I love this picture.  I've named it Peaceful Pastures.  It looks so serene.  Our livestock guard dog (LGD) Bella has finally realized how lovely it is to be over in the pasture during the day with the goats.  She is nearly six years old now, very stiff with her bad knees but does such a great job guarding all five of them.

She can be away from the other dogs, all the cats except for Willie, our little black one and me chasing her out of the house every time she comes in.

The pasture has once again begun to turn green with the warmer weather and the nice rain we've had for the last few weeks.  Not every day, just when things need a little greening up.

The goats are great at keeping down the weeds as they thrive not so much on grass but on weeds and brush.  Not to say they don't like eating hay (which they do) but they are healthier with the brushy stuff.  It keeps their rumen in good working order.

So check out this pretty runner I got the other day at TJMaxx.  I bought it for our back door and it helps to keep our carpet cleaner.  It was Very reasonable in price as most stuff at TJMaxx usually is.

The only problem I have with it is it will 'walk' or move when anyone or any animal walks on it.  Gets a little bump right in the middle, you can almost see it in this picture.  I think it must have been folded there before I bought it.

Oh well, its a lot easier and cheaper to clean this one or throw it away and buy a new one instead of doing the entire carpet in the room.

And I like going to TJM anyway seeing all the pretty stuff they have there.

I got a new app for my phone the other day that I can make these line pictures with.  I took an old picture of Bella and used the app.  I love the way it looks.  I may just have to take it to FedEx / Kinko's and have a large print made up of this.

I wonder what else I can do with it ... ?

Oh yes, our chickens have started laying lots of eggs again.  We were only getting about one a week this winter but now can get as many as five a day.  They are so good.  The yokes are bright orange and stand up very high when I fry them.  Nothing like the light yellow eggs we get when we have to buy them.

Right now I have about five dozen in our refrig and have given some away.  Last year we used mineral oil on them to try saving some.  Good, but not like fresh.

 I was watching a couple of videos this morning of parakeets.  YouTube has some amazing ones.    This one has sound and was so cute with two birdies courting each other. 

All of a sudden my crazy kitty River jumped on my desk and could not get enough of the videos, pawing the screen.

The picture below on the right is my Great Pyrenees Bella in for a groom.  She hates for me to leave her anywhere, even in the house.  I took her to a new groomer last week, a very nice lady with a great facility.  After I left to get in the car, Bella walked to the window and watched me leave.

I missed the opportunity to get her sad eyes pleading with me not to leave her and by the time I got my phone out to take her picture the groomer Karen had put a leash on her to bring her back over the the tub area.

But if you look closely you can still see her sad look.  Too funny.  But she looked so pretty and sure smelled a lot better!  Thanks Karen.

Today is just beautiful, at least in the 60's sunny and warm.  Our chickens have been loving it.  We only have six chickens left but still have 4-5 roosters I can't catch.  They eat a lot but also keep the bugs down on the property.  One of these days they will be chicken soup.

I found some chicken nesting boxes on sale yesterday.  The one I got is 36" long, divided into three nests and the box is made from wood.  Its pretty nice.  Now we just have to figure out where to put it.  The chickens have decided roosting in our big bull pine behind the old goat pen at night is more fun than in the chicken coop so they rarely go in the coop any more.  That makes it hard to put some nesting boxes around.  Right now they are using the little two nest gray coop we bought two summers ago.  Its pretty well worn out but every day we get at least four eggs, sometimes more.  And talk about large eggs.  I will post a picture of the box as soon as I can get it put together.  Their other favorite place to lay eggs is in the dog kennel.  Go figure.

So far the new goat shed we put together last fall is doing a great job.  The goats seem to like it and it has kept them warm and dry this winter.  I'd like to get another one only a little larger this time.  We will see what happens this summer.  I did buy some electronic fencing last winter that hasn't gone up yet.  It takes a battery and a charger that I still need to buy.  Its not a permanent fixture and can be moved anywhere.  A great way to keep some of the weeds down and still maintain at least a little landscaping.

Then we're planning on redoing our electric fence around the pasture.  It works great until a tree falls on it and breaks the wire.  A couple years ago somehow it got cut in two or three places.  Not sure if it was human or animal that did that.  Probably those sharp little deer hooves heading over the top.  Or maybe a moose or two.

Don't forget to set your time forward tonight.  Happy Spring everyone!

 Isn't this a great shot of a young moose!  He was walking along the highway the other morning as I was taking my niece to school.  I dropped her off and on my return trip home I decided this time I would be ready to take a picture.  There he was again.  And there was no one on the highway either direction as far as I could see so I stopped and took several pix.  By then two cars were coming down behind me so I drove off.  As I did I could see both of them stopping to get a good look.  This guy is possibly a part of a family of moose that live around that area.  It is within a mile or so of our landfill, don't know if that has anything to do with it but there's a huge male that makes his way across the highway every so often.  Then there's a female I've seen with a much smaller calf walking along the road. 

 My daughter has a new addition to her aviary of parakeets.  This little yellow boy is so sweet and appears to be smaller, possibly a little  younger than the original two but about the same size and the little white with blue female.  They had more fun yesterday chasing each other around, everyone wants to sit with the new little guy.  His nose is already bright blue indicating he's  a male so we are really hoping we were right about the little one in the back on the right picture being a female.

The blue one and the white one are a mating pair and were the original ones she got  We're hoping these two little ones will also mate.

This will be short today.  I've been working on my tax stuff to take to the accountant and still have quite a bit to get organized for her.  I always hate this time of year, not because its so hard but it takes so much time!  Good luck with yours.  :-)

One night last week we were trying to figure out what to eat for dinner.  That's always hard for me.  I think I need someone to come in every night and cook for me.

We decided to have one of my daughter's favorite dishes ... 'Musgo'.  That means (according to her) to use everything in refrigerator that must go.  So we ate up the rest of the salad makings, fried up the rest of the kale (yummy!)  and made some angel hair pasta with the remaining myzithra cheese grated over the top.  Wow.  Delicious. 

Here are some cute pix, the little bird is daughter's new baby parakeet.  She has named it VanGogh.  Because it is so colorful, I guess.  She doesn't know if its a boy or girl, we will have to wait until its nare or nose, located just at the top of its beak, turns blue or brown.  All babies under about six months old have a neutral or purple nose.  Then boys are blue and girls are tan or brown.  Easy.

And here is our little Angel.  She is the little kitty I found in October 2009.  She was in our pasture sitting in the center of a circle of alpacas with our Great Pyr, Dolly, carefully watching over her.  Tiny, thin and scared to death.  She looked like a fuzzy little tennis ball.

I brought her back to the house in my jacket and gave her to my daughter, who had just lost one of her favorite kitties.  She was convinced the new kitten was sent by God and thus named her.  Angel is Much fatter these days.  :-)

I haven't been doing any fiber-y stuff these days.  Just can't seem to get going on a project and certainly have not finished some I started previously.  Oh well, there's always tomorrow.  I have to really be in the mood.  So these pix will just have to do for now.  Enjoy!

In December 2014, I finally got something for myself I have wanted for a couple of years.  The 'magical' Addi Express knitting machine.

I've always wanted a knitting machine but they are sooo expensive.  The Addi will knit in the round OR back and forth for flat items.

These are some of the hats I made for my family and friends for Christmas.  It takes me about an hour to finish one.  The yarn on the left shows the way the variegated yarn looks before knitting.

And here are a few, some plain yarn and some also variegated.  I really love the brilliant colors.

This grey on on the right of this page is my favorite.  I knit it for my mother.  The yarn is a little bit thicker and makes a much denser hat.

 I've been knitting them double, they are actually reversible and if I do a different color about half way, you could conceivably have two hats in one.

If anyone wants information on this machine there's a sweet lady named Margaret on YouTube that has some great videos.

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 ...

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. 

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!

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.  

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.

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.

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.