30 new Sheep and 2 Llamas

Sorry I've been a bad blogger!! Its been a little crazy with life and the new sheep. 

Well, their new to us, and their just temporary. Some friends of mine are having troubles with the place they currently live. I'm not going to go into details except to say they're moving and had no place for their animals. Thats where our pasture comes in. We don't use it in the winter, so why not? They put up better fencing and are building a temporary hoop barn. The fencing will stay but the hoop barn will probably go. We don't really need another barn. However having another pasture where we're able to put sheep or horses would be nice. 

The first wave of critters has made it to us already. 30 sheep and 2 Llamas. There are a few more sheep, some goats and 50 or so rabbits. I'm not sure how many of the rabbits we can take. In the stall there are 2 large empty cages and there is room for 3 more. I'm currently putting them together and will post details later this week. We'll probably put any does with litters in the stall and the rest we'll just have to find a place for. 

There is a corner of the barn that I've been considering. The problem; currently it houses a ton of tires. There is room above it for a loft but we would have to finish building it and reinforce it. Then there's the problem of getting the tires up there. I've already gotten what I could but there's still a lot of tires left. Maybe a pulley system? 

Oct. menu

Mon. - Well Breakfast was a fail. My son had to make his own.   Cereal
            Lunch - I honestly don't remember what I made for lunch
            Dinner - roasted chicken, asparaus, homemade mac'n'cheese
Tues. - Breakfast - Berry Crumb cake
            Lunch - a frozen pizza (I'm working on a recipe)
            Dinner - ham and bean soup, corn bread, fried green tomato's
Wend. - Breakfast - cheesy rice
             Lunch - PB and J
             Dinner - chicken/bacon/ranch flat bread pizzas
Thur. - Breakfast - Bagels with cream cheese
            Lunch - Leftovers
            Dinner - Breakfast casserole

Fri. - Breakfast - Cinnamon/Sugar toast
         Lunch -Spaghetti with meat balls
         Dinner - Chicken soup in bread bowls

I've already bought most of the things I'll need for this week. Soccer is pretty much over for the season, so, hopefully this week will be pretty easy. Maybe I can get caught up on my crafting. . . . .

Farm Update

Sorry I have not posted in a while. My sweetie is in and I never seem to get things done when he's here.

Anyway I thought I would give a quick update.

Lucy and Ethel, our Red Angus cows, went to meet their destiny yesterday. On a side note: cattle prods don't work as well as you think they should. We had to walk them slowly into the trailer without using the cattle prod. We now have 2 Black Angus calves to raise, BamBam and Pebbles.

The bunnies were re-bred on Sat. Oct. 9th. I will be putting them back in with the bucks on Sat. the 16th. If the buck tries again the doe is probably not pregnant, if he doesn't want anything to do with her then she's probably pregnant. This is not even 95% accurate, but its the best I've got without involving a vet.

The chickens are finally starting to lay eggs. We think we have 21 hens and 2-3 roosters. We're getting 15 eggs per day, consistently.

The kittens are losing weight. We've lost one. I'm hoping to get them to the vet next week. In the meantime I gave them a dose of garlic. They didn't like it but it worked when the turkeys were sick so it can't hurt. I'd also like to de-worm them. And as far as the momma cats go, we're going to start getting them fixed in pairs. That way there wont be too many cats in the house at once.

Oh, and the 2 ewe's we will be breeding this fall have been moved in with the ram. The weathers has been moved in with the remaining permanent ewe and the 2 meat sheep. Moving them was way too exciting. I'm not sure I could have done it by myself. The weathers threw himself to the ground and wouldn't budge. I literally had to pick him up while the other person pulled. We'd make it a few steps then he would throw himself down again. Trouble kicked and jumped the whole way. We had to tug Lizzy a little but she didn't cause too much of a fuss. Of course we moved her last, she's a year or so older then the other's and she's been through this once before.

Halloween; I have some really cool decor that I've done myself. I will be posting pics and hopefully a tutorial soon.

Homeschool; since I chickened out on actually Homeschooling, I thought we could do a little something every day. HA!! That hasn't worked out so far. This week is letter M and the country is still Tunisia as we have not finished our lapbook. But there is still time this week and the kids have Friday off from public school so we'll just have to see what we can do.

Well thats all for the moment. Now to go and feed those hungry critters before they mutiny!

Bunny (re)breeding - The plan

Well my first breeding was an Epic Fail.They're rabbits you would think they would breed like, well rabbits, but no!! Out of 4 does, not 1 gave birth. I bred them on the 21st of Aug. They should have kindled (given birth) on Sept. 21st or Sept. 22. According to 'Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits' and I quote: "Rarely will the litter arrive after the 31st day, but don't give up hope until after the 34th. After that, mate her again." Its been 46 days, its time to give up the ghost. 'Sigh'

By the way I highly recommend this book. I've read it several times and still use it as a reference.


Ok so here's the plan. It's the same as the old one, we're just going to try it again. I have 7 rabbits at the moment.

2 English Angora does
2 Flemish Giants does
2 Giant Angora bucks
1 Standard Rex doe

Anybody else see the problem? I can not breed a larger buck with a smaller doe. The kits could be too big for the doe and potentially cause problems during delivery. Anyway I have a friend (who's name will not be mentioned) And she's been nice enough to offer stud services, the idea being to split the kits. She has:

2 Rex bucks
2 English Angora bucks

Ok, that takes care of 2 out of 3 smaller does. The 3rd will not be bred until she's a year old.

That leaves 2 Flemish Giants and 2 Giant Angoras. I have a smaller and larger one of each. My plan is to breed the smaller Giant Angora to the larger Flemish Giant, hopefully to increase the size of the kits. The larger Giant Angora will be bred to the smaller Flemish Giant. Their actually about the same size. If anything she might be a little bigger then he is, so the delivery should not have any problems due to size.

Kits (babies) - Somebody asked me today what I'm planning on doing with them. Well, 2 litters will be divided between me and my friend. I will look over the one's that I get. I may keep 1 or 2 English Angora, I will probably sell whats left. The Rex will probably be sold as pets. They will be pure blooded but will not have papers. I'm not sure if they can be used for 4H or not. The Giant Angora / Flemish Giant cross' will be interesting. Some should have long hair, some will have short hair. The short hairs will probably be butchered and put into the freezer. The long hairs (depending on how many there are) some may be sold as fiber animals, some I hope to keep for future breeding. The longer term general plan of the rabbits at least paying for themselves and perhaps making a little money between selling kits and wool.

As always if you have any questions or comments feel free to post. They will be appreciated!    >^.^<

Black Bottom Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

There is a slight trick to this recipe. I made no bake cheese cake cupcakes first and left a little of the cheese cake batter in the mixing bowl. Mixing it up with the cake mixes adds a lot of moister to the finished cupcakes.

Ingredients:
1 devil's food chocolate cake mix
1 dark chocolate fudge cake mix
1 large box instant chocolate pudding mix
6 eggs
3 Cups water (you may need more)
1 Cup oil

Preheat your oven to 350*. I mixed all of the ingredients together in a stand mixer, adding water until it reached the consistency of thick brownie batter. I overfilled my cups, so I got 36 cupcakes. If you filled them correctly (2/3 of the way full) you could get a lot more. Some of them I've decorated as pumpkins, the rest I will decorate as soccer balls. (For my son's soccer game Sat.)

Icing:
The pumpkin spice comes in when you mix up your icing. I added a little pumpkin pie spice to it, as well as neon orange gel food coloring. Set that aside.

If you don't have orange sugar sprinkles, you can make your own. Take 1 jar yellow sugar, a dash of red sugar, a dash of pink sugar and 2 drops orange gel food coloring. Mix thoroughly, set aside.

*These cupcakes can be top heavy so be careful.*

First spread about a teaspoon of icing onto the top of each cupcake. It doesn't have to be perfect, its going to act like glue.

Cut one mini cruler or twist doughnut in two. Place one half, cut side down, onto each cupcake.

Cover with each with orange frosting. Remember the center should have a small divot from the doughnut.

Coat with orange sugar.

The leaves are just really stiff green icing, piped from a sandwich bag. They did not turn out the way I wanted them to. . . .

Now as far as taste; these were super yummy!! They are really moist and the pumpkin pie spice in the icing adds and extra dimension of flavor without being overpowering.  I will definitely make these again!!

Calves ~ Fall 2010

 Brought home 2 new calves today. We put them in the sheep paddock. It has a gate in the middle so we can easily separate the sheep and calves. Lucy and Ethyl, our red Angus cows, have there date with destiny in about 2 weeks.  Once their gone and their paddock thoroughly cleaned, we'll put the new calves in. These are Black Angus cows, I'll let you know in 18 months if there's a taste difference.

The steer is slightly bigger and all black.

 

 The heifer has white on her face and a white belly.

I guess he's camera shy, lol!!

We will raise these guys for about a year and a half.

Lamb Goulash

This recipe is a lot like my Ratatouille, but the taste is very different. 

Its easy, quick and definitely comfort food without the calories. Serves 6 

3 adults and 2 kids. (one of the adults had seconds)

Aprox. 175 cal per serving (not including the mashed potato's)

The Ingredients:

• 1lb ground lamb (we used Romney which has a more delicate flavor but you could use whatever you have)

• 2 Cups baby carrots - cut in half

• 1 small yellow squash - diced into bite sized pieces

• 2 small zucchini - also diced into bite sized piece

• 1 can of diced tomato's 14.5oz (you could use 1.5 Cups of fresh)

• 1 packet of onion mushroom soup mix

Directions:

Brown lamb in medium pot 3-5 min. 

While the lamb is browning, start your mashed potato's. 

Drain the fat, add the soup packet and carrots to the lamb. 

Continue cooking until the carrots are just barley fork tender, then add the rest of the diced vegetables and the can of tomato's. 

Cook 3-5 min. until the veggies are soft but not mushy. Serve in bowls with mashed potato's on top.

Sorry there's no picture of this with the mash potato's. This was so good we inhaled it. There was no talking, no how was your day, just shoveling it in as fast as we could.

Free Halloween decorations!!

I love Halloween!!  I got a wild hair yesterday and started decorating. I like to buy stuff after the holidays, when their on sale. I also make a lot of things. The trees below I bought, painted, embossed and added cobwebs in different colors. The pumpkins I made by needle felting.

I love the magazine "Family Fun." They always have great ideas and things to do with the kids. I had not looked through our current issue until today. When I saw the milk jug skeletons I knew I had to make them.

We have a fairly large fish tank, but we also have well water, which can leave trace metals that can start to accumulate inside it. So I buy water in 2.5 gal jugs. My son has been wanting to recycle, so the jugs have been collecting on the enclosed porch.

This one is going to be a little smaller than the others. Its made from a half gal jug, a milk jug and the bones are cut from one of the 2.5 gal jugs. The directions say to cut out the eyes and mouth, but I wanted them to be a little more visible so I colored them in with a permanent marker. To make the whole skeleton smaller I cut out smaller shoulders, cut the bones smaller and will not be adding hip bones.

I free handed the bones onto the larger jug and cut them out with a pair of kitchen sheers.

The best parts are, I have enough jugs just laying around that I can do a whole family of skeletons, they look really cool and they didn't cost me any money!! Just a little time.

Bunny pregnancy update!!

Ok so I'm a little nervous. Its my first breeding and I decided to breed 4 out of my 5 does. So far I'm pretty sure 3 of the 4 are pregnant.

English Angora - She started to build a nest of hay Sun. and this morning was pulling wool.
Rex - She is fat and when reintroduced to the buck a week after breeding the buck turned away from her.
Large Flemish Giant - Has not entered the nest box since I added hay to it 3 days ago.
Smaller Flemish Giant - Is already a proven mother, and was starting to build a nest of hay this morning.

In theory they're all due tomorrow morning!! I will not be posting pics immediately. I do not want to disturb the mothers. Sometimes with rabbits that can cause a bad reaction in the mother.

Here's crossing my fingers for some lovely babies!!!!

I know its not Christmas but . . . . .

the craft show is in Nov. so by then the Xmas spirit will be in full swing . . . .  

Anyway this is one of the things I've been working on:

the front cover

 

the first 2 pages

both have a pocket with a tag for journaling or more photos

pages 3 and 4

and the back of the tag from between page 2/3

pages 5 and 6

the front of the tag from between page 6/7

pages 7 and 8

the back of the tag from between page 6/7

and the front of the tag from between page 8/9

pages 9 and 10

the back of the tag from between page 8/9

and the front of the tag from between page 10/11

pages 11 and 12

the back of the tag from between page 10/11

pages 13 and 14

with a pocket in the middle of page 13

 and tag from between page 14 and the back cover

 

 the back cover

and the back of the tag from page 14

Please feel free to let me know what you think!

 Sorry about the crummy photo's!

Angora Rabbit False Pregnancy?

Ok so this is my junior doe - Cinnamon. I chose not to breed her because she was less than 6 months at the time. I went out to the barn to feed the other morning and this is what I found: large clumps of felted wool, they looked kind of like cotton balls. I checked around/in her cage, there was nothing she could get a hold of and tear up. She doesn't have any bald patches and the next morning I came out to the same thing. Not sure whats going on here.     

Bunny birth day count down 3 DAYS!!!!

Bunny Barn - ideas

Ok, as for cleaning,  its not completely done and I can only do so much before the dust really gets to me but its starting to look really nice. I will be adding better pictures to an animal page sometime in the near future.

I've swept and vacuumed the cob webs from the pig, sheep, and bunny stalls. The stall that the rabbits are in right now is actually the one we use for meat chickens in the spring. Leaving the rabbits there for the time being is ok but only until we decide to raise meat chickens again. Probably not next year but the spring after next. (April of 2012 ish)

Anyway that means the bunnies have to move. . . .

There is room in the barn but its not an enclosed space like the stall. The problem with that is in the winter what to do about their water freezing. If my measurements are correct there is enough room for 16 large hutches and 2-4 smaller hutches. There is also room for their feed barrels.

Another idea is to build a Rabbit Barn off of the existing barn. There's a small area near the chicken pen/stall that already has a door. We would just have to build 3 walls and a celling. I believe the area is smaller then the one inside the barn. I'll be measuring it today so I'll know for sure.

Some things I would like to consider adding/changing in the rabbit barn would be:

• Skylights - white plastic roofing panels would work & would let in more light 
• insulation - There is a small blurb here: http://ncag.blogspot.com/2010/07/insulating-caseys-bunny-barn.html
• rain collection to feed into an automatic watering system - this would need a filter, read about an automatic watering system in Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits. I wonder if  putting a heater into the main bucket would keep the lines from freezing in the winter?
• Fans - for cooling the rabbits, maybe one to pull air in, and another other to pull air out
• worm beds - there is a pdf article here: http://www.happydranch.com/bitbucket/application/pdf/info/worms/Raising_Worms_with_Rabbits.pdf
• or a septic system - there's a nice video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dINHOsRMe9I
• rabbit run - I would like a rabbit run that can be folded up and put away. Preferably outside, with shade and plenty of grass. Panels attached to the side of the barn might work. Maybe with a roof, also attached to the barn, that folds down? If I made the run long I might be able to connect it to the sheep pen. With a little work on the fences it would be a huge area for the rabbits to play in. There would be no roof though, and I couldn't watch the whole area all at once. 

Some of these things would interfere with other ideas I've had, so nothing is set in stone yet. If anybody reads this your comments would be appreciated. This is my first time managing our rabbit herd pretty much on my own. Constructive criticism / comments will always be read/considered and I will do my best to reply to everyone. 

I'm in ur lap stealin ur rays!!

Cleaning the Barn

The problem with our barn is dust. . . . and it wouldn't be a problem except that I'm allergic to it. Especially hay dust. I can only get so far in cleaning and then I have to stop for a day or two. And that's with wearing dust masks. It stinks big time!

I started cleaning the barn over this past weekend, when my sweetie was in. He helped a bunch. We cleaned out the sheep stall then put up more boards in the tire loft. He even nailed them down for me and then got after me for being up there without them being nailed down. I swept the cob webs from the pig stall and sheep stall. I still did not get everything done but being able to breath won over not breathing.

This morning I tried to work on the bunny stall. . . . I got the floor cleaned up. 2 wheel barrels of uneaten hay and droppings. But again I had to stop because of the dust.   :(  
My dad bought a shop vac for me to try out. Maybe I'll get to it this afternoon. . . .

Big Craft Show Nov. 6 & 7

Ok, I'm still on the fence about this but my sweetie is being really supportive and encouraging me to do a big craft show in Dayton. A big craft show means a higher cost to get in but potentially more customers. I have 9 weeks, counting this one, until the show. Here's my list of things I want to get done before hand.



100 - Boutique hair bows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 pieces done
50 - crochet Hats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 done
5 - felt Playscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25-40 - small felt sculptures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5 - Baby blankets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 done
10 - crochet Bibs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 done
5 - crochet baby/toddler Sweaters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 done
5-6 - Xmas Garland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5-10 - felt games (checkers, tic tac toe, sorting) . . . . . . . 1 started
2 - large felt Xmas Soft Sculptures (Santa, sleigh, reindeer)
30 - felt Xmas ornaments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15 - by the oz, Dorset and Finnsheep wool  . . . . . . . . . . . Just needs to be packaged
5 - felt sandwich set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 almost finished
5 - felt cookie sets  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 almost finished
20 - felt food patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6 - felt book sets   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20 - Paper Bag Albums  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10 - Star albums   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Done
10 - Explosion box kits  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . just need packaged
30 - flyer's with name, blog, Etsy shop, pics of bunnies for sale, etc.
20 - Gift tags (sets of 10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



Ya, its probably not all going to get done. But I can try, right? I know realistically that not all of these things will get done, but the more things I bring the better my chances of selling are. At least that's the theory I'm working off of for now. ^-^

Below are just a few pics of items (I have made) similar to what I would like to take. 

Felt softsculpture

Felt playscape

Tear Bird

Felt sandwich toppings

Quilled Sunflower

Raspberry Brownie Cupcakes with Homemade White Chocolate Buttercream Icing

This is kind of a semi-homemade recipe.  I used prepackaged brownie mix but you could use your favorite brownie recipe. To save time, you could also make your own brownie mix. Just mix the dry ingredients together, put the recipe on the outside of the container and keep it in your pantry.

Raspberry Brownie Cupcakes

Ingredients:
2  packages brownie mix - I used Hershey's Ultimate Chocolate Brownie mix, I buy it at Sam's club
4  large eggs
1/2 c  water - You'll need 1/2c because of the extra dry ingredients
1c  oil
2 Tablespoons of raspberry jam - I used some I canned last year but you can use your favorite
1 large package of instant chocolate pudding

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix all the ingredients together. Divide into greased or lined cupcake tins. Bake at 350* for 35 min. Makes 24 cupcakes.

(Sorry for the crummy photo. I didn't realize it was so bad when I took it last night. This was before they were baked.)

White Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

6oz white bakers chocolate (roughly chopped)
2 sticks of butter (room temp)
1c powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Slowly melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 sec intervals. Cream butter, chocolate, and vanilla together. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Resist the urge to ice your cupcakes while warm. (like I did) and ENJOY!!

I really liked this recipe, but it just wasn't what I was craving last night. The icing was great, not too sweet and it really tasted like white chocolate. But I didn't want brownies I wanted something a little more cupcakey.

One of the best parts was they only took maybe 10-15 min to throw together! I was able to make these during the commercials for one of my favorite shows. 

Regardless they are delicious I couldn't wait for them to cool so I frosted them while they were still warm and I ate 2!! YUMMY!!

Sept. Monthly Menu

Tues. 7th - Hot dogs, Cheddar worsts, potato chips and corn

Wed. 8th - Carnita's (slow cooker), sweet potato fries

Thur. 9th - garlic chicken (slow cooker), butter noodles 

Fri. 10th - steaks, baked potato's, squash

Sat.       

Sun. 

               (generally I don't cook dinner on the weekends)


I'll add more as I go. I'm out of ideas for today. :)

Rabbits

Currently I have:

2 Flemish Giant does
2 English Angora does
2 Giant Angora bucks
and 1 Rex doe

The Rex and one of the English Angora's were bred to a friends' bucks on Aug. 21, 2010. I am expecting purebred kits on Sept. 21, 2010, though they will not be registered.

I bred the Flemish Giants to the Giant Angora's on the same day. In theory I should get a mix of kits with long wool and kits with reg. fur.

This first breeding is mostly to see who will produce what and if they will raise a litter. Only one of our doe's is a proven mother.

The Giant Angora's I have are purebred with pedigree but are not registered as they are colored. They came from a breeding program Colleen Wagner developed to try and introduce color into the breed standard. They are a little small for Giant's so she cut them from her breeding program. I'm breeding with the Flemish Giants in an attempt to increase the size of the kits and because I haven't been able to find a decent Giant Angora doe at a reasonable price within a reasonable distance from my house. With line breeding, after 3 generations, I will have a purebred herd. 

Finnsheep

Here's a quick break down on what we have and why.

5 Finnsheep - 3 ewe's, 1 ram and a weathers

2 Dorset - both ewe's (meat sheep)

We bought the Finnsheep because they are said to lamb in litters, with twins to quadruplets being the most common. Their naturally polled and have short tails. They are also a smaller sheep supposedly with less fat. That means better meat and I don't have to wrestle a big sheep when sheering or trimming hooves. Hopefully next spring we'll have our own lambs and won't have to buy any Dorset's.

1st Day of School!

Today is my daughters first day of school. Well, I guess not really. She's been in early head start since she could crawl. But now she gets to ride the short bus and attend Head Start for a 1/2 day, 4 days a week. She's our youngest, her father and I are having a bit of trouble with this. But where it makes me want another it makes him not want anymore. "Sigh" I feel I'm starting to feel a bit older, not quite like a 'young person' anymore.

Here we go! My first post!!

This first post is really to introduce us. For me, I'd like to become more organized and make the switch to being a SAHM (Stay at Home Mom) to WHAM (Work at Home Mom). Obviously more money coming in would be great but I would also like to improve on some of the things (I feel) I'm no good at.

I have some insane idea that if I'm a SAHM my home should be clean and uncluttered, dinner should be hot and ready by 6:30pm, laundry should not be piled up waiting to be washed and put away, all of the animals should be well fed and taken care of, quality time spent with children, homework done, I would love to catch up on my scrapbooking, I want to teach my children to recycle and to volunteer, and I should be able to make and post my craft items for sale on Etsy at least 3 times a week.

Ever feel like you're being pulled in so many directions you can not get anything done? . . . . Ya, me too.