I've Got Presents!

My milking supply order came in this week! I'm so excited. I love buying myself presents!

I ordered from two separate places. I got the 6 qt. stainless pail and the teat dip cup (blue lid) from Hamby Dairy Supply. I ordered them on Monday (a holiday) and the order came on Wednesday! Talk about awesome service. These items were both much cheaper from Hamby's than from Hoegger, even with shipping. I try to save money whenever possible!



The remaining items were ordered from Hoegger Goat Supply. I also placed this order on Monday and the items arrived today. Still not bad! I got a colostrum supplement (just in case), a container of Dynamint Udder Cream, a very cool stainless steel strainer that fits mason jars, filters to fit the strainer, nice cheesecloth (for when I eventually make cheese), plastic screw on lids for mason jars so I don't have to mess with the 2 part metal lids. The only thing that was on backorder was the teat dip concentrate, which hopefully will come in soon.

Only about 2 weeks before June is due!! I'm so excited. I've been feeling her lower right side belly lately, and I can feel the baby(ies) moving! Very cool.

One Week Old!

The lambs are one week old today! I thought I'd celebrate by giving you these few videos. I still haven't named them. I'm not sure I'm going to name the ram lamb. I'm thinking he'll probably be raised for the freezer, so I'm not sure I should name him. I try not to get too terribly attached when I know we might eat something. He's so friendly, much more so than his sister. He loves chest scratches. I'll have to post a video of that some day.






And here's a video of the crooked neck chicken. She's looking a little more normal now-and very curious!



I brought a garbage bag full of shredded paper from the paper shredder at work. The chickens have been in their coop for over a week straight now, and their shavings were getting a little gross looking. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get more shavings, so I figured the paper would work until then. Hopefully they won't get wet and form a slippery wet surface. That'd be bad.




I'm going to go knit some more. I've finished one fingerless mitten and I'm working on the second!

On the Needles

Every day since our fun knitting weekend, I've been haunted by the skeins and skeins of yarn we brought home. Up until last night, I'd been so intimidated by the gorgeous yarn that I haven't knitted anything! I'd been debating which yarn to use for which project, will it be a good enough project for the yarn? Will I want that yarn for something else later? Can I even knit that pattern?

Finally I just made myself pick a pattern and a yarn and cast on. I did last night, and I'm so glad! I get so caught up in the new stitches I'll have to learn, and I need to just realize it's ok to take it one step at a time!



This is the fingerless mitten pattern from One Skein Wonders: 101 Yarn Store Favorites. I'm using this gorgeous Paint Box yarn, which I believe came from my Aunt Linda. It's the Borealis color. Look at all the awesome colors it comes in!

I can't wait to see how they knit up. I'll enjoy relaxing and knitting today, because it's back to work for me tomorrow. I've enjoyed the time off for the blizzards, but eventually I have to get back to the real world. Did you know it's already halfway through February?! Where does the time go?

Happy Valentine's Day!

David and I aren't really big into the whole Valentine's Day thing, as far as buying gifts goes, but I wanted to go all out and make a nice breakfast this morning, since it's our first married V-Day.



We had heart-shaped pancakes, eggs, bacon, and English muffins. I made berry syrup, and put berries in our "bubbly" (in this case, Ginger Ale).



I was excited to use my little cow creamer. I'm a dork, I know this.



I tried to make the table look like one of Posie Gets Cozy's table settings. She always makes things look so pretty and home-y. Like this one. I love how colorful everything is at her house.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day! Take time today to tell all your special someones how you feel about them!

Our Thursday

Yesterday David and I decided to go for a bit of a drive and see how things were looking around town. The snow sure does make everything pretty!



Here's the river that divides our county from the next. The town where David grew up (and where we used to live) sits right on the banks of the river. We're not far from it, because our new house is just outside of town .


You can see where the original plow line was, back near the telephone pole. There is a huge field to the left, and the snow is blowing terribly and creeping back into the road.


We saw several of these...


I wanted to climb up these snow mountains, but there wasn't really a good place for David to pull off the road, so I just ran out and he snapped a quick picture. The snow was mounded up higher than the truck on both sides of the road!


This is our backyard...that's a 4' high mesh fence!


And here's the arbor into the chicken yard. The snow is mounded up underneath me, so I'm standing well above the actual ground. You can see how tall the arbor is by looking at the fence. The fence is 4' tall, so the arbor is probably a little over 6'.


We took the kids to the grocery store so we could get a few minor things for dinner. I don't think they'd been able to get any shipments of things for a few days. Either that, or the perishable items were perishing.


Here's the chicken section...


And the bread. Though this could be because there was a mad rush for bread before the storm.


Then we came home and all helped make a snowman. Please don't pay attention to the hat Kylee is wearing. It says, "Baby Girl." We didn't buy it for her. I don't care for things like that, and I don't want you judging me. LOL!!!



I still have that annoying blog on the camera. I have wiped the lense. No luck. Maybe it's something inside? I told David I needed a new camera, but he didn't go for that. Hopefully I can figure out how to clean it. It's annoying me!

Another Blizzard!

We're in the middle of blizzard # 2 in a 7 day period. Yep, that's right. We got 26" of snow on Saturday. Now it's Wednesday and we're in the 12-18" range of snowfall predicted. A tiny part of me loves all this snow...it's gorgeous, and it's kinda fun being snowed in. The rest of me is sick of it. It's cold, sometimes it's boring being snowed in, and it makes life much harder. I'm *trying* to stay positive though.

The poor birds outside need help in these crazy conditions, so I've been making sure the feeders stay full. I'll be honest, until this storm, I hadn't fed the birds in months. I didn't even know if we'd have any if I bought food, but I bought it just in case. I filled the feeders Saturday morning and sprinkled some seed on the snow, and within just a few hours we had birds!!



I decided it'd be a good project for us to make some nice treats for the birds. We spread peanut butter on a piece of bread...


And then sprinkled on crushed peanuts, sunflower seeds, and chopped raisins.


Ta-daa! Mine, Kylee's, and Devin's.


Then we went out and put our bread on the mound of snow in front of one of the feeders. Thanks to David for taking this picture.


The kids were excited. We all stood in front of the mudroom door and waited....and within a few minutes the birds were chowing down!


Speaking of chowing down....I made this "blizzard" cake today. A yummy coconut cake!


And when it's cold, what's better than snuggling with a friend?






Or two friends?

Gratuitous Lamb Pics Post

They're all doing well today. :-)