Happy Halloween

More Wedding Photos

The bridal party enjoyed a hayride to the reception hall.

 Lots and lots of food, yummy filled wedding cupcakes, and wedding cake.

Each guest went home with a couple guest bars of goat milk soap.

Great wedding. Great reception. And more photos to share later!

Wedding At The Farm

 While rehearsal was going on for the wedding.

This was going on around us. 

The wedding took place on the old dairy farm where Megan was born and raised. The wedding was actually on the same spot where the dairy barn stood years ago.

The hay bales were were covered with family quilts

And went to good use as seating for the wedding

Megan placed a photo of her dad on a antique milk stool knowing he was there in spirit watching over her.

Carrying the rings was hard work for little Skyler!

Mr and Mrs Barry Browning! The wedding was simple but beautiful. Will post more photos in my next post.

First Week In The Mountains

I am really enjoying my time here in our mountain cabin though it has been busy. Grandson Justin is doing really well. He is off his crutches and his wound has healed really well. He still has his picc line in and has IV meds 3 times a day. I do the 2PM ones each day and fix his lunch. His nurse comes on Mondays and his teacher on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On the weekends I am helping Megan get things ready for her wedding though Saturday Melody and I spent the day doing crafts. We now have beautifully fall decorations on the front of our homes. I will take a picture after I finish painting my front door. It has been so nice and cool here. I am enjoying sleeping under my quilts and wearing long sleeves. Rusty is getting settled to the cabin. The first few days he did not like it at all. Granddaughter Gabs lost her pig Elliott for 6 days. He got outside and ran off after getting home from the fair. We think the fair stressed him with all the people wanting to see and touch him. He won a blue ribbon for most exotic animal but Gabs said she wasn't taking him again. We had search parties roaming the woods looking for him. A neighbor called that saw him in their yard. They fed him biscuits and then put a trashcan over him until we got there. He is back home and happy and so is Gabby. William found a lady that had hatched some Canadian goose eggs. He bought a young goose that he hopes is a boy from her as a mate for Lucy Goosey. They are walking around and hanging out together so hopefully they will work out. Lucy has started laying eggs so we know for sure she is a female. Son in law Joseph has been working on the chicken pen getting it ready for our chickens. He is anxious for fresh eggs. We have been going through our hens seeing which ones we want to keep for here and which ones we want to sell. We have a lot to sell and a lot of ducks for sale also. William found someone with a ram to breed our sheep Mary before she comes to the mountains. We also are going to breed Lil Vicki and Rosemary before bringing them up. We just need to find homes for Mammie and Buttons. I think we have found the perfect home for Buttons if it works out.  Have been spending some of my evenings making soaps for a craft fair I am going to when I get back to Fayetteville. Time here seems to be going too fast but I really am enjoying every second. Enjoying being back at our little church and being with my daughters and all the grands. Skyler had a bad cold so I got to babysit him for 2 days. We had such a fun time. He loves walking down to the neighbors to see their goats. I can't wait until our goats are here and he can just step outside to see them. Wishing you a very blessed day!!

First Week Of September

This has been a busy and another hot and humid week. We have cut, split, loaded, hauled, unloaded, and stacked 3 pickup loads of wood.

One lady gave us a hickory tree and a guy gave us 2 oak trees. We still have more of both those to cut, split, and haul home. We have sold 2 cords of firewood so far so looks like it will be a good season for firewood. We have also mowed, weed eated, trimmed, edge, and raked 2 customers yards and have one more to do this week. We have flowerbeds to redo along with pouring a cement slab, and a few other repair jobs for another customer. These things all fit inbetween morning and evening feedings, housework, laundry, and making soaps and things for the craft fair this Saturday. I have to finish the soaps and other things I am taking up to the mountains next Sunday. Megan's wedding is Oct 5th but I am going up early to help her and to help with grandson Justin. He had another bone infection and had surgery last week. Hopefully he will go home Tuesday but with a PICC line so we can give his meds through IV. He is doing lots better today but will be out of school a month and on crutches for awhile. They brought a service dog around the pediatric ward over the weekend and Justin really enjoyed that.

I can't wait to get up to the mountains to help the girls and grands out but also enjoy some cooler weather. Looking forward to spending some time in my little cabin. Just have lots to do between now and then. Am sure it will all work out. Have a blessed one!!

A Blur

August has come and gone in a blur. All I remember is the heat, humidity, rain, and mud. Unfortunately September is starting out the same way. Lisa and Harvey spent Labor Day weekend with us. She helped us getting hay out of the field. We were on our way home from Sanford with the last load when a rainstorm pops up right over top of us. Of course the hay got wet which is just our luck. The customer I did the flower beds for last year is having to use a walker now. His wife has dementia so it is hard for him to take care of the both of them. He has a lady that takes care of his wife, cooks, and cleans during the day but needed someone nights. He really wanted me and I felt guilty telling him no but did find 2 nice women that I think will work out for him and his wife. I don't have enough hours in the day to get things done and didn't want to commit to helping someone when I will be leaving for the mountains in 2 weeks. As for us getting moved totally to the mountains, that seems to be taking a slow pace. We had hoped to be moved by Thanksgiving but doesn't look like it. We will be coming back and forth for awhile yet. Hopefully the animals will get moved by Thanksgiving and I will be able to stay there and William come back and forth to finish decluttering his stuff. Getting animals ready for the farmers swap meet this weekend and things ready for craft fair next weekend. Still working on soaps for daughters wedding guests gifts. I also getting things together to decorate for her outdoor wedding. She is getting married on our old farm where the dairy barn use to sit. Now it is a nice grassy hill overlooking the pastures below. She is going to have a picture of her dad with a antique milk bottle on a old milk stool near the archway. I think that will be perfect and know he would be very proud of her.  My grandson Justin that I spent a couple months taking care of after surgery last spring is having problems again. He had a bone infection and ended up having 2 surgeries and a wound vac. Well this time it is his other leg and they found 2 pockets of fluid on his bone. Not sure what they are or why they are there so is having a MRI today along with more blood tests. He is hurting so hopefully they will find out something today. We are hoping its not another bone infection and that they won't have to do surgery.  On a funny note, my granddaughter Kristine started college a couple weeks ago. This is the college where they held her HS graduation. Where she and her dad went and spent a day walking around to check out. Where she and her mom went and walked around where she would be having classes. And where she got lost. LOL First she couldn't find where she parked her car and after 30 minutes she finally ask someone to help her. Then she got lost going home. For her to go home all she had to do was turn right out of the parking lot and stay on that road ALL the way back to Newport. She went some other way and took her forever to find her way home. Everyone has had a good laugh with her but she is settling down now and doing well without getting lost. Grandson Woody was going into Air Force but changed to Army and will be leaving I think in October.  Grandson Wayne is in Illinois at Navy boot camp. 1 yr old grandson Skyler is out of the baby room at daycare. He went to his first day in the 1 yr old room and loves it. He remember some of his little friends from the baby room and has a new friend that is redheaded like him. He is growing up so fast and walking everywhere. I talk with him on the phone but he sure pitches a fit when mommy takes the phone away from him so I don't talk to him often.  Looking forward to being in the mountains soon and enjoying the cooler weather there. Hate William and the animals have to stay here for now but as William says.... its taking time but we will get there. Looks like rain is coming in again so best get outside chores done early. We had a bad storm yesterday with 2 inches of rain. The goats hate the mud but not much I can do about that.  Have a blessed day everyone!

Not Always Sunshine and Rainbows

Things are always happy around the homestead. There are things that break, go wrong, don't get done, etc every single day. Most of the time I just choose to look at the blessings of the day and go on. There are times when I just can't get past the aggravating things to look at all the blessings. We have had so much rain that is is really a mud pit everywhere you step here. The goats hate and I mean hate coming out of their houses because they have to walk in the mud to get to their feed buckets. We are actually putting their hay under the big shelter so they can stand in the dry while eating. The chickens feet are so muddy and they all look like they need baths. The ducks and Lucy Goosey are the only ones happy around here. Not much yardwork is getting done here but we are still mowing customers lawns. They all have the nice sod lawns that don't seem to make mud pits. I get so jealous while mowing their lawns. I can't keep laundry caught up. Bella is still in heat so is still staying inside. I put sheets over the two sofas in the livingroom, the love seat and chair in the diningroom (gathering room as I like to call it). I hate to have a dog smell in the house so I am changing the sheets twice a day as well as sweeping and mopping the floors in the mornings and evening. I also have to walk Bella, Tramp, and Rusty several times a day as I can't just let them out like I usually do. Bella hates thunder and when I wasn't home yesterday when it thundered she got mad at me and jumped up and peed on MY side of the bed. In all the time we have had her she has never had a accident inside so I know she purposely went to my side of the bed and peed. Luckily I had a blanket laying on top of the bed and she got mostly that wet. But we were scrubbing and changing the bed before I could even start supper. Pepper the kitten has decided my laptop is his favorite toy. He logged himself on as guest and made a file named hhhhhhhh and then started my malware which kept popping up that it couldn't find the hhhhhhhhh file. I had to fix that, find all my bookmarks that he moved, and log out of yahoo because he opened up a chat with someone I didn't even know. Came back to find this person typing hello????????? are you there??????? Didn't have the heart to tell them they were talking to cat so just closed the window and logged out. Pepper will turn my laptop or post nonsense by just walking across the keys. He loves to lay across and just look at the screen. This year has truly been the year of the snake. I have never seen as many snakes as I have this summer. I think because of all the rain they are coming up out of the swamp. We had the water moccasin on the back porch. Had the rat snake on the light switch in the feed room. We have 2 black snakes in the hay barn and one big snake I have no idea what it is that has fallen when I open the feed room door at my feet. It has done that twice! I am so afraid one day it is going to fall on me! There are 2 snakes that were sunning on the corn stalks we cut to use this fall one snake I saw crossing the driveway the other day. Rain and snakes aren't my favorite things. Even with the rain it has been so humid that our clothes are wet as soon as we go outside. Looks like we took a shower with them on. Rained out our flock swap last Saturday and all the rain has kept me from cleaning pens and nesting boxes. Two of our push mowers broke but thank goodness William is good at repairs. Our riding mower got a oil leak today so he is going to have to fix that tomorrow. A dear sweet older lawn customer wants me to sit nights with his wife who has dementia and stays up all night so he can get some rest. As much as I would love to help him and the pay is fantastic I just can't. I don't have enough time to get things done here and I am going to the mountains next month for a few weeks. I am behind on getting things done for Megan's wedding and things ready for the craft fair I am committed to next month and in October. There are some things going on with family that has me praying and thinking about a lot. William is behind on repair projects and work projects and we are both behind on getting our chickens sold we aren't taking with us as well as some rabbits and ducks. The price of feed has jumped and its hard buying chicken feed every week or so. We have way too many chickens. So you see life isn't always sunshine and rainbows around here. I just try not to write about the bad. We all have things happen in our lives that are hard to deal with but if we take the time to count our blessings one by one, no matter how small..... We see we are truly blessed!