Daddy's helper today

Daddy's helper today, while out fixing electric fences, and checking on different herd groups. He insisted on borrowing Daddy's hat. Told Daddy it was necessary because of the rain, and because of forgetting his hat. Great gate opener and closer, tool fetcher, and all around little cowboy and helper buddy.

Little Man

Little Man made this creation today, all on his own, no example to work from. He truly is an amazing and energetic little boy - everything he likes to assemble. A bit like his Daddy I think.
I've been really enjoying the warm Spring weather, even if it isn't exactly Spring yet, it feels like it. The magnolia tree is in bloom and even the bees are outside buzzing. I'm getting my house more organized. I was home alone with Little Man on Monday, while the rest of the family went to Jon's grandmother's funeral. She was 99. But, on Monday I made some progress on the house and I keep working on it this week. My desk is almost clean. LOL. And I'm crossing some things off my list, like registering goats and ordering a missing disk for my homeschooling curriculum.

Henna

I finally did it. I colored my (greying) hair with a little henna + a little indigo. Natural hair color. No chemicals. It is a little red for me, but my sweet husband likes it.

Boy Face

This is my middle girl trying to put on her boy face. She's a natural little actress (actor). :)

Roses

Four young ladies with a rose from their sweet Valentine daddy ♥♥

Snow - February 2014

I'm not usually a fan of winter, unless it snows! I love snow. And snow it did these last few days.

Big snowflakes from the first snowfall.

The cows are actually super insulated from the snow. They have their winter parkas on and are making it through. They also huddle together for extra warmth and eat extra portions during cold weather which allows their digestive process warms them up. Next) this is my oldest daughter on the other side of our property hiking up the hill to sled down.

We don't get much speed on the hills of our property, but sledding is still fun.

And little brother enjoys being carted around on a sled.

Brrr.

Rosy cheeks.

Our goats didn't think much of the snow, but our little goat Henrietta (born last Spring) is usually game to coming out of the barn to run around with you.

Give a goat a Christmas Tree

Give some goats a Christmas tree...and...

Christmas At Home

We celebrated Christmas on the 26th this year. My step-daughter wasn't with us until then, so we held off our celebration. We started the day off with boxed cereal (a treat for our kids) and a mocha for my husband Jon and I. Then, I made Gluten Free Huckleberry coffee cake and we fried up some cow heart.

I prepared simple stockings for each of the kiddos, so they started out their morning discovering (and digesting) the contents. Most of the presents were arranged beneath the tree before the day began, except for step-daughter's presents, which she wrapped after arriving.

My big girls (10 and 12), had rolled rag curlers in their hair the night before, so their hair was curly and wavy. My already wavy haired girl took the curls well. The straight haired girl's hair turned wavy. I redid the now wavy haired girl in braids. And, my little girl (Abigail) and the biggest (Mariah) also prepared their hair before presents.

   

Then, we read Christmas story from Luke, and exchanged gifts.

   

   

   

   

   

I don't have a beard

Josiah: I don't have a beard. I don't have a beard. I'm not 6, I'm 3.
Abigail (6): Maybe when he's 6 or 8, he'll have a little beard.

I love kids.

A New (Old) Video

I recently upgraded my (still picture) camera. This was a long thought out purchase. The new camera has a list of things my older camera didn't include.

Including:

• Improved low light photos
• Live view
• Better focus options
• Better lighting options
• C-MOS dust problem solved
• And, lastly video (really nice video)

So, this got me thinking about videos. With my old video camera, it wasn't as easy to process videos for the web. So, I procrastinated making the videos, but today I decided to work on my videos.

Here's some of my work from today, a video of my little guy when he was a baby. I love him now, but I miss that.

Calves

I took some pictures of a property my husband will be running cattle on soon. It turns out my husband told me I took those pictures of the property he was cleaning up (from the last post) too well. He tells me they totally don't show all the work he has to do to clear brush and blackberries. He said there were some blackberries on the property that had stalks that were causing the chain saw to pause.

We had a calf born today. I was already not focusing well this morning and then Natalie told me that one of the cows was being suspicious. I went outside and took a close look at her and sure enough she was in labor. The next time I looked there were feet. I took this video a little later. She delivered her bull calf quick. The last birth we had was a breech birth and my husband had to pull it. It sure throws our household into a raucous when a calf is born. We had to go to art class today, and didn't get any school work done before leaving. But the girls came home and got their work done after art class. It made for a full evening.

Ahhh Sun

Oh, it felt like spring was here these last few days. It's been a warm winter. It's been quite rainy like normal...just a part of living in the beautiful place we live. Yesterday, we gardened. I dug up raspberry plants that I'll replant after tilling the spot they've been in. They've been terribly choked with grass, and we have a new plan. Which is to give them a fresh start and cover them with mulch. My husband actually tilled the garden. So, if we don't get a deluge all Spring, we may be able to plant early this year. The girls had so much fun running around barefoot in the grass.

Notice her feet!

I also worked in my little greenhouse. I cleaned up the weeds and the old starts I never used that I won't be using. I prepared the ground for planting. I can actually plant Arugula any time. I can plant that in the ground. And, my husband made me a warming table for starts. So, I'll plants lettuces and other earlies in that soon. My greenhouse is a cold greenhouse, with greenhouse film, so I'm still under the constraints of the weather. Yet, it's looking like this year the weather will cooperate and it might be a little warm. Last year was terribly cold. The year before that was quite cold. So, yay! This will be my first year to use my greenhouse that wasn't colder than average.

Friday, after doing school, I finished pruning my fruit trees. And they got sprayed. So, here's hoping for some fruit. I had to prune them back quite a chunk this year, so it might be till next year for us to really get fruit. It's been a long time trying to figure out fruit trees. Two seasons ago, my husband actually made me some drip irrigation for them. Now, this year, I found this pruning video, so pruning wouldn't be too mysterious.

The other exciting thing that happened on Friday was a calf being born. We actually did not see it born. But, there it was in our field! We like it when births happen like that.

Thursday, after school, the family headed over to the property my husband is leasing to run cattle on. I took some pictures. My husband wants before and after pictures for the work he is doing, although, I must say, my before pictures were quite beautiful, what with the golden sunset light that was falling there. It might be hard to make after tending the ground look more picturesque.