Black Jersey Giants

Here is a bunch of pictures of my Black Jersey Giants! They were born on June 10, 2008. I think my roosters are absolutely beautiful!! I have two roosters and 15 hens. The one rooster is bigger than the other one.










I just weighed one of the roosters and one of the hens today (March 3rd) and they both weighed 17 pounds each!! They are HUGE!!!

DD's Ginger bread oufit!

This outfit did not turn out as I originally imagined but, I think it still turned out super cute!! The Ginger bread fabric was from an apron. I used the tie straps to make the shoulder straps and then I put on little ginger bread buttons. I appliqued a pair of ginger bread on the front top. The skirt came out longer than I had planned and turned more into a dress rather than just a top but, I still put some red leggings under it (even though you can not see them in the pictures.) Now I ust want to find a cute ginger bread doll for her to carry around with it!!

Homemade Dehydrator!

I saw this on a self sufficient thread a couple of weeks ago and finally talked DH into making it for me! I used 5 jars of applesauce to make 6 trays of fruit leather. I would really like to try and make some dehydrated onion flakes next but, DH thinks I should wait until spring so we can have the windows open! This box was given to me by a lady at church. I picked up a 150 watt bulb for a $1 at the Dollar Store. I used some foil that we had on hand. DH picked up the light socket base on his way home from work. Then we used wooden yard sticks to hold the trays...6 of them at .50 each. I asked my dad to make me some rods but he never got around to it! Then 6 trays at 2 for a $1. The house does smell like cinnamon!

Baby Update!

I failed my one hour glucose test a couple of weeks ago....so I had to take the three hour glucose test...failed that too. So, I have been checking my sugar levels four times a day for the last week and following a diet...and I have followed the diet strictly. I went to the doc's today and my OB said my sugar was all good. YAY!! But, she did not say I could stop testing or stop doing the diet...and I didn't ask so I am assuming I still have to do it.

BUT, my blood pressure was 120/90. I have to do the 24 hour protien test tomorrow and Friday. She thinks it is chronic hypertension with pg. So, I am officially high risk and on weekly OB visits. My goal now is to make it to Feb 1. DD's birthday is Jan 27 so I would really like to make it at least a week past that. My OB said that she would probably have to give me steroids for the baby around 30-32 weeks to start to develop the baby's lungs and stuff in case I go to early. But our goal is to make it to 36-37 weeks. 6 yo was born at 36 weeks and I did not need steroids for him so hopefully I will not for the baby. Prayers are appreciated.

Here are some more snow pictures!

This is what it looked like last Wednesday going down my road. These pictures were taken in late afternoon and the road had been nicely plowed! I got stuck trying to come up the hill at the begining of my road the night before. My big van just could not get enough traction and just wouldn't go anymore! Thankfully I did not slide back down the hill or go in the ditch. 13 yo and 9 yo walked down to the neighbors house three houses down from where I got stuck and he pulled me half way home with his tractor and even he had trouble getting traction. Can you see the difference of how much snow is on the trees in the last three pictures verse the first picture? There is a visible line where I get way more snow at my house than the people at the bottom of my road. The pictures were literally taken within a 200 foot distance.

Eggs!

I saw some spray painted hand blown eggs on the web and just thought I would try them!! But, I figured the spray paint would be a little hard to smell while I am pregnant so I used glitter instead!

Gobble! Gobble!!!

13 yo got a TURKEY!!! WOOT! WOOT!! I think it was the second round that he won. He was so excited!! He insisted that we make the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner but, we are giong to my MIL's in the afternoon and my mom's in the evening and they already have their turkey's. So, I will probably have DH help him fix it on Sunday or maybe Black Friday while I am out shopping. He would be thrilled! Next year he is to old to shoot at the Turkey shoot so I am so glad he won this year!

6 yo at the Turkey shoot!

These are my favorite pictures!! 6 yo would close his eyes before he would even pull the trigger! How do you hit a target with your eyes closed??? He actually did a couple of times....LOL...that was only because there was a gentleman behind him holding the gun!! These pics were all taken just before he pulled the trigger.

11 yo at the Turkey shoot!

9 yo at the Turkey shoot!

My 9 yo has to love this the most!! No, they do not actually shoot a live..or fake...turkey. There was 26 kids doing the shoot. They each take a turn shooting at their own paper target. They (the people in charge) take the best two shots out of each round, 5 rounds, and the kids can only win one round giving other kids a chance. They gave out 11 turkeys.

Turkey Shoot!

This is DD at the Turkey shoot doing what little girls do best...dancing around and being cute!! She was to little to shoot!

This is why we have so many boys!!!

The boys did an awesome job shoveling out the driveway this morning!! 6 yo did help with like two shovel fulls but, by the time I found me camera...which DD swore she did not touch even though I did not even ask her if she had it...LOL...he was already sitting on the ground! 11 yo cleaned off the van for me. Aren't they sweet!!!

This morning's snow!

These are pictures to show how much more snow we got last night. These are the pictures from my back door and front door. 13 yo is waiting for the neighbor out to the end of the road so he can take him to the men's breakfast. We did not want him to pull onto the driveway and get stuck...which I am not sure what difference it makes because our road has not been plowed and has the same amount of snow on it!! Look at the difference in the amount of snow on the picnic table compared to yesterday!!