The End of 2008
Tonight people will be celebrating the birth of a New Year. Some people will be going out for a night on the town, some will be spending the evening with friends, others will be spending a quiet night at home with their loved ones. I will fall in the last group...No doubt I will sleep the New Year in but I'll be surrounded by those that love me.
However, it's the way I spent the last day of 2008 that will always be special in my mind. Today I spent the whole day with my Daddy. We watched old Red Skeleton shows, "The Price is Right", "Judge Joe", a show on antique tractors and a football game. All of this with my Dad! In between shows we talked about "the good old days". He shared stories of his youth and this evening when things quiet down I'll write those stories down for my children. When I left him, my sister Sindy took my place. He's going to teach her to play cards and she'll make her own special memories with him. Now I ask you Girls, does it get any better than this? I think not!
In my heart I know that 2009 is going to be a year of tears and losses for our family. But just for tonight, I want to hold this last day of the year close to my heart. Blessings, Sher
Christmas is Over, Again!
At last Christmas is behind us. It's been a time of family, a time of laughter and a time of tears. Christmas is never easy for me but this year was especially hard as everyone is so afraid this will be Daddy's last. For that reason and the fact that Codi's grandfather is ill too, Seth and Codi each decided to go their separate ways on Christmas Eve so they could spend time with their grandfathers.
Daddy actually gave us quite a scare Christmas night. I noticed when we were taking family pictures that Daddy's head kept tilting to the side. At first I thought he was just acting smart and told him to sit up straight as it looked as though he didn't like Mom. By the second time I told him it was obvious he wasn't doing it on purpose. Jeni had left her coat at the folks so my little sister ran it by on her way home. It was then she told us after everyone left Daddy told my DIL who is an RN that he had been feeling weak and dizzy for a couple of days. Sure enough they had to take him to the ER the next day. The ER doctor ( A PA who probably doesn't know much more than I do! Sorry, unless your a real doctor I don't have much faith in you!) said he couldn't find anything wrong with him and he probably just had the flu that is going around. Sindy and I neither one bought that! So, for days he has just sat in his chair watching all the old Red Skeleton shows we bought him. I talked to Mom this morning and she said he's feeling a little better but not acting like his old self. Tomorrow she's going with some of her friends (She is tied to that house 24/7 so really needs a break) so I'll be going over to spend the day with Daddy. My sister Sindy will be relieving me that night and then Michael will be there Thursday. I'm someone who panics in an emergency so I'm terrified to be alone with him and yet Mom really needs this break. Please pray we get through the day without anything happening.
Since I'll be gone all day tomorrow I've spent all day today getting ready. I've got a big meal planned for Daddy and I've baked him tons of cookies. We plan to spend the day eating and watching old movies. I also dug out my book of ghost towns here in Kansas and I'm sure he'll enjoy reading that...At 83 he'll probably remember when those towns were in their prime! HA I'm also hoping I can get him to talk about when all eleven kids were home on the family farm so I can get those stories written down.
Along with Daddy's health we have been battling extremely cold weather. I swear, I could just hear the propane being sucked through that furnace it ran so much. These past few days have been super warm (So nice the kids have been running around outside in heavy sweat shirts) but we are going back into a cold spell this evening. Oh well, it was great while it lasted!
We got the last of the Christmas decorations taken down today so our house is some-what returning to normal. I loved the tree we had up this year...Very primitive looking and it took up very little room. Keith and I both agreed as we were taking it down it will be "our tree" from now on! (I'm trying to talk Sam and Renee into taking our big expensive one but so far not having much luck! HA I guess no one wants a big tree in a little house!)
I'm hoping later on this week to get back into crafting in a big way. I think it's been a year since I did any cross stitching and while I did do some Needle Punching these past few weeks, it's been ages since I picked up my rug hooking. (I'm ashamed to admit this but I'm still hooking on a Halloween rug!)
Well Guys and Gals it's time for this old gal to finish up her kitchen and maybe I can do something fun. I hope you've all had a safe, family filled holiday. Stay warm and stay safe tomorrow night if you go out. Hugs, Sher
Saturday on the Homestead
Well even though winter is just starting I am so happy to say we are finally thawing out! The temps went above 32 and now everything is beginning to melt into one big soupy mess..  But hey at least we can get out and about now. Emily and Leanne dug out her car yesterday.. no easy feat. Today I think she is dying for a shopping and Starbucks fix with her sisters. Cabin fever is alive and thriving around here! LOL..
Today I will be at home. I have soap business stuff to catch up on and a house to clean and food to make. We feasted on Christmas Eve dinner and then leftovers for a few days. My son was thrilled to enjoy lots of homemade food.. and lots of food is what I made. But now it is time to make some more. I did make a pot of navy bean soup yesterday with my leftover ham bone. Today I think spaghetti or lasagna will be on the menu too.
I typically take down my tree the day after Christmas but my son had two requests before he came home.. one was pizza (did that for him the first night he got here) and the other was a Christmas tree.. so for him I will leave it up a few more days. But by Monday it has got to go.. I start feeling a real need about now to get my life reorganized and ready for the new year.
I am currently contemplating my new year goals.. I am not a big fan of resolutions instead I make goals. So I will be praying and working towards some new personal goals, business goals, website goals, and more. So what do you typically do.. goals or resolutions?
Well that is all from the homestead today.. Keep warm as we head into 2009!
Updates from the Homestead
Well the last snow pictures I showed you were just the beginning of this storm! LOL.. well maybe not really.. but pretty close! We got a break from the snow for a few hours but it is back again. I will share some updated pics in this post.
My hubby was finally able to come home on Monday night! Yea!! I kept watching the DOT website waiting to see when the highway would be open and finally about 4:30pm Jacob refreshed the webpage and came to me saying.. Mom I think it’s open now. So I checked and sure enough. I called Tobin’s cell and told him the good news and he was so happy. He had worked Saturday night as usual, slept at work in a chair for a few hours and worked another shift on Sunday plus overtime. By Monday morning the highway was still closed. His company paid for a hotel room for him so he could get some sleep which was a real blessing. But by Monday evening things were open again and he could come home.
On Tuesday he cleared the driveway and by afternoon we were able to get to town and pick up groceries and then we were going to pick up my son. But his plane had mechanical difficulties and was delayed 4 hours. So we headed home, unpacked groceries and went back to town to pick him up at midnight. We were so thrilled to see him!! It has been a year and half since he has been home. He arrived home to see all the yellow balloons greeting him from the fence posts and tied to trees lining the driveway and the back porch. We had pizza and talked till nearly 3am.. needless to say we all slept in this morning!
We also woke up to MORE snow and it has been snowing ever since. Tobin redid the driveway and then dug our neighbor out of his drive way too. Tobin says if it does not stop snowing pretty soon there will be no place to put all this snow after cleans up!
Well now for pics.. remember the picnic table? Well if you look carefully you may just be able to see it now.. that is my deck almost completely full of snow..
Here are a few more shots from around my property..
Part of the driveway with the snow walls on each side from the snow removed…
My front yard…
Updated pic of Emily’s car…
And some pretty pics of our property that Emily took this morning…
Have a very Merry Christmas Everyone!
~Mini Nubians~
Well from my breeding Mini Nubians and milking them, I can tell you what we have experienced.
My does range from 26 to 28 inches at the withers.
My Bucks range from 26 to 32 inches at the withers.
We have breed Mini Nubians from the spring of 2002 to present. We started with 1st and 2nd generation stock. Now keep in mind that they are bred to begin with from a Nigerien buck bred to a Nubian Doe. That cross makes 1st generation mini nubians of a 50/50% . ie. half Nigerien /half Nubian. We started with goats of this cross. Some having ears that were shorter or not down like Nubians then. We worked with those first 5 goats and from that got our first 3rd gen stock born that summer. Ears were much improved !
My does milk between 4 to 9 qts per day , depending on what freshening it was and if they were from good milking stock.
in 2004 I bred for our first 75/25% 1st generation stock. ie. a mini nubian buck bred to purebred Nubian does or American Does. All registered stock, ie. ADGA and MDGA then. Again Ears were much improved as was breed character. We have had many nice goats born to us along the way in 6 years.
This year I had my 5th gen doe give birth to the first registered Purebred Mini Nubian Stock in the US that is of 6th generations. One buckling as you read on my blog went to OK to Good Goats near Tulsa. I retained a buck Faithful Acres Gad and his Sister Faithful Acres Asher, both are Purebred Mini Nubians and registered with The Miniature Dairy Goat Association . MDGA This kidding I have allowed Magnolia to raise her own kids and have not milked her as I believe she may be bred for February of this coming year. I bred her to my 2nd generation buck for 3rd gen kids, as he is very nice, shorter and from excellent milking mini nubian lines that have nice breed character and He himself won 1st place in intermediate bucks on MDGA's Virtual Show.
Mini Nubians have wonderful personalities. Magnoia my herd queen is rather talkative, but at times she is silent too. Each goat is different, as people are.
I will try to post pictures here soon so you all can see the mini nubians There is a picture of Faithful Acres Benjamin in my posts with his new owner Suriyah Fish of Good Goats in OK.
Blessings
Linda
Snow Storm
We have been hit by a big snow storm. We have spent the last couple of days dealing with lots of snow fall and blizzard like conditions. So far thankfully we have not lost power. To give you and idea of how much snow has fallen here is a picture I took last week that showed the dusting of snow we got on our picnic table..
And here is what it looks like today:
Tobin had to get out his tractor on Saturday to clear the driveway so he could get out of the drive way to make it to work Saturday night.
He put chains on the car and left early to make the drive. We live in an area that can be somewhat treacherous with the winter weather. The interstate on the other side of the Columbia River had already been closed down by the time he left. A drive that normally takes him about 40 minutes took him 2 hours with blizzard like conditions and his wipers freezing at time. Shortly after he left for work the state closed our highway down to semi-trucks and after talking with Tobin about his drive into work I would not want to be on that road in a car either!
With more snow forecasted and highway’s being closed down we both pretty well knew that after getting to work he probably would come home till things settled down. This morning we woke to even more snow. Here was what it looked like out my basement door when I opened it up…
Those are steps that lead up and out of the basement and into our woodshed! When Jacob got up he shoveled it all and a path to the wood shed so we could make sure we could get wood in. Here is what it looked like after he shoveled…
Tobin chose not to come home which is a good thing. No point taking on more risk than he has to. He was also the only mechanic that made it in for the night shift and the day shift! So it was a good thing he was there. He did mange to get some sleep and went to a nearby restaurant to eat and give me a call. So now the real question we both have.. will he be able to get home tomorrow? The snow is still falling and 1/4 an inch of freezing rain is expected in the city.
Here are a few more pics of our place in the snow. The pond has completely frozen over…
This is looking from our wood shed into the back yard..
That is the back tail light of Emily’s car  …
Anyway in the mean time we are dealing with the elements on the homestead, keeping the fire going and the wood supply coming in, checking on goats and changing their water as it freezes through the day, and praying we don’t loose power. But even if we do we will do fine, I am sure. I am prepared with flashlights, LED lights, propane stove, and a battery and inverter to help run a few things.
This afternoon Emily and Leanne made cookies and then made a nice pot of tea. We pulled out the book Eight Cousins (Louisa May Alcott) and the four of us began reading, sipping tea and enjoying a few cookies. It has been a nice way to spend the afternoon.
Well that is all from my cold and snowy homestead!! Hope you are keeping warm and safe during these winter storms.. 
Rain, Snow, Ice and Cold!!!
The above title describes our weather to a "t"! Did you notice there's not one word to describe warm???? Brrrr, it seems as if we've been in a deep freeze this whole week and other than a slight warm up tomorrow, it's going to continue that way. I'm not complaining. So many people are having such harsh weather with lots of power outages that it make our weather look pretty mild.
We're also very thankful our weather hasn't been any worse than it has been because this is the time of year we have a lot going on at night. Sunday we had a party at my parents for my niece who just graduated with her Masters! Way to go Alexandra!!!! My little sister was home from Louisiana so it was a good time to snap lots of pictures. One that will always be precious to my heart is when Shelia curled up with Daddy in his favorite chair....A Dad and his "baby".~~~ A baby that is over 40 years old!!!! It was definitely one of those priceless moments.
On Tuesday night we brave the elements to go to Jeni's school Christmas program. We left half and hour before she was to be there and I'm so thankful we did. The roads were a sheet of ice and Keith couldn't drive more than 20 mph! Talk about scary!!!! I was super thankful to make it there and back!
All of this nasty has made it a good time for me to do all the little things that I've been putting off. This morning Keith started a fire in the fireplace (I can do it but never get the hot fire that produces the good coals he's able to get.) and I got around and decorated Christmas sugar cookies for the children's party at school tomorrow. I then moved on to making a big pot of soup for supper. I swear Keith and I could live on soup during the winter months and probably would if we didn't have the little ones. They neither one will eat any kind of soup so when we have it we have to make them something different. Oh well, at least we're all happy by the end of the day.
It will also be a good time to work on one of my parents Christmas presents. It's always so hard to buy for them but this year we have what we think will be a gift they will like.... At the Black Friday sale, Seth stood in line so he could get us a Digital Picture Frame at a good price. For days Keith and I have been working on this journal of our families lives. While we wanted to have pictures of everyone on it as we look today we also wanted to have pictures of the past. This has really taken us a trip down "Memory Lane". While some pictures have brought laughs, other have brought tears. In some pictures family members are no longer with us on earth but they had to be included to make our journey complete. I know looking at these pictures will bring a tear to my parents eyes but they will also show what a wonderful family they raised and the good and bad times they had along the way. I hope they enjoy it as much as we have in putting it together!
Well, that soup is starting to smell mighty good so I think I'll go try a bowl of it and call it breakfast. I hope your all staying warm and enjoying the Season the way it was intended. Winter Blessings, Sher
Wednesday on the Homestead
I played around with the idea of making lasagna for dinner. It is one of Tobin’s most favorite dinners and he has been working 6 to 7 days a week lately so I figured he would enjoy it. But then I looked in my fridge and saw leftover pot roast and leftover cranberry chicken and leftover rice.. so the lasagna will wait until tomorrow night (and Tobin will appreciate it then too! ) and tonight will be stir fry with my leftovers. As I type right now I have 6 loaves of bread rising in my oven and Isaac is mopping the kitchen floor. When he is done I will start working on my dinner preps.
The weather is crisp and cold out! Last night was in the teens and with the wind chill it was down in the single digits.. pretty cold for these parts. The snow that fell never amounted to much on Sunday and yesterday the sun came out in time for me to snap these pictures…
Tomorrow they are predicting more snow. So Emily and Leanne headed into town this morning to do some Christmas shopping. Emily has a couple weeks off from her nanny job and is taking a break from studying. Her next test to study for is pre-calculus and she is not ready to tackle that one until after the holidays. I posted a congrats to Emily blog post the other day for finishing her first and second year of college in less than 8 months and someone asked me what degree she earned. She has not earned her degree yet, she has finished to the half way point now and is working towards a bachelors degree in accounting. She should be done sometime next fall if she stays on track.
As soon as my son has had time to recover I am looking forward to asking what homemade food he would like to eat when he gets home.. anything mom makes he might be craving? I will find out! And Emily wants to ask what kind of homemade goodies he wants so she and her sisters can do some baking for him! Looks like he will be getting lots of special attention while he is home. 
Now it looks like my clean kitchen floor is about dry so I am off to make dinner and finish baking my bread. Have a great evening on your homesteads!
He is back in the USA!!!
Woo Hoo.. my US Army soldier son Richard Miller is now officially back in the USA. He landed in Ft.Bragg on Sunday afternoon after a 17 hour flight. His 15 month deployment in Iraq is done! 
He will be home to us in a week!
Updates from the Homestead
Well “old man winter” is here.. the temp is 25 and we are currently having the first snow of the year. So far it’s just a dusting which I am happy about.. but since it is still falling and the weather man is predicting more we will see how it all ends. Right now I have a fire going and the house is toasty and I suspect I will be keeping that going all day and through the night. Jacob brought in LOTS of wood (guess he deiced to make sure I was very well stocked.. no heading out into the snow and cold at 4am for him!  )
We finally got our Christmas tree up and the house decorated! Yea! It looks so festive in here now. Yesterday I got my daughter’s Christmas package all wrapped and packed up so tomorrow when Tobin and I head into town for our date night we will drop it off at the post office. I have all my Christmas shopping done (I admit that I only went out once to shop.. all the rest was done online.. I just love the UPS man this time of year! LOL) and I am down to 2 sewing projects left to complete and then gifts to wrap and I am done! Now it is time to move onto my Christmas menu.
No church for us this morning due to the snow and slick roads.. so we have a day to relax, listen to Christmas music and maybe do a bit more baking. Emily and Leanne were adventurous last night and made peppermint patties.. yum.. hope they freeze all right because otherwise they will be gone before we know it! LOL.. so far we have made great progress in getting our goodies in the freezer. Here is a recipe similar to the one she used: http://homecooking.about.com/od/candyrecipes/r/blcandy6.htm
I made some snickers bar fudge the other day and it turned out delicious! I now want to make some butterfinger fudge and milky way fudge. I got the idea from a lady on my message board. You use chopped up candy bars in place of the chocolate chips. It works great! I used my scale to measure out the candy bars to make sure they equaled the right amount. You may be able to just chop up the bars and sub 2 cups of chopped bars.. I did not measure it out after I weighed it to see if it was about the same.
Marshmallow Fudge aka.. Candy Bar Fudge
4 Cups mini marshmallows
2/3 cup milk (I used half n half but evaporated milk would work and regular milk would probably work too)
1/4 cup butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups (12 oz.) chocolate semi-sweet morsels – I used chopped up candy bars in place of the chips as stated above
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine marshmallows, milk, butter, sugar and salt in a large cooking pot. While stirring bring to a full boil. Reduce heat and continue stirring and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla add chocolate chips or candy bar pieces (which ever you are using). Stir very well until chips or candy bar pieces are melted. Pour into a 9x9 pan that has been buttered. Chill.
I am giving this fudge away as gifts. My plan was to cut the fudge up into squares and put them in those gift tins that you can purchase just about anywhere. Then Emily had a great idea last night. She suggested lining the gift tins with saran wrap and just pouring the fudge into these instead of the pan. How easy is that! Then we both had the idea that you could probably do two layers.. just put wax paper and maybe another layer of saran wrap and pour the second batch on top.. that way the recipients has more than one type of fudge to enjoy.
Today’s winter menu will be food that warms and nourishes! I will be making a pot of soup of some type and probably dinner rolls and serving this with my winter salad. I call it my winter salad because fresh veggies get so expensive this time of year and I typically try and avoid the pricier ones.. so my winter salads consist of romain lettuce, spicnach, chopped red cabbage and grated carrots. The salad keeps well in the fridge for 2 or 3 days so we make up a big batch of it and a double or quadruple batch of homemade ranch dressing and we are set.
The goats need extra attention now too. The temps will be dropping down into the teens and that means checking on water supply regularly to make sure it is not frozen or replace it if it is. I am also giving them a little extra grain to help keep them warm. So Jacob will be in charge of that job and I will make a pot of hot chocolate for everyone this afternoon who has to go out and brave the elements.. they will have something to look forward to when they come in!
Stay warm & dry this Sunday on the homestead..
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