The Fairy's Rest!

Hop on over to http://www.shabbylittleshack.blogspot.com/ to see my latest project in the works!!

I'm in love.........

with pickles...
lots of pickles...


Apparently, I am really in love with pickles. I talked my dear husband into purchasing 1/2 bushel of pickling cucumbers Friday evening. I mean it was only 1/2 bushel. That would just be enough to build my stash of yummy sweet Lime Pickles like I made last year.........What was I thinking???? I now have pickles coming out of my ears!!!!

I am only half way thru and I am already at 10 1/2 quarts or 21 pints!!!! I am looking at about 42 pints!!!!! Oh Goody Goody!!! We do really love em. My mother always said that lime pickles were yucky so I wouldn't even try them til last year. My sil told me she liked them so I tried them and OMG they are the best pickles in the world!!! If you have never tried them you should be ashamed of yourself....as am I, for letting all those great cukes go to waste. The recipe is on the pickling lime can. Old South Lime pickles. If you are interested and cannot find it, let me know and I'll get it to you.

The best part is I am starting to get a slew of cukes in my garden ;-) I should get my fill of these beauties this year!!!

I am also in love with my new triplets!!!! A little white/red girl...OH SOOOO CUTE!!!! named Goldie.

A solid white boy...with an angelic face named Silver.

A brown boy....JUST PRECIOUS and he really likes me too!! named Bronze. Rusty for short ;-)

See the pattern here.....in order of birth, we watched, 1st a gold, 2nd silver and 3rd bronze....

We have three Olympian Gymnast. They will need to be gymnast to keep up with Tango's tricks and flips that he can do!! He has more energy than any goat I have ever seen. I guess it's cause I am such a good mother.....guess that makes me an ole nanny goat huh????

This is the last of the babies for this year. 5 total! Whew, it's been hectic with a lot of nail biting and hair pulling :) Leslie was here and got to see the triplets birth with us and she was so excited. The grandpunks all missed it though. Maybe next year!!!

I just recieved the dreaded results.....

.......and it's not good. I have Sarcoidosis in my lungs. I go next week for a CT scan of my chest for a better look at how extensive the involement. Robin works very closely, in ICU, with a great pulmonologist and is going to talk to him about my case. I will have to go see him soon. I went to the eye Dr yesterday and had a very thorough exam and my eyes are not involved. Thank You Lord!! I also get a new pair of the coolest glasses coming next week...afterall something good has to come from all of this, right??? I already wear glasses and was long overdue for an upgrade!!

Here's my new deck that my wonderful husband built me last week. The pictures don't do it justice!!

I plan on getting a lot of use out of this!!!

And here is a pic of the new paint job on the garage. Remember it was blue...yuck. I still have a little trimwork to do but we did most of it last week. Also some window work to be done. Thanks to Leslie!!! She was such a good help. She just shimmied right on up in that loader bucket like it was nothing for 3 days of painting. I was in it for 2 days and I am scared of heights!!! While we were up there we spotted a big black snake crossing the road but our big ole protective man took care of us. I was still scared though even being up so far off the ground!!

I just love this picture of my harvest!!

Life on the farm is very busy these days. Milking 2 goats or should I say 1 1/2 goats. Violet has been very sick with an overload of parasites. I know you are thinking that I should not have goats if I can't do any better with them than this, but we had wormed her the way we were taught and it wasn't enough and they had an opportunistic time right after the birth of the baby. She ended up at the vets office 3 days after the birth. She went off feed and is barely on her way back now. I am so afraid that she will dry up on me but I am really working with her. I only get about a cup each milking from her but almost a half gallon from Saphira each milking. With Saphira we wormed her as soon as she kidded so we could nip it in the bud with her and the parasites and it seems to be working well. I can start to keep her milk tomorrow!!!! Boy do I have plans for it too!!!!

R.I.P. Durango

We lost our lovely Durango yesterday to a trajic accident. I really don't even want to talk about it because it was so much our fault. You know the feeling we all get sometime....it won't happen to us. Well it did.

We had him tied out for the past couple weeks on a steep bank that goes down toard our fishpond so he could eat down the bushes and high grass that we couldn't get to to mow. He was absolutely in hog heaven. Cleared it right down to the dirt.

There was one place that was a drop off that was way to steep for anything to climb and he slid off of it and hung himself there. Danny found him. I am so glad it was not me. This has just broke our hearts. I didn't know he really meant that much to me til I heard this. We are just now seeing his offspring hit the ground and are very happy with them too.

We have certainly learned our lesson...what could happen will happen to us.

Outdoor Wednesday

I would say this is no fun for mom. Ouuuccchhhhyyy!
Someone has to teach him how to butt a ball.

Flying goats!!

Harvest time.

Milking time.... I think she likes this better than her little kid cause she has teeth!!

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Go over to http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ and check out some other Outdoor Wednesday post.

Giveaway.......

Go on over to this blog for a wonderful giveaway! http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/

Of course I will be one of the winners too!!!!


Been a very very very busy week around the farm but it is about to wrap up today. Tomorrow will finally be a day of rest for all of us. Danny has been on vacation this week but it has been anything but a vacation for him, He can't wait to go back to work Monday ;-) I will post pictures later on today. Maybe by the end of the day Saphira will have her babies on the ground too.

Like father like son!

Durango
Mr Tango

Check out that nose that only a mother could love!

He's gonna be a great "Stud" like his father one day!!

If he survives my being his mother that is. Violet doesn't love him and gave him up to me! Yeah, all I needed is another bottle feeder. I swore I would never do that after the bottle raised calf last year. Here I go again cause this little fella has stolen all our hearts. We fed him today and then he got a nice warm bath and a nap in Morgan's arms!!! Spoiled already!!

I have separated him from his mom and I am milking her colostrum right now and he has learned to chow down on it in a bottle. Of course he gets this 4 times a day. Whew!! I am so looking forward to her real milk coming in. She has such a nice udder and I feel she will be a really good milker. Oh Happy Days!!

Better go for now and help my dh.......do ya remember my deck that I have been promised??? Well it has gotten underway today!! :0)

This is a day that the Lord has made.......

Introducing Sunny Morning Farm's Durango's Tango!! Check out those spots, looks just like his Pappy Durango! We really wanted spots and boy did he deliver. This is not a good picture of his long legs and looooooong ears and a beautiful perfect roman nose but my camera was acting up. Robin has some of him up and about that I'll post asap. Only one. Boy did Violet fool us on this one, only one.....

I am not really sure how she is going to be as a mother. She doesn't appear to know what to do with him yet. We went ahead and milked her out and saved the colostrum to try him on the bottle in a couple hours if he doesn't seem to be nursing. He wants to and knows how but she doesn't want him to. Her teat was slimy when I milked her out though so I think he has been sucking a bit.
Robin, Morgan and I ventured into Amish Country today and had a ball!! We have a very small Amish community about an hour from us that I have heard of but thought it was much further down the road. We shopped at 2 stores in the community. Made out with the mother lode too!!!! I bought 26 dozen can lids. What was I thinking?? 26 dozen?? That's a lot of work! But they were sooooo cheap. I also found a great stainless steel milk pail for $26, it sells for $43 plus tax and shipping from the supply catalog. I now have milk on it's way!!!!!!! OMG!!! That makes me happy!!

Morgan about did the pee pee dance when we saw this sign! I plan to take her to Lancaster Pa. We went about 11 years ago and it was by far our best vacation ever. I just love all the farms and their way of life.
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As I said this is a day......... I had a Dr's appt this morning and left with some disturbing news. About 6 months ago I had a small place, well a couple small areas, come up in my scalp that wouldn't go away. Mentioned it to my family Dr and she sent me to a dermatologist. Was treated for a couple weeks for psoriosis, didn't get any better so she biopsied it a couple weeks ago. She was as shocked as I was by the diagnosis of "Sarcoidosis". Of course being nurses both Robin and I know what it means but were speachless and drew blanks about what this would mean for me. I knew it would effect the lungs and involved nodules but that's about it. I also knew it was autoimmune and it may answer the 8 year question of what has been going on with my joints. They could not figure out what was wrong with me after checking for everything.

I now have to go for bloodwork, a chest Xray, an eye exam and a visit with my family Dr which will probably mean back to my Rheumatologist.

I couldn't wait to get home today and research this disease. I feel better after learning a little more about it. I am however worried about the chest Xray. I have been very short of breath for quite a while now but I was chalking it up to not exactly being in shape ;-) I will go for those test tomorrow if I am not birthing babies!!