It's so nice to see Jenn blogging again! Thanks for sharing your link. I need to get to Wichita soon and will definitely call you. I'm working an extra project right now and if I work a high number of hours I get a several hundred dollar bonus - I'm going for it! It will make for a double check mid-February and will sure come in handy. My goal is to have the hours worked by Thursday and reward myself with a full day off and lots of shopping/errands on Friday 2/2. If I make it, I'll give you a call and bring you lots of beautiful eggs! :) We're getting over a dozen a day and I'm giving them away as fast as I can. LOL

The nicest couple have decided to board their horse with us and possibly two more in the next month or so - this means what spare time we had yesterday was spent readying the pasture and running to grab an extra round bale of hay. Poor old '57 truck - the entire back end is full with this bale and it's quite a sight! Moo isn't happy regarding her eviction, but she does seem to like grazing and sharing the barn with the goats. She's gentle and curious with the babies and I think she enjoys the company.

Goodness, I'm already late for work. Had so much to post but this will I'll be scarce.

I don't know about anyone else but I'm done. Winter was cold, beautiful, and fulfilling but I'm so ready for spring! The snow isn't melting and thankfully we have gorgeous bright sun each day it's just.... well I'm ready to work outside doing something satisfying and pleasurable like getting a garden ready and painting the house. I just feel so cooped up.

Wow! We have about 7" of snow on the ground and it's just so pretty! Thankfully the propane guy took pity on us and came with his grader to shovel our 1/4 mile driveway and he even made some paths for us to the barns. Sometimes I love living in the country so much and I especially love the way our neighbors all look out for one another.

The animals are doing fine. The cow is getting more spoiled by the day because we've given up hauling her enough hay to eat and have just turned her loose in the barn so she can eat at will. She really likes that. LOL

Where do you find the time?

I get asked that a lot and after today, I'm just not sure what my answer would be. I used to pride myself on organization but I simply don't own my time any more - the farm does. This was my day:

• 6:00am up and having coffee while getting the fire going - 6:30
• All breakfasts ready and on the table by 7:00 - woke everyone up
• Kids' school was on 2-hr delay (canceled morning hours until I knew the scoop)
• Dishes were finished and dinner pulled out of the freezer by 7:45
• Loaded the indoor woodbin and restoked the fire - bundled up and headed outside at 8:00
• Pulled hay from the bale for the goats for an entire hour, they were eating as fast as I could pull it
• I spent nearly 30 minutes breaking ice, using a torch to thaw facets, and hauling water
• Ok, I petted the cow and sat on her to warm my butt while she was laying down - this was ONLY about a 5 minute break!
• Barely had time to haul water to the chickens and toss their scratch out
• Took the boys down the driveway when the bus came at 9:40 and I headed into town
• Grocery shopping, picked up Rx, boots and supplies from the farm supply - back home at 12:00
• Stoke the fire and make lunch until 12:30 and then I worked for until 2:00 when some friends arrived to drop off their car
• Went back out to haul more water, open the stall doors for sunshine, and collect 17 eggs - yay hens!
• Visited until 3:30 when I drove down to pickup the boys
• Stoke the fire and start dinner
• Vacuumed and picked up the living room
• Did a quick-clean of the bathroom
• 5:30 finish then eat dinner, dishes, get coffee ready for tomorrow, write in planner
• 7:00 help Ed haul another huge load of wood into the garage
• 8:00 on the computer for a few minutes and trying to stay awake

I'm tired and I'm going to bed. :)

Oh gosh, I haven't updated in so long, so much as gone by.

My computer sort of crashed and in the process of updating I gained IE 7.0 which cost me about a week or reseting for work and dealing with the issues resulting from it. Then I contracted the worst migraine of my life. Well, no, the worst was when I started Somersizing and went off sugar. The I wrote a bunch of blog updates and saved them so I could get them out when I had time to spell check and poof, they disappeared. And then storms, holidays, working extra hours, you know the drill.

We're in for a storm this weekend so the week has been spent readying for that. My biggest concern is actually the large barn. The doors are those huge sliding ones and they have a track to slide into but they lock on the sides only - not the bottom or middle. With winds in the 30-40 mph range I seriously thought they were going to blow off yesterday. The simple thing to do is open then a foot or two and release the pressure, which I did and was so proud of myself. I then turned around to find 12 goats, a dog, and a very large cow waiting for me to finish so they could get into the working section of the farm and devour all hay while knocking over grain buckets and stepping on eggs. Not good. I had to close them back up and put all the animals in their pens. Moo took issue with this as I was attempting to lead her with only a 1/3 bucket of grain. She snorted in an offended manner and nodded towards those doors, open only minutes before. I do believe she was letting me know that a 1/3 bucket was near enough to get her to give up the opportunity she knew was coming. So I tromped back into the barn and returned with an overflowing bucket. She cheerfully followed me to her pasture. Spoiled damn cow.

The other day I went out to work on the woodpile in the yellow barn and left the door open. How she got around the mess of household storage, boat, lawnmower and all the buckets of stuff scattered in there, silently at that, I'll never know but let me tell you, when you're stacking wood and turn around running smack into a black 600 lb. cow, it'll wake you right up. She refused to leave until I'd scratched her from her nose to her bottom for a full 10 minutes while she growled and swayed. I mean to tell you, this is ONE spoiled cow.

I'm pleased to say that we're getting 10-15 eggs per day! Beautiful green, blue, pink, and brown eggs that are so pretty. My stock is rising with the neighbors as I gift them. I left about 6 for a sitting hen yesterday thinking she was going broody because of her snapping at me, but she was off the box this morning and there was only one broken shell. Either the hens are eating them or something more ominous. MUST remember to lock the coop at night.

All four babies are growing and both mothers have weaned. I thought that was odd, I thought they nursed longer. It's strange to see the bossiest females (the two mothers) gently pushing their babies to the grain in the morning while bravely fighting all the other goats to stay away, even the bucks. Our two pygmy's are both pregnant and I can't wait for them to kid.

I think it's safe to say that Ed is 100% back to normal. :) Only his legs show signs of the rash and they heal more each day. His energy is back and he can work around the farm for an entire day now without collapsing. Yay! This is a huge help to me.

I've been working so much over the holidays that I've come to feel like if I'm in the office I should log in and earn some money. I'm working on separating my time from personal and work. While it's so wonderful to work from home, I'm still learning to balance it and keep it healthy - if that makes sense. The best news is, we all know what time of year is finally here! It's time to snuggle in with a blazing fire and the seed magazines to begin garden planning. After not being able to garden the past few years and having NOTHING ready here, I'm so excited to start my plans. Where's the best spot? What fence to use? And the best part? Yup, you guessed it - a new binder. Ahhhh, doesn't get better than that now does it?