Jul. 17, 2008
All About the Horses
 Well, it's certainly been awhile! As the 4-H horse project year comes to it's close, the livestock projects get ready for county fair. The kids are having tremendous fun with their horses. We have one for almost everyone in the family, and that was my ultimate goal. That's Matthias on his steed, The Silver Bullet, Maranatha! on her horsie, Cowboy, and Miekhylla loves her horse (used to be mine 'til she claimed him-LOL), Prince Charming (The Boyfriend Replacer). Our oldest boy at home, (Matthias 14, now) had earned grand champion horse judging and got the travelling trophy and silver&gold award buckle for it. Here's pictures if I can pull this off, yet. I'm still just as computer illiterate as I ever was. Too busy outdoors to do much computer, still. |
Jun. 12, 2007
The New 2007 Schoolyear Has Begun!
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Here we are at the new schoolyear already. Here in the hot desert southwest, we begin in the summer and end in the fall. Since we're on the ranch, we don't go on vacations like so many families do. We have too many responsibilities right here. The livestock would die if we didn't tend to them all day. We can school in the air-conditioning and take recess in the "cow can", but the shallow water drinkers need sprayed down and water refreshed between noon & 1:pm. The livestock suffer so this time of year, but we do all we can for them. The larger ones fare better than the small stock. Matthias is staying home from his apprenticeship, now that the farrier's son is home from school, and he can get down to the books during the hot hours. He/we have worked hard outside all winter/spring long, and therefore, we all look at our schooldays as a restful break. We head out there 'bout 4:pm each afternoon because we still have plenty of ranchwork to do. Just not the intensive labor we had last winter/spring. The county fair is coming up in September, and that means big business for us. Last year we won grand champ doe in milk and dairy sire which led to more customers than we could even handle. This will be the first year Miekhylla will be allowed to show her livestock and a first for her horse events so she's very excited. This will be the first for me to show with my horse too, therefore, we have plenty o' practice to do in the evenings. Matthias has just wrapped up his 4-H horse season so he doesn't have to do as much to stay tuned up, but he has a lot of other projects he's taken on therefore his work with them escalates. He hopes to make a lot of money at auction to go to farrier's school when he graduates. We'll end sometime in October if the schoolwork is done. Matthias will head back to work after fair, after 4-H record books are squared away. It's so easy to incorporate that into schooling. Right now, all is humming along. The kiddos are just coming in from recess/noontime chores, so it's back to the books. Malachi and the younger 2 girls are sleeping, so now it's time to work with the olders individually. Matthias will do his Bible copywork/ independent study while I work with Khyllie on her Polished Cornerstones, then Khyllie will do her copywork/I.S. while I work with him on his Plants Grown Up study. We'll all be finished up about the time the youngers get up & we'll do Considering God's Creation together. Starting next week Wednesdays, we'll all get together with the church family at our little country church for an informal homeschool co-op. We'll start with one class and add more as we play it by ear. We've never done something like this before, but we love each other greatly, so to us, it really doesn't matter what we do. I'm looking forward to it. It should be great fun! |
May. 17, 2007
A successful class today-not necessarily with the children!
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I just taught an hour long class today for $20 to a lady that goes all over the country learning different aspects of culinary arts! Next month, she goes up to Sonoma for seven months to learn baking or something from some sort of classy Sonoma wine country chef. She was a very nice lady and has had quite an adventurous life going all over the world. She wants to learn one aspect at a time from individual teachers b/c she says the all-inclusive culinary schools generalize too much, and the private party who's specialized has a better all around class to teach. By next year she's going to own an organic private exclusive restaurant, and she's going to use my goatsmilk cheese recipes that she learned this morning! Now, I know that $20 isn't that big a deal for someone who's going to make a fortune from what she learned, but I'm sure she'll send more students my way, and she wants to use MY farm products in her restaurant!! I hope my 10 milkers by next year will be able to keep up with the demand, and she says she wants to use our eggs, fresh turkeys and chickens. She bought me out of eggs today, and next week she wants more when she comes over for my soft cheeses class! I'm going to start right away keeping track of how much these goats are making me, so that when dh has to put up more fencing for them, I can remind him how they're paying for themselves! Wooooo-hooo! |
May. 14, 2007
Chicken Butcher Day Spring 2007
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The first of the year. We processed 55 young cornies and 1 ol' rooster on Saturday, May 12th. We had 9 workers and 10 children in attendance. I didn't count young Matthias or a young lady from church his age as children because the work they did was worth their weight in gold. Andrea plucked so fast and gutted so skillfully, and Matthias did everything from killing to scalding to detail plucking, gutting and especially keeping the chicken plucker clean between birds.I provided food to eat for the hungry workers, and oh, what a sweet time of fellowship. There's a couple more pictures in my photo file here in our blog. Q:What time is is when you hear the roosters crowing at 3:am? A:Time for butcher day! I love life here on the ranch. We can eat our problems. YAY! FYI, the camera doesn't take this bad of pictures, this site posts 'em that way when I dunno' how to make 'em better here. |
May. 7, 2007
Hittin' the Trail
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O.K. This is my first attempt at getting a picture up. You can see the horses better than you can see my family! UGH~ I'll keep tryin', here. I still can't seem to upload a new avatar. I have such a nice picture of all of us from this past Christmas, too. Well, anyway. Here's a picture of some of the family taking a horseback ride together. Notice the nice temperatures? This was taken back in mid-December. I loooove living here in the warm desert!! |
Apr. 29, 2007
A Productive Saturday!
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So glad to have made a HUGE bowl of lettuce from six whole heads, since they were on sale for only .99/each at the store. Made all the fixin's to go with it. Had sooo many cracked eggs from the chicken coop, I hard boiled them all & sliced them to go into the salad, plus green onion, cucumber, tomatoes, sliced black olives, celery, and of course garbanzo beans. I was able to keep the whole family going throughout the day by just setting it up in serving portions as they got hungry. So, Bob stayed working on the new kid pen. Now, I just milked a gallon today by getting them kid goats out of the doepen! Matthias constructed a shade shelter for the chicken coop. A couple of his friends stopped by & he recruited them to help him. They got that and a new turkey pen set up, too. Miekhylla mucked out her horse's pen while Maranatha! and Mary-Anna rode bikes and cleaned up the yard. Bob and Matthias also checked out the coolers atop the house & got them ready to run and set up the new vegetable garden right outside the classroom window. I shall start planting tomorrow if there's time. If not, I'll enlist the children on Monday. For supper, I served more salad, but I marinated/poached some chicken breast to add on top. We ate out on the front deck in the cool of the late afternoon. It was so very nice. I'm very looking forward to tomorrow because we all at church are going down to the river for Matthias and a sister in the body are getting baptized down there! Matthias is sure growing up. He's turning out beautifully. Praise the Lord! |
Apr. 25, 2007
Finally making my first entry!
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Well, I'd hoped to get the hang of this weblogging thing before I make an entry that'd make me look less than basically computer literate. I wanted to put up a family photo right on the opening page and have this for more than just family pictures. I wanted to make my first entry so very profound as to lead everyone to at least think of more than just their basic day-to-day grind. However, the best laid plans don't always come to pass. I put this weblog up just before Christmas for friends near & far to see family pictures of our life out west here, but also for you all to be able to read and see what we're doing on the ranch, in our school, how we're doing spiritually and just generally what we've got to say. More than just an online journal, but a place to "touch base" with us as well. I truly hope to make more entries here for you all to read very soon and often, now. I hope to keep the allowances in my hectic schedule around here for my own computer time, and not let "my time" to be the first thing that gets axed when the day gets a bit busier. |