My Little Girl...

Yea, I know...she's nearly 18....but she is still my sweet, innocent, darling, firstborn daughter. After 2 boys I could not wait to put pink on something! As a baby Stephanie was always dressed in matching shoes, socks, dresses, and a bow or headband on her head. The poor baby was bald until she was 2. Then when she was 2 her older brothers talked her into playing "barber shop" and shaved her head.

Today my little girl started working at a "real job". I say a real job because now she is working for a paycheck. She is a very hard worker, and has been working since ... well pretty much since she could walk. As a toddler she worked hard at having temper fits and making messes. As a young student she worked hard to learn to read and write....and despite the fact that she hates math, she worked hard to learn. As a young lady she worked hard to help me with housework and learned to sew. Over the last few years she has helped with milking goats, doing laundry, cleaning the house, and has always maintained a B+ average (that math gets her every time!). As a teenager/nearly adult she has continued working hard at her studies, helps with barn chores, household chores, having temper fits...but at least now she cleans up messes!


Today she started working at Sonic Drive In. My favorite fast food. I couldn't be more proud! I wanted to document her accomplishment by getting a picture of her standing proudly in her brand new uniform.

As with anything having to do with Stephanie....it's not a snapshot, it's an event.

First she had the giggles....Then she had to yell at her sister.....Then she had to fix her hair....Don't let that smile fool you, she wants to kill me. I keep taking pictures of her. Pictures when she's "not ready".....
But just LOOK at how cute she is in her uniform! *sniff* *sniff* My little girl is growing up!

Lloopy Llama!

I swear if there is a quirky animal anywhere in this state, it finds a way to come live with us! Animals often have sudden bursts of energy and start running .... we call such a burst "the zoomies". Well you haven't seen anything until you see llama zoomies.

Annie does this really strange inchworm/roly-poly-love-the-baby-goats-until-she-just-gets-so-excited-she-bursts zoomies. I have no other interpretation for what it is that she does on an almost daily basis...if anyone speaks llama and cares to translate, I'd love to hear it!

Sun Halo

Today I was able to get a few pictures of something I've never seen before. It's called a sun halo.

What kind of mama hen are you?

What type of Mother Hen Are You?
by Montessorimom.com: Educational Resource

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.