Winter is still not over!

I took this picture at 7:15 this morning!  It was a beautiful winter wonderland....but I thought it was supposed to be spring!!  It was so foggy last night that it was really hard to see to drive because of the snow melting.

 I took this picture last night on our way to church.  The wet heavy snow came down quick!  Thankfully it is nearly all gone right now!

Nubian Boer cross...my newest goatie baby!

This is my new little baby goatie, Pinkie Pie.  We named her that because of her pink color.  She is just so ADORABLE!!!  I am trading Alaina (I did pictures of her little mini farm a few posts ago) some fertile turkey eggs for her. (We will hopefully have some turkey babies for sale so if you are interested in some let me know so I can put you on the list.)  She is a Nubian Boer mix.  We brought her home yesterday afternoon and the transition did not go well yesterday.  Our other doe, Lily, has been being mean to her...head butting and kicking her out of the goat house.  So the kids and I have been watching her very closely to try and keep her safe.  But Lily would not let her sleep in the goat house last night so we ended up bringing her into the house and letting her sleep in the bathroom last night.  I did not want to do that but I was not sure what else to do.  She is also not electric fence trained like our older two goats so she got zapped at least three times yesterday.  I almost cried when she started blatting after being zapped.

I have heard that having a Nubian Boer cross gives milk that is even richer in butterfat  as well as makes the goats have a studier framing to make them stronger.  My plan is to breed her with a full Nubian buck this December.  Then her offspring will be 3/4 Nubian.  And she is CUTE so who wouldn't want a goatie this cute!!

Lily, is my goat with the red collar.  Today seems to be going better and Lily has settled down and has left Pinkie Pie alone.  She was being rough with her this morning but this afternoon has been good.  My oldest and DH are going to build a stall into the goat house this evening after DH gets off work so that she can be out in the goat house at night but be in a separate section so Lily can not pick on her.

Lily and Amber were checking her out here.  She is just a tiny little thing compared to them.

This is Amber, my older goat.

My 6 yo DD was trying to get her to drink some water.  She is drinking water and eater her food real good.  We were not supposed to get her until Easter but Pinkie Pie and her brother were biting at their momma and had to be weaned.  Then she would not take a bottle so there was no reason for us to wait until Easter to get her.  She was born Feb 6, 2011 so she is old enough to be with out the bottle since she is eating so good.  We are still supplementing her feed with milk replacer though.

Sewing and quilting convention!

On Friday my mom, Aunt Rose, and friend Vicki went to the sewing and quilting convention at the Cleveland I-X Center.  My mom got some yummy Aunt Gracie's Fabric.  I amazingly only bought one thing!  I got a Fasturn Tube Turner.  It is used for turning straps and tubes of fabric right side out.  I plan on using it for the straps on DD's dresses.  I was using a pencil and that was a bit of a pain.  You can also use it to put cording on the inside of your fabric tubes.

This is me and my mom.

This is my Aunt Rose...notice her purse?  I know it is kind of hard to see but she made it herself.  

This is my great friend, Vicki!  She got some cool table runner kits to sew together.

Dehydrating Apples!

There is one guaranteed way to get apples ate around here: pull them out and start peeling them to dehydrate them!  Kids just start coming out of the wood work and scarfing them down!  LOL!  

My kids got me this apple peeler, corer, slicer for Christmas this year and I just love it!!  It is so fast and easy to peel up apples and potatoes with it!  It is so easy to use that my 8 yo can do it!  (Ummm...and don't even think about doing it yourself if you have littles or you will have a mutiny on your hands!  LOL!)

Then I cut the peeled, cored, sliced apple down the center to get them into perfect half moons.

Then I dip the apples into lemon water to preserve the color.

Then I lay them out onto the dehydrator trays, put it on the temp for fruit, and then dehydrate until they are done..which is anywhere from 6-12 hours.  Then I put them in an airtight glass canning jar for storage.

New doll dresses!

I went to a local craft show on Saturday and there is a lady there that sells beautiful doll dresses for Barbie, 12" dolls, and 18" dolls.  I just can not resist them!  I have bought DD several Barbie dresses but this weekend I splurged and got her two 18" doll dresses.  I love the feminine frilly dresses...especially in pink!  This first picture almost makes it look like the dolls are as big as baby girl but the other pictures are a little more accurate for size.  For those who have been following my blog for a while do you remember when we first brought baby girl home from the hospital and the doll WAS bigger than her??  Wow, she sure has grown!  

FREE with Swagbucks!

I have been using Swagbucks for a few months now and I have earned enough points to get myself some stuff for free on Amazon!  So in my quest to become more homesteady, self sufficient, and to prepare for possible emergencies I got a 16 quart stainless steal mixing bowl, a 5 quart dutch oven...there is a link in the side bar if you are interested in getting the same one I got... and a luggable loo.  I got the mixing bowl for making homemade bread in.  The bowl is big enough to let the dough rise for several loaves of bread at one time.  What I like about the cast iron dutch oven is that 5 quarts will be big enough for us to put an entire meal in it for our family, we can use it on or in our wood burner, and the lid doubles as a skillet!!  How awesome is that!  The lid is perfect for frying stuff in!  And it is HEAVY!    

The luggable loo is a toilet seat lid that fits on top of a 5 gallon bucket.  I have plenty of those thanks to a friend of mine.  But, it is to address the issue of what to do if we had a long term...as in more than 3 days LOL...power outage!  We have been a day or two without power and water before and let me tell you figuring out how to flush the toilet with 8 people and no water....well lets just say I hope I never have to use it!  The best thing is I was able to redeem Swagbucks for them.  450 Swagbucks can be redeem for a $5 Amazon gift card!  If you spend over $25 the shipping is FREE too!! 

A visit to Alaina's mini farm!

My mom and I went to Alaina's to get some Black Copper Maran's that she hatched herself.  This is her buck.  

She treats him like a big lovey baby!

These are her pheasants.  Her and her husband have a license to sell and release pheasants.

Her Slate Turkey.

All of her goatie babies were so lovey and this one had no problem let my 8 yo pick it up.  

This little girl in the front is my favorite little baby goatie of hers!  I would love to have her but with some goatie babies of my own on the way I am still debating....so don't no one else buy her until I make up my mind!  LOL!  (I may have some of my turkey babies or fertile turkey eggs for sale so I can raise the money to buy her!)

Some goaties are so ugly they are cute...and this just might be the case here!  LOL!

Sebastopol  goose.  I love the curly feathers!

Her Black Copper Maran rooster.