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