Dixie Darlin'

We bought a small crate at a garage sale to bring the puppy home in. She barely fits in there, but still chooses to go in that crate over the big one. Here she is not scooted all the way back, but she fell asleep and Michael took her picture.


Here Star is taking a nap. The puppy decided to lay beside her. We are glad as we want the puppy to hang out with Star and not Belle.


We went to the big barn to check on Buttercup. There are signs that birth should be coming soon. Star is on the look out for low flying pigeons.


The puppy was too afraid to come into the barn. She layed down outside the door. I love the big version of this picture. If you click on it, you will see it.

Count Your Blessings Monday

I am starting something new if I can make it work. If not, I will be asking Kelli lots of questions. =) Too often we don't take time to count our blessings. So, I am going to give us an opportunity every Monday to not only count our blessings, but to share them with others. Make a post on your blog telling us about your blessing. You can snag the picture above and use it on your blog. Please put a link back to this post. You can add the URL of the page you share your blessing on for others to go to. Many of our blessings we will have pictures of and we can share those as well.



Above is the picture of one of my dearest blessings. This is my husband and I MANY, MANY years ago. God has truly blessed me with a wonderful husband. He is very gentle, patient, loyal and loving. We have been married for 28 years.

New Puppy & Mountain Pictures

We left Friday morning to head to to Virginia to pick up our new puppy. Her official name is Dixie Darlin'. We were able to meander on our way there, but had to hit it hard to come home on Saturday as we had somewhere to be late Saturday afternoon. We went west out of Ohio and crossed into West Virginia and then into Pennsylvania and then back into West Virginia, then Maryland and then into Virginia. We decided to head down Skyline Drive starting at Front Royal. We apent the night at a friend's house in Madison and then picked up the puppy in Charlottesville. We started for home and went the southern route this time. We went straight to my nephew's graduation party. Then we headed for home. We had to do some straightening up because we had church here today. =) I am ready for a slower day tomorrow.

Here is a picture of the puppy on one of our stops on the way home. Then a picture of my niece holding her at the graduation party.



Here are 2 more pictures of the bears. These were taken before the video on the post right before this one. If you click on them, they will get bigger and you can see the bears better. I am still so thrilled that I saw bears.



Here is a picture of a cloud coming in over the mountain. I would still love to live among these mountains. It is my dream, but if never comes to reality, that is OK.


I love this picture. I could spend hours on this bench. It looks like the end of the world in this picture, but that is because there were low clouds. It was very inviting.


This is a picture taken from up on Skyline drive looking down on the Shenandoah Valley. We saw all the farms dotting the landscape down there. We would have taken any one of them.


This next picture is of the sun trying to break through. It is ever changing in the mountains.


Neither of these last two pictures is very clear. The deer were everywhere and not afraid at all. We pulled up within 15 feet or so of them and would roll down the window and talk to them. They would just keep on eating. It was a good time of the day to go.



Check back tomorrow, I hope to start something new. I pray that your week will be one of blessing!!!

Just Had to Share This!!

We have gone to the mountains for many years now. We have been in the mountains of North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, etc. I ALWAYS look for bears. I PRAY to see bears. I had never seen a live bear in the wild as an adult. Every time we would go to the Smokey Mountain National Park, I just KNEW that I would see a bear. No bears.... My Sister-In-Law, Debbie, went to Smokey Mountain National Park two years ago for the first time. What did she see? BEARS!! She saw a Momma bear and I believe three cubs. I was SO jealous. Well, this weekend we went to get our puppy in Virginia. We had to really hit it hard coming home because we had somewhere to be late this afternoon, but we meandered there on the way. It was just Michael and I and we both LOVE the mountains. We love to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, but had never been on Skyline Drive. So, we decided to hit at least part of it. We were on there from about 5PM until after 8PM. All of the deer were coming out to feed. They were so tame and would just stand there a few feet away and let you take pictures and talk to them. Then what did my wondering eyes see???? But a Momma bear and her two cubs crossing the road in front of us. We took the video below of them. You hear me talking to Debbie, even though she was not with us. I will share puppy pictures and other pictures from the trip late tomorrow. I just had to share my video. =)

New Puppy

This is the weekend that we get our pup. We are still deciding on a name, but it will probably be Dixie Darlin'. I really want to name her Biscuit, but neither one of my men like that. =( I am not sure how old she is in the following pictures, but it is probably 3 weeks or less. She is now 7.5 weeks old. We are looking forward to getting her.

This-N-That

Well, I was awakened with a start and a great RUSH of adrenaline. I moved my head and thought that my hair was tickling my arm. I looked and there was a dark brown centipede crawling on my arm in my bed. I swatted it and it hit the sheets and started coming back at me. Needless to say, it is no more, but YUCK.... Not in my bed!!!!!!

This is a GREAT picture of a GREAT dog!!! Star has been the best dog we have ever had or seen. The tennis ball in front of her is her favorite toy. She will chase balls for hours. Joshua bats them to her and she catches them and returns them to him. As she gets tired, she brings them close, but not all the way. =)


These pigeons live in our big barn and poop on our hay. They keep multiplying. If they fly low enough, and Star is up on a hay bale, she jumps and gets them. She loves to try and chase them out of the barn.


I was playing with my new telephoto lens on my camera. I was shocked that the airplane is as visible as it is on this picture. Click on the picture to make it bigger.


I had good help again today. One of them weeded my flower beds (which were HORRIBLE) and the other one cleaned out the room in the big barn that will be the milk parlor. They did some other jobs as well. I want to pay them well and keep them coming!!! =) Here is another shot of my shelf on the barn wall.


Still no calf, although we keep watching her. We did put the head gate up for when we milk Molasses. A head gate is something that you put the cows head through and then lock around her neck. It keeps her in one place while you milk her. We just rigged it up in a temporary way. She has been a bit ornery lately.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Today our fellowship met outside in the beautiful sunshine. Most of us got sunburned. =) Michael and I had to leave early to go to a shower for my niece. They all had the meal together and then went to the ball park. We got there as soon as we could. I love this first picture. It looks like she is standing in front of a painting. I took this with my telephoto lens. I am up by home plate and she is on the base line between 1st and 2nd bases.


All the action was not on the field. We were watching climbing exercises in the dug out areas. This was taken, just before her Mom told her to get down.


Here is one of the batters in action. She could really whack that ball. It was so cute, she had on little bobby socks and saddle shoes with her pink dress. How long has it been since you saw a pair of saddle shoes?


Here is Joshua intent and ready for whatever action may come his way. =) I think one of the little people were up to bat.


Speaking of the little people up to bat.... This is one of the outfielders. I believe they were all in this position.


Someone had brought along their dog. The littlest ones were thrilled to play with him. Makes you think of that saying.... "A Boy And His Dog".


This is one of the little ones having a tug of war with the dog. The dog, Buster, had grabbed someones cup and she was trying to wrestle it away from him.


On to farm stuff. They cut our hay and they baled it today. We did not get as much as we would like, but we got hay and we are thankful for it. I don't think we will have any to share with others this winter. =( Now, does this cow look pregnant? Or should I say, guess which cow is pregnant? Poor Buttercup. She is bagging up, so we think that she will have one soon!!!

Show And Tell Friday

Kelli hosts a show and tell Friday. Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there's a story behind your special something, that's even better!

When we moved onto this farm, the attached one car garage was a bulk food store. They took all of their stuff when they left, but we too opened a bulk food store. Government regulations for the licensing said we had to have 4 sinks. The only things we had to wash was a huge knife I cut cheese with and scoops that I scooped out dry foods with. Anyway, there was lots of plumbing in the back corner of the store. We ended up closing the store for many reasons. The room was not really being used. We decided that we would make the back half of it a master bedroom. Since there was plumbing in the back corner and since we had a claw foot tub I really wanted to use, I asked my husband if we could put the tub in the corner of the room. It would not be a bathroom, just the tub. He agreed and then he and my son started talking about a jacuzzi tub. I kept reminding them that we already had the claw foot tub that someone had given to us. Well, we started looking at tubs. Here is what we ended up with. Now, I would have been happy with my claw foot tub, but I am also VERY happy with what I got. Anyone who knows me knows that I love blue and white gingham, checks, stripes, etc. Guess who picked out the tile? My son made our room and put the tub in. He had a friend who helped with the tile, but he did a lot himself as well.

Hummingbirds

I am playing around with my new camera that I can take small video clips on. Here is a hummingbird in front of my house.

Good Helpers

I had some really good help the other day. Two of the neighbor children came over to help me try and do something to our chicken coop. That didn't work out, but they helped me do a couple of other things I wanted to do. We put flowers in my pots up on the barn shelf. Once they get a few days of sunshine, they will be perking right up.


They also helped me to make this trellis for my pole beans. We used left over sunflower stalks from last year.


We have been having something attacking our laying hens at night. Last night we got 2 coons, so I hope the attacks are over now. I took a short video of a hummingbird at the feeder. I will try and post it later.

Sheep

Here is a video clip of my sheep. Their pasture has gotten way too long. We need to mow it down and move them.

Cows and Such...

Last night, it looked like we were going to get rain, but it went on by. The rain has been very spotty around here. My friend Ginny lives about 7 miles from me and they got a soaker. Her garden was too wet to work in. My garden is dry and needs the sprinkler turned on. Here is what the sky looked like.


Here is the southside of a northbound cow. =) This is Buttercup. Does she look pregnant to you?


Here is a picture of Stu and Phil. Stu is on the left. He has adopted Molasses as mother and is totally nursing off her with no bottles. Phil is bottle fed. You can tell the difference by looking at their ribs.


This last one is Molasses and Patty. Patty is well rounded having being raised on his mom from the beginning. He is also half beef.



I will have to take pictures of my pole bean trellis the neighbor children helped me to put up. We used the rest of the left over sunflower stalks. I planted Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans at the base of each support.

Blessings Abound

I told you in my last post of the blessings of lambs that God brought to me. I also mentioned that in my lamenting prayer, I had brought up the fact that this was the last chance for Buttercup to give me a little honey colored heifer calf and she was not showing signs of bagging up or being pregnant. Michael came in on Friday night and told me that Buttercup is starting to bag up. So, she is pregnant and now I get to wait and see what she gives us!!

Another set of blessings happened this past week as well. I used to have a sizeable strawberry patch here on the farm. Through someone's oversight, it was destroyed. I have never replanted it, although I wanted to. Last year I tried growing some strawberries in one of those strawberry planters (some people call them hen and chick planters). They did not do much and did not come back up this year. Last weekend a friend gave me a handful of strawberry plants. I have planted them in the planter. I am watering and hoping they will take off. Then later in the week, another friend gave me 2 quarts of strawberries. Then this morning, the neighbors brought over a jar of strawberry jam made from their strawberries. What blessings these are to me!!!

Today our fellowship met in a home about an hour away from us. They live on a beautifully landscaped piece of property. It also has several large garden beds and lots of fruit trees. We went out to see if they had ripe strawberries. They had been getting just a few every day. They have 3 large strawberry beds. Well, they hit the mother lode. There were LOTS of strawberries. They picked a huge bowl full from the one bed. Here they are discovering the red ripe beauties beneath the leaves.



While the girls picked strawberries, some of the guys went fishing. Here is one of the Dad's helping his little guy. They were catching fish too!!




The property next door has elk on it. There was a baby, but I could never find it to get its picture. Here is one of the bucks.


I was trying to get a picture of this little guy through the screen. It did not work too well, so I went out and waited for him to come back. I love hummingbirds!!

Show And Tell Friday

Kelli hosts a show and tell Friday. Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there's a story behind your special something, that's even better!

For my show and tell, I want to share the blessings that God gave me on Thursday. That morning in my prayer time, I was sort of lamenting to God about how much is undone around here and things that have not happened yet. I reminded him this was my last time to try for a honey colored heifer calf out of Buttercup and we don't even know if she is pregnant. I also prayed for lambs. I have orders for lambs for next spring and my ewes have not had any lambs. We think the ram was too small to do the job.

Fast forward.... I called a friend here in Ohio to ask her something about a free download she had told me about. While I was on the phone, she said that she wanted to tell me something. She and her daughter had already talked about this and were in agreement. They had an abundance of ram lambs this year and don't have good pasture for them. They are going to give me some wethers and a ram. We had not even talked about sheep and she had no idea of what I had prayed this morning. I cried when I got off the phone with her. I emailed her and told her about my prayer.

Fast forward again... Michael went out tonight to close the chickens in. Grace, my smallest ewe was in the stall and not outside with the others. He peeked in at her and the picture below is what he saw...... A wee little ram lamb. God is SO good to us. I wanted to share my blessings!!!!





We have never gotten our milk parlor done or our stanchion set up for milking the cow. I thought I would share our makeshift area we milk in. It is a true Jeeter (we mean hillbilly by that) set-up. On the first picture you can see that there is a piece of stock panel pushed behind the barn post and then bent around. We hooked her halter to that. Then below her is a green plastic lawn chair on top of a non-working push mower. This is her hay rack. =) She seems to do very well with it all. The last picture is of the tail holder we got. She likes to swat you with her tail, if she is not happy with you.