Garden of Eaten

I really wanted to tell you about all that has happened here in the last few months. We have had ups and downs. Birth and Deaths. But unfortuntaly its spring so I will blog about the garden. Our garden is about 1/3 of an acre. Seems big but next year I am guessing we will expand to a full acre. This year we will be planting everything all the seeds we have. I have horded seeds for last few years. Its time to sow and see what we reap? Planting a garden here is not an easy feat. Belgrade is known for their rocks. Is it safe to say rocks suck? Well according to my gardening genius friends and is a forensic palentologist and a commericial gardner, rocks are great. Really? That will be hard to convince me of. We have picked up numerous fossilized rocks on the property. The garden is a work in process. Till-pplant-till-plant-till some more. Our other obstacle was we shot up in the 80s , so I have the typical sunburn and peel going on. Than out of the blue rain,snow, & sleet. What gives. Looks like rain today. Please Jesus bring the heat. I am a desert baby I need to feel the heat in my bones. But we will persevre and go till so more. Hopefully getting some seeds planted. What have you planted you ask, here goes its a long list. At least for me to type. Grapes(slowly building a vineyards,do the happy dance),blackberrys, blueberrys,raspberrys,gooseberrys,currants, garlic,onions(thousands of those bad boys),potatoes, pea's,broccoli, spinach, kale, kohl rabi, cabbage, 1000s of strawberrys, we still have more to plant. We also have flowers that need to get planted. So I guess another week of falling into bed at night crashed the second my head hit the pillow. We are on to sanding the cement floor, what fun! I think we will paint the basement floor seems more practical with kids and animals. We have family coming in starting in June all the way to past July. So we have our work load cut out for us. Still rainy. But they always say this is Montana wait 5 minutes. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed. Happy gardening. I will get picture up when things settle. If that ever happens.

Jinxy Focker

As I sit here with Jinxy that looks like the cat from the Focker's, yes he is a persian and the look alike to the movie cat from the Fockers. There has been much happening in our lives lately. Right now and this morning we have almost 30 baby chicks in our homemade brooder the size of a full size bed. What fun it is to have chicks on the farm. This year we concentrated on americaunaus that lay blue and green eggs. We really cannot wait to see all the fun colors. We are awaiting kidding season. If you dont know goat babies are called kids. We have 2 nanny goats that can kid any day now. I really cannot wait to see them. I really cannot wait to get fresh sweet milk and to make cheese with my starlings in the upcoming weeks. We have been making and preparing kidding stalls and every nanny is ready and waiting for their time to shine. Yes it sounds like a broadway show. But if only you knew what was happening behind the scenes and all the prepartion and anticipation you would agree it is a brilliant show and its ready to come full circle. Life on the farm is happening it a wonderful experience for all involved. With all the great amazing things happening other things not so great have been happening. We lost the starlings great great Uncle JB Shriver a few weeks ago. He lived a great life to the young age of 96 years. What is sad is the last of my great grandfather's siblings have passed away. That chapter is finshed. The kids and I took out the family history books and poured our selves and through the pages of it. Its was great reading again for the 100th time about the good ole days. About our lineage and coming to America on the Mayflower. We truely are greatful to have the book. We also had company stay with us for almost a week. And a learning experience we do not care to live again happened. Thank Jesus we found them a place and they are in the process of moving out. Well they are out of our house. They just need to get their boxes and stuff out of the barn. All I can say was it was a nightmare. MrJ always has a big heart and wanting to help anyone. Learned that he can help but not to allow people to stay with us. Not to put our family in a bad spot. Its was and still is a terrible nightmare. I have been told from close friends that this may not be the last and we may go through some more issues, due to dependancy. Thats about all I can share on a public domain at this time. I will say that if a person is wanting to get welfar and government assitance than they need to start mandatory drug testing in order to get said help. Period end of story!!! I am tired of the addicts that get a free ride and are lazy irresponsible people living the good life on our tax money.. I must run .......we are ripping out carpet, airing out rooms,and fighting back anger.

Ok, seriously any which way you see it I will tell you I would rather my 4 kids see someone flip the bird, give the birdie. I cannot believe people are having a giant freaking cow over some half time show and some broad flipping the bird! Wondering if the Big Network should be fined! Really?!?!?! What the heck. Flip away is my new moto. Why are we nit picking the crap out of this. My nitt pick is all this reality tv shows all the crapola our kids see on tv. We watch limited tv in this house. Lately though I have noticed and increase and not being able to sensor it is ticking my off to the limit. And everyone is getting pissy about a birdie. Really! My last great freaking melt down was we taped a show and one of the commercials has some freaking drug addict snorting her drug of choice. Really ??? Now that is something to get upset at and ask for immediately taken off the air. I dont mind if people want to watch said tv shows. What I mind is I censor these things from my kids. But as a parent I cannot anymore they are showing these sneak peeks on commercials. WTHeck??? were these producers thinking. This is the stuff that needs to be banned. When will people wake up? Take this off the air. I dont want my kids exposed to dope, and drug addicts they do not need to see them shooting up or snorting their crap. What the heck, people get a freaking clue. I will welcome bird flipping in my house and even swear words as opposed to this other scum. PpPPPPssssssssssssssssss

Keep Government out of our Family Affairs

Giddy Up for the Grandma's

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Mama's 69' VW Love Bus...need I say more?

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Robison Nutty farm

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Since It Snowed

Since it snowed and its cold we are baking today. Well, after the 3R's are done. Reading, wRiting,aRithematic have to be done. I pulled out a load of beef/deer and got some inspiration from another homeschool mommy. So we are baking and cooking for school today

-Taco Corn Fritter, freezing them for quick meals

-Sloppy Cornbread, for dinner tonight

-Sloppy Cornbread Muffins, freezing for quick meals

If I am really feeling brave we will make
-Real homemade buscuits this would be an experiments. I am tired of buying buscuits. Justin informed me a few weeks back that I will be making Buscuits and Gravy every Sunday morning. He says I have the best gravy he has ever had. Ummm, he should thanks my mom and grandma cause thats where I got the recipe and have seen them make its for years. Well, I am not a huge fan of the gravy and buscuits. Dont get me wrong I absolutely love the taste. I just avoid it like the plague because its goes straight to my fat stores and I dont need that.giggle.

Oh and we will whip up a batch of bread. Mr. J will think he died and gone to heaven. I might get the brownie point of being an Excellent Wife(this week anyhow). Now if I want to really knock the Ole ball and chain off his chair , I would make my tested and 10 star approved Jalapeno Cheese Bread for him. But I dont know if I want to do it all at once as he may think he should get it every week and not appreciate it. I have learned to only do so much and nothing more because they seem to think that when I do it all that they should always get it. Whats a girl, mom, wife, helpmeet to do? Give up just a little and continue to have them come back for more =0)

Ranch Photo's

Ok, I was going to post pictures of the giant hay/cattle ranch we reside on. It's simply a stunning sight. But my little old satelite internet doesnt like processing those requests. So this is what I am going to do. When I head into town this week I will stop at a WIFI hot spot and upload some great pictures. I think this is really the only way.
An update of sorts as to what we are doing. This weekend we hauled giant 1,ooo+ pd round bales of alfala/pea hay. What fun. We also went and bought our breeding swine stock this weekend. We have tons of color. They boer and sow are red with white and black spots. The kids are talking about showing some of the offspring in 4-h. They are very cool looking. They are also certified organic and came off of a giant certified organic dairy goat farm. They actually export most of their chees and dairy out of the country. As it seems us americans just cant grasp how devine dairy goat products are. I agree with them. The kids were also asked to hatch out some pullets of our rare stock of chickens for them. What great fun we have ahead of us. We have looked at 2 green house structures. And are planning to get a greenhouse built this spring. We have aquired a old plow truck and the kids and I will have a great side business plowing next winter. This winter has been pretty bleak for snow. Mr. R got a older truck for his daily driver. Which was needed as our little jeep was and is on its last leg. Needs to be overhauled. But who has the time we sure dont.Its been a warm winter with non existant snow so I am praying this pattern continues. And GOD will bless us with warmer early spring. I am itching for sunshine and a garden and fresh homegrown berries. Ms. M got 2 texas heeler pups from Santa, so we are on constant puppy duty. They will be doing puppy traning classes with a private trainer. They have a job to do n the ranch and we want them to know what that job is. So this will be great work for the kids and dogs involved.
We also have been on a mission filling or putting by our Food Storage room. Its pretty impressive. Its a giant of a room with freezers and shelves wall to wall. I want to be able to only go to the store maybe once a month at the most. I want to only go to replenish what we have taken from our mini grocery store. So when consindering to do this we also have to put in there what we will need every day of the year. Sicknesses, celebration, harvesting you name is it being considered and out in there. No by all means I am not a crazy person thinking its the end of the world. Why I am doing this is pretty simple and understandable. I HATE shopping. We live out of town I dont appreciate having to leave to go get something to complete a meal. Or going to the store at midnight because we are sick and need hot totty supplies. Or geez the one time a year you run out of mountain currency(aka toilet paper). I also strive to buy at a deep discount wether with coupons or on clearance. I buy organic milk at deep discounts and clearnce all the time and freeze it for a rainy day. Same with cheese, and meat(if I dont have it homegrown). This might sound crazy to you but its really not a new concept. In fact we got a wonderful christmas gift this year from Justin grandparents. His grandparents knew we did things a little backwards in this society we tend to do things from scratch. His grandma is a very talented artists though she wont admit it to you. She just says I was messing around, Ya right she is amazingly talented. And when we are near visiting we always have to visit so we can gleam a new talent from both of his grandparents. Forgotten skills really are a necessitity in this day and age. And since most of those forgotten skills are almost forgotten it seems that we need to grasp them and learn them before it to late. I will admit my hubby knows more skills than I. But he had the advantage have having talented gifted people around him as a child from his Mom to his grandparents. Well back on target the grandparents sent us wonderful painting pitcure with storeies of all kinds of topics for christmas. One of them was about food storage rooms and the sky is falling(chicken Little). So now I am on the look out for a few pitcure frames for the door to the food storage room. I want they picture and story to be the introduction to our grocery store. When I get it accomplished I will take pictures,

One more story and I will leave this post as it seems to be a rambling of everything. And I will come back and add picture with individual stories.
The kids and I ordered Madgascar Vanilla Beans on the idea of making homemade Vanilla Extract. Well we made it and Takes about 6 month to ferment so even more pictures to come. I am thinking of makeing some custom labels so the kids can start their own little business. I might also say that the kids and I going to a liquor store and buying 1 gallon of vodka isnt very comfortable. But its how you make vanilla extract. Really everyone should learn to make it not only does it smell wonderful and look pretty in my gallon mason jar. But store bought v. extract has so much yucky ingrdients in it that I cant see putting in my families food. If your against alcohal please dont take it as that, its actually very different and this is exactly how they did it in the old days.
JR

I AM A PRINCESS or maybe a Hippie?

I think I am one lucky lady. I have a wonderful husband that can figure out what his wife's diamond looks like. I have been eyeing a friend of ours 1969 VW Bus for the past few months. I have offered to just drive it for him =0) Well on Christmas after unwrapping a giant box full of rocks there was the title to one 69 VW BUS.Now if you are confused on wether I am hippie or a country girl.This is the answer: I think there is a piece of that Hippiness in all of us. That incredible desire to be a free spirit. Hippiness and a good Ol'Country girl really does go hand in hand. I had a vision of what my bus was going to look like the muinute I knew it was MINE. Cherry metalic red with a egg nog off white in the mix. I actually dont think thats what is going to transpire. I really am looking for any and all ideas and themes. Themes that go along with all those gumby, Bob Marley, and the unmentionable stickers and magnets that dress the interior. Let me also admit as it sits right now it needs tons of work a total cowpiesnhorseapples restoration projects are in the works. One fascinating thing or item about the "BUS" is the diary or journal. That journal alone is worth some money. Its been there and done that to places like "Woodstock".How lucky amd I? Very blessed that is.One for sure thing that we will be doing to it. Is installing a 2 different dark/light stained harwood floors it will be the thin strip hard wood flooring. Oh I can envision it now. I will post pictures tomorrow of the bus. If you have any suggestions please pass them along. We are looking for a unique custome knockout Bus. Something that hasn't been done before. Mr. J is thinking about getting a porsche engine in it. Of coure we will be keeping all the stock original parts and they will be an addition to the BUS. I know its not a draft horse but this is just about right up there in bliss he hit it on the nail. I absolutely love that man.
Til tomorrow good night Ya'll
JR

Crazy Christmas Season of Chaos

I will be up front I have done nothing for christmas yet. I am a complete procrastinator during christmas. I always tell myself I will get shopping done a month or 2 ahead of the season. What a joke..procrastination is always the diagnoses.
     I might also say my littles christmas wish list isnt like most kids. They NEVER ask for video games or whatever they are called now. YOU WILL NOT FIND AN Ipod-Ipad or the like on their wish list. You will find horse halters, saddles, certain livestock and the such to perform "their" hobbies. Dont get me wrong I am completely thankful that my starlings times and hobbies are more wholesome than most children's and very creative. I mean putting a child infront iof the TV for several hours a day or electronics is dry, dumbed down, and well doesnt take much thought. I have been toying with broadening our horizons with say an I pad. Well, Mr. J wants us to start doing electronic books. Which he doesnt seem to grasp that love relationship you have with those square things on our shelfs. Full of adventure and knowledge. To open those square things with a wealth of information and giggles and the smell the first time you open it. Wow, its like christmas every time you go back to those beautiful BOOKS. Granted, moving them is a labor some do not want to partake of but they are a labor of love for the kids and I. We work hard on our library and filling our library with knowledge and classics. I just cannot let go of the old ways and embrace the future. So some things we will take knowledge by the horns and look to the future but others we will find comfort in the good old fashion ways.

So I have to look at christmas like a mission impossible. Ms. B asked for bales of straw with targets on them to practise her gun and arrow skills. Who asks for straw bales for christmas? Well mine do =0)

Enough for now......Cowpiesnhorseapples Family wish all a very Merry Blessed Christmas Season. May this find all well and prospering in their own rights. May you conquer your goals and grab the bull by the horns and COWGIRL/COWBOY Up. May you be thankful to the Lord above for all your blessing and health. Living life as if it was the last day.

Robison Nut Farm...anyone want to visit????

Good Morning...Life's been a whirlwind here for us. Maybe I should give a farm count to catch you up on things.
-1 mini stallion with a bad attitude only a mother can love =0)
-2shetland ponies with the sweetest disposition that think Maddy is a baby.
-1 rescue filly with a firey attitude but as gently young lady
-3 milk goats
-unknown amount of chickens
-2 ducks
-1 Crazy Peacock that likes to roost on the top of our barn. In the middle of a windstorm what a pea brain =0(

-1 Old Man Aussie
-1 Beautiful St. Bernard who might be preggers
-2 GIANT Guardian Great Pyreneese livestock dogs male and female. They just came to us from a wonderful family. They are still unsure of the property lines so tons of training is in line.
-1 Lion head rabbit
-1 Angora rabbit
-Several fish
-1 guinea pig
-Several barn cats (Let it be said I have not a clue how many they just came with the ranch).

The house is amazing and beautiful. The house is situated on about 400 acres hay/cattle ranch. The house is ginormous at over 4000 sq. ft.All under the BIG SKY. The above pic is Ms  B with our rescue filly. She is in rough shape but has come around 100% and gained about 75 pds since we had her. She loves the mud and we have to brush her everyday, what gives?!

We've MOVED..please read

We have moved again. Less than 6 miles away. And let me tell you I think we found our home. We are on several hundred acres hay ranch. I have to pinch  myself and give my thanks to the Good Lord. The house we are figuring was built in the 70's and some arrea are dated I would say it is a custom home. Its over 4000 square feet. You can have a party in the jetted tub and we have HEAT. We had to make a urgent move as the rental house we were renting had no heat and wasnt disclosed til it started getting cold. So we love our new home and are gratful to have the views. This house is so secluded but close to everything. We dont have neighbors well we have wild neighbors. And I love see the neat packages and large sprinklers as views. Seems like christmas with all those neat tidy hay bales, its exciting. We truely are blessed and are very apprecitive to have it. We have an awesome view of the bridger, bitteroot, big belts, tabbacco roots, saquajawea peak, crazy mtns or absarokea mountains.

When Daddy Say's........Mommy should be worried

When Daddy Say's......Mom's do your self a favor and be very very concerned. There is odviously something very very wrong that your Huby has failed to tell you!!
My point......We were out off the beaten path trapsing through the wilderness trying to find property markers. We are looking at 20 and 30 acre parcels. Mom was left at the car with the Aussie and the St. Bernard to babysit. While Dad and the little took off way up the mtn. side looking for those little metal pegas called property markers. When they got back the ravvved about the view and all the flat building spot and the rattly trees. Mom thought nothing of it and we headed home. About a week later we were just goofing off having fun. And something came up about those rattly trees. It dawned on me. Than than I proceeded to get the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Ms K was climbing up a rocky treed area and all of a sudden she jumped up in the air. Ms. K stepped on a rattlesnake!! They didnt tell me cause they didnt want me to never come back to the area. So Dad and the kids had this secret...for awhile that is. Eeekkk I hate hate hate snakes. I of course was really concerned and really didnt want to move to the area. But after reasoning and realizing to have the life we want I will have to toughen up and deal with it!! So I will be hatching genuieas out this winter.
Mr.J never ever tells me something if something is worrying him. Like they time we drove from AZ to NV and he thought our Suburban was going to blow up. I am getting a clue and figuring these times and his gestures out to know that I need to stay on my toes.
On a side note goat integration isnt working out that great. Praying for strength to be strong and getter done. We introduce a young buck to our doe ans wether. Those two bullys were beating the bejesus out of the yungster. So we withdrew him for the night. We have been having goat fencing issues at all times of the night like 2 am. Someone forgot to lock the chicken coop door last night and the chicken were having a field day. I was happy to findout that we didnt loose a lick of them. The coyotes were gracious and left them be which suprised me cause I hear them nightly.

Another Move..Another Adventure..But Dejavue???

Well we made another state move! I got the usual one week notice...But it seems like Dejavue. Because we have lived here before. We are back in MT and enjoying our time here. Are we moving again. I sure as heck hope not. I am so ready to be done. We are on a couple acres in an upscale equestrian area. Its not to woods but its beautiful. I am so thankful as MrJ absolutely hated his job. Life is going better for him, so I guess thats all that matters. We brought our chickens with us. We have 2 mini horses/ponies . And are getting a regular mare in a few weeks. The kids have already ridden her bareback and they love her. So the ranch life is taking off for us all. I really have been very busy and so I havent been ableo keep up. We had my mom's mom(my grandma and grandpa, the kids great grandparents) come in yesterday. We havent seen them in ages. It was a great visit. They just left here this morning. Its sad when they have to go. We absolutely love having family visit. The kids got to butcher a rooster with their Grandpa Keely yesterday. They loved that time with him. And it helped me get that roo to shut up. I was going nuts!
Jami

Simple Little Pleasures, Simple Little Activities, Simple Little Memories

And Mosquito's...Eeek we have had so much moisture and a long winter season the skeeters are bad! I would say  I am a walking skeeter bite.
This month has been fun lotts of memories. Grandpa Ron came to visit our first visitor for a long time and our 1st in Idaho. We had so much fun. We did a walk about 3 miles both ways down the trail of the CDA's. Not so fun all the darn snakes! Supposedly there are no poisonous, but some will bite and draw blood. Ummm, excuse me we wont be doing that again.lol The kids seem to get a great thrill and seeing mom leap in the air when we spotted one. There were tons over six on our little journey. I know Im from the desert but I just dont like the darn critters. I know they are benefiscal and all but please let keep our distance.

So I am well on week 3 of my new regimeant. Did I tell you it is kicking my butt? Did I tell you that its intense? DId I tell you that I am getting results? I have lost a total of 11 1/2 inches total so far. I feel amazing even younger. I have said from the get go all I want is to be strong and healthy. I dont care about weight on the scale. I am not obsessing about it any longer. That has been my promise to myself. Today is one of only 2 of my days off per say. I still am very active every stinking day. Today after writing this I am heading to my room to do some yoga to stretch and relax. All the weights, sprints, super sets , sit ups my body feels tight. Which is not a bad thing. But I want to be smooth and limber also. So yoga I am hoping will help me with that. I have a friend close by that is an yoga instructor. I got to try the yoga swing out the other day. I am so making myself one here soon. I cant wait to swing from a tree viewing the world upside down. Kinda sounds like a Tarzan and Jane thing. lol  The weirdest thing is my skin is looking and younger and healthy. All my little scars are fading. Isnt that weird? I sure hope it continues! I am also focusing on my abs the most. I have had 3 c-sections. My stomache is the most out of shape of all. I can say that my workouts leave me feeling like I have been drop kicked a few hundred times. And my sleep has been intense. I feel like I need to sleep alott now. Mr. J says its my body trying to rebuild itself. Im not complaining. I do walk around very stiff as my thighs and abs are so tight. I am also trying to build a proper posture with this also. As I think that is very important.
Well I should run and get some yoga time in. We are heading out to do some rototilling and gardening (see even my rest days are very active). I have berry's that need weeding. Oh and Little J brought into with eyes  wide some wild strawberries (we have wild strawberries everywhere). He brought 3 of them. If you have never seen them they are so darn cute. I would class them as being the size of a bead. They were not much in size but OH MY GOODNESS I have never tasted strawberries this sweet or out of this world taste. So we might try and find more to hunt down with out magnifiers to eat as a simple chipmunk style snack.

Intensity.........OUCH

As we got up and started our regular break-fast ritual. Which consist of Dad waking us to coffee. Mom, crawling out of bed and trying hard to open her eyes. Breakfast as a family is a ritual in our house. But sometime I just want to hit snooze. Mr. J and the littles enjoyed double yokers from our loving hens. While I ate a toasted english muffin with rf cottage cheese, 1 tblsp of pb, 1 tsp of raw honey and a dash of cinnamon. I tolerate cottage cheese. But this wasnt bad. What was, was listening to Mr.J and his scarcastic Curddled Milk attitude. He always gives me grief. Well,  I am making it. I started an intense training program. I think its intense. Well, the weight are kicking my heiny. The food has for the most part been excellent. It seems as if I eat more now than before.
  The littles and I are deep cleaning and decluttering our world. Hanging picture and art work. Last night we headed down the road to pickup some spoiled hay unfit for animals consumption. The idea is that it be scattered in the hen house. Scattered on the potatoes, carrots and when winter hits all the garden beds and berry beds. We have a long list of To-Dos. One is processing the beef sitting in our freezer. We are in the works of building a decent walk in freezer. But we still have a log home to think about. Our bear problem is still about us. It seems that they are sticking around because of the herd of elk that bed down below us and calf. So I feel that eventually we will have some more trouble. For now all is quiet. Our stellar bluebirds are visiting us all day. We are also having a guest in a week. My father Ron is coming up. It will be nice as we havent had guest in a long stretch. And I get homesick for family all the time.. Its getting better though, as we get a little more settled here. I need to run tons to do and not enough hours in the day~! We are saying prayers for a certain family member.

After today a glass of huckleberry wine is in order

I know I posted less than a week ago....so please excuse the mumbling. And just be glad I didnt call cause you would have to live through a dreadful coughinh chocking as I seem to not be able to get it out of my chest. Mr. J, has seen to it that his wife can load,point,excellent aim, and fire a big daddy of a gun. So that I can defend the kids and myself if a bear should decide to go bolistic when finding no food. Its been pretty quiet. But I think tonight it may be a different story. Let me backup....We got a call from our neighbors at about 6ish thismorning. They had castrated a few steers, and they ended up passing. So they said we could have them. Well, being us we jumped on it. We have processed steers today. Its been a chore. Its been fun. Its been a very neat experience, and a tale to tell. Its also been a GIANT learning experience for us ALL. All of the R. kids butchered, and skinned the steer. I even was there. Its was a GIANT family chore. I can say that our Sunday was completely a family time. We laughed, we skinned, we pushed pulled and tugged, all as a family. Not one of us complained or weined or got sick. Geez, I know we are different. Some of you may be appauled in reading this. But I find joy when I know that we are a learning, chore doing, helping, laughing family. We just do family times differently than most. I know the kids are being fully engaged and challenged and are comeing away from these experiences some pretty awesomely talented and work ethically, strong and determined individuals. LMiss B. is going to have a birthday soon. She is asking for a 30 ot 6 gun and a hunting license. Most kids teens do not ask for these things. Well, to be honest they all want their hunting licenses, and we see it as a postive thing. At the same time I am throughly exhausted and a little weak from having a cold. So I thought that it wouldnt hurt to enjoy some wine. Huckleberry wine is the bomb. We found we have tons tons tons of huckleberry growing on the property. We also have thimbleberry, elderberry(hello wine and the kids cant wait to feed them to the chicken, so see them get drunk on it), blackberries,raspberries, blueberries. Cant wait to harvest them. Oh, did I mention that we have wild strawberries also? I am really starting to wonder if we will do all the farm animals at all. Since hunting is mandatory and easy here. There is just no reason. We head out tomorrow and pick up a milking doe goat and her kids and yearling doe. We already have a very enxpensive milk goat buck for our herd. And he is needing some doe love.lol.

I am sitting here with kleenex and cough drops

Yep, our world wind mini vacation is over......and as a result I have a dreaded cold. I havent been sick for some time, so this caught me by suprise. So here are some pictures of the beautiful coast of Oregon and Washingston. We played on the beach by Forks and reservation where the Twilight Series was centered around. And just when we got home thinking we could calm down and relax. Well, we came home to BEARS. They have torn up our property, torn down the chain link fences that hold to chickens in (actually folded it in half), they decoured feed and through the buckets that they slily got out of the pen strung them up this hill. Managed to scar to crap out of our goat. Our burn barrel was on the road. It was a disaster. As I was writing this Mrs. B hollered for me to come quick,,,, damn bears were all over in my garden. I may have to replant, I am so bummed. Now we have had about 6 encounters in the last 3 days. We have removed all feed. I am a little concerned for the kids and all the animals. Mr. J is taking all precautions and I think we may be up late trying to watch with binoculars to see if they come again. There is more to to tale, but I need to end this here. My bed is calling my name. Til next time!