Star Watch, 2010..............

TWINS, TWINS, TWINS!  And even better than twins is we got one of each.  The boy is HUGE, long legged and a handsome energetic fella.  The girl is smaller and just beautiful.  The birth was a little rough.  Boy was first and wasn't progressing so I had to pull him.  That always scares the dickens outta me and makes me nervous for days afterward that something will be wrong with mama.  The girl slid out without too much trouble, but mama Star was pretty tired so I gave a little help on her too.  There was a lot of prayin' goin' on in that barn a few hours ago! 

Without further ado, I present you with.........

Goodwife Farm's Osiris

(brown buckling)

Goodwife Farm's Isis

(silver doeling)

We haven't fully decided yet and it will depend on what I get from the other two girls, but both of these darlings may be keepers!  Star is an amazingly faboo mother just like her mama Tulip. 

Now we are on to Tulip Watch, 2010........she will be at 150 days on March 8th and Naomi will be at 150 days on March 10........whoo hoo for lots o' goatie babies! 

Ps.......remember this?  Well I'm dead on so far...........hehehehe.........

Till next time..............GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!!

A Package for the Goodwife.........

Hmmmm, what can it be?

Let's open it and see!

How beautiful!  I think I could have gotten one even bigger, but that's ok, I still like it!

  Now I need a matching one for down the hall......

And this one too, it's perfect!  Looks great in front of the tub!

I ordered these rugs from an ebay store.  They are new braided wool rugs and they are handmade in the USA, which was a big selling point for me!  They are just gorgeous and very very well made.  Heirlooms they shall become, but it just isn't complete until........

There, that's better!

Till next time..........GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Adventures in Seed Starting Update..........

February 8, 2010

If you remember I did a post a few weeks ago about attempting to start pepper seeds.  I haven't updated you on this because of our kitchen remodeling project, but things are going quite well!

2/14/2010

2/22/2010

2/24/2010

As you can see my little seedlings are growing quite well.  The tomato seeds are a bit leggier, the peppers are more squatty.  I've had 100% germination on all but the cheap $.20 Wal-mart seeds and some of them are actually starting to sprout.

I ended up putting my heating pad set on low underneath the seedling tray.  After the plants sprouted I removed the plastic dome, and put the plant light on them.  I have it ever so cleverly suspended by pencils right now and they are sitting on a tray in front of the window.  I turn them every few days as they do reach for the light coming in the window, even with the plant light on them.  As soon as the plants are tall enough I plan to move them into the aquarium.  I'm afraid if I do that now, they will get too leggy and spindly from the light being too far up.

Now I've just got to wait for spring......the temperatures are hovering in the teens again today........YUCK!

Till next time..........GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Star Watch.......2010

As of today, my little Star is at 148 days.

Between 145 and 150 is average, so we should have kids on the ground any day now. Her ligaments are still super tight as of this morning. Over the weekend she got her pre-kidding haircut.

I do this because having babies is a messy business and her tail hair would get all matted with blood and goo if I didn't (remember you can take a bath, not so for a goatish mama). It still will a bit, but not nearly as bad as if she didn't get a trim before hand. I also like to shave udders so that I can see clearly what the udder looks like.

Star has a darling little softball shaped udder right now! I love it! She is starting to look like she may have a slightly crooked teat like her Aunt Winnie, but hopefully not. It's not a big deal, just harder to get it pointed into the bucket!

She is a very shy goat, as I've mentioned before so I'm hopeful that milking will go well. She's fine once she's on the stand and eating, and she's fine to come up for a scratch and a pat, she just doesn't at all like to be restrained. This is due to a very very tramautic disbudding when she was a kid. I didn't have the equipment to do it at home so I had the vet do it. After that, I came home and ordered my disbudding iron. Never again will I put a goat through that ordeal!! That pretty much scarred her from being restrained and so she's very shy now.

I'll leave you with a short video that I took on Monday evening...

Historical Goats.........

Early 1900-1910

Goat Carts and children in Central Park NY, NY

My good friend Rhonda sent me this lovely picture yesterday and asked if I'd like to include it in a blog post. I said but of course I would! I love this picture and would actually love to frame it. I'm not sure where she found it but it is just a wonderful photo.  You can click on it to see the full size.

I'd love to see more people understand the wonderful animals that goats are! The Youngun and I plan to break a wether to a cart and then we will join the 4th of July parade here in our town.  We are hoping for a nice wether to be born this year to get our project started.  Goats are amazing animals, very much like dogs!  They are smart and funny and sweet and loving and I can't say enough about them!  Thanks Rhonda for sharing the photograph with me and allowing me to share it with my readers!

Till next time...........GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Thickin and Thinnin Update......

K, so I mentioned over at my other blog that I was going to start posting everything here to simplify things. On my WI on Tuesday I was up 2.6 lbs, which wasn't near as bad as it could've been considering my week last week. I haven't gotten started back with working out this week after taking last week off due to our remodel. Now I have a bladder infection (silly Goodwife, drinking that nasty soda!!) and just don't feel good at all, so the workout will have to wait till I'm feeling better. I'm back on the straight and narrow with eating clean though so that feels good!

Till next time.........I'm unTHICKINandsoTHINNIN!

Poppin' Fresh

The sound you are hearing is the babies sucking. They think my hand is momma and they know they've got to pop up there and latch on before she leaves the nest again! Isn't it sweet!

Till next time..........

God Bless from Goodwife Farm!

Kitchen is done..........well part of it anyway!

Ok, so after 5 straight days of working from 8:30 am til around 8:30 pm The Man and I got the kitchen and my bathroom done.  I can't even tell you how happy I am with the way it looks!  Just gorgeous and now I can't wait to do the other half of the kitchen and The Man's bathroom.  I'm supposed to be getting stuff put back and organized today, but a girl needs a day off right??  I'm not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post, but we have decided to hold off on refinishing the floor in the kitchen and the hallway until spring.  That way we can leave our three big dogs outside 24/7 until it's good and cured (probably 3 days or so) and also we can open up all of the windows and turn the attic fan on so as not to get ourselves all whacked out on fumes! 

This is the view from standing in the main part of the kitchen looking toward my front door and slightly left

This is the view from standing at my front door and looking to the left

This is standing in the main kitchen more straight on so you can see the new cabinets and counter and you can see the new ceiling fan.  I can't tell you how in love I am with that gorgous 6 feet of counter space!!  Yipeeee!!!

This is the view from the front porch as you come in the door.  Please excuse the disastrous mess that is over there by the fridge.......oh yeah and see that shiny dishwasher?  Know what I use that for??  I use it as a dish DRAINER, so that I don't have to have one cluttering up counter space.  I don't use it to wash dishes as it doesn't get them clean enough for me, but it's fabulous as a dish drainer!  ;)

I also want to say thanks to everybody that's been leaving me comments!  I love getting them!

And this is another view of the fireplace and the new mantle.  I love it so much! I'm standing in my bathroom door, the Hoosier cabinet is to my left and the front door is on the wall to my right!

Ok.........till next time............and I've got lots of other stuff to update you on, from my seed starting adventure, to kidding season, to Steve's new apartment, to The Man's dodge.......

GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

So...........

Tomorrow is WI and I'm fully expecting a gain.  Possibly a big gain!  Having my kitchen torn up for a week wasn't exactly conducive to healthy eating.  We ate lots of processed food, and we ate out A LOT!  I've been eating sweets and junk and drinking soda which by the way has given me a raging bladder infection!  Oh the things we do to ourselves! 

I've tracked most every day, but not every day and I've been eating far over my daily points values for the past 4 days.  This is the first time I've done this since beginning WW in July.  I'm ok, not frustrated, or feeling like I've fallen off the wagon.  Life does happen after all and as long as I get right back on track, there is no real harm done.  The harm is in not getting straightened back out.  TOM is knocking at the back door as well and that doesn't help matters any, so be prepared for me to report a hefty gain in the morning! 

I start back in with my New Rules of Lifting tomorrow, after taking all of last week off (my week starts on Tuesday in case you didn't know, because that's my weigh day) so that will help get me back on track as well.

I hope you are all well, fit and faboo and if you've strayed off the straight and narrow path a little bit, take me hand and we'll get back right together!

Till next time........I'm unTHICKINandsoTHINNIN!

PS.........this will be the last post at this blog site, from now on I'm going to post my weight loss adventures over at http://www.goodwifefarm.com/ since that's my main blog. 

Whew.....Busy, busy, busy!

The man is on vacation this week, and if you are interested in what we've been doing, you can go here, http://www.goodwifefarm.com/

I was down 8/10 of a pound on Tuesday so I'm at 181 lbs right now.  That's 48 lbs down and close to 50 lbs gone (tee hee, I'm such a math wizard)

I haven't worked out this week because of what we've got going on (see above link) but I'm feeling good!

I'm very seriously considering combining this blog with my main blog.  Please let me know in the comments section if this would bother you readers.  I tag all my posts, so if I did this and you didn't want to read my day to day homesteading activities you could just click on the posts with the WW or weight loss label. 

I hope you are all well, fit and fabulous!

Till next time...........I'm unTHICKINandsoTHINNIN!

Kitchen Remodel.........Day Twaaa...... ok, it's actually the end of day 3 but who's counting!

So this is where we are so far........

This was last night........

The Man putting up the backing board for the cedar...

Me, last night, painting the second coat.....

Here's me last night sanding the floor one final time.......

K now it's this morning..........

Me nailing the cedar up.  The Man measured, cut, and glued, and then I nailed them in place.

The finished wall........ain't it purty!!!!

Here I am putting the clear coat on the bathroom floor........I am soooo in love with these floors!!! (please don't click on this picture to make it bigger or you will notice that I have on striped underware .......)

Here is The Man and I putting the face board on this beam.  I HATED this beam.......greek colums so aren't my thing.......but now that we are boxing it in with wood, I'm totally in love!

See this?  It's a hole in the hardwood floor that somebody at some point patched with concrete........(you can see that Miss Brandy isn't impressed with the goings on of late)

Now it looks like this................it's hidden under that gorgeous newell post thingy.......yes that was expensive, but we figure it lends a bit of class to the joint!

The Man is staining the boards for the beam.......

The finished beam.......ain't it soooo lovely!!!

And finally, The Man putting up the corner piece to finish the wall...

So that's where we are at so far.  Now it's off to the shower and beddy bye.  On tomorrow's agenda is putting the baseboards on the cedar wall, putting the cabinets in, and sanding and putting the second coat on the bathroom floor.  I'm sure there's other stuff we'll do as well, but I'm at a loss right now.......LOL!

We have decided to wait on staining and clear coating the main hardwood floor until it is warm enough to have all the windows open.  That will also give me time to see if there is hardwood in the two bedrooms on that end of the house! 

Till next time...........GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Kitchen Remodel Update..........part 1

The Man is on vacation this week so yesterday we decided to tear out the old wall where we plan to put up cedar planking. 

Upon getting the old wall out.........we discovered this.......

Which made the Goodwife squeal with delight!!  And which quickly turned into this....

and this.........

and this.........

Whoo hoo!!  Hardwood floors baby! 

Then The Man started on this......

He is sanding the texture off the walls, because it was so thick it looked like the top of a coconut pie, so that we can do this.....

So that's where we're at right now.  The Man is doing the trim work, cause I'm the roller gal (I know, backwards right? but I don't have the patience for detail work) and then we've got to pull the washer, dryer, toilet, and vanity out of my bathroom cuz we've discovered that the hardwood is in there too!  Then we will pull up the lino that's on the floor in there, then off to Lowe's to rent the floor sander and back to work we go. 

Will update more progress tomorrow if I can snatch a second of time!

Till next time..........GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

Nest Box News...........

Went down to do chores this morning and saw this.........

Then I uncovered it and saw this........

Can ya see those tiny little ears??

Yup, Moon did her thang and we now have 9 little bunnies in the nest box. They are all black again, or possibly blue like Moon, but I think probably black like Daddy Twitch. Everybody looks nice and big and healthy!

The Man and I have been very busy little monkeys today, so stay tuned for some exciting updates this week!

Till next time................GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

More About The Ongoing Tragedy of The Dodge...........

Ok........so where we last left The Man , he had discovered some disturbing news about the Coronet. The good news is, the motor is at the shop getting a new top end and should be done by the end of next week. This makes The Man one happy boy!

This also makes The Man one happy boy.....

That's a bran'smackin' new steering wheel, horn ring, and horn button for the Coronet. It is replacing the original cracked steering wheel that was missing the ring and horn button. The original steering wheel was red, but The Man ordered a black one from Paddock to match his black and red interior.

My mom did all the upholstery work on this car by the way, and The Man and I painted it. We're pretty darned proud of it! You can see a bit of the seats in this picture and you can see the ratty old steering wheel.

The Dodge is a 1966 Coronet. It has a 440 with a mild cam, aluminum heads, a Holley 750 double pumper carb and runs about 500 horses. She's a screamin' machine and we have lots of fun in her!

I'll leave you with a short video, showing what we do when we take her out cruisin'! We also have a video on YouTube, if you want to check that one out. I'll be making more videos once we get the motor and the new tranny back in her. Then all we will be lacking is a new rear end and possibly frame stiffeners! ;)

Till next time..............GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!

My Latest Project.........

I have decided that Steve needs a home of his own and also a place to keep the fabric and notions that I'm very quickly accumulating.  A chest of drawers would be perfect for this!  On Thursday, The Man called me and informed me that I needed to go buy him a new pillow because his was giving him a stiff neck, so I headed to town in trusty Ole' Black Betty (my 1985 3/4 ton Chevy pickup).  First stop was Goodwill and low and behold this beautiful apparition...........

As you can see, it's a lovely shade of green with white drawers and purple hardware.  While this is an attractive combination, it's not the Goodwife's style, so this weekend I plan to strip it down to bare wood and then stain it.  It was a great bargain, very heavy made of real wood.  This isn't a piece of throw away furniture, so I'm excited to see it once I get it refinished.  It has all those wonderful drawers and will be fabulous for keeping all of Steve's accoutrements!

Till next time..............GOD BLESS FROM GOODWIFE FARM!