Snickers

Snickers is a new addition to our small farm. He is a cute little pygmy goat who came to us when his owner passed away unexpectedly. Snickers is really more of a pet than a part of the farm since he is our only goat and we have no plans to ever eat him and, quite obviously, can't milk him. He is very friendly and "talks" to us whenever we are outside. When he is out of his pen he follows us around the yard tasting the landscaping.

Housing
He currently resides in a dog house inside a fence. When the weather permits he is moved out to the field on a line so he can get more exercise. We have been told that goats are herd animals and he will need a friend to keep him company. There isn't room for a friend in Snickers' current accommodations so we have to figure out how to make room for a friend for him. It's possible we might be able to make space in the RV garage for goats. Our barn is small (12x16?) and currently houses 6 rabbits and our small flock of chickens so there is no room in there for goats, even pygmy goats!

It's Independence Day!

We were supposed to go to a friend's house for a picnic but Daniel was called in to work (there is a problem!) at midnight and he is unsure of when exactly he will be home, Amira is at another friends' house and I'm not feeling well today.

The town we live in had their fireworks display last night so we got to enjoy that. Now, today, we are celebrating our Independence by independently doing whatever we want. 

I do want to send out a huge thank you to all those have served or are serving to protect the freedoms we enjoy in this country every day. Without your sacrifice we would not be here today. Thank you!

Adventures with Roosters

We now own a flock of 11 chickens. We bought 6 Buff Orpinton hens and 1 Araucana hen to start our flock. (The Araucana was chosen by Alexander as "his" chicken since he had never been allowed to own a pet/animal before.) A few weeks later we ordered 3 Buff Orpington hens and 1 Buff Orpington rooster to add to our flock. Our friend went in with us on the second order since neither she nor I wanted to order enough to brood them separately.

After a few weeks, we discovered that our Buff Orpington hens in the new order didn't look at all like they were supposed to. After doing a little research we discovered that we had been given Golden Comets instead. My friend has a large family with many small children and she really wanted the Golden Comets so she and I agreed that I would take 3 Australorps from her flock and my rooster and she would keep the Golden Comets.

It's been a few more weeks now and we have discovered that one of her original Araucana hens is actually a rooster and my Buff Orpington rooster is a hen. After some more discussion between my friend and I we have decided to trade chickens once again! One of her Australorps will be returning to her home and her Buff Orpington rooster will be joining our little hen.

The original plan had been to end up with 9 Buff Orpington hens, 1 Araucana hen, and 1 Buff Orpington rooster. What we will actually end up with is 7 Buff Orpington hens, 1 Araucana hen, 2 Autralorp hens and 1 Buff Orpington rooster.

All of that so we can have a self-perpetuating flock of egg-laying chickens.

Now Is Your Chance to be Mentored by an Older, Godly Couple

Check out this wonderful give-away on Raising Homemakers!

These audio messages look fantastic. It looks like there is something that would interest each family no matter what stage you are currently in. There are several that look great to me!

Adopting J

We found out about J back at the beginning of November when we went to a waiting children mixer where loads of children who were in foster care and waiting for forever families were showcased. Daniel and I felt an instant connection with him and talked to all of the staff members who were there that evening about him. We asked our caseworker, who was there that evening, to send us his CSI (Child Study Inventory). We received it the following week and devoured it. His caseworker was on vacation but as soon as she was back to work we called to let her know we were interested.

The next step was having his caseworker and ours come out to the house to do an "interview" - basically discussing him with us and how we might handle certain situations that might arise with him. We had to wait while other interested families were interviewed and a matching conference was set up

On Thursday, Dec. 9, we got the call at 4:45 that we matched with J! I had been a nervous wreck all afternoon but Amira did a fabulous job of entertaining me. Daniel had been waiting for me to call and let him know when I heard something so by the time he arrived home at 4:30 he was convinced that I hadn't called because I had gotten bad news and was crying. He had even planned to get up early the next morning and remove J's bed from his room before I got up so I wouldn't have to deal with it - what a wonderful husband I have!

On Friday we got another call from J's caseworker saying we needed to decide how much subsidy we wanted to ask for to cover the cost of having him in our home. We have never done that before so we ended up making a bit of a stab in the dark. We can go back and ask for more if we need to but we have to have some amount of subsidy when he arrives. If we didn't ask for subsidy before he is adopted then we wouldn't be able to go back and ask for it later if we found out we needed it. We also picked up half of his file to start reading that half while the adoption supervisor finishes reading the second half.

Over the weekend we spent a few hours reading through the half of J's file that we have - no surprises in it thankfully. And today, after Jacob's final electricity class, he and Daniel will be stopping to pick up the rest of J's file so we can finish reading it. His caseworker will be coming out on Wednesday to have us sign off on his file and to pick up a letter and gift from us to him. We are planning to have our first visit with him on Dec. 26th.

Morning Routine

Eventually I want to put this in the side bar but I have to figure out how to do that first so for right now it's a post.

Morning Routine:
Make Coffee
Make Breakfast
Make bed
Get dressed
Pick up bedroom
Wipe up bathroom
Wipe up guest bathroom
Soak beans
Grind wheat for the day
Feed sourdough
Strain kefir
Check calendar
Wake son

Projects

We are in the midst of the busy 4H season and have several projects going.

Amira is doing a Food and Nutrition project, a dog project, and a breed rabbit project this year. She is also the President of the 4H club. She has come a long way from the shy little girl who hated to do demonstrations because she had to talk in front of everyone!

Jacob is busy with a dog project, a breed rabbit project and a beekeeping project.

I am working on several projects of my own (not 4H projects obviously!) lol I am busy crocheting an afghan for my niece, planning an Open House for July, and settling into our new house. I have one room left to paint but a lot of decorating to do and some organizing as well.