It Must Be Raining Goats?

Well it is raining and I do have another goat. My goat was walking around crying and not eating all day, so I came up with the idea that she was lonely. Goats are herd animals after all. The up shot of this is that I bought another goat to keep her company. This is an alpine bottle baby. The problem is, she doesn't seem to know she should take a bottle. I wind up wrestling her into a headlock and more or less squirting the milk into her. She is very pretty. I'll take pictures when the rain stops. I'll dry the milk off first.!

I raise Pekingese puppies to sell. I am not advertising, I have a question to ask you. Has anyone ever advertised through the paper and the net and been approached by scammers. Out of four replies to my ad I got, you guessed it, four scammers. I used to work, part time, at the city police station, so I have seen quite a few and these are so old I couldn't believe they were still around. My granddaughter said if I had been selling dobermans instead of small fluffy dogs it would never have happened. lol

Now that I have plenty of raw milk, I am going to try to make cheese. I have thought about it for several years. If anyone out there has any advice or recipes, please, feel free to share! I may be getting in over my head since I haven't even made yogurt!

Thought for the day: You hear so many people talk about the end of the time. When you die, that is the end of your time and that is really all that matters. Make the most of the time you have, don't waste time on bad decisions.

Sunny at Last

This is the second nice day we have had. We were able to clean out one bay of the hay barn. Hope to clean out another bay tomorrow.

I bought an alpine milk goat today. She is very gentle and gives approximately one half gallon twice a day. I like milking goats much better than cattle. The leg reach is much shorter and doesn't pack near the punch of a 1200 lb. cow. Yes, I have had a few bad experiences with breaking a cow to milk and milking cows from the beef herd that, just for a few days, have too much milk for the calf. When you have to rope the cow, you somehow know it isn't going to be pretty for either party.

My goal is to almost eliminate going to the grocery store. So far, I have eggs, milk, vegetables, beef, pork, and by fall, honey. We raised corn and ground our own cornmeal last year. I would like to be able to get my wheat ground fine enough to make lighter bread. My bread tastes good but is dense, even for whole wheat bread. If anyone has an idea I would really love to hear from you.

Thought for the day. "When you talk to god before the day starts, it is easier to handle the stress."

Easter

Eight o'clock Easter evening and all is quiet. Like the rest of you, holidays carry a mixture of happy and sad memories for me. Having had three brothers and one sister we didn't need anyone else to have an egg hunt. We played with them till they wore out! My children did the same with neices and nephews included. The field between our house and my MIL's house had stray eggs in it for weeks.

Had a small glich in dinner this year. All the things I normally do the evening before had to wait till today, because the electric went out when the storms went through about 5 o'clock and didn't come back on till about 5 this morning. I don't think they missed deserts too much.

I think you know these pictures are not from Easter. It is in the fall, when we make apple butter. Just ran across the picture and thought you might enjoy it. The piece of tin is around the fire because the wind was making it hard to control. Children, grandchildren, and great grand- children, everybody works for apple butter!

Time to go put up th chickens and feed the puppies. Remember " If you wake up in the morning you have a whole new shot at this thing called life."

Another Rainy Morning

This is, so far, is a slow morning. When the weather is better I will probably not talk to you for periods of time. Lke the children, when the sun shines I run outside and play.

I will attempt to tell you a bit about myself. I am married and mom and stepmom to five children, all grown. We live within about five miles of each other, which satisfies my mother hen complex. I have seven grandchildren and one great grandchild. Not long ago I retired from driving school bus. I have worked most of my life so that was tricky.

My husband and I ride a Gold Wing and horses. Seems like an unlikely combo, but we manage. This is a picture from a ride we took one sunday last summer.

We also have a pretty large garden and either freeze or can anything possible. I love to come up with quick meals in a jar, so if anyone has any ideas please share.

Well, people are getting out of bed now, must cook. Until next time remember"Don't just float down the river of life........pan for gold!"

Adventures in Life

This day started out the way some days do when you are part of a farm. Hot cup of coffee, quiet time to think, cozy pjs, and the companionship of my spoiled pekingese,Boggie Baby. Blaring blast of the phone... calves out!...............fence repair.............bull problems. Hurry! Hurry! Dress for drizzling rain of course, nothing wants to go on forbidden territory if its a nice day. When we got there most of the excitement was over. Its really good when you don't live right where the cows are pastured. The calves had gone back by themselves, the bull left when the truck, being larger than him, arrived. The killjoys, namely son, daughter-in-law, father, and I were left to fix fence and enjoy a rainy morning together. You know what? This is really why a person farms, not to make money, but for the rainy mornings that families come together to work, laugh, drink coffee, and plan for the next great adventure of life.