Brrrr!

I suppose a lot of blogs are starting with that title right about now.  For 3 days already we've been in the -20°Cs.  Today we hit a big low at -35°C.  For any Americans that is about -35°F also.  There is a slight wind making it even colder.  I tell you it was a long chilly 1/4 mile walk to the barn this morning.  Usually I take the quad down, but yesterday and today it wouldn't start. 

New Year's went well.  We had company for the 4 day holiday.  I got sick on the day after New Years Day.  I was out for 24 hours and then tried to recover the next day yet, from exhaustion.  Brad got it about 2 days after me. However; we are all well now and life is back to normal.

I discovered at the barn, this morning, that the goats hadn't been out for water in a couple days.  (no tracks to the waterer) I guess they find it too chilly to walk to the other side of the barn.  I filled an inside water bucket today for them and did they ever crowd around the water cooler.  All my chickens wanted out into the goat pen this morning so they'll be good and hungry tomorrow because their food is in their pen, not the goat pen. 

The weather is suppose to warm up this weekend and get back to above normal temps, so the only sustaining idea is that it is only temperary.
Brad has been coyote shooting with Kevin, but they haven't shot many thus far.
Danielle is gearing up for writing first semester exams next week.  Her and Taylor have both been working an average of 3 shifts/week at A&W.  Taylor is quite proud of his paychecks (first job)  We've also begun to plunge into 4H.  It isn't something I 'chose' to do, but 'had' to do.  They needed adult leaders and there weren't enough kids--hense not enough parents--to get out of it.  So I am now general leader of our small little group and I know nothing about it.  I'm too old to start into something like that.  Girl Guides would've been no problem as I'm familiar with that having been a leader before.

I've started a 15 project challenge being part of a facebook group.  The idea was to start or continue with a project each day for 15 days, then try to complete those projects during the rest of 2012. I have made a good start I think and will definitely be done at least 2--hoping for all 15.
I spent a few hours at the quilt shop last night, while Taylor was at work so I didn't have to make the trip to town twice.  I got the binding on my coffee mat--just have to stitch it closed now. 

                                      

I also completed a pillow case.  There will be a matching baby quilt to go with it eventually.

A good start was made on my niece's quilt also.  It is a quilt using 20 fat quarters.  I got 8 cut to size last night.

Taylor's  My puppy is growing by leaps and bounds..but can be quite lazy.  See how she lays down to eat.

She is almost housebroken.  Her cousin has been staying with us due to issues with my daughter at the moment and they have been getting along quite well.  I'm going out of my mind with 2 puppies though.

Well I suppose that is all I have on this cold cold day.  I think I need a bit of a snack and I need to check on my child that is supposed to be doing school..hmmmm

Take care,

Christmas Time is Coming

Well our predicted little ones came at the beginning of the month.

Thankfully only one mom was caught in July.  They were healthy and a good size.  We may end up keeping both of them.  One male and one female.  Brad has managed to de construct the walls in the barn so it is basically 2 rooms now with 4 pens in the middle for birthing.  We have put the new mom and babies in with the 4 smallest ones that we had and they occupy one room and the rest of the goats occupy the other.  I'm regularily getting 1-2 eggs now which is plenty for us.

Taylor asked for a computer or dog for Christmas, so we got him his dog, that he has wanted since we knew we were moving to the acreage.  After 3 days he decided it was too much work and wanted us to take her back..Ugh!  So guess who is looking after a  10 week old puppy?  She is cute though.

Our house has been decorated also.  The girls put the lights on and Rachel and I decorated it.

They actually did a fairly good job.  It is our first 'real' tree in several years.  I forgot the mess the needles make.












Now if I could just get the house cleaned before the Day...I'm not sure that will happen with this many animals... Geesh!  I'm really hoping my strength by next spring will be such that I can oust all these animals except the one dog (lack of hair for outside life).  I just can't stand the meowing at the door.  Tomorrow is baking day.  Amanda and the girls and mom, Danielle and I are planning on baking here.  Now mom sounds like she is backing out.. We'll see if she shows up.  I have to get to town today to buy baking supplies and also to get Taylor's paperwork for his job in so he can start.  Although it is snowing pretty good right now. I hope it doesn't continue too long.

On Sunday we celebrated Justine's 21st birthday.  She is quite excited to be that age.

 

Well I better get off to get chores done so we can head to town.  Till next time.

Winter is Arriving

Another month since I posted.  Oh my goodness...

Construction or should I say destruction down at the barn.  Brad is removing walls and stalls.  He just wants a big open barn that is better for cleaning.  He can use the bobcat then instead of  3 or 4 of us with shovels.  He plans to leave one or two stalls for birthing.  I have done a head count at the barn and we have lost more goats than have been recorded.  I'm not sure how but nonetheless there are 12 less than we thought.  We have kept back 4 little ones.. An aquaintance of mine was suppose to take two for pets, but she never showed up to take them, so they will be staying.  They were just too little at the time to send to market.  They will have to wait until the next round.
Well I am routinely getting at least 3 eggs a day.  Awesome!  I don't have to buy eggs anymore..There is still something in barn trying to eat them though because there is usually a hole in one of them.

Today the wind is howling, well all night really.  There is a skift of snow on the ground and it looks soooo cold.  It is suppose to go down to -27°C tomorrow night so we'll have to wait and see.  I can see it happening and I always feel so bad for the outdoor animals when it does that.  If the temps are dipping that low already it is definitely going to be a bitterly cold winter.  Yikes.  I wish we had stalls in the upper barn for the horses.

Nothing has been done with any crafts except the purchase of new items.. Geesh! I'm going to take my mom's quilt in to be quilted soon.  That will be one of her gifts for Christmas.  I also found a cross stitch that I made for her quite a while ago.  It just needs framing, so that will be her other half.  I did join two Christmas Ornament Exchanges.  I have one finished and sent off and the other is at least started.  Mail date is Dec. 4 I believe.  Better get busy on it.  Hopefully some more progress on something will be done on this terribly snowy/windy day.

The two remaining kittens are gone now.  The house is back to normal if you can call it normal.  Rachel has applied to college, so we are hoping to hear in the next couple weeks whether she is in or not.  She'll stay living at home working this winter and next summer, then head off in the fall.  She has found a job for the winter and so has her boyfriend.  They are set.   Danielle is going for her road test next week.  She wants a job and doesn't want me to have to drive her.  Our play was good.  People enjoyed it anyway.  We had 6 performances--wasn't sold out at any but a good turnout.  I'm glad it's over, but am interested to see what play is picked for next year.

I guess that is it for now.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures for next update.  It think it adds to the blurb.

Update

It's been a little while since I've updated again.  Boy time sure slips away.  The yard is covered in leaves and the trees and pretty much bare.  The days are chilly with a titch of warmth left in them.  Halloween is coming upon us soon and I'm not sure if my kids are doing anything this year or not.

The final batch of baby goats are being shipped tomorrow.  The barn will then be emptier awaiting the arrival in the spring of the new babies.  I haven't been as attached lately to this batch.  They go out to the pasture all day and I really don't see much of them anymore. An aquaintance of mine has requested to buy 2 babies from us for herself as pets.  Brad would like her to pick them up right away--so I guess I better call her today.

My new chickens have started laying eggs--well at least one of them.  Our eggs are all peewee size and we do have some tweeking to do with the nest box as some of the eggs are getting crushed.  They are suppose to roll away so they don't get crushed, but the weight of the chicken pushes the other end of the wire mesh up and squashes the egg on the wooden perch.  Very exciting.

We have 1 outdoor kitten out of 7 that has survived thus far.  We'll see if he makes it all winter.  Of the 3 I brought in I still have 2.. I was hoping they would be gone.  Surprising really that they are still here, they are so cute.  Well they'll have to go out in the spring if noone takes them.

I took a quilt class and made a little wall hanging.  It isn't quite done yet.  I just bought a button for his nose yesterday. I also have to create the hanging case for it.  Maybe today.. I also just ordered a bunch of little cross stitch tucks.  6 of them.  I'm going to make them up and have them for the Christmas Market next year.  I always say I'm going to have stuff and never have it.  I'm bound and determined this year coming to make stuff for 2012s market.  Dishcloths, cards (stitch and paper), tucks, and who knows what else.  I'm even going to have a special storage space for it all., then I can book a table early spring and go for it.  I'm going to start a dishcloth today.
Justine and Eddie's wedding quilt won first prize at the fair for the category -first quilt ever, machine stitched--  It was the only entry in that category but who cares.  I also won for my paintings.  It was quite enjoyable and that brings me to my crafting goals number 2.  I aim to create for as many categories as I can to enter next year.  Cross your fingers that I havne't made too lofty of goals.

I think Rachel wishes to stay home for the next little bit.  She was going to move in with friends a couple hours away and just work, but I think she has now just decided to stay home.  She aims to go back to college in the fall, so she'll move then.  Woohoo...

Danielle and I are in a musical drama and the performances are coming up quickly.  I'm not sure about pulling it off.  I havne't had a chance yet to practice my part on stage--hopefully on Sunday that will happen.  I really should learn my scene and rehearse my lines.

Taylor is coming along with school.  Not are energetic as I'd like, but nonetheless it is getting done.

That's all for now..

Autumn

Well a definite chill is in the air.  We are dropping to 0°C at night.  Brrrr!  Actually right now we are at -1°C.  It is suppose to go up to 19°C at some point today.  The trees are all starting to shed their summer glory.

It is sad really, but wonderful at the same time.

My darling daughter number 2 has decided to move out and live with friends until next May when she'll pop back in to repeat her summer job.  Not sure when that is happening, but I imagine before Halloween.

We also have a repeat customer at our house.  Ember has come back to live with us.  She is having issues regarding her house training and my eldest is tired of it.  So Justine passed the problem on to me.  Hopefully we can fix it or I'm not sure what is going to happen.  Changing diapers on a dog is not happening.
This is Ember

We also had a neglected batch of kittens come in the house to be bottle fed.  We're not even sure who they belong to outside, but we have an idea.  At any rate another week or so and they'll be ready for new homes.  I hope I can find some homes for them.

On the farm end:  We lost another mama goat. She died the same way as most of the others that have died.  Just wasted away.  She lost her baby quite a while ago from neglect and I wonder if she didn't know that she wasn't well and that's why she let her baby die.  Who knows.  It's almost time to put the bucks back in with the gals, so we need to get rid of the rest of the babies soon whether they are up to weight or not.
The last of our roosters will be butchered in a couple weeks.  It is time.  We don't plan to heat the chicken coop and it is getting quite cold out there.

Crafting?  Well I have managed to put a few stitches in a couple projects.  Today I will complete page one of my Love Is project for Justine's anniversary.

I should also make a bit of progress on my quilt.  I really would like to see it finished and put on the spare bed.  Andrew's vacating the spare room and my finished quilt could be timed to match, but I doubt it.  He'll be gone within a month and there is no way that quilt will be done that fast.  I'm taking a quilt wall hanging class on Sat.  Hopefully I'll complete it there and have a finished project to brag about. 

Well I'm off to check the animals.. See you next time.

Time for an Update

Well where to begin.  I guess I last left off with the wedding.  Since then we've shipped 46 kids to market with the rest heading there sometime around Oct. 1.  We've had a few minor illnesses with some but nothing serious.  The nice pasture grass is pretty much dead and Brad put in the hay bales.  So things are getting back to busy.  We'll be aiming to breed at least half sometime this month.

We said goodbye to 19 broiler chickens.  We had a nice day with friends and family butchering.

The first lucky contestant

 On we go...

All the pretty birds in a row

 

 

 

 

Having a wiener roast after.

And that was that.  We're having another butchering day in Oct.  Kevin and Amanda's birds will be ready and so will our roosters.  I saved back 13 hens and 2 roosters, but we may keep less than that.

Mom, Danielle and I spent a couple hours last week making some cards.  This is the start of the monthly meetings that were suppose to happen starting last January, but somehow never did.  Anyhow ...

The first card is one of the 2 we made.  Danielle has the other card picture on her camera.  The second card is one I made after I got home.  These are from a kit from Annie's Attic.  Each kit makes 8 I believe, so there will be enough to split.  Amanda may join us too.

Speaking of Amanda.  We're going to the city this week to finally get to a health food store, knitting store, teacher's store and homeschooling store.  woohoo.. going to be a busy day.  We have projects that we need to get supplies for.  All the stores are entered into my GPS already so we should be good to go.

Danielle and I also auditioned for a musical/play in the nearby town and we both got in.  We went to a practise last night to do a read through.  Our parts will be emailed to us this week.  Quite exciting really.

Well I guess that is as updated as it gets for now.  Time to get on with the day.

It is over

Several things have ended in the last couple weeks.  The main one is the bottle feeding.  We are done for this season and it feels so good to just go check on the goats without having to spend an hour down there making and feeding bottles.  They are all doing fine at this moment and we are preparing to take the biggest ones--we're hoping 40 pounds and up to the market on Monday next.  A friend is coming out for the week to have his vacation and to help Brad with things around here.
Second is the chicks.  They are no longer chicks and they are ready for butchering.. Unfortunately that isn't happening until the Labour Day weekend.  They are huge and eating us out of house and home.
Third was a short lived episode with ducklings.  An aquaintance called and said they had run over a mama duck and had kept the babies, but couldn't anymore would we be willing to look after them.  We agreed.  We placed them in the nursery room in the barn.  Day 2 -One duckling died. (well really disappeared), Day 3 -3 ducklings died. and Day 4 the last died.  I haven't a clue why other than maybe it just got too cold in there at night or they didn't know how to get their food.. don't know.  I feel horrible that they all died after being rescued, but what can one do?

Nothing has happened on the craft front as I've had company and can't really do much. I did manage to put a few stitches in a project but that is it.

The main event:  The Wedding!  It is over and done with--not paid for yet, but hopefully tomorrow.  The grooms parents foot the bill for the catering and we 'need' to pay them back.  They weren't suppose to pay it, but the facility we used isn't being run in the most organized way at the moment and the bill wasn't brought out until everyone else had left.  I assumed they would mail it, by that point.
Here are a few pictures from the event.

Till next time.