Life

Life has a funny way of taking over.

Our lives have been so busy over the past few months that we haven't had time to do much of anything. That includes me blogging.

Sometimes it's hard for me to juggle everything that's going on.
Teaching. The farm. Our house.
It's a lot.

So, I've decided to blog again consistently.
Writing things down helps me sort things out in my mind.

Since the last time I posted in March, a lot of things have changed.

We have officially grown the farm by three goats and two rabbits.

I never thought I could love a goat so much!

Cam changed jobs and is exploring his welding career.

And I have moved grade levels.
Hello Second Grade!!

We're currently on a roll with our house renovations
and plan to be moved in this fall.

Life is good. 

And Then There Were Six

Last night Cam and I candled our duck eggs. 

Candling is when you use a flashlight to penetrate the shell to look at the inside of the egg. 

The first three eggs we checked didn't show any signs of development. 

My heart sank with each "dead" egg we picked up. 

And then, there was life! 

Six of our eighteen eggs have teeny-tiny embryos inside of them. 

While I am disappointed that more didn't develop, I am so excited to have these six little signs of life! 

Grow babies, grow!

It's Getting Hot in Here

Tonight Cam and I placed 18 duck eggs in the cooler-bator.

My husband and my cousin made this fancy incubator last spring out of a cooler and some computer parts. It's surprisingly accurate and has since hatched several dozen chicks and ducklings. 

These are the last of Lou's eggs, so we are hoping for at least a 50% hatch rate. Ideally you should incubate eggs only seven days after they are laid. However, with Lou's sudden death and the constant threat of inclement weather, we wanted to make sure all the conditions were ideal before we put all our eggs in one basket. 

See what I did there?

This is the first time we have incubated eggs on our own without the help of my cousin, who is all the way in London giving directions and advice via text. I am hoping we will be successful, but only time will tell. In about ten days we will candle our eggs to check for growth. We are hoping to have several babies here soon! 

In other news, our female Oberhasli was born early Friday morning in Georgia on Maynard's Farm. We are so excited to have an official pair! 

This is her sweet mom, Little Bit. 

We cannot wait to have the goats join us on the farm!

Now to build the goat barn... 

New Year, New Beginnings

It has been roughly seven months since I have posted. 

A lot can happen in seven months! 

Let me catch you up to speed. 

In August I started my new career as a first grade teacher. Trying to keep up a blog and a classroom has been quite a feat, hence the lack of postings. I absolutely love my job and adore my class--they are the most precious group of kids! 

In October Cam and I finally got married. 

It was our six year anniversary; 

what better gift than to marry your other half?

We laughed, and cried, with our best friends all day. 

It was truly one of the funnest days of our young lives. 

Next came our honeymoon. 

We rented a cabin in the mountains and spent a week in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. 

We had a fabulous view to wake up to each day.

We got to enjoy each others company. 

Cam got caught up on the past six months of PBR. 

And we spent entirely too much money shopping. Especially on cowboy boots. 

Stages West became our new best friend. 

If there's one thing we learned in our first week of marriage, 

it's that we can do some damage in a boot store. 

On New Year's Eve we purchased our first home!

It's a four bedroom, two bathroom mobile home.

It needs a lot of work, but we're up for the challenge.

We've been working on it every day since we purchased it. 

Once it is completely gutted, we will be installing brand new everything. 

Which means we will have a brand new house at a fraction of the price. 

Which leaves us with more money for boots. I kid! Sort of. 

With the new year also came new plans for the farm. 

Cam and I have had all of our future livestock "picked out" for quite some time now. We would love to eventually raise heritage cattle, hogs, goats, and donkeys in addition to our chickens and ducks. But it would be almost impossible, and incredibly expensive, to add all of these animals at once. So in January we decided to make preparations for our first new animal on the farm, Oberhasli dairy goats. 

I sought out an Oberhasli breeder and ended up finding Isom Farm in Crossville, Alabama. Their does were bred to kid in February and actually kidded two days ago, on Monday. We initially planned to purchase doelings from them, but God had other plans. Their girls had four bucks. So we will be purchasing a buckling from them and then a doeling from a different breeder in Georgia. 

Introducing S*W-Williams Bjorn, also known as "Doc."

We are so excited for the great things coming to the farm this year! 

Thank you for sticking with us as we transition through this exciting time in our lives. 

Stay tuned for more updates and new babies!

An Ode to Toyota

Today I said goodbye to a member of my family. 

She was there when I met Cam. 

She was there for my high school graduation. 

She was even there for my first and last day of college. 

And after countless vacations and memories, I have traded her in for a newer model. 

Yep. I said goodbye to the Corolla today. 

She was a great car, but it was time for me to move on. 

To bigger and better things. 

Like signing paper work. 

By myself. 

Talk about being an adult!

And while the Corolla was a great car, 

I am so excited to start a new chapter in my new 4runner!

One full of adult things. 

Like weddings. And houses. 

Teaching careers. And eventually babies. 

I love Toyota, but I really love my 4runner!

Pickle Juice

I smell like a pickle. 

An extra juicy vinegar filled pickle.

Not from eating them but from making them. 

My aspiration is to be a modern day Suzy Homemaker. 

Quite literally. 

Supper served by 6, house clean as a whistle, and craft projects galore. 

One day I will be that complete package, but until then I will settle for letting a "glimpse" of her surface every once in a while.

Tonight she showed up while Cam and I made homemade pickles. 

I felt right at home slicing and dicing in the kitchen. 

He cut the onions, because they make me cry every time, 

and I prepared most everything else. 

I would like to say I made my grandmother's recipe, but I chose to try my hand at refrigerator pickles instead to get my feet wet. 

You can find the original source of my recipe here.

I adapted this recipe by adding red onion to my jars instead of red peppers and cauliflower. You can pickle anything, but cauliflower didn't sound too good to me. I think the carrots give the jars a nice pop of color though, and pickled carrots are actually quite delicious! All 8 jars sealed after canning them, which means we don't have to refrigerate them after all.  

In a few days we will open a jar to test them, but I think the others will do best to sit and season for a month or so. I'm excited to try them, and even more excited to let my inner Suzy shine in the future with more than just pickle juice. 

Greener Pastures

So this happened yesterday.

Cam hopped in the bucket of Mr. Jimmy's bulldozer to trim up some tree limbs. 

It made me nervous at first, but he seemed to be having fun. 

Sometimes that's all that matters. 

After trimming several limbs and an hour or so of work on the bulldozer this...

Has become this!

Work is finally underway to build us a driveway!

Many thanks to Cam for helping clean this area up.

Pretty soon we will have a new drive and a greener pasture to boot!