It's hard to believe another year has come and gone.  We have spent most of the last 4 weeks with one or more of us sick.  This last week has been the worst with the Eldest sick, then our youngest daughter has been sick for the entire week with a terribly high fever.  Now the last two days I have had it.  I am certain that the old saying "coughing up a lung" applies to me.  I just can't stop.  So, Hubby took the 4 kiddos + 1 friend to Grandma and Grandpa's for New Year's Eve celebration.  Bek and I decided to do an Anne of Green Gables marathon tonight, keeping each other company with our non-stop coughing.  I am looking forward to starting another year, with many plans here at the farm, although some of them may already have been dashed.  Hubby and I found out that our county rules on having animals on our property is quite strict.  We have to have at least 3 acres to have just one goat, and 1 acre for each additional goat....

Hoping you all have a blessed Merry Christmas!  We are heading to my folks house for Christmas Eve and tomorrow we will spend it here!  Next week we have Christmas with my in-loves.  Hubby is off until after the first of the year!  I love it when we can spend time together during the holidays.  For the first time in probably...forever I have all of my presents wrapped!  Yay!  I will not being staying up until the wee hours of the morning doing that tonight.

Yep, I finally had it.  I am usually known for being fairly organized and put together.  With 5 kids, homeschooling, trying to manage a (very) small farm and home business, and a wonderful Hubby who provides for us, I have to have it all together.  Well, all of that went down the tubes yesterday.  I had the worst day of the year (or at least it felt like it) and as bad days go for some people, this was pretty mild.  I am a women who juggles many balls in the air (like most) and usually does a pretty good job with it.  Hubby is not well known around these parts as having a good memory...at all.  I have heard horror stories from his mom when he was growing up, like the time as a boy that he left his wallet, in a hotel room...in Boston.  There are many stories like that and the day I married him I took the reins as Keeper of the Home, literally.  I know his mom was relived to let that one go.  I have ...

We had temperatures in the 40's on Saturday, this morning the temp. is -11!  We had a winter storm watch on Saturday night with predictions of 1-3 inches during the night and another 2-4 inches on Sunday.  Well, in our neck of the woods in Michigan that could mean anything.  The lakes have quite an effect on what kind of weather we seen in the middle of the mitt.  Yesterday morning we woke up to a dusting and I was disappointed! (I love the snow~)  By 9a.m. the winter storm watch turned into a warning a we were hit big time.  We had to do some major animal shuffling to make sure everything was safe and somewhat warm.  The turkeys were the most difficult, as they love to roost in high places and to get them under cover and out of the elements is almost impossible.  We will be switching water bottles every few hours for the rabbits today so they don't go without fresh water.  We are doing a slow down week for school this week, which means...

Well winter finally hit here in Mid-Michigan this past week. Usually by now we have had several serious snowfalls, so it is late this year!  We have started our usual holiday traditions.  This year and every year for the last 10 or so, I have read Storybooks for Advent to my kids (young and old now)  This is a three part book series that includes; Jotham's Journey, Tabitha's Travels, and Bartholomew's Passage.  These stories in each of the books "intertwines" with the other (each of the characters are in the other books, but it is told from the different points of view of each child)  all the stories are about the coming birth of Jesus, and they are wonderful!  They are set up to read starting on the first Sunday of Advent and each night following until Christmas.  They are sold on Amazon and in making sure they were still on Amazon, I found that there is also an Easter book just like it for Passover called Amon's Adventure...um, I am going to have to ...

These are all from our bushes in the yard!!  The stair way is hard to see, but it turned out beautiful, and the kids added some bulbs to it also.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my folk's house yesterday with all the family and a lot of food!!  I am feeling even more blessed today (and old) as our oldest son turns 17 today!!!  I am just amazed as the kids get older, I look back and remember myself being 17 like it was yesterday.  Time is such a weird thing.  Every year as we get into the holidays, so many things seem like "we just did this a couple of weeks ago".  I realize that with Christmas being on a Sat. this year, it seems like there isn't enough weekends to get all the stuff done. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that we had some big changes going on here.  Tomorrow morning Hubby, a few of the kids and I are traveling 2 hours to a pygora goat farm to see what they have !!!  Yes, after years of begging, mentioning, more begging and then just giving up, Hubby called the other day and said we are getting goats!!  I am very excited, but nervous at the ...

I read somewhere the other day that shopping at stores like Goodwill and buying items used is the new "cool".  I don't think five or ten years ago this would have been the case.  I can remember back to a time when buying used just wasn't something that a person talked about!  I have been on a mission the last month or two to see how much is possible to buy at stores like this.  I am proud to say that I have done quite well too.  I have re-stock our constantly growing "brood" of five kids with some pretty nice clothing.  I have found items with the tags still on.  I have purchased expensive, brand name clothing for $2.99 or less.  I purchase an expensive winter coat for my daughter for less than $5.00. I am excited!  It has become a challenge for me to see what I can find used.  The only disappointment I have had so far has been a $5.99 VCR that did not work.  That is when you need to be careful to look over the items reall...

Well, it is official, Christmas music is on the local radio stations, and XM started their stations today, so now I can listen without guilt!  I LOVE Christmas music.  I could listen in July if my family would let me.  I don't know what it is but it just comforting to have Christmas music playing in the background even if there isn't snow on the ground (or in the air even) yet.  There is always a lot going on around here, but as the holidays come up fast, I am putting in my heels and hoping for some simplicity this year as I do every year.  Homemaker Ang at http://eclecticculturefarm.blogspot.com/   has a great post on what are we going to do to make changes to make a difference in how we live.  She has a  whole lot more to say too (add applause here:)) I think this is one of the things that I continue to work on in our family.  We are far from being where I would love to be, but we have done the basics.  We have not had cable or satel...

This is what we do for fun in our house!!

The weather has been beautiful this week, but I am so ready for snow!!  We have been keeping busy with school and projects.  I have been grooming rabbits and listing angora yarn on my shop for the last week.  Hubby leaves tomorrow for Penn. on a business trip and taking our youngest daughter with him.  He does this once a year with our kids, they love it although my youngest is trying to weasel his way into going on this trip, he doesn't think he will make it until next fall.  My Hubby's birthday is tomorrow so we are celebrating tonight.  It's a big one:) so I am certain that this business trip was scheduled this week on purpose, I think he was afraid of a birthday party.  My "big one" will be coming next year and there is no way that I want a party, so I won't do it to him!!  Homemade Crème Fraiche  Kombucha Tea  My outside boy enjoying the sun Koko, one of our French angoras

Today is our second son's 15th birthday.  I can't believe it.  He is almost as tall as his dad.  We spent the afternoon at Elderly Music looking for a new guitar for him.  He has been saving his money for a while and he got the rest for his birthday today.  He is AMAZING on his guitar and truly loves it! Happy Birthday Cameron!!  We love you!

Well I think it is officially time to get out the hat and mitten bucket here.  The last two mornings have been COLD.  We haven't gotten any snow yet, but they say there is a chance on Friday.  Things have been busy here and I wish I could say it was doing things here, but it seems the last few weeks have been spent just "doing".  I always start to re-evaluate the stuff we are doing and wonder if a lot of it is worth the time we put into it.  With the holidays quickly approaching I am hoping to get all of us into a mood of thankfulness for what we have and get out of the rut of what we want or need.  Of course I have to get to the front of the line for that one:)  I am my own worst enemy some days.  The turkeys are getting nice and big and I think we are almost to the point for the hens to start laying, which is what we hope for.  I have one angora rabbit that is due either today or tomorrow.  That is the beauty of breeding angoras, it i...

Here is how the conversations with my nine year old went this morning: "Mom my penmanship book is really hard this year."  "Not really J. your just copying letters and words." "Yea, but my hand has to take a lot of breaths to do it all." Priceless.

                                          Deer comes for a visit.                                           Out building at the farm                                          Ladies in waiting...for the hay ride!                             ...

We had a WONDERFUL time at the farm with Homemaker Ang and her family. I am such a nerd. I was just so excited to meet her and go to the farm. We did a cheese class in the morning, had a hay ride, ate lunch and then did a soap class in the afternoon. There were five of us (one drove up from Kentucky !?!?! and spent the night in the off grid cottage just to do these classes) in the cheese class and then 7 more women joined us for lunch and the second class. One of them was doing a story for a Grand Rapids Women's magazine, and two of the were from the West Michigan Tourist Association(?). If you ever get the opportunity to be in Michigan, make it a point to join them at the farm for a day(or two)! The whole thing was just very peaceful and very homey. Angie is a wonderful hostess. You should have seen her serving all twelve of us and getting her family their lunch at the same time, her kids helped out a ton.  All of her children were amazing! One thing that struck me was here she ...

I am SO excited!!! Today 2 friends and I are going to Maple Valley off-grid farm to meet Homemaker Ang and her family!!! We are taking 2 classes and having lunch on the farm. If you want to check out her amazing site go here http://eclecticculturefarm.blogspot.com/ I am taking my camera and plan on taking lots of pictures! More to come on this amazing experience~~

The girls and I spent the entire day in Lansing at the American Heritage Festival. We went as vendors, but it was very, very cold today and the turn out was very poor. We enjoyed ourselves though and I did a lot of spinning demonstrations. People were taking my cards and asking if they could purchase things on-line, which I wasn't sure why until I starting thinking about it. This festival has been going on for years, but only the last two have there been vendors who are selling things, so I think people were coming un-prepared to buy anything. We still got our feet wet and it was a great experience. Both my daughters went with me and they had a blast. Bek took part in a whole bunch of the hands-on things and learned how to weave today and loved it. Her is a picture of her on the horse drawn wagon ride.

I am doing a "Christmas in July Heatwave Giveaway" I think most of the nation is in the middle of a heatwave right now, although in Michigan we did have a cold front move through. We are in the mid-eighties instead of the nineties!!! I have been wanting to get some more traffic to my blog and yarn/angora shop for some time now. I have been doing some research and decided the best way to start is with a giveaway. Everyone loves to get free stuff, even if it is an Angora stocking cap that is seven times warmer than wool! So from now until next Friday, July 16, leave a comment for me on this post and we will pick the winner next Friday! You will get this 100% hand-spun, hand-dyed knitted stocking cap:

I am in the process of getting more serious about our farm and so I wanted a consistant name on all of our "stuff" I had originally used the name Fowl Tail Farm and that was my original blog site. I have now started one using the name of our farm and will be doing most of my blogging here now.