Our New Additions.......

One can never have too many goats right?  I love spotty goats and have wanted spotted Kinders ever since I got my first Kinder goat 3 years ago.  Yesterday the Youngun and I loaded up at 6:30 AM and headed up to Granny Bob's house.  From there we loaded into her Jeep and began our journey to Prairie Fruits Farm in Champaign IL.  About 2 and 1/2 hours later we arrived.  We were greeted by Aaron, herd manager of the farm.  Aaron is a wonderful young man who promptly showed us to the nursery which was filled with baby goats of all shapes and sizes.  Nubians and LaManchas were everywhere!  After picking out our two kids, Aaron graciously took us to the back pasture to meet the ladies, then on a brief tour of the milking facilities.  Such a nice set up they have there and it was wonderful to learn how they do things. 

Then it was on the road again with our precious cargo in tow.  2 1/2 hours back to Granny Bob's house where we let the kidlets out in her fenced yard to stretch their legs before getting in our truck to make the 1 hour journey home.  A long day, but well worth it in the end. 

Without further ado, allow me to present..

Prairie Fruits Farm Millicent

Prairie Fruits Farm Heather

Both are ADGA registerable, both have moon spots, and both are adorable! 

In other goat news around the homestead, Lightning got wethered last night.  He has already, at not quite 8 weeks, begun spraying himself, and licking "himself" so he had to be wethered!  Silly boy!  He was pretty funny with his tongue flapping, and buck talking. 

Goodwife Farm's Lightning - wether

Osiris and Carl are both soo very nice, in different ways that I'm really struggling about what to do with them.  I think I will keep Osiris though instead of Carl because Osiris has nice long legs.  I don't like short stubby goats and that's what Carl is.  He is a beautiful example of a Kinder goat, just much shorter than what I like.  The worst part about breeding goats is that you just can't keep them all! 

Goodwife Farm's Osiris.....keeping for a future herd sire and will use him on my Nubians

Till next time.........God Bless!

One of These Things........

Is not like the other.........one of these things just doesn't belong....

Remember that song from Seasame Street? Well that's what came to mind when I downloaded this picture from my camera..........

And just in case anybody from blogger is listening..........I don't like that you are making me use the old format! I want to upload photos to my blog directly from my computer........I don't want to have to upload them to an online server, THEN upload them here!

:)
Till next time.........God Bless!

Struggles...............

I've been struggling since early March.  I have good days and bad days.  I'm not entirely sure what is going on. 

I'm not a good multi-tasker.  I have to single-mindedly focus on something in order for it to work.  I think part of my trouble is trying to fit the healthly, fitness buff, body conscience persona in with the homesteading pioneer girl that is the real me.  I just don't equate canning, sewing, gardening, and soap making, with running, lifting weights, and losing weight.  This is a problem in my own perceptions that I have to overcome.  I can be anybody that I want to be.  I can fit all of those things together, I've just got to figure out how. 

When I joined WW back in July, I focused on it 100%.  Everything else suffered.  I didn't do any homemaking/homesteading stuff with the exception of milking from that point on.  My gardening and canning even suffered.  I just can't focus on more than one thing at a time.  Now I want to focus on my homesteading again, and in turn my weight loss is suffering.  Once again, I know this is my own problem.  I have to figure out how to stop the single track that is my mind and get some parallel tracks going!  I just have to change internally to allow this to happen.  I'm sitting here right now eating about my 400th chocolate sandwich cookie with a mug of milk.  Why am I doing this?  I have no idea.  I'm certainly not hungry.  I don't feel sad, or down or anything, but the cookies are there and I have this terrible compulsion to eat them.  I have to stop this madness!  I'm not sure if I'm afraid to lose more weight?  Perhaps that could be it, although I've been thinner than this before.  I'm back to feeling like I have to eat, when I know I don't.  I'm not eating my veggies and whole grains and fruits and I'm feeling it in my energy level.  I haven't exercised for 2 weeks and I'm feeling that as well.  I haven't blogged about it because I felt like what was the point.  I know what to do, I'm just not doing it.  I know myself well enough to know that until I get my head on straight, no amount of tough talk is going to get me right again.  There are no words that can come from someone else, it has to come from within me.  I've got to get the desire back.  I've got to want it and for whatever reason, I don't want it right now. 

I've been thinking about it a great deal.  God gives us all a cross to bear, something we struggle with.  I'm thankful this is my struggle.  It could be so much more.  It could be a sick child, or a failed marriage.  It could be an addiction to drugs or alcohol.  It could be that I were a sex offender, or a child predator, or an out of control gambler, or a murder.  It could be so much more.  What it is is this......I like food.  I like the way it tastes, the way it smells, and the way it looks.  I like to prepare it and I like to eat it.  I like these things a little too much and get obsessive about food at times.  God made me.  He knows this about me.  I've got to give it to Him, and allow Him to have it.  How ridiculous that food is at times more important to me than Him.  Wow, I don't even want to type that, but it is true at times and if I'm thinking it or feeling it, then God already knows so why bother trying to hide it from Him?  My God is bigger than my food addiction.  My God can whip this addiction, I've just got to stop defending it to Him.  Right now I'm like the abused woman who defends her abuser.  God wants to whup the tar outta this thing, but I'm protecting it with the stupidest rationalizations in the world.  It's time to stop.  It's time to let God step in and take control again.  It's time to let it go and let God put that demon back in the brig where it belongs.  It's time to be healthy again.  It's time....

Till next time..........I'm here fighting to be unTHICKINand struggling to get back toTHINNIN!

The Weekend Report...........

Saturday.....
I love watching The Man and The Youngun' together.  My folks came down on Saturday for a visit and I went with my mom to walk her dog.  When I came back I found them together in the garage, potting the cactus he bought for her. 

                                              

Doesn't look a bit like her Daddy does she??

Then about 5 pm we were out doing chores early and the tornado siren blew.  We went to the house and watched out the door.  It was a very fast moving storm.  The Youngun was scared but we said a prayer, and remembered that God is always with us!  All we wound up with was this....

Thankfully, no damage!

Sunday......

Now that I'm milking again we have plenty of milk for making ice cream!  When my girls are in milk, we make homemade ice cream 'bout every two weeks.  The Man isn't much of a dessert eater, but he does like a bowl of ice cream every night after supper.  Since we've been without milk since October, we've had to buy store ice cream and it just doesn't hold a candle to the real thing!  On Saturday I mixed the ice cream up and put it in the fridge.  Sunday afternoon we got out the White Mountain!  I have to confess to you that I'm a total ice cream snob.  You just can't make good homemade ice cream without a hand cranked freezer.  It may be easier to just plug 'er in and let 'er go, but it sure doesn't make near as good ice cream.  Besides, The Man and I enjoy sitting out on the back stoop taking turns cranking and eating salty ice.  Today however, it was very windy and rainy so we made it in the garage!

Pouring the mix into the freezer...

Ready to freeze.....

Goodwife cranking.........

The Man cranking......

Yummy, rich, creamy ice cream!

This time we made cookies and cream.  We usually make different varieties each time.  Sometimes it's cookies and cream, sometimes it's peanut butter cup, or strawberry, or chocolate malt, or chocolate chip cookie dough, and sometimes it's plain ole vanilla.  Whatever type we make it's always good!

Here's hoping you had a good weekend full of thankfulness and grace! 

Till next time..........God Bless

Rainy Day - Poison Oak Blues.....

Yesterday The Youngun had the rainy day, covered in poison oak, Mama I'm feelin' lonely blues.  I was doing dishes when she came to tell me she felt lonely and could I give her a hug.  I said of course I can!  Then I asked her to help me finish up the dishes and we'd do something fun together.  After giving her a few options of things we could do she decided she'd like to make a cloth doll like Charlotte from the book Little House in the Big Woods.  We made this doll by the seat of our pants and our creative little brains and had so much fun!  It filled up the hole in her heart and took up about 3 hours of the afternoon which was wonderful! 

Dolly cut out and laid out

The Youngun starting her love affair with Steve.....she had such fun sewing with him!

Mama's hands sewing Melanie's face on...

The Youngun stuffing her legs....

Mama sewing eyes on....

The Youngun sewing Melanie's head together after Mama sewed her face and eyes on....notice the grin?

Sewing the top of Melanie's head shut....notice the poison oak on her face?

Cutting yarn for hair.........

Finished Melanie...........then The Youngun decided instead of a dress that Melanie needed to be a mermaid....

So after LOTS of trial and error on the tail, we finally got her done! 

Till next time............God Bless!

My Faithful Blunnies............

Alright folks, it's that time again, time for the Goodwife to bare her soul and confesss some her most shameful secrets.........................

I have big feet........Peggy Hill big feet, French peasant big feet (and I'm proud to say that's where I come from, good sturdy French peasant farmers, and actually my maiden name means "farmer" in French!).  They aren't really so much long as wiiiiiide.  They are good feet that never hurt me as long as I treat 'em right so I like to take care of them.  Finding shoes can be a problem..............and I don't think I've ever owned a pair of women's shoes that fit right.  I do have three pair of dress up shoes that I've only worn once each because they kill my French peasant feet!  I have a pair of tennies that I use when I run and they are a 4 E, yes folks that's what I said E E E E.  I have wider feet than my dad!

Anywho, I love to wear boots and feel totally naked without them.  Even with a dress on, if it's long enough to cover them, I want my boots on.  Enter my Blunnies......

Workin' Blunnies

   Several years ago when we made the move to the town we currently live in, we moved from 22 acres in the middle of the boondocks, to a house on a half acre lot in a town about 48 miles south.  The Man was driving 1 hour and 10 minutes one way to work and we were spending a fortune in gas-o-haul, and we needed to get settled before The Youngun started kindergarten (pre-homeschooling days ya know).That lovely house was all we found that we liked, so we bought it.  I had chickens, rex rabbits, a few goats, some beefies, and of course my beloved horse Champ.  I sold everything except the horse.  No way could I part with him!  I found a boarding barn about 15 minutes from my house that would let me keep him there in exchange for work.  Well that whole ordeal is fodder for another post, but to tell the story without going the long way around the trailer park, I met a trainer there named Sarah who had on these lovely boots.  She told me they were made by an Australian company called Blundstone and her brother lived over there and brought these back for her.  She let me try them on (and bless her, not only do we share a name but we BOTH have huge feet!) and they fit and were sooo comfortable.  I came home and ordered me a pair on the spot.  They were expensive but so well worth the money.  I worked in those boots cleaning 42 stalls a day 5 days a week for almost a year, and then God provided us with this place.  We put our other house up for sale and bought this place and have been here since.  I've been wearin' these Blunnies for over 5 years, but sadly it's time to give them a right proper burial.  About three years after buying my first pair of Blunnies I ordered me another pair to be my goin' to town boots, and my original ones became my workin' boots.

Town Blunnies....

Now however, I'll have to make my "town" boots my work boots and order me another pair.  I will never wear another kind of boot again.  These are like an old friend and my feet shout thank you ever' evening when I take them off.  They are great for riding in, working in, gardening in, hauling scrap, anything you can think of, they are wonderful for!  And if The Man decides to take me out on the town... a shower, some clean jeans and a nice top, and my "town" Blunnies on my feet and I'm ready to go!

Blunnie next to some newborn Kinder kids.....is the boot that big?  Or are the kids that small?  I guess only another Kinder breeder will know for sure.....

Blunnies on my feet after chores this mornin'

And for the inquiring minds that just hafta know........my Blunnies are an Australian size 7 mens, which is a USA size 8 mens.  My running shoes are New Balance size 8 mens 4 E.  See I wouldn't leave ya hangin' ;)

Till next time.... God Bless!

Such a Love Affair.......

My love affair with Steve continues to grow.  I can't tell you how much I love sewing!  It's such a great feeling to take that blank canvas of cloth and create something lasting.  I love making clothes and then wearing them.  It's fabulous! 

Here is my finished apron

I had to finish the straps different because they weren't long enough, but it works anyway and I really like it a lot!  This picture doesn't do it justice.

This is what I did today.  I whipped up this simple housedress.

You can't tell in the pictures, but the fabric is a navy with a tiny green check in it.  Very pretty and I promise that in person it doesn't make me look pregnant!  LOL!  It's the first time I've done inset pockets and I'm thrilled with how they came out!

  I LOVE it!  It's so comfy and simple and pretty and I enjoy wearing it.  I don't wear dresses or skirts that often, but I do feel like such a girl when I wear them which is a nice way to feel once in awhile!

This is a blouse I made a couple weeks ago.  Soon to be Mrs. Neighbor came over and we were working on some sewing.  She is a fantastic clothing designer but she doesn't know the basics of pattern reading.  I'm glad to say that I'm teaching her what little I know.  We have a lovely visit and talk about marriage and Faith and things.  It's nice!

Anyway, just wanted to update you on what Steve and I have been up to! 

Till next time.... God Bless!

I Need Your Help.........

Alright my fellow bloggers!  I need some help.  A couple years ago The Man and I decided we wanted to learn to play guitar.  We didn't want to take lessons as we are a together kind of couple and there was no way we could take lessons together with his schedule unless we did it on a weekend and that just wouldn't fly.  We bought a couple guitars and started picking around on them.  Figured out how to play a few songs and then life just got busy and we never picked them up again.  Now we have two nice guitars gathering dust in the corner.  We would like to donate these guitars to an organization that teaches music to underprivleged (yeah, I got nothin' on how to correctly spell that word and since spell check is gone, you just gonna have to bear with me) kids.  I have emailed a couple different places and got nothing back.  Do any of you know of anything like this?  I can't pay to ship the guitars to the people, but I will willingly package them, and ship them and donate them to a worthy cause.  I've been praying a great deal about what God wants us to do with them and this is the only thing I can think of to do next.  If you even know of a family that has a child who wants to play and they can't afford to buy a guitar, anything, please let me know in the comments section.  Then we can get together on the details.  If you'd like to cross post this on your blogs that'd be great too, but I'd really like to give them to somebody who needs them, not just some shyster who's looking for a free guitar if ya know what I mean.  Although, if they did dupe me like that, it would be between them and God.....

Anywho, here's a picture of both guitars and stands.  One is an Ibanez, the other is a Mitchell.  The Mitchell has a soft case, they both have stands.  They are nice and in brand new condition. 

Let me know whatcha got bloggers!  ;) 

Till next time..........God Bless!

So Much Accomplished.......

God blessed us with another gorgeous weekend and The Man and I made the most of it.  The Youngun went to Aunt Robbie's for the weekend which is always a blast for her.  Aunt Robbie is my Dad's sister and my sister and I spent a lot of our growing up time with her.  She never had kids of her own so we were her "kids" and now our girls are "her kids" too! 

Anywho, on Saturday morning The Man and I got up and hauled yet another load of scrap.  We tore down what was left of the old barn and hauled all the tin and aluminum from that to the salvage yard.  On the way, one of our straps broke and we lost some of our load which was hit by a passing motorist!  Ugh!  God was with us and them though, because it didn't damage their vehicle and they didn't even stop.  We pulled over, readjusted our load, picked up what we dropped and headed on.  We made it to the yard and sold our scrap then headed to Rural King to buy some new straps!  On the way home we stopped at the nursery center and picked up a yard of mulch, then hit the elevator to pick up goat and chicken feed, then on to home.  After that we got in the little truck and headed over to Darlin' Deb's house to remove an old clothes dryer for her, then back home to eat a bite and get started on the mulch. 

Before....

After.....

Before....

After.....

After...

See that big blank area to the right of my door?  When we tore down the old barn we kept two of the big barn doors.  They are made of wide tongue and groove planking and are painted a weathered chipped red.  I'm going to make a wooden flag out of them.  One of the doors is smaller than the other and the smaller one is going to hang right there to the right of my door.  The other bigger one is going to hang on the new barn. 

I don't have any pictures of the process of tearing down what was left of the old barn, but there wasn't much to it.  We hooked onto it with Betty and just pulled it down.  It wasn't much of a barn, just a cobbled together old shack made from recycled tin and odd bits of lumber.  We salvaged what we could, scrapped the metal, and burned the rest. 

I'll stop for now and tell you about the rest of our weekend and projects soon!  

Till next time..........God Bless!