Our litte 8lb mini doxie gave birth to a litter of 6 pups!!  3 girls and 3 boys  

These pic’s were taking a few days before she gave birth.. She was getting so miserable, with her belly dragging on the ground.

Sam made up a chart for the children to guess how many pups she would have.. Everyone was anxiously awaiting to see who guessed right  

The morning she had them - Abby had woke up for work.. and herd the meews of puppies.  Betsy (our dog) got up around 2:30am to potty.. when I let her back in, she ran under Malachi’s bed.  Sometime between 2:30am & 7:30 am.. she birthed them.  And funny thing.. Malachi is the one who guessed 6 pups!  He was thrilled   We all team worked to get her and her pups into the whelping basket we had ready for her. 

She had 5 black and tans and one chocolate.  Unfortunetly, one of our black and tan male pups didn’t make it through the day   I tried and tried to help it.. without success.  Thankfully the rest of them are thriving and growing like weeds!!

The polls have opened.. and I’m hoping that any and all of you will go vote for my ‘Best Recipe Blog’…  I entered my Venison Pizza from Oregon. 

Click Here To Vote

Leave me a comment if you voted.. I’d love to hear from you

We have been busy finishing up homeschool for summer break..  Also, the local dairy goat association, that I belong to, held it’s 38th annual dairy goat show.. I am the club secretary/show secretary.  Answering all the emails, phone calls and entering all the entrants in the book was soooo time consuming….  and of course there is all my goats, goats.. and more goat chores

I wanted to share a few pictures of my boys playing baseball.  Malachi (7) and Nehemiah (9) are both on the same team.. thankfully!

Malachi

Nehemiah

Here are some ‘action’ pictures

Go Neen... GO!!

Nice Swing Mally!!

With this nice weather, comes more outside time.  This past week we had a family picnic/gathering.. I wanted to share a couple pic’s

My youngest daughter on the left, my oldest daughter in the middle.. playing with their cousin

The boys and Sam were able to get a little game of baseball in Thursday.   All in all.. We had a wonderfull sunny week!!

Today my 4th child turned 9.  I am always amazed about how time flies!!  As I was thinking about him turning 9, I was remembering back to his birth.  How thankful I was to have been given another chance to have a baby.  He was and still is a true blessing – All my children are  

We started a new birthday tradition this year.  We decided to let the birthday child pick the dinner meal… They get to tell me what to make for dinner!  And, they can choose what everyone gets for dessert  

I asked Nehemiah what he wanted.. He replied, “I would like fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy & broccoli”… and for dessert he wanted chocolate cake.  Here I was expecting him to say hotdogs or hamburgers or something of a kin… lol…  So, for dinner tonight, I fixed a YUMMY fried chicken meal with chocolate cake (I didn’t actually have any cake.. but the rest of the family did).

My youngest daughter, Eliorah, has found a new hobby.  She LOVES to pick flowers.  She follows me (and anyone else) outside and instantly starts picking flowers.  She has learned many of the names and will bring us a large variety in her bouquets.  We recently went on a picnic with some of our friends… she spent a great deal of time picking flowers in the park   We have been talking within our family.. wondering if she will aspire to be a florist

To me, it’s a win-win.. she loves the pretty flowers.. and I love to have those pesky dandilions picked out of the yard, before they blow their seed everywhere

This year, Deloris Booher was the guest speaker.  Wow.. what a story she had to tell.  She birthed and raised 7 sons & 1 daughter.  I did not know until hearing her story, they are a famous musical family.  I was telling my husband about Mrs. Booher and her family… of course, he said he already knows of them (He knows everyone..lol.. ).

She says as the children grew up, they all learned to play multiple instruments.  The whole family has traveled the world for various fiddle competitions.  Her children are all grown now, most married with children (if I remember right, she said she has 14 grandchildren).  She said all of her children are homeschooling their childern!  How happy her heart must be. 

She brought one of her sons and a grandson.  Her 10 year old grandson fiddled for our group and her son (Ben Booher) sang a song..  Three of the Booher brothers have recorded several CD’s..  If you go to The Booher Brothers website, you can hear ’snipits’ of their music.  I was able to click on the song Ben sang for us.. so that my husband could hear it.  If you are interested in hearing it, it is the 5th song on “Silver In The Sage” CD called, ‘He’s Still Workin’ On Me..’.

A few days after the class, I had a chance to check out her website.. and all the herbs/herb blends she has to offer.  I have always tried to raise my goats as natural as possible.  I decided to augment my herd nutrition with some of her herbs.  I also ordered a few things for our personal use.

I was like a kid getting a present when my box arrived.  I could smell the herbs before I opened the box.  Some of the herbs fragrance reminds of poultry seasoning   Others reminded me of apple pie seasoning ..lol..  

Since discovering Kat Drovdahl, M.H., I have had a goat come down sick.  I utilized her consulting services (according to what I have read on her website, she can be consulted for humans, dogs, cats, ++ other animals).  She charges a small fee that is well worth it.  She responded to my cry for help immedietly.  If you would like to see her website and discover what she has to offer.. go to http://firmeadow.com/

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..

What a treat!  My family can’t get enough homemade pizza.  The pizza dough is made from scratch.  I make the pizza sauce out of tomatoes I canned from our garden.  The cheese is homemade goat milk mozzerella and the meat is home processed venison.  You can’t get more from scratch than that!

I thought I would share my recipe

Pizza Dough

1 2/3 c. water

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp sugar or honey or agave

2 Tbsp dry milk

1 tsp. salt

2 1/2 c. all purpose flour

2 c. whole wheat flour

2 tsp. yeast

Prepare dough by hand or bread machine. This recipe make 2 pizza crusts.

Pizza Sauce

1 qt. canned tomatoes

1 Tbsp. dried oregano

2 tsp. basil

2 cloves garlic

Simmer all the above ingredients for a couple hours.

2 lb. Goat Milk Mozzerella Cheese (any kind of mozzerella would work)

2 lb. Ground Venison (any ground burger would work)

1 Onion

2 c. Chopped spinach

Since I count every calorie, protein & carb that hits my mouth, I found this great website for doing such a task with homemade food.  http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp gives you the ability to enter our own recipes.. and it figures your nutritional values.  Great, great tool!

Nutritional Info For The Above Homemade Pizza

Serving Size: 1/16 (two pizza’s divided into 8 pieces each.. your serving is one of those pieces)

Calories: 373

Fat: 16.5 g

Carbs: 31.5g

Protein 24.8g