Monday, December 29, 2014

Oh what a difference a day makes, as the old song goes.  Compare this picture to the one of the chickens below.  The chicken one was taken only about a week or so before this new one.  Today the temps have dropped again heading towards the minus sign New Year's Eve, possibly to -4° by then.  Ouch

Today the winds are swirling and howling all over north Idaho.  Last night was so noisy we had to lock the doors on the front porch to keep them from banging open.  Bella was sleeping on my bed ~ to protect me I guess.   pant * pant * pant ...  She was hot, I was not.

Got to head up to the post office later and dreading it in this wind and cold.  The roads most likely will be like glass and very icy.  But I want to pick up the Thunder Shirt I ordered for Dexter, our border-collie lab mix.  He's so hyper, we are hoping this will calm him down (like it says in the ad). 

He is one crazy dog.  Very very loving and affectionate but waaaay too excitable, even though this picture doesn't show it.  Maybe the Thunder Shirt will help.   Stay tuned ...

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

As you can see, we have no snow to speak of yet.  I took this picture earlier this week.  It seemed to me those silly chickens were thinking of going swimming.  Maybe they were just thinking of summer.  Anyway, it was pretty funny, considering our pool is covered for the winter with that blue tarp.




Now Bella on the other hand was staring very hard at something the other night.  I think she was looking for Santa.  Anyway, she stood just like this for several minutes.

Merry Christmas everyone.  We hope you have a blessed Christmas, a safe New Years and a wonderful 2015.

Here's a little video gift I thought you all would like as much as I do:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GSTH3G1YIs

God bless you all, thanks for your friendship. 

Friday, December 12, 2014

I was just sent this from a group message.  It is so cute I couldn't resist posting it even though it is an advertisement at the end.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzxkNRvujiw&index=1&list=PL1-mqr0NI6-odugr7gVwiSvjqVOYAaX-M

Enjoy!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

It's hard to realize I haven't written since the middle of October!  Things get so busy around here sometimes that time just slips away.  I guess that's just the way it is everywhere though, isn't it?  This is a picture I had wanted to post this fall but hadn't yet.  My niece on Hidalgo, who belongs to a good friend.  They get along very well and she is hopeful she will get to care for Hidalgo this summer.  She worked for some neighbors last summer and in turn got some great riding lessons.
Ok, on to Thanksgiving!  We decided to make our own homemade cinnamon rolls instead of buying them (we are saving that for Christmas!).  Here is a picture of the  defrosted frozen bread dough, rolled into little golf balls and placed in a bundt pan with melted butter, pecans, a cinnamon-sugar mixture, all sprinkled over the top and drizzled with melted butter.  It usually turns out really yummy except this time I couldn't find my old bundt pan so decided an angel food cake pan would have to do.  NOT.  Before it was completely done the butter / cinnamon mixture started leaking out the bottom in the oven, which started to smoke ... a LOT.  We had to take it out before it was completely done but the ones around the outside were delicious.  Guess I better buy another bundt pan.


So now it is two weeks from Christmas.  Sorry its been so long, I have so many other pictures I wanted to share but guess I will stick with just these.   Our local Community Center had a chili feed - meet Santa last Sunday so we went with the hopes of getting one of our doggies included.  They did say yes, but we won't do it again next year.  I don't think it was such a good idea since no dogs are allowed usually, but they were kind and allowed us this once.  I was standing around the corner and snapped this cute pic.


I finally was in the right place at the right time on this one.  Usually every time my niece's little dog snuggles up to our Great Pyrenees Bella, she starts growling and threatening to tear her apart.  I doubt she ever would do that but we always stop it before it happens.  This time I just happened to be standing there with my camera ready.  Guess Bella didn't know and would not have wanted us to know she really does like Jet.  

Not sure if I will be able to add much more to the blog before Christmas so if I don't, praying everyone will have a blessed and joyous one.  

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Fall is certainly apparent in north Idaho this week.  We've had such warm dry weather so far I hadn't really noticed Fall too much yet until yesterday. 

I got a box and went over to the orchard after I finished feeding our goats and chickens.  It had rained pretty hard in the night and continued all day yesterday but it was only misting lightly when I went into the orchard.  The trees were dripping  from the rain and the smell of wet earth, wet forest and sweet fruit was nearly overwhelming.  It was quiet as usual except for the clucking of the chickens and occasional drop of a ripe apple. 

These are Red Delicious apples.  We love fresh apples, but mostly they are sliced and dried at our house so we can still enjoy the taste long into winter and next spring.  We even had a house guest one time that loved them so much she ate an entire gallon bag in just a few days.  We have so many already on the ground that are ready to eat and hope to get the rest off the tree this weekend.

There is one little apple on the top right with a yellow spot that is from a different tree.  Usually they are not as good as the red delicious, but this year they are wonderful.  Sweet and juicy.  Since we don't use any pesticides here you get an occasional little tiny bug spot, but for the most part they are perfect and beautiful.

Speaking of goats, here is our cute little Smoky begging for a dried yellow
plum yesterday.  Egypt is in the background and just knows he will not be able to snag one.  Smoky is the big pig of the goat pen and fights for 'his' food.  Egypt and GE don't have a chance.

The picture on the right is that beautiful full moon we had last week.  We were on our way to a volleyball game and this picture was taken from the car.

I love the way the clouds look like long fingers reaching for the moon.


Sunday, October 5, 2014

Finally!  We finished putting our little goat shed together this week.  After getting it unloaded, which was a huge effort because of the weight,
and reading the directions over several times my niece and I got it mostly put up in two days.  First day was a killer.  Second day we didn't work as hard and quit earlier than the first day.

Getting the roof on was the last thing we did and probably the heaviest part of our construction job.







My niece is such a huge help, a very sharp eye for detail and also a bit of an artist so she knows what is aesthetically pleasing.  I usually follow the directions or do it my own way, then have to change it later because I don't like the way it looks.

The only really hard part was the lifting and my shoulders and arms were feeling it the next day.  She is very strong and active in sports so I don't think it bothered her as much as me.

So here is our new shed for the baby goats.  They seem to like it but I can't say I've seen them sleeping inside yet.  The day before we finished it the temperature that night was 28°.  Even our heater came on before time to get up.  Usually our house stays fairly warm when the days are warm.  If the days and nights are both cold then our house is freezing.

We placed straw in the bottom and locked one door shut while the other one will stand open until the weather turns rainy or snowy.  So far its been just beautiful.  An Indian Summer.  Days warm and sunny, nights cool sometimes frosty.  The water in the animal's buckets was frozen on top this week a few times.



And the new residents are curious about everything.  50/50 says What's Up?  And Comfey is (for once!) not the first one to get her picture taken.  She is so much bigger than he is I wonder if he will ever be a big boy, or maybe he will always just be my little boy.


Monday, September 22, 2014


Summer has finally gone.  Tonight is the first night of Fall.  I'm always sad to see summer leave, I love warm weather.  Although all of our summer or summers are not hot, I just know that our fall and winters will be cold.  Too cold for me anyway.  But now I can wear some of the nice and warm woven scarves I love so much.

The one I have on my loom in the house now is one for my daughter.  A beautiful rust color, plain weave and oh-so-soft rayon.  It is the color she wanted on the last one but I had added the cream and blue and she only wanted the rust.  So now she might get it before long.

Speaking of my daughter, she has had a lot of trouble with her left leg this summer.  First there was a blood clot in it, then it was going numb.  She fell a lot when it was going numb and finally broke her hip.  Surgery last weekend and she came home yesterday.  Lots and lots of pain for her, both before surgery and now at home.  But she is getting better and God is healing her.

Her little white parakeet  was attacked by one of our cats while we were gone the other day to the hospital.  All the kitties denied doing it but there were white feathers all over the floor when I got home that afternoon.  The redness is from the feathers being pulled out but its not blood.  She was very traumatized and quiet for a couple days but now seems to be her old talkative self.  She and the gray one chatter all day to each other and themselves in the little mirrors.  They are so cute but sure don't want to be held.  We try but they keep far away from us.

Our goats are all doing well, the cashmere boys have been mowing the pasture for the last couple months.  They finally got big enough to be able to spend time over there without Bella to guard them.  Unfortunately they can't stay over night because of the coyotes.  Bella won't stay over there at night, what a little coward she is!  Dolly lived over there, Bella will only go when she feels in the mood.  Mostly she sleeps in the house all day and most of the night.

With the inclement weather coming right around the corner, I needed a shelter for the little goats.  My builder friend has hurt himself and can't build the one I wanted, so I ordered one from our hardware store and plan on putting it together myself.  Today I unloaded all the pieces and stood them up against the fence by the woods where I will put the little shed.  From the directions, it doesn't look too hard to put together.  The only hard part is putting the roof on.  The parts all screw or slide together but the roof is pretty heavy for me.  I will get my niece to help but not sure if the two of us can do it properly.  I guess we will see.  Nice weather Fri, Sat and Sun, so am planning on completing it this weekend.

This is their picture of the shed.  I will post a picture of the one we put together when we finish putting the roof on.  

We did some really fun things this summer.  Went to the art show at the park in Cd'A, ate lots, bought a few things at the sidewalk sale and generally just enjoyed being out in that beautiful sun by the lake.  A few weeks ago we went to a gun show and took some knives to sell.  It was fun but sure didn't see too many folks buying anything.  Two days is plenty for me.

We hit a few yard sales and mostly just worked around here.  We've picked fruit, I planted a couple things in the garden (nothing turned out very well again this year) but I enjoyed mowing my grass.  I love that job, always have.  Especially now that I don't have to work as hard pushing a mower around the yard.




Saturday, August 2, 2014


Meet our new little baby boy!  His name is 50/50 and is the twin brother of our little girl Comfort.  She is so sweet and mellow but we think she has been lonely because she cries every time she sees us.

Our wonderful friends from Blacke KNYGHT Mews, the farm where we got her, visited the other day and agreed she needed a companion (playmate) so they offered her own brother.  They have been so happy to be back together, we let them out of the big pen for the first time today since we got him and she ran all around the yard bouncing up and down trying to entice him to come and play with her.  He finally got it!  He took off after her (boing♪ boing♪ boing♪ ) so now she is showing him all the good places to eat weeds and check out other fun stuff like the doggie door we have to the front porch.  So now he knows how to get to the front door for treats.

He has been banded so they won't be having any babies but they will be constant companions here.  We will definitely not eat him.  Like my friend told me, they don't name anyone they are planning on eating.  That's what I always tell folks, we don't eat anyone we have named.  Next spring we plan on breeding Comfort and do plan on eating some of the offspring.  Please don't call them babies  :-(  

On another subject, check out these beautiful colors on some wool.  In searching for something on-line the other day I came across the most interesting blog named Lil Fish Studios by Lisa Jordan in Brainerd MN.  With her kind permission I have posted some pix she had on her blog about dyeing fiber.  The blue at the top of the picture was dyed with black beans (believe it or not!) and the yellow has been dyed with that awful tansy we have so much of around here.  The green is the combination of both these dyes.

I am fascinated with how beautiful they are.  Lisa is so creative I definitely will be watching and reading her blog for more fun ideas.

For anyone interested her blog address is   http://lilfishstudios.blogspot.com

Thanks Lisa!

I have been soaking black beans and tansy for a few days, we will see what I get.  I used tap water which for us is well water.  Sometimes with that type of water you don't always get what result you are looking for.  I may have to try some bottled or filtered water. 

Friday, July 11, 2014

Don't you just love summer!?  I was out in the garden the other morning early and got these beautiful sunflowers facing the sun.  They aren't the huge ones but are very pretty.  And they move their little faces around to follow the sun.

The purple flowers on the right are my favorites!  They are called Campanula.  A few years ago I dyed and spun up some fiber the colors of these pretty flowers.  If you are curious, look back in my blog at the yarns.


And this is one of my favorite old, crusty, do-nothing things in the yard.  Its been there for years and I don't know what it was used for.  But we like it and just leave it where it is.  It's in the way but we go around it.

This is one of the only really shady places in our yard and just to the right of the purple flowers.

And here is our little girly-goat.  Comfort the bottle baby.  She craves human company (don't they all!) and will follow us all over the yard.  She even follows us up to the pool.  Very curious about it but not enough to jump in or take a drink like the kitties and dogs do.

She is such a love!  She sits on our laps and smiles.  :^}   Me too!

Sunday, June 29, 2014

 We've had so much rain lately!  We had our garden rototilled last month, then it started raining off and on.  Silly me, I waited too long to try and get out there to rake and weeds out that were loose.

Here's a picture of what it looks like today.  Those weeds are about knee to waist high now.  I had purchased a couple veggie plants at the store a couple weeks ago.  Waited for the rain to stop and finally took them out to the garden.

Since it was so wet I just sat them on a small cleared spot where I had removed some of the weeds.  Then ... of course I forgot they were out there.  So last week I went out to see if they were still alive.  Fortunately there was enough rain every day to keep them more than healthy.   Today is June 29 and I still have not planted them.

Oh well.  There's always tomorrow.

 If anyone thinks these hardy plants are not going to make it, take a look at our broccoli plant in this picture on the right.  You can see the weeds surrounding a darker green plant.  There's actually more than one plant as this is a six-pack container.

All it needs is a little TLC and to be freed from its prison of the container.  Talk about container gardening!  There are even a few little flowerettes of broccoli on the tops.

The picture on the left is our poor little tomato plant.  If you look very close, there is even a tiny little tomato right in the front.

See?  Not bad for still is the container.  I always said I had a brown thumb when it came to my garden.  Maybe the problem all along was me.  I should just leave well enough alone.

Actually, last year we had a pretty nice garden.  We had purchased the plants we wanted instead of doing the seed thing like the had the year before.  That didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, so last year we got fairly large plants and had more veggies than we could use.  We gave quite a bit away to friends and the church love pantry and still had enough to use, dry, and however else we needed to use them.  And we didn't even start the plants until July.

Let's hope this year is warm and drier than the last month.


Wednesday, May 28, 2014

A friend sent me a new word I just had to look up.   Hugelkultur.  I've never heard of this, its a type of raised garden bed that requires very little care after its constructed and no water!  Yes!!  My kind of garden.  Here is a most interesting link I found, there is a great video towards the top of the article.  Amazing, my garden looks nearly like this already.  I just might have to try something like this.  Actually its looks like our alpaca poo-pile in the pasture, the one where we go over and get a couple tractor scoops to put on our garden.  So check it out:    http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

We haven't planted a thing yet this year.  Its such a perfect year to plant too.  Lots of spring rains, warm weather, cool nights ... we've just been too busy to get out there after I had it rototilled.  Too bad, now we have to pull the weeds by hand.  Oh well, it keeps us young and strong (Ha!).

Our goats are munching down our pasture as hoped.  Bella has resigned herself to staying with them during the day but they all demand to be brought back by late afternoon.  They even stayed out in the pouring rain the other day without too much complaining.  They do have shelter in the barn but I guess they enjoyed the coolness of it.

And Bella was so wet when I brought her back into the house.  Talk about smelly!!  Phew!  Guess our next trip will be to the groomer.  And that dog sleeps on my bed.  Fortunately she had dried off by bed time.  P.U.   :-<

We have nine more baby chickens, lost one of the big babies, now they are nine also.  So 18 big and little fuzzy creatures running around the house with their moms.  Actually the first momma chicken has for the most part ignored her chicks.  They are big enough to roam the yards by themselves.  As long as our great pyrenees Bella can't find them and eat them they are safe.  Can you find the babies?  - - - - - >

One and a half more weeks of school to go, then out for summer.  My niece wanted to help the other day (Yes!) so I showed her how to mow the yard with the big mower.  What a great job she did.  She's very adept at learning new things.  And also very careful and didn't leave any 'holidays' as my husband called them.  Those little places in the lawn that you always miss and don't see until everything is put away.




Friday, May 16, 2014

Spring is definitely a welcome season.  Everything is so green and fresh.  I had a window open the other day early in the morning and it smelled so fresh and woodsy.  We must have had a little bit of rain or heavy dew that night because it smelled damp.  We are surrounded by forest and most visitors just love the smell, but I don't usually smell it any more.  Until the other day.  Heavenly!

Our little chicks are growing, their mama is so good.  Even our rooster takes good care of them.  They walk around the yard all day, mama clucking softly at them if they lag too far behind.  Mr. Rooster right behind them and will attack anyone or anything that comes close.  I think he got Dexter our border collie yesterday.  Dex has several spots on his nose that could use a little bit of hair now.  Because Dex is a herding dog he drives the rooster crazy because he's always just feet away from him and the chickens trying to get them to go one way or another.  Its a natural thing with him.  We've not trained him to do that.  He only likes chickens and won't have anything to do with the goats. 

The pictures below are of my very first hand knit socks I made.  I actually wore a big hole in the bottom because I wore them so much.  Not on the back of the heel, but on the bottom of the heel.  I tried repairing them a couple years ago but it was awful.  I couldn't even wear them.

Then a friend sent me a couple of websites on how to do it the right way.  You can see how big the hole was on the left.  I didn't think I would ever wear them again.  I used a darning egg for the first time and I can see now why they used to be so popular.  You can hardly find the darning eggs any more.  We live in such a 'throw away' world.

The one on the right is the finished product.  I love these socks.  They are wool, and so warm.  I can wear them with no shoes in the house and it keeps my perpetually cold feet nice and toasty.

The last pair of socks I made are too large even though I have washed them several times.  They are so pretty though I just put them away in my closet. 


Monday, April 28, 2014




We're so excited ... we have baby chicks.  They started hatching yesterday.  First one died, not even dried off.  It was fairly large but not sure what happened to it.  Just cold laying near the hen.  It probably crawled out from under her too far or she decided to get up for whatever reason and it got hypothermia.  We disposed of its little body, then started checking for more every few hours.  By last evening we had four in the house getting warm with food and water we'd added electrolites to.  When we returned them to the nest before dark, there were several more.

We decided to leave them all there and let momma chicken tend to them.  She's very sweet, a good mom and was getting a little testy with us lifting her up so often.  There is another clutch going on in the little chicken coop we bought last summer.  My daughter actually lifted the flap covering it a couple days ago and a hen was sitting there ... they scared each other pretty good!  We have 10 eggs in there now, but this hen doesn't seem to take her job as seriously as our first hen.  We'll see.  Most eggs are fairly large but there's one that's about a big as a green olive.  So funny.  I'm sure there's nothing in there.  We've had those before.

Our border collie mix Dexter still continues to worry our rooster.  He's herding him, but only the rooster and not the hens.  I think Dex thinks he is in need of some help.  Rooster Cogburn (I'm thinking of changing his name, he's so ornery) never attacks Dex but saves up all his anger and anxiety for one of us when we walk out to the pens.  His favorite trick is to attack from behind.  And it Hurts!  I've been told to spray him with vinegar in a spray bottle.  Maybe that will work.

The goats are nearly all combed now.  Egypt and Smokey feel better, only GE is left.  I saved him for last because he doesn't have a collar to hold on to and his fiber is very thick with very long guard hair.  Its going to take some doing to get him done in a couple days.

Our weather is still cold, in the 30's at night.  We had snow yesterday along with a lot of rain and hail.  Typical spring weather for us.  Our weather person on TV did say it should be 75 by Thursday this week, but then back in the 50's a couple days later.  As I've said before, our summer really doesn't get started until after July 4.  Its not very long, but is spectacularly beautiful.

I promised to post some pictures today when I headed out to the pens.  We wondered how many chicks made it through the night, and how many more there are.  My daughter checked this morning and she saw two under momma but heard a lot of chirping.  At last count this evening we had eight little chicks and still have four eggs in that nest.  The second nest in the little coop looks the same except there's one more in there now bringing the count to 11.  Hope these hatch too but they've been cold a lot for long periods of time.  I would put them under the first hen but she's getting so thin from not eating much and sitting on her little clutch of eggs day and night.



Sunday, April 20, 2014

The picture at the top of my blog is of the beautiful little puppies born a few weeks ago at the farm where my niece and her puppy are going for obedience training and where Jet was born too.  Aren't they cute?!!

My niece's puppy Jet is growing into the sweetest, prettiest little girl.  She's now eight months old, doing her puppy obedience training so well and for the most part behaving like a puppy should.  The only thing that could use a little work is when she's playing with the other big dogs, she really thinks she's one of them.  They are very careful not to hurt her but she's definitely learning some naughty tricks.

Our border collie mix and our great pyrenees play pretty rough together.  The border collie the roughest I think.  He certainly isn't afraid of Bella.

Bella used to be the roughest, naughtiest dog ever.  Her favorite trick was to jump on anyone who walked by.  At over 100 pounds, she could knock me over very easily.  Now, she just calmly walks up for a pat and a hug.  Such a love!


I'm planning on making an alpaca scarf, my wonderful friend in Kentucky gave me some alpaca yarns and I'm wanting to use them for this project.  The scarf on the right is a picture from a magazine that I fell in love with and would like to try and duplicate it.  It is 100% alpaca yarns.  My scarf won't be nearly as large but I like the combination of natural colors.



 These are the yarns I got from my good friend at Serano Alpacas in KY.  The dark brown on my bobbin is from our alpaca Jasper, also from Serano Alpacas.

Since I had his fiber made into the most beautiful roving at our local mill, Fibers First, I've been spinning it not knowing what exactly to do  with it but now I think this will be a perfect fit for this scarf of many colors.

I may not have quite enough colors, so after I get a portion of the warp warped I can tell more easily and I Always have lots of alpaca to spin up, lots of colors including black.  More later on this project.

I still have several projects we call UFO's.  Unfinished Fiber Objects ... like the beautiful red / gold / orange / black scarf I still have on my loom from two summers ago.  I really need to get that one done.  Better vacuum off the dust which has accumulated on the loom!

Have a Joyful Resurrection Sunday, everyone.  May God bless you richly.

Monday, March 31, 2014


Saturday I went to the annual Log Cabin Spinners fiber fair and Templin's Best Western hotel in Post Falls.  I love going, have been nearly every year since it started.  Vendors from all over come to show their beautiful wares.  Lots of local farms with freshly sheared fleeces, our new local mill that did such a beautiful job on my alpaca fiber, farms and businesses with supplies, finished yarns, door prizes.  Its always so much fun and I get to see lots of friends.

One of my most treasured friends I saw was the wonderful lady who bought my first two cashmere goats, Hope and Faith.  Janice takes such good care of them and now has around 20 I think.  She has these girls bred and just sent me their photos.  They look just beautiful.  Hope is on the right, Faith on the left.

I am hoping to visit Janice's farm this summer, and of course the 'girls'.  I guess I should call them 'ladies' now though.  Hope's picture shows her huge tummy.  She is due to kid today!  I can't wait to see what she has.  Janice and I agreed she looks like she will be having triplets!  Ouch.

I'm not sure if Faith is bred or not.  But they both sure throw beautiful kids.  There is a picture near the top of my blog on the right showing two kids born a couple years ago to them.

I never did have them bred.  First they were a little young, then I sold them.  I almost (Almost) wish I'd had them bred when I had them, but I know nothing about animal birthing and didn't want to have to head out in the snow and cold and dark of winter in case one came early.

Guess I'm just getting too old.  I'm happy to just be a grandma to them.

No pictures of our new puppy this time.  She has discovered the joys of rolling in chicken-poo.  Go figure.  Fortunately the other two have given up that since they grew up.  P-U!  And my niece and her puppy are doing really well at puppy training on Sat mornings.  Right now they are working on 'come', 'sit', all the cool things that would ordinarily drive you crazy.  Walking off the leash is also a big step.

It would be nice to be able to take at least one of our dogs for a walk without the dog taking Me for a walk.  When we had our other Great Pyr, Jessie, I put both him and Bella on leashes and when they saw the guys working on our woods behind the house, they pulled me face-down through the bushes to get to the men.  Those guys thought is was funny.  Me, well not so much.  Oh well.  I won't try that again.  Over 225 lbs of dog(s) is a little too much for me to handle.

Friday, March 21, 2014

 Here on our little farm we are all about animals.  Big ones and small ones.  We just love them.  In past years my daughter has played foster mom to around 300 motherless newborn kittens.

On the right is a recent picture of Willie.  He was one of our first foster kittens and we couldn't part with him so he is also one of our rescue animals.  I just love him.  Very sweet, very calm, except when it comes to our kitty River, also a foster and rescue.

They just don't get along for some reason.  River is a girl, you'd think they would like each other.  For some reason Willie thinks he should be the main kitty that gets to sleep in my bedroom.  River is actually the one who lives in there because she is such a nervous Nellie that she doesn't like being around other cats.

Then we have Bella, our Great Pyrenees.  She also sleeps in my bedroom because she is so noisy at night.  As a natural guard dog she should be outside guarding our little goats but Noooo, she is guarding me.  Guarding me consists of her sleeping on my bed, sometimes nearly on top of me, and growling from time to time to keep the boogie man away.  I've almost gotten used to having her in there after 2-3 years, but not quite.

Our new little rooster, Kung Pao nearly became chicken soup the other day.  For some reason he decided to play attack rooster and when I went outside to do some chores he came flying directly at me.  He tried several times and finally succeeded in hitting me with his tiny little spurs on the calf of my right leg.  I still have two little bruises!  We seriously didn't think he would do that, he's been so sweet.  After I kicked him in the chest the next several times he tried it he finally walked away.  Then he tried it on my daughter and my niece, both who succeeded in dissuading him in the same way as I had.

So far since then he's been great.  I think he's just in love with those sister wives, one in particular.  The two of them are always in the chicken coop together while the other two hens are cleaning up bugs in our yard.  We have started getting eggs again but are reluctant to take them into the house unless they are ice cold.  We're hoping at least one of our hens will get broody and we will have some spring chicks pretty soon.  So far the hens haven't figured out that part yet.  Guess I'll get a couple wooden eggs so she can get the idea.

Spring is finally here, always an exciting time around here.  Lots of work to do, clean up from the winter, re-doing some projects and yardwork that looks pretty bad after the wind / rain / snow from winter.  But at least we can put away our snow shovels and the rest of the snow-type stuff that we have all over.  Our snow blower will be the first to go back into the garage until next winter.

 Here's my wonderful neighbor snow plowing our driveway.  Now this is the way to do it!  I am upstairs taking his picture, in my jammies, drinking my coffee.  What a life!  Thanks Adam.   :-)

This is the only time we had to plow this winter.  Not too bad for north Idaho.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Our newest addition to our little family is a little Polish Crested rooster the girls have named Kung Pao.  I cannot remember his name.  Sometimes its Kung Foo Chicken and sometimes its something else.  Seldom can I call him Kung Pao.  Oh well, I'm sure he doesn't care.  He is a sweet little guy, a little on the thin side compared to the Sister Wives, those black and white Mottled Java hens we got last summer, but he is a good rooster and takes very good care of them.

He will herd them around the yard clucking softly like he's talking to them.  So funny and so cute.  If I go out there he will side-step towards me giving me the stink-eye look off to one side of his head.  As long as he doesn't play attack rooster we will be fine.  He will walk the chickens all around the yard in different places, and if one heads off in a different direction he will go after her and bring her back to the rest of the flock.

I just love him.

And with the onset of Spring with all the snow melting away, there's always the dark side -- mud.  Our driveway is gravel but the more we drive over it the muddier it gets.  Then the road from our house down to a larger dirt road that heads down to the paved highway, well you can imagine all these well traveled dirt roads turning into big mud puddles.  Here is a picture of the road that heads down towards the highway from our house.

But I guess its better than the summer dust.  There's not a season that something isn't irritating about that dirt road.  Winter, Spring or Summer.  Its all good though.  It gets us home.

This is a picture from last week when it rained every day.  Quite a little stream heading down the hill.

Believe it or not, here is our little black goat Smoky.  His fiber is coming is so beautifully and it is much lighter than the black guard hairs that keep him clean.  As you can see on the tips of his horns, the soft cashmere is just about ready to be combed out.  A few more days and I can tie him to one of the corner posts in the pen to comb the cashmere.  We don't shear them so we don't have to de-hair the fiber.  Much easier.  They are somewhat itchy right now so I think they will enjoy this, even though it will be their 'first' combing.

He is so sweet.  These guys are nothing like the Naughty Boys we used to have, those pesky little Pygoras.  They would jump up on me when I would go in the pen and knock the feed dishes out of my hands.  Cute little faces though.  But these boys are much nicer.