Craigslist Strikes Again!

Hello again my friends! Before I forget to tell everyone, Nathan has changed my account so that everyone can post comments now (only I will have to approve them to officially add them onto the blog site). I have quite a few viewers from Russia, 1 from Germany, 1 from the Czech Republic and 1 from Malaysia. I did have 1 from South Korea at one time. I would love to hear from you and would welcome any topics you would like me to discuss or share some funny stories about!

I had a wonderful day with my family today. My friend Robin got up this morning and helped me cook breakfast. We made turkey bacon, scrambled eggs and French toast. We served the French toast with homemade strawberry syrup, homemade peach syrup and homemade cherry syrup, all of which I canned this year...yummm!

We went to church and had a wonderful service. Then we went out to lunch with Robin and Avram at Whole Hog Cafe (Jordan's favorite restaurant). We went back home for a while, then headed back in town for evening services. After church, we ran some errands...

My sweet hubby had been doing some research on our breeding lines of our dairy goats (Nubian goats to be exact). He is so diligent to think things through and then put plans into action. I, on the other hand, make a good helper. I don't like making decisions or planning, but I am more than happy to help out when things are laid out for me or I am told what needs to be done. I am definitely not a planner. I don't think ahead to next year, I only deal with the here and now. I have more recently discovered that my Nathan is definitely a planner! He knew that we needed to get different bloodlines to breed all our Nubian does and doelings. We do have a great Nubian buck (whose name is Old Spice). He has great bloodlines, was bottle raised and is almost too friendly with humans. For a buck, he's extremely nice. Unfortunately, he's too closely related to all our girls so we're looking at replacing him. Nathan just happened to be looking on Craigslist and found a very nice buck (3 months old) and we bought him tonight in hopes of raising him and our other buck born to us this year to breed all our girls next year. We weren't sure if we were really going to get him, we were going to look, so we didn't bring anything with us to transport him home in! Thankfully, the lady who was selling him loaned us one of her crates...thank you, thank you, thank you! My boys really thanked her seeing that they were going to have to hold him in the back seat with them ALL THE WAY HOME! Can you imagine what kind of havoc that little guy could've caused all the way home???

Do you remember how I HATE chickens because they scare me? Nathan just planted a bug in my ear this afternoon. He's thinking we might try our hand at raising some duck and/or geese...we'll see... Nathan said if they get too mean, maybe we can have an early Christmas goose dinner!

I am going to turn in for the evening. I am so looking forward to tomorrow morning. My wonderful sweet hubby agreed to stay with both boys and homeschool them tomorrow so I can have a girl day with my best friend (my mother-in-law) and one of our friends from Texas who is here visiting her daughter! Will probably add something in my blog about our day out on the town!

Btw, news flash...both boys are officially done working at the Schwebach's for the season. The boys were kind of bummed, but Nathan and I are somewhat relieved because the boys can focus on school more! God bless the Schwebach's for providing such a wonderful learning opportunity for my boys!

Well, sleep tight and may God bless you all.

Concrete Chaos!

Nathan and I woke up around 6:15 this morning to get things started. Aaron spent the night in town with our friend Avram. They volunteered to do the Hot Chocolate 5K Run this year. Aaron, Avram, Robin and her friend Melissa did the run together. Nathan woke Jordan up so he could do chores early. We were expecting the concrete guy to come around 7:15 this morning. They were supposed to pour concrete in Chad's shop (my brother-in-law) first. Then they were just going to back the cement truck up to where we leveled all our beams yesterday and pour concrete into our holes to permanently set our beams for our shop. By the time the driver showed up and finished pouring on Chad's property and came to our shop site, it was already 8:40. I had to leave right then to get Jordan to work by 9:00, so that left Nathan by himself to direct the guy where to pour concrete and to set the poles as the cement went in. I wasn't there, but when I came back, all the poles were moved off center, were all out of alignment and nothing was level. It was a mess! Pour Nathan was pretty frustrated! Chad had hired several guys to help pour and finish his slab, so when they saw Nathan was in a little bit of trouble and they were able to break free, Chad and his friend Brian came to our rescue and started helping Nathan. That's about when I got home. They were frantically trying to reset the posts, check measurements and making sure things were square and level. They had to work fast since the concrete was setting up quickly! When they poured the concrete into the holes, it would move the beams that were staked in place or knock over the base it stood on, so Nathan had to dump some of the concrete for each hole beside the hole until we could correct the problems. When we would fix one problem, another would take its place. I was trying to help the three guys, but I was mostly standing there. My back was still out, my hip was out, my neck was out and I had one rib out. Thankfully my chiropractor put me all back together again! I couldn't help them shovel concrete into the holes or help them move the posts around, but I did help hold tape measures and get their levels for them. I make a pretty good "gopher", you know, "Go pher this, go pher that!"

Well, the guys finally got things pretty square again and mostly back where things should be. Thanks to the guys for helping us save our shop! This all happened by around 10:00. Then it was time to drive into Albuquerque to pick Aaron up.

Drove in, went straight to my chiropractor's office, then drove home. Aaron had 20 minutes to change, freshen up, eat lunch and get to work on time.

Came home. Finished cleaning Aaron's room for Robin. Started sweeping, but my back really started hurting so Nathan took over and finished my floors for me. What a sweetheart!

Baked a dessert. Got dressed and went to the Schwebach's house tonight. They had a tea for the ladies, a combined potluck for everyone and volleyball for the boys and men. After dinner, they started a bonfire and we all sat around it singing hymns from memory. What fun!!!

I am exhausted and need to get some sleep. May God bless you all!

Pit Fall!

Hello everyone! I forgot to say something about yesterday's blog. Nathan was pretty cute! As soon as he jumped up from the ground (when the flying alpaca knocked him down), Nathan was laughing and he said, "If only I was in my karate stance, he wouldn't have knocked me down!" I laughed so hard I almost cried. I told my Sensei last night and he about busted a gut laughing! He thought it was absolutely hilarious!!!

I had an ok day today. Got up and around and made breakfast for Nathan and Jordan. I had to go to the post office to pick up Jordan's stock whip that he ordered. Then I headed over to where Aaron works and bought 2 dozen ears of the Schwebach's sweet corn. Aaron asked me to make some more fresh cream corn and freeze it for later. Then stopped by Harts Hardware Store and picked up a roll of duct tape for Nathan. Afterwards, I stopped at the bank and cashed a check. Lastly, I stopped at the grocery store and purchased some items that were on sale to put away in our long term storage. When I arrived home, it was already time for lunch.

After lunch, I spent some time cleaning house since we are expecting company to stay with us tomorrow night. Earlier in the day, we got a call from Wagner Farms petting zoo (who bought the flying alpaca and dead-beat calf from us) and they were interested in driving out here to pick up two more male alpacas. So, Connie came out. We had three boy alpacas already put in a pen by themselves, so it would be easy to let her pick two and we could load them. We haltered the first one and were getting ready to load him in her trailer when Nathan realized that the alpaca needed a pedicure before we loaded him. Jordan held on to his head/neck, and I held the rope while Nathan clipped his toe nails. He definitely did NOT like that, but somewhat cooperated with us. Then there was the second alpaca...he was very skittish and had not been halter trained. We tried giving him his pedi, but he blew up! We had a complete rodeo on our hands. He was rearing up and twisting and turning just to get away. It was a little scary when he would rear up because we were standing right there trying to get control of him again. He reared up and the next thing I know, I felt a little pain on the knuckles of my right hand. I'm still not sure if his toe nails clipped me on the way down or if it was Nathan's shears that got me, but it just thankfully skinned up my knuckle. We eventually got him clipped and loaded. I think we have sold all the alpacas we are going to sell.

Later this afternoon, Nathan needed my help setting and leveling our beams for the shop we are getting ready to build. He had already dug the holes with the tractor. We had to toss a cinder block in each of the six holes, hoist the beam on top of each block, then measure and level each beam to be sure the structure would be square. We got the four corner posts done without any mishaps. Jordan was busy doing school and Aaron was still cleaning his room for company, otherwise, I would've had the boys out there helping him instead. It started lightning, so we took a break and moved all the tools inside. We had a downpour! When we went back outside, we found one of our holes completely filled with rain water! Nathan and I tried to set the first middle post (which had two beams attached together about five inches apart, so it was considerably heavier than the single corner posts). As I was attempting to hold the post in place for Nathan, my left foot slipped on the mud and down I went...well, at least half of me did. It was then that I was extremely grateful to my Sensei for having us do splits at karate class! I was sunk up to my hip in the hole. One leg in, one leg stuck up at the surface of the hole. I kind of tweaked my back and I know I popped my hip out of place. This is going to feel lovely tomorrow. Maybe I'll get an appointment with my chiropractor if he's in tomorrow.

This is when I finally called Jordan to come help. We set and leveled the two center posts. Jordan was putting all the tools away. I went inside to set supper on the table. It was then that Nathan decided to move some gravel into the standing water in front of the soon-to-be shop. As he was making the final pass with the bucket, he barely tapped the front center post. We did have all the posts braced and staked, but the tractor bumped it a little too hard and the post fell over. Thankfully it didn't land on anyone. I was standing there watching it in slow motion. Oh well...

We reset the last post and came in to a kind of lukewarm supper. Tasted great though. Found out that Shepherd's Pie is one of my favorite meals!

I am definitely going to have to soak in the tub tonight! Sleep well my friends!

Blessings!

Cute, But Terrifying!

Good evening everyone! Had kind of an interesting morning. We got the long awaited call from the Moriarty Post Office. They said, "You need to come to the post office, your packages are ready for pick-up.

So I head down to the post office and when I opened the door, I could hear 200 chicks serenading to me from the back!!! Nathan and Jordan were at home getting their home ready. I got some strange looks from people as I carried them out to the car. We ordered them from a hatchery in Cincinnati, Ohio. They ship day old chicks to wherever. They sang to me all the way home in the car. You'd be surprised at how loud 200 chicks can actually be in a small confined area such as a car. Couldn't roll down the windows to diffuse the sound since it was sort of chilly this morning and I didn't want them to get to cold. After we got home, we emptied the shipping boxes into their new home and we decided it was a little too crowded, so we set up a second home for some.

We had a waterer set up for the new chicks in the second home and the water was too deep and was leaking all over the place. Unfortunately, two of the little chicks got trampled down into the water and couldn't get up to breathe, so we lost them. Then when we went back a little later to check on them, we found out that their waterer was leaking and they were all drenched and getting to cold, so it was Mom to the rescue! I went and retrieved my handy-dandy blow dryer and started warming them up while drying them off at the same time. A few got a little too warm and we lost about five or six more, but considered ourselves blessed since we thought we were about ready to lose a lot more.

Just to make things clear for those who don't know me, I am absolutely terrified of chickens. I will face off with a 1000 pound bull and not bat an eye lash, but I'm scared silly of chickens. I truly think they have it out for me. They're mean and fast. They always chase me for some reason. I felt bad for this one little chick. She was the last one I was blow drying. I seriously doubted whether she would pull through or not. I pitied her so much that I actually picked her up and snuggled her for quite a while...yes, I did say I picked her up! Every inch of me was squirming inside screaming at me to let go and run the other way, but I felt so sorry for her! I finally passed her over to Jordan when I just couldn't handle it anymore! Finally, when he decided to get back to school, he realized that he couldn't do school while holding this little chick, so he put her in the pens with all the other chicks. We've been checking off and on all day expecting to find a dead chick, but so far, all have survived their near drowning and hypothermia! Maybe I should open a chicken spa therapy place or something...wait a minute... I'm too chicken to deal with chickens!

Well, I will attach a picture of those mean, scary monsters who love to chase me or peck my toes and fingers! Hope tomorrow is not as exciting!

Until then...sweet dreams and God bless!

When Alpacas Fly and Calves Rebel!!

I got up this morning, packed Aaron's lunch and breakfast and sent him off to work. I immediately got busy and canned 6 quarts of dill pickle spears. While I had that in my canner, I started on a new venture today. I made 17 1/2 pints of cinnamon apple jelly. I have never made jelly before, but I think it looks like it will turn out well. Come to think of it, I've never made dill pickle spears either. Got all this done by 10:00 am on the dot. I had three piano/ voice students come today from 10:00-12:00. I actually wrapped up around 12:15, then heated up some lunch while Nathan went and picked Aaron up from work. I had both boys doing school all afternoon. I had a brand-new piano student start today from 4:00-4:30. We were supposed to leave by 4:30 to go sell two of our alpacas and possibly our baby steer to the Wagner Farms petting zoo they have set up for kids to see and learn about animals, which brings me to the story of the day...

When we got to Wagner Farms, they had Nathan drive my Pilot with the stock trailer into their field with grass. At the other side of the field, they had some animals pens set up. Their neighbor had recently irrigated their field and flooded the Wagner's field as well, so we couldn't drive the stock trailer right up to the pens. We parked maybe about 100 yards away from the animal pens (please bear this in mind as you read the rest of this story)...

Nathan had been talking with Mrs. and Mr. Wagner about buying the animals. They definitely wanted to buy the two alpacas (Hershey's Dark Chocolate and Eugene Meltzner). They weren't sure they wanted to buy the steer that was born to us three months ago (Jack) so we brought him along in case they wanted to see him and buy him on the spot.

Since their field was flooded, the grassy field was mushy and slick. The son was the one to meet us and he asked us to halter and walk the alpacas to the pens. Fortunately, the two alpacas we brought lead pretty well on a lead rope. Jordan only brought one lead rope and he went into the skinny people door at the front of the trailer. He hooked the lead rope onto Hershey and lead him out the people door. It was quite a step down, but he did just fine. Nathan came in the door and just grabbed the halter with his hand and was just going to lead Eugene by the halter. When Eugene got to the door, he stopped. Nathan kept trying to pull him. Eugene was kind of freaked out. When Eugene saw the big step he did not want to go. All of a sudden, he JUMPED and took Nathan down with him. All I saw was a flying alpaca and Nathan on his back laying in the mud and standing water. I was really impressed that Nathan still had a hold on Eugene's halter. I was worried Nathan was going to get stomped to death, but he said he was fine...just a little wet and muddy! So much for dressing up nice for church!

Then there was Jack. The young man called his mom to come meet Jack and make a decision wether or not they wanted to buy him. While we were waiting for her to show up, we haltered Jack and attached the lead rope to him. We took him out of the trailer so he could graze on the lush green grass. He was loving the yummy grass. Mrs. Wagner came and she decided to go ahead and buy him. So Nathan had the lead rope and started walking towards the pens and the next thing we know, he decides to rebel. He stiffened his legs and just keeled over! He absolutely refused to walk! He's never done this before. We rolled him over onto his stomach and tried to get him up. Eventually, he got up and we walked maybe 20 feet and he decided that was enough. He went down again and that was that. Nathan, Aaron and Jordan picked him up, but he kept his legs folded underneath him and would NOT get up on his own volition. Finally, Nathan used the lead rope as a harness around his front shoulders and in front of his back legs to carry him the rest of the way!!! What a stinker! After they let him down in his new pen, he decided to get up and walk around...go figure!

Well, that's all the excitement for us today. I think tomorrow's story might be about Jordan...

Good night and God bless!

Crazy Day!

This is a typical Tuesday for me. Got Jordan up to start chores. I poured up the milk as soon as he came in with the pails of milk. Nathan washed up the pails/funnel while Jordan fed and watered all the animals.

Ate breakfast. Got Jordan started on school for the day. Practiced my katas for karate for about 1 1/2 hours. Helped Nathan line up where we plan to pour concrete footers for our shop we are hoping to put up in the very near future. Went inside and heated up some lunch. Packed Aaron's GI for karate and a change of clothes for later.

Left the house at 12:45 to go pick Aaron up from work. Drove the boys to Edgewood for their drama rehearsal from 1:30-3:30. Left straight from there to drive to Tijeras for karate from 4:00-6:00. I got to celebrate my birthday Japanese style! I stood front and center, then everyone (including Sensei) line up and punch the birthday person! Yep, it stung, but I actually looked forward to it and am proud of how I was able to take it. I stayed after class to have my Sensei work on my katas with Sandra and me. The boys left for a Bible study on the west side of Albuquerque at Paula and Aulvie's house. Still waiting for the guys to come home. I am pretty tired, but then again, I always feel a little bit tired!

Oh, I almost forgot, I am in the process of making cinnamon whipped honey. Yes, there is a process to it. Whipped honey is actually only a form of crystallized honey. You have to be sure that your raw honey is completely free of any crystals. I started with 10 parts our honey. Then you stir in 1 part store bought whipped honey and mix until thoroughly blended. I added some cinnamon. You have to let it sit overnight. Then on the third day, stir it again, then pour it up into containers and let "culture" for 1-2 weeks. I admit...I just had to snitch some and it is absolutely divine!

Nathan and I are doing some research and we are hoping to make candles and lip balm soon. I don't know when, but soon.

Well, nothing new to report around the farm. Hope to sell a couple of alpacas maybe tomorrow. Will keep you posted.

God bless!

"I Told You So..."

Well, where do I start? Today was a very interesting day. Nathan has been trying to help me sell part of my alpaca/llama herd. A couple came last week and fell in love with one of my young alpaca boys, Dusty, (appropriately named because he is a light-tan color) and one of my young alpaca girls (Patches), so named because she is all white with one small brown patch on her rump. They decided to also buy my only llama girl, Emma. Unfortunately, the couple buying them do not own a stock trailer so Nathan told them we could deliver them to their house if they would pay extra for our gas which they agreed to do. We live in the middle of "no where" like some people say. Since Nathan resigned his job, we have been trying to consolidate all of our trips into town and carpooling together. So the boys started school this morning. Nathan said we had to stop school at 10:30 so the boys could get ready to go to town. He and I were going to load the three animals into the stock trailer and be ready to leave by 11:00. We told the couple we would be at their place by 11:30. Our plan was to drop off the animals, get them settled in and leave by 12:00 to get the boys across to the other side of Albuquerque for their orthodontic appointments starting at 1:00. I asked Nathan at breakfast if he wanted to get the animals and round them up into a pen so it would be easy to get them loaded when we had to leave. He said, "Naaah...we'll just load them when we get ready to leave. I started getting things wrapped up at 10:25. Nathan got the truck keys and I backed him up and we got the trailer hooked up...

I asked Nathan if we should go get the boys to help us get halters on the animals and to get them loaded in the trailer. He said, "No, we don't need them. We can do it." I tried to tell him we needed at least one boy armed with a stick to get the llama girl out because we have to walk her through the boys' pasture to get her out the gate and into the trailer. So I called Jordan to come out and help us. When he got there, Nathan said we didn't need his help and to go back inside to get ready to go. I just quietly shook my head. Little did Nathan know that it took Aaron, Jordan and myself to get her into the pasture and it was a mad house! I knew what was coming, but I bit my tongue. I figured, ok, maybe Nathan knows something that I don't.

I wistfully watched Jordan walk all the way out of the pasture. Nathan and I haltered Emma (the llama) and got a lead rope on her. We tied her off to a fence post. Then we haltered the baby girl Patches. Patches is not halter trained and doesn't walk well with a lead rope. Emma has been trained to lead. She was not leading well at all. I think she was anticipating what was coming. Nathan was holding on to Patches' rope and I untied Emma. Nathan came over and opened the fencing for me while trying to keep the animals from both pastures from crossing over while I went through with Emma...

For people who do not know how things work with alpacas/llamas, if the girls are not bred, the boys will try to breed them and that throws the girls into active heat. If they are already bred, the boys will still try to breed with them, but the girls will bite, kick, spit and do anything to keep them away. As I'm trying to drag Emma across the pasture, I see 10 hormone driven males trying to all become Emma's new best friend (all at the same time). I am getting push, shoved, stepped on and spit on the whole time I'm dragging her through the chaos. I start yelling for Nathan to come help. Emma was going to get trampled to death by all the boys fighting or I was going to get caught in the cross-fire. Nathan let go of Patches and came running through the gate. I am trying to push and shove all the boys off of Emma. Nathan took her rope from me and started dragging her towards the gate (by this time, we are only 1/2 way to the gate) while I attempted to keep the boys at bay and push her from behind to keep her moving. When the girls are receptive to breeding they will just lay down on the ground. Guess what Emma did??? She laid down in the middle of all the boys shenanigans. NOOOO! Get up! I called the boys on my cell and yelled for them to IMMEDIATELY come help. All the while, I am still getting pushed, kicked and stepped on. I am not a happy camper right about now. Nathan didn't looked to amused either...go figure! With all four of us, we barely got her out.

Then there was Patches. She wouldn't stand a chance walking through the field, so Nathan decided to drive the truck through the boys' pasture and up to the girls' gate. That was a great idea! Aaron and Jordan were out in the field trying to catch Patches' rope again. So when I opened the gate to let Nathan drive through, I could only protect one side of the truck to keep the animals in the pen. Of course, one of the boy alpacas (Hershey's Dark Chocolate) slipped out on the other side of the truck. Thankfully, he was the only one to get out. We got the other two animals loaded and it didn't take the boys and I long to get Hershy back in the pen.

Nathan and I kind of laughed about it after we were all done though! I tried not to say "I told you so..." But Nathan said "I should have listened to you!"

Welcome to my life on the farm!

God bless! Hope you got a great laugh from us! There will be many more I'm sure.

A Very Blessed Birthday!

Hello again. I had a very blessed birthday today. It started today when Nathan got up extra early this morning. I heard him go out the front door as I rolled over and went back to sleep. After a while, I heard "thump, thump, thump." I thought to myself, "Now why on Earth is Nathan using his rubber mallet to level the flagstone out back? I thought we were going to take a break from it for a couple of days." So I jumped up out of bed while I was still trying to pry my heavy eyelids open enough to see what he was up to. As I squinted out our bedroom door, I saw Nathan armed with a fly swatter going to town on the rampant flies that invaded my house last night during the party. I guess I just got a sneak peek at one of the plagues that pharaoh dealt with...lol! Nathan said, "Hold on!" He turned around and brought me a grande cup of White Chocolate Mocha (my favorite drink from Starbucks)! I don't drink Starbucks that often, I mean, who can afford $5 a pop? Then Nathan explained that when he got up and saw all the flies, he thought to himself that his sweetie-pie would not be a happy camper and would not have a good birthday if she woke up to all those pesky flies! For those of you who have not been to my house, I pretty much always have a fly swatter in hand. If there is a fly in my bedroom at night, I will turn on every light and I will NOT go to sleep until every last one is dead! I can't stand being woken up by buzzing in my ears :( !!

Nathan wouldn't let me lift a finger to help with breakfast. Both boys did chores this morning and Nathan cooked breakfast. We had monkey bread, eggs and turkey bacon. Yummm!

We went to church, then had a potluck volleyball get-together at the park. What fun! We were blessed to have Keith and Ginger visiting this week. Then we had evening services. After services let out, stopped by Smith's to pick up some fly paper to hang around the house! Then we drove out to the Schwebach's and did a blood draw on their cow "Honey." Nathan did a blood draw on one of our cows and our little heifer yesterday. We plan on sending it in for a pregnancy test. Hopefully all three test will come back positive. You should see the looks we get from the postal workers every time we ship blood tests. We have to label the box "Animal Specimens" and they always ask us what it is. We have to explain that it's a blood sample for a pregnancy test. They had no idea we could do that! You would think they would remember when we come back the next time, but that would be just too easy...

You should have seen us trying to draw blood on Honey. Mind you, we are all still in our church clothes and church shoes. Nathan grabbed her by the halter and led her between two corral panels connected in a "v" shape. I held her rope through the panels. Jordan pushed the panels together wedging her in. Aaron got "detailed" to do tail duty (pun intended)! He got to hold her strong tail up and out of the way while Nathan tried to stick a vein on the under-side of her tail while she was squirming to get away. It takes a pretty talented person to get a vein while it is moooving...sorry, couldn't help myself. Duane is really beginning to rub off on me!

Not much news to report. Till tomorrow.

Blessings!

Birthday Bash

Well, spent the day getting ready for my party this evening. We had a great turn out. My Sensei Caesar from karate came with his family. Sandra from karate and her husband Rory came. Chad, Tonya and kids came. Ben, Holly and kiddos came as well.

We had turkey, ham, tamales, stuffing, cream corn, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, salad, cranberry sauce, croissants, dessert apple pizza, pecan pie, 2 pumpkin pies and real whipped cream! Anyone hungry??? Thanks to Tonya and Holly for bringing stuff to help out with dinner tonight.

Most people think I'm absolutely insane cooking a turkey dinner and throwing a huge party for myself, but I want to tell you why I did it. Most of you know that I love to cook. I cook because that's how I show others that I love them. I didn't want gifts this year because all I wanted was to be surrounded by people I love. That was extra special to have my friends here tonight. We had a wonderful time!

I am SO looking forward to sleeping tonight and hopefully getting to sleep in in the morning! Nathan already said that I am NOT cooking breakfast. I wonder what he has up his sleeve??? What a sweetie! I just love him to pieces! Will write more tomorrow. Good night and God bless!

Big Day

Woke up this morning with a start. My sweet hubby let me sleep in and I jerked awake the second I heard the milk buckets rattling a little after 7 am. I cleaned house, then proceeded to lay some more flagstone so Nathan would only have to level them when he got home.

Took a break at 12:30 to take Jordan to the DMV to apply for a picture ID. I have misplaced both boys social security cards. They are lost together somewhere. I wanted to get replacement cards, but to get a replacement SS card, you need a picture ID. To get a picture ID, you need a SS card. Oh well...

Jordan then treated me to lunch at one of our favorite places to eat, Carl's Chili Hills. Green chili cheeseburger and fries really hit the spot! What a sweet and generous son!

Then I went to my doctors office to get my flu shot. Fun, fun.

Came home and laid more flagstone until I couldn't lay anymore. Swept both front and back porches. Cooked some dinner. Made my sweet potato casserole and stuck it in the fridge for tomorrow. Vacuumed the carpet and swept the floors and am more than ready to turn in for the evening. Well, not quite yet...I have a cup up milk and a few Oreo cookies calling my name! Until tomorrow...

Above all, remember God is good!

Time? What time?

Sorry I missed posting yesterday. Things were kind of busy, but then again, when are they NOT busy???

I got up yesterday morning, shucked 2 dozen ears of Schwebach corn and made homemade cream style corn. I then proceeded to can 8 pints of the huge batch that I made. The fresh batch I made tastes fabulous, but after canning it, it definitely changed color and texture. I'm not sure the status of the taste though. Note to self: do not ever can cream corn again!

Had to take Aaron in for a routine doctor's appointment (the make-up appointment from when Anita tried to take them in and they refused to see them). I showed up 15 minutes early as they requested. Tried to sign in and she told me there was a $15.38 balance over due on the boys account from Sept. 2011, so I paid it. The next thing she said to me about gave me a heart attack. She said, " Now, you owe $1395!!!!" I about choked! As I tried to maintain some sense of calmness, I asked what in the world that was for and she told me it was for "stuff" done there at the pediatricians office. Nathan came to my rescue and took over while they called Aaron back, only to be told that he wasn't even due for a check-up. They were the ones who called and said he was due and set up the appointment! Ended up getting flu shots for the boys and Jordan got his overdue vaccination. As we were leaving the office, the lady that charged me for the past due charges said it was a mistake and we actually had a credit of $22! Can anyone understand my frustration here??

Got up at 7:00 this morning. Cleaned house, started organizing things and basically getting ready for my birthday bash this weekend. Was still helping Jordan with homeschooling at the same time. Had major computer problems, but Nathan worked around it.

Jordan started with a sore throat so he didn't want to go to karate. Canceled his violin lesson. Nathan came home early from his trip to town. Aaron worked an hour later at work today. Got Aaron home and started him on his Scantron testing for the new new school we just got him into yesterday. Had more computer hick-ups. Aaron was still in the middle of testing when it was time for us to leave for karate. I was outside helping Nathan lay a bunch of flagstone outback and we missed karate.

Had to go to Walmart tonight to get a turkey for my party. Got a call from my Sensei and he was worried about me. We never miss class and if we do, I always contact him. Tonight I didn't. Little did I know that the whole class planned a surprise birthday party for me today. One of the ladies made zucchini bread and someone else brought cake and I didn't show up! I feel so bad that they went to all that trouble and I wasn't there.

Where does the time go? Can anybody tell me? I thought I was going to have plenty of time today to get things done, but I secretly think someone is fast-forwarding the time when I'm not looking. I sure hope tomorrow goes a little more smoothly than the last two days.

Well, enough babbling from me. I will (Lord willing) have a better day tomorrow! God is good!

Sticky, yummy mess!

As you can tell from Nathan's post, he harvested a lot of honey yesterday. He brought in all the honey comb that he harvested and placed the containers on my large kitchen island. We have not processed the honey yet to extract the honey from the comb since we are still placing orders for honey with the comb in it. So, in the meantime, it still sits on my countertops. If any of you have seen my granite countertops, you know that the pattern hides dirt/messes very well. The honey has dripped down the sides of the bowls and onto the counter in various places. I have wiped and wiped and wiped my counters, but to no avail! I still can't seem to get the sticky gooey mess cleaned up. For those of you who don't know me very well, I love a clean kitchen and I can't STAND sticky all over my hands (or feet for that matter)! I have wiped up stray drips on the floor as they carried in their precious cargo into my once "clean" kitchen! I don't know how many socks I've gone through stepping into the unseen "enemy"! Will this stickiness never end??!! Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff...just, does it need to be so sticky? Oh well...I think we will have 1-2 more days before we're done processing and I can try and get it all thoroughly cleaned up!

One exciting thing though, Nathan designed and printed our labels for our honey products and also set up an email address for our farm business. It really looked nice after we placed our first label on our own honey!

We are busy around the farm trying to get ready for a bunch of company coming this weekend. Nathan has been working really hard on the landscaping in the backyard. He finished running the sewer pipe, irrigation pipe and electrical pipe and he hopes to continue laying flagstone tomorrow. I only helped him a little by guiding him on the tractor as he buried the lines and doing a little shovel work. The boys and I helped a little tonight while we were grilling fish and steaks on the grill by doing the weeding on some monstrous weeds that were overtaking my backyard. Thanks boys! You really worked hard! Thanks honey for being such a good role model to show them how to work hard! Love all my guys bunches and bunches. God is so good all the time!

Well, that's all from me tonight. Will write more tomorrow.

P.S.-Tried to get our overgrown steer "Red" over to the other pasture today. Not too successful. He seems to only like me. He doesn't seem to want to give anyone else the time of day. I tried leading him with alfalfa pellets...not a chance. I got a bucket of apple scraps and he discovered that he absolutely loves apples! I lead him with the bucket to the fence. Nathan had gate duty, but Red just would not cross over to the other pasture. What a stinker! He ran off 3 times almost back to the barn and I lead him all the way back to the gate, but he just wouldn't go through the gate. Maybe better luck tomorrow??

Birds and the Bees

Hi, this is Nathan today.  Aaron and I tried bees for the first time  this year.   Just looking for a father son project.  We made 2 different types of hives, one is called a top bar hive and one is called a Langstrom hive.  The Langston hive is the "normal" box hives.  The top bar is a actually a more primitive hive and as the name suggests, you have bars that hand along the top and the bees build their comb suspended form the bars.  Anyways, we have not gotten any honey from the Langstrom hive.  The bees are healthy and are reproducing like crazy but not enough honey to harvest and still give the bees enough for the winter.  I had already harvested twice from the top bar hive so did not plan to even open it up but decided to open it up to just check on everything.  That hive was packed full of honey.  We probably took 5 gallons off of  it and still left the bees more than recommended to get through the winter.  The honey is good too.  Very light colored and mild.  I thought it was Alfalfa honey but the professional beekeeper who is helping me and has several hives out here said it is too mild for alfalfa and he will sell it as "summer surprise".  Great marketing.

See you all again tomorrow.

My husband is crazy...he's done it again!

Well, he's either gone crazy or he's gone "cuckoo"! He just ordered Jordan another 200...yes, I did say 200...chicks! Jordan is wanting to expand his chicken business so his Dad just stepped in there and jump started him! The chicks should be here around 9/26. He'll raise them up and then sell them when they are getting ready to start laying eggs in the spring. I think this is a wonderful business opportunity for Jordan and Nathan is so good to come up with ideas and to support him. I am proud of them both

As for things with Aaron, he and Nathan have taken on bee keeping this year. Nathan had a big surprise tonight. He wasn't going to harvest any more honey this year so the bees would have a better chance of surviving the winter, but the guy who is helping us with the bees came out and was really impressed with our two hives. They ended up harvesting about 30 pounds of honey! YIPPEEE!!!

We still have Coco (the borrowed bull) on our property. I finally figured out how to get him to do anything I want him to do...I just have to have apples! He absolutely loves apples and will do anything to get them. He would not let me touch or get anywhere near his nose ring before. I happened to take out some apple scraps from when we pressed some fresh apple cider and he became like putty in my hands. He even let me play with his nose ring as long I kept feeding him apples!

Well, that's about all for today. I will try and make a posting each day. Hope you enjoy my adventures with me as I share them with you!