This was Buck a roo and Ginger dog.

Don't hurt so much today.

My arm is better but I know not to over do today. (I hope)

The sun is shining on us right now but there is supposed to be another snow storm moving in later.

Ice and snow out there this morning but it is already up to 32 :).

I need to run out and get some Yak burger or something out of the freezer. I forgot to get it before I came in from doing morning chores.

We butchered our last Yak last fall, well she was half Yak and half Jersey cow. Did that work in the garage on a table Dave built. David came over and helped and even the kids joined in learning what to do. We did the bull the year before and there isn't much meat left from him. So the only big animal we have is the cow. And she is just for milk. lol

Yaks are just to rambunctious for us and ornery, the bulls anyway. And smart ye gads they are like kids what one doesn't think of the other will. We sold the breeding pair to a place in Eastern WA that uses them for show animals and can let people brush them especially the female Lulu. If the bull Takota sees a brush he wants all the attention. He insists upon it. We heard they are doing great. We do miss them they were just beautiful.

Tying to decide just what I can get done here today, I think i will wrap the caramel soap I made a couple months ago as one the must get dones.

And of course with the little cookie crumer around I will vacuum again today. I will wait until she and her mom leave for the day. Little Kaylee doesnt like the vacuum, she runs screaming from it.

Home again

Cool snowy day today but I have a nice fire going and the house is warm.

We left yesterday morning an hour later then we had wanted to, but were to David's by like 10:05 AM. We brought him a bunch of eggs which he and the kids really enjoy and we got to hauling the chain saws and etc out to the tree area. And of course the wind was blowing and gusting pretty darn good. The rain off and on didn't bother things to much.

All in all it took about 6 hours and only one mishap when the rope came untied that David Jr was pulling on and the roof got dented a bit and a small hole in the side of his house.

Almost had 2 mishaps when the chain saw caught in Dave's jeans, he admitted he was tired else that wouldn't have happened. Only ripped his jeans thank goodness.

David fed us a good lunch of beef dipped sandwiches. The 2 children were coming with us and we were dropping them off in Clarkston WA in a meet up with their other grandparents that were driving down from North Idaho.

It's spring break for the children and that made things easier for David.

We were home by 7:45 and got right out to get the farm chores done, unpack some of the car and relax for a bit before bed. Dave gets up at 4:20 to milk and get ready for work. I pack his lunch the night before to make things easier on both of us.

Dave called David and everything on the house was all repaired, he is good.
Plus I figured out why the tendinitis is acting up in my right elbow and in my shoulder, pulling on ropes helping the tree limbs go where we wanted them.

Supposed to rain

It is cloudy today and we have a rain storm coming in and pretty windy, then they say Wednesday and the next 2 or 3 days are snow/rain days with a cold front coming in. We did get into the 40's yesterday and down in the valley it was 64 with daffodils popped up everywhere. Over in Burbank they have 50% chance of rain tomorrow so I hope it doesn't rain on us to bad. I got a nice toasty fire going and its nice and warm in the house now.

We got the barn cleaned out yesterday and everything rounded up for going to son David's house to help with that tree that needs cut down. Then Dave worked a bit helping to get a census translated, he and I are volunteers in that program.

So around 2 we headed down to the Lewiston/Clarkston Valley to do a little shopping and go to a Baptism. We picked up 2 under the counter older cabinets at St. Vincent De Paul's, used but in good shape, they were $12.80 a piece and will work great in the outdoor kitchen we are building on the west side of the garage, as we find things. The old counter we have will work great on those. I had picked up a utility sink at Goodwill last year or so for it. :) Dave and son David already put the wood cook stove over there and it only needs a little work. So little by little that's getting done.

Kathy worked 3 PM to 8:30 yesterday and she ended up home before we did last night, she got a fire going as soon as she gave Kaylee an evening snack as the little one gets crabby when she is hungry.

Dave ran out and milked as soon as he could run in and change. I was to pooped to go up and help and keep him company.

I am home from Church today as I didn't sleep well last night, my fibromyalgia was really acting up last night and really hit me while we were still out and about. Sheesh I didn't need that but who does.

Woke up to snow

Another crisp snowy morning here. It is afternoon and it is mostly melted off now :). Dave headed off to Spokane WA abut an hour ago and won't be back till midnight or so. Kathy worked at 8:30 this morning so she was off and running by 7:30. Dave got the tractor going this morning and hauled grain up to the chicken coop.

I washed dishes but that's about it until its time to collect eggs and milk the cow. Maybe wash a load of clothes or two. I am gong to make some Mascarpone cheese next week. It is a dessert cheese. I have been gathering cream off the milk, I need a quart of cream. The one I make the most is American Mozzarella from the milk and then stick in the freezer in Food saver bags. I also make hard cheese now and then, here is a picture of it covered with cheese wax. One of the sites I like to use is http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/CHEESE.HTML

I get my supplies at http://www.leeners.com/cheese-recipes.html
They seem to have the best prices, unless you have somewhere in your area that sells them.
Dave took Monday off and we are headed 3 hours away to help our son DJ to cut down an old tree that has dead branches hanging over his house. So that will be a full day with chores done real early and then late when we get home.

It has been some few days around here. Daughter Tanya her hubby Tim and kids Shea and Braden got to Lewiston safe and sound. They had some bad weather that slowed them down the first day but the rest of the trip went well. They were supposed to come up here to visit Thursday afternoon and Dave was taking the afternoon off to visit with them. But I changed all that. Thursday morning started out just fine I was getting things done here and there when the itching started, I hadn't eaten or taken my morning meds yet or gone out and opened the chickens and fed them.

First the palms of my hands then the bottoms of my feet, then general all over itching and started to get dizzy. I took a allergy pill then and got worse and worse just about passing out. Daughter Kathy was still home and getting ready for work while I laid on the kitchen floor not far from the bathroom. She called Dave and they talked a couple more times after that and then she said dad had a ambulance called to come and get me. So she had to call into work to say she had a family emergency and would be in late. They pumped me full of Benadryl and anti nausea drugs on the way in and I started to get better. Dave met me there and daughter Tanya came in also. They did blood tests etc etc and Doc. says I think she just a a bad allergic reaction to something lol. Duh we knew that already, so at 3:00 P M I was released to go home. Kathy had brought my glasses and some shoes so we went to her car at Sally Beauty Supplies to get them. Got something to eat and went home.

Tanya and family came up around 11:30 AM on Friday and visited and the kids played outside, they brought their son Braden and some of Seth children Solis and Morgan. Everyone went for rides on the tractor and got to see the cow, chickens and geese. I was still taking t easy so Ihad barbecue pork in the crock pot for lunch and brown rice and broccoli on the side with cheese sauce. We were babysitting little Kaylee as she was running a fever and fretful, teething we think.

Dave and I did a little shopping on Saturday and I was rough on Sunday but went into Church. We dropped off some eggs and homemade butter to my mom and came home to rest and work on family history. I like boring and normal I tell you that.

Busy day

It was a busy day here I carton ed up 19 dozen eggs, cleaned the bathroom did all my normal chores and even got a goose egg from Gracie's nest. Still doing laundry, now that seems never ending lol. Our daughter Tanya and her family came up from Flagstaff AZ and got in to Lewiston yesterday. They are staying at our son Seth and Jessie's. Dave went out to lunch with them today. Here is one of the deer that comes into our yard.

Let it snow

It started snowing last night before Dave got home and we ended up with around 5 inches. It should be melted in a couple of days as the weather is suppose to warm up to the 40's tomorrow and then the low 50's Monday.

I did get the fire starters made yesterday, ended up with 108. I used one this morning to get the fire going and it worked great. Our job today was getting the taxes done and now they are done and over with yeaaaaaaaaa. Boy am I glad that's out of the way. The chores have to be done early tonight as we are going into town for a meeting. Kaylee is busy taking books out of one of the book cases, big help.

Just me

Dave is out the door and headed to Spokane for the day. We took off the snow blower from the tractor after the milking was finished this morning, it is now sitting in front of the barn on pallets so lets hope we don't get a whole lot of snow now.

He used the tractor bucket to put the chopped corn, barley and layer in and haul up to the chicken coop where we put the grain in the barrels we keep in the coop for easy feeding.

I was thinking about making some more fire starters today as we are out. They are wood chips put into the cardboard egg carton cups and then wax poured in, then when cool each cup is torn off.

I will be happy when the outdoor kitchen is all ready to use for this kind of thing. We mainly heat with wood so its nice to have something to make fire starting easier. Kathy keeps a small electic heater in her and babies room to make sure it doesn't get to cool in their when the door is closed. Then it will most likely be time to collect eggs and get ready to go milk.

It's been a waking dead morning today it always is when I am on the chelation drugs. They really do a number on me. I have the outside chores done, that wind is really cold.

And I still have the 2 fruit trees we bought and have to wait to plant to drag out of the garage. The laundry is going, daughter Kathy is off to work and Kaylee to day care.

I haven't seen or heard the wild turkeys yet this morning but they are usually around here some where. This is one of their run through's to look and see if we dropped any grain lol.
I was just out there and the wild turkeys are running in front of Spring our cow, all single file, looked so funny.

Bert the Peacock isn't about right now but this is where he usually is, sitting on the back gate.

Good Day

Well I got the seeds planted inside to start them. I did some 4th of July tomatoes, herb seeds like cumin, caraway and some chives to. My chives didn't come back up last year in the garden.

The milking is done (we have one Jersey cow) and the eggs collected for the day from the chickens. I got 3 eggs from Gracie the goose, if she builds a nest by the house she will sit on the egg until we put her and George away for the night. We have to put them away at night so the raccoons, Bobcats, Mt lion or Coyotes won't get them in the night. At east at this time of year we don't have to worry about bears. She will not sit on her eggs in her nice straw nest in their pen, crazy goose.

We were having some snow flurries as I was coming back from the barn.

Kat & Kaylee

Hoping to get my tomato seeds planted today. I will need to do that before grand daughter 14 month old Kaylee gets up. Daughter Kathy has a day off today.

We are supposed to get a little more snow today, we had a few flurries yesterday and 3 inches of the white stuff the day before. Then rain this weekend and a little bit of a warm up into the low 40's so all this new snow should melt off. We still have a few drifts of snow and the garden area was about half covered until we got this new batch of snow.

Well youngest daughter Kathy is home from work and her little one is down in bed for the night.

I really need to get tomato seeds planted tomorrow. I made 4 qts of vegey beef soup today and its already almost gone.

We had 3 inches of snow yesterday and are supposed to get a little more then a warm up again so back to mud.

Here are my husband and I when we first started out in the 1970's and 2 in the in those early years following :).

The growing family

I want to introduce myself and our family in these early pictures. These were taken in the 1980's. The first on the left was taken in IL. visiting a friend we lived in Iowa, the second when we lived in VA.

We have 10 children and 20 some grandchildren now and growing.

My husband and I are homesteading along with him still working down in the Lewiston Valley.

I write, do family history, spin wool, quilt, sew, bead, make cheese, butter etc, we tan hides and many other crafts.