spider

Internet has arrived. Austin and I are proud to say we can successfully “dial up.” It was a slow process, but, well it’s still a slow process. It works a majority of the time and as long as you are not loading, downloading, checking bank or e-mail, it’s not too bad. We knew moving out here we would have to slow down something.




A quick catch up.
Turns out Spider is the neighbor’s cat. The neighbor is not our best friend. Spider wishes she was here with us and not locked up in a room by a crazy trucker lady. Spider is sick of listening to ‘Lil T complaining about her husband’s suicide. It was and still is an interesting situation. Hopefully soon this mess will unwind and we can be whole again. Any time the leaves rustle behind us we think is it Spider on her way home.

isis and montu

isis and montu

isis



montu


Montu and Isis are the names we came up with for our pups. Montu, meaning warrior and solar god, and Isis, mother of nature, queen of gods. They are Egyptian names. Both of them have put on seven plus pounds as of our last vet visit. They are eating every kind of poop they can find, so far, goat, chicken, horse, bird, and each others. They love miscellaneous dead rodents, bark, paint, turtle shells, snakes, baseboards, our bed, and did I mention goat poop? I found a cute new shop in Hillsboro that sells only all natural, organic, grain free, corn free dog food. Right now I am feeding them Dick Van Patten’s Natural Balance. It has a lower protein content, so the dogs don’t grow faster than their bodies are ready for. I am training them with freeze dried lamb as a treat. So far they can sit. I am also trying to use hand signals too, so they have to look at me. The eye contact helps with their attention span. They have a good routine of walking with me to the goats and chickens, and riding in Austin’s 4-runner. They play pretty rough sometimes, and then sleep hard too. We are still enjoying their peppiness enough to let them sleep with us. Montu, even though he has such long fur, loves the wood fired stove and often falls asleep with his face touching it. Isis has twice his energy and agility. She runs circles around him.

goats

rocket

moving the shelters

turnip in double wide

rudy

esk

Sam thought this heat cycle for the lady goats would be the best time to breed them. She found us a really neat buck names Esk. From what I imagined, the buck was possibly going to look like a mini dinosaur. He doesn’t. He is actually very similar in size to the girls, however, his goatee is much longer and he has one of his horns. We picked him up in Sam’s van. When I say we, I mean Sam and Debbie. I drove a safe distance behind. At first I didn’t think I was going to be able to handle the aroma this gentleman put off. Over the last few weeks though, I can hardly notice it. But let me assure you, it is potent.
We currently have Esk, Turnip, Rudy, and Rocket over at our place. For one morning, we had all of them as we were letting Esk have his way. The first few days Austin had to secure and re-secure the fence around them. Every once in a while Esk still likes to show us he has a secret escape route. He appears in the field, or is found chillin outside the fence. We had witnessed some action from the goats, but I’m not sure when we will know who is pregnant.
We moved two of the shelters from Sam and Chris’s and combined them to make a double wide. The shelter has straw bedding. We also set up a temporary tarp to provide some extra protection from the rain and snow we have been getting. We feed the goats two times a day, compressed alfalfa and molasses, grain, and beet pulp. They also get some regular alfalfa. We also have to spray Turnip and Rocket’s teats with a sanitizer to prevent mastitis. Rocket has the name “Rocket” for one simple reason. She runs. It isn’t always bad, but she is a bit skittish, and you have to side tract her with the food in order to spray her.

chickens

The chickens are growing up so fast. We took our time getting started on the coop. We are about half way done. It’s going to be amaizing though, and large enough for about 80 chickens. Its dimensions are 8 feet deep by 16 feet long and 8 feet tall. It will have 24 nests, plenty of roosting space, three made by Austin windows, a gutter connected to a rain barrel, and automatic water feeders. The structure is attached to three skids so hopefully we will be able to move it as the area around it gets demolished and diminished.
I possibly have a favorite chicken. Though I definitely love them all the same, this one really enjoys affection. The names for the chickens are all a bit up in the air still. There are some silly ones we use to distinguish them, but I would prefer not to call “Miss Poopy Head” that for too much longer. Miss OJ, is the orange chicken that has bonded to me. She does some silly clucking as I pick her up, but I feel like she is bragging about the attention. May be one more week and they will move to their mansion.

holidays

The holidays were delicious and very enjoyable. Austin had his birthday on the 9th. We attended a bacon and Champaign tasting, and then Sam, Chris, and Debbie made a wonderful homemade rib eye, veggie turkey patty, spinach, mashed potatoes, and strawberry shortcake dinner. Throughout Hanukkah, I cooked some fried tofu, and well, that was probably the closest traditional food preparation that took place. Austin cooked us all a five course dinner Christmas Eve. This consisted of homemade pasta, mussels, butternut squash ravioli, scallop and short-rib surf and turf, tofu, white bean ragout, lemon curd white chocolate cheesecake tart, and many other components. We opened presents in between courses, and then still had a bunch to open at the end. Everything was incredible, and the gifts we all fantastic. Chris made Christmas morning Brunch; biscuits, poached egg, spinach and gravy. This was a first for me, and I absolutely loved it. I think he may be the biscuit master. For Christmas dinner, Sam made a smoked macaroni and cheese bake and pumpkin pie with a spelt crust, Chris made pork tender loin, braised fennel, and carrots, Deb made lasagna and salad, and Austin made chocolate peanut butter whipped ganache. I don’t know where the superstition of gaining weight around the holidays comes from

house

As for our house, we attached our baseboards, and sanded and stained or loft floor. It now matches the wood floor in the bedroom and hallway, and doesn’t have a urine odor any more. We will be making that our office. We connected our dryer to a vent that keeps the heat inside, so we don’t waste it by pumping it outside. We also had some heater troubles that Austin solved by asking a handyman online, sucking and blowing on a certain tube, and changing our thermostat and filter. During the last snowfall, a mouse took shelter under our kitchen sink. Austin resealed the area with some spray foam stuff, and we haven’t seen any trace evidence since. We also had some crossed wires not allowing our phone to hang up. We located the problem wires and cut them off, so currently the phone works with just a bit of static. Austin also reattached some of the roof that flew off with the strong wind we get. There are some other little developments we have been making, but that is a good start.