Progress

So we did it. We moved from Oregon to Kansas. 2.5 days later with sleeping at truck stops and no showers. ( My absolute least favorite part) We drove through so many amazing places. I will say Denver Colorado was my least favorite place. Wayyyyy to many people. I'm sure it's beautiful but when your in bumper to bumper traffic and pulling a trailer full of animals it's not fun, besides it was really dark so I didn't get to see anything besides tail lights. 

We bought ourselves a fixer upper farm, and so far are loving every minute of being here. The house is almost done and from where it was when we first started the house is looking amazing. We have made a lot of friends and the community has just absorbed us into the fold. 

All in all a lot better than where we were before. 

Now the animals? Well the turkey is molting and the pigs are a little bit redder then normal from all the sun bathing. Shimmer and the goats are out in the pastures looking all shiny and happy. 

The grow season is longer here so everything is already up and producing. The flowers are blooming and the trees are starting to set fruit. We found a mulberry on the property and the kids have been having fun with that.

I think we are going to be really happy here for the most part. 

Thanks for sticking around. I'll be posting more updates as I can. 

Changes

This next year promises to be very new experience for our family. We've sold our farm and we are moving out of state, the whole family thinks it's time for something new. So we have been extremely busy for the last few months getting everything together, the farmhouse packed up, animals slaughtered out that we didn't need, and getting trailers to haul the animals that we're going to keep.

We have found some place that is bigger than what we have now and also has the small town feel that we enjoy. I promise we are not ignoring you, dear readers, and not purposely keeping you out of the loop but packing up a farm is a job on its own and keeping up with all the farm chores that we still have to do. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas just in case that I don't post anything before then. I promise when we get to where we're going I will update the Facebook page with new pictures, until then have a wonderful day.

Apologies

Apologies dear readers,
It's been a while sense I have posted.
A quick recap of the last few months, we got the greenhouse up and have been getting some good fruits and vegetables out of it. I have some seriously excited farm kids because of some little growing pumpkins.

The farm kids have decided they are going to school this year away from Mom. As much as they love me they ARE all growing up and wanting to make friends. I don't blame them really.

The piglets are growing up so fast and we have a few pigs ready to go into the freezer. Along with ducks and chickens and turkeys.

Canning season is fast approaching us and I will be even busier then ever until breeding time in November of course. I have been canning BBQ sauce and pickles but the real fun will begin soon enough.

We have some blackberry bushes blooming, but they won't turn in time before the frosts hit.

The guys got the lumber mill up and going fairly well, they were going really steady until the tractor blew a tire and now that's on the to find list.

The boys turned 15 this year and are ready to get permits to start their driving training. They decided they wanted to go to the fair for their birthdays so we decided to hit the rodeo up while we were there. Ladybug seen the barrel racers. Poor shimmer is being put through his paces. For a twenty something horse he is keeping up pretty well.

We have gotten 90% of our firewood for the year so we are doing really well on that end.

I have been crocheting up a storm lately, we WERE expecting a new little farm hand, but I got overly stressed and it just didn't work out. So once the doctor gives us the all clear we have decided to try again.

I know there is more but I don't want this post to be ten pages long.

Until next time.

New page for the family and farm

The homestead has an announcement to make, we have decided to move on. The farm is up for sale and we are in the process of looking for a new place to live.

We as a family feel that is time for us to explore new areas. It's going to be sad to sell this place because there has been a lot of blood, sweat, tears, fights, and swear words here. But there has also been a lot more happier moments. This has been Ladybug's only known home. We have grown so much as a family here. We learned knew things about ourselves.

We don't know yet where we are going, but as soon as we get there you will know. Until then we will keep you up to date on the goings on. (Like the new babies, but that's another post).

Be blessed!

End of another year

Wow, I'm a little late in getting this post written up.

All of the snow has melted off and it has all turned into ice patches or mud. It of course freezes every night and turns it into frozen mud but this last week it's been warming up so much that it turns into nothing but a slippery mess.
Ladybug ended up getting sucked down in her wellies and when I went to grab her out ended up knee first in the muck. Mud and water all in the wellies, it was terrible. Score one for klutz mom.

This last year was a pretty good one for us. We grew as a farm but more as a family. My teenagers actually WANT to hang around with us. Shocker isn't it?
In the last year we have gotten cows and a horse, made bacon seeds and ended up adopting an abandoned rabbit, restocked the ducks and built shelters. Went on a "vacation" and a vacation. I will say I won't miss Arizona.

We have lost some animals to critters and gained some helping hands. We were able to get a few things done that we had wanted to and had to push a few things back.

There has been a lot of growth and even more learning. We have watched frustrations turn to pride and we have watched humbleness get learned the hard way. There's been scrapes and scuffles but at the end of the day we all need each other. We have had more connecting with each other and less technology. So all in all I think it's been a learning experience for everyone this year.

Here's to another learning year for us.

P.S.
We have three adorable baby bunnies now from Lily and James.

Extra hands

If you have read previous posts you know that my parents have moved up here to Oregon from Arizona. Talk about a climate change. They are excited to see snow and to experience more then two seasons.

Dad is super excited to start growing some stuff in the garden next year. Which means that hopefully someone will have the time to really take care of it and baby it the way it needs to be. Then we can offer up the extra products for sale.

The honey got lucky the other day heading to work. He was driving down the road and came upon a cage in the middle of no where with a rabbit in it. So of course he grabbed the poor thing and took care of it all day while he was at work. Ended up naming him James.

James is now living with Lily ( yes the kids are Harry Potter fans) in her big cage and having the time of his life. We will probably have some baby bunnies in a few weeks. We will update when that happens.

We bred Betty in October and she hasn't came back into heat sense. So we should have some piglets around Valentine's day. If you're on Facebook you should take a guess on how many she will have and if you haven't already give us a like.

I had to have dad build a fence to go around my Christmas tree to prevent animal and tree miscommunications.

We had a wonderful Christmas and we do hope you all had one as well. It was very relaxing and quiet. We had an amazing dinner and the company was wonderful.

Ladybug got a lion head bunny for Christmas and named him carrot. She is obsessed with American girl wellie wishers. Her absolute favorite is Willa who is all about animals and nature.

The fig tree we got last summer was moved into the house and has been growing leaves like crazy lately. Good thing it came in to house because it has been so cold this winter.

Well I think that's good for now.
Hope you all have a wonderful new year.

Autumn is here

Autumn has hit the homestead. Which means canning, baking, firewood, and hay.
We've gotten 90% of the wood done for everyone and the freezer is already full of bread. If everyone would eat it a little faster I could put cakes in there. We picked up another load of hay today and added some straw to the order to get animal beds ready. We started enclosing our soon to be mama pig shelter to keep her bacon seeds inside their fence. The canning is going fairly well. With everyone here it's been very crazy, well crazier then normal.

The rain is supposed to be here this next week and it doesn't look like it will stop for awhile. Don't get me wrong I love the rain and with the extra hands we have gotten a lot of the stuff needing done all finished up, but 8-9 days of it? Nope not happening. I can only play so much connect four and Monopoly before I scream.

With the honey working on Thanksgiving, we have to celebrate it on his day off. This year it's the day before, sometimes it's after the day, but we have come to the conclusion that it's not about the day, it's about the people you celebrate and surround yourself with.

So with many blessings and grateful hearts we will celebrate this Thanksgiving with a few more generations.