Gone Too Long....

Hello Friends!  I wasn't counting on being "gone" for so long, but with my boys being off school ALL last week and preparing for Christmas, I started a blog entry but didn't finish it!  :(

I wanted to touch base with you all now though, and ESPECIALLY to wish you all a LATE Merry Christmas!  We were busy, BUT it was wonderful to get together with our families.  We hope yours was great as well!  It is wonderful to get to REALLY be able to share the reason for the season, with our children especially.  And it is really amazing to learn what great things that their Bible class is teaching our children!  We talk about things of importance quite often with our children, but it is REALLY great that not just our church is supporting us in this.  Because they were able to tell us some of the great things that their teachers in their Bible class shared with them.  (Yes, their PUBLIC school DOES teach an optional Bible class!)

We have been busy here in our little farm, and it is actually REALLY cold right now too!  My husband and I were talking and it seems like in past years, it would snow and then it would melt off.  It would snow, then melt off again... It would continue and do this on and off all winter.  But last winter and THIS winter it STAYED and didn't melt off, so no chances for that slippery ice to melt.  In the barn yard, the ice is starting to build up.  When we empty the buckets (morning and evening) to give each area fresh water, we toss the water outside.  The bad thing about that is, the water freezes into ice.  And the ice outside the barn is building up!

We are also a bit closer to baby time!  We have started to feed out female goats some grain.  When they get closer to baby time, all animals need to gain a bit more weight so they can support their growing babies (in the belly then after they are born!).  Right now we are just feeding the goats a little each day, but mid January we will have to up it to about 1 lb per day per goat.  At that time we will probably start feeding our sheep a bit of grain too, then increase theirs around Mid February. 

It is also good to keep their grain up for a while after birth, to keep the mom healthy.  We feed grain until the Spring grasses are coming in really well, for the sheep (because we don't milk them).  But the goats, we actually will leave babies with their mother for about a week, then take them away and bottle feed.  These babies will be bottle fed for a few months, and will be VERY friendly and loving animals when we are done!  Great for 4H!  :)

Cows are getting bigger everyday also.  Can't wait to have our grass fed beef!  I absolutely HATE buying beef from the grocery store.  It tastes horrible, and the beef with "less fat" is still SO greasy!  I can't stand it. 

The chickens are still producing well also.  That is if our dog doesn't squeeze his skinny butt through the chicken door, and eat the eggs...  If we make the door any smaller, the chickens won't be able to get in.  We need to find our dog a new home, but we haven't been able to do it yet.  So for now, we have to try to figure out how to keep him away from the coop, it's not working so well.  But we ARE still getting enough eggs... 

Well, that's all I have time for right now.  But I will be back soon, I promise!  Hope to get back to check out some of YOUR blogs this week too and hearing how things are going for all of you!  Have a beautiful day!