HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

My parents are coming over today to celebrate Jocelyn's and Jacob's birthdays(his is closer to the end of the month. She wants ice cream cake today!! Hope we can get it home without it melting in this 95 degree heat!!

Newest family member

"CAYENNE" with Jordan
She is a sweet puppy but DRIVING me insane on some days...


Its been a busy summer and it doesn't seem to be slowing down any. It'll just be different, but I am mentally preparing myself (and trying to have a good attitude) for football, piano practice, AWANA, CAP, watching my neighbors son 3 days a week, Jordan's and Jocelyn's Bible study, PLUS I need to do SCHOOL some where in there!! Wish I had some pictures to share but I really haven't gotten my camera out of the case in some time(bad me!!!)

July's Garden

This is a little late:) It's the first week in August and I still have yet to get a red tomato. By the end of July I am usually giving tomatoes away because I can't keep up with them. It has been a cooler summer than past summers. I have been harvesting pickling cucumbers,zucchini, basil, chives, I pulled all my onions except for a few. My peppers are growing nicely. I pulled my carrots last week and a friend came over and helped my can them. I am finally getting some green beans!!! We got 3 apricots off our tree. The prune tree will be ready in September. Is it winter yet?? HaHa

Camping 2011

A few weeks ago we headed up to the Cascades to do some camping. Rob likes to "rough" it so we went up about 2 miles past the last campers. It was a great spot except no river for the kids to play in and cool off. There were lots of old logging roads to hike on, beautiful wildflowers to pick, and great views. The second night I heard what I thought was some wild cat outside our tent, I woke Rob and asked him where the gun was. The animal went away. Then about 3:50 in the morning I thought I heard a truck trying to start down at the campground. I kept hearing it and was wondering why they couldn't get that stupid truck started. Then the whole sky just lit up...aha...not a truck but thunder. I woke Rob up again (poor guy!) he looked outside and said we should get the kids in the car and pack up and head home. Ten minutes after we got the kids loaded the thunder and lighting stopped (figures). So we headed home and got home about 6:30 in the morning. We had a great time!!

Contest!

Go over to Home Educating Family and sign up for a couple of contests. This is where I get my planner for school

Their products are very functional and beautiful to boot!

We've Been Busy

That seems to be the theme of blogland these days. We are no exception. The garden has been keeping the kids and I busy weeding. So far we have harvested chives, thyme, basil, and onions. The weather has been cooler than normal so the veggies are taking their sweet time ripening.
click on pictures to enlarge.


Rob and the kids went raspberry picking while I helped pick up a goat for a friend, which I made into some yummy jam. One day I will hopefully have enough of my own raspberries to make jam with.

We got a free new to us chicken coop, and 6 new young chickens. We also bought 12 new chicks, all laying. We haven't decided if we are doing meat chickens or not this year.

We also got our annual cherries from our neighbor. We are blessed to have orchards all around us. So we froze 6 gallons of cherries and I made freezer cherry pie filling. I wanted to can it so I could give it for Christmas presents but all the recipes called for something called "clear jel" which I couldn't find in the stores so I had to go the freeze route.

We are also going to the park once a week to spend with friends. The kids have a blast playing and having light saber wars.
Our van is still not fixed, the second goat kid died, and just today our well pump went out:( Our neighbors were sweet and let us get some water for drinking and dishes. We have the pump guys coming out tomorrow. Rob tried to fix it(since he is the fix it man) but the pump is submersible and he has never done it before or has never seen it done.
Now that the goats are doing better I am making cheese again. The first feta I made I used to much rennet. But the second one turned out much better. I have also been making chevre...yummy!!! Ice cream, yogurt, and freezing milk for soap. My first batch of soap should be ready to use this week, so we will see how it turned out.
On Fourth of July we headed to the fairgrounds where they give a free concert. This year it was Chris August. It was put on by our local Christian radio station. First time that we have gone there for the Fourth. This song we dedicate to our daughter Jordan:Candy Wrap
http://youtu.be/LttKbL4sv7E
7x70:
http://youtu.be/Q-Ij_PPI_XU

We probably wouldn't have gone except Jacob was presenting Arms before the fire works.



Jacob also got to help out with crowd control and guiding planes around (flight line marshaling), helping out with cleaning the plane and helping with parking when a B-25 "Maid in the Shade" came to our local flight museum. We have had an unusual busy summer so far and it isn't even half over!

This picture I got off of the web, because I forgot my camera both days...grrrr.

Loving Animals is hard

We've had a rough week here, three of the goats have been fighting something. I believe it is worm overload. We thought it was coccidiosis and was treating them for it. But they weren't getting any better. Then after a conversation with my friend Dalyn white gums and anemia came up. She reminded me that could be worm overload. I did my research and all the symptoms listed here my goats had...grr. So I wormed my whole herd. Unfortunately it was too late for Half- pint. I found her dead Wednesday morning. Her sister was doing a little better until this morning. She probably won't make it to lunch time. Their mom is doing much better. Only time will tell.
If that wasn't bad enough we had to put our 17 year old cat Harley down. There were a lot of tears on Tuesday as we said our good-byes.
I really hope next week is a better week.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet hubby Rob, the Big 40!!!

Pickled Asparagus

This is the recipe I used for pickled asparagus




Yield 8 pints
Tips:
*Buy new jars when you can because I tried to save some money by not buying them and using my old ones...one broke during the water bath...grr
*Always make more of the brine than it says, I had to triple the batch for 20lbs of asparagus.

update

It has been a long time since I posted, no excused except life has been pretty busy. Between milking and caring for the goats, the garden went in, BBQ at friends houses, finishing school, chasing chickens out of the gardens, helping out friends, park day, home school activities, add in canning, cheese making...you get the point;) Anyway here is the garden in May and this month.


We had the idea of bringing in truck fulls of compost, since I can't make compost to save my life. But that didn't happen, we bought bags of it instead. It would have been cheaper I am sure if we would have stuck with our original plan. It just never worked out. I lost two tomato plants to our wonderful wind we have here. They were quickly replaced with others. All together we have 34 tomato plants...ummm I think I will be busy;)
I am milking three out of four goats this year. The fourth one has too small of teats to deal with. Hopefully next year they will be a little bit longer. Chevre cheese is my newest addiction, Thanks to my friend Dalyn and her cheese making abilities.
Rob has been busy at work, fishing with the kids, and trying to keep up with all the projects around here. I think we both need about 6 more hours in the day. On top of all he has to do, our van's transmission went out about 6 weeks ago...grr. It will all get done, I know, just hard not having a second car, especially when the vehicle we do have is an Excursion. Can you see $$$$$$??? Needless to say we won't be going to too many places this summer.
Hope you all have a great week!!!