Hilltop Homestead

 This past Thursday was my birthday.  I ate as many chocolate chip cookies and toasted angel food cake as I wanted.  Do you toast your angel food cake?  You should.  Slice it, broil it on both sides under the broiler in your oven until it is toasted, then butter it quick while it's still hot and DEVOUR nibble delicately with a fabulous cup of coffee!

 I was feeling terribly magnanimous, so I allowed other members of the family to eat my angel food cake, too.  Once you've tasted toasted angel food cake (say THAT fast five times!), you will understand just how benevolent and charitable that was of me.....

I got the usual birthday gifts.....a handmade crow with porcupine claw beak and a pair of hand made pieced wall quilts.  Isn't that what you got on YOUR birthday?

 We love hand made gifts around here.  It is so heart warming and special to know that someone spent their time making a gift just for you!

 I make and sell primitives on Ebay.  Yesterday I made strawberries to go with a rag doll and a pair of crows I sewed.  My strawberries are made of muslin and stuffed, then painted.  I even stitched little seeds on.   Don't laugh......people do buy them :-)

 Here's what my crows and rag doll looked like just after painting......

 I took pictures of my finished crows out in the strawberry patch.  This one is named 'Rascal' and the other one has a tag that says 'Pesky' on it!

Actually, it's the robins and Steller's Jays that steal my strawberries......and of course the Wererabbits.

 Here's the rag doll all finished, too.  I pinch-sewed her face and made up the pattern for her & her clothes with help from my daughter.  I think I've sold at least a couple dozen or more rag dolls now.

 Ok, enough having fun sewing & painting, now back to my real life of doing chores & farm stuff!
Here you can see how my little baby English Lop bunnies are growing like little weeds!

 This is Old Roy and Texas Jack - our newest bottle babies.  We're milking 6 goats right now and feeding these two guys, and of course an assortment of goat kids.  The calves came to us about 5 days ago - both about 3 or 4 days old.  Roy is doing GREAT.  Poor Texas Jack has the scours and we're working hard to get him over it.  I medicate him day & night and feed him electrolytes midday, but he's struggling.

 I'm sure this Wererabbit is giving me a dirty look.  We're on a dead end road surrounded by Weyerhauser Timber land and I'm pretty certain that if we were to leave for a couple weeks, the wilderness would completely take over!

 This is a pack rat.  He was in my rabbit house this morning!  Here's what wikipedia says about them:
Pack rats are nest builders. They use plant material such as branches, twigs, sticks, and other available debris. Getting into everything from attics to car engines, stealing their ‘treasures’, damaging electrical wiring, and creating general noisy havoc can easily cause them to become a nuisance.A peculiar characteristic is that if they find something they want, they will drop what they are currently carrying, for example a piece of cactus, and "trade" it for the new item. They are particularly fond of shiny objects.

 They forgot to mention that since they are rodents, they are also STINKY!

Here's our snack on the porch this afternoon since the weather was so nice......
See, sometimes we eat fresh fruit with our dessert and coffee!

It's been a busy week and I only mentioned a few things!  We've also been setting up to pour concrete in the barn & weeding the garden & flower beds.  The weather has been warm & wet, so I think you could watch the weeds grow.

We ate our first lettuce from the garden tonight in our salads to go with Chinese Pork Blobs & Rice and baked Yams.

I love Spring & Summer, but the work is killer!  Two cups of Epsom Salts in my hot bath water tonight!