Granola Giveaway #3

In celebration of my 200th post, I'm giving away a bag full of granola & farm goodies! Check it out -



This Farm Aid shopping tote is filled with some of my favorite earth-friendly products, an inspirational read and some gardening goodies to get you outside and planting. This package includes-

*Farm Aid "Farmers Kick Ass" shopping tote
*Farm Aid "Farmers Kick Ass" pin
*Alba Botanica Coconut Milk Face wash (Love this!)
*Three dishcloths, hand-knit by yours truly
*Biobag non-GMO, 100% compostable bags for your compost bin
*Ladies size medium Bamboo Gardening Gloves
*"Farm City" by Novella Carpenter (used copy, cuz that's how I roll)
*Miscellaneous heirloom seeds from Victory Seed Company

I'll probably throw a few more goodies in there before I mail this off, but you'll have to wait and see. ;)

All that you need to do to enter is to leave a comment on this post. I'll draw the winner on Friday the 17th, so check back and spread the word! Thanks again to all of my followers and friends for reading.

Good luck!!!

sitting in my chicken's yard
drinking cold red wine
swallows above dart and swoop

The Goatalympics!

One of my very favorite animal rescue organizations, New Moon Goat Sanctuary & Rescue, is sponsoring an event called the Goatalympics. I'm seriously thinking about entering a goat or three from my herd, since this is all in good fun and benefiting a great organization, and because even unruly, less-than-perfect goats are welcome.

They have a ton of different categories, both "skilled" and unskilled - obstacle course (aka "bribe a goat"), loudest bleat, prettiest eyes, widest goat, etc. So I'm looking for a little input here - if I were to enter, who should I enter and for which category/event? I can take up to three goats to the Goatalympics, but that might be pushing it for me to handle all three, even with help from the girls. You tell me - should I go? Who should I take and why? I have a small album of goat pics over on my GGG facebook page, but I'll include a few here as well, because like any proud Mama, I'll take any excuse to whip out the pictures of my babies. :)

Behold our potential contenders-


Fritzen, "The Boss-Lady"


Buckley, Teeny & Oreo, Fritzen's babies


Gertie, the Princess


Blue aka Donkeh (with Blackjack)


"Sassypants" Chardy


Archie, the one-horned eating machine


Spike, aka, Sir TurdBurglar

Only does and wethers (castrated males) are eligible, so Blackjack, Barley & Buckley will have to sit this one out. Review the candidates and take a peek through the "goats of happiness" category to get a little more insight into their individual personalities and tell me who should represent Boggy Hollow at the big game!

Waves of Usefulness

Our house guests have returned home now, and the house is quiet again, which is both nice and a little sad. Hanging with those crazy nephews of mine lets me be the nutty-fun auntie that chases and spoils the little maniacs until we all pass out. Good times!

But now that they're back home and I've mostly recovered from the cold and sinus infection that we all passed around, I finally find myself with a teensy bit of unscheduled time to knock out some more of our honey-do projects and even play outside a little. As my manic energy tends to do, my get-up-and-go has been coming in waves. I work my tail off on something on Sunday, then sleep and snarf down antihistamines and tylenol all day Monday. I don't seem to have a second gear.

Yesterday was my coma-nap day, therefore today is supposed to be a go out and kill it day. Meh.

I'm back to morning goat duty, after a generous hiatus afforded me by my darling husband, on account of my killer stomach bug and the time required for me to bounce crawl my way back to normal. Goat patrol, as we call it, really takes it out of me. Today I had to hike up the hill and back no less than four times (because of something that somebody did/didn't do who will be hearing about it tonight, I promise you.) These old bones can't go from zero to sixty like that! So now I'm taking my well-earned ease with a homemade frappuccino and pondering my next move. Put a few more plants in the garden? Take Spike for a walk on the leash to eat down some Scotch Broom? Take a nap in my lawn chair with a Diana Gabaldon book? Nah, No effing way and hells yes!

Today's wave was short but fast moving. I think I'm back to the trough. :)

P.S. - Look for my a Granola Giveaway coming up very soon, in honor of my 200th post!

Sweet Baby Violet

About 3 days old


She has her Papa's blue eyes and frosted ears.


Checking out the hay wagon with her Mama, Gertie


Hiding behind the shed


Mid-sproing!


Gert & Vi

The Gert-a-nator Gives Birth

FINALLY!

She toyed with us for days. A little nesting behavior here, an over inflated udder there, and nada. I had a sinking feeling that she was going to save her labor until I was home alone with all four kids (nephews are here) and no one to help either wrangle kids or stimulate babies. And she almost did, that Turkey!


My girls, chillin' with Gertie, waiting on some baby action.

Bill went up the hill to check on Gert one last time before bed last night and discovered the baby, just delivered. He came down to the house and got me. We waited there for another 30 minutes or so, watching to see if another was coming. Nope, just the one. She was awfully fat for having had just one little peanut in there! I'm sort of relieved that it was just one though, as this is Gert's first, and she's an "older mother" as goats go (four or five by the vet's guesstimate), leaving me feeling a little leery of her instinct/ability to mother her babe. So far so good, with the exception of the baby escaping by accident by walking right through the fence. She's tiny!

So here she is, our as yet to be named baby girl -


About 20 minutes old.

We're not sure yet whether or not we're keeping her. A lot of things depend on whether or not Gertie ends up being a good milker. Let's hope that she's at least better than our other Nigerian Dwarf.


Who, me? I'm straight-up DELIGHTFUL.

So our littlest Mama became a mom on Mother's Day - just barely. Now I'm off to share the good news with proud Papa Scout's owner. :)

We're still pondering about what to name her. Any suggestions?


Happy Mother's Day from Gertie & Baby Girl!

Bracing For Impact

My brother and sister-in-law and their two beautiful little boys are coming out to ye olde farm for a visit next week. These will be the first extended-stay guests that we've had in the new house, and therefore call for the first ever deep-cleaning of the new, 85 year-old house.

If I didn't hate well water before today (I did), I super, mega officially hate it now. I have to use scary chemicals that I abhor to get the gnarly rusty drip marks off of the bottom of my tub. We condition our water, but apparently enough iron remains that over the space of six months, it can accumulate enough to look like you've been showering in orange kool-aid.

I'm also going to use a little tax-return moolah to spring for a proper vacuum. I've been told that the Dyson pet hair model is the way to go. We don't have hairy indoor pets, but we do have a house full of individuals with eastern European genetics, so the pet hair function may come in handy after all. I am both scared and nerdily curious to see what and how much junk this thing pulls out of my carpets.

In addition to the sprucing up, I need to review my child-proofing. My nephews, God love them, will wait for the second you turn your back to take a pair of scissors to their socks (the 5 year old), draw on your Harley-Davidson with a sharpie (also the 5 year old) or attempt to fly, Batman-style off of the second floor balcony, using a sheet as his cape (come to think of it, that was the 5 year old too). Maybe I just need to hog-tie the big one and the little one and I will just hang out and snuggle?

So I'm in a bit of a nesting frenzy this week. I know that I'm going to drive myself (and by extension, Bill) nuts sweating the details right up until the minute that our guests arrive, but once the initial impression of the place is gelled in their minds, I instantly stop caring about the Martha details and just let it all go and enjoy their company. I'm really looking forward to our two families of four being one noisy herd of eight for a few weeks.

I especially like hanging with my nephews. I grew up in an all-girl house, and only having daughters myself, have sort of missed out on the boy experience. They are NUTS, and I love them for it. Maybe I can channel the energy of the 5-year old, aka, Sir Yaps A Lot, Mr. Sharpie, Doomed Batman, in a fruitful direction? What are the child labor laws in Washington state concerning kindergartners milking goats?

Nah, I'd better not. Knowing him, he'd probably sneak some scissors up there and give Spike an unflattering haircut.


No one looks good in The Rachel. No one.