Things that have changed since I was on here blogging...

1. We got milking goats and they had kids.
2. We got chickens, guineas, ducks and hatched and sold them. Rick made a giant incubator that holds about 500 eggs.
3. We are selling our house and moving into a place that is dumpy and needs everything really replaced. From the floor to the wiring to the walls to the plumbing....
4. Rick is getting laid off from his job at GE with about 200 other people. (well, about 150 layoffs and 50 early retirements)
5. Since Rick is getting laid off we are planning on going back south for the winter. Maybe we will go a little further south this time for a few weeks. There are clear waters and pyramids in the southern part of Mexico along the eastern coast. The Caribbean coast.
6. We are selling a bunch of our animals so we can go south and housing out the rest of them with friends.
7. Savannah, the oldest child, just became our first teenager.
8. Rick is building a windmill. It is almost done. I will blog it when it is complete. The outside is fully done but he still needs the guts and batteries. It is SO cool.
9. We should be able to take the windmill with us in our VW camper van to Mexico. Then we can camp with electricity! Oh, and the point of changing to #9 is that we are getting the VW camper van finally done and painted. (we better get it done while we still have $!)
10. Uuuummmmmm..... I know there is more but I can't think of them right now.

We are back blogging I think....

To see the individual photos up close just scroll your mouse over the screen.

I am shutting this blog down. Maybe someday I will be back on.

I am online through my husbands phone... that means if he is not here than I am not online. The little bit of time he is here I am busy. So, I realize I can't do it all.

It has been nice being friends with some of you ladies. (((and I do consider many of you ladies FRIENDS))) Maybe I will talk to you again in heaven someday if I never get back to blogging.

Bye.

Yesterday Jacob had his eleventh birthday.

We got him a REAL 22 rifle. He is moving up from the BB gun. Rick had him close his eyes and hold out his hands and then gave him a gun. When he open his eys Jacob said "WOW! For real?" He was really happy.

Rick had a chiropractor appointment that day in the city and suprised us all by going to Tractor Supplies and buying us a gift. Rick walked in the door and pulled a Bantam peep out of his pocket for Jacob. (Jacob really has an obsession with those kind of chickens) and then he pulled out a Comet ROOSTER for me! Why do I consider that romantic?!?!? LOL I needed a purebred comet rooster for my chickens and now I have one. ((THANKS DADDY))

Notice his poison ivy is drying up....

Isn't he cute????

This is him in a patch of unusual flowers that grow in a circle at the bottom of the yard. Does anyone know what they are? From a distance it looks like a silvery white circle....

Gabe is **sort of** crawling. Jacob and Ben were both crawling by now but Gabe prefers the 'I'm being held' way of transportation. He IS the youngest of six! He has learned to pull himself up on things now. He says "mama" but he said "dad" first. He can wave his hand and say "hi" and poops and pees on the pot **IF** I take him on a half way regular schedule. He'll hold it for an hour or two or even three but after that he just goes.

I have not been on here much this month.

With Spring has come a busy, busy, busy life.... plus we were offline for a week because were going to go over on our usage!!

Well, here is what is new (I hope to post photos soon)

1. Jacob looks like he buried his face in poisen ivy. I think he got it while helping with firewood. He looks awful...
2. We hatched chickens.
3. We are hatching turkeys, a peacock egg and more chickens soon.
4. I am thinking about getting a milking goat.
5. I bought two pairs of breeding turkeys. One pair is Black Spanish and the other is Blue Slate.
6. We built 8 raised garden beds, a huge garden bed containing lots of corn and potatoes and a few other things.
7. Rick rehurt his back but is back to work. Tonight is his first night back... AGAIN!
8. We have had three yardsales this month on three different Saturdays.
9. I am pregnant- I am JUST KIDDING!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA LOL ROFLOL
10. We have been learning to harvest more weeds herbs and plants to eat. Dandelion Fritters are really good and so are Dandelions that are deep fried in batter!
11. We have two baby bunnies that were found in the woods. Dad almost cut one with a chainsaw when he was cutting firewood. They live with the baby chicks we hatched. Here is a photo- 

Everything went really well with the CYS guy today. Much better than I could of imagined!

He did NOT walk through our house. He did NOT make us sign papers. He did NOT seperate us from our children to talk to them.

He DID treat us like we were human beings. He WAS friendly and pleasant. If all caseworkers were like this man children and youth service would have a good name.

I just want to say THANK YOU to my prayer warrier people who have made this all possible and an even bigger THANK YOU to God for doing the answering. God is really good and has protected us from evil again.

Tuesday at 3:30 we will meet the CYS, children and youth services, man. I feel nervous about the whole meeting.

You hear horror stories about what people go through with government systems and their kids and it can be scary to even think about. When I talked to the lady from the CLA, Christian Legal Association, she gave me a stern warning to be careful and to find a lawyer because the CLA doesn't do those kind of cases.

Then when I talked to other people like Doug from the church we are attending, or another lawyer that represented CYS for a few years, they seem like we don't have anything to worry about.

The one lawyer that I talked to tonight said we should be fine except for CYS doesn't like it when you spank your kids with anything. He says you can use your hand but not anything else because the judges look down on it. It doesn't matter what the Bible says... It seems odd to me because why should you be able to hit your kids on the rear and rearrange their spine (ask a chiropractor- they probably never hit the kid on the rear like that) but you can't smack a kid with a switch from a tree on the skin just enough to cause pain.... hmmm... seems odd to me but whatever.

We will have to sign a paper, or at least that is what I have been told, saying that my kids get adequate health care, but then it should be open and shut.

So please, please, please pray for us as we go through these false accusations. Pray that God would help this to go smooth and that he will keep us together and calm mommy's nerves. 

We have an appointment with the Children and Youth Services on Tuesday at 3:30. Pray everything goes well and I am thankful the male caseworker seems nice.