If one good looking man singing is a good thing, let’s just think about the possibility of four fine men singing a good country song. Wait a minute, I think I found some “Great Country Eye Candy”.
This is an early present from me to you!
Left to Right Brad Paisley, Alan Jackson, George Strait and Dierks Bentley.
Many think they know when it began, but the real truth may surprise you.
It was George Washington that first proclaimed Thanksgiving. Here is the Real Story.
The rest of the story is that four years later in 1863 Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national annual holiday. Since 1863 only two years we did not celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday, Franklin D Roosevelt moved it to the third Thursday in 1939 and 1940.
How do I know so much? Well I homeschool Sconicle, and through that we learn a lot about American History. I am grateful we live in a country where Sconicle can learn all about the true meaning of the holiday during school.
Our curriculum is fabulous! Here is a link!
Happy Thanksgiving to All! God Bless You and your Family.
This is the next series of pictures. You load the seed, back up to the roller and off you go. The tractor heads out to plant along with Hubby, and the kids drive off. Parts unknown until they have to come back to reload the planter. The cell phones come in handy now, we used to have to play the sit and wait game in the field. Gator tended to get into trouble when he was bored. Gator has always played around, and giving him time and nothing to do means only one thing he will be entertained! Don’t misunderstand Gator works hard when he “has to”, but on his own with no plan he is a mischievous young man. Thankfully this day the boys had about four things to do.
This day was the day something was in the field besides Dad and the tractor, they were headed off to get back-up. Tomorrow the Rest of the Story as Paul Harvey would say!
I do love the way this field looked like dirt nine days ago and today it is sprinkled with green. This is the hard work, but when you see a field transform before your eyes it is wonderful.
Yes my kids are big and small! Just like my dogs! Now you know why I am so busy!
Our farm is not fancy or brand new. It is the farm, Hubby, his family and the boys. That is what it is. There are days that you think they will never finish, that the farm is not worth it. Then all of the sudden you see this series of photos. A family working together with what they have to plant the wheat that one day may turn up on your table.
Every seed is precious, and they try to make sure none are wasted. As you can tell Gator and Dunk are shoveling in the seed into the planter. This day Hubby was the planter, so he rested while they shoveled. They played while he planted. Sconicle, Lefty and Pancho do a lot of playing.
These are the moments I know my kids will cherish, because when we are working together it gets done quicker and easier. The tractor life can be lonely, and I know Hubby is glad for us to just be nearby.
You have to love Dunk in his wired Taco Cowboy hat, what a strange hat that is! The ground that you see is now turning a full green field. Soon the plants will be solid green without any dirt showing.
If you think our equipment is old you would be right. The one thing about farm equipment is if it works you use it. Believe it or not this planter is in demand in our area, Hubby’s other farmer friends use it as well. It is a drill planter where it not only puts it is, the seed is drilled in deep then you roll over it. This is the fun part, you can drive on it right after planting.
The other story to these pictures will come another time. The picture right after this is one is Hubby driving off with the tractor and the boys, and dogs leaving the area!
Gator is working the goats, actually they do what he says. Mainly because everyday Gator feeds them, waters them, and checks on them. They will follow him in any pickup, to anywhere including when he went out to shoot some cans. Just in case, he might decide to throw out feed where he stands.
We have two dairy goats. They are both Alpines, this is one with the black and white coloring. Her name is Stephanie.
First picture is Gator running the goats, Dunk looking at Sconicle to run them as well. You can see Dunk’s head. The second picture is Faith, the lead goat and Stephanie. The third picture is Jillian, Genesis and Stephanie.
Our unofficial possible pregnant goat count is Faith, Jillian, Krissy, Stephanie and the goat Gator calls split ear. We have only had him four days! There is another younger goat in heat, but right now she has decided to tell Genesis her dance card is full. Later in her cycle she will be happier to see him, but right now he is working hard at being turned down. Faith and Jillian no longer need him, so he is not even wanted by them!
Tomorrow my post will be about the farm, not goats. But today is about the goats I love along with that Junior Goat Breeder!
Funny how you sometimes think you have too many ideas for the blog or not enough. Right now I have too many pictures, but I love them all. They tell several different stories. So I have decided I would isolate each story and post them.
You are in luck my reader, today is the new billy day! Okay maybe you don’t love goats as I do but it is my blog! We have searched high and low for a good Billy we could afford. Billies are not cheap, and good ones are never cheap. Registered billies are normally out of the question, but we got a young registered buck. Gator the true breeder has named him Genesis. Genesis is the beginning!
Genesis is a young buck, he is naturally polled. Which means he was born without horns, horns for us are really dangerous. We have had show goats stuck under fences, and almost strangled. We do have a few horned goats, but overall we prefer no horns.
So meet Genesis, he is a very popular guy so you may have to stand in line! If you notice, the nannies adore him! They are so flirty with him. I just love to watch them all. As you are watching him work, he is figuring out which girls are in heat.
Faith our lead goat, that is the alpha female of our herd was so mad that she was not in heat she was screaming at him. Jillian the second in line of being the lead goat had her date with him on Saturday. She wanted another date on Sunday but Genesis had other nannies on his agenda. Faith runs the herd, she listens to me if I am in the pen but make no mistake she is a tough leader. Every goat in the pen knows in order to survive you cower to her. The good thing is she is an equal fighter, she will protect her herd against any problems. Jillian only backed away from Genesis when Faith was trying her flirtatious ways with Genesis. Jillian is scared of Faith, and Faith knows it.
I not Gator have a wonderful nanny named Princess. Princess is Faith’s daughter, and she is nothing like her. Princess since the day she was born acted like she needed more attention than any other goat in the pen. In other words she is a true Princess. I used to cater to her, petting her, holding her, hugging her and making sure she was happy. In a weak moment Gator gave me Princess. So my struggle on Sunday was to take Genesis’s picture, when Princess kept getting in front of my camera. She knew she was not the center of my focus!
So here we go I am going to tell you who is who in our herd, so you can understand the pictures. Genesis has no pictures of him alone, the nannies would not leave him alone! First picture is Jillian, Genesis and Krissy’s daughter (can’t remember her name, but we call her one horn). The next picture he is getting to know Krissy, she has horns and is crazy but throws good goats. I personally want her gone, but Hubby and Gator love her. The next picture is the long view of the same picture. The next picture I say is Princess along with Jillian and Genesis. Gator thinks it is one horn or split ear. But I am pretty sure it is Princess, look at her stance her pride!
Krissy had her date on Monday, our Alpine goats have also had dates. Genesis will lose weight we know that, right now we are trying to keep him fed and healthy.
Tomorrow will be more pictures, but there is much to talk about at the farm!
For a change today I thought I would post pictures of Dunk and Gator. They worked the local goat auction.
Before the auction starts, you stand around waiting for any last minute goats to arrive. Dunk and Gator worked the alley, which means they run the goats up and down the alley and into the pens after or before the goats go into the ring.
In this series you can see Gator irritated I am taking pictures. I did put my camera away after he refused to allow me to the candid pictures. My favorite pictures of the boys are the candid ones, the ones you take of them being them.
I am trying my best to chronicle their lives. One day even Gator will be glad I did!
We bought a few goats. I have so many pictures. I am going to post some more tomorrow. I love the rustic wood of the auction barn, with goats I love how the wood contrasts with the white goat hair. They just put on a new tin roof, and the reflection made it a nice frame as well.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRQuTQMR85U&hl]
I would love to credit myself for finding this, but I got the link off of Tipnut!
Anyway this is simple, and easy to do. The reader is the winner today!
I recycle. I know hard to believe but if you have no real way of getting rid of a lot of trash recycling is your best way. My biggest and best achievement is my compost pile. I even took a picture of my compost bucket, which is an old Tupperware canister that has a cracked lid. I tried at first a cool whip bowl, but I found it too small if I cook a lot. Anything that is peeled, ripped or cut off in my kitchen that is food related other than meat goes into that bucket. I also pour old milk (rarely have that), old buttermilk, old sour cream, eggshells and anything else that is able to decay.
I get two wonderful gifts from my compost pile. First, my trash stinks a whole lot less! I freeze any meat trays in a plastic bag until trash day. Second, slowly I get what I like to call black gold. It is a win, win situation. Lefty my rat terrier loves to smell the compost pile; to him it is a gift each day. A new smell happening, challenging his nose that he absolutely loves to do!
Today is the Texas Recycles Day. We try to reuse many of the things that come in the house. It is the best way for us to cut down on the purchasing of things we don’t need. Even though our town doesn’t do anything for the day, I thought I would make a day for my readers.
My compost pile is just a pile, no fence, no chicken wire no big deal. It is the cheapest way to do it, chicken wire makes it more compact but we throw in weeds, grass, even branches. That way there is no limit to what I put into the pile. My yard is a redneck yard, with three dogs and kids. I gave up years ago having a pristine backyard. That is for my golden years if I feel like it.
Sconicle has the daily task of dumping into the compost pile. Every time we clean up the backyard, we throw the sticks into the pile. My point is too many people want to sell you a fancy barrel, a fancy compost structure, but they are in the business of selling. You are in the business of doing what is the cheapest that is a simple pile. If you happen to have poo of any kind that will help the compost as well, we have no goats in small pens anymore so we just leave out the poo factor. You don’t have to chop up anything, when I crack an egg I throw in the shells as halves. The bugs do the rest for me.
Compost is a beautiful thing. If you haven’t started yet, try it you will like it!
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