A Sad Obituary...

It is with much sadness we announce the apparent end of a rocky 5 yr relationship. Our cat is MIA. We have traveled the ditches looking for "signs" of Thomas, but there is nothing. No meowing on the back porch, no stalking you as you walk out the back door. He never came home early last week and that is all we have.

He is just gone.

Thomas the cat was a good cat. He was named by a 3 yr old boy after a tank engine. He only needed to be fed for 3 months out of the year, the rest he fed himself as an avid hunter of mice and stalker of moles, birds and baby bunnies. Though mamma is happy this cat has gone missing(and the nests will no longer be robbed and the robins may raise their young in peace) there are many other young humans mourning the loss.

Thomas came to us the year after we moved in our home. A vehicle stopped, dropped the older kitten off and he walked right up to the front door and the rest is history. He knew his place. Though He is known to attack Paul's leg, he was quite affectionate. He was known for drooling puddles when having his ears scratched. He would jump on your shoulders if you came close enough, often causing eh unsuspecting human to shriek in pain.

So, here's to you Thomas, you "phsyco attack cat"...we loved you, rest in peace.

Now THAT is the epitomy of a friend...

Isn't he just the cutest chicken cuter-upper you ever done did saw?

I little note of recognition here. I reeeally needed help trimming my goat's hooves, I just couldn't figure it out. Mrs. W., my goat mentor, kindly offered to come show me how to properly trim the hooves and I promised afterwards to take her to Wood's Coffee for a nice sit down cup-o-java. She accepted and came over after dinner. She put on an apron over her pretty, going to coffee clothes, grabbed a hoof and went to town. She proceeded to clip and clip until the hooves were trimmed quite nicely.

Jessie says this picture is a chicken(who seems to be missing) flexing his big muscles.

However, my husband had started butchering chickens and well...remember? It is my job to quarter and package the chickens pieces? Things weren't going as planned and I could see two trains running on the same track and one was going to have to pull off. I was SUCH a bad friend! I had to get those chickens done and it became more clear coffee was not going to happen. So how gracious is this beautiful lady? If in her shoes, I may have made it known we'd just set another date for coffee and be perfectly content with that. What does SHE do? She leaves her apron on and asks me how we process the chickens. She comes in the house and proceeds to cut chickens up with me.

A freshly butchered chicken isn't as pertty to work, bless her sweet heart. We did all 9 birds in record time, she stayed until 10PM(!) until the birds were all bagged and in the freezer.

I mean, really, can you get much better of a friend than that?

I'm the blogging queen

Do you see that? Do you see all those posts in the last few days? Are you impressed? I've had so much time on my hands...eh-hem, not!...let's start again. I have been nursing so much(there you go) as baby is trying to get me to understand he wants more milk..it's working. No complaints here, boy, I am soooo thankful I'm nursing! Did I mention my baby is 3 months old and still never had formula? The last time that happened was 8 years ago, or four babies ago. So, thus come quick snippets of blogging time. Isn't he sweet?

The canoe is gone...

Jacob sold his canoe. Remember the canoe he restored last year? He finally sold it. A man emailed and asked if he'd take $50 less, Jacob agreed. When the gentleman and his wife came to pick it up, he didn't expect to be dealing with a 10 yr old. He pulled Daddy aside and asked him for the truth. Paul told him straight up Jacob refiberglassed the canoe last summer, painted it and finished it. The man asked Paul how much of the money the boy got to keep and Paul told him all but $50 to pay for the supplies. With a tear in his eye the gentleman handed Jacob what he originally wanted for the canoe!

They stayed for some time talking and before they left Jacob asked if we could take their picture to keep...what sweet people.

Play'n in the Sandbox

Here is proof big boys, as well as little, like to play in sandboxes. My brother Jeff on the backhoe and my son Daniel on the mini-backhoe, both play'n in the sand today. I love this pic!

Free Family Fun Festival

Starting June 23

Last summer we discovered this free fun. We don't have television or watch movies much so this may excite my children more than yours. We sure enjoyed the G rated films last summer. There were about five Daddy approved films that we ran in and saw, and at this price(free) you can afford that nasty, unhealthy popcorn!

Description;

"Selected G & PG(though in my opinion PG is rarely fit for children or adults) movies start at 10AM each Tuesday and Wednesday during the festival. First-come, first-served seating is limited to theatre capacity. The Free Family Film Festival is safe, lots of fun and a great way for kids to spend a weekday morning in the summer."

Emma's gonna be a grandma!

We joke about Emma and her chickens. This child is seriously in love with chickens. She knows chickens inside and out, except one very important detail about chickens. They get broody.




Eeeearly the other morning I went out to get my breakfast(2 eggs) as the egg box was empty in the fridge. I opened the door and saw it. Two broody hens. I knew right away this was something special for Emma! There they sat, poised to take on the enemy(me) and looking as vicious as a chicken can..just daring me to go after the straw underneath her. Emma, not realizing the hens were broody, had taken all their eggs in the last few days.




So here they sit, because the Lord programmed them that way, protecting their straw. You think that is strange? Yesterday while visiting my good friend Mrs. B, we found her chicken sitting on and guarding a BAGEL. Now THAT was cute. Poor thing...I wished her good luck with that one.



It was good timing for these hens though. We had just stuck a bunch of eggs in the incubator instead of the fridge, so their chicks were already cooking. Emma and I went to the incubator and took out 6 eggs for each hen, handed them one at a time to the hens. Each hen took the egg with their beak, stood up and gently roooooolled it under her, adjusted her feathers and sat down, waiting for the next treasure. They are now happy chickens, waiting to be mommies!

Butter butter bo-butter banana...

Got butter? Yippee, hooray, Oh happy day! Guess what I found? Organic dairy cream. I am hoping to start buying this regularly, in gallon form, from a local dairy. I read the Little House on the Prairie series, I know what to do with cream!

Four gallons, oh joy!

We broke out the Bosch and started running a half gallon at a time. I took about 15 minutes for each batch just to get it to turn, but man was there a lot of butter when it did! There was maybe 2 C of buttermilk left in each batch. We are going to make a gob of buttermilk biscuit dough tomorrow, shape and freeze them...I really need a third freezer Paul!



My balls-o-butter after kneading and rinsing the buttermilk out. I have done 2 gallons before starting dinner and there is over 12lbs of fresh butter. Gotta love the chubby foot in the pic.


Yummy, creamy, smooth butter. The girls were absolutely amazed as the mixer mixes for what seems forever, then all of a sudden, right before your eyes it clumps into butter like magic.





MMMmmmmm, mmmm good.



Meanwhile, Micah waters the tops of my flowers, carefully pouring a few drops on every blossom. And you never know when those flowers are going to make a loud scary noise.