Doing The Funky Chicken

This is one of our roosters.... notice how his head stays still even while his body is in motion... weird huh

Happy Birthday Jessica!!

Happy Birthday Jessica!! She is officially 19.  Hard to believe that she is that old!  She is still totally gaga for music so Shy and I made her a musical cake.  The top is a piano and along the side are the notes to the song "Happy Birthday To You".  She is just as amazing as ever and was recently called to be relief society president in her ward.  So now, along with working at Bank of America and going to school full-time, she is seriously busy at church now too, but in typical Jessica fashion she takes it all in stride and makes it look easy. 

This is Steve.... 

This is Steve's owner...  Steve's owner brought him in the house... then Steve disappeared... LOVELY!!!  

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This is cheese!!!  Queso to be exact.  I was really surprised I actually created cheese from some milk and vinegar.  It will be better next time tho cause this time I think I let it set too long in the milk when the curds where separating from the way.  It looked like it wasn't done but apparently the curds can get dry when they are sitting in a puddle of way... who knew!  Anyway the only difference is that it doesn't press together as well as it should.  

This is my Sarah on Halloween.  Too cute!  I can't believe she is 4 1/2 years old now!!  Amazing that I have made it through these last 3 without going completely crazy.... at least I think I'm not completely crazy... do crazy people know when they are crazy?  Could I be crazy and not know it?  Hmmm, makes you stop and think... :)

More Pudding Please

Isn't it funny how sometimes you just get hungry for certain things and it seems like you just can't get enough... Sarah asked for pudding, and apparently she couldn't get enough!!
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Holy Cow!

I didn't realize how long it had been since I had been on here to share... We recently increased our zoo alittle... Meet Miss Dee
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We have had this big mama for about 2 weeks now and she has been giving us about 3-4 gallons of milk a day!! Its amazing the things your willing to try when the milk is free. Today we are making cheese. I have wanted to do that for awhile but milk is so expensive and even then fresh milk is better to use than store bought. I'll let you know how it turns out.

The Coming of A Farm...

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Above is a funny view of Nate in the tree in his swim suit. When do they lose that chubby little baby tummy anyway??? Our kids, especially the little 3 and really Austin too, have had so much fun just being kids out here in the middle of our little patch of green. They never seem to want for something to do even if it is alittle bit questionable... below is a new way that Nathan has found to play with the cat... I'm not sure the cat likes it as much as Nate does.
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We are also approaching the time of year here when hail storms are possible. The other day a small one came thru and this was Austin Hale's hail hat! It was very functional! it was also pretty musical once the hail started falling pretty good.
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These are our baby chicks. The pictures however don't do them justice. There are about 150 of these little bug eaters! 50 of them are hens and the plan is that in a few months we can not only have a neverending supply of eggs but also be able to sell a few dozen a day to help cover the cost of their feed.
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What of the other hundred you ask... well we have been looking alot lately at all the weird things that are put into our food in one way or another and what those chemicals are supposedly doing to our bodies. Well we decided that since we had the land and a genuine homemade chicken plucker there was no reason why we couldn't raise our own organic, unchemicaled (is that really a word?) chickens. So we think that with as much chicken as we eat that 100 should last us till the fall. Then we will raise another 100 and that should last us thru the winter. Crazy is probably the word your thinking but with the prices of food being what they are, this was a solution for us :)
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This is Austin hauling straw out to the calf pen. He has been such a help around here lately with all the heavy lifting and work that has needed to be done. He has also outgrown everyone in the house except Bruce! He starts high school in the fall and has enrolled in the engineering program they offer. Its crazy to think that just the other day he was starting kindergarten and refusing to let me give him a hug before school :)
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So as you can tell the next crazy thing we are doing is taking on 10 bottle calves.
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Above is Austin feeding a few of them. Most of the time they look like the picture below - sticking their heads thru the fence impatiently waiting for their turn to chug down a bottle of milk. If you have never fed a calf before, I highly recommend it... The feeling of this creature that is bigger than the dog, sucking on your finger is something that can't be explained!!!
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Last but not least is a picture of our favorite little one. We are only keeping 2 of these babies and this one is one of our favorites. We haven't figured out a name for her tho. Do you have any ideas? She is just as sweet as can be and loves to follow us around and be loved on, almost like a big dog...
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Okay, so now that this is done you are probably thinking that we can't get any crazier right?... Wrong! Pretty quick here 3 goats will join the scene and also a mama milk cow or maybe 2 and I would love to get a pig to rummage around in the trees and eventually fill my freezer :) I will try to post pictures of those... but no promises... hee hee hee :)

Happy Easter!