We are doing good! It seems like the tree clean up and burning and yard clean up would never get done. My husband Rob had a fire going for 2 weeks just burning some of the sweet gum trees that went down in the tornado. There will be plenty more later, but at least the front of our acre and a half is about back to the way we had it before the storm!! 

 We found out a couple weeks ago that the RV that we live in until the mobil home that we were fixing up "before the storm blew it away" is a total from the insurance. So they have paid most of it off now. So we are left with a RV that will never go down the road again. We just feel Blessed that it didn't blow away compleatly and we can still live in it until we get something else. 

We still don't know for sure what or even when we'll be able to get something else, the good thing is we can pay it off and take seats out and make more room for us with that space!! I can't wait to get it done.

This coming Monday the children and I will take a road trip to Ohio to see my folks and I'll sew to make enough money to pay for the over priced gas. I couldn't go if it wern't for that! We are looking forward to it although I'm sad my sweetie can't go, but someones got to milk and feed the animals! 

We had a better hatch rate this time!! We had 9 out of 11 eggs to hatch! One chick is crippled, so we have to give it a little extra care. It's like his leg is out of socket, he can hop around but he's always falling into the water so then we have to blow dry him off.

Has any one ever seen a peep like this?

Here are the chicks right after the last one hatched!

Here is our newest goat! He will be the "sir" to our goats this fall. He's boar/nubin

Here is my sleeping baby, she is so sweet!!  I love sleeping children!

My diaper cover

This is my fitted diaper, I've been sewing alot this week trying to get a bunch to sell  online. I use these for my baby and love them. I pin my diapers on, and don't make all in ones, I guess I'm old fashion.

O.k.first off we don't have money to see a vet, so we are do it yourself people. I think our goat has a cyst on her cheek, and it seems to be growing. I wonder what tips any one has to get the infection out and drained well?? I shaved it and stuck a needle in it and got a little to drain, but their is more to get out. And if anyone knows what they are from and how to prevent more from coming any tips are good!!

We are getting things cleaned up after the tornado. My family came out from Ohio. The men and my husband put up a new goat shed/mower shed. We got our garden tilled and re-planted. And we got more trash picked up, trees cut up, really the yard looks lots better.

We went and looked at a mobil home for 9 thousand dollars furnished, but we are trying to weigh out our options, we don't really want to move in another mobil home, but it may be the only way we could afford a home right now. We have also asked our neighbor if we could salvage their lumber from their house that was condimed , we are waiting to hear if they would sell it that way so we could build a small home. Lots of work, but it's a thought so we could start building that way. Alls we know is this RV is getting way small now that we don't have the mobil home to put things in. Somethings going to work out, at this point we're open to about anything.

Rob is putting up new fencing tonight for the goats. The flies have about taken over since the storm. We had about 200 pounds of feed that was spilled all over the yard and the smell and flies have sure moved in. yuck :O(

My baby is eating cereal now, shes almost 5mo.  I also need to sew more nappies, mine were on the line drying when the tornado came , I think I found most of them, but we still need more to get us by with out useing paper diapers.

Here I am with the squrial I shot, Rob bought me a gun so I could shoot the coon that ate 3 layer hens and 5 other chickens, I wasn't very happy with it and had seen it twice, I told Rob if I had a gun I could have shot it. Any ways this little guy was my target practice, I shot and I got him. Rob came home from work and told me squrials are not in season, oops I had no clue their even was a season to shoot them in. I know now! My son Grant was way proud of me, he was like nice shot mom! Too cute, I have to admit it felt good to know I could get something if I need too! We finely did trap that coon and I let Rob finish him off, he was too cute and I seen him up too close to shoot him. Now I hope we have better luck on the chickens now. We've lost over 40 chickens this spring. We are waiting on more to hatch too. We only got 3 to hatch last time out of 12 eggs. Time before was 2 out of 12. Some I hope it's better this time. Last time they got cold when the storm hit for one night. 

I just want to thank you who has offered to help us from our tornado. We are a little overwhelmed and don't know where to start as far as building back yet. Right now my husband is just trying to get the yard cleaned up so he can mow to keep the snakes from moving in.  And we do not plan on moving in another mobil home, but who knows when we can build. God is good and we know things will be o.k.!

Thanks again Kim

One week ago today we got hit by a tornado. We were safe down at our neighbors home, when we got back here we were amazed to find our mobil home that we were remoldling was compleatly gone except for the frame that landed on our goat hut. We feel blessed that the RV that we live in was still here, so we are not with out shelter from the storm!

Our place after the storm, the mobil home sat right in front to the left a little of the rv.

I finely got to make my laundry soap! Now I can't wait to try it! I had made a liquid one the first time and wasn't real impressed, because it didn't seem to set right. So yesterday I made dry laundry soap, the best part is I'll only need to use 1/8 cup per load!!

Dumping in the ingreidents!

Stirring the BIG pot!

Also made stain remover and softner!

This is our first batch of goats milk soap ! Honey flavor! Yummy!!!!!

Today I made my first batch of yogurt, I hope it turns out, I had forgot to add the yogurt to start it, so I had to add it an hour after letting it sit, we'll see......... we met a local woman that raises goats and chickens on Sunday! She gave me a few eggs from her flock to try hatching, some banties and some of those striped black and whites eggs. Also she said we could "borrow" her boar goat when ours goes into heat! She was a very kind sweet lady, I can't wait to go back!

Our kitten has been wanting to nurse from our goat, so I let her yesterday and today. It makes her tummy full and she is happy!

Our purple hull peas are coming up! It's so nice to see them coming on we can't wait until picking time, they are really easy to pick!

Have a wonderful day, Kim

What a lovely warm day! I've got my cloths line full of diapers and jeans/skirts and a few blankets! I love the smell when I bring them in! Solor dryer you just can't beat that!!

I got a few things planted this weekend. I planted my tomatoes in tires for raised bed effect. And I planted lettuce in tires too, we'll see how it works!

My potatoes and radishes,carrots and sweet peas are coming up! And we need to finish planting!

We bought an egg rotator and fan to try to get a better hatch rate, we only got 2 chicks out of 12 eggs. My husband is working on getting the humidity just right to. But the 2 that did hatch seem real good, they are starting to stink, so I think that's a healthy sign :O)

I clipped 3 chickens wings and put them in with our baby goats so they can scratch around in there! It's bigger for them!

Oh my I'm tired! A good tired!! Last night I got up twice with the baby Kitten Smoky, and once with Mia. Right when I was drifting off after giving Smoky a bottal at 4:oo a.m. I heard a peep, peep and I jumped up turned on the light and you guessed it our baby chicks are starting to hatch!! I put eggs in every day for abot 6 days, so this week we hope we'll see new peeps each day until they are done!! We didn't know if they were going to do anything, because we had a hard time keeping the temp just right. It's suppose to be at 99* ,but it would go from 80*-104*  we were either cooking them or chilling them so this is a mirical that we even have 2 working their way out!!

Our early garden is starting to pop up!! And we planted our artachokes and asspargus yesterday!!! We have wonderful compost from last year so we are able to get our soil better this year!!! This is so fun homesteading!!

I clippeed one hens wings and put her in the baby goat fence so she can share the fence and I'll see how she does the will add the other two that are in a small chicken tractor. We need to make room for the babies that are hatching!! They got out the other night and messed up my flowers and strawberry plants :o(

My husband Rob planted 5 more fruit trees, and 2 grapevines that we got at the flea market last weekend. 

Last night our goat Newbie jumped up on top of her goat hut for the first time to get some leaves. We had a good laugh at her.

I can't decide if it's spring or summer here! It's HOT here :o)

Any ways it's been exciting here, I was nursing my baby and looked out the window to see my goat was loose. When we first bought her she was a bit wild, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to get her back to the cable. We don't have a fence for her sop we keep her tied. Well I went out and jiggled some food and she came right over and jumped up on the milk stand, whew...... it wasn't hard at all. So I called my husband and asked what to do?... He told me to leave her there and go to wal-mart for a new cable, that made me worry, because I didn't want to come home to a goat with a broken neck if she happened to get spooked, but I took off and as I was looking both ways to pull out, I (duh) happened to remember the feed store less  about a block from our house, so instead of turning right I went left, they had a gadget that pressed the cables together so I didn't have to end up going clear to wal-mart 7miles away and be worried about my poor little milk goat getting strangled while I was out.

Then we were out of hay, so I did end up going into town to get hay any ways.

Yesterday I found a kitten on freecycle, silly me drove one hour to get 1 baby kitten that was free, I wasn't thinking very well about how much that would cost me in gas. So the silly kitten must have cost at least 15.00 in gas money............. So I got a new kitten, and had 3 grumpy children by the time I got home. Now I'm hoping that goat milk will get her by until she can eat food. So I bought a kitten bottle at the feed store to, because the med. dropper didn't go so well. :o)

Last night 2 of my chickens got out and I can't get them back in, grrrrr , and they are tearing up my flowers and strawberry plants. I hope we can think of a way to get them in by tonight, or my honey might get shot gun happy and I don't want that to happen on another hen.

Well I need to go, have a wonderful afternoon, Kim

Well we figured out that a stray cat was getting our peeps. We lost 19 to it altogether :o( We went and got 10 more and made a better cage for them, I seen the cat kill one of them, and he got 3 out of the new built cage. grrrr... So we pluged up the way the cat was getting in where the cage is at. So we now only have 8 left, but the problem is now solved!!

We decided to hatch out our own, so we bought a incabator last saturday! I can't wait to see if we get some chicks to hatch out this way!! At $1.50 each and the cat getting them this seems like a cheaper way to go, and we'll be able to use the incabtor every year so I'm excited about that!!

My husband made a better chicken tractor to put the baby chicks in when they get a little bigger, we want to butcher them in 6 weeks for meat!!

Our Baby Mia is 3 months tomorrow. The time is going by too fast. She got her first shots today and now weighs 13 lbs even. She's in the 75% in weight and 90% in length. She is a sweet Blessing!

Our son Grant was chatting to me this morning and he was telling me how God makes people.

He said"first he lays down bones, like a puzzel and puts them together"

" then he wraps skin around them, then he just turns them real and sends them down from heaven. "

A few minutes later he said," somehow he just makes the bones"

Then he said" so how was God made?"

Here's Mia at 3 months tomorrow!

We are sooo sad...... Friday morning we woke up to All 12 chicks had been eaten during the night.

Friday night we had our other chicks in a different cage thinking they would be safe and same thing 4 out of our five that we had left got ate too. :o( So the one that didn't get ate we names LUCKY.

Today we went on a mission to get more peeps! We bought 10 more, and plan to fatten them up and in 6 weeks butcher them and can them. 

We also got more wire and stuff to make another chicken tractor, but a different kind and we got it about half way done, so far it looks like it will be a better one then the last one we made! Instead of a wooden one we are useing PVC pipes so it will be lighter weight and taller and more handy to change the water.

We also decided to try hatching our own peeps with BIG RED the rooster and Bluey,&BB's (the hens) eggs. So we bought an incabater. We think it will be fun to watch and learn for the children ( and we'll enjoy it too!)

I think it may be getting dry enough to work up our garden!! wooo- hoooo!! Today we got us some strawberry plants, and more onions. We love watching our garden grow. It always amazes me that you plant a tiny little seed and you get a new plant and fruit from it what a blessing!! I don't think we have much of a green thumb, the plants that we are trying to start inside don't look real good. But maybe we'll get something from it.

Our baby is 11 weeks today! She is getting so fun! She is giving us some coo's and laughs and lots of smiles. She also really don't want put down for to long, that makes her cry. Most of the time it don't matter we have time :o)

Does any one know if baby goats get bloated easy? One of our baby goats looks like it has a bigger tummy and We really don't know what bloat looks like or what it's from. Any tips would help.

Have a wonderful weekend, Kim

We are so excited! A couple weeks ago I thought one of our hens that free range our yard got ate by something, because I hadn't seen her for a while. Then one day she came when I was feeding the other chickens and she was very hungry. I was hopeing maybe she is sitting on eggs. A couple days ago I followed her when she came out to eat and sure enough she had eggs under her a she was very protective and wouldn't let us to close. Well today was the day, 12 baby peeps hatched!! We couln't be happier!! Last fall we bought 6 little chickens,( but  3 ended up being roosters) we spent $1.oo each so our flea market chickens have paid off now!

Here she is sitting on her eggs yesterday!

Here's the empty shells!!

Our daughter with all the peeps!!

Here's the goat cheese we made that my husband spiced up, yummy good!!

It's so much fun to have the animals!

Have a wonderful day that the Lord has made!

Kim

This weekend we got some things done! My husband put up a fence for the baby goats so we could wean them. We tried electrice fence, and started out putting up 3 wires, they jumped through, then we added another one, and another until we had 6 electric wires, that wasn't holding them in, they either jumped through or over. So my husband made another trip to the store and bought fencing with little squares. That held them in!! So this morning I milked Newbie, I got one pint of milk, I don't think I got it all out, but I'm just learning here. Tonight we got 1 quart. The milk we got this morning, we drank and it was really good! We're excited about it! (we're first time homesteaders!!)

Here's my husband fixing up the fence!

The baby goats trying to get food from the feed bin!

My husband brought me hame 5 more baby peeps! They are so cute! I just love the tiny stage of a chicken! My children love them too!

Still to wet to get our early garden in.

I can't figure out this blog yet? I'm not sure how to add friends, if any one has any tips that would be nice :o)

When we moved to our acre and a half peice of land their was nothing here, no barns, sheds, fences, so we have to start from scratch. It take time and money we have more time then money. We always get the cart before the horse so to speak, and bring home an animal before we have a shed built or a fence up. Well, we brought our goat home from our flea market, before we had any thing ready for a goat, she was housed in a temperary hut made out of a tarp, so she became our top priorty. My husband made her a little shed and she is still teathered, but he's out right now buying fenceing. After bringing her home she had 3 babies! And we plan to milk her after we wean the babies.

The same thing happened when I brought home our peeps from the farm center, no home for them, so we quickly had to make a hut for them too.

We are now being blessed by their eggs! We also brought home 8 peeps when we bought Newbie our goat, they free range our yard, although that has to change soon, we're getting new neighbors, and our chickens free range their yard too. So we plan to butcher the roosters and make a new hut for the hens, because I found 3 eggs in an hay bail,so they must be laying now too. So we want to contain those hens so we can have/find the eggs. Also I think one of our free range hens are sitting on eggs some where, because we never see her except for in the mornings when we feed the other ones, and they always stick togather. I'm hoping that's the case!! I really want our own chickens hatching peeps, that would make my day!!

It snowed today for the first time this winter!! It was so pretty!

Here is Newbie and her babies, Suzie, Gunner, and Bubba!!

My 2 oldest children playing in the snow today!

Our baby is 9 weeks today, why has these last 9 weeks went by so much faster the last 9 weeks of me being pregnant?

She has been such a Blessing to our family, our other two children are really enjoying her too!

This is the germanation station that we bought to start our seeds this year! We had trouble starting some of our seeds last year. We've been happy with this heat mat, some of the seeds came up in 3-4 days.

These are the plants that I transplanted into their own cells.

Here is the chicken tractor my husband made for my two chickens and one rooster! We will move it around our yard and garden so they can scratch for bugs, they can eat and fertalize at the same time!! My son standing beside it. I want him to make me another one for our 4 other chickens and another rooster that run around our yard. I just found 3 eggs in a straw bale so now I want them in a tractor so we can get their eggs.