Global"warming"?!?!?!? Not here...

If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you can open the windows of your home and hear the screams and crys "AAAAHHHHHHH IT SNOWED!!!!!" Seriously, it's that bad!

We've had snow here and there for about 3 days now and some people are losing it. Not me, I lost it years ago! It all started Monday night... a few inches, then melted. Then some more fell Tuesday, but it depended on you location and elevation and then some melted. Wednesday afternoon,evening and over night it really came down and then we woke up Thursday to a wide spread "yeah, we have snow - how much did you get?" and it stuck. Here at the farm, we received over 7 inches accumulative over the last two days (about 3-4 Tuesday and then 4 or so inches Wednesday night). Don't believe me? Here's the yard stick in my front yard.



So, yeah. We don't see much snow in Washington and when we do, people tend to either freak out or become over confident with their driving skills. You hear alot of "I can drive in snow, I'm from (fill in mid west location)". I gotta say, I get a chuckle every time someone finds out that we do not have a 4wd rig and then brags how they have 4 wheel drive and "can get anywhere"! That's funny! So why is it when ever I do go out and about in the snow (like walking to the mail box at the bottom our of hill) that the only cars I see in the ditch, the cars on the news that were towed out of a ditch or in a wreck are, you guessed it, 4WD and some WITH CHAINS!

First, let me say, Washington snow is not like Midwest snow. Here, snow is similar to peanut butter and we have HILLS! We also have the constant melt, freeze, snow, melt, freeze than snow that makes layers over the road ways that look all powdery on top, but is slicker than snot on the bottom. So then, yeah, we don't have 4wd, but our cars are in one piece and my car insurance is low. The hubby didn't make it all the way home Tuesday night (he parked at the top of my dad's driveway), but here's the KIA on Thursday morning. These are mainly for the hubby to show to his co-workers so they can see why he is working from home this week. LOL

This one I think is funny, you can see the little antenna poking out over the roof.


The animals have done great with the snow. Carla loves it. The girls can't throw her enough snowballs to catch! I worry about her paws as she refuses to come in sometimes and I have to brag her to come in with a piece of lunch meat or other tasty morsel.


They goats and chickens are getting better about the snow. They ended up bunking up together last night for added warmth. The chickens aren't really as dumb as the act, well, at least some of the time anyways. You can see how much snow we received over Wednesday night as the coop and goat shed were bare when we went to bed.


Well, it's now time for me to give the internet access back to the hubby (he does pay the bills after all). I will leave you with some more pictures around the farm. Stay warm folks!

And here we thought Winter was at a close...

We were getting so excited. February is almost over and with March, brings the start of spring - or so we thought! For the sake of protecting my kiddos from the public eyes of this blog, I will call my girls "Little" and "Preteen". Little was so thrilled to listen to the news the last couple of nights as she desperately hopes it will snow so Grandpa can stay home from work. She reminds me of those old commercials for that store where the women would paste her face on the store door and say "open, open, open...". Then there's Preteen, she could careless except that its ruining her plans (yeah, the nickname preteen fits her quite well - lol). She has horse riding tomorrow and has made it VERY CLEAR this morning that she will be mad if we can't get out tomorrow. Me? I could care less at this point other than the fact that there might be the chance of the hubby having to stay at his friends house who lives next to their work down on the eastside of Seattle. The thought of sleeping alone makes me a little sad, but the dog, Carla, is THRILLED at the idea of sleeping with Mommy. It's her lifes dream is to sleep with Mommy, it really is! :-)

Last night, when the snow started, I peeked out to check on the animals and saw the most dumbfounded sight.... chickens really are this dumb!


Luckily, they got smart and took shelter in the dog house. Why these three girls do not go in the coop beats me. I even put them in by hand and they still came out. Their Knight-in-shinning Armour, the black rooster who the girls and Grandpa have so perfectly named "The Black Knight" took pitty on them and slept with them last night. Such a sweet rooster he is.


You can tell its a cold snow as this morning you could not see a single paw nor hoof print in the snow.


I love this picture, Belle popped her head out as if to say "Mom, what the heck?!?!?" at me.

The Circle of Life

Cue the Disney music...

Yeah, yeah… I know, such a clique right? The Circle of Life?!?!?!? What a Disney rip off - but hear me out. I have been thinking a lot of this lately, the whole circle of life thoughts and not wasting anything.

I recently took the kids a few weeks back to go see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie: Voyage of the Dawn Trader as our “Friday Fieldtrip Day” day out activity for homeschool. Like all the Chronicles of Narnia movies, the main story starts out with the main characters, children, deep in the middle of World War II. This movie, just like the others, really showed just what they people of this time went through. The constant sound of bombing and what it was like to go to the store during a time of rations. It made my kids ask “What was that all about? What are rations?” Let me say, for a movie, to get my kids to wonder and ask such questions, well, let me say, I was impressed.

In our homeschool studies, we are learning about the past in our History lessons and it takes me back to stories that my grandmother, on my dad’s side, told me of the depression. Like the movie, many had very little, if anything. So, what little they did have, they did not waste ANY of it. My grandmother was taught as a child to save everything and waste nothing as everything had value. Looking at life now, I think some have forgotten what it means to waste nothing and value everything and I personally want to go back to the old days. I hate waste. Wasting makes me feel selfish somehow. Yeah, I know, I’m nuts, what’s new? If you didn’t love me, you wouldn’t be reading this blog now, would you?

Now, granted there are some that take this to the extreme (the show “Hoarders” comes to mind), but overall, we tend to be a generation of waste. We toss out a lot and buy things that we don’t need. But, with that said, we are also becoming a generation that realizes we have too much stuff. We are starting to recycle the stuff we don’t need anymore, even recycle our trash. We are starting to take it even one step further and asking ourselves “Do I even really need that?” Even from a business standpoint, I learned this back when I was in the corporate world with a program called “5S” (you can hear the people working in the corporate world scream with terror if you listen really carefully) LOL. Some love it and some love to hate it. So what’s your point woman? I know, I know… I’m getting there!

My dad and I have really taken the “5S” mind-frame to heart, embraced it and brought it into our homes. So what is this “5S” thing you talk about? The 5S’s are: sorting, straightening, systematic cleaning, standardizing, and sustaining. Let me tell you, those Japanese folks have something going here! It really helps fit in the waste not and circle of life mentality. Still have no idea what I am talking about? Let me explain how we apply the whole 5S, circle of life, waste not ideas here on the farm:

Sort: I love this part as I feel like when I sort, I am getting rid of the chaos in my life. My husband and kids, not so much. That’s when you hear the whining and “but, Mom” and “but, Honey”s. I like to sort usually about twice a year – in late winter/early spring during the seasonal “spring cleaning” and again in August, during the “prep for school” and “here comes the fall/winter/holidays” time. I am also a organize freak so honestly, I get a high off of organizing my closets – I’m nuts I tell you, NUTS! LOL. I usually accomplish this by going through closet by closet, room by room getting rid of stuff we don’t need. Our rules: If I haven’t worn it in the last year, chances are, I am not going to wear it next season either. For the girls, if it’s too small for the oldest, try the youngest. If it doesn’t fit the youngest, it has two options: 1) if worth saving, ask family and friends if they can use it for their girls, if not it goes to charity or 2)if it’s not worth saving it has two option 2a)can we make something of it or 2b) trash. We also go through getting rid of stuff that is broken; and the girls’ room is where I spend most of the time doing this. Broken toys that are beyond super glue repair go in the trash. Sometimes I let the girls and my friend’s boys take it all apart to build some kind of contraption before it goes in the trash for one last “hurrah”. I am also one of those mean and horrible mom’s that take all of my kids toys, dumps them into pile in the living room and lets them pick out 2 toys to keep for every 1 they get rid of. Then, the unwanted go to charity and the girls learn a valuable lesson of “do I really need or want that”.

Straightening: The coined phrase “a place for everything and everything in its place” covers this explanation. My love of organizing really gets used here too! The idea here is to organize, organize and organize! For me, I like to label things. That way, with all the hands touching everything throughout the house, everyone knows exactly where things should go and more importantly, where everything is. In my house, even though this is truly the house of my dreams, it falls short on storage space. I have to really use my creative skills to overcome this one. This subject will definitely have to be covered in a separate post one of these days…

Systematic: This is purely the simple fact of cleaning and keeping it all organized. I make the girls clean up their homeschool mess from the table before they are allowed to go play. Putting the dirty dishes in the sink as you use them during the cooking process. I have a “to be filed” basket so that I don’t lose papers between the time I receive them and I actually file them away. Just stopping and spending the time to clean and continue the organizing.

Standardizing: Think of this as setting the law, that the process that we setup and take place each and every time. The girls know that before they can watch their cartoon at 8:30am, all chores must be done and they must be dressed. If not, homeschool starts at 8:30am instead of 9:00am. When we feed the animals, you wash the feed bins first, then supply them the feed and then clean up any mess in the garage before closing everything up for the night. Stuff like that.

Sustaining: Maintain and periodically review the 4 previous steps. Like the two times a year I “review” what we have and see if I need to change the way we organize in order to incorporate what we keep. I also like to ask myself when I am in the stores “do we really need this?” before I even buy so that why it’s just one less thing to 5S someday and to keep our savings in check. Just because it’s on sale or I have a coupon, do I really, truly need this?

Enough of 5S. Let’s summarize the topic that I seem to keep side tracking here. In order to complete a “circle” of use here at the farm, we like to keep it lean with what we have. We also like to reuse things and that brings me back to my first thought of not wasting anything at all possible. To coin another phrase “cleanliness is next to Godliness”. With the animals, I try really hard not to be wasteful. Whatever hay the goats don’t eat (for whatever crazy reason they have, hey, their goats) and the hay that gets tossed on the floor from when we break up the bales, we save and use for bedding in the goat house and chicken coop. I am really nuts about keep my garage floor clean so that there’s nothing nasty that gets swept up when I collect the hay trimmings.

I only stock up the house from October 15th – March 15th and only buy what I know we could use in that time frame. Even now, with it being a little early in mid-February, we have already started to stop the “stock up” process and go through what we have. Eat what’s in the pantry and freezers before I buy anything else. I have only been buying the perishables the last two grocery trips (like milk, fruits, veggie’s).

But, my favorite way we complete a “circle of life” if what we have started to do recently. Did I tell you I love chickens and goats? I really, really do. When I make my human family’s meals, the animals take care of all the food waste. The “compost” clippings get fed to the animals: the goats get first pick of the veggie parts and the chickens take care of the left overs and meat stuff. I do occasionally give Carla, the dog, some scraps, but with her being the inside dog and on top of her having a sensitive tumtum, it’s in everyone’s best interest to limit Carla’s treats.


So, food goes to humans. Left overs go to the animals. Even when I go through the fridge before every shopping trip, all the leftovers and the stuff that is getting kinda nasty and old go to the animals (mushy apples, that left over soup we forgot to eat).

The leftovers feed and fuel the animals.

The animals grow. The chickens produce eggs (eventually, my babies are not quite there yet). The animals fulfill their lives by feeding the humans. For this example, I am using the stock from my January chicken chop in tonight’s stew.


Thus, MY CIRCLE OF LIFE. Yes, I know, I could have shortened my story to get to the point, but what fun would that be? I love to know that by making us reducing our waste and reuse what we can, we are living leaner, less materialistic. I would like to think that we are doing God proud and not taking for granted what he has given us.

Pictures from around the farm...

Thought I would do a quick post of the animals today. Just a few funnies here and there. Yah, I know, I'm weird and a tad bit crazy (we all knew that)! But hey, my animals are fun and entertaining, at least for me...

The chickens have decided to repurpose the dog house as a wayside rain/hail shelter.


Can you tell Carla is a mommy's girl? This is her new favorite place when mommy is actually ON the computer.


Yes folks, the chickens love to go for a goat drive now and then! At least Snowflake was kind enough to just lower her bum to get the chicken off of her. LOL


It's a warming lineup! Can you tell we have not had a warm, dry and sunny day in awhile?


Needless to say, these are not the greatest pictures because apparently I am way over due to wash the windows. :-(

Where's the Milk?

When the conversation comes up that I have goats, the first question that everyone has is “Oh do you milk your goats?” or “cool, free goat milk!” Yes, I totally agree that goat milk is wonderful and the thought of being able have my own supply free is great. But, my first response is usually something along the lines of “No, they have to be pregnant to get milk and I don’t want babies”. What do I mean by this? Get ready for some Goat 101…

Most don’t know that Goat Milk is a seasonable harvest. Unlike cow’s, goats only produce milk for a short time after a baby has been born. Babies are usually only born right after the breeding season: October-January. Now, there are a few exceptions to this, but it’s not easy. The only way goat milk producers can get milk all year around is by manipulating the goat’s hormones chemically to be in heat year around so they can produce babies year round, thus, year round milk. Even this method is difficult and hence the high price of goat milk.

Now, let me tell you, having a goat in heat can be a painful or a pleasant experience. In my herd, I have 3 girls and one “de-daddied” goat (as my kids like to call it). If I were to have babies, I would need to get an outside male to do the deed.

So, how can you tell they are in heat? The normal signs of a doe (girl goat) in heat are:
 "Flagging" (wagging) her tail.
 Mounting other does.
 Letting other does mount her.
 Fighting
 Letting herself get beat up without defending herself.
 Having a "crush" on another doe.
 No interest in feed.
 Swollen and/or pink rear end.
 Mucous discharge from her vagina
 Her side tail hair is wet and/or clumped together.
 Yelling for no reason.

Of our does have a mix of symptoms. Mama B, the queen of the herd, is the mildest mannered doe. She does the flagging, the lack of eating and a swollen and pink rear end. Other than that, Mama B is quiet as a mouse. Snowflake, the runt, is my middle ground doe. She is the same as Mama B, but she has the yelling aspect down as well but is not loud. She sounds the same as any other noise they make. It’s not really yelling like humans do, but more of a mild talking for no apparent reason. Now, Belle, she is the pain of my existence when she is in heat. The heat cycle comes around about every 21 days and for 48-72 hours they are in fact, in heat. Belle’s heat cycle is loud, I mean a LOUD non-stop noise making, window banging (she jumps up on the windows to get my attention), attention getting torture for 72 hours. It has crossed my mind more than a few times to ask if there is such a thing as Goat Midol. It’s that bad! At least I can see the end of the tunnel as I have notice the last two heat cycles for Belle, as well as Mama and Snowflake, as coming to a close as they have been short cycles; only lasting about 12-24 hours. While overall, yes, the heat cycle can suck a bit, the only option to have them not go into heat is to get them pregnant.

So it leaves me to two options really:

1)Get goat milk and have lots of babies to care for, feed and then eventually find homes

Or

2)Go through a few months of sporadic annoyance in the fall/winter time and less mouths to feed but no goat milk.

I choose option #2! I love having a small herd of 4. They are easy to take care of, but big enough of a herd to keep each other company. Four is the perfect amount to herd around the property to “naturally landscape” and move from area to area. Four is an easy enough amount to feed cheaply without damaging the household budget. The other plus side of not milking goats is that if they are in need of milking, you need to milk them two to three times a day (depending on the individual goats needs). To milk a goat, it takes on average 20 minutes. So that would mean 40-60 minutes per goat per day, unless you want to spend a small fortune on the milk producing equipment to take the time to milk down. So, again, I love my small herd of 4 non-pregnant, non-milk producing goats!

My Babies Are Not Babies Anymore

Just some pictures of my little babies that are almost all grown up. The chick's are about 3 1/2 months old now. The black guy is a new addition thanks to a friend and fellow neighbor. The black fellow is about 4 months old.


Looks like someone is trying to see what's going on in the house. It also looks like I need to clean a dirty sliding glass door too :-(


Judging by their age, size and habits, I think I should start to be seeing some eggs from my Rhode Island Reds in about 3-4 weeks and the Buff Orpingtons in about 4-6 weeks. Here's to some tasty home-grown breakfasts!