Air Force Bound

From a cute little mommy's girl to a beautiful young lady that graduated high school early. Granddaughter Hope will be signing a contract with the Air Force this Thursday. Of course I am crying but I am also so proud of her. She plans to get her college degree while in the military so it will be paid for. Her brother is already in army boot camp at Ft Benning and her cousin is in the navy stationed in San Diego. I am waiting for one of the other grands to say they are joining the marines. Just kidding. The other grands are still in school thank goodness. Keep Hope, Woody, and Wayne in your prayers please. They may be proudly serving their country but they are still young grandbabies to me.

Buttons

Not the sew on type buttons but Buttons our Nubian/Alpine milk goat. She has me puzzled. We sold Robbie our buck last spring so we wouldn't risk him breeding his daughters. There hasn't been a buck at Hidden Haven since then until November 8th when we borrowed a buck from a friend to breed the girls. Buttons was in full blown season and Snowflake the buck went right to work. That would make her due to kid in April. We usually have our goats dried off by the last two months of pregnancy so they can rest and build themselves up for kidding and feeding the babies. Buttons dried herself off 2 weeks after she was bred and I mean dried herself to where she didn't have one drop of milk after giving us a half gallon a day. She also exploded and looks like she is ready to kid any minute. Last year she had triplets and got huge the last 2 months. This time she got huge within 3 weeks and keeps getting bigger. If I didn't know for a fact she couldn't have gotten bred before November I would swear she is going to kid soon. I am thinking she has to have 4 or more kids inside her or some really big kids. So what do you think? Any guesses on how many? Unless she has premature kids she won't deliver until April... honest there is no way she was bred earlier.

RIP Fred

Fred,our Bourbon Red turkey passed away. He was old in turkey years but we hoped he would be around at least a couple more years. Poor Tessa keeps walking around looking and calling for him. Fred was our TV star. He was on channel 5 weather with Greg Fishel or at least his photo was. We could always tell when it was going to rain because Fred would only roost inside his roosting house if it was going to rain. Greg would call for rain and I would email and tell him no because Fred was roosting outside.  Fred also didn't like the heat and would spend his day standing in front of a fan trying to cool off. Fred would come when called and would gobble back and forth with you. He was a sweetheart. He loved having his grain put up on the fence ledge so he could eat above all the other critters. He would scold you if you forgot or didn't give him enough. He loved and protected Tessa even when she had a crush on a young rooster. Fred is really going to be missed around here. There will never be another weather turkey for Hidden Haven.

What a Crazy Winter

Though our weather hasn't been anywhere near what most of the country has been dealing with we had 3 days of frigid cold temps. It was nice and would have been perfect if we had had snow. Carried water out several times a day so the animals could drink without having to lick the solid ice blocks in their waterers. I carried and spread so many bales of straw I felt like I should have popeye muscles. Put up plastic to block the wind, hung heat lamps, and fed lots of extra feed so everyone could keep their body temps up. Happy to say all the critters survived with a few roosters having some frost bite on their combs. Today the temps were up in the 50Fs and Saturday is suppose to be 70F with severe storms and tornado warnings. I tell you its a crazy winter! I have daffodils popping up everywhere.

Firewood is still the main thing happening around here. If we aren't cutting and splitting we are delivering and stacking. We have really been blessed with firewood customers this year. I have had to skip a few days of spending and hour on outside and inside projects but spent several hours cleaning our kitchen cabinets and the fridge tonight. Have the Hoosier cabinet and kitchen island to clean out along with taking down some kitchen decorations and only putting a couple back up.Decluttering and getting rid of stuff sure feels good! Tomorrow I will tackle the front porch area for an hour and pretty it up as I clean and toss. Have a load of firewood to deliver tomorrow afternoon and hopefully can spend the stormy Saturday working inside.

Just simply living is all that's going on around the homestead. Have a blessed one!

This and That

Rain again today. It is such a muddy mess that will be a frozen mess in the morning. Temps are suppose to drop with this little Arctic air front coming in. This has been a good year for our firewood business. We delivered wood on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. We actually stayed up till 2AM but not to ring in the new year. Bella is terrified of gun shots and fireworks. There was plenty of both all around us. She got on the sofa with me and would get upset if I didn't keep one hand on her at all times. Finally the noise ended and she went to sleep. New Years day had a hen coming out of hiding with 4 baby chicks. Had to turn the heat lamp on in one of our little brooding houses and set it up. Hadn't planned on having baby chicks during the winter. Our hens are laying good which means we have plenty of eggs for us and our customers. Seed catalogs are coming in and I am trying not to look at them. We have so many seeds we can never use them all. I love seeing what new herb plants have been added.  The flu is making its rounds through the family in the mountains. So far we have been spared. I have finished one book since starting my reading program on the first. Will be writing about it over the weekend. Have gotten one cabinet cleaned out and linen closet along with the rabbit houses and one chicken pen. Doing the one hour a day inside/outside is getting things done without me getting overwhelmed. Because of having full freezers and full pantry groceries for this month were only $79. That was a awesome feeling knowing we have stocked up and can not spend a lot this month on groceries. After being able to unplug heatlamps (until New Years day at least), not using the dryer often, using hot water out of tea kettles on stove instead of heating water on kitchen stove each time I want hot tea has cut our electric bill down to $103. I am hoping next month to have it down even lower as there won't be so much baking being done for the holidays. That's life around the homestead. Hope you are having a blessed start on 2014.

Mutterings From The Homestead

Skyler had the flu Christmas morning but still managed to have fun. Santa had left him trucks,toys,books,balls, but the one thing he would not put down was his Duck Commander duck caller. Megan said he even used it while his brothers were reading the Christmas Story. He finally fell asleep with it and everyone got a break.

I am trying something different. I am dividing up my tasks into time slots. I give myself an hour cleaning around the animal pens a day. An hour cleaning up one certain part of the yard. An hour decluttering one dresser, closet, cabinet, etc. and the rest of the day is for everyday chores. Hopefully this will help me get things done without being overwhelmed. There is so much to go through and get rid of. I just need to keep William from bringing more in.

Have been working over the food budget. Going through pantry and freezers to see what we have and making menus from that. Using up what I have so I don't have to spend more at the grocery store. Having some really good meals with little cost. Tonight was flounder, crab cakes, slaw, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and blueberry pie. The flounder and crab cakes were given to us this summer along with other fish that I put in freezer. The slaw was made from cabbage given to me by friend with farmers market along with the potatoes. The corn I froze from our summer garden and pie made from blueberries  I froze this summer.

I added my reading list to my side bar. I have a couple friends asking what I was reading so thought I would put my reading list up. Will try to do a small review as I finish a book in case you might want to read it. Hopefully I will remember to add and remove as it changes.

The buck we borrowed has done his deed with 3 of our 4 girls. Buttons, Lil Vicki, and Rosemary will be kidding early April. Mammy didn't come in this time but will try to catch her next time and get her bred. Snowflake went back home to his family and things have settled down in the goat pen.

That is what is going on around the homestead today. Hope you are having a blessed one!

A Very Blessed Christmas To You

Wishing your Christmas a overflowing with blessings! I am sorry I have not been blogging. Things just seem to take my time and when I do sit down to blog I am at a loss on what to post. I seem to have gotten away from the animal stories and the frugal, homesteading things going on around here. My New Year resolution is to get back to blogging the way I did when my first blog was created. Thank you for hanging in and hope you will follow along as I post  (more often I promise) in 2014.