Life is good.

Well, we are up to 8 babies, and they are so pretty, so cute, so adorable!  We have lost two, but the others have definitely made up for it. The weather has been cold again, windy, and not good for taking cute pictures of all the little darlings, but this weekend looks promising to get some fun pictures of them all.

Gus just thinks that he is the man, as he gets up on the dog house and checks out his brood. He looks really proud, I guess if a goat could be proud, he is.

All of the mamas are doing well, and we have just one left to kid. I hope that it all turns out well for her.

My chickens have started laying eggs, and I am getting from 3 or 4 to 7 a day right now. It is so exciting for me, because before it was always hit and miss. We have a couple of people that want the fresh eggs as well, so we will be ok with having a few extra. We have 19 hens, and if half lay an egg a day, we will be swimming in eggs soon. I guess I will be doing a lot of baking this year. Its good that I have an outside oven as well.

And the eggs so far have been really pretty, a dark brown, medium brown, light brown, two different colors of blue eggs, and creamy colored ones. The shells are really hard, and I am considering blowing out the insides to save the eggs, cleaning them and letting them dry out, just to paint and or draw, maybe burn on them. I have great ideas, but......

I am ready for summer. I can't say anymore about that subject, I am just plain tired of cold. My brother Jeff called yesterday to brag that his weather was 10 degrees warmer than our 47. He is in Michigan or Minnesota, I can't remember, ha ha, but that is terrible. He calls up to tell me he is going to put on his swimsuit and go swimming and tanning, omg, he is so funny. He jumped in one of the lakes for his polar bear swim initiation, unfortunately, no one else in the family joined him on New Years for the fun. He's crazy, just a little.

I have made a couple of new dishes to eat, and they have turned out good. Last night I made sopa and refried beans, and then cooked some onions with bell peppers, diced up, sauteed in olive oil, added some salt and pepper. I diced up some whitetail, added salt, pepper, garlic, cumin and some chipotle red chile powder to it, cooked it on a med hi heat in olive oil until done, added the veges back in, and it was so so delicious, with hot tortillas on the side. Yeah!!

We picked up a small wooden desk at a yard sale for a buck, cleaned it up, made a couple of repairs on it, repainted some spots and added new knobs. It fixed up really nice. We gave it to Brooke for her tv. Jon said she was really happy with it. :) She needed a tv stand because she was using two folding chairs, pretty creative if you ask me, to hold up her tv.

I found a recipe for blueberry streusel topped muffins that turned out so good, even with me flubbing up the recipe a little. You can't blame me, it was like 5:20 in the morning when I started them. But, they were delicious. So, I am really trying new recipes as well as just throwing things together, for some new flavors rather than always just the old same ole same ole.

Life is good.

More babies, and more babies!!

Well, its been very exciting for us, as all the mamas are seeming to have babies. As of this morning, I only have two left to kid. Each one has had 2, so far its been an even split of boys and girls. I am so exceted.

Yeah!!  
This is Sunshine, she had two, but the little female wasn't strong enough, so now she just has the little buck. But he is doing well.

Here is Suzie with her two. She is the mama of Georgia and Sunshine as well. The white one is the male.

And David just sent me a picture of Daisy and her two. Another white one and black one. I will check at lunch to see what they are. 

7 babies now, with two mamas to go. 

THE BABIES ARE HERE!!!

I was at work yesterday, and David calls me to tell me we have babies!!! Finally!! One of my mamas, Georgia kidded, a painted billy and a solid gray nanny. Yeah!!!

We named the little billy Cookie, and the little nanny, Cream. Real original, huh????

Baby goats are the cutest.

I went in and rubbed the mama, talked to her, and petted the babies. They are very friendly, and Georgia was very happy to have me there.

They made it through the night just fine and are enjoying our good weather. I have another one that looks like maybe today, tomorrow, but who really knows?

This was Caddie on Sunday, kicking it, while David was working a horse in the round pen. 

Well, its time to go, will keep ya posted!

Goals, hmpff.

I suppose I didn't realize how difficult it was going to be to change habits and add new good ones, haha.  So far the most that I am accomplishing is I have made one new dish, which was so yummy, the sweet potato cornbread, and taking pictures.

But, I will not give up.

I am so excited, the girls loved the two new horses and were so excited to be able to ride together in the arena. It was fun, and it was so cool.  We had a busy but good weekend. The weather was to dream for, just perfect. I rode with the girls, we yardsaled a little, I made a coffee cake, we had visitors, I brushed horses and visited. And I also have now two more kids that will start this coming weekend for lessons. Wow, that gives me 5. I don't think I will be able to take too many more, as this really cuts into time. But, I LOVE IT!!

Everyone is good, sassy, ornery and you know.

I checked my goats and one looks like she just might kid today. Oooohhhh, it makes me nervous, just never know. So we are on the lookout, hopefully I will have many babies soon.

What another beautiful day, I just wished I could be in it rather than having to be inside. Its gorgeous out, and down in Phoenix, its supposed to get up to 80. This is the kind of January I remember. Yeah!!

Horses

I give riding lessons on the weekends, and so far have been sharing one horse, my Tomasa. She loves kids, and you can see it. Well, we have a horse that has been abandoned and I tried him out and it looks like I have another kids horse that will work for lessons. The girls will definitely be excited for that. So, David has picked up another horse that the people cannot really afford to keep feeding, and brought it home. Another kids horse, so now, I can ride with the girls. They will really be excited, and I will too, as this makes it possible to show them and ride with them, preparing them for trail rides. Two geldings, one mare. 

Neither are much for lookers, the first, 1/2 Arabian, 1/2 Quarterhorse, sorrel. He has an old scar and swollen leg from an injury that was not taken care of from years ago, but he seems to be sound. He has such a gentle eye and sweet disposition. We will see how it works this weekend. I call him Big Red. 

The other is a bay horse, and he is a kids horse, as I know where he came from. He has a little gimp but seems to be sound. With children on him, it should not be a problem. I am so excited to surprise these girls and I hope they are excited as well. 

I hope that they really work out well, as I want to be able to do more than what I am presently doing with these kids. Yeah!!

Chickens!!!

Chickens are such funny critters!! 

PEEP!! PEEP!!

PEEP!! PEEP!!

PEEP!!

PEEP!! PEEP!!  PEEEP!!

Hahaa, they are so funny to watch run up to you!!  

My turkeys are getting big, the tom is growing his beard now.

And our red hawk is gone, and we now have another one that is white breasted and white under his wings. 

Whats for dinner tonite?

Our weekend was really cold, again. Highs in the low 40's, and Saturday night and Sunday night were 7 and 6 respectively at our house. BRRRR..  Well, I found a recipe for cornbread on the internet that I tried Saturday night, and it is made with sweet potatoes, not yams. It was moist and very delicious. I made hamburger soup and the two were so good on such a cold day and night. Perfect!!!

These are the ingredients, Buttermilk, eggs, cornmeal, flour, honey, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, sweet potatos and ginger.

You cook the sweet potatoes until tender, mix all the dry ingredients.

Mix the butter in until its a coarse crumble mix.

Mix the honey, eggs, milk and sweet potatoe until mixed good, whisk into the dry ingredients. Pour into a butter cast iron skillet and cook for about 45 minutes. 

It was delicious and looked so pretty.

I brown my hamburger and chop up all the veges I am using, potatos, carrots, celery, onion.

Add them to the hamburger, add water to just about cover, salt and pepper to taste (and any other spices you like), cover and let simmer until all is tender.

It was very good, and warmed you right up. If you want the recipe for the cornbread its at seegirlcook.com under breads. Sweet potato cornbread.  

Been slackin!!

Boy, what a slacker I have been this week, not writing anything here. Well, its been a good week, full of getting things done and staying warm. We are still waiting for goats to have their babies, hopefully with another coldfront coming through, they will wait until after Monday of next week.

Its supposed to get down to at least 20 here, if not a little lower, very cold for me, haha, I cannot imaging living where its like that all the time and for a high all the time. I am a desert rat and think I will stay that way.

I am giving another lesson on the weekends so that is 3, and now possilbly a 4th starting this weekend. We will see how the weather goes. David is going to look to see if he can find me another lesson horse, so that I can get two people on a horse at a time. That would be awesome.

All in all, all is well, and going good. Yeah!!

Oh yeah, as an afterthought, I finally put together a small list of stuff that I want, um, will work on and accomplish this year. Haha, I guess I need to change my way of thinking about what I am setting out to do, rather than what I want to do, a big difference. Oh goodness, I have a lot of work to do. But, I am excited as there is never a better time to do anything as now. 

I will try to take pictures when I can and post as projects happen, so if there is anyone that wants to give me some constructive criticism, it is will be well received.

A good weekend

What a good weekend, even if the weather was a little cool. Saturday was such a great day. We hit up a couple of yard sales, not much there, and then I had 3 lessons. I saddled up Tomasa, rode her for a little while, trying her out in a new bit, and she did great in it. She listened, she didn't fight it, she did remarkably well in it. And, I enjoyed riding her, it was so much fun. I gave lessons to the first two girls and they did so well with her as well. It made it so much easier for them to get her to do things, and she listened.

The next lesson came a little later, and Tomasa actually did well, even though I held on to the lead, she still responded to this little girl. There is something about kids and this horse. She will sit there and watch them, and just stand with her head next to them. She is such a cool horse. Right now she is so woolly, you would think that she lived up north. She came from Belin, NM, so I guess it must be a little cooler there.

I turned my chickens loose and stepped on a couple of them a few times, because they believe that they are supposed to walk under your feet. They squawk, and then try to wiggle under your feet again as you are walking. Hahaa, they are maybe too friendly sometimes, but when its time to put them up, it really makes it easy.

My goats just keep getting closer and closer to kidding, hopefully, soon, I will start having some babies from them. I am so excited, yet so nervous, as for two of them, its their first time. But, when these babies are here, there is nothing like little baby goats, especially withing that first week of them running around, jumping and being comics. I can't wait!!

Everything else is doing well. Sunday was a cold, I was a bit under the weather, but I did manage to take the last of the decorations down. It was kind of sad for me, but good as well. The wind was blowing so hard that it knocked down our windmills again. I guess I should be thankful for our wind, as it is nothing compared to other places. I visited with Jake and he said he was out walking in 17 degree weather with just a tshirt, he had just worked three nites with it like 22 to25 below 0, YIKES!! He must have made some cool icicles in his nose hahahaa, I don't want that cold of weather, and here I am complaining about our nights getting to 25, 26, and our days up to the upper 40's, this past week and finally getting back into the 50's. I think that I  am ready for our AZ summers.

Happy New Years with a New Day Resolution

Wow, the new year is upon us, and we have a future full of so many possibilities in our life. How will we do with it all? What choices will we make to have a more full life? How will we do with our resolutions? 

I have given thought to all of this, and in my thinking, why do we have to wait for New Years every year to put these into place. How about if we just start doing it now, in this moment? 

I have decided that I will start a New Day resolution every day, every moment, to do instead of trying to do. Why do we all have a habit of putting things off because of whatever reason. The moment is now. Not tomorrow when I have a little bit more room, time, energy, etc. I am so guilty of this too, and now I realize how much I have let slide by me, into the past, things, feelings, words, thoughts, that I will never gain again. 

So today, I will complete every task that I can and get all the end of year tasks done for work. I have some goals for completing and finishing it up to get it all to the accountant early this year. And the same for me. All that stands in my way is ME. Yep, that is it. We cripple ourselves so badly and we accept it so easily, making excuses for anything and everything. So, today, do one thing that you have put off, or just start it and find out how really easy it is.

I have so many goals that I want to achieve this year. How many do I think I can get done? All of them if I just change how I look at my life. Soooo, I will put together a list, and will mark them off, as I get them done, with a date. I will add to my list, modify it when needed, and update. 

Have a wonderful year, live your life to the fullest, laugh often, love without regrets, forgive and give.