Monday, January 30

*fulfilled

Do you know that feeling you have when you are doing what you feel like God has called you to do? It is one of those things that He has called you to that gives you total joy. I am sure you all have had things you knew you were supposed to be doing but didn't really like it to much.   This weekend was such a joy filled weekend for our family doing simple things.

We have been feeding our Nubian's Fillet Mignon, well not really; but they have been eating well nonetheless.   The breeder we purchased our goats from started them on Alfalfa hay, not knowing much else that we could feed them to give them the protein content they need we continued in this expensive hay.  They only eat about half of the bale and waste the other half, eating the smaller pieces and discarding the longer.  Our rabbits have been happy to help us not waste by eating what the goats have turned their noses up at.  At $16.99 a bale we just felt like we needed to research another option.  Eric has been vigilant about this whole forage feeding and hay needs of the goats. His research paid off and we have made the change to Perennial Peanut Hay, the Alfalfa of the south!  We are thrilled about this find, because we can get it for only $7 per bale and they eat everything in the bale - no waste at all! 






Our Saturday started with a drive to the Panama City Beach area to pick up some yard implements, then up to Bonifay to pick up 72 bales of perennial peanut hay, then over to a hatchery across the Alabama line to pick up a few chicks so we can increase our egg production early this summer which will in turn increase our profit.  Our coops are large enough to increase our flock and they have much land to roam at will. 

When we got home we found that Rebel had been busy (sitting around for weeks) hatching out the cutest, most adorable chicks you will ever see!  She had 5 when we got home on Saturday and by Sunday morn she had a total of 9.   She is being a great mother, showing them how to scratch around, drink and eat.  With the 9 we picked up in Samson, Alabama and the 9 that Rebel just hatched out, we have a total of 18 new chicks! 







We did what small homesteaders or farmers have to do sometimes... we had to make the decision to kill one of our roosters. Mr. Baggins bit the big one. He had ran up my leg one too many times -repeatedly. For no apparent reason. I did my best to be friendly to him, bring him treats, etc.. Not only was he trying to hurt me, he was a rather active 'rooster' and was injuring some of our chicks.  We do not see Husan near as vigilant about his rooster duties as Mr. Baggins had been.   Now I don't have to carry a method of protection when I walk in the barnyard!  You can imagine what was on the dinner menu for Sunday dinner.



To finish up our weekend we did finish some butchering duties that should have been done weeks ago.  We butchered three rabbits, so the freezer is getting stocked.  We will be butchering, oops there is that word again for those of you are are squeamish,  again in 4 to 6 weeks.  Our does are both pregnant right now and this will likely be the last pregnancy until summer is well behind us.  We do not breed our does during the hotter Florida months due to heat exhaustion on the doe's part as well as the kits.  If you are a small homestead and you would like to raise a sustainable meat source for your family's table, you should consider raising New Zealand or/and Californian Rabbits.  Not only are we getting a great lean meat source that is free of hormones and who knows what else, we are selling our rabbit droppings for  $8 per feed bag size (40 lb bag) and we are also curing the pelts for future use in coin purses, a quilt possibly or other such things.  We are not wasting a thing!  

Friday, January 27

*handcrafted valentine day love

Lets encourage one another in the area of  handmade Valentine love.  Let's face it, anywhere you patronize from not until after February 14th will be glistening with hearts, cupid, kisses, chocolate, roses and glitter galore. I like to send greeting cards to my friends and family or perhaps give gifts as much as the next person, but how can we show the love with our home made offerings?  What are you making for the wee one's for Valentines Day? What have you made for friends or family?  Is there a simple act that you will show your love to those near and dear to you?

I hope you will link up and share your ideas for others to glean from.  There is no need to write up a blog post for the linky, simply directly link to a new post if you desire or a previous post with something you have made Valentines Day for those you L.O.V. E.




Thursday, January 26

*January WIP'D Link Up

quilt for Jo-2

It is that time! Once a month I invite you to come and link up and share what projects you have WIP'D! You can come over on the first Saturday of each month and link up your finished projects.  The linky will be left open until the last day of each month.   I invite you to come and share your hand crafted project that you have completed in that month.   Just link up to a recent post on your blog talking about your most recent completed project that is now stamped WIP'D!

I had high hopes of completing one of my WIP quilts, but I did not attain that goal yet.  I did get to the quilt shop and purchase the backing fabric as well as the batting with visions of putting binding on by the end of the month, this month.   I am not at a loss though, because I did complete some fabric post cards that will hit the mail boxes of many of my loved ones for Valentines Day!
 
Here's the rules- I don't really like that word rules, but anyway..
     *Link up with a direct url to your featured post on the most recent project you finished whether it is cross stitching, quilting, sewing, crafting, upcycling etc..
     *Grab my button and add it to your featured post, or link back
     *Come back again next month!


Tuesday, January 24

*laughter is good for the soul

A good, real, unrestrained, hearty laugh is a sort of glorified internal massage, performed rapidly and automatically.  It manipulates and revitalizes corners and unexplored crannies of the system that are unresponsive to most other exercise methods.  ~Author unknown, from an editorial in New-York Tribune, quoted in Quotations for Special Occasions by Maud van Buren

 Laughter is an instant vacation.  ~Milton Berle


 What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.  ~Yiddish Proverb


 Laughter gives us distance.  It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on.  ~Bob Newhart


 Remember, men need laughter sometimes more than food.  ~Anna Fellows Johnston


I know this picture looks a bit crude... and I am sorry, but these two are like brother and sister and they were laughing it up to the highest! 

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Prov 17:22

Sunday, January 22

*scenic Sunday



Hope you all have a great week!

 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. John 14:27 NAS


*goat coats




Last week we had below freezing weather again so I had to stitch them some new coats to help them stay warm during the blustery nights.  These are the second ones I have made each of them.  During the day when the goats are out browsing in the barn yard they like to rub up against the barn gate to scratch their sides.  Each time they do this, little holes get ripped into the sides of the little coats.

If you have goats or animals outside that have to weather the temps, you can make these fairly easily.  I shopped at our local thrift store and chose some cotton turtle necks as well as some sweaters and woven vest pull overs.  I cut the arms off of the shirts and then sewed up the holes tapering it in towards the neck. I also taper sewed the bottom part of the shirt so it would pull closer to their tummies.



Shared at:
Make it Yourself Monday
Homestead Revival

Friday, January 20

*more fabric post card love

It is January 20th already, can you believe that? How are those resolutions you all made coming along? New changes  you are striving for? All I have to say is I am glad each day has a fresh new beginning!  With almost all of January gone, February 14th will be here in no time and with that in mind I have been working on creating some post cards that express a small token of my love for some of those in our lives. 

Although Valentine's Day was at first a day to celebrate romantic love relationships, it is widely celebrate across the board in many different kinds of relationships.  Gone are the days of a card being written out personally now Valentine cards have given way to mass production.  This is part of our fast paced society, we long to let those we love know through a small gesture of a card on Valentines Day and when time is hard pressed we are very grateful for a mass produced card.  I know I have been there, done that too!

This year however I have had the luxury of time to produce some hand made expressions of my gratitude and love for different ones in my life. Granted everyone I know will not get one, but many are on the list.   I have been making these since the first part of January. I wrote about the first ones here and here.

These are my most recent finished post cards:



This one is not completed yet, I am in the midst of using the satin stitch to sew all the appliqued parts down!



Shared at:
Eye Heart Blog Hop
Sunday Social
Homestead Revival
The Sasse Life
Make it Yourself Monday

Tuesday, January 17

*chick-inn news at Erilyn


These belong to Husan. I cannot express how thankful I am that these belong to Husan and not Mr. Baggins. 

Isn't Husan a beautiful rooster?  We have not really had any problems with our roosters as far as the hens are concerned, or even amongst the two of them - no problems.  Husan has never even shown any kind of aggression towards anyone. Mr. Baggins on the other hand is a different story.

Mr. Baggins to the left here, and one of our fine hens, Lucy to the right. I have to admit, I love taking pictures of our flock.  They love to come around me when I am sitting on the ground in the barn yard, because often I have some treats in tow that I feed them from my hands.  Just today Mr. Baggins tried to spur me on several occasions while I was in and out of the barn doing chores.  I was on the phone talking to a friend and I was not really paying attention to him... it wont happen again. He didn't hurt me, but he sure as heck scared me.

One of our outside cats, Zeke a Russian Blue is quite at home amongst the chickens. He is one of our three Russian Blues that live "in" the barn.  




I love Lucy!



We are collecting 80 to 90 eggs per week at this time, this makes me happy and helps provide eggs to the families we are committed to selling to. 

Rebel with unrelenting commitment continues on those eggs. She refuses to get up for anything at all - food, pooping, stretching her legs - nothing.  Hopefully in about two or so weeks, we will have some peeps!





Shared at: Debrah Jeans Farm Girl Blog Hop




Farmchicks Farm Photo Friday

*oh, barnacles birthday cake and quilts

Yesterday was my youngest son's girlfriends' birthday, so a cake was in order per Henry.  Tiffany is a very mature young lady but is young at heart and I love that about her!  She and Henry both adore Sponge Bob, yep you guessed it, we made a Sponge Bob cake.  We looked for inspiration via Pinterest and found these:





These images helped us along the way and we came up with what you see below. It was fun making the cake and the fondant recipe we use is really simple to  make. You simply use a bag and a half of mini marshmallows, a bit of water and a bag of powdered sugar. The recipe can be found HERE. I think we did a pretty good job.

I am sorry the images are so dark.. I need to work on letting more light in.. this means I have to study my camera.

After cake, Henry and Tiffany decided to start working on a quilt together. Henry selected some quilting cottons the last time we were at a quilt shop and they had decided a few weeks ago to make a quilt together.  Henry initially chose a pattern that called for using templates - I was not willing to help with that kind of quilt making at this time. SO.. I gave him some options to choose from and he and Tiff chose the Friendship Star.

 They work well together as a team!  Henry was piecing and Tiffany was marking diagonal lines as needed on the back of some of the squares as well as pressing the blocks. Tiffany was a bit afraid to sew, she didn't (notice I said DIDN'T) have any experience with a sewing machine.

 I was cutting the fabric for them. I always cut for Henry when he decides to quilt. He can, but I do it faster and better. Just sayin.

 She was contemplating.. she really was having a good time.  She even commented that she thinks she has a new hobby.

 She was trying to use her pout face to get Henry to sew a complete block together so we could see what it was going to look like.

 He thought it was funny, he didn't give in. I ended up sewing the first completed block. I was anxious to see it too!


THEN, then we got Tiffany on the machine and she put together 4 more completed blocks!!



Aren't they pretty!  They have 3 more colors that will be used to make the star blocks. I think in all the quilt will have 24  of the 13 inch star blocks.  It is going to be pretty.  They are working to complete it  so Tiffany can take it with her off to college when she starts in the fall.  It was a great day and Happy 18th Birthday Tiffany!




shared at
WIP Wednesday's
Art For Little Hands
Eye Heart