Our Serama eggs hatched a few weeks ago and we have 7 baby Seramas. Our little hen has still been laying eggs, so we have 13 eggs in the incubator. Always something to look forward to.
Our cat Tiger had 5 baby kittens. Their eyes are not open yet. She had them under a trailer across and down the street. We knew she was expecting and I had set up a litter box in the utility room for her and encouraged her to come in, but she did not like being inside. It is good that she went away from home to have them because the last time she had kittens Dolly ate them all on the 2nd day. They should be safe where they are, their eyes should be open in a few more days and then maybe we can bring them home. EXCITING!!
There is probably so much more to tell - but I must get busy.
God bless you & take care.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
General update for April
For Easter we went to Grandma & Grandpa's house. It was great to see the family. On Easter Sunday we went to Church with some friends in Cincinnati (Chuck & Kathy Meadors). Terry came also and then took Cara & Deanna to a special show. Then we went back to Grandma's to have dinner /fellowship with the family. It is always so good to see everyone.
The next weekend 4/17 & 18 we went back to Cincinnati for the Mid western Home School Conference. It is in its 3 rd year and well on its way to comparing to CHAP. We were able to see Little Bear Wheeler, one of the highlights of our visit. He will be retiring from the circuit so if you can get an opportunity to see him this year you should, He is supposed to be at CHAP next weekend. We aslo enjoyed speakers from Summitt ministries; John Stonestreet was a favorite and Dr. Jobe Martin from Creatures that defy Evolution. Larry Schweikart shared enlightening stories from 48 liberal lies about American History. Explaining in detail how the public school texts have changed over the years. We really enjoyed the conference.
After the conference we went to Grandma & grandpa's to visit for a while and made dinner for the children. Grandma kept the children while Terry & Julie and Chuck & Kathy took Dean & Cara out for dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse to try sushi! Quite an experience, a wonderful evening and lots of fun. We all tried the sushi - Dean really liked the salmon roll. I really liked the crab roll. We also had a full meal with it cooked in front ofus on a hibachi grill. It was great - a very special event if you want to give some one a treat this is a nice idea.
I traveled down to Nashville on Wednesday 4/22 to be there for Deanna's show on Wednesday evening and to work with her at The Grand Ol' Opry for the Dove Awards rehearsals & show on Thursday. Friday & Saturday we had a nice relaxing time together shopping, running errands and just being together. On Sunday she had to play for two worship serices at her Church and then a bridal shower so I took a friend to the airport and started for home. I was planning to visit Bradley. Usually I stay with Deanna until dark and start for home at night time, but I am only able to visit Bradley until 6PM. About 1/2 way through my 3 hour drive the transmission went out in my van. I was so thankful I was not on the side of I-65 at 2AM as that is when I ordinarily travle that path. I did not get to visit Brad, but I talked with him on the phone and he knows what happened.
My next trip is schedule for 5/9 - Even if my van is not back on the road, I am sure I will be. We'll have to pull out 'old reliable' - my green 98 Plymouth voyager. She has 340,000 miles and I can still trust her to take me where I want to go. She has been to Washington state, Canada twice, Texas, Florida, Chicago, New York and everyplace in between. We bought her in Bristol Virginia in June 98 on our way to Knoxville for an ATI conference(after our van's transmission was acting up). She continues to serve us well.
Our normal everyday stuff includes schooling, mowing grass, weeding & mulching, collecting eggs, tending to chickens and enjoying beautiful spring weather. We try to take a walk as often as we can, we do not get to it everyday but when we do it is a highlight of the day. Our farm sits on a corner of a relatively main county road and a dead end road. The stream runs along the road and trees line it most of the way. From our house to the end of the dead end & back is 3 miles. Always a refreshing stroll.
On 5/16 we will begin butchering chickens. We have about 150 to butcher we'll probably do 30 - 50 each weekend for 4 or 5 weeks(we'll see how the first week goes :-/).
Love ya'll - hope to see ya soon.
The next weekend 4/17 & 18 we went back to Cincinnati for the Mid western Home School Conference. It is in its 3 rd year and well on its way to comparing to CHAP. We were able to see Little Bear Wheeler, one of the highlights of our visit. He will be retiring from the circuit so if you can get an opportunity to see him this year you should, He is supposed to be at CHAP next weekend. We aslo enjoyed speakers from Summitt ministries; John Stonestreet was a favorite and Dr. Jobe Martin from Creatures that defy Evolution. Larry Schweikart shared enlightening stories from 48 liberal lies about American History. Explaining in detail how the public school texts have changed over the years. We really enjoyed the conference.
After the conference we went to Grandma & grandpa's to visit for a while and made dinner for the children. Grandma kept the children while Terry & Julie and Chuck & Kathy took Dean & Cara out for dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse to try sushi! Quite an experience, a wonderful evening and lots of fun. We all tried the sushi - Dean really liked the salmon roll. I really liked the crab roll. We also had a full meal with it cooked in front ofus on a hibachi grill. It was great - a very special event if you want to give some one a treat this is a nice idea.
I traveled down to Nashville on Wednesday 4/22 to be there for Deanna's show on Wednesday evening and to work with her at The Grand Ol' Opry for the Dove Awards rehearsals & show on Thursday. Friday & Saturday we had a nice relaxing time together shopping, running errands and just being together. On Sunday she had to play for two worship serices at her Church and then a bridal shower so I took a friend to the airport and started for home. I was planning to visit Bradley. Usually I stay with Deanna until dark and start for home at night time, but I am only able to visit Bradley until 6PM. About 1/2 way through my 3 hour drive the transmission went out in my van. I was so thankful I was not on the side of I-65 at 2AM as that is when I ordinarily travle that path. I did not get to visit Brad, but I talked with him on the phone and he knows what happened.
My next trip is schedule for 5/9 - Even if my van is not back on the road, I am sure I will be. We'll have to pull out 'old reliable' - my green 98 Plymouth voyager. She has 340,000 miles and I can still trust her to take me where I want to go. She has been to Washington state, Canada twice, Texas, Florida, Chicago, New York and everyplace in between. We bought her in Bristol Virginia in June 98 on our way to Knoxville for an ATI conference(after our van's transmission was acting up). She continues to serve us well.
Our normal everyday stuff includes schooling, mowing grass, weeding & mulching, collecting eggs, tending to chickens and enjoying beautiful spring weather. We try to take a walk as often as we can, we do not get to it everyday but when we do it is a highlight of the day. Our farm sits on a corner of a relatively main county road and a dead end road. The stream runs along the road and trees line it most of the way. From our house to the end of the dead end & back is 3 miles. Always a refreshing stroll.
On 5/16 we will begin butchering chickens. We have about 150 to butcher we'll probably do 30 - 50 each weekend for 4 or 5 weeks(we'll see how the first week goes :-/).
Love ya'll - hope to see ya soon.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Spring!
We have been hoppin' busy with spring time chores. It is usually SO fun! Raising baby chicks, incubating eggs that should start hatching this weekend. Tilling the fresh earth (and playing in it), mowing the grass, enjoying walks in the fresh air & sunshine. In the midst of all of these things we have the less pleasant chores of dealing with stomach viruses, flu , allergies and the added laundry and lack of sleep that go along with those things.
On Tuesday 3/17 our dear friend Miss Grace went to be with the Lord. I had asked for prayer for her in the previous post. Her funeral was on Friday March 20th which was also her 64th birthday. Miss Grace had 3 daughters (and sons-in-laws), 7 grandchildren and a devoted husband, Mr. Marv, please continue to pray for the family.
Today I received a call from a friend of Deanna's that one of their mutual friends has passed on. Mr. David suffered with a rare illness for over a year and we were not surprised at the news of his homegoing. He was a musician and enjoyed the harp very much. Services are this evening and tomorrow.
We had a pleasant day mostly out doors and were able to get some of our garden planted. But now it is raining, so we will finish the afternoon with cleaning and cooking. The children have started a game of 'Sorry'. But I'm going to have to be 'Sorry' to break it up so they can help me clean this house andf prepare a nice meal. :-o Well... maybe I'll let them finish their game. :-)
Deanna is doing very well. She will be performing at a Christian Writers Showcase at the Curb Cafe(Belmont University) in Nashville this evening, her friend Tom Shiness will accompany her on the cello this evening and she will sing while playing harp & piano (sometimes at the same time) . Next Friday she will particapte in a writers night at the Indigo Hotel, I believe Tom will assist her then also. I am planning to go to that event, her birthday is Sunday 4/5, so I will try to get away early to make her show & spend the weekend.
Bradley was moved on Tuesday to Larue County Detention Center, in Hodgenville, Ky. We went to visit him there on Wedensday (1 hour 15min. drive). There is alot of Abraham Lincoln birhtplace history and the boyhood home of President Lincoln in this community so we wil be looking forward to enjoying some of this history on our visits in the near future. Please continue to pray for Bradley.
Yesterday at lunchtime our friends Mr. Bobby & Miss Mary called to invite our family to the Circus in Bardstown. The children were so excited, so we went last night and had an interesting time. Lots of memories.
On Tuesday 3/17 our dear friend Miss Grace went to be with the Lord. I had asked for prayer for her in the previous post. Her funeral was on Friday March 20th which was also her 64th birthday. Miss Grace had 3 daughters (and sons-in-laws), 7 grandchildren and a devoted husband, Mr. Marv, please continue to pray for the family.
Today I received a call from a friend of Deanna's that one of their mutual friends has passed on. Mr. David suffered with a rare illness for over a year and we were not surprised at the news of his homegoing. He was a musician and enjoyed the harp very much. Services are this evening and tomorrow.
We had a pleasant day mostly out doors and were able to get some of our garden planted. But now it is raining, so we will finish the afternoon with cleaning and cooking. The children have started a game of 'Sorry'. But I'm going to have to be 'Sorry' to break it up so they can help me clean this house andf prepare a nice meal. :-o Well... maybe I'll let them finish their game. :-)
Deanna is doing very well. She will be performing at a Christian Writers Showcase at the Curb Cafe(Belmont University) in Nashville this evening, her friend Tom Shiness will accompany her on the cello this evening and she will sing while playing harp & piano (sometimes at the same time) . Next Friday she will particapte in a writers night at the Indigo Hotel, I believe Tom will assist her then also. I am planning to go to that event, her birthday is Sunday 4/5, so I will try to get away early to make her show & spend the weekend.
Bradley was moved on Tuesday to Larue County Detention Center, in Hodgenville, Ky. We went to visit him there on Wedensday (1 hour 15min. drive). There is alot of Abraham Lincoln birhtplace history and the boyhood home of President Lincoln in this community so we wil be looking forward to enjoying some of this history on our visits in the near future. Please continue to pray for Bradley.
Yesterday at lunchtime our friends Mr. Bobby & Miss Mary called to invite our family to the Circus in Bardstown. The children were so excited, so we went last night and had an interesting time. Lots of memories.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Excuses
I realized another reason why I haven't posted more often. We were without electricity for 11 days at the beginning of Feb. Recovering from the ice storm. This had its own challenges.
I just thought you'd like to know that I realized that I wasn't just sitting around eating bon-bons. ;-)
Hope you have a GREAT day!
I just thought you'd like to know that I realized that I wasn't just sitting around eating bon-bons. ;-)
Hope you have a GREAT day!
Slacking
Hi,
Times are busy and you know this is not my forte'. I am trying to get some photos posted, but it is very time consuming for me. SO... I'll just write a little update in the mean time. Since I have some dear friends watching the blog each day...waiting... on me to get it together. You just gotta love me. ;-o
Alot has happened since I last posted so I'll update for the last week or so.
A month or so ago Deanna set me up a Facebook account. I really had no desire to have an account but it is fun and can be addicting if your not careful. I love it and I check my facebook everyday. But I am no better at posting photos on there. If you get an account you will at least get a 'hi there' and a return msg if you send me a note. ;-)
Our dear friends from Ukraine, lost their 2 year old son Jonathan to cancer on Wednesday 2/25. He had been diagnosed about 11 months ago. They have had a very hard year. Please pray for the Manyak family. On Friday Deanna made a quick trip home to play for Jonathan's funeral on Saturday 2/28. She had to hurry right back to Nashville for a prescheduled showcase on Saturday evening.
Our friend Miss Grace (mentioned in the flap of the "Unto Us" CD) has been in the intensive care unit of Central Baptist hospital for over three weeks with viral pneumonia. Please pray for her. She has been on a ventilator. I hope to get an update on her today and visit her tomorrow.
On Tuesday afternoon we were in court for Bradley's sentencing. Then we were able to visit with him for a few minutes. He is doing o.k. Please pray for him.
We came home to pack for a trip to Nashville the next morning after chores. We were planning to visit Deanna and some very special friends from Maryland, The Stinnnett's! We got to Deanna's house about the same time as the Stinnett family did and had a wonderful couple days together, enjoying great food, visiting the zoo, and just loving being with them & Deanna, This was a major highlight of my year so far! The photos will be worth a thousand words.
On Thursday night we traveled home (got in very late) unpacked the car, checked & fed all of the animals and went to bed. Got up Friday reloaded the car, fed the animals and went up to work with Dean. (He works an hour North in Frankfort). While he was working the children and I visited a friend, Michelle, that was diagnosed last Friday with pneumonia. We picked Dean up at 4:30 and traveled a couple more hours North to Cincinnati, Ohio to visit with Grandma & Grandpa Tomlinson overnight. We got there around 7 PM and Dean's step brother Terry (& Julie) came over to visit. Terry had a heart attack about 2 weeks ago and had to have a stint put in. We were so thankful to have the opportunity to visit with him. We will look forward to seeing them again in a few weeks at Easter at G'ma & G'pa's.
On Saturday The Song of the Year contest announced the category winners of 2008. Deanna Loveland won in the Christian/Gospel category with her song: "Let Go". There are 10 categories and on March 16 they will announce the 1st, 2nd & 3rd place winners of all of the categories. The first place winner will win $10,000. It is practically unheard of that the Christian category would win top prize for the year. Please pray with us that Deanna would win.
Saturday was a big day for us. Lydia started with a stomach virus, we expect it to last a while with everyone enjoying their share of it. We were still visiting with Gma & Gpa, so that compounds things (hoping they don't get sick). At about 2:30 Dean & Grandpa went to a local hatchery to pick up our baby chicks! We got 125 we were supposed to get 200. But they lost an incubator containing about 3000 chicks. So they will ship the rest of our order on Wednesday. 50 of our chicks are Rhode Island Red pullets for brown egg production. So in about 20 weeks we should be getting about 4 dozen large brown eggs a day!
The others are fryers, so we will have some meat in the freezer.
On Thursday we should get the rest (about 75 more baby chicks). 50 Cornish cross (roasters) and 25 more fryers. One of the blessings of getting so many at one time... you do not get to know each one personally, name them & such. Hopefully this will make processing a little easier.
On Monday while we were still dealing with the stomach virus and settling in all of our baby chicks. A neighbor stopped by with a sweet little puppy that was on its way to the pound. We had been considering getting a puppy for some time (it is NEVER a good time for me) but the children had been wanting one and had already expressed interest in this little girl. So guess what.... her name is "Penny" and she is doing well learning the ropes around here, with Dolly our 9 year old German Shepherd as her teacher. She is a smart little thing and is learning quickly when Paul trains her. I'll try to post pics of them as well as our chicks and some updated photos of the children real soon. (I have already taken the photos, just posting them is the problem for me. ;-))
Thanks to Josiah Woodfield we have a very small flock of Seramas. (world's smallest chickens) We enjoy them very much. Our little hen has been laying consistently and we are incubating her eggs. We just put them in this morning so we hope to have some baby seramas in about 3 weeks! The hen Josiah gave set on a clutch that hatched out last May (she died the day after they hatched) but thankfully she had one hen and she is doing great! They were so small for several weeks after they hatched that they could go right through the chicken wire :-). Big fun! We are looking forward to having Serama babies!
Today we have to go to town, visit Brad & library, etc. So we must get our chores finished and get ready to go. Hopefully I can post pictures later this afternoon when I return.
We love you all and thank you for keeping up with us and praying for us. Take Care.
Times are busy and you know this is not my forte'. I am trying to get some photos posted, but it is very time consuming for me. SO... I'll just write a little update in the mean time. Since I have some dear friends watching the blog each day...waiting... on me to get it together. You just gotta love me. ;-o
Alot has happened since I last posted so I'll update for the last week or so.
A month or so ago Deanna set me up a Facebook account. I really had no desire to have an account but it is fun and can be addicting if your not careful. I love it and I check my facebook everyday. But I am no better at posting photos on there. If you get an account you will at least get a 'hi there' and a return msg if you send me a note. ;-)
Our dear friends from Ukraine, lost their 2 year old son Jonathan to cancer on Wednesday 2/25. He had been diagnosed about 11 months ago. They have had a very hard year. Please pray for the Manyak family. On Friday Deanna made a quick trip home to play for Jonathan's funeral on Saturday 2/28. She had to hurry right back to Nashville for a prescheduled showcase on Saturday evening.
Our friend Miss Grace (mentioned in the flap of the "Unto Us" CD) has been in the intensive care unit of Central Baptist hospital for over three weeks with viral pneumonia. Please pray for her. She has been on a ventilator. I hope to get an update on her today and visit her tomorrow.
On Tuesday afternoon we were in court for Bradley's sentencing. Then we were able to visit with him for a few minutes. He is doing o.k. Please pray for him.
We came home to pack for a trip to Nashville the next morning after chores. We were planning to visit Deanna and some very special friends from Maryland, The Stinnnett's! We got to Deanna's house about the same time as the Stinnett family did and had a wonderful couple days together, enjoying great food, visiting the zoo, and just loving being with them & Deanna, This was a major highlight of my year so far! The photos will be worth a thousand words.
On Thursday night we traveled home (got in very late) unpacked the car, checked & fed all of the animals and went to bed. Got up Friday reloaded the car, fed the animals and went up to work with Dean. (He works an hour North in Frankfort). While he was working the children and I visited a friend, Michelle, that was diagnosed last Friday with pneumonia. We picked Dean up at 4:30 and traveled a couple more hours North to Cincinnati, Ohio to visit with Grandma & Grandpa Tomlinson overnight. We got there around 7 PM and Dean's step brother Terry (& Julie) came over to visit. Terry had a heart attack about 2 weeks ago and had to have a stint put in. We were so thankful to have the opportunity to visit with him. We will look forward to seeing them again in a few weeks at Easter at G'ma & G'pa's.
On Saturday The Song of the Year contest announced the category winners of 2008. Deanna Loveland won in the Christian/Gospel category with her song: "Let Go". There are 10 categories and on March 16 they will announce the 1st, 2nd & 3rd place winners of all of the categories. The first place winner will win $10,000. It is practically unheard of that the Christian category would win top prize for the year. Please pray with us that Deanna would win.
Saturday was a big day for us. Lydia started with a stomach virus, we expect it to last a while with everyone enjoying their share of it. We were still visiting with Gma & Gpa, so that compounds things (hoping they don't get sick). At about 2:30 Dean & Grandpa went to a local hatchery to pick up our baby chicks! We got 125 we were supposed to get 200. But they lost an incubator containing about 3000 chicks. So they will ship the rest of our order on Wednesday. 50 of our chicks are Rhode Island Red pullets for brown egg production. So in about 20 weeks we should be getting about 4 dozen large brown eggs a day!
The others are fryers, so we will have some meat in the freezer.
On Thursday we should get the rest (about 75 more baby chicks). 50 Cornish cross (roasters) and 25 more fryers. One of the blessings of getting so many at one time... you do not get to know each one personally, name them & such. Hopefully this will make processing a little easier.
On Monday while we were still dealing with the stomach virus and settling in all of our baby chicks. A neighbor stopped by with a sweet little puppy that was on its way to the pound. We had been considering getting a puppy for some time (it is NEVER a good time for me) but the children had been wanting one and had already expressed interest in this little girl. So guess what.... her name is "Penny" and she is doing well learning the ropes around here, with Dolly our 9 year old German Shepherd as her teacher. She is a smart little thing and is learning quickly when Paul trains her. I'll try to post pics of them as well as our chicks and some updated photos of the children real soon. (I have already taken the photos, just posting them is the problem for me. ;-))
Thanks to Josiah Woodfield we have a very small flock of Seramas. (world's smallest chickens) We enjoy them very much. Our little hen has been laying consistently and we are incubating her eggs. We just put them in this morning so we hope to have some baby seramas in about 3 weeks! The hen Josiah gave set on a clutch that hatched out last May (she died the day after they hatched) but thankfully she had one hen and she is doing great! They were so small for several weeks after they hatched that they could go right through the chicken wire :-). Big fun! We are looking forward to having Serama babies!
Today we have to go to town, visit Brad & library, etc. So we must get our chores finished and get ready to go. Hopefully I can post pictures later this afternoon when I return.
We love you all and thank you for keeping up with us and praying for us. Take Care.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Winter Storm 2009
On Tuesday 1/27 we had an ice storm, Dean went to work as usual, but conditions worsened throughout the day.
By 3:30 PM we lost power. Dean came home around 5PM and set us up with an 'old fashioned' phone, we normally use an electric phone.
Later in the night as tree limbs started falling with the increasing weight of the ice & snow we lost our phone lines as well.
This is part the road to Harrodsburg on Wednesday.
The photos from here below are:
1)This is the view of our house from the road. Notice the high power lines in the foreground.
2)This was the view from our back deck on Wednesday morning.
Getting any sleep Tuesday night as the branches were scraping down the sides of the house was difficult. The Lord protected us and we had no major damage to the house.
3)I am standing on the front porch and the trees are right at the post of the porch.
4)Notice the rope swing hanging to the left. At the time of this photo that was one of the few branches left on this tree. We lost it later in the day.
We are still without power and telephone. But we have heat and use gas to cook with. Dean has a generator in the garage that he uses from time to time to keep the fridge & freezer going. He set us up on the computer for a little while to post this.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Snow day
Today Dean had off for MLK Day AND we had a snow day. Craig was getting bundled up to go sledding.
Paul was helping Craig have the "best time of his life". This is a quote that we have heard often lately taken from Templeton on 'Charlotte's Web' after his night at the Fair.Well... my dear friends you can be so proud of me. Today I learned to download images from the camera to the computer/downsize the images and then add the images to the blog! Whoohoo!!!
I'll do this more often now and once it is not SO much of a learning curve and so time consuming maybe I'll add several things at one time.
God Bless you, each and everyone.
Friday, January 16, 2009
New Year, catching up, and then some...
Well... It has been along time. Deanna has moved to Nashville and left me to take care of this stuff without her. I have to learn how to post photos and update this thing all on my own. To be honest I have been intimidated by the whole thing so I have not even looked at it until now. So to those of you that still diligently check this thing hoping to one day find something new, I am sorry, I hope to do better soon. Don't give up on me and if you have any suggestions, feel free to help me, I'll take all the help I can get.
Deanna set me up a Face book account last week, so I am learning that too, and I still manage her bookings and business things. I try to limit my computer time to 1/2 hour in the AM & 1/2 hour in the PM including e-mail, otherwise I feel like I am neglecting the precious gifts God has blessed me with. So that does not seem to be a lot of time to learn so many new applications.
With the new year we started a new home school schedule which is always fresh and exciting for all of three or four weeks, yes then we struggle to maintain and look forward to another fresh start. That is the way I work always looking for new adventures and fresh ideas. We are doing better in that area now that Deanna is more settled and I do not need to spend so much energy on her. She is very busy and very happy.
Lydia & I had 10 days recently in Nashville with Deanna, it was a wonderful girl time. Dean had off work and spent that time with the boys.
We enjoy having a dozen laying hens - James (age 4, almost 5)checks the eggs every day and Paul (age 9) feeds, waters and cares for the chickens. We sell some of the eggs, sometimes we have more customers than we have eggs. One of the most exciting things in our home this week is the ordering of 50 Cornish cross (meat) chickens and 50 Rhode Island Reds (egg layers in about 6 months) to arrive March 2. These will be day old baby chicks, we will all enjoy that part. With this, as with most things there will be alot of work to do to prepare, Dean & Paul will need to build 4 more chicken tractors. AND we will be butchering 100 chickens(the hatchery gives you 25 fryers as a bonus when you order 50 chickens so we'll butcher 50 fryers & 50 roasters) between June & September! I'm not excited about that part but I will be so happy to have homegrown chicken in the freezer. So we are all happy about our order.
Another thing we have been enjoying this week is looking through gardening catalogs planning our vegetable & flower gardens for the spring. I was planning to have a Pampered Chef Party this evening in an effort to earn some nice gifts for Deanna's new home. BUT... The high today has been 13, too cold for most people to go out, so I canceled the party and will reschedule for one day next week(after I check the forecast to see how cold it will be).
Tonight Dean was going to take the children out to Tractor Supply Co. to get chicken feed and take them out to dinner (probably at McDonalds, which Craig calls 'Old McDonalds') so we will probably still do that together as a family, maybe I can convince them to go to Cracker Barrell :-) (I'm not so crazy about Old McDonald's, like Craig is).
We still have Star our horse and we still have Dolly our German Shepherd. She is a wonderful loyal friend and guard for the chickens and the children as well as a great walking partner. I've been walking each day usually 3 miles or so with a neighbor, Dolly is always eager to go. Last Christmas we got a calf (Charlotte) and two barn kittens (Tiger & Sandy)we still have them. We also got a mik cow (Molly) at that time to feed the calf, we sold her to a friend after Charlotte was weaned. Our friends used her milk to make cheese, butter & yogurt.
I'll try do a better job of keeping things updated. Hope you are all well.
Love & Blessings,
Cara for the Tomlinsons's
Deanna set me up a Face book account last week, so I am learning that too, and I still manage her bookings and business things. I try to limit my computer time to 1/2 hour in the AM & 1/2 hour in the PM including e-mail, otherwise I feel like I am neglecting the precious gifts God has blessed me with. So that does not seem to be a lot of time to learn so many new applications.
With the new year we started a new home school schedule which is always fresh and exciting for all of three or four weeks, yes then we struggle to maintain and look forward to another fresh start. That is the way I work always looking for new adventures and fresh ideas. We are doing better in that area now that Deanna is more settled and I do not need to spend so much energy on her. She is very busy and very happy.
Lydia & I had 10 days recently in Nashville with Deanna, it was a wonderful girl time. Dean had off work and spent that time with the boys.
We enjoy having a dozen laying hens - James (age 4, almost 5)checks the eggs every day and Paul (age 9) feeds, waters and cares for the chickens. We sell some of the eggs, sometimes we have more customers than we have eggs. One of the most exciting things in our home this week is the ordering of 50 Cornish cross (meat) chickens and 50 Rhode Island Reds (egg layers in about 6 months) to arrive March 2. These will be day old baby chicks, we will all enjoy that part. With this, as with most things there will be alot of work to do to prepare, Dean & Paul will need to build 4 more chicken tractors. AND we will be butchering 100 chickens(the hatchery gives you 25 fryers as a bonus when you order 50 chickens so we'll butcher 50 fryers & 50 roasters) between June & September! I'm not excited about that part but I will be so happy to have homegrown chicken in the freezer. So we are all happy about our order.
Another thing we have been enjoying this week is looking through gardening catalogs planning our vegetable & flower gardens for the spring. I was planning to have a Pampered Chef Party this evening in an effort to earn some nice gifts for Deanna's new home. BUT... The high today has been 13, too cold for most people to go out, so I canceled the party and will reschedule for one day next week(after I check the forecast to see how cold it will be).
Tonight Dean was going to take the children out to Tractor Supply Co. to get chicken feed and take them out to dinner (probably at McDonalds, which Craig calls 'Old McDonalds') so we will probably still do that together as a family, maybe I can convince them to go to Cracker Barrell :-) (I'm not so crazy about Old McDonald's, like Craig is).
We still have Star our horse and we still have Dolly our German Shepherd. She is a wonderful loyal friend and guard for the chickens and the children as well as a great walking partner. I've been walking each day usually 3 miles or so with a neighbor, Dolly is always eager to go. Last Christmas we got a calf (Charlotte) and two barn kittens (Tiger & Sandy)we still have them. We also got a mik cow (Molly) at that time to feed the calf, we sold her to a friend after Charlotte was weaned. Our friends used her milk to make cheese, butter & yogurt.
I'll try do a better job of keeping things updated. Hope you are all well.
Love & Blessings,
Cara for the Tomlinsons's
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