keep them in-house and enjoy the product rather than sell them.  Over the holidays I advertised them on Craigslist and sold a few, but realized it wasn't the best time to sell rabbits, the Spring, Summer, and early Fall are the best.  These two litters of rabbits were a little over 4 months old, they were not pedigreed rabbits like I will have this year.  We had a litter of purebred American Chinchilla's and a litter of half Champagne and half mini rex's.  I didn't realize the latter were not purebred until they had almost completed their growing and they didn't reach full size.   

After 2 weeks of agonizing over what to do I finally made a decision that we would do it (the night before I had a moment of madness and thought maybe I'd just let them all go free into the pasture...seriously, I thought about it) I also contemplated that if I didn't have it in me to do it, we'd just get out of rabbits all together.   But, last weekend I finally got up the courage to not feed them for the required 24 hours, then it was time...Ready or Not!  Thankfully my husband (who has as soft a heart as me with regard to animals) took the job seriously to assist me in the first part.  He used a gun for step one and a chisel and mallet for step two removing the head, and from that point on I did all the rest.   All of this was done with respect and reverence for each animal and the sacrifice they were making for us, may they be a blessing to us and may we show respect for them by using every part, including the fur.

This was not one of the  high points on this farm, but was a necessary lesson for me to know and understand the cost to feed and raise rabbits, you will have an abundance of them as a breeder.  The first one was hard on me, then I was committed and we did two batches of 4.  Once I got into the intricacy of cutting and processing them I went into a mode that is almost trance-like it is such detail work.  I saved the heart, kidneys, and liver, and of course the furs.  There was a considerable amount of meat on each one and I couldn't believe how heavy they were to lift them up and string them onto the limb for skinning.  Rabbits are considered the easiest animal on a farm to process.  I also did extensive research on curing the furs, the health and nutritional value of the meat, and what I could make with the furs once cured.  These are all different topics I will be writing more on. 

Now that I have a freezer full of delicious rabbit meat I am going to have fun trying some new recipes, the day after it all I made an absolutely delicious rabbit stew that lasted us several meals (Tessa wouldn't eat it) she has no intention of eating rabbit, but the rest of us are all thrilled to have some good fresh meat.  I baked the rabbit just like a chicken then proceeded with deboning and making the stock (boil the bones and carcass along with carrots, onions, and celery) for approximately 4 to 5 hours, this is where I included the heart, kidneys, and liver, I figured that would be a good way to get the nutrition of them into the soup.  Once I strained the stock, I added more carrots, onions, celery and potatoes from the garden.  I added the deboned meat 20 minutes before it was finished. 

The next meal I'm planning at the request of Jarin and Kaley is a rabbit pot pie.  The health benefits of rabbit are amazing, there is a high ratio of calcium and phosphorous, along with vitamins and minerals.  It is one of the highest protein meats with the lowest fat, it's easily digested and can be used just like chicken.  In many parts of the world rabbit is a gourmet meal, and served at the finest restaurants. 

The method I used to cure the furs is the sulfuric acid method.  Sulfuric acid is found in battery acid which is diluted sulfuric acid, it's easy to find and inexpensive.  It takes away some of the chore of fleshing the hides and it sounds easier than brain tanning.  I still have another week of it sitting in the tanning solution so we'll see how they turn out.  Here's a great tutorial and how I'm tanning the 8 furs that I have, Tanning rabbit furs

What will I make with the furs?  I'm planning to make myself a hat first to experiment, then I want to make mittens, a throw pillow, and maybe even a vest.  Looking online I found many cool things to make. 

The overall value of each product from a rabbit is worth raising them, from their compost to their meat and fur, as well as the ease of housing and feeding them.  They are right up there with chickens for their valuable contributions.

Back to Normal in God's Country

A few months ago we called the phone company and inquired upon when high speed Internet might be coming to our neck of the woods, the nice lady said, "Oh, you must live in God's Country".  Yes we do, and the price to pay is that we must buy a satellite if we want high speed.  After several days of attempting to upload photos and having no success at it, I opened a photo bucket account at the recommendation of a comment from a reader,  by the way thank you for the recommendation 50 after 40.  He recommended uploading photo's onto photobucket and then you can upload them onto your blog for free and there is no charge per month.  Almost 2 hours of trying to upload photo's and I simply took a break and didn't go online for about a week, I sometimes do this when I'm feeling frustrated with my dial up connection. 

Today I resolved to fix the picture issue and what do you know I discovered I haven't used hardly any space due to the fact that I shrink all my photo's to be able to get them to upload. I researched adding more photo space on google and picassa, before I knew it was working.  In case you're wondering, it costs 2.49/mo to upgrade if you ever need to, or a good solution is to use a site like smugmug or photobucket for free, it just adds one step to the photo process.  When I need to add space that's what I'll be doing.

I'm not sure what my problem was but it is now working just fine...go figure!

Snow Girls

A few pictures from the snow we had a couple weeks ago.  

Tessa, Kaley and the goat girls had fun playing and building a couple of snowmen.   

The goats are curious and always want in on the action, and of course they want to eat the carrot noses.

Fun In the Snow ~ now, My Photo's Won't Upload

For some reason I can't upload photo's on my blog, I've been trying now for the last several days as I have some wonderful snow pictures to share.  I've read that at a certain point blogger wants you to pay to add photo's, after they get you hooked on writing your blog.  Then, I guess they want to make you pay to keep it going.  Hmmm... well, I wonder why they didn't disclose this right up front, why don't they have a note that pops up as to why you can't upload anymore pictures.  I guess I'm going to have to figure it out tomorrow morning.

Last Wednesday night we got about 8 inches of snow and it has all stayed, we've had beautiful blue skies and it's been cold, in the low 20's at night, high 20's in the day.  In the valley there is no snow at all, but up here where we are it's still a winter wonderland.  Thursday morning we woke up to the snow and a 2 hour late start to school, we went out to the car to go to the bus stop, and what do you know I have a dead battery, so we are essentially stuck. Because on late start snow days, the bus doesn't even attempt to head up our long hill, we have to go all the way down to meet it, it's about a 10 minute drive to the bottom, so is too far for the girls to walk.  It turned into an unexpected "Snow Day"  we made snow men, had a snow ball fight, cooked, talked, and basically had a fun relaxing day.  I took some great pictures that I wanted to share.  The animals have been having fun in the snow too, and we're all happy that the mud has frozen and is now covered in clean white snow. 

I was planning to write my goals post, then I got sidetracked with the photo's.  However, I will share a few right now.  One of my goals for this year is to get involved with the Evergreen Golden Retriever club.  I've been in contact with them over the last week to find out when their next meeting and show will be.  I want to go to a few shows and join their club to work with our NW community of Golden's.  They have a breeder directory and this will put me in contact with some great people to evaluate my dogs.  My plan is to have both Summer and Josie get all their testing done this year for eyes, hips, elbows, and heart.  I also want to see how they compare with other Golden's.  I'm not sure what their programs are, but I'm open to learn. 

On a side note, to update on our male Golden, Jesu (pronounced, Jess-oo) after his accident when he was run over in our driveway on December 22nd.  He doing good, and is still recovering.  Last Monday we took him to the vet for a thorough check up, and to see what was going on.  He had to undergo surgery to his shoulder that day, the bubble of fluid kept getting bigger and we knew he wasn't healing right.  They said the muscle and skin had separated and needed to be reattached, they also put 2 drains in to allow the fluid to drain.  He's had a cone on his head and a vest to hold it close to his body.  We've had him laying by the fire attending to him several times a day with hot compresses and giving him antibiotics and pain medication.  Tomorrow morning he goes back in for the drains to be removed and hopefully the cone on his head will finally get to come off.  It's been a long recovery but he's going to be fine.  I think not being able to run around and play with the other dogs has been the hardest part for him, and the cone has been tough for him to handle too.  He sure has been a good patient and has learned the routine of his day.

My main goal for around the house is going to be working on the sheetrock; taping, texturing, sanding (the messy part, as well as my least favorite part) primering, and painting.  I want to finally get this done and be able to have nice clean freshly painted walls to look at.   I also want to work on staining the wooden beams.  None of this sounds like a lot of work, but it is actually going to take a while to accomplish it all.  Little by little it will get done.

As far as my goals written for last year, some of them I could just copy and paste and they would work for this year too.  I will actually put together a post, simply for me to go back and reference.  But, some of the biggest ones are going to be to continue to support my children with their dreams, Tessa will be going through Driver's Ed this Summer, then getting her license in the Fall.  Kaley getting braces over the Summer will be a big one for her.  Jason going fishing in Alaska for 5 months is going to be a be both an adventure and a challenge for him.  My daughter Christina will be going back to work 2 days per week, so I'll get to watch my grandson Roman at least one day per week.  Every year there are new changes and plenty of new things to learn.

A big goal for me it going to be learning all about cheese making.  I'd love to take the 4 day cheese course through WSU, I've looked into it, and it's exactly what I need to learn from the experts.  I've been wanting to take it for the last 3 years.  Now, I'm not sure how I'd get away in the Spring for several days with the goats kidding, and milking.   I know there is plenty to learn on my own, so I'm not going to let the class stop me.

There are more plans, but I'll wait to share until I have a proper post, with the picture I planned to use. 

Reviewing Last Year ~ 2012

Last night as I lay in bed listening to the rain in the middle of the night, I couldn't sleep, I kept thinking about our last year, what happened, what we accomplished, and what we learned.  I always review before I begin writing out my new goals.  Here is a quick review of our family and farm and each area of interest over the last year.  

Raising children establishes our life into routines, I work around my children's lives, their school, sports, driving them to games and practices, helping them with their personal growth and simply being there to talk with them.  This last year I loved going to Tessa's track meets and High School soccer games.  She was a top hurdler for girls in the middle school where she went, and then she went on to high school where she was a freshman soccer player.  It was fun to watch her play with some of the girls she's played with since she was 7 years old, now they're all 15 and 16 years old.   She continues to be in the honor's program and is planning for college at the University of Washington.

Kaley had fun running in races this year, she ran in the Hershey's Track and Field meet and won two local races for the 400 meter and 800 meter.  She went on to state, where she finished 7th in the 800 meter, pretty good for only having a few races under her belt.  She started middle school in the Fall and has to wait one more year to be able to play school sports.  In our district the kids have to be in 7th grade to do track and cross country, which is what she wants to do.   She worked hard to get into the honors program just like her sister, over the summer we got the letter we were waiting for, her acceptance into the honors program, it was a big deal in our family.  We are all really proud of her work ethic in doing homework and reading good books, she also has plans on the horizon for college and wants to be a teacher.

Jason went to work on a ranch in Texas for over a month this past summer, when he came back he had a whole new independence and had grown up so much.  He's halfway through his senior year now and is planning to go fishing in Alaska this coming year.  He bought an old truck in the Fall and has been having fun rebuilding it.  He also has a new girlfriend, his first, and we all just love her, her name is Taylor.  It's hard to believe he'll be 18 tomorrow!  I remember how cute he was running around as a little boy just like it was  yesterday. 

The real highlight of our year of course, was my oldest daughter Christina giving birth to our first grandchild, named Roman.  This was a thrill of the highest kind, it changed our lives and took us into the realm of grand-parenthood.  Watching him come into the world melted my heart and I fell in love instantly.   He is the bright star in our family.  Now seeing my daughter as a mother, I have come full circle, we have become closer and are working on craft projects together once a week.  Becoming a grandmother was something totally unexpected at the start of last year, and one of the big surprises of the year!  My daughter Christina is talking about getting her real estate license this coming year.  She remembers me selling real estate throughout her childhood, I sold homes and land for 12 years and all my children remember going to work with me at different times, hanging out with me evenings and weekends when the office was quiet.

My second oldest daughter Heather continues to work as a barista and has plans for going to beauty school to work on becoming an estitician, she loves the fashion and make-up industry, and we celebrate her choice to follow her dream.  It would be fun to go into her future shop and get a facial, yes, me the farm girl, who's never even been to see an estitician and am not sure exactly what they do.  It sure is fun to have diversity within our family. 

One of the biggest goals on our farm that my husband accomplished this last year, was our perimeter fence.  He's been working on it off and on for 6 years, mostly weekends when he's not working, it was more complicated than a simple fence because of the sheer size of fencing 10 acres.  He poured concrete fence posts and intermediary fence posts, and then buying the actual fencing we did in stages because of the cost.  This was in addition to building the big goat pasture, along with the buck pasture.  We now have our entire property fenced to keep deer and coyotes out, plus our dogs and goats in.  I'm planning to do a post so you can see the fencing, posts, and gates along with how he built it all.

This last year has been a year of learning all about goats.  I've been reading everything I can and familiarizing myself with all the different seasons of goat care.  I milked Zolena through the winter and Joon for half the year, I'm still milking them both daily, they have been wonderful to milk and are real troopers no matter what the weather.   Over the summer when I had an abundance of milk, so much I was practically giving it away, I needed to make cheese.  I placed an order through Hoegger goat supply for cheese cultures in early July, then I waited and waited all through July and August, they kept telling me it would come, I was patient, then they said it was on back order, and this went on and on.  Finally they refunded me, I asked why, I didn't want a refund, I simply wanted the cheese cultures.  They did finally end up getting them to me in early September and sent them to me free of charge because of all the hassles.  I started my Fall deworming program just as I received them, I was getting all the does ready for Fall breeding.  So, basically during the months when I had so much milk I didn't know what to do with it all I didn't have the cultures to make the different types of cheese I was planning to make.  I still have the cultures in the freezer waiting until this Spring when I have enough milk to start learning. 

Joon had twins in May, a buckling Comet, and doeling Calypso, these were our first ever kids born on our farm and it sure was exciting!  Over the summer we sold our wethers Stormy and Comet to a family who wanted pet goats to eat down their blackberries, they also had alpaca's and the last I heard they were happily settled in.  Calypso was part of a trade for Cowboy and went to Rhododendron Ridge, a family farm nearby.  Jersey who we hoped would be pregnant never did take, so this Fall I used the buck we have on site, a Nigerian and have now bred her for mini-Nubians, and Zolena for mini-Lamancha's.  All the does are now bred for Spring kiddings beginning in the middle of March.

The Goldens and Sierra are the best family dogs we could ever have, they add so much to all of our lives.  Their faithfulness, loyalty, and love are amazing.  We didn't have any puppies this last year, but spent time working with Jesu and Josie the two puppies we kept out of the last litter, they have grown and developed into wonderful dogs.  Jesu had an accident a couple weeks ago, just days before Christmas, he was hit by Jarin's slow moving truck, right in our own driveway.  He saw him go one way and then he must have doubled back and ran under the back wheel.  It was one of the worst moments of the year when I heard him (my husband) crying out, saying No, No, No!  As I ran out and saw Jesu laying there looking bewildered, he never cried, there was no blood, but my husband knew he had run over him.  It was terrible, not knowing how bad he was hurt, or if he would ever walk again.  I said let's go get a blanket to put him on it and take him in to the vet.  Before we could get the blanket, miraculously he got up and walked away to his bed.   We layed hands on him and prayed for his complete healing, we basically asked for a miracle and prayed there was no internal damage.

Through it all we met a new neighbor just minutes away who is a vet, she looked him over and said he appears fine, he does have some fluid from trauma in the shoulder area, which is where he was run over.  Somehow he was spared, and he's now recovering after 2 weeks of keeping him confined and keeping a close eye on him.  We'd take him for slow walks to go to the bathroom and get some exercise, yesterday, we finally let him loose with the other dogs and he seems ok, he's running around just like normal and we feel he's truly a miracle dog!

The rabbitry grew by adding 2 new pedigreed American Chinchilla's, a buck and a doe.  They were babies so they had to grow for 6 months before breeding could begin.  I used the buck to breed Serendipity once, and I am still selling the last of her kits, 6 does and 1 buck.  The young American Chinchilla wasn't ready before winter, but come early Spring I'll be hoping she kindles with our first pedigreed stock from the American Chinchilla's.  The Champagne d' Argents rabbit breeding's didn't go as planned, Hazel, my pedigreed doe had 3 litters that she was unsuccessful with, the 4th accidental breeding she amazingly took care of them and raised them, there were 4 bucks.  We have three that I am raising for meat, I've also been researching various ways to cure the fur and will write more about that later.  This year I'm going into Spring with 3 adult does, 2 proven mother's and one that we'll see how she turns out. 

The chickens have been easy to care for this past year, we've had plenty of eggs to eat for our family, and some to give to friends. We didn't have enough eggs to sell on a regular basis, but are hoping this year we will.  We added 10 hens to the flock, some new Rhode Island Red's, Black Alstralorp's, a Barred Rock and Buff Orpington.  The purebreds came from a friend that decided to get out of chickens, they are one year old.  I also got back 7 pullets from the same friend, my manager at the nursery where I worked, Sharon.  She got out of chickens and gave back the chick's that came from some of our fertilized eggs.   

We've had our own delicious chicken meat to eat all year from the young roosters, and the Cornish cross chickens we raised.  We've had eggs for almost the entire year except for buying 2 dozen over the holidays for baking when the eggs were dwindling.  The chickens are still not laying many eggs per day due to the lack of light, we're getting about 3 or 4 per day.  Come the end of February we may well be up to 2 dozen per day.  Right now we're at 27 hens, one rooster, plus two young roosters that Henrietta hatched out in early Fall.   Feeding chickens in the winter is an act of faith and takes money.  Faith that they'll begin to lay again soon, and money to keep the food coming, they continue to eat almost as much as normal only they rarely lay an egg.  If I put lights on they would continue to lay, I choose to let them naturally slow down their egg laying during the coldest and darkest part of the year and lay more naturally as the light increases.  I'll let them be layers for 3 to 4 years this way, verses say 2 years if I put a light on them in winter.  After that time it doesn't pay to feed an older hen that slows down laying and eats the same.

When the goat pasture was finished last Spring we opened a small hatch to the chicken coop, after realizing almost all the chickens time was spent out in the pasture on the edge of the forest, we took down the covered apiary.  It was a real eye sore and we needed the 70 metal fence posts that I had used to build it to finish the perimeter fence.  The chickens are happy and have survived very well with the new set up, we've only lost one to a hawk or owl, we're not sure who dove in, but the chickens are all in tune to the birds of prey in the air, the rooster or a hen let's out the screaming alarm and everyone runs for cover.  Over the summer we had a problem with chicken fleas, I had never experienced them in the 5 years we've been keeping chickens.  To remedy this itchy situation I got a 50lb bag of diotomaceous earth and then cleaned and disinfected the coop completely, this was at the same time we took down the apiary.  The diotomaceous earth seemed to cure the flea situation.  I also used it on the goat stalls and on the goats themselves since they seemed itchy too.

The honeybees were another failure this year, I haven't written about it because it was discouraging for me to have this happen two years in a row.  I had one hive left going into the Fall, it was the one I captured that swarmed, it seemed like it would make it through the winter but when I went to look at it the other day, I know it's not strong enough to make it through.  I will definitely try again this Spring and will be diligent about weekly checks and preventing swarming.  Beekeeping is a learned art, with lots of failure if you're not diligent.  No excuses, I'll just keep trying.  The good news is they did pollinate the fruit trees and the garden when I needed them to.

Our orchard is growing year by year, this was by far the most fruit we've produced.  The Honeycrisp apple tree was the super star along with the Italian Plums and the Bartlett pears.  In September we had a bull dozer in to grade the area behind the garden for the greenhouse and for another area to plant fruit trees, we keep expanding every year and someday I expect we'll have more fruit than we know what to do with.

My vegetable garden wasn't as good as some years, but it did produce plenty of food for our family.  Some crops failed and other's thrived.  I worked on it throughout the summer and have renewed energy now to work on it smarter this year, with more amendments and more mulch, pathways shade-clothed and mulched and beds edged regularly.  The real gardening success I had was in my ornamental plants and trees, I created new beds, one very large one, and I bought 8 new Bloodgood Japanese maples at a great price. From the nursery where I worked I got a variety of hosta's, grasses, hydrangea's and some other ornamentals, and I worked on a simple design for my front rockery beds incorporating them.  The patio plants this year were my best, I'm saving them over the winter to plant out again this year. 

I worked weekends from Spring through Fall with several weeks off in mid August and early September.  I worked for my second year in a row at a wholesale plant nursery selling plants.  I had fun meeting new people and working on landscape designs.  I helped the owner and manager Sharon in whatever way I could, often that included weeding when no customers were present.  I was incredibly thankful for the job and the extra money for our family, but I didn't like working on Sundays, now that I'm done working there I'm glad I finished my commitment.

Throughout the Fall I worked on our house,taping the sheetrock, texturing and painting, whenever I could get an extra 3 or 4 hours I would devote to Tessa and Kaley's rooms.  I got Tessa's room finished before school started in September and Kaley's I finished the day before Christmas.  That's 3 rooms that are now finished in our big house, right now I'm focused on getting our kitchen and dining room completed.  Over the next month I'll be taping, texturing, sanding, cleaning, and painting.  Each area we'll have to tarp to keep the rest of the house clean.  Why didn't I get more done last year?  I think the mess I knew I'd be creating in my home deterred me.  This is one of those things that my husband doesn't have the time to work on.  So, the finishing of the walls inside our house is my project, I'm making this my main focus of the coming year, finishing the interior walls and staining the wood.

As we move onward to our new year I wonder what surprises will unfold.  I'm praying that we all stay healthy and whole, that all our needs will be met, and that we'll all grow in wisdom and Godliness...that prayer includes you dear readers as well.  Thank you for following along on our adventures!   

A New Year Full of Hope

There is something wonderful about starting over with a blank slate for the year, there's a freshness that makes me glad we have another chance for our best year, or at least one better than last year.  Over the last week I've been thinking about my goals, I haven't written them out yet, but I'm at least mulling them over.  Last year I wrote out many of my goals, now it's time for me to review which one's were  accomplished and which one's didn't even come close, I can think of a few right off the bat.  I'll wait a few more days for it to all come together and then you'll get to read another year's worth of goals for our farm, plus I'll review the year.  Somehow writing out my goals really seems to work, and if something works, why change it. 

This year I'm going to have a spot on the sidebar with my goals for the year simply a click away, then when I want to review them at least once per month I can easily see them.  Last year I don't think I looked at my goals enough, I know it will make a difference glancing at them more frequently.  Over the last week I've also been asking my children to think about their goals, not just this year's, but also projecting out 2 to 5 years. Sometimes that's hard to do for any of us, but it's a good habit.  The beginning of the new year is the perfect time to jot down some thoughts, then organize them a little better over the next couple of weeks.

One important thing I do when working on my goals is to ask for the Lord's guidance.  He always knows what is the best for us if we ask Him.  This is the time to think about the desires of your heart, commit your way to the Lord, and then trust in Him and His Word says, that He will bring it to pass.  This is a secret to goals and dreams becoming a reality, at least for me.   How fun it is to actually sit down in a quiet place and begin to dream, what do you want to see happen this year?  Make time for yourself, tap into your heart, then write it out.

If you work or have a business you will have a set of goals for that part of your life, if you're a wife, and mother, you will have family goals.  Then there are personal goals for your home, garden, and yourself, simply things you've been wanting to do.  Some years you just may feel like floating and not having any goals other than simple ones that you know in your heart.  There have been years I didn't write out any goals, but not too many since I learned early on the value of writing them out.
  
May you dream and plan in this New Year.  Happy 2013!

Christmas Memories and Decorations

A wreath's welcome on our front door, I usually make one or two in early December from cedar boughs.  I like all different types of wreaths and have made them from our Douglas and Noble fir trees too.  My favorite wreath though is just a simple fresh cedar one with a red ribbon. 

Santa Clause asleep by the fire with a fluffy cat on his lap, and a cup of steaming hot chocolate on a table beside him..  This is a picture we bring out of our treasure trove of Christmas memories, and every year we hang him up and look at him all cozy by the fire.  I've sat with my own cup of hot tea on many winter's eve and studied all the little details of this picture.

In my early 20's, during the years of pregnancy and nursing of my 2 oldest daughter's, I spent about 4 years learning to quilt.  My sister and I both took classes and bought books, fabric, and sewing machines.  I made 2 Christmas wall quilts that I bring out every year.  They aren't just specifically for Christmas, it's just become ritual that I bring them out and hang them up over the winter and then put them away until the following year. 

I remember 20 years ago making this quilt sampler in a class that I took.   My sister Joy and I took the class together and we learned all about the different techniques of quilting, including applique.  You would never know how much work goes into a quilt unless you've actually worked on one before.  These quilts have thousands of tiny little stitches in different patterns on each one, you can't tell by the picture or see all those stitches.  As I walk by going down my staircase, I touch them and remember all the different places that I sat and worked with a needle and thread, and by hand pieced them all together. 

The quilt below is one I made just because I love the red and white star motif.  I spent many happy days sewing and lovingly worked on all the many tiny stitches.  These quilts are labors of love and someday will get passed down to my children.  I haven't quilted since my son was born, once I had my third child and the girls began to grow my time got wonderfully consumed with raising children.  There is a season for everything and I may still get back into making some quilted projects.  The last quilt I was working on was for my son Jason when he was a baby, I still need to put the binding on it and will probably now present it to him when he has a child someday. 

The Christmas mouse was sewn and pieced together during my quilting and sewing years. 

We bring him out every year, his whiskers are gone, I need to patch a few places,

but he is part of our ritual too and one of our  home-made treasures.

Hand-made ornaments by my children are special, here's Jason in 2rd grade.

Heather's hand print ornament made in 3rd grade

I didn't make this Santa quilt, but I love it, many years ago I bought this quilt when my children were very young, it always hangs on the wall right by the Christmas tree. 

Another picture that we pull out to hang over the winter months. 

Kids, horses, geese and a dog all playing in the snow... how fun!

May the child-like magic of Christmas stay alive in us all, Happy Holidays!