Good News and Bad News....

We had a series of storms over the weekend that included a lot of cold hard winds. As a result......RIP baby pears....They were too young to die.

Out of the 7 little pears we had on our little tree, this is the one survivor. Since this is the first full year that the tree was in the ground, I really didn't expect any. One would be nice though.Speaking of survivors, our goldfish in the water garden has made it through another winter! He almost came to the surface today, but at least we know he's still alive in there.All over the garden we are finding signs of life....the grapevines are budding and even sprouting some tiny leaves...

This is it's third year....maybe this will be the year we get some grapes.The tulips I planted last year are starting to pop through the soil. I thought they were gonners.And our elephant ear is sprouting it's first leaf of the year....It was even warm enough today to bring the seed trays out to catch some rays....
Rebekah took this really neat self portrait today...I thought I'd share. That's mom's house across the road.

The Old Ways and Finding Rest

Jeremiah 6:16 "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls"...

We love doing things in the old ways. We have a number of projects going on here at most anytime. This weekend we have been working on venison summer sausage. We have a friend that hunts each year and brings us venison. In return we give him a good supply of various sausages. We have a friend that has a cheese press. Although I make soft cheeses, without a press I can't make the hard cheeses such as cheddar. She brings us wheels of cheddar and in return we will give them a good supply of sausages. We do a lot of bartering, one of our most recent barters was that we reduced the price of a goat since the folks were trading us 2 pigs in the deal.

I like to think we do things in the old ways, we do try to simplify things in our lives. You have to work harder, but in the long run you find rest.

We are celebrating today, we are finally seeing signs of life in the garden! Our peas are coming up and our asparagus is sprouting like crazy.

We have 2 broccoli plants that look hopeful..Our tiny little pear tree has 7 baby pears on it!And I am happy to announce that I did not kill our little wisteria. This thing started last Spring as a small stick.

Flower Pictures

After working in the garden for an entire day, I decided to take some pictures of the flowers we have blooming here and on mom's property. I'll start with the garden picture, even though it is very difficult to tell....we have 2 asparagus shoots that have come up! This is the second year for the asparagus, so we will get to harvest just a few this year...but I am so pleased to see these two little beauties!!

Equally exciting to me is that my Rosemary bloomed again! Our Rosemary hedge is about 7 years old and one single stalk flowered last year. Now we have blooms on it again. It's not a great picture because I was very tired and the blooms are deep inside the hedge. I'll try for a better one soon.I also got a couple of nice shots of our pear blossoms. Our dinky little pear tree might actually give us a pear this year. We just planted it last year.And another pear blossom cluster....

I have no idea what this next one is. It's towards the back of mom's property and it is the prettiest shade of pinkypurple.

Okay, so he's not a pretty flower....but I got a picture of Ben working on his girlfriend's car....And these last 2 shots I am very proud of. Mom has a single dogwood tree on the back side of her property just where it drops off. I can't get any closer than about 20 feet to it, but I got 2 shots that I think are just awesome.There's a legend about the Dogwood. Two thousand years ago, few trees in the Middle East were not big enough to construct anything. However, one tree was valued above the others for its thick trunk and fine, strong wood.

At the time of the crucifixion, the dogwood was comparable in size to the oak tree and other monarchs of the forest. Because of its firmness and strength it was selected as the timber for the cross, but to be put to such a cruel use greatly distressed the tree.

Sensing this, the crucified Jesus in his gentle pity for the sorrow and suffering of all said to it: "Because of your sorrow and pity for My sufferings, never again will the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a gibbet. Henceforth it will be slender, bent and twisted and its blossoms will be in the form of a cross -- two long and two short petals. In the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints -- brown with rust and stained with red -- and in the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see this will remember.

And a little spotted llama...

Okay, if you've never seen nor heard the llama song, you must watch it now. It will stick with you for a while....and you will understand the title of this blog.




I have a friend that raises llamas. A couple of weeks ago, my dear friend was in a serious car accident that left her with multiple broken bones. Two days after the accident, her husband arrived home from work to find that one of their llamas had given birth and then died.

Stephanie and I went over and got the cria (baby llama) and brought her here. We have been bottle feeding her goat milk until my friend is well enough to take over her care. Stephanie was nicknamed "The Llama Whisperer" for a few years now. When she was 12 or 13, she was able to calm a full grown male llama (400 pounds) enough for us to shear him. He had never been handled and she had the magic touch. I have pictures of that here somewhere.....I should find them.

Anyway, my broken friend had another llama give birth last night. All went well this time and she got this really cool spotted llama.

The llama mama is doing fine.

Please forgive me if you still have the llama song in your head. It sticks with you. Kinda like these furry guys do.

Love is...

I have the best husband in the world. Warm weather has been coming and going and Spring is just around the corner which means a lot of work is coming. One of my most dreaded projects each year is mucking out the barn. Inside the barn are layers upon layers of a whole years' worth of suprises like....

...eggs that never hatched, hidden by broody hens
...hay that has been dropped by the goats from the hay manger
...other goat by-products
...chicken poop
...mouse and/or rat poop (not to mention the occasional rat corpse deposited by the barn cat)
...goat poop

Now don't get me wrong, I rake out the barn at least once a month. But I only completely muck it out to the soil level once a year. Well, I don't do it...but the boys do. But boys grow up and get their own life and *sigh*....

Anyway, the bestest husband in the world took 2 vacation days this week and spent one of them working in the barn. It is SO clean! He took it all the way to the soil, mucking out about 10 inches of eew. Of course it all goes into the compost pile....where it should be ready for the garden in a couple of months.

This morning we made plans to visit our friends that live about an hour away. We were going to pick up our new baby girl goat and some pecan wood for the smoker....as well as disbud their new baby goats and trim hooves.

We decided to make a date of breakfast and treat ourselves to a meal away from home. All I can say is it was just crazy! I was not really hungry for breakfast food (I'm strange that way), but decided on grits with a couple of soft-boiled eggs. This is one of my favorite breakfasts, scooping out the soft eggs and putting them in the grits and putting some fresh butter on top....ohhhmyyy. Bob got his usual big breakfast with eggs over easy, bacon, sausage, and toast. They even had a variety of jams and jellies.

When I placed the order for soft boiled eggs, the waitress looked at me like I'd sprouted another head! So I repeated it..."soft boiled eggs"....you know, 3 minute or 4 minute eggs....soofffftttt boileddddd. She said she didn't think they could make that. *ugh*

Within a few minutes our smiling server brought Bob his well deserved exactly as ordered breakfast. I was so happy for him. He has worked so hard and this was a treat.

She brought me liquid grits, and 2 hard poached eggs. Oh yea, and something called "whipped spread".

One thing is for sure....we sure can make memories! This is a breakfast we will not soon forget. Bob enjoyed his breakfast, I had a very good glass of sweet tea....and we enjoyed talking with each other without the worry of me cooking or kids interrupting.

When we were done helping our friends and got the new goat settled in at home, the greatest husband in the world took me to my favorite fast food place in the world....SONIC. And it's his least favorite. WHAT A MAN!