Spring break seemed to fly by.  My husband took the whole week off from work, and I’m sad to see it over.  We accomplished so many projects.. not to mention had a lot of fun   Our biggest project was our windows.  Our windows are the cheap alluminum type.  This past week we had half of them replaced with nice vinyl windows.  I am looking forward to not dealing with the black mold & mildew in that half of the house.  After the contractor’s installed the windows, we took the responsibility of replacing the trim ourselves (to save us quite a bit of money).  For the most part, that was finished up yesterday…

We built and finshed another livestock pen with shed.  I needed another pen to corral our lamb.  We delivered another set of triplet goats.. with one last goat remaining, due 4 days ago!

My daughter, Abby, moved home this past week.. that has been a lot of adjustment in the house.  She and her friend cleaned and painted her bedroom.  It is shaping up real nice..

Our family took a fun hike.  The children learn so much on our outings   On this hike, we were able to show the smaller children how to determine the age of a tree – by counting it’s growth rings. 

Also, on this particular trail, there are many markers along the way with historical facts about that particular location.  This trail is called, ‘Sawmill Trail’.. named for the old sawmill that occupied that area.  We hike it often.. it’s close to home and easy for the children to manuever.

Of course.. it’s always best for the boys to wear their ‘muck boots’… what boy can avoid mud puddles? Lol..

My husband, children and I frequent second hand shops rather regularly.  I would say we try to hit them once a week – If not.. it’s every other week.  I find so many items that I have been looking for (and of course some that I didn’t know I was looking for..lol).  I hardly ever have to buy jeans for my boys.  I keep my eyes open and buy them next to new, used. 

I wanted to share one of my recent experiences.  Last summer, I came across a used Cuisinart ice cream maker.  This one is the kind you freeze the bowl a head of time (atleast 24 hrs).  Oh, let me tell you.. that was the BEST ice cream ever.  I milk my own goats.. and the recipe is only three ingredients.. milk, sugar and vanilla.  The only problem was.. this maker only made 1 qt of ice cream.  Not very much for a large family.  We each just got a taste. 

Well.. guess what I found last week???  Yes, another ice cream maker.  Different brand, never been used before.  I plugged it to make sure it worked, etc.  Yeah!!  It is the same set up.. freeze the bowl a head of time.  This coming summer, I will be making a half gallon per time.  Each maker cost me $7.95.  What a bargain!

Some of you know that we raised a bummer lamb two years ago.  My thought at the time was to raise her, breed her each year to have our own homegrown lamb in the freezer each fall.  Well, after she grew to become full sized.. she became quite the bully to our dairy goats.  I think she needed her own ‘flock’ to hang out in.  She grew so big that she was double the size of the goats and pushed them around.  It was kind of funny at first.. she wouldn’t let them go ‘here’ and she would make them go ‘there’.  After a short time.. it wasn’t funny. 

I called Fran, the lady who we got her from,  around the time she was to be bred.  She told me to bring her out.  We discussed the issues with Lilly (thats the sheep) and my goats.  She agreed to just keep her.. she was going to be reunited back into her own flock

That was last summer.  A few days ago, I got a call from Fran.  She called to announce the birth of Lilly’s first lamb.  The kids and I loaded up and took the trip out the her farm.  She had one single BIG ewe lamb  

To answer the above title.. her fleece is black!  Her breed is Suffolk, they are born black and their fleece turns white as they age

Today I wanted to share a few more pic’s from our camping trip.  The weather cooperated 100% with all of our needs   Between the beach and campground was a small lake with a nice hiking trail around the perimeter… Lake Marie.  It took us about 45 minutes each day to walk it (we had little ones slowing us). 

A view of the lake from the campground trail head..

Around the lake there were several trees like the one pictured here.. It appears that the tree's were cut down years ago.... And somehow new trees grew atop the stumps.

We were able to dodge rainstorms to enjoy the beach.  The first evening was absolutely gorgeous.  We were able to beach comb as the sun set

This past weekend our family went on it’s 1st annual winter camping trip.  We opted to yurt camp on the coast (about) 2 hrs from home.  The first night proved to be a memorable one..lol.. We got all settled in just in time for a wind storm.  The sustained winds were 40mph with gusts at about 60mph..  The yurts have a big sky light on top.. so we were able to look right up at the trees as they blew sideways!  The power ended up going out for about 2 hrs. My husband said we will always look back with fond memories…lol..  For the next couple days, I will post pictures of our trip.

The yurt had a tv with a vcr/dvd combo. We took lots of movies to watch in the evenings You can see my husbands legs as he is all relaxed on one of the futon couches..lol..

We had a great hunting season!  I myself did not bag any game.. but that’s o.k…  My 13 year old, Elijah, bagged his first buck.  To our suprise… his first buck was a 4 point!  It provided us with a lot of meat too.  I  weigh each bowl of meat before I wrap and freeze it.. we ended up with 51 lb’s of meat from his deer.  All of this meat is a huge blessing, as last year we hunted ALL season - to end it with NO meat.

I made our fist buck steak dinner of the season… YUM!  I can’t think of any other food that I would rather eat

This was our 2nd annual hayride to the pumpkin patch.  The weather this year was less than desirable.  It was a drizzly, chilly day.  I had many families that had RSVP’d, totalling 81 people.  Each hayride could hold 40-45 people… so two loads was necessary.  I honestly wasn’t sure many folks would show up because of the weather.  To our delight, EVERYONE showed up.  I asked my friend Cindy to help with the second load of folks.  Our family headed out to the patch with the first load, while the second load stayed back and headed to get lost in the corn maze

As we neared the patch, the childrens eyes grew bigger.  The amount of pumpkins was remarkable.  It was a sea orange.  Way tooo many pumpkins to choose from  

Children Choosing Their Pumpkins..

I have to also throw this picture in… Our youngest picked out a little dainty pumpkin

Here is a picture of our “1st” hayride crew.. 

And here is the second group loading…. (note all the umbrellas!)

After the pumpkin, each child got a fresh farm pear, a cookie & a cup of apple cider…  Yum

This picture was too cute to pass up

Our family was elated when Sam brought the first buck of hunting season home.  Last year we bagged NO deer.  I told Sam a few days ago that in my mind I could  just taste the buck steak,  mashed potatoes and gravy.  Well, he came through for us this year.  He bagged a large 3X3… the biggest he has ever bagged.  He made a clean kill with no meat wasted.  After it was cut in to steaks and ground we yeilded 42 #.  Our family still has 2 buck tags & a doe tag.  Happy Hunting To All!

This afternoon our family attended a local civil war demonstration for homeschoolers.  There were approx. 40 people in attendance.  Tom & Tami Maurer give school presentations when invited  

The gun Mr. Maurer is holding is NOT a replica.  It is an original bayonet rifle used during the civil war.  His family was cleaning out their uncle’s attic when they stumbled across it.  It was in pieces.  Tom gathered the pieces and assembled it, what a find!  Especially if you are a civil war nut  

Mrs. Maurer is wearing a dress that she made herself.  She spoke to us about what woman wore back in the civil war era.  She also talked to us about woman in the work place.  Florence Nightengale, Clara Barton and Elizabeth Blackwell.  Before the civil war, it was not acceptable for woman to nurse soldiers, let alone doctor them.   Elizabeth Blackwell was the first female doctor in America.  Very interesting!  I also want to add that Mr. Maurer is wearing a red piped union soldier suit.  He explained that each unique unit had their own color of piping, red represents artillary. 

Our son got to be the ‘helper’.  Elijah is a big civil war history nut and this was right down his alley.  Mr. Maurer demonstrated what was required of young men to enter service – It was pretty minimal.  First off, you had to have thumb & trigger finger (all other fingers were optional).  Next, men needed to have their front teeth to tear off the paper from the black powder bags.  You can drink and be drunk.. just not the day you entered the military.  They would smell your breath to insure no alcohol was present.  If there was alcohol detected, they would send you home and have you come back the next day… lol..  Last but not least, men needed to have upper body strength.  Enough strength to hold up and fire a rifle.

There was so much more great info shared.  One of the big attractions was a civil war replica cannon.  We had to get a permit from the county parks department.. just to fire a blank!   It was worth it   It is a beautiful piece of work.  The Maurer’s built this cannon from scratch.  

 Another one of our son’s got to help ’steer’ the cannon.  The accuracy of these cannons was exceptional.  I don’t remember the actual facts, it was amazing technology. 

 Last, but not least, Elijah got to fire the cannon.  It was going to be loud, so he covered his ear. 

All in all, our family had a Great time!  After the presentation, all the families shared a delicious potluck dinner.  The weather was very chilly and close to rain.  Thankfully the rain held off until about 10 minutes after we left. 

A few days ago (Sept 1) marked the beginning of game bird hunting.  Our family enjoys the hunt and the game   This morning after early morning chores, we headed out for a bird hunt.  We ended up seeing two grouse and a covey of quail.  Unfortunetly, we were not able to bag a bird.  I was not wielding the gun… might need to show those guys how to shoot…lol.. Just joking Towards the end of the hunt, realizing we may go home empty handed, I talked my husband into letting us pick blackberries, yum!  I was thrilled to have a nice batch of berries for the freezer.

Our Oldest Son Returnig From A Hunt