I thought today, I'd share more than just the happenings around the farm. I want to share with you some of the important people in my life. Now, these are in no particular order, nor does it mean there haven't been (or aren't) others who are just important, these are just some of the near daily family and friends.
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| Jacob with the babies |
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| Jacob and Tom |
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| Jacob and Hope |
Meet Jacob, my husband and best friend. We actually went to school together, but hadn't seen one another since my junior year until 2 yrs ago. We met and the sparks just flew. There was something there - something wonderful. I'll save you the sappy story, but suffice it to say, I'm living a "Happily Ever After" Faerie Tale.
Jacob is an amazingly loving, compassionate and caring man. He pretty much had me after our first lunch, but as we got to really know and love one another, I dropped a bomb on him. Told him my kitty, Bullseye, and I were a package. He said "that's fine" and he meant it. BUT - what he didn't know was she was very not-social and didn't take to men often. Well, he made it his mission to have her love him. Guess what? It didn't take more than a couple of visits and she was "ok" with him. As time has gone by, she has fallen for him. She now eats from his hands, comes to him for loving and sits in his lap!
Jacob is also a very handy man. If I want it, he figures out a way to build it. I come up with some really wonky ideas sometimes. I tell them to him and guess what? He makes them work. He's willing to help me with the animals, with Heritage Preserved and just about any other project I come up with. And - he's come over to the goat side - as you can see by the pictures. I knew he would, knowing his soft heart.
We have lots of long talks. He is always willing to learn and change his ideas if I can put up good information for him to do so. He has taught me many things, both in regular life (ie: construction, plumbing (well, sort of), horse behavior, etc.) and about Faith and God/Jesus. We have had some really wonderful talks about the bible and Jesus' teachings.
Jacob is the love of my life and I simply cannot believe I have been blessed to this great degree.
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| RACHEL!! |
This is my daughter, the youngest of two. I call her my Sunshine. I have called her this since she was born. No matter what was going on, one look at her and my face would light up. She is an amazing girl.
Rachel is a very creative woman. She draws, paints, sculpts (mostly in miniature - and I mean visually painful miniature!) and "concocts". She is a great cook as well. She did learn to cook from me, but since she now has her own place, she has taken that basic knowledge and expounded on it. She's cooked for me several times and each time I'm a bit surprised that this is my "baby girl" doing the cooking!
The mother of a very large tongued (well, it feels that way when he tries to lick me!) dog, Gage, and a spoiled rotten cat (Momma to my Bullseye), Target. Those are her children. She treats them as such, too. They are her babies and anyone who sees her with them can see how much she loves them.
Since I live an hour away from Rachel, we don't see one another as often as we used to, but she comes to visit on weekends and stays over. She helps with the critters and will be helping with the gardens now that they're "in". She Farms vicariously through me. :-) I am going to go to her place in the next week or so to help her start a garden of her own.
To say I am proud of my daughter and absolutely adore her to beans and back is putting it very mildly. Of course, she'll probably kill me for this photo, but I like it, so....
BRANDON
This is my son, my oldest. Brandon was a great gift to me. He was born on Mother's Day. What a gift, huh? I had lost my Mom 10 weeks before he was born and let me tell you, what a blessing to me! What better Mother's day gift.
Brandon is a handsome, intelligent and loving young man. He loves his sister and me to a near fault. He is very protective of both of us.
The only picture I have of him that is current is of him with one of his hunting "trophies", if you will - but I don't think I want to post that, so you'll have to take my word for his being handsome. :-)
One day, he will do something great.
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| Gaven and Tom |
The young man in the above picture is Gaven. He is my pre-teen next door neighbor. When we met him (and his Mom, Diane) after moving in, I was immediately surprised by him. He is polite, respectful, intelligent and sweet as can be. He LOVES his Mom dearly.
We have become good friends since our meeting. He has chickens and enjoys them very much. We got to talking chickens one day and that's all it took. We became fast friends. One day, he came over to pick out some jellies. Instead of paying for them, I suggested he just close up my chickens at dusk on the nights we go bowling. He readily agreed. Several weeks later, he was still doing it. When I told him he didn't need to do it anymore, he promptly told me he would continue if I would let him as it gave him more chicken time. Once the goats arrived, he continued as well with them. He now not only gets chicken love, he gets Goat Cuddles as well.
Gaven is a creative, intelligent and sweet young man.
He gives me new information on chickens all the time. He reads up on them and more or less studies them. I have learned probably as much from him as he has from me. We collaborate very well.
Today, we planted some seeds in the garden - after he helped Jacob with a project in the workshop. I think he'll be a great helper to his Mom when she gets her garden in.
Speaking of Gaven's Mom. It is no wonder Gaven is like he is. Diane is a really great woman. She is everything Gaven is (but a wee bit older - grin). I am looking forward to canning from our gardens in a couple of months. She asked me if I would teach her to knit - she took to it like a duck to water. Same with quilting. Actually, Gaven had me teach HIM to quilt then he went home and taught his Mom to quilt! They went out and bought fabric and are nearly finished with enough blocks to make their first quilt. Did I mention they are hand stitching them?
There are others in my life who have made a big impact and I'd like to recognize them as well -
Alex and Keith - an INCREDIBLE help in my goat adventure! We met them at the Lake City Farmer's Market a year ago and I like to think we've become close friends. Alex and I talk about everything - gardening, chickens, goats, recipes, Monsteranto, self-sustainability, how we feel about the world today and more.
My new in-laws - SWEET family!! I am once again blessed in this region. When I came into the family, they immediately treated me as such.
There are so many other people in my life, I can't name them all nor tell you about all of them, but suffice it to say, they know who they are and they know how much they mean to me.
I hope you take the time to tell those you love that you Love them. You do not ever know how much time you will have with them, so make sure you verbally say what you feel.
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| Playing the "butting" game where she got my shoe |
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| Look Daddy - I GOT IT!! |
This last several days have been busy. More planting, more playing with baby goats and the chickens, more weeding, etc.
I started milking Orla last week. What an adventure. At first, she wanted none of it, so Hubby had to hold her head. Since then, she has gotten better. I can now milk her alone, though I do have to tie one of her legs down. She starts to stomp if I'm still milking when she finishes her food. We are getting there, though. I am new and she hasn't been milked in nearly a year, so we're learning together. I've gotten enough to sell at the market and make cheese. We are also enjoying the milk ourselves. FRESH MILK is awesome!!
More seeds and plants have gone into the ground as well. Tomatoes, peppers, radishes, beans and more. The seeds that I planted a few weeks ago are up and things are green!!
As you can see - we've been spending time with the goats. Winnie wants attention! She likes to "butt" my foot. Well, this time she turned just the right way and removed my shoe. She promptly ran over to Hubby and had to "show" him she had my shoe. Little Devil! Goats are a trip.
We put new roosts in the chicken pen too. Too many chickens and not enough sleeping space. 21 new Australorps joined the "big girls" last week. Soon, they'll be laying too!
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| New roosts from old wood and saplings we had to remove |
This weekend, we worked hard! I did a fair bit of sewing - made a skirt, made some feed bag totes and clothes pin bags, weeded the above mentioned garden and sent 11 chickens off to freezer camp. Whew! I was ready for Monday to get here. The Cornish X we raised are gone, as are the 3 annoyingly mean (to the hens) roosters and 2 hens - one was a Freedom Ranger (originally meant for the freezer but we did not get around to processing the hens and they started laying (so we kept them because they were producing) but this one went broody (and therefore stopped laying - ugh) and stopped laying so I did not want to keep feeding her for nothing!) and the other was a very old hen I'd gotten from a friend (didn't know how old she was at the time) who hasn't laid more than a half dozen eggs in the last 18 months. Our neighbors came over for a few hours to learn and help. We sent them home with 2 birds. Doing things like this with friends is a very good way to build community!! We are sharing the rest with family as well as freezing a few and canning the rest. I'm going to try a new canning process, so I'll let you know how it goes. 
