Our First Hay!

It has been a year of firsts around here.  The past week or so, it’s been making our own hay.  What a great sight to see that hay heading up into the barn!!

 

 

Hubby has been working hard to get all the equipment in working order.  He and The Boy even built the hay wagon themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simple things, like a barn filling up with hay, what joy!

Any help?

OK - I'm frustrated!!  I cannot for the life of me, figure out why I can no longer comment on other blogs, or even my own!  What is up with that?  Any help?

Until this is fixed, or someone can tell me how to fix it, please know that I am reading each one of your comments on my blog (and I greatly appreciate them!).  I am also still visiting and reading your blogs with my morning cup of coffee, just wish I could comment on them!

Technology....

First Farm Babies!

The first animal babies, born on our farm, arrived this month when our goat, Allium had her kids on June 2nd.

Unfortunately, we were gone the morning of the grand event, but Alli appeared to have done a fine job! We arrived home in time to help dry them off and put some warming coats on them. (We've had lots of cool, rainy days here.) 

She blessed us with a black and white colored doe and a tri-colored buck, who bears a striking resemblance of his mom through the face.

This is Blossom!

This is Bruce!

Alli is an excellent mother and her two kids are doing well.  I kept them all together for the first couple of weeks or so.  Now, I seperate them at night, so I can milk Alli in the morning and then the kids have her for the day.  It works beautifully!

Now, we're even more excited for next year, when we should have three pregnant goats!  How fun!

Life Changing!

I'm back!! :)

For those who don't know us personally, I have a really good excuse reason for not blogging the past couple of months.  We have a baby!  No, not a farm baby, well, we do have a couple of those too (that's for another post), but I'm talking about a real, live, human baby!!

Remember, this post where I mentioned that Hubby & I had stepped out in faith in a certain area in our lives?  Well, that area is opening our hearts towards adoption.  It has been simply overwhelming at how clear God has made this path we are to be on and we are trying to be faithful in following His leading.

Hubby and I went through adoption/foster care classes last fall, and have been waiting since the first part of November for a call.  That call finally came, the second week of May, on my birthday.  A six month old, little girl had recently come into state care and we were asked if we would take her. 

Me holding Little Miss on the day she arrived. She had never cuddled before, she learned quickly! :)

We don't know how long we will have our Little Miss, but we have promised to love her with all our hearts for as long as she's with us... be it a few months, or a lifetime.  She has been such a blessing to our family, as well as many others, in the short time she's been with us!  There have been, and continue to be some challenges, both with Little Miss herself and the circumstances surrounding her.  However, we are confident that God will work it all out for His honor and glory.  Will you join us in praying for just that?

Workin' Man

These are the days The Boy loves being a homeschooler even more than usual.

The lawn mowing/yard work business is back in full swing.  Over the past four years, he has successfully built a small base of satisfied, repeat customers and he's always looking for more! :)

Growing Bumps

Little Miss Alli is about a month from her due date.  Her baby bumps are becoming more noticeable.

"What are you looking at?"

This morning, as I was petting her, I felt a little kick!  We've been referring to Alli's babies as "The Bumps" so much that now I'm trying to come up with some "bump" names.  How about Speed Bump?

"You will NOT name my baby Speed!"

Allium's kids will be the first farm babies to be born here.  We keep trying to guess how many it will be... 1,2,3 or ??? Will they be little does or bucks and what color will they be??  From time to time, the nerves kick in about keeping her and her babies safe and healthy throughout the delivery, but I know we'll be prepared as best as we know how and God will take care of the rest. 

"I got this."

We love our two goats and are excited for more!

"I will not be assisting."

Linking up to Farm Friend and Farmgirl Friday at Verde Farm and Dandelion House.  Check it out!!

All to Good Use

It's been about a month since we brought home our goats, Zebra and Allium.  It is such a blessing to have fresh milk every day!  I will be honest, we have been mixing it with store bought milk, but for drinking purposes only.  That has nothing to do with it being "goat milk" but because it is whole milk and quite creamy.  However, I do use it whole in all my baking, on our cereal and of course in my morning cup of coffee!

Zebra averages about 2 cups every milking and since I'm milking her twice a day, we started to have some excess.  A great problem to have!  I finally broke down and made a simple cheese yesterday.  It's just a soft cheese and you can mix in whatever seasoning you like.  I ended up using Dill Mix in one and some Onion Soup Mix in the other.  I made two and half pounds of cheese from just over a gallon of milk. We'll use this on snack crackers or throw some in with our scrambled eggs.  Yummy!  I can't wait to try making some other kinds.

A little drier than anticipated, next time I'll decrease the hanging time.

As I was researching how to make cheese, I learned that you can re-use the whey.  The whey is the liquid part of the milk that you separate from the curds.  Wow!  I had never heard of such a thing.  The easiest way to use it is as a liquid substitution in baking; so today, I made bread.  Instead of the water, I used whey.  It's a winner!! 

Fresh from the oven and shined with butter to keep a soft crust!

It's such a blessing to have our own fresh milk and being able to put it all to good use!