cleaning up

Well hello again!!!! I've had to do a major clean up of my sewing/craft room. It was so out of hand that when I went in there to get some yarn to work on a pattern I'd been writing to share with you guys, not only could I not find what I was after, but I realized when things came tumbling down that it was time to gut that room!!! Once I got started, I ended up throwing out 5 bags of stuff, and filling many bags and boxes of stuff to donate to the thrift store. I'm very close to being finished in there, and will be in there working on many things this weekend!!!! I have several sewing projects that need to be finished, and several more that need to be started. 

At this point, the way our year has gone, I'm thinking that I'm not going to be making any promises to have any new patterns, or recipes to share with you all before the year is out. I honestly wanted to have so many things for you all, but life just kept getting in the way!!! However!!! Once my workspace is clean, and workable, I am positive that I will hopefully have so very many things to share with you all!!!!

So, if I don't check in with you all before the end of the year, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year!!! I hope 2017 is much better!!!!

What a year its been so far

I don't know about you all, but 2016 has been a rough year. Not like horribly the world is ending, we're losing the farm, the dog died kind of year, but a year where stuff just keeps happening. My poor Farm husband has had to have multiple gum surgeries, and it looks like he has one more in his future, and hopefully it will be the last one, and then he can be done with that.
My mother in law had gotten a bit of an infection and had to be on IV antibiotics, and we are almost done!!! We're so very close to being done!!!! But we are really far behind on the buildings and the farm stuff. So, we will be bringing in a little bit of help here in the next couple of weeks as soon as we get ourselves turned around and reorganized.
If our help is good, and we can get caught back up quickly, we will be able to finish butchering, and then get our replacement birds so that we can get things up and moving the way we want.

Anyways, I saw in the news this morning that Florence Henderson passed away!!!! That was rather sad...we have lost a lot of big named stars this year that were well known for their roles. I was really sad about David Bowie, and Alan Rickman. I'm hoping that we don't lose anyone else this year.

Well, I'd better pop off of here for now. I didn't mean to ramble, and honestly, I wasn't quite sure what exactly I had wanted to say, I guess I just wanted to pop in and say a little something so that you all knew I wasn't ignoring you all.

Time to go feed and water the critters before the sun goes down on me! Hope you all are well!!!!

Crochet Dishcloth

Hey there!!!! The day's not over yet!!! So if you have been waiting for that new pattern I promised, here it is at last!!!! This is actually part of a 3 piece set that I've written. I thought that I would start with the dishcloths, because they work up just so quick and easy!!! I loved making these once I got going with it. I'm probably going to have lots of these in my kitchen in the near future. Each one of these uses just over half a ball of cotton yarn. and an H hook.

Directions:

1. Chain 30, sc in second ch from hook. *dc in next st, sc in next* repeat across

2. Ch 2, dc in first sc *sc in next dc, dc in next sc* repeat across

Rows 4-25 Repeat rows 1 and 2 alternatively, finish off at end of row 25

Yes! It's just that simple. Sometimes, the simplest things turn out to be the prettiest. These truly are pretty in person!!!   Here in a few days, I'll have the next part of this set double tested, photographed and shared!!!!

Enjoy!!!! And I hope you and your families all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!

Monday

I had planned on having a pattern up before the weekend was over, however the testing took a little longer. I need to wait for daylight to get some photographs taken. It will be up tomorrow however!!!!
For now though, I'm having hot tea and am snuggled up with the sibes!!!

Coming soon

Hey my followers!!!! We really have had a lot going on here in our personal lives, that has kept me a lot busier than I'm used to. My mother in law has required some antibiotics by IV, but thankfully there is only 2 weeks left of that. She's doing fantastic, and I will spare you all the details. But the whole family has pulled together to help her in her recovery,

So, I've been working on a crochet pattern to share with you guys. Right now, I'm double checking that pattern, and will hopefully have it up for you all by the Sunday night!!! It's nothing overly exciting. I wish I could design as fast, and big and beautifully as Sara Zimmerman over at Repeat Crafter Me, that woman is a serious inspiration to me.  She just leaves me completely awe inspired with her use of colors, yarns and textures!!!!

Anyways, I'm taking Sam to the groomer this morning to get him straightened around. His fur grows so long and fast on the backs of his legs, and his belly, that if I don't keep up with the grooming he ends up rather matted, and I can't get it to brush out. Unfortunately he has a couple of spots like that now, and I need to get it taken care of before it gets any worse. Luckily he loves going to the groomer. Although, we are using a different groomer today. The lady that I had been taking him to had to retire due to health problems, and she really did a fantastic job with him. But I completely understand why she had to retire. Today we are going to the groomer at the Vets office. This guy is really good as well. He's who we took Nikki to during the last couple of years of her life. She hadn't needed a groomer before, but as she got older, her grooming needs changed significantly due to her joint problems, and other things. She loved it there so much, that when we would go to the vets office for her regular visits, or shots, or general stuff, that she would try to go back to the grooming area. I really think she liked the heated bed pad they would put her on. I'm positive it felt great on her joints.

My diet is going quite well by the way! That's still going. I joined a gym in town, and I'm loving it. It's really quite the sweaty workout in there. I'm not sure if it's the heat, or if it's the fact that I'm working out in a way that I don't get to work out  here at home, but whew. I go 2-3 days a week.

I can't remember if I told you all or not, but we did get our second house for the chickens. We seriously need to get it set up before too much longer. Once we get it up, the plan is to run all of the birds down to the new house, and let them in there over the winter. Then, we are going to do a super cleaning of the one we have now. We will take everything out of there, and scrub the ceiling, and walls (it's dirt floor, so you can't actually wash that, just dig it out pretty good). Once we get that done, the plan is to sand the rest parts, and then are going to give the inside a paint job with some paint that will prevent rust. I'd like to paint the outside to look like a barn...but I don't think Frank is as keep on that idea as I am, so maybe just spray it off really well, and paint it the same colors it is now...brown and tan if it needs it.

Well, that's about everything that could be exciting on this end of things. I have a pile of recipe's to share with you guys, and as I said, I do have a crochet pattern to share with you guys that I've been working on, and I WILL have it up this weekend!!!!!

So, that's it better jump off of this computer, and get my rear in gear!!!!

I'm a bad bad blogger

Hello everyone! So, yesterday I went to get the link off of here for one of my recipes to share with someone, and was completely shocked that I haven't written a blog, shared a recipe, or a crochet pattern with you all since April!!!! I kind of have an excuse, but I kind of don't. I will get to all of that here in just a second, but I will say from the very bottom of my heart, I'm sorry, and I will try to do better, but with everything we have going on I cannot make any guarantees except to say that I've got some recipe's to share sometime in the near future, and I've been working on some new patterns that I want to share with you all!!!

So, let me catch you all up on everything!!!
So you know how they say, when it rains it pours? It's so true, from the farm, on through life. Ginger, one of my first Silver Fox rabbits, passed away back in the spring. She left 8 kits that were just a couple days shy of being 4 weeks old. They all made it, and I had wanted to keep 2 of the girls, but they were all just so small that we butchered them all at 6 months old. My heart really hurt over that. She died of a spinal cord injury. We think something scared her, and that's what happened to her.
Then we had a ton of rain...constant never ending rain...it rained so much that we couldn't get a garden in, and by the time it dried up enough to be able to till to plant, it was hot and buggy out, and I said nah.

We hatched a bunch of Buff Orpington chicks, I kept 4, 1 boy and 3 girls. The boy has been named Wesley. We were planning on doing an order from our favorite hatchery, but with everything that's happening now (will get to that) its going to have to be put on hold.  Remember those Rooster chicks we ordered from Mt. Healthy???? Those 5 Rooster chicks that I needed for my flock???? All 5 turned out to be female!!!! Oh I was so mad!!!! The only thing they offered me was to refund my money...which I wasn't interested in, because I wanted roosters. But...that's ok...I can let things go...especially since I got 5 hens for the price of 5 roosters.

Frank had to have some major gum surgery done. It was split up into 2 different surgeries. He's now recovering from the second, and just had the stitches removed. His pain level has gone down, but he's still tender, and isn't quite able to eat his favorite foods yet. They had to do gum grafts, because his gum line had receded enough that he was going to lose those teeth if he didn't get the grafts done.

I've been on a diet, and am 3 pounds away from losing my first 40 pounds!!! I'd love to be down those 3 this week, but it's hard to say if that will or wont happen. As of right now, I'm 12 pounds away from being able to get my left hip replaced!!!! I'm more excited about that left him than anything!!! It's going to open up a whole new world to me being able to walk like a normal person. (yes, I'm only 36, but I had my first hip surgery at 12) I've recently shaken my diet up a bit to keep it moving in the right direction. I've been doing Slimfast, but have added the Atkins products in, that way I'm lowering my carb count some as well. My doctor and I have set a 20 pound goal by the end of December. I have lost 5 pounds for the month of October so far, so I'm thinking its a doable goal.

My mother in law, who is a diabetic has been having some major problems with her one foot. I won't go into details yet, because we don't know what the outcome is going to be. I will just ask for many prayers, and much love.

I had to take Sam to the vet today, again, for another ear infection. This is getting to be a yearly thing for him. I had been looking for a groomer for him, because his groomer that he was going to had to give it up due to health problems. I'm going to be using the groomer at the vets office, since they were the ones that groomed Nikki and I know that I can trust them. You see, I have a hard time handing my dogs over to just anybody. We have this one place in town, that sells reptiles, and when I went in there before to see what they would be like, not only was the lady really dirty looking, and wearing seriously stained up clothes (at least I hope they were stains) but the place smelled like a litter box that had not been changed in months. The smell of ammonia that was in the air there was almost over powering, and I wasn't about to leave my dog there. Now there is this other lady on the back streets that has a place, but I can't ever get in there to see what its like because she only opens her doors for appointments, and where as I respect that, I'm not taking my dogs in blind like that. So, even though it's going to be expensive, the vets office is where it's going to have to be. I checked and it is the same guy that worked there when we took Nikki (she had so many health problems that it had to be at the vets office). I had been working on keeping Sam's rear end fur cut off myself, but I'm far from a groomer, and I don't have the equipment to give him the groom he really needs. He's my only dog that needs to go to a groomer.

So, I'm going to close this up for now so that it doesn't turn into a long boring read. I've been working on some things using some free patterns. Once I get them done, I plan on sharing a pic, and the pattern link with you guys.  If everything goes well, I hope to have some stuff to start sharing with you all within the next week...depending on how everything goes. I know I need to do some pictures, but I can't make any guarantees about that either. Lets just say, once things settle down again, I should be blogging more.....oh and as long as stuff stops breaking!!!!! (We've been busy getting vehicles repaired, and tires replaced, and we had to get a new washer and dryer, and dehumidifier etc etc...its just been never ending!!!!)

Rain Rain and more Rain

It's been raining here for over 2 weeks, and where we do have 2 days that it's not calling for rain, there does not appear to be an end in site anytime soon. Now, considering the fact that generally we do need rain, right now, it's keeping us from getting the garden plowed, and keeping us from being able to do some of the farm work that we've been wanting to get done.

On the upside, the peas are growing quite well, and I'm hoping that it wont be long before I'm picking peas. I'm so ready to be canning and starting the process for getting ready for next winter. It probably sounds like a funny thing to be worried about in May, but well, we all know how the winters on the East Coast can be.

Ginger had a littler on May 4th. Initially I thought she only had 8 kits...I was really surprised when I went out there yesterday with a container that had a towel in it, so that I could take them all out, and discovered that she had not 8, but 10!!!! That's the most she's ever given birth to. Not the most she's ever raised, but the most she herself has delivered. (if you all recall, she raised 3 of Betty's the one time.)  So then, on Monday evening when I was doing the end of day chores, I noticed that Lucy was acting kind of weird, she was pulling fur and acting frantic. We had not been able to breed her when we tried to breed her the same time we bred Ginger and Betty. She was violent towards my bucks. Well I figured it was from all of the hormones floating around the rabbit house and that she would want to just make a nest for the sake of making a nest. Wrong, I went out there yesterday morning, and I saw that her nest box had a perfect nest, with lots and lots of fur in it...I was like wow, impressive, she made a really awesome nest for a doe that's not pregnant...then I thought...wait...just for the sake of looking...I stuck my hand into all of that fur and felt squirmy little babies...I was like holy crap!!! The only thing we can figure is, Bob had escaped his cage a few times, and I came out one morning and found he had climbed on top of the does cages, and I think he must have gotten her pregnant. Her cage was too far from Fred and George for it to have been either of those two. I took them out to check them last night, because I had not been free feeding her during the last 2 weeks of her pregnancy that we didn't realize was even happening. She had 6, 5 black and 1 blue. I know that Bob carries Blue, and that Lucy has a genetic back ground of all of the Silver Fox colors, so that was pretty good to see her give me a blue. I'm still waiting on Betty to have her kits. I'm thinking if she doesn't have them in the next 3 or 4 days I'll just have to take the nest box out.  So, right now we have 27 kits all of different ages. Right now, Doris is the only one that has any kits by George. 
    Speaking of George, we are going to put him with Ethel when we take her kits away from her. I need to put him with one of my best does to see what he will do for that line Genetically. And if those kits turn out good, we're going to go ahead and weigh him, tattoo him, and write up and print out a pedigree for our book. Then, once Lucy has successfully raised this litter, and has weaned them, and we get her back to pre pregnancy shape, we will go ahead and get a weight on her, and tattoo and do up her paperwork.
    Neither of the two Blue does we brought home have given birth or shown signs of nesting yet. I know that if they aren't pregnant, we need to work on them a bit and get them in some kind of a better shape. They were in the hands of inexperienced rabbit breeders/raisers, and their nutrition wasn't what you would want for breeding rabbits. We take their nutrition, and care very seriously. Unfortunately, it turns out that their pedigrees weren't worth the paper they were printed on. There were no weights, and they were missing lots of tattoos, and stuff. So, we are going to have to get their weights, and start from scratch, and work on breeding 3 generations so that we can have pedigrees from their lines. They have good fur, a good shape, etc etc, but it's going to take a lot of selective breeding/keeping before we have pedigrees from them. (oh the joys)
   Everything in the world of chicken keeping is going well...kind of muddy right now thanks to all of the rain, but as soon as its not like shoveling soup, we will be out there with shovels, and buckets, and new bedding. People ask me if they are really worth the time, work and effort it takes to keep chickens, especially ones that I'm not able to free range, and my only answer is, yes. I cant describe the love I have for these funny creatures that are flighty, smart, and stalk me from one end of the run to the other, and wait for me every morning at the gate door. They have found a huge place in my heart, and aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
    And lastly, we are going to be buying some hog panels every month, and putting them up as we buy them. What are we getting ready for??? Hogs!!!!! We are going to be raising American Guinea Hogs. We will be getting a trio next spring, 2 females and a male. I am actually thinking that if I have enough saved up for them we may actually do 3 females and a male. The Guinea Hog is a fascinating pig, and I'll tell you more about them as we go. I think that for now, I've blogged on for a bit longer than I usually do!!!  I'll have some new recipes coming up here soon to share with you all!!! But for now, I'm going to close up.