Surgery

Mom had to have surgery on her arm today. It wasnt a major surgery and it was an outpatient surgery but I was still nervous. Mom was really nervous too. Sometimes I have a really hard time getting myself to leave the farm. I really love it here and do not like to go anywhere else but my mom needed me to be there for her so I went and I am so glad that I did. My mom is one of my best friends and I cant imagine life without her even though I know there will come a day when she will go to heaven and I will be happy for her at that time but very sad for me. When people die it isnt them that everyone is sorry for it is for

themselves because they will miss them. When my mom dies she will be in the best place there is to be. Heaven!!! I am plum tuckered out tonight. I still had to take care of the animals. I cannot neglect them just because I have something else to do. Goats still need fed and milked. Doug is an amazing husband and he fed the dogs and chickens for me but he is unable to milk the goats and they need milked to early for him anyway. Caitlyn is able to milk them but she has to go to school. Like I said life doesnt stop just cause I have something to do. After I milked and fed and showered and whatever else I had to do to get ready I spent most of the day at the hospital waiting around, which is exhausting even though it does not take much physical activity. After we got home I ran to the store and got mom's meds and a few groceries. Decided to stop at BK and get dinner, of course I forgot mom's sandwich, lol. Luckily I had bought her a turkey sandwich from the hospital cafeteria and she was able to eat that. About 6 o'clock I had to go home and feed and milk again. Which I might add I really did not feel like doing but Nellie ended up giving almost 2 quarts of milk tonight and I was happy about that. Way to go Nellie!!!! Lots of people were praying for my mom today. It just amazes me how many friends I have, most of the time I feel like I have no friends and then something happens to make me realize I have lots of friends, even ones I have never met in person and I love each and everyone of them and I am so blessed. I think my son needs picked up from work now so will post more tomorrow. Night all!!

The Simple Life?

I cannot figure out why in the world someone would choose to call this the "simple" life. I would call it the work until you drop, pain in the rear, not enough sleep, and wouldnt change it for anything life. But that is just me. There are some days where everything seems right in the world and my day goes peacefully enjoying little things like hearing the frogs croaking at night or watching the goats play in their pen while a nice breeze is blowing through my hair. But then there are days like I have had lately where I have to stomp through the mud to get to each of the animals and when I get out there at least 4 goats jump on me and get me muddy while I am trying to get through the barn door to get ready to milk the goat and then while I am trying to get only 1 goat up on the stand while fighting the baby goats to stay off of it they all spill the feed that I had in my hand trying to put it up in the stand for the milk goat. After cleaning it all up I have a major battle going just to get her to get all the way up on the stand because for some reason she prefers to keep her rear legs firmly on the ground while stretching to reach the feed with only her front legs on the stand. Ever try lifting the rear of a 150 pound goat? It is like dead weight. Finally I get it done and get the milk into the house just to realize that I left 7 ornery goats to spend time with one very grumpy 10 year old aka my niece. And it is only 7:30 in the morning!!! Finally I get all the goats fed, the dogs fed, the chickens fed, my niece to school and I can sit down and enjoy a glass of lemon water and eat breakfast. Who knows how the rest of my day will go, it is raining again so it will probably be an inside day for me but I am sure I will find loads of things to do. Another thing about this life that they call simple is that no matter how hard I work or how much money I spend their is always something else that needs done or fixing. It never seems like we have enough money to do all the stuff we need to and want to do but somehow everything seems to get done. I am real big on fixing stuff myself and spending as little money as possible doing it. It would be much easier to just call someone up to come fix what is broken but that would cost alot more money than we can afford to spend and where would the satisfaction be that you get from knowing that you got it done yourself. Just like it would be much easier to just run to the grocery store and buy all my fruits and veggies but then I couldnt stand out in the yard and look over my garden with pride knowing that I am growing healthy food for my family to eat and that I did it. Their is also a great satisfaction to me knowing what all has been put into and onto my food. That is the reason I try to grow all of our food and raise our own meat. I think there are alot of people who think I am crazy, especially when they see how tired I am but I would not change anything about how we live. It is a hard and sometimes exhausting life but it is also one of the most blessed lives you can have.

Spring is coming

Spring is finally coming, I can feel it in the air. I love spring. It is the time of year that all the baby animals are born and everything is new. Flowers grow and trees bloom and it is time to start planning and preparing for my garden. I am planning on a bountiful garden this year. I have even started tree seedlings from apples. I think this is gonna be a good year.

The baby goats finally arrived. They were born on St. Patrick's Day. A doeling and a buckling. I named the doeling Joy because I was so happy that they finally arrived and the buckling is named Patrick since he was born on St. Patrick's Day. I have never been so excited in my life. I had been checking on Mohawk every few hours for weeks and on Thursday I knew she was getting close so I was making sure to check on her every 2 hours and she ended up having them while I was eating breakfast. I was on my way out to the barn to check on her before I took a shower and I was about half way there when I heard small bleating noises. Of course I ran the rest of the way to the barn. After I saw that they were out there and that there was 2 of them I ran to the trailer and woke up Doug and then went back to barn. After everyone was cleaned off and I knew they were healthy I called everyone. It was like I had a baby, lol. It is so nice being able to enjoy the simple things like the birth of new babies, even the animal ones. Now I am waiting for my chicks to arrive so that I can celebrate that.

My life is good. I really cant complain. Sure there are times that I see other people's farms and think of how nice it would be to live on one of them, but I really enjoy my life the way it is. There is no way to know if those people are happy. They might have really nice farms but very unhappy lives. You do not know a person's situation unless you have lived in their shoes. I am very blessed, I have a family that loves me and goats!! lol God has blessed me in many many ways.

Nice weather

We finally had some nice weather today. It wasn't perfect but it was nice. I loved getting to be outside enjoying the day instead of indoors wishing the rain or snow would stop. I was able to get the goats hooves trimmed and gave them all a good brushing. Still waiting for Mohawk to have her babies though. This is definitely a lesson on patience because there is absolutely nothing I can do but wait until God decides it is time to bless us with our new addition or additions to our growing farm. The only thing that could have made this a more better day was if i wasnt still feeling so lousy. I am thinking it is allergies from all of the rain we have been having and the weather is forcasting some more rain in the next few days. I just have to remember that God is in control.
I do not understand why people do not take better care of their animals. Maybe it is money or maybe it is because they do not care enough, I do not know. I do know that I would not be able to ever watch my animals suffer especially if it is from something that I can take care of. My animals are what I do for a living also and I love them. They are my friends. They are such good listeners and they do not try to fix everything, they just listen. Sometimes that is what a person needs, for someone to just listen and my goats and chickens are awesome at that. People would do better to learn to listen and not always have to be the one heard and the center of attention. People need to just relax.
Why is everyone in such a hurry anymore also. Just sit back and relax and enjoy this life God gave you. You dont always have to be doing something, sometimes it is good to just sit and listen to nature. Soak it in. It is one of the most relaxing pasttimes. To just sit at the end of the day and enjoy watching the day go to bed. By the time the day is asleep you body has relaxed and you are ready to go to bed. People rely way to much on tv and internet to do that and in my opinion neither the television or the computer are relaxing, if anything they are stressful. It is just something else that is filling your mind up with a bunch of nonsense. I have to confess though that I have been doing things like playing farmville on facebook but I have decided to give that up for better pasttimes like sewing or reading. Things that are relaxing and good for the mind. Also, they are not such a waste of time. I do watch television also but I try to limit that and to watch shows that are good. Right now I am listening to Rascall Flatts on abc while typing this. I do believe that the internet can be a good thing. It can be educational and a good way to meet friends that have the same interests as me. There is a group I belong to with other goat owners and I would be lost without some of them. I also belong to a group that is for Chicken owners but they do not talk as much.
It is getting late so I guess I better find my way to relax tonight after I check on my mama goat. Goodnight.

Waiting

Still waiting on Mohawk to drop her kids. The hardest part of this is waiting. I have never experienced this before so I am very anxious about it and want to be out there all the time to see if anything has changed. I am probably driving her buggy. I have taken so many pictures of her recently that my camera batteries died so I am not gonna have any pictures of the babies except with my cell phone lol. I am probably driving all of my goatwisdom friends insane with all my updates and pics. I just can't wait for the big day and I want to hurry it up!!!
It finally stopped raining last night but now there is snow. I really cannot wait until God decides to bless us with spring. I am more then ready to get outside and enjoy nature. I feel cooped up in the trailer. I go outside but it is such a hassle to get all bundled up and put my boots on and then it is cold out and hard to walk around because of all the muck from the rain.
We went to Wal Mart today and I got some new cold medicine. I was taking robitussin and it was helping alot with my congestion but was not doing anything for my cough. I got some Mucinex DM and some Dayquil. Hopefully they will help. I really wish I could find herbal remedies for when we are sick, especially something for a headache. I hate how much medicine we all take. I feel miserable though so I gave in and took over the counter meds. Someday I will live the kind of life I want to. Have to take it slow though.

simpler time

I have decided I am gonna live a simpler life. We will grow and raise our own food and make as much stuff as we can. I am gonna start making presents instead of buying them and only buy the food that I absolutely have to. Sometimes I think I would be happy if we lived on a farm that was so remote that we had to have our supplies flown in. I wonder if I could have the stuff I cannot raise myself mailed to me. I am even thinking about buying a flour mill. That would be so cool.

I have had a cold or bad allergies for the last week and I am also patiently waiting for Mohawk to have her babies. I am trying very hard to be patient but to be 100% honest I just want to go out and squeeze them babies out of her lol. I think it will be about another week at the most and I can wait that long.

It has been raining and raining and raining lately and I keep telling myself not to complain about the rain because we need one more summer where we have water in our well and hopefully God is willing to show us how to have the money to buy another well next summer. It is suppose to change to snow tonight and I am actually tired of that also but God is in control and he knows what he is doing and I am gonna trust him. I cannot wait for nice spring weather though.

Not only am I patiently waiting for Mohawk to have her babies, I am also waiting for my seeds and plants to come that I ordered for my garden. I even ordered a banana plant to grow in the house!!! Is that cool or what? I am also waiting for 20 baby chicks to come. I researched what kind of chicken I wanted because all the ones I have been buying from locals or from tsc are not big enough to eat so I ordered Silver Laced Wyandottes. They are supposed to be kind, lay through the winter, and also big enough to fill my pot. :)

getting colder

Well, it is getting colder out but that does not mean less work it just means different work. Like today I am drying out leaves from the corn staulks to use for firestarters in teh woodburner. Also means it is time for the goats to breed so that we can have babies in the spring. That means that they will be eating more because it is winter and because they are pregnant. More food means more money. I have been reading a magazine I really like. It is about homesteading, I would love to live that way. Living off the land, the way God intended. I have been starting a little at a time. I am thinking about getting bees now to have my own honey. I think life is so much better when you work for what you have and dont just go buy everything. Also, better for the earth and more cost efficient.