Gratitude

This is a few weeks old, but I love that I have help planning the weekly menu. I'm really grateful for all the recipes I find on blogs and other websites!

I'm waiting for my Hubby to come home tonight. He might not be home until midnight but at least he is local this week.

I have to take this time to show some gratitude.

I tend to whine quite a bit....waaa my Husband works out of town too much
I am soooo thankful he has a job
waaa my kids are driving me crazy
I am thankful they are healthy and creative and strong minded and independent
waaa I'm not good enough
I am thankful that I am smart, funny, creative, strong minded, independent, passionate, and able to do whatever I put my mind to do.
waaa I'm a horrible housekeeper
I am thankful that I am not on Hoarders and no one has ever gotten food poisoning from my cooking.

I'm sure I whine about other things too but I'll stop there!

Lost a goat

I was recently trying to sell off some of my goats. I sold Saturn and her new kid and was searching for a new home for soupy.

Unfortunately something went wrong with her. She seemed depressed. I thought it was because her mom was gone. I felt horrible. Knowing how social goats are, I thought if I put her in with the triplets it might help. It didn't. In fact she seemed to get worse. She was just very quiet and not herself. I just kept thinking that it was because of not having her mom around. It wasn't until she started with the scours that I thought she might be sick. I tried giving her electrolytes, making sure she had plenty of fresh water and hay. I gave her extra love and attention and watched. But she didn't get better. Sunday morning Robert found her laying outside in the goat pen and not in the shed. I went to give her a dose of antibiotics and discovered my antibiotics were expired. So we got another bottle of electrolytes into her and I ran for antibiotics. I've never done any of the injections before, we don't do it very often. Hubby was out of town working, so I felt for a fleshy area and gave her the injection. I don't know if I did it wrong or if she was too far gone, but an hour later she was gone. Isaiah was pretty upset. she was such a sweet goat. My brother happened to pull in to visit as they discovered the goat had passed and offered to help dig a hole. So the boys and my brother went out back and dug a 3 1/2 foot deep hole to bury the goat. It's really sad when we lose an animal. But this has definitely spurred a clean out mode in all of us. Pens are being cleaned out, goats are getting dosed with diamotceous earth. not sure if I spelled that right but added to their food it help get rid of both internal and external parasites.
We talked to some local farmers and they said it sounded like cochcidosis not sure if I spelled that right either. But they suggested that we treat all the critters because our goats and chickens are housed together.
I guess this is what we will be doing.

The work doesn't ever seem to end here at the ranch...Did I mention we are working on a name for our little homestead?
Hubby is out job hunting right now. Looking for something that will allow him more freedom but still provide health care benefits. The company he has been working for for over a year has begun working out of town every week. While that may be good for some families, the money is not worth Dad being gone for 7 or 8 days at a time for our family.
So we are going to have to make ends meet in other ways. The fact that Hubby was self employed for most of his working life, gives us the confidence that we can subsidize the regular income with some side jobs and selling our hand made and home grown products.

People are like Easter Eggs? I'm rambling again!

People are like Easter eggs. We all start out relatively the same. Maybe a little bigger, smaller, rounder, maybe brown, white pink or green. But then we get dunked into life...or dye and that experience is what makes us different, still the same inside but different.

Pretty soon you look around and everybody has had one experience or another coloring their lives, their personalities. But yet we all fit in the egg carton

But if you notice on some Easter eggs, some are broken or cracked, allowing the dye to get inside and scar the inside. Sometimes it makes the egg even prettier and some times it makes it undesirable to eat.

Life is like that for people too. Sometimes we are broken and cracked and allow the experiences to affect us on the inside. Some people use it to grow stronger and more beautiful, while others allow it to eat at them and make themselves ugly and unapproachable.

And then there are the eggs that you have to peel bit by bit to get to the inside and end up shredding half the egg in the process...
people are like that too...holding themselves together tightly not allowing anyone or anything to get inside.

But no matter what, once the shells are off, and broken, shredded, dyed doesn't matter when we make egg salad.
And when people lose their shells, broken, shredded, scarred doesn't matter as Jesus leads us to Heaven.

Goat Mama

I'm a goat mama for sure. The triplets are really keeping me hopping and Molly their real Mama has been keeping me just as busy. Thankfully Molly has been giving me about a gallon of milk a day. That's fabulous because I need three quarts a day to feed her kids...I was just going to use milk replacer but it is so expensive! And If she's pumping out I'm going to use it. I have more than enough for my soap now stored in the freezer. Now that my kids are going back to school I'll have some left for yogurt making...I hope to try making that next week.

I had to do some "culling" so to speak. I sold Saturn and her new kid last week to a goat farm in NY. They sent pictures of her relaxing in her new home and the little doeling frolicking with the other baby goats, She fits right in. I still have Soupy who needs a home. She is too small to breed with a beor and really ends up being more of a pet. I can't afford to feed something that does not have a purpose here. I had her posted for sale and someone was planning on coming to get her and then never showed up. I have her with the triplets, the other does are really pushy with her. I hope I can find her a home soon before my Hubby decides to take her to auction.

My Hubby was creative with what we had laying around and built this nifty crate to haul goats. The front end has hinges on top. We put the crate in the back of MY truck lift the front end and load the goats in. Lower the front end and close the tailgate and there you go, hopefully escape proof!

Yeah Charlie was trying it out!

Other than the goat drama going on things have been the normal spring busy. Hubby has been working out of town every week which isn't much fun but until he can find something else this is what we will deal with. It is what it is and I am so thankful for his job and the sacrifices he makes for us.

Tomorrow I am making another batch of soap. I sold almost all of my last batch. Hubby made me molds that I am going to try out. Hopefully I'll have pictures to post if they don't leak!. But with these molds I can work out two batches a week. Keeping it simple. No fancy scents...just using essential oils. This batch will be eucalyptus and my next will be unscented. So I have time to order more essential oils!
I also need to make more salve. I actually have people asking for it. It's really exciting. My own daughter, who I constantly argue and fight with, told me she liked the salve, it made her zit go away over night. Maybe I can get her to help make the next batch?

Well, Off to measure out my oils for the morning.

And A Single

Our Beor cross goat Saturn had her kid this morning. I sat out there on goat watch, because I missed Molly's birth. There wasn't any sign of Saturn having her kid other than she was making small quiet bleating sounds. Last night all she did was yell, so I put her first daughter in with her to help calm her. But this morning all looked normal so when the neighbor wanted to talk to me about pulling bushes out of the drain ditch I didn't think anything of it. Why I was just outside the barn, I would HEAR if anything was going on. But No, when I walked back into the barn. I checked Molly's kids and heard a baby bleating, looked in Saturn's pen and there was a kid!

How I missed it I just don't know. But she is a solid red color with the pinned up ears. Too cute. I'm trying to decide if I want to bottle feed all the babies and go ahead and milk Saturn or not...need to discuss with Hubby. It would solve a housing issue if I did.
On Friday we are getting another Milk goat. A Beor/Alpine heavy milker already bred. I guess I really have to get my butt in gear collecting all I need for soap, cheese, yogurt, and lotions. I'm going to have alot of milk!

I did my first craft show on Saturday. I sold $62 worth of my soap and salve and of course eggs. My eggs sold the fastest! And I almost had a bidding war over the last two dozen! I had all my children with me and my seven year old was "challenging" I don't know how other women take their children to craft fairs and make any money.
One good thing that happened was that I met a business couple who wanted to know if they could buy my soap and salve to sell in their shop. I am hoping that we will have a little extra cash left out of our tax money that I can buy supplies to make more soap and get containers for lotion. My Hubby was very excited that I sold stuff. I was discouraged. I felt I wasted a whole day sitting there. He said you SOLD your goods, you were seen and you made contacts. I am proud of you. It really touched my heart that he was proud of me. He is excited that I can start selling my own products and is willing to help me by building molds and preparing an herb garden. So we will see where this leads.

TRIPLETS!!!!!!

Born FINALLY this morning around 4am. The little black one is a buckling and the two white/brown/black ones are darling little does! So precious! The smallest little doe seems to be ignored so I am becoming the goat mama right away. I had colostrum frozen from last year and thawed it and bottle fed her. I love bottle feeding babies. Now she has a full belly and is bouncing around with her brother and sister.

I didn't forget!

I didn't forget...I was distracted. Hubby was home this weekend and of course we had much to do together.
Well, we got out of the diesel sucking truck! Yay.... but into another vehicle payment. But I have to say this payment is MUCH smaller, the truck is much smaller and the gas use is much smaller. So our monthly payment and gas usage will go down several hundred dollars a month. It feels like a weight has been lifted. It frees up more money a month to pay down other debt, if that makes sense.
I found it ironic that the loan company that financed the new truck is the same loan company that holds our mortgage. When we tried to refinance the mortgage we were told our debt to income ratio was too high and we were stuck with the rates we had. But apparently, when the dealership paid off the diesel truck, it allowed room for the new loan. So in April we are going to apply to refinance again...hopefully it will be successful.

I have to say this farm girl in training LOVES the new truck, because it is smaller I am more confident driving it. Hubby says if I clean out my van he will just take that to work and let me have the truck, because I am the one doing all the farm hauling...picking up feed and hay. I'm not going to mention that I only do that about once a month. But I had to get hay in my van yesterday because it was raining and there is no cover on this truck bed.

I went grocery shopping today with my list, and spent $40. I made up my menu from what I had at home and just had to add a few things and 10 of the 40 was a can of coffee!

Yesterday when I got feed I was talking to a few farmers. Got a new lead on hay, learned how to feed my Boer goats, and was filled in on the local goings on...Really, men gossip as much as women!

Ok now my kiddos are home and I have to feed them. They are starving!