Warm Week, But.....

Our weather has been SO nice this week-so far! Changes are coming this afternoon late, though. Lots of rain-up to 2 inches is heading our way and the temps are gonna drop-won't get out of the 40's tomorrow or Saturday! Hope we have enough firewood-better check on that this afternoon!
Jeff gets his new teeth today! YEAH! His parents are supposed to ride with him-just to get out of the house! His dad still isn't doing well-but doesn't like sitting in the house for too much time! Jeff butchered a rabbit for him yesterday-he was wanting rabbit for lunch!
Jeff's nephew, Jason, has bought the last feeder pig we have, so he's supposed to be here tomorrow night to butcher it. We weren't planning on selling it, but we have no room left in the freezer and not too many cool days left to butcher before it does start warming up for Spring. He has some deer meat he wants to add to it and make sausage. And the sow is getting huge-I thinking she'll be due somewhere around Valentine's Day. I just love baby pigs!
Have a great day!

Happy Birthday, Mady & Garden Clean-Up

Julie & Mady

Let's blow out the candle!

We spent most of yesterday getting the garden cleaned up and Jeff took the bucket on the tractor and scooped up the old hay rolls and dumped them over the fence into the garden beds. I'm still working on getting them spred out-that "stuff" is heavy when it's wet! But boy will it make the garden grow!

Mady turned 3 yesterday-Julie had her party this afternoon. She is still so tiny-but she's tough! She had a really great party and enjoyed it!

And we finally had a litter of bunnies! Jeff says he thinks there are 8 in the litter. He also got an old cooler moved around to the shed - with the tractor -and filled it up with the dirt(?) from the hay rolls. He bought a box of worms and will now try to be a worm farmer, too! I have to find an old article from a magazine that gave detailed instructions on how to raise them!

We've had several really nice days in a row-it was a little cooler this morning-40 degrees-and it is a bit windy-but the sun is shining and it's a beautiful day out. Church was great this morning-it's really nice to get back in to going and fellowship with everyone!

Have a great week! :)

Misadventures of Jeff!

Jeff has had a few misadventures this year already! Maybe he has too much time on his hands-being home alone(almost) everyday! I guess some could just be adventures on his part. He has butchered 2 large animals this year already-although not by himself!-So our freezer is full-Thank God! He has had yet another Doc visit-this one with his back doc-and it went very well-he wrote him off from work until June 10th this time. He still is letting the chickens out nearly every day and keeping watch out for varmits! He'll take his dad to the Doc tomorrow, pick up some siding for the house, and get groceries. But today was the BEST! He was eating Corn Nuts and broke out both his front teeth! (He does wear dentures!) And he swallowed one of them! (OK, Sheila, you can get off the floor now and call him!) He went to a dentist in Livingston who got him all fixed up and he'll even get a new set next week! Never a dull moment around here!
The chickens are laying up a storm! Need any eggs?? We still have 1 feeder pig to butcher and the sow is definately bred-but we would still like to sell her and the boar. I have a rabbit due this weekend-haven't had much luck with them lately. We've been thinking alot on the garden-maybe expanding it into part of the pasture-but we can't let it get too big-Jeff won't be able to handle it!
Our weather has just been beautiful this week! Will be a little cooler in the morning-but it has been in the mid 70's all week. But it will be cooler next week! Enjoy it!

Run, Run, Run!

That's all we've been doing! Curtis is still in the hospital-he isn't doing well this time-but he might get to come home tomorrow. My mom fell on saturday and cracked a rib and sprained her left wrist badly, So-we've been running to Coldspring and Conroe.
Our weather has warmed up a little bit-but it's due to start raining tomorrow. Jeff and Kaytlynn put the bitties outside yesterday in their pen with the heat lamp. Jeff has a Doc visit with a Social Security evaluation doc on Feb, 1st. SO we'll see how this one goes!
We actually got in the hot tub tonight! It felt great!!! It has been way over a month since we got in-with me sick and everything else!
I'm trying to get all of our tax stuff together-I got my W-2 at work today-so now we need to get Jeff's and get all the numbers plugged in to see how things end up this year!
We're hoping to get to go to the beach this weekend-haven't been since Thanksgiving weekend-we really need to go check on things! Have to wait and see how Jeff's dad is doing first.
Have a great rest of the week!

Busy Last Few Days!

Jeff, Randy, Ricky and me finally got the sausage hanging in the smokehouse last night. This butchering has been a 2 day process with all 4 of us having a hand in it at different times. The sausage is still in the smokehouse and the bacon is curing on the front porch. It has been SO cold!
Julie has a few broken and still frozen pipes and so does Alana. Ours-knock on wood-have been OK. Jeff's Dad is back in the hospital-he has pneumonia-so we are fixin' to head to Conroe to see him. We'll pick up the pumbing stuff we need while there and get Randy and Ricky to work on fixing all of it tomorrow-since the temps are already dropping again and it's gonna be another cold one tonight!

Chicks!

Here is a pic of the 4 of them. Boy-can they make a mess in less than 24 hours! With the cold weather we are having-and the even colder the rest of the week-they MUST stay in the house for awhile!

First day back at work today went well. I am tired though. We weren't quite as busy as I expected-but tomorrow could be. It'll take a few days to get back in the groove of things.

All the guys got the back porch filled up with firewood yesterday-with cold weather coming-I don't know if it'll be enough to last to the weekend or not! We have really had a cold winter so far-and it is far from over!

Stay warm!!

Butcherin' Days!

2 sides of beef!

Fresh ground meat!

We got 'er done! Final tally-43 pounds of ground beef! We are gonna have hamburgers for supper! We left the 2 sides hanging in the tree over night-and was it COLD this morning! It was 25 degrees and the meat was SO cold-I couldn't help cut it up-in just a few minutes my hands hurt awful. It was alot of work for such a small amount-but that is how it is with a dairy calf-not much meat.

We haven't had any pictures of the deer for the last few nights-too much noice, I guess! I also need to clear out my 2009 harvest count and start over. We still have the new micro/vent a hood combo to install. And we are down to only 4 bitties left :( The last ones seem to be very healthy and strong-so maybe they will make it!

Enjoy this beautiful day!!