the puppies -

the puppies are here - 7 males and 3 females - :) not sure on the colors yet but they are going to be ready to go the week before christmas if not sooner - theyare already eating puppy food - very cute and very sweet -

Puppies are coming - (for sure this time)

Just an FYI - we will be having Purebred Heeler puppies born at our house around the end of October first part of November - ready to go for Christmas!

Mom is Ginger and is a blue - Dad is Bo and is a Red - so should be cute puppies!

schools started, time for pumpkins, fall is here!

The time has come for another update - Let's see where to begin -

Faith, Hannah and Alexis started school on September 12th- Faith is a big 5th grader now and the twins are in Kindergarten - so far things are going good - Alexis being Alexis has missed recess a few times - according to her teacher she is "strong-willed" - umm ya think! They are in the same class together for this year just because it's the only afternoon kindergarten - Faith is enjoying her class - she says her teacher is mean at times - but in a good way - her teacher has been at Redland the longest teacher and has been teaching for over 25 years - hmmmm - kinda makes me think of another teacher I once had - we have our first 4-H meeting on October 26th - Faith is going to be involved with showing rabbits and learning about rabbits - the twins will be in "clover buds" which is K-3rd grade - not sure what all they get to do but I am sure we will soon find out - Hannah has lost her first tooth - and the other one is almost completely all the way in behind it - Alexis has one loose - the opposite of the one Hannah lost - funny how that works - Fall is quickly arriving at our house - Air conditioners are coming out - wood stove is coming on - our trees are quickly loosing their leaves - and the wind is a howlin' - the girls and I went to the pumpkin patch the other day and came home with several pumpkins - several more than we actually needed but it was fun - Doug's aunt and uncle have a pumpkin patch so that was fun to go to - even though the girls weren't feeling well - but mommy had promised to take them so away we went - it was a fun but quick trip -

well we have puppies coming the end of October first part of November - Bo and Ginger are to be parents - not sure how many or what yet - but we do know the end of October beginning of November - Chickens are doing good - Rodney the Rooster has found his voice - he's loud and obnoxious but I guess were keeping him - the hens need to start laying - ready for some fresh eggs- not sure what there issue is - and the rabbits yes well there just rabbits - no babies there yet either - Jake's not doing his job :)

Well that's a bit of a update for now - talk to ya'll soon

" A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs.
It's jolted by every pebble on the road."

Time for an update

well the time has come for an update on our "little" farm - we've been a little busy lately - our garden has completely taken off - we are almost to the end of the cukes (finally) after 45 jars of pickles, just getting started on the beans - have come to the realization that pole beans are so much better than bush beans - and so much easier - and yes the stark realization that 3 rows of beans are WAY TOOO MUCH!!! we have gone through an entire case of pint jars already and starting on the 2nd one tonight - we picked over 4 safeway shopping bags full of beans and that was only the first row - all in the 98 degree weather last night - ughhhh!!!! our potatos are done - they are dying - but the potatoes are still in the ground - staying nice an cool - we have dug up 2 rows and in one of those we dug up a potato that was 5" long x 5.5" wide by 8" round - IT WAS HUGE!!!

I finally think my lovely husband has come to the realization that our garden was a bit much this year- kinda thinking we overdid a few things - like the 133 hills of potatoe's - thinking we may downsize just a bit next year - so he says now - but most likely it will just be bigger next year! oh boy

I also took to the task this year of doing jam - so far I did about 20 jars of strawberry jam - and am patiently waiting for the Blackberry's to come on - so I can do some of those too - I can't believe how easy they were to do - and heck my christmas presents are done for the year!! whoo-hoo!on to the animals -

our chickens are now pretty much HUGE too - we actually should start getting some eggs here within the next month or so - we do have one rooster that have discovered - he won't be staying - we have 4 rabbits - 3 does and one buck - the buck is Roscoe, and we have lulu, daisy and jessi - see a pattern here :) speaking of bucks though - Doug and I have now seen 3-4 HUGE bucks on our property - we are talkng a 4x5, 4x4 and a HUGE 5X5 - we have seen more bucks than does this year which is FANTASTIC!

We've got Pickles

So - Doug did his first jar of pickles last night - he was very proud - we were able to use our own dill that we grew and everything - the garden is huge right now - he has finally decided he may have gone a little overboard this year on the potato's (ya think) - but hey at least we know we will eat them - if not I am sure we can find those who will - the potato's are almost the size of the twins and the beans aren't far behind - the tomato's still have some catching up to do -

Beau has fit right into the family as you can see - this is him and Faith on the floor in the living room - he's a little spoiled - Faith will be doing 4-H this summer with a new bunny which she earned for getting her grades back up where they belong - struggled a bit with that this year - along with a cheerleading camp at the church - she has also taught herself how to knit - yes taught herself because I sure as heck didn't teach her - ya'll know how well I do with that "crafty" stuff :) she is currently using a pen and a pencil as knitting needles because she broke the one that she could find and well can't find the other one - she supposedly is knitting a scarf - all I can say is she has a lot more patience than me -

that's all for now - I am sure there will be more to chat about after the weekend is over -

Hmmmm - Let's see where to begin............

let's see where to begin ....................

a) we have a new dog and gave another one to a new home - we sent Lilly to a new home where she has the attention she deserves - and we have now acquired mr. Beau - Mr. Beau is a 6 month old red heeler - I found him off of craigslist and made a decision he could not go back to where he came from - him and Ginger are like too little peas in a pod - it's actually perty funny -

b) we have new Rabbits -they are meat rabbits - so you know what they will be used for - the white is a doe the brown one is the buck - Doug says it tastes like chicken - we plan on breeding them eventually - they are only 8 weeks old right now -

C) we now have the "bobsy" twins - Hannah and Alexis decided that they needed new haircuts on saturday - they proceeded to give themselves new hair cuts, yes I did say themselves, so Hannah now has a "condor" on the top of her head (it's actually a "peacock") per the lady at the salon - and Alexis has a very short bangs to the right - the nice lady at the salon was nice enough to inform to them how longs she had to school to LEARN how to cut hair - and made them pinky swear NEVER, NEVER, NEVER to do this again - Daddy says next time he is going to fix it................... like his.

chicks, chicks, and more chicks

CHIRP, CHIRP, CHIRP, CHIRP, CHIRP, CHIRP, CHIRP, CHIRP, CHIRP, CHIRP,CHIRP.............

We have chicks now - so I went and purchased our chicks today at lunch - the girls are very excited for this - Doug and I decided we wanted fresh eggs :) little did we know that it takes chicks 10-12 weeks before you can even move them outside and a few more months after for eggs - but heck they sure are cute - we purchased 4 black astros and 4 rhode island reds - they were actually just hatched yesterday - now I guess the next thing we need is Hannah's pig - LOL~

potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers OH MY!

Potatoes in the 2nd garden
the first plot of potatoes

cucumbers and tomatoes

beans

So just thought I would share an update on the Garden - Things are definatly going good - we now have 133 hills of potatoes coming up (yes that is 1-3-3) , 3 rows of beans, 17 cucumber plants, 4 tomatoe plants, 2 things of dill, and a row and a half of walla walla sweet onions we are trying this year - needless to say we are going to be very busy or should I say Doug is going to be very busy this summer pickling, pickling and more pickling - but hey he enjoys it -

I guess supposedly the next adventure we are embarking on is chickens and a pig - we figured we live on a farm - might as well make it somewhat of a working farm - Hannah is determined the pig will be hers - supposedly it will be named Princess and will be a pink pig -

I will be keeping you posted on this next adventure

Ah the Joy of Gardening

So I have to share my funny story from this week - My lovely husband bless his heart has discovered his joy in gardening - Which is great!!! so................ funny story behind that though - let's go back a few months - got a call from my dad that he has a rototiller for sale - really nice one - really cheap - well of course brought this to my husband - and the hubby of course stated that his works GREAT (even though it is probably older than both of us put together and a pain) his current rototiller is a REALLY old Briggs & STratton we bought on CL for a very small amount................

well so I think this thing has a mind of it's own and decided it's done - he our gardens (yes that would be all 2 1/2) of them tilled ONCE - which ONCE is not enough- so beginning of this week with the wonderful weather that we had - he decided it was time to till them AGAIN - well obviously the Tiller decided it was not - here's the run down on what happened - a) pull string broke - completely - had to fix that b) the belt breaks that helps to turn the tines - which Doug buys new one after matching it up to the one that was previosly on it (which of course had been stretched) fixed that problem so we though- well he put the new belt on (which was to big ) and the tines still don't want to turn when in the dirt (because the belt was tooo big) so he "jimmy-rigs" it with a bungee cord - problem solved ........... so we thought - well after 2 times up and down 1 garden - THE WHEEL FALLS OFF! at that point it was time to take the girls inside - because daddy was not happy and the words daddy was saying did not need to heard - oh yeah forgot to say this all happened between mon & wed -

so.......................... needless to say the gardens are now ready to plant - so today the planting begins with Dougy and Faith planting potatoes when they get home - OH FUN!

Thought I would try this out

Mornin' - Thought I would try this out - what a easy way to keep up with family and let ya'll know just how we are doing in our little farm out in the middle of no where - Things are good for us - the twins are now ready for Kindergarden - got all the shots out of the way - they are now 2 lbs difference in weight and most likely about 10 lbs lighter than there older sister - we have Kindergarten round-up next thursday at Faith's school - they are very excited to be going to the same school as there sister - Faith not sure how thrilled she is about that - but it will be fun - Doug is off soon on a adventure in Bear hunting - he has his spring bear tag again this year - so the season started early for us this year - he has also been getting the gardens (yes gardens as in 2) ready - one will be all red potatoes and the other will be the rest of the stuff - like beans, cucs, tomatoes, onions and something else - don't remember exactly what - this is kinda his thing - we are slowly getting all the stuff together to paint the house this summer and redo the porch - no puppies yet......................... not thinking we are having any this time

look forward to keeping ya'll posted on what is going on in "our little farm"