He Is Risen and There's New Life on the Farm!

 Get ready for a cuteness overload!  I just realized that I haven't posted in a month, but when you see all the newbies on the farm, you'll understand why I've been just a bit busy.....

 Petruccio is the spotted buckling and Ekaterina is his sidekick.  These are the only two goat offspring that we are keeping this year. 

We are now milking 4 goats, morning and night.  Each kid drinks a pop bottle (20 ounces) morning and night, we keep about a gallon for the two households here on the farm.  The cats have an all-you-can-drink-milk-bar down at the barn and we're STILL pouring some down the drain!  I know it's a waste, but one can only drink so much coffee with milk in it....

 This little gal is a tri-color Mini Lop rabbit.  Do you see the heart on her shoulder?

 Chicks came in the mail this week.  Their pen was ready with shavings and heat lamps, chickie starter feed and water.  They are now about 6 or 7 days old and already starting to grow wing feathers!

The yellow ones are Buff Orpingtons, the rest are a mixture of Americauna and Wyandotte.

Can you say.....omelets?

 We actually have a flock of about 18 or 19 adult hens at present, but they will be replaced with these younger birds once these start to lay in about 6 months.

 English Lops love attention and this sweetie is no exception.  This means.....pet me first!

 On to the babies!  Here's a baby Mini Lop looking like maybe he needs to grow into his ears!

 Baby English Lops - a huge litter of......well, just two.  Their mama is slacking and should have had a bigger litter.  These two will not be lacking for nourishment since mama only has two to feed instead of 9 or 10!

 Zzzzzzzzzz.....

 Do you notice what baby rabbits like to do best?

 Nap!

 Sweet!

 This guy is a bit older and not too sure he likes being held.   He is a young French Lop named Mack.

 Besides spending a lot of time outside taking care of baby animals, I try to squeak in some sewing and crafting.  (I try NOT to squeak in any time for housework.....)

I just finished this pair of wool owls for my Ebay store.

 This little quilt topper for my daughter......

 Found this rustic old Humpty Dumpty at a thrift shop.  My older daughter was HORRIFIED that I picked it up and even more disgusted when I bought it!  I figure it's a true primitive, probably from the 40's or 50's and I'll eventually list it in my Ebay store, too.

 She didn't mind that I bought this basket of kitty cats.  I may actually keep them for awhile. 

When I came in with them, I announced to my husband that I had brought a whole basket of kittens home.  I'll leave his reaction to your imagination :-)

 The weather has cooled back down and is much more seasonal for April.  It's alternating with frosty mornings and rainy/sunny/cloudy/hailing days with rather cool temperatures.  Much more normal than the balmy days we'd had previously.

The flowers are blooming all around....snapdragons....

 .....bluebells.

I took my turn home with my mom this morning while my husband and daughters went off to Easter services at our local community church celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord!   My older daughter is playing the piano for church today, my younger daughter singing with a small choir.

I'm making Easter dinner this afternoon.  Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Grilled Asparagus, Candied Yams.....(doesn't it look impressive if you capitalize???)   Anyhow, that's a peek at the farm right now.   May your day be filled with family & blessings and may your hearts be filled with the peace that passes understanding through the love of Jesus who died on the cross for me and YOU!

Swofford Pond, Elk in my Yard and Cool Old Barns!

 I promised to go fishing with my husband if he'd work on a certain project at home.  He worked, I went fishing!  (Well, he went fishing, too....)

This is taken not far from one end of Swofford Pond.  We are in a little aluminum boat (maybe 12' or 15' long - I can't remember) with a battery powered motor, so it is nice and quiet.  We trolled along, fishing for trout.  The weather was stunning, about 53* and mostly clear skies for most of the day.

 Swofford Pond covers about 215 acres and is open to fishing year-round.  Rainbow trout, catfish, large mouth bass and other fish reside in its depths.

You'll just have to take my word for it because we didn't catch a thing.  We didn't even get a nibble.  Rumor had it that the water was still too cool for fish to be biting.  Didn't matter to me, we had a lovely time just admiring the ducks, bald eagle and lovely scenery.

 After we got the boat loaded, we decided to see where the road went.  This is a picture of Riffe Lake which is a reservoir formed by the Mossyrock Dam.  Riffe (pronounced rife) Lake covers over 11,000 acres and when the water is very, very low late in the summer, you can see remains of a town called Kosmos that was destroyed and flooded when the dam was built.  Driveways, tile, roadways and broken bridges appear when the water is low enough.

 This is a picture of Swofford Pond which, if you could see the whole picture, is just to the left of the above picture - joined to Riffe Lake by a channel or small barrier dam.

 Above the pond is a little historic cemetery, established in the late 1800s.  My picture makes it look like the cemetery is on the shore of the lake, but actually it sits high on a  hill above it.

There were headstones of veterans from the Spanish-American War, Korean War, WWI and WWII among those buried there.

 On our way home we passed some very scenic old barns and I couldn't resist a few pictures.  Forgive me for blurs, etc. as I took them either through or out of the truck window as we crawled past.

 This one was enormous!

 This little abandoned house caught my eye.  The white tree blooming on the right is a plum.  Plums are blooming everywhere in our rural areas right now.

 This one was fun - I missed getting a picture as we drove by, so I just swung around and snapped.  Neatly framed for me!

 This old truck was serving as yard art.

We ended our lovely day by stopping for dinner at Spiffy's Restaurant.  All that fresh air helps work up an appetite so I ordered the special for the day - Prime Rib.  It was lovely, served with au jus & horseradish, baked potato with butter & sour cream, grilled asparagus, selection of breads and a pass through the salad bar.  Delicious.

 This is the early morning view from my kitchen window.  Hmm.  Those cattle look suspiciously like.....elk.

 This little bunch has been showing up each morning to eat all the grass in our pasture.  For a few days, it was 4 cows and a spike bull.  This morning they had brought along a couple of friends and we had an extra spike bull and another cow.  One young cow was on the yard side of the fence, so I stepped out and suggested kindly that she get her carcass back in the field.  She kindly hopped back in and they continued to graze.

There will be plenty of fence repairs to make.  Elk are not great respecters of fences, I'm afraid.  Eventually the elk will move up higher and leave our pasture to grow.   Hopefully.

My last blog showed how wet & muddy it had been.  Now we've had a couple weeks of dry, warm weather and have been working madly on outdoor projects.  By the time I come in at dinner time, I can hardly make myself put dinner together.  Today I worked at getting my greenhouse ready for starting my garden veggies, cleaned my rabbitry and made a picnic lunch for the family (hamburgers on buns, potato salad, potato chips, Snickerdoodles and coffee).  I should be spending some time working on primitives for my Ebay and Etsy stores, and I've got a quilt that NEEDS to be finished so it can go to its new owner but the sunshine calls to me each day and I've got to answer!  Good thing the nice weather doesn't last forever or I'd never get anything done INSIDE the house! 

There's an old saying that goes something like "If, when trouble comes, we ask why me, shouldn't we make the same query about good things, too?"  I love this farm so much!  I thank God each day for allowing me to live in this place for this time and I often wonder....Why me? 

Green Acres is the Place to Be, Farm Living is the Life for me!

 Ok, so don't forget you can click on any of the pictures to follow and see them a bit larger.

Living out on a fairly decent sized plot of land, surrounded by large timberland, approximately 3 1/2 miles from a tiny town (population 624) and approximately 28 miles from a bit larger town (population 7,268) which is right next to a bit larger town (population 16,660) is wonderful.  What more can I say?  What could be better than living in this paradise I call home?

 City life is definitely not for me.  (Does that sound a bit Green Acres-ish?) 

My girls and I decided that, since we could hear the creek down in the valley roaring with all the recent deluge of rain, we should just walk down there and check it out.

You can see how muddy the road that leads to the valley is.  This is about halfway down.

 There's a bend in the dirt road here and you see the little  creek coming off the hillside near the second well.  Notice how happy all the ferns are!

We've been hearing frogs croaking, too.

 This is the only level spot, but don't walk there as the mud is a bit sticky.  Don't try to drive down here in the winter because even in 4-wheel drive you're not gonna get back up the hill!  (Everyone should scream right here as the vehicle slides from one side of the drop off to the other....)

 And here's the last stretch until we reach the valley.  The ruts are nasty this year, but my dear husband can smooth them out with his tractor when the weather finally dries out.....maybe in June???

It's lovely to walk down to the valley, but a long haul back up again!  (What's that pounding noise???  Oh, yeah.....it's my heart.....)

 To the right is the corner of the first field.  Now, it doesn't look very field-like at the moment as it is totally flooded and the beavers have enjoyed the winter immensely and have taken down a good sized alder tree.  Of course they chose to fall it on the fence rather than into the creek.....

 This is another tree they've taken down.  You'll notice that after they felled it, they also gnawed the branches off and removed them to the creek.  I can't imagine how strong a beaver's teeth must be.  Go ahead, YOU try gnawing just ONE chip off this tree!

 This is usually a meandering creek.  It's still meandering, but it's WAY over its banks at the moment.  I think this one is my favorite picture.

 Up close beaver job here.

 This little bridge looks ancient here.  It's really not that old, but the dampness of our Washington climate really takes a toll on wood.  Incidentally, it used to be a bit farther to the left (about 8-10') but a couple years ago the creek was so high it carried it over to rest against the alders there.

 Walking back through the field to the road back up I spotted this little pile of fur.  Do you know what animal it came from?   The correct answer is elk.  We saw lots of other signs of elk, but I shall spare you pictures......

You got just a tiny tour of just one of the amazing woodland places to explore in these woods.  Did you enjoy the fresh air and the smell of the fir trees?

That's it for now.  I'm ready to start my day now and head out to milk the goats & feed my bunnies (see my new litter?).  Yesterday was an in-town-buy-groceries-pick-up-feed-eat-lunch-out-now-I'm-exhausted kind of day, so today I'm back at work here on the farm.  On the docket for this day - working in the greenhouse/rabbit house, repairing cages and getting ready for some spring planting!

More later...What did you think of my muddy valley?

Frogs are singing, Spring is springing and Espaliered Apple Trees

 I haven't seen any groundhogs around here, but plenty of mole hills, wild bunnies, deer and now dandelions!

The frogs are starting to sing down in the beaver dam, too.  Not a huge chorus of them yet, but individuals trying out their voices before joining in the choir.

 The Autumn Crocus are up, too.  Funny plants - in Spring they send up their greenery.  By Fall they will finally bloom. 

 These daffodils are on the North side of my house.  It stays pretty shady and cool over there but the daffodils are valiantly poking their heads up and if you look closely, you'll see the flower buds.  We live just up high enough in elevation that most of our stuff blooms/ripens about 2 weeks after the rest of the local area.

 We live on 81 very hilly acres.  Our house sits on about 5 or 6 cleared acres on top of the hill.  This road leads down to our valley where we have about 12 or 15 acres of pasture.  We usually herd our cattle (all two of them) down each Spring to finish fattening up for Fall.

The rest of our land is in Douglas Fir, growing for timber.

 If you walk down this road just a bit, you will come to our Bee House.  A couple of years ago, a BIG black bear destroyed all our hives.  The game department brought out a huge bear trap (looked like a steel drum on its side with bait inside and a trap door).  We did catch our bear and they relocated him.  We've worked to replace our hives and now have 5 good, healthy ones again.  This structure is now bear-proof.

 Paxton wanted her picture taken.  She did not freshen (kid) when the other two did, so I think she's waiting for Spring.

 This is an 'after' picture of my Espaliered apple tree.  I've enjoyed training it and answering interesting questions about it.  In the summer, when it has fruit on, I've been asked "Are those real apples?"  What?  Did they think I tied them on? 

 Here are two 'before' pics of the espalier.  The deer like to nibble on it, but they need lessons in correct pruning.  This is actually a Lodi apple.  Not the best for fruit production in an espalier mode as they are tip-bearers and, of course, I have pruned all the tips off to keep this shape.  It does bravely manage an apple or 6 each year.

Spring is coming and I've been working just a little outside.  This week it's back to a cold rain, so I'm spending a little more time in the rabbit barn, organizing, repairing cages and breeding rabbits.  Hopefully soon I'll be able to report new litters! 
Today was my mom's 82nd birthday!  She chose pizza (homemade) for her birthday dinner and a trifle for dessert.  She's battled cancer for over 4 years now, so each birthday is a real blessing to us. 


I was getting a little overwhelmed with making primitives for my Ebay store, so my daughter (the brains of the outfit) determined that I needed to raise my prices a bit to control sales.  THEN she opened an Etsy store for me also, to make sure I still sell enough!  Hmmm.  Seems like things are still selling, but at least I'm making a little more pocket money this way!   I do love to create things!

She (daughter) and I spent the weekend at a rabbit show and came home with a couple Grand Champion legs and a few new rabbits.  I now have Netherland Dwarf rabbits of my own!  I'll take pics and post them next time.  Enough for now, I sold something in my Etsy store so now I've got to get sewing!