Pray for Mei Ling

A friend of mine from Texas, Pat, just became a Grandma on April 27th. Her daughter, Melanie and son-in-law, Casimir are so thrilled with their new baby girl, Mei Ling. Mei Ling has had some problems since she was born. She has 3 small holes in heart that they say will heal up, but it is causing her to breathe so fast that they won't let her nurse or take a bottle because she might aspirate the milk. She is in the NICU of a hospital there in Texas. Pat has asked people if we will post her picture and ask for prayer for them. This is my favorite picture of Mei Ling and the first one I believe I saw. They were trying to give her a bottle to help with her low blood sugar. She does not look to happy about that. Isn't she precious? Please pray for Mei Ling.

Show And Tell Friday

Kelli has started a new thing on Fridays. If you would like to participate in the Show N Tell then hop on over to her blog and link your post.

My husband's Aunt Kay is a floral designer. She has a very special touch at everything she puts her hand to. I wanted a summer wreath for my door. I had made one myself previously, but it did not turn out quite like I wanted it to. I told her that I wanted a wreath with sunflowers and blackberries. This is what she made for me. I just got it out this year to put on my door. Thanks Auntie Kay!!!!!

Spring Walk

My day started early today. I called the Post Office at 7AM to see if our chicks were there. They were, so I ran down in Joshua's truck to get them before he had to leave. It is our second batch of meat birds for the year. I walked down to get my mail today and remembered to take the camera with me. We have friends who have 3 jersey steer calves and a miniature donkey. They went out to do their chores this morning and they were all gone. So, I was keeping my eyes open for the run aways. There was something neat to look at no matter which way you looked. I found patches of violets at the edge of the driveway almost the whole way down to the road (we have a long driveway). This first bunch had some spring beauties with them. The next picture was a patch of deep dark purple ones.




There were a couple of dogwood trees blooming along the driveway. I tried to take a picture of the tree, but the sun made the picture too light to really see anything. This picture of one of the blooms turned out. I love to drive around at this time of year. You will see many dogwood trees throughout the woods, especially at the edge of the woods. Some people have pink dogwoods. I love those. There is also a coral colored one. All of mine are of the white variety.


We have these flowers that grow really long stems and then have tiny yellow daisy looking flowers at the top. Here is a picture looking down my road. You will see the yellow all along the front of my property. It is these flowers. They are called coltsfoot. The leaves of the coltsfoot are supposed to be good in a tea for allergies. I love how God has things bloom when they are needed. Several people I know are already starting their spring allergies.


I'm not exactly sure what this next thing is. It was down near the little stream that runs under my driveway. I thought it was a piece of wood, but it did not look exactly like that. I would have gotten quite muddy to go and check it out, so I just took a picture of it. Anyone recognize it as something?


Here is a picture of the spring beauties when they are opened up. They are like a carpet in the woods.


This next picture just shows you how the leaves are all coming out in the woods. You can still see vehicles as they go down the road, but it is harder to tell where the road is when no cars are on it.


Here are some pictures I promised of the May Apples. They spring up in little villages in the jungle... oops, I mean the woods. The children around here call them umbrellas. The middle picture is a close up of one from the top.




By the way, our friend just found their animals a little bit ago and they are home safe and sound.

Just Another Day...

Today is just another day on the farm. We still do not have a new calf yet. I guess she just wanted to test our readiness last week. I think she is actually due this Saturday, so I will give her a week after that before I start to worry. =)

The weather yesterday was gorgeous. It got into the upper 80's. Last night about 11PM, we got several back to back thunderstorms. Our dogs don't like thunder and lightning, so they ended up on our bedroom floor. It helps to be close to someone in a storm. =) I am sure they would have liked to be in the bed, but that is NOT allowed in our bedroom. Today, it is partially cloudy or should I say partially sunny... It is currently 59 degrees and the coolness feels wonderful.

I will be watching the neighbor children today. Their parents are going to celebrate their anniversary. I can already here them begging for movies. =)

I have tried to make biscuits that turn out for years. My problem is that I use freshly ground flour. To get a cut out biscuit that looks like a biscuit and is light you need white or as I call it dead flour. I bought some organic white spelt flour (yes it was dead too) and finally had biscuits that looked like biscuits. Has anyone out there ever gotten a light fluffy biscuit out of freshly ground wheat?


Belle, the mighty hunter has started off her groundhog season. I went to cut the grass yesterday and had to go around this lawn ornament. I left it for the menfolk to take care of. I am sure this will be the first of many.


I also left a patch of violets in the side yard. This is just a small portion of the patch. My sweet man finished cutting the grass last night. I did not go out and see if he mowed down the violets or not. I hope he left them. They are not here long and I sure enjoy them.

Thank You Lord For Your Creation!!

Almost every day I see some new sign of apring. I keep looking around. It is amazing how fast everything grows in the spring. The May Apples are up in the woods. They won't get the fruit until later, but there are little towns of these umbrellas throughout the woods. They seem to grow in patches. Here are a couple of pictures of our first violets of the year. My guys get annoyed with them, as there is a huge patch in the yard and I ask them not to mow it until the violets are almost done. =)



I believe these little white things are called Spring Beauties. They are closed up for the night in this picture. I will try and remember to get a picture of them open.


This next picture was MUCH more colorful in real life. The sun was a brilliant orange going down between the trees.


We have been planting. This is one of the 2 plum trees we are adding this year. We were also given 2 peonies and we bought 2 more grapes. Everything is in the ground and watered.

Cold Front Coming Through

We had some rainstorms come through with a bit of a cold front. Yesterday the high was only around 59 and so far that is all it is today. The sun peeks out every once in awhile to let us know it has forgotten us. Everything is turning so green. I got these shots a couple of evenings ago. I love the contrasts of the light and the shadows.



We moved the sheep into the goats pasture and put the goats in the sheep's pasture. They are really eating it down. I am going to advertise my goats in the paper this week. I will cry when they go, but I believe it is the right thing for us.

Show And Tell Friday

Today is Kelli's Show & Tell Friday. These are 2 notebooks that I painted for people. I do put some things inside the notebook, but it varies with the individual. This first one was done for one of my younger friends. Her name means lamb, she does all the sewing for her family and she is known for her pie baking. =)


This second one is for a good friend of mine who really does bloom where she is planted. Regardless of what goes on around her, she does what she is supposed to do and she does it with a sweet attitude.

Our First Asparagus!!

Michael picked our first aspargus of the season. We had it for dinner tonight. It was so good!! I usually end up with enough to sell some.

We thought for sure we would have pictures by now to show you our new calf. Molasses showed signs early this morning that birthing time is VERY near. We are going to take the calf and bottle raise it, so we want Michael here when the calf is born because my back has been bothering me. He took the afternoon off and came home. Well, it is now around 7:30PM and no calf yet. I did enjoy the afternoon with my husband though. =)

Hurry There Is Still Time To Win!!

You can go to 5 Minutes For Mom's and sign up to win this cool Digital Frame. The contest ends at noon today though, so hurry!!!!

Life Around Here!!

My son, Joshua just got home yesterday from 2 weeks in Montana (farthest NW corner... 8 miles from Canada) helping a friend. He is going to LOVE that posted that first picture of him. =) His birthday was Saturday. He turned 23 years old. We are celebrating his birthday this evening. He is having a friend over here for steak dinner and then others are coming for dessert. He LOVES cherry pie and is not really a big cake person. We have a dear older woman we were friends with in Florida who used to make this cherry tart that was SO good, (and I am not a big cherry person). So, I decided to try and tackle that for him. Now, I am NOT a pie baker. Mrs. Weigle (the older woman) always made the prettiest food. Her cherry tart was always covered by a PERFECT looking lattice crust. Well, here is my rendition. Messy??... YES!!! Hard to weave breaking pie dough??...YES!!!! Hope it tastes Good??..YES!! =)


Yesterday our home fellowship met at our house. One of the ladies brought me the daffodils you see below. She said that hers did not get bit by the frost. I thought it was really sweet of her to share with me. One of the children brought me this fistful of dandelions. From now until it frosts next fall, I will receive many beautiful bouquets of wild flowers or flowers from the yards of the families we meet with. The children all know I love the flowers and they are so good to me!


Here are the few tulips that survived the freeze. They are sending forth their praise to the Lord. Doing what He intended for them to do and doing it to their very best in spite of hardships. Hmmm.... can we take anything to heart from that statement!!! =)



Here is a picture of the batch of kittens born last week. I believe there are 5 of them. My husband took this picture. One, maybe two of them are already spoken for.


The weather is beautiful here. It is in the high 70's the sun is shining brightly, there are beautiful clouds in the sky and the wind is blowing. Thank you Lord for sending the warm sunshine after the cold and gray winter.

I Love Jersey Cows!!

Our cows are grass fed and we use rotational grazing. What that means is that we do not feed our cows any grain. They only eat grass and in the winter they eat hay. The rotational part just means that we put them on a section of pasture that they will eat up in just a few days and then we move their fence to the next section. When we get to the end of the rotation, we start back with paddock number 1. This first picture can show you right where the fence was. If you click on it and make it bigger, you will see how the cows truly eat all available forage up the fence line.


You might have to click this second picture as well to see it good. It just shows that spring is here. It is part of our pasture and it is full of Dandelions and a plant that is in the Self Heal herbal family.


I went out to the fence to check on the cows and make sure they were all OK. One of them must have been playing with a section of tiling. I thought it was stuck on the calf's halter. Once they saw me at the fence with a hand full of peanuts, they came to see me and the tiling dropped to the ground. =) The first picture shows Molasses on the left. She is the larger dark jersey. She is due to calve around May 5th. You can see our cow, Buttercup just getting up in the background. The other two are our calves. The light colored one is Sir Loin of Beef and the darker one is Texas T-Bone. We named him Texas because he was SO much bigger than the other calves. Then there is a close up of Molasses on the next picture. The next picture is of Tex and of our neighbor's calf. I can't remember his name... I will have to ask them. The last cow picture is our dear old cow Buttercup. We have had her a LONG time and she has been the best cow. We are hoping she is pregnant. We have no idea when she is due if she is pregnant. I am praying for a honey colored heifer calf to be Buttercup's replacement. Molasses will probably always give dark calves and I like the lighter colored jerseys. We are not sure what we will do with Buttercup once she is too old to milk. I know several have suggested beef, but I think we will just let her be out to pasture until she dies.





This next picture is really cute if you click on it and make it big. It shows how big the week old chicks are.


This last picture is of the night sky. It was not near as dark as this picture shows, but the sliver of the moon was shining and the star was just below it. I can't believe you can actually see the star and the moon. It is the first time I got one of these pictures to turn out good.

Birth On The Farm

I want to give you fair warning. The pictures are very graphic of a goat giving birth. So, if you are squeamish, I suggest you read my blog another day. Tina asked about birthing pictures and Peggy has a goat that will give birth soon and she would like to see them, so I am posting them on here. This birth did not take place this year. We no longer have this Momma goat. This was our first goat that had our herd name. Her name is Shiloh. Here is a picture of her big and pregnant. Her coloring was very unusual. The front half of her was chamoisee and then just past her withers, she was all white. Everyone in the goat world always commented on her coloring.


On a normal presentation of a birth in goats, you will see the front hooves first and maybe the nose resting on top of them. When Shiloh herself was born, her tongue was sticking out and you could see it. Her mother birthed just the head and walked around while Shiloh was blinking and looking around. We had to get the legs and assist her on the next push. Shiloh was huge as far as baby goats go. If you look closely at this picture you can see the little whitish/yellowish hooves showing. You can click on any of these pictures to make them a bit bigger.


This next picture you can see both front hooves very distinctly and the big dark bulge is the nose and head coming. During the labor, the goat will get up and walk around. They like to paw at the ground like they are fixing a nest and then they will lay back down or walk around a bit.


This next picture you can see both the front legs and the head are out. That is usually the hardest part for the Momma goat.


Now, most of the body is out and just part of the back legs are still in her. At this point, she often stands up and then the rest of the kid is birthed and it snaps the cord.


Here the baby is out and Shiloh is cleaning him off. I usually assist the Momma in cleaning off the babies using a towel. I also gather up the sac pieces, etc. so that the Doe won't eat them. I am sure God gave them that instinct for when they are in the wild. I have had people tell me that it is bad for them and others say it is really good for them to eat it. It just grosses me out, so I don't give them the option. =) I would say within 10 mins. of being born, the babies are trying out their wobbly little legs. How someone could watch an animal birth and not believe in a Master Creator is beyond me. Here this brand new little life gets on its wobbly legs and immediately starts looking for a teat to nurse.


Here is her second baby coming. He is still encased in the birthing sac. You will notice she is standing up for this one.


Here is Momma Shiloh with her twin bucklings. They are just the color I breed for. Too bad they were both boys.


I will show you these last two pictures. They are from another one of Shiloh's birthings. This shows you how they often lay when they are pushing. The lay on their side and sort of roll. They also turn and look back to see what is going on.