Around the farm

This is my very first cow. Jobo named him Ninja.  I call him Ninj!  I am almost certain he thinks I'm his mommy too! 

Our barn. We actually cut down the trees, took them to the sawmill, and we, as in the hubs and I, built it our self!

Ok, the one on the left is Leo and the right is Charlie.  The boys named them as well.  Looks like I am only going to get dibs on the girl names!

This here is Tom.  He is about 5 years old.  I doubt we will ever get rid of him.  He is really friendly and talks way to much.  Fun to have around the barn.

Conrbread.  Jobo has named about 3 other animals that as well.  Not sure his fascination with that name!

Ninja getting love!  I am so lucky to have a husband who loves animals like I do.

Ginger.  She is 8 years old this March.  Set in her ways, runs things in the barn-trys to run things in the house, and is spoiled rotten.  Major sheading going on right now though and I am not liking it!

View from the middle field.  Love!

Ellie and her sweet little Willow

Maybelle pre baby earlier today.

Myra

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to the babies!  Haven't decided on names yet but will by the end of the night! 

Here is the story!  ..........

My daddy came up for a  surprise visit.  He and I were in the kitchen catching up and just goofin off.  Jeff was fixing to make a run to town to get a new wheelbarrow.  He walked out the front door and yelled for me.

Dropped the can of corn I was holding, (showing daddy what we canned last year) ran to the front and to the field.  Maybelle had already had two of her babies and we made it there just in time to watch the last! 

This was my first delivery!  It was awesome and cool that my boys and daddy were able to see it to.  Posting pictures in a minute!

Blogging!

MAN!  This is way harder than I thought! Who knew! If I were to try to write down just a few of my thoughts I would be on here all day!  There is so much that I want to share but just getting the blog up and running is a real challenge for this technology declined momma!

Please help me by liking my page and commenting if you find something of interest. 

New posters

Today I went to Staples to get a poster laminated.  Besides the fact that it cost me $10.00 to laminate a $1.00 poster, I found some really neat posters for my schoolroom.  I always love going to The Dollar Tree to see what new things they have.  I was sad that they didnt' have anymore of the robot bucks that we use so frequently.  I guess I better get to printing some off.  I plan on taking some pictures today so I can update share our schoolroom!  I have always enjoyed seeing other peoples area!

Nothing

So here goes another day of no action from Maybelle.  Every morning I go look out of the boys windows to see if I can see her in the side pasture.  With every ounce expecting her to not be in there I can hardly wait to look!  So I open the curtains and yep, there she is.  In the darn field.  Still big as a mac truck.  It is taking her longer by the day to get to her stall to feed up.  I am certain that if she doesn't have her littles by this weekend we will be getting a visit from the goat O.B!

In the Garden

The last few years have kind of been experiments for us.  Last year being our most productive garden yet.  This year we are planning a little differently though.  We planted so much of certain things that there is no way we could ever eat or give away all of it.  There was just to much.  I only want to plant what we will eat and I want to plant a lot of it!

There is no reason to plant things just because we have the space.  I only want to spend my time on things that are going to go in my kitchen and make meals for my family.  My intentions are to plant just enough for what we can use and not have any waste.  Previous years we have had to just let things go like okra, peppers, and tomatoes because we just couldn't do anything else with them.  We had way to much.  No more waste. No more waste!!

I have recently in the last 3 years began to learn how to can and preserve things we grow.  I think last year we canned over 600 ears of corn, no telling how many jars that came to be.  We also canned potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, and cabbage.  We froze onions, peas, several different types of peppers, some corn and squash.

This year my plan is to can almost every thing we grow.  We are going to stay away from things that we have an abundance of from last year and plant more of things we ran out of.  I also plan on making several things to sell.  With our farm growing every year I am finding that I really want to get it together and figure a way to make some extra bucks.  I know I would be willing to buy from local farmers if I didn't have the means to grow my own.

Last week me and my littles planted a tray with all sorts of veggies.  Everything is coming up really nice.  Looks like it will be ready just in time to be transferred to the garden.  I am so lucky that my boys love to do that sort of thing and that we are in a place where we can show them how to.  Gardening is such a lost art and there is such a disconnect between eating food and knowing how it's grown. 

I look forward to sharing photos and posts about how this all goes!  Wish me luck!

Peach Cobbler

Peach Pie
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 stick of butter
1 ziplock quart storage bag frozen peaches

Preheat oven to 350 

Melt stick of butter in bottom of casserole.

Mix flour, sugar, and milk together in a big bowl.

Pour into casserole and top with the peaches.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until brown.

Top with whip cream!  Yummy! 

 

 

 

 

 

Goats

Maybelle oh Maybelle......where should I start?  She was our first goat and still has only goat syndrome!  Kinda like only child syndrome!  She doesn't take kindly to other goats and is for sure the queen of the castle.  Very loving goat towards us and the kids though.  She loves being played with.  I actually think she was supposed to been a dog really since her behavior is more like one!  I have introduced our other baby goats to her and she didn't seem to mind them much at all.  Even going so far as to rub on Caroline.

Preggo oh preggo!  That's what she is!  The only goat in the world to be pregnant for a year!  Jeff says she will have the babies in her own time but I am really getting impatient!  I cant' wait to see these babies and figure out what their names will be.  I figure since I'm not having anymore babies of my own I will just use my favorite names on them.  Makes perfect since to me!  I really hope the big day comes soon or else she will be taking a trip to the goat O.B!


Ellie
Ellie is a goat that we got about a year ago.  She wasn't' in her best shape and it took a lot of persistence to get her back to good health.  On the 3rd of March she had her first little!  Her name is Willow and she is just a DOLL!  I need to get some pictures on here so I can show them off!  So far Ellie is really being a wonderful mom to her.  Only a few times have they been separated and needed our help to reconnect.  She milks really good and nurses pretty good to.  I have had to spend some time with her teaching her that she needs to stand still so Willow can nurse but she seems to be adjusting to being a new mommy very good. 

Homeschooling

Yeah, we are crazy!  My boys.... oh where to start about homeschooling!  Jobo is almost 6 and Bug is almost 4.  Both strong-willed like their momma!  I always wanted to homeschool my children ever since I was in high school.  I had a few friends that were homeschooled and fell in love with the idea.  Their family was so close and they seemed to be so happy.  I can remember them joining our school for different trips and such.

When Jobo was 4 I tried to start him in preschool.  It worked for a few months and then we kinda went off the chart.  I was becoming overwhelmed and Jobo wasn't loving it anymore.  I also had an almost 2 year old who wanted to be at my side constantly so it wasn't to difficult for me to be swayed! 

Now almost 2 years later we are doing much better!  Jobo is in kindergarten and Bug is in preschool.  I don't do as much with Bug since his attention span is much shorter than big brother but he does get his time in. 

We fell behind at the start of the year because we went with a smaller curriculum than I had planned.  Come to find out it wasn't a full plan so even though we were on schedule with it we were still behind on Abeka when we switched over.  We have worked extra hard to catch up and so far Jobo has done well with that. 

When Jobo is on track we can fly through several lessons in one day.  He doesn't mind going on extra time if he is on fire!  I use a robot reward buck system to keep him motivated and he LOVES it.  I also have a sticker pad that I use every single time he answers something right.  I mean EVERY time.  He got a piece of construction paper a few weeks ago and that's what I use to keep up with all the stickers.  When the sheet is covered he gets a new Skylander toy.  That has been a great incentive.  I give him the robot reward bucks maybe 1 or 2 a day for the big prize.  He has to get 20 bucks to get 1 actual dollar.  We made little wallets a few weeks back in class and that's what he uses to keep track of his bucks.  It's really fun for him and it helps keep me motivated to in a way.  I want to see him do good and want to keep learning so whatever it takes is my motto!

I bought a white board to put on the wall but it hasn't made its way there just yet.  The tiny 2x3 that I have been using is really getting old!  I decided to hang some twine from the corner to the window in our school room and it works really well for hanging anything like posters, cards, letters, just anything light basically.  I also bought a hanging clothes rack from Ikea several months ago and use it with my bigger posters using binder clip things.  That helps me save my wall space since it's limited in our schoolroom.  I should take some photos tomorrow of our room.

Another day waiting

So today is just another day that has come and gone that Maybelle hasn't had her babies!  I am in such suspense that I can hardly take it.  Hubs keeps saying that se will have them in her own time but goodness! 

We are OFFICIAL!!!!!

We have finally decided on a name for our farm as well as a herd name.  Say hello to Muddy Springs Farm! 

We have went back and forth with names for so long that it was almost unbelievable when we got our papers!  It was even more breath taking when we got a few packages for the farm with our farm name instead of our personal names!  We are on our way that's for sure!

I hope you enjoy our journey of living on a farm and everything that goes with it!  Cows, goats, chickens, canning, and raising 2 super strong-willed boys!