Christal  (Welsh/Arab)

Exploring the yard

Nubian Kids

Here are the goat kids. Malachi and Pandora. They were rather weak when they were first born but as you can see they're doing great now. We're going to be putting them into a new pen on the mountainside with their Mom this weekend. I want them to eat down the long scrubby stuff so that we can bring that hillside back to pasture. Young pine trees are about to take it over.

Muscovy Ducklings

We have some new arrivals. We took them away from their Mom this time. All of our previous ducklings have fallen into the jaws of snapping turtles, possum, raccoon... and who knows what else. These,
we're raising by hand until they're more able to take care of themselves.

More views of the workshop

These were taken back in October 2009 just after the building was completed. Of course, now it's full of tools and gardening equipment. 
At one point over the winter we had to build a temporary pen in the corner and  move our pregnant Mamma goat: Mahogany, in there. We had record snow levels and the babies just wouldn't have survived out in the ellements, even with a shelter. She gave birth to two kids at about 3am one morning, buck and a doe.  She wouldn't have a thing to do with them so we had to bring them into the house and bottle feed them. The weather remained so bad that we had those darned goat kids in the bathroom for a month! What a job. I'll never breed the goats so early again. Thank goodness we could eventually move then out into their own little pen in the cabin untill the weather warmed up enough to put them all outside in March.

This is my future art/sewing room. I'll take more pictures as I get it set up.

 

What I really love, is hearing the sound of the creek flowing by while I'm working up there. The only draw back to this upstairs room  is that it gets very warm, even with all the windows open. It's great in the morning and evening but as long as the sun's shining it's extremely toasty. Maybe a fan would help.

At Last, a Workshop

Ok, here's yet another attempt to revive the old blog.
I got a new lap top so I think it will be easier to keep up with things here. Our old desktop computer is getting so crotchety and temeremental that updating the blog was becoming a huge pain in the behind.

Well, anyway. I wanted to post some pictures of our new workshop. It was on sale at The Home Depot last September/October. Ken and I saw one of these two story buildings a few years ago when we lived in NC and really liked them. Never saw them again until last year. We've been intending to build a workshop since we moved here five years ago but we just don't have the time to devote to such a huge project. It's all we can do to keep up with fencing and animal housing.

Watching this building go up was amazing. The company: Classic Manor, had the materials delivered, then a crew of four guys came up from Georgia. They worked almost without stopping and the whole thing was up and completed in TWO days! It would have taken us two years to build something like this.

It's so nice to have a place to work out of the elements. And, what's even better, I get the upstairs loft portion for an art studio! I'm slowly but surely cleaning out the spare bedroom that used to be my art room but became the "junk" room instead.

We've made some huge changes to the farm this last year. I'll post more pictures later.

Chicken Coops For Sale In Michigan

Woo Hoo! Check out these beautiful little chicken coops!

While I'm unable to take orders for chicken coops right now I'm still getting lot's of inquiries from all over the US. Recently I had a nice email from Dan at The Green Chicken Coop up in Michigan. Dan builds a line of lovely hen houses with optional wire runs. If you're up in that neck of the woods and need a nice safe home for your chickens check out The Green Chicken Coop website and give him a call. He is also able to ship them.

I love them Dan!

Louisa Harding Knitting

I saw these two Louisa Harding pattern books on Ebay over the weekend and fell in love with that little bolero. All day Saturday it kept popping into my mind. Filling the horse's water trough and ping! there was that balero, feeding the rabbits, ping! there was that bolero. Then it struck me, it would be a great little project for the grey yarn I'm spinning! So, I bit the bullet and hit that "Buy It Now" button. Wednesday afternoon the books were here! They're both really nice with quite a few sweaters I'd like to knit. So many times I see a pattern I love but when I look at the rest of the collection I find nothing that inspires me to buy the book. Well,these two were worth getting.

The pattern name is BUNDI and it's turning out to be very well written and easy to follow. As you can see I already have quite a good start on it. Got the back and the left side finished in just about 4 hours! The right side is started but I'm going to have to spin up some more yarn to be able to complete it. Might be able to make it to the under arm shaping with what I have left. I hope the edging is as easy to follow. I've never knit a fancy edging before.

Oh, excuse the box of ammo holding the page open. Ken plans to do some turkey hunting.

 

 

Snow, Maple Syrup and Chickens

Well here we are finally. I didn't quite know where to begin to update this blog so here's a mish mash of pictures that pretty much cover 2009 so far. We're also in the middle of remodeling the kitchen. We started tiling the floor last August and it's still only half done! We're living in a mess! Half the kitchen is in the dining room and half the dining room is in the living room, and half the living room is up on the landing at the top of the stairs. I'll post more later as it's after midnight and I'm getting tired.

There are eggs in the 'bator

 

Due to hatch on the 21st. The white ones are White Leghorn/RIR cross and the brown ones are from our Freedom Rangers.

Did a bit of spinning

 

 

It's spun from mill end roving that I ordered from Carol at the Sheep Shed Studio

I'll definitely buy from her again. The service was excellent with lightning fast shipping.

Three Days After The Snow...

It warmed up to 76 degrees F!

Hubby had had a rough few days/nights of fighting fires and rescuing motorists who had slid off the road or flipped their vehicles in the storm.

And then it snowed - a lot!

It was all just too much for this one chicken. She tipped over the feeder and buried her head in it. When you're overwhelmed with life, stuff your head in a pot!