Turning 37

This past Sunday, December 18th was my birthday.  I turned 37.  I know it is a funny thing to ask for on one's birthday but I asked Jamie to clean out the pig pen for me, really clean it out.  This was a big job and with not liking going in the pig pen too much now that the pigs are getting big I was really happy that he said yes and got it done.

So that is how my day started off, morning chores as usual and then the rest of the morning was done by cleaning the house.  I had been slacking off and it was getting bad.  Got the house cleaning done and then hung around the house for the day with the kids watching the Pats game, which they won.  Woohoo!!

Present time this year was the best!!! Jamie and the kids got me a Kindle Fire for my present.  I love to read and had been wanting a regular kindle for a while now.  We did have some issues with the Kindle Fire loading Facebook, so I ended up returning it and got another one which thankfully works great and has no issues like the first one.  I really can't tell you how well it works personally because Hailey and Jamie have been playing games on it since I got it.  When I do get a chance though to use it, it's great and runs really fast.  I was able to download my new book that just came out and hopefully will get to start reading it soon.

When I was younger and my birthday would come around I thought that the day should be all about me.  Always doing what I wanted, going out before we had kids, going out to eat for my birthday dinner with the kids.  Now I find that when my birthday comes around it's still a special day but in a different way.  I still can't believe that I turned 37 this year.  I really don't know where the time has went.  I do know that the time has been filled with creating and making my dreams come true.  Like getting married to the love of my life, having two wonderful kids and watching them grow and having the best quality of life we can create for ourselves. 

This birthday has opened my eyes and has shown me that my birthday is not about just me and it wouldn't be a special birthday at all if I didn't have the people I love to share it with.

Christmas is almost here!!!

This past weekend we went out to get our tree.  We always have a real tree and thankfully found a Christmas tree farm close to us.  It didn't take long for us to find a tree and have Jamie cut it down and load it up on the car.

Once home, we put it in the stand and let it sit over night because by the time we got home we needed to do the evening chores, have dinner and finally relax for the evening.

Naked Tree

Sunday, the kids and I took out all the Christmas totes to start decorating.  Jamie was in the middle of cutting up the deer that he had gotten Friday night.  The kids were so excited to pull everything out of the boxes and look it over.  First we got the tree done, lots of lights, ornaments and of course the candy canes for the kids to eat all month.  We then went ahead and decorated the fireplace. 

I'm really excited to have a real fireplace to have a Christmas morning fire in and not just have the Yule Log on the TV while Christmas music is playing as we have done in the past years.

Christmas tree and fireplace decorated

With having the fireplace mantel space to decorate we had some room on the wine hutch to decorate. I asked the kids if they would like to put their nutcracker collection there to display.  Drew and Hailey usually get a nutcracker from Jamie's parents every year for one of their presents.

Drew & Hailey's nutcracker collection

I got all the greenery and bows up on the windows like we have in the past.  We had some extra greenery left over this year and also some new ribbon I got and made a swag for the entrance from the living room to the dining room.  I wrapped the greenery with lights and some of the ribbon and then made 3 big bows from the leftover ribbon to dress it up.  I really like it and probably will add a little more to it when I get to the store again.

Homemade swag I made

The kids also wanted to decorate our little tree from last year.

Little Christmas tree

Last Christmas was a very hard time for us.  Jamie was living in TN and the kids and I were living in MA.  We did come to TN for Christmas and school vacation to be togethor.  I was thankful last year that we could spend Christmas togethor even with it being in a hotel.  This year is much different.  The kids are really excited for Christmas to be here. The kids were even singing Christmas songs while decorating the tree togethor.  We are looking forward to having our first Christmas here in our home.  I am very thankful this Christmas that all of us are togethor under one roof and won't have to be seperated ever again.



Pigs turn 4 months!!!

Pigs 4 months old, picture is deceiving, the boy is not really that small compared to the girl.

This past weekend on Sunday the pigs turned 4 months old.  Jamie went ahead and tape measured them for their weight.  I didn't even try this time because they are starting to get big and a little intimidating even though the pigs don't realize it.

The girl pig is very friendly and loves to be patted. She loves to run over to you for her pats and of course her brother follows right along. Both pigs like to jump up at the pen opening when it is feeding time because they get so excited for food.  One day the pigs pushed their food bowl too far out for me to pull in with the shovel, so I had to go in and get it.  As I said the pigs love to jump up so Jamie nailed a board across the opening that measures knee high on my legs.  Well I climbed up on the board and waited until I could jump over the pigs.  I jumped, then ran and picked up the food dish before the pigs could get near my hands.  I then had to run around a bit to get the pigs to follow me so they could get away from the door of the pen so I could run over and jump up onto the board to get out.

I know that I looked absolutely ridiculous but honestly it was kinda fun.  I was quite proud of myself for getting the bowl out without the pigs getting me or slipping in the mud.

Girl pig

Boy pig

They are both eating really well, now that they have turned 4 months old they are eating 4lbs of pig feed and oats 2 times a day.  Rule of thumb is to feed your pigs 1lb of food per month of age per pig.  So if you have a pig that is 2 months old it should get 2 lbs of food per day.  Since our pigs are 4 months they eat 8lbs of food since there is two of them per day.  I just split it up into two feedings.  They also are getting the rest of the pears we stored from our pear trees and any leftovers we can find for them.  They still get milk every now and then but not often since Priscilla is slowing down with her milk production and will begin being dried off for her new babies that we are expecting.

The pigs also love to burrow in the hay.  It is actually great since we really don't have any waste.  We shake out about a 1/2 bale of hay for them to sleep and burrow in to keep warm.  Once that hay has been ground into little pieces from the pigs using it so much we use it to put in the corner where they go the bathroom.  YES, pigs usually go the bathroom in one area which is great for cleanup.  Every few days their "bathroom" area is cleaned and put into the compost pile which then in turn will be tilled into our garden come spring to help all the veggies grow.  This in my mind is a true way to farm,  using what you have and having as little waste as possible.

Pigs, 4 months old

The pigs have grown well in the last month.  The girl now weighs 120lbs, with a gain of 48lbs and the boy weighs 101lbs, with a gain of 46lbs.  Like I said before we need for them to weigh around 230lbs to 250lbs for them to be ready to be butchered.  We are hoping to have them ready around February.  We may just not have both of them done at the same time if the boy doesn't catch up to the girl with his weight over the next few months. We will just have to wait and see.

Check back next month to see how much bigger they have gotten.

Girl pig for her close up

Boy pig coming to say hello

Priscilla is Expecting!!!!

We are going to have babies!!!!!!

Priscilla 11-14-11

Don't you just love that face?  She is always so curious when I have the camera out taking pictures.

Onto the reason for this posting.  All the girls came into heat this past weekend and Priscilla DIDN'T.  This means that she is pregnant.  If she was not expecting she would of came back into heat with all the other girls.  I made sure to keep a good eye on her for the past week to see if she came back into heat and nothing. 

I will still keep an eye on her for the next heat cycle that would be due around the beginning of December just to make sure she really is expecting.  There is a company that I could send some of Priscilla's blood to and do a pregnancy test but I don't know how to draw blood yet. I really wish they had a goat pregnancy test like a humans pregnancy test so I could just get her to pee on a stick, that would be easier.  Instead we will just watch her real close.  I'm glad I decided to do individual breeding's this way I know just about to the day of when she will be due.  Goats are pregnant for 150 days. 

Priscilla's due date is March 20, 2012.

Below is a picture of Brady, the daddy.

Brady 11-14-11

Even with being in rut, he's still a sweet boy and wants to have his pats and scratches.

As Brady has begun to mature he has gotten more black hair.  Mostly on his chest but some markings on his face as well.  I'm very interested in seeing what Brady and Priscilla's babies will look like.  Brady's mom was a spotted doe and having Priscilla's previous babies here on our farm, Abby & Maddie.  I know that she can have babies with large spots or at least large markings of different colors on the body.

I guess we will just have to wait and see when she gives birth.

Whimsey & Windy Go on Dates

 Whimsey and Windy are sisters here at Russell's Ridge Nubian's.  They are twins even thought they don't look anything alike and were born on March 3, 2011 at 10:30pm.  They are now 8 1/2 months old.  Last week the girls went into heat.  They are old enough to breed now but I wanted to make sure they weighed enough.



Whimsey 11-14-11

Windy 11-14-11

Weighing the goats were very easy.  You just take a soft sewing tape measure and place it a few inches behind the front legs around the goat's body.  This is called the goat's heart girth.  Then you just take the measurement figure, find it on the dairy goat weight chart I got off of the Internet and it will tell you how much your goat weighs.  Both girls heart girth measurement was 29 1/2 which brings the girls weight to approximately 83 lbs.

The book Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats by Jerry Belanger & Sara Thomson Bredesen suggests to breed your goats when they reach 70 to 80 lbs which is usually at 8 months of age.  All information I''ve read suggests to breed by weight not age.

Whimsey 11-14-11

Whimsey came into heat first on Thursday.  I found her at the fence talking away calling to Brady and really wagging her tail flirting with him.  I could tell she was in heat immediately because Whimsey is very quiet usually.  I went ahead and brought Whimsey over to Brady and she spent 9am to about 2pm with Brady.  Of course I stayed around watching for a bit to make sure to witness the deed a few times before leaving them alone.  I have full confidence in Brady to do his job since he has finally figured out what he is suppose to do with the girls when they come visit him. Whimsey was very happy to spend time with Brady and was rubbing her neck on Brady's back and standing really close to him.

Windy 11-14-11

Windy came into heat on Saturday.  She was also wagging her tail more but wasn't too vocal to Brady.  She is also a very quiet goat.  I brought Windy over to Brady and of course he was very happy to have some female company again.  Windy also enjoyed spending time with Brady as she also stayed really close to him and was smelling him.  She stayed in with Brady from 9am to 2pm.  I also witnessed Brady doing his business, so I decided to leave them alone.

Of course I couldn't leave the daddy out so below is a picture of Brady.

Brady 11-14-11

We are hoping that both girls are bred and will be able to be a comfort to each other during their first pregnancy.  We will be watching closely to see if either girl comes back into heat, which will be in about 21 days.  That would be about December 2nd.

Check back in a few weeks to see if we will be expecting babies from Windy and Whimsey.

Our First Fish Fry

Weeks ago at football I was having a chat with our new friend Jeff.  He was very surprised to find out that I have never been to a fish fry or have not tried any southern food including, fried fish, hush puppies, fried okra and some other foods that are common down here in TN.

Jeff and his wife Sonja offered to have a fish fry at their house and kindly invited us.

Jamie & Jeff

Saturday night we all headed over to Jeff and Sonja's house.  The guys had two portable fryers going outside and where cooking up a storm.

Trace cooking on one of the outside fryers

Their was so much food made and I tried it all believe it or not.  The guys cooked up the following in the fryers.

Fried Fish - I believe Walleyed and 1 other type

Fried Hush puppies - dough with peppers, onions & seasonings

Fried Frogs legs - yes they taste like chicken

Fried French Fries

Wild Turkey

we also had yummy coleslaw, white beans, BBQ Green Beans and Apple Dumplings. 

I'm normally a very picky eater and not so open minded with trying new food.  I decided to go with an open mind and try everything, especially with everyone working so hard cooking.  With that said I tried everything except the white beans and the apple dumplings, not for not wanting to but because I was so full.

The fish was cooked excellent, yummy breading and not fishy tasting at all.  Drew even tried some fish and liked it. The hush puppies I would have to say were my favorite.  Although I would love to figure out something to dip them in because its fried bread and I think it would enhance the flavor.  Frogs Legs took a little longer to try but with some persuasion from Jeff and Jamie I tried it.  It tasted alot like chicken especially with it having the same texture.  I only had a small piece, Hailey on the other hand gobbled up a whole leg.

Hailey eating her fried frog leg

French Fries were yummy and the Wild Turkey was good too.  Sonja made some homemade coleslaw which I need to remember to ask her for the recipe since it was delicious.  I also really liked the BBQ Green Beans, which were green beans baked in BBQ sauce and pieces of bacon.

The kids had a great time playing with their friends, running around in the dark, playing tag, hide & go seek and any other games they made up.  They had so much fun that the night continued for the kids at our house.  Troy, Ian and Orry ended coming to our house and sleeping over and spending the morning at house.

Jamie & I had a great time too and are so thankful we have met and made a great group of friends.

Thanks so much to Jeff, Sonja, Trace, Lisa, Rodney and Carmen and all the other new friends there for making our first fish fry a great experience.

Piggies are Halfway There

This posting is a week late but we had such a busy week that I'm just getting around to in now.  Last Sunday, November 6th, the pigs turned 3 months old.

Boy pig (l) & Girl pig (r)

We decided to go ahead and get their weight.  They are way to big to pick up now so we used a measuring tape.  You measure their length from the top of their head, behind the ears to the base of their tail. For the width which is actually the girth, you measure around their bodies right behind the front legs.

Since we have gotten the piggies we have petted them while they were distracted eating so they got used to us and our touch.  So we put down their food and while they were eating I measured the length which was easy.  Getting the girth measurement was a whole different story though.  The boy was pretty good and I finally got the measurement after about 5 minutes.  The girl took forever though.  She's very smart and thought that we were trying to tie her up I think.  I finally gave up after trying for 15 minutes and passed the measuring tape to Jamie and went off to milk Priscilla.  Well wouldn't you know it he got the measurement within the first couple of tries.  I was not happy that he got it so easy when it took me forever.

Funny story to go along with getting the piggies measurements, we wrote the measurements on a piece of paper and it got lost while doing chores.  All of us looked and looked for at least 20 minutes.  To make a long story short, Matilda our LGD (Livestock Guardian Dog) had stolen the paper and had brought it out into the middle of the pasture.  Thankfully she hadn't eaten the paper and Jamie spotted the color white in a pasture full of green.  I'm so glad we found it because I did not want to try to measure both pigs again.  Next time we will make sure to put the paper where Matilda can't steal it.

Back to us measuring.

When you have the figures for the length and girth you need to use the formula L(length) x G(girth) x G(girth).  Then take the total number and divide that by 400.  The total is the approximate weight in pounds.

The boy weighed in at 55lbs and the girls at 72lbs.

Boy pig rooting in the dirt

Girl pig standing up

Since the pigs turned 3 months we have now increased their food and try to give them extra treats in the evening with their food too.  Hopefully it will only take till February, when they are 6 months old to reach their goal weight of 230lbs to 250lbs.  Once they reach the goal weight they will be brought to the butcher.

We will be trying to get their weight measurements every time they turn another month old.  Hopefully it will get easier with each time.

Piggies waiting at the door to be fed.