About Old West's Farms & the Animals

Sunday, May 30, 2010

I LOVE Reading ~ so why not Blog about it !!

I have been educating myself with regards to blogging and they all seem to make one point very clear, 'make sure you include activities you are passionate about' ~ Well I LoVe to read and I am always looking for new authors and books to enjoy.

While life here on the farm is getting very busy, I still like to find time to unwind at the end of the day ~ and now that Jack Bauer has retired, and that guy beat Crystal on Idol, and Mike won Biggest Loser ... my nights are pretty free.

So, I will read and rate ~ and hopefully you will read and give me tips on great books to read. OK ... yay ... Oh; by the way, my reading is ECLETIC. I read biographies, Christian fiction, political books, and some carefully chosen regular fiction. Did I mention I LoVe to read :-)

By far one of my favorite books was Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.
I have read almost ALL of Nora Roberts’s books, and stopped reading J.R Ward because of her vulgar language. I am currently reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan...AMAZING !! ( Thank you sista Susan )

I read my bible...almost daily! When people say 'nobody wrote a book on how to live this life, so I just do the best I can' ... I believe, they're wrong, the Bible is our HOW TO book.

Goat girl reports ...



I'm not sure I like that name "goat girl" but Dan thinks it's cute.

So the babies 'Calamity Jane & Belle Starr' are doing well, but Miss Kiddie definitely has her favorite ... Belle I watched her knock Jane around a couple times and when Jane went to nurse, MK bit her on the back. I was getting so mad at her and I kept thinking of Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest. Well I can't just let her treat CJ like that so I put a lead on her ( which she hates-tahehe ) and made her stand there while CJ nursed. CJ seems spunky and healthy so I'm sure she is feeding it just bugs me seeing how MK clearly prefers BS over poor little Jane. I almost always support the under-dog !!

Next ...for all of you that are nervous about trimming the goats hooves, don't be; it was really quite easy. I watched a couple youtube video's, this one was one of the best http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhiME8wedZU&feature=related
Dan held Marshal (my buck) and I trimmed away. I had procrastinated because I just
knew it would be a nightmare ~ it wasn't ... so get out there and trim those cute tiny little hooves. I REALLY need to get building that staunch stand. It just looks so barbaric with their little heads being trapped in between those slats - but ... it's how things work, so ... MAYBE I'll try to come up with a more comfortable stand.
YEAH ~ I don't care that it's been done this way for a hundred years, maybe I can be the first to come up with a cute non-neck squeezing stand. ;-)

Our next project will be to section off some land Marshal and his brother Doc AWAY from the does. With milking starting in 2 months I keep reading if the buck is too close the milk will taste "bucky" ~ speaking of Bucky, I loved him on American Idol.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

My first ever Blog

Okay, so this is kinda weird because I am going to give you a brief history of the current family situation ~ and for some reason I find that a bit odd talking about myself, because ... well I'm just not sure my life is that exciting. But rest assured, things ALWAYS get interesting around here
so here we go:
I live with my amazing husband of 15 years. We currently have 4 dogs, 6 goats, and 2 horses. We have one daughter who has blessed us with a beautiful grand-daughter ( my little Alli-bug )
I know you are thinking 'she must have forgot to mention her chickens because ALL real homesteaders have chickens' ummm not us, not yet, but they're coming - I just have to convince my husband they are not dirty, ugly, desease carrying, fowls - his words not mine. Well, they are fowls, but you get my drift. Like I said, we are a work in progress.

We are new to the whole homesteading thing, but are learning via trial and errors. We purchased goats because, well all the homesteading sites told us to. We couldn't be more happy with our Nigerian Dwarf Goats. We will be attempting the milking process in just 8 short weeks. I am a bit freaked out about it, but I really want to give it a go. We started with a buck, his brother (a wether now and still mad about that) and a doe. My doe, Miss Kiddy has kidded twice now, the first time I ummm had to help ~ eeekkkkkk ~ Ok, so it wasn't as bad as I thought, and it had to be done. I dry heaved through much of the process, but was rewarded with the cutest little doe Annie Oakley. Miss Kiddy just blessed us with 2 more does just the other day - cutest things ever AND BONUS I didn't have to help !!

I finally got the garden planted ( you don't want to know why we are so late ) anyway, I am trying my hand at a few square foot garden beds. So far, I am really happy with not having to pull weeds in that area. I will keep you up to date with the progress of said garden.

I have 3 insane sisters - loving - will do anything for you - but none-the-less CRAZY and one brother (sshhhh he's the oldest) I am the baby of the family and I believe the MOST SANE. OK - enough with the background stuff, lets get to some farming/homesteading topics.