Homestead Happenings

Living in the country does have it's down side....

Waking up on a Sunday morning with NO WATER and coming to the realization that you CAN NOT just call then city and demand they fix it, realizing that your water pump is not working then (2 day later) paying $2000 for a new water pump!!!

Oh bother.  

We still like living out here.  We are now discussing the possibility of putting a solor system on our well pump.

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Our 18th Wedding Anniversary

Handsome Hubby and I just celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary.  Our wonderful children surprised us by planning an evening out for us without any help from either of their parents!

In the morning they made us breakfast in bed.  They even took MiniMan out when he woke up so I could sleep in.  When breakfast was ready they sang "Happy Anniversary".  We had scrambled eggs and hot chocolate (for me) and milk for Handsome Hubby.  We were given handmade cards and "the envelope" as soon as I picked it up there was a lot of jumping a squealing.  The enveloped had the gift cards, $3 (snack money), plus 2 printed schedules for local theaters so we could pick our movie in advance.

They asked one of the ladies at church (thanks K!) for help.  She bought the movies gift card and came to our house to watch the children.  The children pooled their money and paid for everything, except dinner.  They even gave us a few dollars to buy snacks with at the movie theater and sent us off with some homemade cookies in case the money was not enough.  How thoughtful!

So we had a lovely evening eating out and enjoying the movie Fireproof.  We only go to the movies 2-3 times a year and that includes when we take the children.  We were both glad to find that Fireproof was still showing.  What a wonderful movie.  We plan on buying a copy.  It just proves that good movies can be made without any smut.  I hope they make many more.

I am grateful for the Husband and children the Lord has blessed me with.  May he give us many more anniversaries to spend together.  Our family has been through a lot in the past few years.  The Lord has been faithful and supplied all of our needs.  He is so good!

To my blessings:  Thank you so much for making Daddy and Mommy's anniversary so very special.  I love each of you very much.

To my Handsome Hubby:  I am glad the Lord has let me be your wife.  Thank you for all you do for me and the children.  You are a good, godly man and one of the biggest blessings the Lord has given me.  I love you!

Have a blessed day!

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Our Veteran's Day

We celebrate Veteran's Day at our house.  Handsome Hubby has served our nation in the reserves for almost 20 years.  He has served in Iraq and just transferred to the National Guard because he wants to help our citizen in their times of need.  We are so proud of him.

So each year we have a small party for him.  This year we made a flag out of cupcakes. (Pictures will be added soon.)

The girls did a play about how Frances Scott Key was inspired to write the National Anthem.  They even sang it for us at the end.  Guess the salmon patties I made fogged up the air because Handsome Hubby had "something in his eye" when they were done. 

We are thankful for all of the Veterans that have and continue to protect our freedoms.  Aside from Handsome Hubby I want to also thank my father and his.  His Father (Pappaw) served the in Marine Corps and served 2 tours in Vietnam.  My Father (Poppie) served for 20 years in the Navy and served a tour in Vietnam.  Then there are a few Uncles who have served.  We are thankful for our families military heritage.  I will not surprised me at all should MiniMan choose to follow suit.  May God bless America!!! 

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

My first trip to the auction

One of the purposes of this blog is to share our experience as we adjust to our "country life" (10 miles out of the city) after being city folk all of our lives.  That includes the good as well as the bad.  My auction experience does not fit in the good category.

We had 5 goats to sell.  I sold 2 privately and took 3 to the auction.  I was in a bit of a hurry to get rid of them since I had too many on our pasture and they were only eating our pasture and feed and not giving anything back.  Being on 1 acre we only have room for livestock and not pets.

Here are 2 of the goats we sold:

The top one and the one on pictured were Pygmies (one banded male and one buck) and the last one was a Nubian cross buck.

During the auction we saw a lot of goats in bad shape go for $50 or more.  These poor things were scruffy and their hooves were so overgrown that they could not even walk straight.  The udders and teats on some were so mal-formed that they could never be milked.  So imagine my surprise when my well-cared for goats went for about $20 each!  I was not happy.  On top of that the auction house gets $8 per head selling fee.  So I made a total of $38.50 for 3 goats!!! 

Part of the problem could have been that we arrived at the auction only 15 minutes before starting so our goats did not come up until 90 minutes into the auction and some of the buyers already left.  Next time (if there is one)  we will get there at least an hour early.

Since I had decided before hand that I would not buy anything I did not register as a buyer.  There was one goat I would have liked to buy.  She was a white Nubian, already bred, with a good udder and teats.  She went for $90.  Right now I am saving my "goat money" to buy the kids from friend that has a doe who was bred to a huge Boer Buck.  We are hoping she has at least 2 doelings.  My goal is still to have enough good milk does to not have to buy store milk at all.  I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for reading about our ups and downs as we learn.  Bye!

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Public schools consider graduating students after the 10th grade

What do you think? 

Read about it HERE

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

When a boy has 5 sisters and no brothers...

He learns to play girl games.

Hang on MiniMan... help is on the way.  Your baby brother will be here in about 10 weeks!

By the way, he does have cars and boy toys that he plays with but this picture was so cute I just had to post it!

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Good news...bad news...

We have had some of each this week.

Good news......My Mother DOES NOT have cancer!  We had not told many about this but my mother had been told she had stage 2 lung cancer.  When she told me about it she had decided to do nothing for it.  When you spend years working with the elderly and dying it tends to change your view on things.  I respected her choice and had decided not to tell the children about it until it was absolutely needed.  She just got a second opinon and he said there is no cancer.  So does that mean there never was cancer or that there was and now it is gone.  Only the good Lord knows.  Either way it is an answer to my prayers!!!

Bad news... My Grandmother (maternal) does have cancer.  She has been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer called Multiple Myeloma.  It is a cancer of the white (plasma) blood cells.  As a result her bones are very brittle and she has breaks in her spine.  She has decided to get a second opinion before deciding what, if anything, she will do.  I know God is not too big to remove this if it is His will.

Please pray for my family.  Especially my mother.  She lost her job and is having a hard time dealing with that and her mother's illness. ~DC

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Sold!

Today we sold Coco and her doeling to a fellow homeschooling family in our area.  All of our pygmies plus our young Nubian buck are for sale since they are not good for milking.  The Nubian can't be bred back to his mama so I do not have a good use for him either.  Handsome Hubby and I have decided that any critter here must contribute in some way. 

The money made from the sale will go into buying new milk does.  I have been given the promise of first look at buying the kids of the bred Nubian of a friend.  She has also offered to give me a buck who will do until I can get a Boer buck.  A boer is a meat goat so any kids who we can't milk can go into the freezer.  That is the plan.

I am planning on taking the rest of the Pygmies to the county auction on Tuesday.  With the price of feed I need to sell them quickly.  Also, with only my milk doe (I may keep and pygmy doe for her to have a buddy) on the pasture the grass will last longer.

Kit was not really happy to see Coco and her kid go.  That is understandable.  As for me I would rather sell them while the kid is cute and not eating any feed than late when is she eating my feed, not giving me anything for it, and harder to sell.  Guess I am not as "city-fied" as I was a year ago.

So that our livestock plan is in motion.  If only I can get my garden and fruit trees doing well we will "on track".

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Harvest ups and downs

The past few weeks have had some ups and downs in regard to our harvest.  First we were blessed to be invited to go gleaning with my IRL freind MommaOfMany in a plum orchard.  Being pregnant it initially did not sound fun to go walking around for a few hours hearding children through an orchard but I was glad that we went when all was said and done.  So I took my buckets of plums home and had them put in the kitchen intending to can them the next day.  But the next day was co-op day so I spent all day cleaning, prepping, and teaching.  Then in the days after that a friend had surgery and I watched her children and schooled them with my own since letting them all have the day off would not have been best for them.  Then after they left my Miniman got sick, sick, sick.  Then Hubby got sick.  On and on it went.  I only got 1 pan of plums (about 2 buckets) cooked down.  So... a week and a half later.....when I opened the rest they were ...too far gone.  What a waste!    I felt terrible to waste such a blessing.  So that was my big down.

Then 2 days ago I went out to my garden.  First off I must say I did not do very well this summer.  So I planted a bunch of seeds in late August then carefully transplanted over 50 seedlings to my garden and set up drip irrigation to be sure they would be taken care of over our week long camping trip.  I was looking forward to a larger fall garden.  Then I came home to 45 dead seedlings!  Only a few survived.  Once again a big downer.

Back to 2 days ago.  I discovered the lone squash plant had taken over the barrel it was in. I peeked under the leaves to find a huge yellow suash and another small one.  Then I looked at the herb barrel to see that my basil has done very well.  So had my parsley.  So when I brought in the days harvest it looked like this...

What a haul!  Well I was not about to repeat the plum-trastrophy so I got right to work.  Rinsing sorting and bunching.  I ended up with 6 bunches or basil and one of parsely.  The loose leaves were dried in the oven and placed in jars.  The bunches were hung in my pantry shed.

Notice I did NOT hang up my little blessing that snuck into the first picture. .  I am so thankful for my pantry shed.  It was the first thing that Handsome Hubby built when we moved out here.  It houses the extra fridge and freezer and a 6 foot rack that holds extra kitchen supplies and food.

I am a cake decorator so all my cake dec stuff is out here too.  Below the herbs you see all of my 5 gallon buckets with gamma seals (horray for gamma seals!) they hold grains and beans that I buy in bulk from Azure Standard.  Someday I will get another 6 foot rack in there but it has to wait for now.

Here is what our chickens have contributed to our food supply

The brown eggs are from our Buffingtons and they are big even though they are the same age as the Aracanas that liad the blue & green eggs.  We only have 2 Buffington hens and 1 Roo.  They are supposed to lay thorugh the winter and be good Mommas.  So if that is true we plan to let them raise chicks and will get even more in the spring.

Daisy is still milking and still holding some back.. I am told she will do this until I get rid for her kid.  So I will be calling the auction house today.  I will use the miney made from selling extra goats (that do nothing but eat) on some new milk does.  A friend (Hi Tammy!) has offered me first pick of the kids expected from her Nubian does that has been bred to a very impressive Boer buck.  I am looking forward to seeing what she births!

So the waste of plums is a hard lesson learned.  Next time all will stop until the food is put up properly.  But the harvest from the garden is encouraging.  I will not give up.  I will keep trying and planting and learning.  The blessing of living on a whole acre is so great I can do nothing else. 

Tomorrow I plan to go to the Farmers Market to see if there are any deals to be had since the season is winding down.  The growers there are wiling to share their growing tips with me so that can be worth the trip alone.

Have a blessed day!

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Wordless Wednesday

Laundry for 8 ~ my plan

We are a family of 8, soon to be nine so there is always laundry to be done.  My goal is not to finish all of the laundry on a given day (for that is truly to dream the impossible dream) but to keep it going at a steady pace.

Before I tell you my plan let me say that there are weeks when I do not follow by brilliant plan and we get behind.  Like all families we get busy or something happens in life that needs a lot of time and energy.  So I am not perfect but I do have a plan.

Let me share some pics!

As you can see I have bins in which to sort our dirty laundry.  There are 6 bins for: whites, lights, pinks/reds (we have 5 girls!), jeans, darks, and towels.  Each bin has a ribbon on it (just noticed the white bin ribbon is missing) so the little ones can tell what goes where.  Yes, my children sort their own laundry.  They do not have a hamper in their room so they sort their clothes each night.

See the bucket? That is for "yucky" clothes.  Think potty training and getting sick.  By having a bucket I can see what clothes need to be washed right away.  Right now we have 2 that occasionaly have accidents plus a baby coming so I am thinking I need a bigger bucket. 

Here is a wide shot.  My cleaning supplies are on the top shelf and clothes that need to be ironed hang on the bar until I get to them which is often only right as Handosme Hubby needs to wear them on Sunday morning.   I am still working on that one.  See the paper taped to the wall?  That is my laundry schedule.  By following the schedule, clothes from each bin get washed twice each week and unless I am really behind I will see the botton of each bin at least once per week.  Not bad, says I.

Here is my schedule:

• Monday - reds, lights, towels
• Tuesday - whites, darks, jeans
• Wednesday - reds, lights, towels,
• Thursday - no laundry due to co-op day
• Friday - whites, darks, jeans

There you have it.  Gotta go.  I have laundry to do!  

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Another closet done!

The hall closet is done!  This closet needed some demo but I did not take any "before" pics.  Oh well.  I was working on this closet at the same time as I worked on the girls closet.  It was quite a job to completely cover the old paint.  There is something about the paint that was used in this house.  It takes 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of color to cover it properly.  Now you know why I was working on 2 closets at once.   I have decided all the closets will be painted white.  I am not about to take out shelves (or worse yet paint around them) just because I changed the room color.

This closet holds our games, books for sale, office equipment and some of Handsome Hubby's business papers.  Until this closet was done all of this stuff lived on our piano and in various places in our livingroom.  Not very tidy so I am very glad this project is now in the "done" side of the list!

See the door?  Well that is what happens when you leave a tray of paint in the closet and forget to close the door.  Then this little guy......

decides to put his hands in it and try his hand at painting.  Yea, you may be laughing now but I wasn't then.  He painted the door, himself and both of the sisters that found him.  I soaked all of their clothes in a sink of water for 3 days and then washed as usual.  ALL of the paint came out.  He IS cute though, isn't he?   Well he got in trouble for it anyway. 

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Lookie what I found this morning!!

This morning I heard a familiar sound and found this....

I thought Coco was far off from delivering.  Shows I still have a lot to learn.  This newborn kid is only abour 7 inches tall.

Here is the newborn beside her mama, just to show how tiny she is.

Sadly, her twin was stillborn.   That's the way of things here on the homestead.  We are planning on taking all of our goats to auction except for my milk doe and the heard sire.  I adore my milk doe!  Her name is Daisy.

Daisy is a Nubian so she is HUGE compared to the Pygmies!  That is her buckling next to her in the picture.  He is going to auction since it is bad to breed him back to his mama.

Yes, I adore my Daisy!  I am hoping to make enough money from the sale of the other goats to get 1 or 2 more milk does.  Our family goes through a lot of milk and one of my goals is to be able to quit buying milk.  That will save some $$$ for sure.  I have a friend who has a Nubian that is possibly bred with her Boer sire and I have first chance to buy any doelings!  She will give me a good price too.  God is good!

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

The girls' closet is finished!

Finally!  It's done.  I was able to finish the girl's closet and get everything put away, in order, with room to spare.  I am so happy I could cry.  Really I could.  Closets are a big deal for me.  It's a type A thing.

Each girl (there are 5) that share this closet has her own hanger color and plenty of hanging space.  The 2 big girls get long and short hanging space.  The 3 smaller girls have a lower rod that they can all reach (even the 3 y.o.) so all are happy.

All it needs is some closet doors.  That's in Handsome Hubby's department.    Now it's on to finish the hall closet!  Horray for organization! 

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the LordHelpmeet to my Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Yummy Breakfast

I don't post very many recipes.  My IRL friend Momma is better at that.  However my favorite show is Good Eats.  I record it and watch it when I can.  My Handsome Hubby even got me a few DVD sets of Good Eats.  Some watch soap operas I watch Food Network. 

Anyway, I tried a recipe from one of his new shows and it was very good for breakfast.  It is called Dutch Baby.  You make your batter in a blender and put it in a cast iron skillet that has been heating in the oven.  It tastes like a waffle!  Some of us had it with syrup and some just ate it plain.  I doubled the recipe and cooked it in 2 skillets.  Once it cools down a bit just cut it into wedges.  How easy.  You can find the recipe here.  Next time I am going to add some fruit to it.  Give it a try.  Enjoy!

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all

How much crazier can the gov't schools get? Read on...

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Handsome Hubby who is my best blessing of all.

Easter Eggs!

Well these are not our first homegrown eggs but they are our first from this batch of hens.  Can you pick out which ones are ours?

Notice anything strange?

Yes the eggs are really green!  One of the breeds of hens we have lays eggs that can be green, blue, or even pink.  Each hen lays her own color of eggs.  Every day there is an easter egg hunt on the Colestead!  They are all the same on the inside.  Except homegrown eggs taste better, in my opinion. ;-)

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the LordHelpmeet to my Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Camping

Here are a few pics of the camping trip.  We had fun but I must admit that camping is still a lot of work for a mother.  My ideal trips are like the one we took to New Orleans.  The trips with hotels and restaurants are #1 in my book.  I digress...

Here is Kit.  She knew how to stay (mostly) clean.

We don't have pics of everyone.  Kit was too busy to take a lot of pics and I didn't even try.

Here is Mini Man.  He decided he likes dirt and rocks.  Mostly rocks.  Who needs to buy toys?  Just give this little guy a few rocks and he is a happy camper.  Really happy.  He is real good at getting dirty too.

This is Munchkin.  I think she actually put her hands in the dirt then right on her face.  She likes getting (really) dirty.  She also likes making faces.  It is pretty hard to get a picture of her not making a silly face.

Next is Supergirl.  She is not that dirty but I just couldn't resist this pic of her missing two front teeth.  Too cute!

We all had fun and remained injury free until the last day.  As we were packing to leave Miniman fell and caught his cheek on a rock.  He had quite a scrape but with daily application of my homemade herbal salve and a band-aid he was complete better in 2 days.  I did nothing for my scraped elbow and had to deal with a nasty scab that slowly peeled off for a week.  Next time I will heal myself as well as my son. :-)

Bye for now!

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the LordHelpmeet to my Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Going camping!

We are heading out to the Labor Day Church Campout! 

I will try to remember to take pics so I can post some when I get back.

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the LordHelpmeet to my Hubby who is my best blessing of all

Pistol Packing' Teachers

I support the right to bear arms.  Do you?  Do you in all cases or just a few?  Read this and tell me what you think.

Texas students pack bookbags; teachers pack heat

Mother of 6 blessings (and #7 due in Jan. 09!) from the Lord & Helpmeet to my Hubby who is my best blessing of all.