Oh my! It's been a while

No. I didn't fall off the face of the earth in Georgia. I've just been crazy busy. I wish I could do a quick picture update. :) It would be SO much easier. Here's what's been going on with us lately...

Christopher has been visiting since Valentine's Day. He's leaving on a jet plane today.
We've all battled, and finally conquered, a long bout of flu.
We've been settling into our new home.
I've been crocheting my ass off! I have completed one baby snuggle for my nephew's baby, due in August. I am also working on two baby blankets for the same baby. Yet another crochet project is a blanket for our living room couch.
We took some time off from our lessons to enjoy Christopher's visit.
We visited Tybee Island. While there we fed the seagulls, dug a sand hole, walked the beach, and collected sea shells, sand dollars, and starfish.
I fell in love with an online game and developed carpal tunnel syndrome from all the clicking.
I'm starting to fret a bit about our house in KY, still on the market for sale or rent.
I've been building an anatomy library for our upcoming lessons on the human body.

I'll post more later. Just wanted to let you know I'm not dead. :)

Before and After- Learning Nook AKA our homeschool room

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BEFORE
The BFC is on the wall. If you look closely you can spot one tote along the wall on the floor. There are three of these totes and they were used to hold the boys' daily lesson materials.






AFTER


10 Points if you noticed that the table is bigger! (It extends into a buffet, of sorts.)
I added two bookcases from our living room on either side of the table for personal storage of daily lesson materials.
I brought in a cork board to display our Greek alphabet and Mr. Gallon.





I moved my laptop into the room, as well as our printer. (I need to remember to do something with those unsightly wires.)
The basket on the floor (far right corner) is filled with our current reading and my current drool catalogs.
The tote at the end of the table is filled with art supplies.
(Oooh! I see an orb above the phone!)


From right to left: Our pet gerbil, Hammy now lives in the sunny nook. I'm sure he doesn't appreciate this one bit since he is nocturnal. However, it is the best way to ensure he is fed. :)
Remington put together a bug habitat in an old canning jar.
Our human anatomy model is now on display. This poor guy has been living in our closet for years.
Toilet paper... dunno why that's there. I didn't tidy before I took pics. :)
Plenty O' Pencils
misc. items
Our three sugar cube pyramids. (Craft courtesy of Story of the World.)
The plant is in this room for the same reason as Hammy.
Under the table, our overflowing trash can.
Last but not least, my coffee cup.


The top shelf of this bookcase is mine and the bottom is Remington's. Pretty much everything we need for our daily studies is right at our fingertips.


This top shelf is used by Richie. The bottom shelf is Devan's.
The boys have a three ring binder for each area of study.

I'm going to steal this look!

Has anyone turned you on to RateMySpace? (For the record, it has nothing to do with MySpace ~which I loathe.) It's a website where people can post pictures of their homes. It can be really inspiring! Some of these people aren't mere people. Oh no! They are fabulous women with massive amounts of pride in their home (not saying that's a bad thing) and the ability to make it a wonderful nest.

This bedroom has caught my eye.

Unexpected visitor this morning

This snake curled up on the old school desks on our front porch.

Morning pictures

Sunshine (our female goat) and Pearl (one of our female lambs) are enjoying the morning sun.


Pearl just recently weaned from the bottle.


Sunshine is due to kid anytime now. This will be her first time. I have planned a completely natural birth for her with no (hopefully) human intervention. I'm thinking something along the lines of this video.

The girls

Yes, those lambs are wearing cloth diapers. :)

Lately (a brief recap)

Things have been hectic and I have been busy. Ah... let's call it what it is. I've been tired. Do I look it?

Last week I brought my mother to my home to visit with us. (And we are *loving* it!)

Tuesday night we had a tornado come through our town. Matter of fact, that twister went right through our property. I kid you not.
We were without power for a couple of days. Then, as luck would have it, the power was restored soon after we purchased and hooked up a generator. (But let me tell you, we are ready for spring storm season. We do still need to clean up a few downed trees. One of them is laying on the electric fencing. But, for the most part, we were unscathed by the storm. One street over is disaster with missing outbuildings, roofs that were ripped off the home and a silo that was thrown across the road. I kid you not. It was close.
In the end, this has been one exciting adventure. We cooked on the coleman grill and kept our foods cold by ice. It was all very primitive. The boys were playing in their bedroom trying to squeeze in as much play as they could before it was too dark. I just had to take the picture.

And then, as if I didn't have enough going on already, I bought two new babies. They are 5 day old and 3 day old lambs. Their names are Pearl (white) and Lucy (black). They are the cutest freaking things you have ever seen!

RIP baby Max

Sunshine with the chickens


Devan feeding Max


Well, raising animals can be a very good lesson on mortality.
Unfortunately, our beloved goat Max died a few days ago from mysterious causes. We're not 100% certain of the cause of death and did NOT have the heart to dissect him. But we believe it was a fluke. One moment Max was completely healthy, the next he was dead.

We had quite a time with Sunshine after we took Max's body. She mourned his death all day. After seeing her so sad we decided to get a new goat friend for her. The new goat's name is Cletus. (Is that the proper spelling of that name? IS there a proper spelling of such a name? LOL)

I haven't taken a picture of Cletus yet. But, I promise I will add him soon.

Animals galore

What do you get when you add two goats, several chickens and two guinea fowl to a family that already has a dog, cat and three parakeets?

Well... in short you get one mom doing a lot of farm work.

Our chickens are doing quite well and are fairly easy to maintain. We have been getting at least one egg per day, most days two eggs. The guineas are just as fine however they are very noisy and make a larger... um..... mess than chickens.

The goats are a bigger issue. These little guys are just adorable and it's a good thing. We have bought another goat named Sunshine (so Max won't be lonely of course) . She is much bigger than Max and is only about 2 1/2 months older. But, she is still bottle fed which is a good thing as it tames her down quite a bit.

You should've seen this goat when we first added her to the chicken coop. She went well.... hog wild! She was literally running along the chicken coop walls.

You may be wondering why we have our goats in a chicken coop. It's a good question and I have an even better answer. We weren't prepared. :) But just today we began working on the goat yard and mini barn. Hopefully by tomorrow evening we will have it complete.

But, it gets better folks.... the weather has been bitter cold here in our corner of Kentucky. Just yesterday we had golf ball size hail. (It really did a number on my freshly planted flowers too.) So, the two (still very young) goats slept in our home, our laundry room to be exact.

Here are some tips for anyone interested:

1. Paper towels are essential.

2. Lysol is good.

3. Chlorox is better.

4. Vacuums don't smear like brooms.

5. Goats will call each other if they are separated. For your own sanity, keep them together.

I am still very much living my dream of country living and wouldn't trade it for the world. But now I have a much more realistic view of exactly how nitty-gritty some chores can be.

The cutest little thing

Just look at this little guy! Isn't he just the sweetest thing?

This is our newest addition to our mini-farm. He is a 6 day old boer goat. I haven't measured him but I would guess he is only about 15" tall. Some day this little fellow will grow to an amazing 240 - 300 pounds!

I was just thinking this morning,

I am living my dream right now.

I was sitting on the deck, the sun was rising. I could hear the guineas squawking and the rooster crowing. The horses were playing in the pasture next to my home and my little goat was learning to climb using my legs! I am in HEAVEN!

I think the boys and I will look into 4H today. Anyone have any 4H experience you would like to share? We have never been involved and I have no idea what they are like.