CHRISTMAS

I had a really nice Christmas this year. I hope all of my readers did also. We went to my Mother in law's for a Christmas lunch on Christmas eve and to open presents from each other. We usually get together in the evening on Christmas Eve, it was nice getting together in the middle of the day this year and not having to rush around and hurry to get things done so that everyone can make it to church. This way we could visit and enjoy each other's company before the evening rush. Of course the animals needed taken care of in the morning and evening but besides that it was a no work day.

Picture of my beautiful sister in laws (right and left) sitting with my husband and I. I love being close with Doug's family. I consider them to be my sisters.

My son, his fiance' and my 2 grandsons spent the night on Christmas Eve and we had Christmas dinner at our place this year. There is not alot of room in our trailer but we had such a nice time. My sister, brother in law, their 4 kids, my mom, grandma, my 2 kids, 2 grandsons, my husband and I were all here. There was a lot of food and we had a really nice time eating and enjoying each other's company.

I hope everyone took time this year to remember the real reason for Christmas. To celebrate the most amazing gift we have ever received. This gift is free and so simple. It is the gift of salvation that came through the birth of a small baby. The greatest gift of all is the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and all you have to do is accept this gift and allow him into your heart.

Looking forward to an amazing and blessed 2016 and hoping to share the ups, downs, joys and sorrows with you.

Blessings to all!

~April

New fragrance~essence of rut

I could not get them to get their heads out of the feed bowl long enough to take a picture of them. As you can see they each have their own bowl but insist on eating out of the same one.


It is that time of year again. The time of year when all the boys can think of is the girls. The only problem I have is the smell. It is not the most horrible scent I have ever had to smell but it is a very strange smell and I do not exactly enjoy it and it is also a smell that is very hard to get off of you once you have it on. The crazy rainy, cooler weather we have been having this summer has my boys kind of out of sync. This is early for them to be in rut. I usually do not have to endure this until September, thankfully it usually ends by the beginning of the next year. I could not imagine having it around all year long and my neighbors would probably not be very happy either. Another thing I do not understand and I will not get to much into detail in case I have younger readers is why the girls find them so attractive. I mean for goodness sakes they pee on themselves!! I do not know how anyone human or animal can actually find this attractive. I also hope there is no human out there who actually pees on themselves to try and get a lady. That would be too much. Anyway, the poor boys are going to have to wait 2 more months before they get to visit with the pretty girls in the next pen over and us and our poor neighbors will have to endure the smell. I would also like to apologize to my neighbors and to anyone who I may be around after handling the stinky boys. Also here is a free tidbit for any other goat farmers out there. Toothpaste does get the smell off of your hands so stock up!

Have a blessed day!
~April

Book review!!!!

When I decided to sign up with Bethany House Publishers to read and review books for them I had no idea what I was in for but when I saw that they wanted an HONEST review I decided to give it a try. I have signed up to try and review things before from other companies but when I received the information from them they did not want us to give bad reviews only good ones so I decided not to do those ones. Last month I received my first book to read. They did send me the book for free but they in no way persuaded me to give a good review, they only wanted an honest one. When the book arrived I was impressed with the bright beautiful cover and the feel of the book. I do have a kindle that I read some books on but I guess you can say I am old fashioned because I like the feel of a book in my hand while reading. I did not have time to start the book the day it came so I waited until the next day and I absolutely LOVED it! I could hardly put it down starting with page 1. There was no slow beginning with this book, it had me hooked from the start. It is about a school teacher named Kate and a farmer named Silas who share a love for a young boy. They both have very hurtful pasts and the whole way through the book I kept trying to guess if they were going to let those hurts get in the way of their future. Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen something new happened and surprised me. I love the way the author keeps you guessing until the end on who all are going to end up together. I highly recommend this book and will be reading it again.

Rain

Here is a picture of my niece on a nice sunny day.

Sometimes life can seem so unfair. There are places in the world that are going through droughts and wildfires and we have had so much rain lately that I think the animals are making plans for an ark. The poor cow is knee deep in mud if he goes anywhere near the barn and it takes me 2 buckets of water to clean the goat's udders at milking time because they have been walking through mud. The ducks do not seem to mind it and my garden is flourishing but I am worried that if the rain does not let up soon it will be too much water and my plants will die. I do have hope though. The bible says that God wants good things for his children and I am a child of God so I believe that God knows best and will take care of me! Sometimes the worries of this world can become so overpowering that it feels like there is an enormous weight on us all of the time but that means we have not given our problems over to God. It is hard for us humans to trust anyone but ourselves to take care of our problems. When we see a small child trying to do an impossible task, we realize that if that child would let us help them then the task would be so much easier but instead the child insists that they can do it themselves. Alot of times I am like that with God. There are so many things in my life that are too much for me to handle alone but I keep saying to God, "I can handle this", just like the child who insists they do not need help. But God is like that loving parent and waits until we realize that on our own we can not do this and when we are ready he is there to take over. I realize that there are so many things going on in the world today that make it look so bleak and like there is no hope but there is hope. My hope rests in my faith in Christ, he is my hope and my salvation.

Matthew 11:28-3028 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Have a blessed day! I cannot wait to have some sunshiny days!

~April

Prayer request and a recipe

Early this morning, before it was even time to feed the animals for the day my mom and I took my daughter to get an ultrasound done on her gallbladder. She has been having trouble with nausea and a little pain for about a month so they are seeing if they can find anything wrong. Please keep her in your prayers.

The brown stuff around the pie is cinnamon to keep the ants away while it cools.

It is getting to that time of year again. The time of year when I get to start harvesting my garden! Lately I have been picking lots of zucchini and tons of raspberries. I will can what we need to get us through the winter but I also like to use fresh fruits and veggies in my cooking while they are in season. Today I made some sweets. I made 2 loaves of zucchini bread and a yummy looking raspberry pie. You can find the recipe for the pie below.

1. Raspberry pie
2. Ingredients
3. 5 cups raspberries
4. 3/4 cup sugar
5. 1/3 cup flour

         Your favorite pie crust (I make my own but my sister buys the

         pre-made ones in the store so it depends on your liking)

1. In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar and 1/3 cup flour. Stir in berries. Gently toss the berries until well coated. Transfer berry mixture to the pastry-lined pie plate.
2. Then top with your second crust, making small slits in it for steam to escape.
3. If desired, brush pastry top with a little milk and sprinkle with additional sugar.
4. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 25 to 30 minutes more or until top is golden. Cool on wire rack. Makes 8 servings.

    Here is a neat trick for rolling out your pie crust. Place the dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper and roll out to desired thickness. Place dough on pie plate and remove paper. Viola!! That easy!

Have a blessed day!

~April

Farm happenings

There has been alot going on here at the farm lately. I have not been able to post in the last few weeks because my daughter has been sick but she is feeling better so life can get back to some resemblance of normal now.


My husband and I went out to White House Fruit Farm a couple weekends ago with some friends to pick our own strawberries. The strawberries were so nice and big and we had a great time. It was hard to get Doug to stop eating the strawberries but as you can tell in the picture  alot of them finally ended up in the baskets. I plan to go again next year.

We have had a visitor on our farm lately. I call him Henry and he is a beautiful blue peacock. It has been such a joy to have him coming around. We found his owners yesterday so they will be coming to get him soon but it was fun having him here for awhile.

I have decided that if I want to get anything done around here I am just going to have to get wet. It has been raining alot here. One of the good things about it is that it rinses all of the mud and muck off of me. This morning I needed to do some work in the chicken pen and by the time I was done I was filthy. After washing my hands I went and picked some black raspberries and while I was out it began raining and by the time I got back in all of the mud was rinsed from my clothes. So you see there is always a silver lining to every dark cloud. The berries are doing amazingly well this year. After not having any last year I was worried about how small the crop this year would be but I ended up with almost a full gallon bucket today and I did not get to all of the bushes because I needed to come in for lunch. I will be back out tomorrow looking for more. Then after the raspberries are done it will be time to pick blackberries and it looks like we are going to have a bumper crop this year.

Have a blessed day!

~April

Gotta take the bad with the good!

Row of peas. My garden is doing very well so far. Lord willing it will continue to do well

The dreary, cold weather we have been having has reminded me of one of my favorite sayings, " you cannot enjoy the sunshine without the rain." I am not sure if that is a real saying or if I just made it up but it is one of my favorite sayings because of how true it is. If we never had bad times or things that we did not enjoy then we would not be able to enjoy the good things as much. I think that is true with all things. One of my goals this year is to eat fruits and vegetables when they are in season and have enough of my own produce and some of the produce I get from the farmer's market preserved to last us the winter. Just think of how much more we enjoy zucchini when it first ripens, it is something I look forward to every year. I do admit though that by the end of the season I am  a little tired of zucchini but I believe it is much healthier to eat things while they are in season. I think it is nature the way God intended it. My strawberries are not doing well so in a couple weeks my husband and I will be joining some friends of ours to go to a farm to pick our own strawberries, I cannot wait. That is my idea of fun. I cant wait to taste those fresh strawberries. The ones from the grocery store just do not compare in taste and are nowhere near as healthy as farm fresh. I hope you will join me on my journey this summer and I will share as many pictures as I can of how we do things. Have a wonderful and blessed day!


Farm update

We have 3 new additions to our farm. The first is 2 little doelings born to my Nellie girl Friday afternoon.

Penny (Penelope)

Merry (MerryWeather)

And the last addition is my bees!!!! Hooray! I am so excited about this new adventure!

~April

Thankful Thursday

Sometimes life can get busy and I forget to look around at all of the wonderful things that God created but when I take time and just enjoy it I cannot help but be thankful for all of the things that He has created. From the tall Walnut trees growing along our driveway

to the tiny plants that are popping up in my garden, it is amazing to just soak it all in. It is hard to fathom how the Lord can cause one tiny seed to grow into such magnificent and beautiful things.

Today is my son's birthday. He is the goofy guy on the right that is picking on his sister. The baby that my daughter is holding is my son's son. I am so thankful for the children God has blessed me with. I believe that children are the greatest things God has created. It is so hard to imagine them as small as that tiny bundle in the picture now that they are grown. My love for them has grown right along with their size. I will think about how much I love them and realize that God loves us even more and I cannot even imagine how much that is because my human mind cannot fathom loving anything more then I love my children but I can rest in the knowledge that our creator loves us more then we love our children and I cannot wait until the day that I get to join him in Heaven.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

~April


Shared at the HomeAcre Hop

I made some dandelion jelly last week and I decided to wait until I tasted it to post about it because I want to make sure something tastes good before I tell you about it. I opened one of the jars yesterday and put some on toast and it tastes great! Lots of people told me that it tastes sweet like honey. It does taste very sweet (which is one reason I like it so much) but it does not taste like honey. It does taste very good though. I got the recipe from my favorite homesteading book, "The Encyclopedia of Country Living". This is my go to book for everything.

                                 Here is the recipe for the dandelion jelly.

Pick 1 quart of blossoms in the morning. Hold each flower by its calyx (the green base) and snip off the golden blossoms with scissors into your saucepan. Discard calyx. Boil blossoms in 1 quart of water for 3 minutes. Drain off 3 cups of liquid. Add 1 package (1 3/4 ounces) powdered pectin and 2 tablespoons lemon juice to the liquid. When it comes to a rolling boil, add 4 1/2 cups sugar, you can also add a few drops of yellow food coloring at this point if you choose to. Boil about 3 minutes or until it reaches the jelly stage.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I have.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

~April

The other day my husband and I were listening to a song and one of the lyrics was something about her being his nightmare looking like a day dream and I asked my husband if I was his nightmare disguised as a day dream and he said "sometimes". He is so cute, especially because he thinks he is still getting dinner tonight. Seriously though, my husband and I get along wonderfully and we have fun kidding around like that. We had a great weekend. Friday he surprised me by taking a vacation day from work and we went to a nearby auction to sell one of my goats. I really went that day with no plans on buying any animals but of course I came home with some more chicks. You can never have too many chickens, right? I seriously think we are getting close though.

 The auctioneer said they are silkies and they have the black skin and grey legs so we will see. We had a wonderful time at the auction. My husband found an old tonka truck that he bought for our grandson. They both seem to be enjoying it. I found the most amazing donuts. There is a couple of Amish ladies that sell fresh homemade donuts and it was so hard to eat just one and it was so much harder to give my husband half of the one I bought but I did because anything that tastes that good has to be really fattening. Saturday we planted potatoes and weeded some of the garden in the rain. We must have looked a little silly doing all of that while getting soaked but I am happy to say that we got everything planted and weeded and a little dirt and water never did anyone any harm.

 And last but definitely not least my husband surprised me again after church on Sunday and we drove a little over an hour away to pick up a heifer calf. We are bottle feeding her but she looks nice and healthy. She is a twin so her sister stayed on their momma and they sold us this little cutie pie. I almost tried to talk my husband into getting the other calf that was there because her name was April and I am partial to that name since it is also mine.

 My husband is also happy because we gave over half of my ducks to a friend of ours. He is not the biggest fan of ducks. I still have my 2 Pekins though.

Have a wonderful and blessed Monday!

~April

Thankful Thursday~those dang blasted goats!

While thinking about the many things I am thankful for this morning I decided to post about the things that annoyed me the most this morning so that I can remember why I love them. This morning when I went out to milk sweet BabyLynn I decided to check to see if there were anymore tent worms on my blueberry bushes (no, I am not thankful at all for tentworms, I really cannot find any use for them except to help me be thankful when they are not here). My blueberry bushes have been doing amazingly well this year. They were nice and full and getting lots of berries on them. The flowers had fallen off and I could see where the blueberries were coming on. Well, have you ever had one of those moments where you just cannot believe what you are seeing? That happened to me this morning. I checked over the bushes and was relieved to see that there was not a single worm on them. Then after I took a few steps away on my trip to the milkstand I suddenly had a realization. Not only were there no worms on the bushes but there were also very few leaves and even fewer berries!! I hurried back to the bushes and saw that something had been eating them! Then I remembered that LeRoy and Music Man (my herd sires) had gotten out of their pen last night and I decided to allow them to browse the brush that is behind their pen so that they could enjoy some greens. Then like I do with alot of things, I got busy and forgot they were even out until that night after dark when I went to shut the door on the chicken and duck pen. While they were out munching on some brush they came to the front of the trailer and found some yummy blueberry bushes! While feeding them this morning we had a chat about how lucky they are that I love them and that they make some pretty babies with the ladies. I do love my goats and I am very thankful for the milk that they provide my family. I believe that food the way God provided it is the healthiest. I am also thankful for the skills God has blessed me with to be able to turn that milk into cheese, ice cream, soap, and many other wonderful treats. The loss of my blueberries was a small disappointment to the sadness I would feel if I lost a goat. I am thankful this morning that I can look at the humorous side of things and not get caught up in the disappointments. Have a great and blessed day!


~April

Shared at the HomeAcre Hop and image-in-ing

Thankful Thursdays-the life God has blessed me with

          Here we are again, it is time for another Thankful Thursday! Today I am thankful for this amazing life God has blessed me with. 10 years ago living on a farm was just a dream that I did not think would ever come true but here I am living my dream! I do not live in a big farm house which was one of my dreams but I am thankful for the trailer we do have that puts a roof over our heads. I have learned to be happy with what we do have and not sit and wish for something more. God has met our needs in ways that I never would have imagined and sitting and wishing for something else never makes anyone truly happy. Learning to be content with what you do have and appreciating the gifts that come along in life are ways to truly enjoy life.
          About 8 years ago we were given the opportunity to move to where I lived as a child up until I got married at age 20. I do not know if this happens to you but when I go to weddings now I see the bride and groom and think they are way to young to get married! Good heavens, they look like children! Then I realize "Whoa! They are older then I was when I got married!". My mom would tell me that is a sign that I am getting older. I say it is a sign that I am old! One of my Sunday School children informed me that she thought I was 86! She is only off by 45 years. Anyway back on topic and stop rambling April. When we first moved here it was covered with thick brush and briars. I am pretty sure the first animal we started on our farm other then my puppy (who by the way is no longer a puppy now but you probably figured that out) were some banty chickens. As all chicken lovers know you cannot stop with just one! We now have chickens, ducks, goats, and a cow! Goats by the way do an amazing job at clearing land. Easiest work ever, put a few goats in the brush and sit back and relax while they clear the land for you but don't expect any trees to be left. They love bark also. We now are able to grow most of our own vegetables and meat. Our chickens and ducks provide us with tons of eggs, the goats give us milk that I make cheese, yogurt, ice cream and many other treats with and this year we planted a few fruit trees in hopes of having our own fruit. I do not know who dubbed this "The Simple Life" because it is in no way simple but I have learned to enjoy the simple things in life so maybe that is where the name comes from. Some things have changed for me and I have a little more time to get things done now so I am planning to be able to update my blog more often so please tell your friends and share my blog. I also have a Facebook page. You can go to it by clicking on the word facebook in this post. Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Shared at The Homeacre Hop
~April

Thankful Thursdays

 This week I am thankful for my daughter. 

As you can see she is beautiful on the outside but what you cannot see from this picture is how beautiful she is on the inside. She cares so much about people but she is also not afraid to speak her mind. You always know that what she is saying is honest. Not only is she my daughter but she is my best friend. She loves her family and she loves God. I also need to mention she loves her pig and her dog. :)
I cannot imagine life without her and I thank God everyday that I was blessed with her 19 years ago. She is growing into a great young woman who will do wonderful in life. I love you Caitlyn!!

Have a blessed day!!

~April

Please share in the comments what you are thankful for this week.

Today's Thankful Thursday

     I have decided to change the name on Thursdays to Thankful Thursday instead of Thursday blessings, I think it has a better ring to it but it is still the same thing. Each Thursday I will share something I am thankful for.
      This Thursday I am thankful for the family God has blessed me with. I have been very blessed in that area. Growing up I never gave a second thought to how loving and caring my family was. I just took it for granted but the older I get the more I realize just how special it is. I hear so many stories of families hurting each other and not caring what happens to each other. It breaks my heart to see so many hurting families. I cannot even imagine what that must be like. I grew up in a home where I knew I was loved and one of my biggest goals is that my children know just how much I love them. I was raised in a home with my mom, grandfather, grandmother and sister. We did not have everything we wanted but we had all that we needed. Now, that I am grown and have children and grandchildren of my own I realize that what material possessions you give a child is not as important as the love you give that child.  We celebrated the 1 week birthday of my newest grandson and the 20th birthday of my son's fiance' yesterday and I realized that another special thing about my family is that we are willing to accept others into our family with all of the love we have to offer. Below are some pictures from the party.

Have a blessed day and please share your Thankful Thursday in the comments below.

~April

Thursday blessings

Sometimes bad things happen to us in life and sometimes it is hard to get past those things. God does not promise that we will not have bad times but he does promise to be with us and get us through those bad times. The world seems to want to have us see so much of the bad, if you watch the news or watch tv in general there is so much sadness and violence. I want us to start seeing more of the good so I have decided to start having Thursday blessings on my blog. Every Thursday we will come here and share the blessings God has given us and be thankful for those blessings.

1 Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.


Yesterday God blessed my husband, Doug and I with our second grandchild. I always thought that I could never love anyone as much as I love my children and then 2 years ago God gave us our first grandson and I realized that there is something so special about the love I feel for the child of one of my children. Being a wife, a mother and a grandmother is the greatest feeling in the world and comes in second for the greatest love I feel. The love of God is the first. Yesterday was tax day so I hope everyone got their taxes done and it was also the birthday of my second grandson. Just like my first grandson, this one is perfect. He is healthy, weighing in at 8 pounds 5 ounces and is beautiful! Below is a picture of both of my grandsons. I feel so blessed to have grandchildren at a young age. I am not young, just young to be a grandma, or mimi as they call me. 

My beautiful daughter holding her nephew

my amazing husband holding his second grandson for the first time

my angels

me holding my second grandson for the first time

my daughter in law holding both of her precious children

my grandma holding her second great great grandson

my handsome son holding his second son

my children acting silly

I hope you have enjoyed sharing in my joy today and please post a comment with a way you have been blessed. Have a wonderful and blessed day!!

~April

Spring

Winter is over and spring is upon us now. The good news is that the snow and cold are gone and we are enjoying warmer temperatures. The only problem now is the mud. There is so much of it!! I have not let the new baby goats out of the barn yet because I am seriously worried they might drown. I do not know if you can tell from the picture above but my boots are covered halfway up with yucky, gross mud and it is starting to smell bad also. The ducks and cows do not seem to mind it much but I cannot get the goats to come out of the barn unless they have to and I cannot even get the pig to come out! That just shows how spoiled she is though. I am thankful to the Lord that we got through the cold, frozen season and I know he is also going to get us through this wet and muddy season and I am really looking forward to when things dry up and I can plant my garden.

Below are some pictures of the goats to enjoy. I love baby goats. They were born on Good Friday so their names of course are Good and Friday. They are 2 little bucklings born to our BabyLynn, she is a cross between nubian and boer. So of course people like to call them Bubians. Geesh! lol

The little boy in front is Friday

The little boy facing us is Good

Have a blessed Thurday!

~April

The trouble with ducks

I have been so busy lately. Right now I am keeping watch over a mother goat that has lost her ligaments, her bag has filled up and she is starting to have discharge. Everyone here who owns goats knows what that means. We will be having some amazing photos full of cuteness coming up soon! I just love baby goats. I hope you do to because you will be seeing alot of them.

Yesterday was April Fool's day, thankfully noone played any jokes on me. I am that person that falls for them all of the time.

Well, so far none of this has been about ducks or about trouble so let's get on topic. If you ask my husband what the trouble with ducks is he would say a resounding EVERYTHING! As you can see ducks are not my husband's favorite animal on the farm but we have agreed if I can put up with his cows then he can put up with my ducks. I personally do not see how that is a fair trade off. I have yet to have an 800 pound duck come up behind him and bump him with it's head because it wants some scratching under the chin but I guess it could happen, right? I do know that the thing my dear husband dislikes most about my ducks is the fact that they absolutely love swimming in the water troughs, and that gets the water really nasty really fast and I have to admit that I do not necessarily like that about them either. So....what do us farmers do when we have a problem we go to a friend for help. I got on facebook and asked my friend Susie over at Our Simple Farm and like most things the solution was pretty simple and I cannot believe I did not think of it myself. She told me that she has a kiddie pool set up for her ducks and they don't get into her water troughs. Really!?? That simple? I was skeptical. It isn't like I would be making it like fort knox around the water troughs, I would just be putting up a little pool of water. Why would they give up their larger area to swim in? I am very happy to report though that she was correct. I did not have a kiddie pool so I made a small pool from the bottom of an old igloo dog box. The ducks love it and even better is that they stay out of the water troughs. I am very happy about that and maybe it will help my husband like my ducks a little bit more but probably not. Have a wonderful and blessed day!! Please enjoy the pictures of 2 of my beautiful ducks posted below.