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?