True Life Blues

Brady & Katy have
Steelers Blues this season

It's been a long time.  I know.  I'm sorry.  But things took priority over blogging and, well, there's a lot to catch up on since April (yowza, April - seven long months ago!).

I'm also blaming technology for the delay.  I love to post pictures along with the post but the only reliable camera I have is on my phone and I want a quick & easy way to transfer pics from the phone to the blog.  So, I get this great idea in my head and try to research it but I keep getting interrupted before I get a good solution worked out.  Long story short - I'm still doing it the old slow way.  For now.

Since my intent is to get caught up quickly on blogging, I'll just give you the highlights of the past seven (gulp) months:

1.  We had a flood.  Everyone survived but the fence was damaged.
2.  We had a long long winter that wouldn't go away.  We woke up to frost on Mother's Day and had to wait until Memorial Day weekend to plant the garden.
3.  The garden was bountiful this year, especially the cucumbers.
4.  We vacayed at Gulf Shores this year with a side trip to New Orleans.
5.  We won a boatload of ribbons at the Greene County and Montgomery County fairs this year.  Our eggs took Best in Show for the 3rd year in a row!  My knitting won a blue ribbon at Greene County.  And our honey ... well, our honey won all kinds of ribbons!
6.  Brady's a pickle-making machine.  (Thank goodness the cucumbers did so well)  His dill pickles (made from an old family Lithuanian recipe) won ribbons in both fairs.
7.  We're planning to enter the state fair next year.  :)
8.  The local paper did a story on our fair ribbons, our farm, and our self-sustaining lifestyle.  Although I joke with Brady that people probably think we're doomsday preppers.
9.  We managed to make more trips to our place in West Virginia this year.  We definitely need to do more next year.
10.  Winter has come early with the first snowfall this week.  I miss summer already.

The baby goats are growing by leaps & bounds.  Tattooing is done and once they get their final shots they're ready for sale.  Keep watching for more info.

So, that's the condensed version of our summer.  Once I get the pics-to-blog thing figured out I'll post some with more detailed stories of the summer highlights.

Socks about Town

Sitting under an apple tree while Brady treasure hunts near a 150 year old homestead.

Been a long summer with no blog entries. Planning to catch up on that this week. 

Struttin' to Ferrum

As I'm working on this blog entry, the news came across the 'net that George Jones passed away this morning in Nashville.  Brady took me to my first George concert last month in Muncie.  So sad to think that we were one of the last people to see him perform, but so happy to have those memories.

Brady & George back in the day...

George Jones, Muncie IN, 3/16/2013

Brady at the Possum's bus, Muncie, IN 3/16/2013

Back to the blog...

Hunter & Tom

This is the winter that will not end.

For just about the entire month of April we've endured freezing cold days followed by one or two warm days of hope, only to plunge back to the freezing arms of winter.  I'm thinking we need some time apart, lol.

On those rare "spring"-ish days we let the baby goats out to stretch their legs and explore.  Hunter has a keen fascination with the turkeys, Tom & Turk (although neither answer to their names - turkeys are snobs).  At first he was terrified of these strange large chickens with the funny tails but  eventually he found that if he took a running start at them they would run away, gobbling and fluttering in some form of turkey expletives.  :)

Speaking of turkeys, it's that time of year again.  I doubt that Tom & Turk know just how good their lives are.

We're supposed to have more seasonable temperatures starting this weekend.  At least that's the hope.  Looks like we totally missed out on a "spring" this year.  Last year the seasons all seemed about a month early but this year - well, this year will be delayed a while until winter finally lets go.  Which means the list of projects to do "when it warms up" keeps getting longer and longer.  Take mowing, for example.  Our lawn suddenly popped up despite the frost yet I just can't bring myself to mow the yard while bundled up in a winter coat and gloves.  There's something just not right about it.  So, if winter keeps me from wrangling the yard back in shape with the riding mower, I'll turn Brady loose with the tractor and bushhog.  :)  One way or the other it'll get done.  Eventually.  When it warms up.

The Bees

Speaking of our winter that won't end, we've yet to inspect our hives after their (on-going) winter rest.  Across the state winter loss numbers are running at around 50-60%.  On the warm days we see our bees hovering over the (millions of) dandelions in the back yard so we know at least some of them have survived into "spring".

The Goats

The girls still need a name!  I'm thinking about some cutesy twin names (Sugar & Spice?) but nothing sounds good.  So for now they're just "the girls".  We need to turn in their registration paperwork soon so we need to settle on something!

Sugar Maple Festival

It was too cold for a parade, but we did it anyway.

Brady & Cody are in there

My reward?  Yummy alpaca yarn from down the road at Stewart Heritage Farms.

Can't wait until the next parade!  ;)

Coming Up

Get started on that to-do list, name the baby girl goats, registration paperwork, hive inspection

What's Blooming

Dandelions and tree pollen (achoo!)

Don't This Road Look Rough & Rocky

It's been a rough few weeks on the farm.

For the second time in as many weeks someone has ended up in our front yard instead of the pavement.  One driver slid off the icy road and into our utility pole (the driver wasn't injured, thank goodness).  Besides the ruts in our yard and various pieces of his bumper scattered about, our only "damages" were an hour without power while the utility crews repaired the blown transformer.

However, our eggs for sale sign suffered damages last night by a careless driver.  Around 11pm we heard tires squealing and rushed outside to make sure there wasn't another mishap with our utility pole.  Thankfully there wasn't, but our egg sign was damaged and there were ruts through our yard and the neighbor's yard.  Looks like someone was a bit reckless (and speeding) and lost control.  This time the weather wasn't to blame.

One of the major disadvantages of living along a major highway (besides the out-of-control drivers - hey, OSP, can't you do something about that?) is the occasional passerby who absolutely positively cannot hold onto their trash one moment longer and MUST get it out of the car THIS VERY MINUTE.  The soda cans, beer bottles, fast food bags - all end up in our yard.  Sometimes I really don't understand people who have no problems tossing a bag of trash out along the highway.  Oh, and to the person whose underwear ended up in my yard - stay classy, girl.

Baby Chicks

We still have Delaware chicks available.  Contact us for pricing and availability.  Now that the weather has (finally) warmed up we'll move them to the larger outdoor coop.

Baby Goats

The babies are growing like weeds.  And they love climbing on anything and everything, especially on Momma's back!  :)  They're due for their first checkup & shots in the next couple weeks. More pictures coming soon...

Coming Up
More website updates, general cleanup around the farm, vet visits, beehive spring checkup

Socks About Town

King Cake socks and trap shooting at the Greene Co Fish & Game Club

Snow Covered Mound

Winter's not ready to let go.  We had a late season snow last night - around 6".  The babies are doing fine, staying inside where it's warm & dry and mommies can take care of them.

Here's a few pics from the farm...

And it's supposed to be in the 50's by the weekend.  Hopefully this will be the last of the white stuff for a long while.  C'mon spring!  :)

Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby

Baby Girl (twin) #1

Baby Girl (twin) #2

Guess what we've been up to.

Lots and lots going on around here despite the cold remnants of winter.  Our baby goats arrived on March 1!  Moms & babies doing well.

And of all things, the baby chicks decided to make their debut on the same day!  We have Delaware chicks for sale while supplies last.

More info soon!

Delaware chicks!

Baby Boy (Hunter)