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!

It's Been Awhile, musing from US

Its been awhile indeed. The snow has melted and green is sprouting. We are in the wet season I would say. We are still getting light dusting of snow here but I've been reassured SPRING is here. The wildlife has been out in abundance from turkeys, birds, meese, deer, elk, yotes and wolves. The river has been loaded with fisherman and visitors have been camping on the shores. The ground is able to be worked. The onions and garlic are in the moist rich dark soil. The seeds and seedling are in their hot bed waiting to be planted in the soil to produce an abundance of deliciousness for our tummies. The chickens and chicks are active carrying on in their daily antics. Whispering about the latested gossip....a worm the Old Hen wouldnt share. Great Grandpa and Grandma sent the kids raspberry starts to watch over. To be able to pick fresh berries is memorable. We added boysenberries, blackberries, marionberries and blueberries to our berry patch. The little's painted their garden sign and in big black paint dubbed it the Garden of Eatin. Spring is here and we have been cleaning. Outside cleaning is also here. We've been burning trash and swinging in the hammock. Our studies have been focused on the 3 R's and gardening. Since the groceries here are out of this world and gas cost an arm and a leg. We have decided that its time to hunker down and grow our own...FOOD. Our dreams consist of a tractor and a D8 Cat, a chainsaw (to build our log house),a wood splitter so we can stash away our heat for the winter, a horse trailer, a couple grazing beef in the field, and a pig to root and use for a garbage disposal. Which makes me wonder are we weird? What does others dreams about? On our agenda in the near near future we are planning a trip to the ocean. Daddy has school in Oregon and the kids and I want to leasurely enjoy the trip. To libraries, the ocean to Cable TV well any TV at this point. We get No signal or cable. We miss our Myth Busters and HGTV. We are supper excited to go an adventure. I will post pictures when we get back. Our hearts go out the the miner (Pete) & o passed away in a mining cave in. It was in our community that this happened. For some reason it has effected us to the core. Though we dont know them we send our prayers. We miss everyone and wished gas wasnt so high so we could visit.

Garden area



In those trees hidden is our house




Momma and Princess M



The past month

It's been a month since I have blogged. Alott has happened since my last visit here.
We just recently got some Lavendar Orpington's...YES YES YES! We are super excited. So here is the breeds we have here : Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, Black Copper Maran's, Lavendar Orpington's, Silkies (for incubator's) , and Rhode Island Reds. We got a LG incubator and we also built an incubator. So now I have 2 once for incubating and one for hatching so I can stagger hatches. In the incubators we have RIR, Silkies and Coronation Susses X's (I think). lol I will post pics when I can get there.
We have been visited by wolves, which is frieghtening at first and they are GIANT!
We still have snow here, but in the valley its as if its spring. So praying for more rain to melt this snow. We have built2 brooders. We are in the planning stages of a chicken barn. I am thinking open style. We are planning a trip to the ocean in May. This will be the 1st time the kids have gone. We have been seeing tons of animals and such. Bald eagles fishing on the river. I ran out to the barn this morning at about 5 am to hear ducks (wild) on the water in our strawberry area. So the littles and I are heading down there to watch them.