Good-Bye Beans

It's a sad day here on the farm. We lost Beans last night. I started to worry about him yesterday, but he didn't have a fever, or any signs of being sick. He ate a bit, so I was just hoping he was having an off day. Kept checking on him through-out the day and he seemed to be doing OK. I then went out about midnight to make sure he was snuggled down with momma and sissy and he was but he had just passed away.

Beans was 14 weeks old. I worried he would not live long, I don't think he was meant to live past about two weeks, when he was near death and I scooped him up and started to bottle feed him and got him back.

I'm lucky I got to have him in my life for the past 14 weeks. He was such a joy and really reminded me of Ed his uncle that passed away about a year ago. So sweet and even tempered. Beans would never think about head butting anyone.

When I went out last night, I scooped him up and held him. Poor mom Sierra was so sad and Jelly was in tears and Trooper didn't know what to do. So I was snuggling with Beans and mom and sissy and I wish I had my camera. There was 12 other goats around in a semi circle just watching and looking. It was such a sad moment. They all loved Beans. As we were having such a sad quiet moment, total craziness blocks over as we heard coyote's and dogs and horses going crazy. But on our little 1/2 acre not a peep was to be made.

I put Beans in the green house over night and went back and snuggled with mom and Jelly for awhile and made sure they would be OK through-out the night.

I got up this morning and it was still so quiet. Sierra and Jelly didn't move an inch. Hubby dug a hole and I bought Beans out so Sierra and Jelly, and Trooper could say good-bye. All the goats came to say good-bye and as I was carrying Beans out to the field, total chaos broke out in the goat pen. Running and screaming and head butting, Had to take Buddy (daddy) out, to calm things down. Had to take care of Chip bleeding, Buddy's horns got to him. Nothing serious, but I usually take out big horns and put him with the dogs when chaos happens.

After letting things calm down, I put Buddy back and bought out Sierra and Jelly followed her out. Bought her to the deck and feed mom some grain. I have to keep mom going. If I don't sadness will take over and she will die of a broken heart. I can't let that happen to mom or Jelly. Beans leaving us has been hard on every goat out there. But it's feeding time now and everyone seems to be eating well. Just have to take things day by day right now and hope everyone recovers from this.

We don't worry so much about coyote's here. We are fully fenced. We are thinking of putting up a second fence so we can enclose the goats at night. Something we will talk about after we getting the feeding shelter up. We have a whole new feeding area coming. So stay tuned for that.

Good-Bye Beans you are greatly missed!

In 3 Days...

Well it's funny my husband mentioned that maybe the boys should change rooms. Moving Cole into Tucker's room so Ethan the oldest can have his own room.

We let the boys think about it and one evening they came to me and they wanted to change? Really? Are ya sure? So I had them sleep in each others bed, putting Tucker on the top bunk, Cole on the bottom and Ethan in Coles' room. If they liked that we will change. So the next day was how long until we can change?

So we made Ethan sleep on Cole's and Tuckers floor and I cleaned out Cole's room. A Bed was debated and bought. Paint colors were debated and bought.

So here is two of the kids running around the empty room. It went from this...

And This...

And This....

To this...

And this...We did built in book shelves.

And this...This is magnet and chalk board paint. The magnets actually stick to it. I am shocked!

And this...New bed, desk, dresser and spare bed all in one...The directions said one hour to put together. HA! The joke was on us as it took nearly all day, and nearly all night.

Ethan Loves His New Space....

*Note to self turn photos when the program behaves itself*

Updated Goat Photos

This is Trooper, boy is he growing, and growing, and growing.
This is Delphine so big she can't even sit right?

Jelly (white) and Beans (black), they have grown like crazy as well. Jelly, Beans, and Trooper all born on the same day. I have weaned Trooper and Beans, mom is still feeding Jelly once in awhile.

Well nice to know our picnic table can hold 200 plus pounds? This is Dale trimming our trees.

Beans wanted to say HI, very close up.

Maybe Babies?

We are on baby watch yet again around here. One is giving me trouble so we moved her to the goat momma pen, I got a collar and a leash on her in case she escapes I can catch her without help. But if Delphine or Millie gives birth now they are two weeks early. So either the babies are early or they got pregnant elsewhere??? Oh the Drama on the farm?

Will keep ya all posted. I'm excited about more babies around here. Since these should be our last I want to enjoy them.

So right now Delphine is in the momma pen and being watched. Millie is her sister and is also showing signs but a real sweetheart and won't give me trouble if I have to catch her for the momma pen.

And at this point who knows if Bridget will ever give birth?

Now October 15th is our D day. If any babies are coming they are coming before that date as Buddy has been fixed and that is day 155 past his fixing. We have no babies coming after October 15th.

Some New Goals

It's been a very crazy year so far. It's time for some new goals. Our lives change nearly daily and it's all we can do to hang on some days.

Well first our medical debt is gone. GONE! At one point topping well over the 40,000 range. I had piles and piles and piles of bills some days. All piles are gone. It has taken four years. For the last year alone I have been working with a local lender and working on our credit report. I seriously had no idea medical bills were attaching themselves to our credit report and dragging down our scores. Now I know medical bills should not really drag down your score. In reality it does drag down your score.

I have had to call and write and pay and beg for them to remove themselves. Now if they can just magically add themselves to our report they should be able to magically remove themselves after we are paid in full. NOT! This alone was a full time job. Something I broke down to taking care of one thing daily. Because it utterly wore you out.

In the past four years hubby has had four surgeries and we have recovered Ethan from Autism. I have three in the house with Celiac. One with full blown Vilitigo.

Life has been really, really tough. It's been a crazy ride of life. And we have crappy insurance. With my job with each commission, we would put the check into the bank we would start paying down our medical bills. We would pay until the money was gone. So last year we did pay a great deal. But it's a hard, hard market and it's hard working a 60 hour job with three kids. So I gave it up. It was hard as I loved my job. But the kids are more important and Autism Sucks!

So we have changed a LOT of things around here.

We have no debt but the house. We now owe more on the house, but thought one bill verses loads of medical bills made more sense. So keep an eye on the right side of the blog. I will put our starting Mortgage amount and our current amount due. One of our biggest goals now is to cut everything and pay down and pay off the house sooner then later.

No you will see we don't owe a whole lot. It is a lot of money to us through. And with all the medical there have been times we worried if we would have to give up the house, or sell the house. Plus Hubby seriously makes next to nothing. But I want to know that we own the house out right. I want to know this is mine and all mine. So a few years of cutting way back for that is do-able.

So we need to cut back even more then we have. I need to grow more, and can more. Our cars have to hold out and with mine leaking all the fluids I worry I will be walking sooner then later.

We need to live on even less. Can we do it? Can I only hit a store twice a month? Can we barter more then we do now?

Some things we have learned along the way, we went to pre-paid cell phones. I spend 30 about every two months or so. Why buy when you can make? I can all I can-can. Coupons, and sales and discounts, and really do you have to buy that? Craigslist has a free section. We have gotten a lot of wood piles and such, those wood piles have built the goat house and two play houses. We look at our bills monthly. We look at our spending daily. We set small goals. Can we build the savings to this or that? I look at our grocery list and ask do we really need this or that.

It's hard, life is hard. And I know I"m being tested daily. And I hope I am passing those tests. Ethan is not doing great right now. School is starting soon and I will be on the road daily. I will now have three in school. Scary. Right now as we are going more green and less toxins I am making snack bags and napkins for school.

Life with Autism is hard. Really, really, really hard. You find family leaves you. You don't get the support you thought you would get. There are days I would give anything for a break. But breaks don't come. There are nights I go to bed crying because of the stress. You hope you are doing right by Ethan. Can he grow to have an everyday job, can he be on his own, can he be OK with life? I find I get much more support from friends. Friends who are in the same boat. It's tiring.

So our newest goals is to live on much, much, much less then we are now.

Pay down and pay off the house sooner then later.

Build up a savings.

Go more greener, less toxins.

Try to slow down a bit more in life. The kids are only this small for so long!

Zesty Peach BBQ Sauce

This is amazing. I made it last year and we used it all up. We poured it over ribs and would let them crockpot. OMG. I could not wait to make more this year. I doubled this year and tempted to make more.

6 Cups chopped, pitted and pealed peaches
1 Cup finely chopped seeded red bell pepper
1 Cup Onion
3 Tablespoons Garlic
1 1/4 Cup Honey (I have used rice syrup before)
3/4 Cup Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce (Beef Broth)
2 tsp hot pepper flakes
2 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp salt

1. Prepare canner, jars, and lids.

2. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine peaches, res pepper, onion, garlic, honey, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper flakes, mustard, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until mixture is thickened to the consistency of thin commercial barbecue sauce, about 25 minutes.

3. (I normally run it through the food processor for a second, you choose) Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space.

4. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water, process for 15 minutes.

Caramelized Onions

I did 6 pints of these before our camping trip. The smell was amazing and I am not a big onion fan.
2 Large Onions
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup Dry Red Wine
3 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
Salt/Pepper To Taste

Slice Onions Thinly. Combine Onions and sugar, I use my cast iron dutch oven. Cook, uncovered over Med-Heat for about 25 minutes. They will try golden and start to caramelize.

Stir in everything else. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to low and cook about another 15 minutes or so.

Spoon into jars, and bwb for 10 minutes. I found that two onions nearly did 2 pints.

Recipe from Small Batch Preserving.
Salt/Pepper

So excited!

Well after many years and many fires and tons of saving, we finally did it. We finally went out and bought a stove. The final thing was one of two burners gave out well hubby was cooking. He didn't like that. Hum? What have I been whining about for months, the burner giving out well cooking.


See for nearly two years we have only had two working burners. My stove has caught fire so many times, that I just stopped counting. You know that joke when you hear the smoke alarm, dinner is done?


With all the cooking and canning I do, I really needed a new stove. Really I did. So Tuesday was the day. Lets go up and look at stoves. And we bought one. Our old one was so bad I don't dare put a photo up. So here is the empty cleaned out spot. We took it out last night in waiting for the new one today.

So it's funny we pay for the stove and decide to go and look at fridges, to check out prices for maybe a year or so down the road. See our fridge is really, really small. It's good for one or two people but the five of us. The handles are broken, shelves are broken. You open the door and stuff goes flying out.


Well they had one on clearance there, dirt cheap, in stainless, BIG and they would throw in free delivery? Hum how could we say no. So here is our old fridge.

Here is our new stove. Aint' it pretty?

New fridge, sooooooooooooooo much bigger. Ain't it pretty?

Now who will break it to hubby we need to repaint the kitchen the yellow just doesn't do it anymore? And the counters look terrible next to my new friends?

Strawberry Jam

So the weather finally broke loose and the sun came out and look what I found in our Strawberry beds? STRAWBERRIES. who know they were there? What to do with all these Strawberries? WHAT? I first made jam.

Yes, Three big bowl fulls. This was one days of picking.

Oh look Nummy don't they?

I made Jam.

OK my jam recipe, now we are corn free and I did a TON of research on this. Can I make pectin free Strawberry Jam?

I went off the recipe here now shockingly I did not follow her recipe but got my ideas from it.

Honestly here is what I did, I put all the cleaned washed berries in the crock pot, I only added about two cups of organic sugar (add to taste) and some lemon juice. I'm a dumping kind of girl so I have no idea how much lemon juice just a few dumps.

I put it on high for a bit and then took a potato masher and mashed down after some cooking. I then put it on low and let it cook down until it was jam liked. I then put it into jars and bwb for 10 minutes.

Now next time I want to do this Recipe here .

It looks much easier then waiting for it to cook down all day?

Now it's a touch bit runny, just a tad. But it looks and smells heavenly.

Happy Daddy's Day

This is what we did for Daddy's day. This is something we do every year. Such an easy peasy project. Basically you need a stepping stone and two different colors of paint. You paint the bottom let that dry then paint the hands and put the hands on the stone. I will actually fill in the hands on the stone to pick up on some of the paint that didn't go down well. I then paint in the name and date them and let them dry. They will get many coats of outside poly and added to our garden. This is I believe our fourth year of doing it. It's fun to see the kids grow.

This was Tucker. Yes, that is pink!

Cole's hand, no it's paint, it's not natural looking.

A bit blury but you get the photo.

Ethan's