It's beginning to look like spring!!!

Ok, not really, there's a blizzard outside at the moment, but I got my favourite seed catalogue in the mail a few weeks ago and I finally had the time to peruse (my new word) it. www.veseys.com

Sigh..... so many seeds so little time and land.

Every fall I swear to myself that next spring

"I will not go beserk in my seed order!!!"

Yeah...right....

I promise that I will only stick to the tried

and true. I will stick to

only a few veggies and not plant

veggies for the entire

community!

THEN!!! The seed catalogue shows up.

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and all those promises are gone out the door!

sigh.....

This year I will try to control myself.

Yes, I will try.

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NOT!!!!!

It's an addiction. I can't help myself. I know I'm going to get

some weird, strange new seed that I will or will not successfully

germinate. Like 2 years ago I tried asparagus peas. Probably the most

disgusting veg I have ever had the misfortune of trying.

(hubby just told me that he found out that you have to cook asparagus peas

not eat them raw, like we did....hmmmm maybe we should try them again.)

I was reading this blog to hubby and he said that he's going to hide the

catalogue and then I will have to get a purchase order from

him to order the seeds. Little does he know that

I can order on-line!! heh heh heh

Well it's time to go and have a nice tall glass of fresh, raw, goat's milk and a

devil's food Texas size cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

Have a Blessed Evening.

Lisa

Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day!

Ok, I'm going to try this again.

I've just deleted the entire blog for today by mistake.

I'm not impressed.

Well first of all, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas

and a happy Boxing Day.

A few days before Christmas J. and I baked cookies. We

kinda cheated and got Pillsbury cookie dough.

Oh well ... so sue me.

J. is really a pretty good cook. I think most

men are it's just that they fake it. It's easier for them to fake it and get

your wife to do it. I'm lucky

my hubby is a good cook.

In this area most people open their gifts on Christmas eve. We are

no exception. I got a Tassimo Machine! Can you tell I'm excited!

We got hot chocolate, decaf, regular and cappucino for it.

I worked till 3pm that day, then I came home and I made a chicken fricot

and J. and I made a birthday cake for Jesus, since it is his

birthday the next day.

It does say
"Happy Birthday, Jesus" under

all those sprinkles and sparkles.

I was having most of my relatives come over after the midnight mass

on Christmas eve. Well around here

midnight mass is really at 9pm.

Anyway we had chicken fricot, birthday cake and chatted

till 1am. Then everyone went home,

we went to bed and Santa showed up.

He left alot of Lego for J. and treats for the cats and goats.

Even though J. got the Lego, Dave got to put it all together. One kit had over 700

pieces!!

The cats were beside themselves with the new toys.

The goats got Squeezy Buns treats. They love those.

On Christmas Day we finally had snow. Well really it had snowed a few

days before and it actually stayed. We haven't had

a white Christmas in years! It was nice.

I was actually Whisper's first snow. She was not impressed.

We actually let them go in the pasture without the

fence being on, since the snow is over the

wires and it would ground it out anyway.

So far, they've not touched it.

The pigs loved the snow. Dave fed them outside since it was a beautiful day.

I got a really good photo of Wilbur trying to "hide" behind a

"HUGE" tree.

The chickens weren't too impressed with the snow. But that's nothing new.

I really think that the cold hurts their feet.

I'm thinking that Febe's mange is back. She's scratching again. I'm not sure what to

do now. I'm wondering if it really is mange. Whisper doesn't have it.

Speaking of Whisper. We just cannot tell if she's in heat or not.

It's driving me nuts! I think she was on Christmas Eve. There was

a teeny, tiny bit of slime. But that's it.

My parents came over for Christmas Day supper. My mom brought

rappie pie so I didn't have to cook. That was nice.

It looks weird, but it really is good.

Today we visited my aunt. She had major surgery a few weeks ago and

she's not permitted to do much of anything. So we brought left over fricot and rappie pie.

Well I have to go and make supper and bring the goats in. Hopefully this post

won't get deleted.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Remember "Jesus is the Reason for the Season!"

Lisa

The newest in goat fashions!

Again another interesting week here at Spring Peeper Farm. Winter has hit and it's hit hard. Cold, cold and cold. I've lived in Alberta for a little bit several years ago and I have to say -40 degrees Celcius in Alberta is equal to -15 degrees celcius in Nova Scotia. Actually our -15 feels colder than the -40. The wind and the dampness of the ocean goes right to your bones and doesn't leave until July hits. It's not usually that cold here thank goodness. Where I live the winter stays around -5 to -10. But this year the thermometer is stuck at the dreaded -15!! It's so cold.

The 3 things I really hate about winter is the wind, static cling and carrying buckets of water to the livestock. Other than that I really like winter. We are in the middle of a storm at the moment. It started yesterday and it's just about done which is good, since I have to go for minor surgery tomorrow and it's a 2 hour drive to the hospital. We'll have to leave around 5am to get there on time.

Well the mange is gone from Febe. It seems to be anyhow. She's no longer itchy and her coat is getting shiny again. This is good. Now I have a new problem, she refuses to go on the milking stand. I was talking to my goat lady and she said the only reasons a goat refuses the stand (this is a goat that is used to the stand) is if she's been scared by something or sick and she's neither. I could let her dry up and say forget it till next kidding, but that's letting her win. With goats this is a very unfavorable situation. You can never, ever let them win. Because next kidding when it's time to start milking again, she'll say "I didn't have to go on it last winter, I don't have to go on it again. Meh."

So, since Dave leaves usually at 4am for work and he could help me get her up (she's heavy 150 lbs) I don't want to get up that early. So I'm going to change her milking to the evening when he's around to lift her up. These goats are going to be the death of me! ARGH! Whisper I cannot tell when she's in heat. I have been looking every day twice a day for 6 weeks and nothing.

The goats were getting cold, so I thought I'd get them sweaters. Febe's only needed the arms cut a bit but I cannot find one that fits Whisper. She's so small. I got them at the local thrift store.

Well that's about it for now.

Have a Blessed Day!

Lisa

Thank you Chris!

Phew, Chris came over tonight to needle the goats with Ivomec. He showed us how to do it for next time.

Well I'm happy to say that they never even flinched. No screaming or passing out and the goats didn't do bad either.

We had to cancel movie night with the girls tonight. They were both sick. Oh well. Next year.

Lisa

Winter is here!!

Well, well, well...ole man winter is finally here. Except for today it has been a very cold week. Everything is frozen solid. So this means that we now have to carry the water to the animals. Bummer. That's not fun. It takes extra time in the mornings also.

Well last week was a very nice snowfall. I love snow. I know most people think I'm nuts, but it's so calming to watch it come down, except when you're watching it come down on your windshield on your way to work. Then it's not so relaxing.

My wisteria tree at 6a.m. It looks like a spider.

Looking towards the road at 7 am.

We also put the tree up last week. We had the original pre lit tree. Before they came out on the market. Our tree has its branches on hinges and we also have a walk in attic. So many years ago we put all the lights on the tree and when Christmas is over we just take the ornaments off the tree and Dave ties it all up, puts an old blanket over it and off it goes in the attic for another year. Ta dah!!! Next year we don't have to put the lights on the tree. It's already done! Yay for us. I hate putting on the lights.

We had a turkey dinner at our church on Sunday. It was a success. It's only the second one I've done. The church ladies help alot though. We had one glitch. We ran out of veggies. The first one we made we had waaaaaayyy to many so next time hopefully we'll have just enough.

We also went on the house tours in the afternoon. We toured 5 houses. All very nice. We'd like to do it one year when the farm is all in order. We would open the barns and decorate them also. I think it would be cool.

The Havelock Trio..Terry Stone, Charlene Sabean and Glen Sabean.

Then after all that we went to a small church in a place called Culloden to see our friends "The Havelock Trio" sing. They also invited us to sing a song also. We sang "Merry Christmas, Mary" by Paul Overstreet. I think it went over well. It was the first time we sang other than in our own church. That was weird and for some strange reason I wasn't a bit nervous. When I say it's a small church I mean, it's a really small church. It only has 10 pews, that only sit 4 per. But I love going there. It is so sweet and the pastor seems really to have the spirit of God about him. Not phoney.

Here we are in our singing debut.

We also had our Christmas concert last Sunday. Dave and I were just in the choir this year and J. was the cutest little sheep. This is a picture of the choir, I'm right in the middle looking goofy as ever with my penguin sweater.

Well, now for farm news......

Febe has mange. It's not dry skin. I have no idea where she got it from, but I am not amused! Especially since everywhere I read it says it's because of unsanitary conditions. My barns are very clean. I called my vet to see if Ivomec will kill the mange and he said, he'll sell it to me, but he won't tell me anything about it because it's not proven on goats. Grrrrr... So what am I supposed to do? American websites say that it's ok to use Ivomec on goats but nothing in Canada. Are Canadian goats different? I don't think so.

So I called another vet that deals alot with goats and he said that there is no problem in using Ivomec in pregnant does. Just remember that there is a 60 day milk withdrawal (I was going to dry her out after Christmas anyway) and I guess it really stings when you inject it. That I knew because Dave uses it on the pigs and they scream something fierce when you inject them. The first time he did it, it actually brought the Charlotte to her knees. He didn't realize that it hurt them. Nobody had told him. He thought he had killed the poor thing. Now we know better.

Tomorrow a friend of ours that regularly injects his goats with Ivomec is going to come and show us how. I'm going to try not to cry.

Well I have to go to bed it's getting late and it's been a hectic weekend. Tomorrow night I'm having a few girlfriends over for Christmas movie night. I can't wait!!!

Have a Blessed evening

Lisa

Another cleanthegoatpenandchickencoop day.

Guess what? The day after I planted the garlic it snowed!!! I think that winter is here. This morning the hoses were frozen to the goat and pig pens, so that means we now have to carry water to them to drink. It was great while it lasted.

Whenever I can get something of value for free I try to take advantage of it. So today Dave hooked up the trailer and off we went to get shavings at our local coffin plant. Yes, you read that right. Some friends of ours own a coffin factory and there's alot of shavings, so we get to be the recipients of this great help. They even put them in garbage bags and boxes for us. How nice of them.

The hens are laying wonderfully. They are actually laying better now than they did this summer. Knock on wood. I hope they keep at it.

We aren't getting many scraps from the stores these days so they pigs are going through a lot of bagged feed, which is not cheap.

Somedays I wonder if it's all worth it. Then I'll see our full freezers and a healthy glow on our son's face and it'll all be worth it. I'll hear about how sick all his fellow classmates are and how J. isn't. Or when he does get sick it's usually nothing more serious than a cold. Which is good since he gets prone to having Bronchitis when he does get colds. So his immune system is getting a lot stronger than his classmates, since they are constantly getting stomach flues, month long colds, and the dreaded H1N1. So I guess all this work must be worth it. At least what we spend on feeds, we save on medications. lol

Whisper seems to be down in the dumps today. I'm not sure why. I'll have to keep an eye on her. Febe is itchy. She is constantly scratching and I only see dry skin. Last year we had a lice problem with Whisper's mother, but everyone got treated and it got rid of the lice pronto. This I've looked with the flashlight and everything and the only thing I see is like dry flakes. She's not losing hair. It's just since the weather got drier. It might just be dry skin. I'll just have to keep an eye on her also. I also looked for fleas and nothing.

Well that's all for on the farm for today.

Have a Blessed evening.

Lisa

Better late than never. I guess.

Well we'll know if that saying is true. It's December 5th and I just planted my garlic in the garden. I'll let ya'll know in the spring if my garlic wasn't planted too late. I did talk to one of my gardener friends and she said,"well at least the ground isn't frozen." So we'll have to wait and see.

When I got to the garden, which Dave had plowed twice because J. had run over it with his 4 wheeler, it was full of little holes. Thousands upon thousands of little holes. I could not figure out what it was. Till I started digging...it was worms and night crawlers and worms. I could not believe it!! I thought they would have done south by now. That's what happens when El Nino is running around here. Everything is screwy. The trees are budding, the mosquitoes are out again (but not biting phew!)

Dave has turned the chicken coop into a chicken condo. My hens are in heaven. He took their pen, the meat kings pen and the area where the rabbit (that we used to have) into one big chicken condo. They now have two runs also. One that DOESN'T FLOOD!!! Yay!!! They are so happy. You can tell by the contented little smiles on their beaks.

All summer long I have been cursing the automatic waterer in the chicken coop. It was leaking and leaking and leaking. I would clean them out and within a few days it would be wet all around the waterer again. But the strange thing was that we couldn't find out where it was leaking.

While Dave was remodeling the condo he was taking the waterer out (since winter is suppose to show up something this year,) it was raining cats, dogs and donkeys . He noticed that it wasn't the waterer that was leaking....it was the roof! Ahhhhh!!!!

Tomorrow night is the Sunday School Christmas concert. It should be cute.

Rats, rats and rats!!

One bad thing about being on a farm, is the rodents. I really hate the rats. Even though we keep the feed put away, we have the veggies and fruit from the store and it's impossible to keep them under wraps. So we spend a fortune on rat poison. We don't dare use rat traps because of the cats. The cats leave the poison alone. They seem to know it's not good for them.

I walked in the chicken coop a few weeks ago and I had a big hole by their door. Grrrr rats! A few days after I picked up an egg and it was empty!! The rats had cracked a small hole in the egg and eaten the inside. This means war!!! I've put poison to no avail. (not in with the chickens). Then yesterday I go get my eggs....one is IN the rat hole!! I'm so not impressed!

Yesterday my dishwasher started leaking. Again. It's only a year old and we've been fighting this problem since day one! Me thinks I want the company to give me a new dishwasher! It's even ruined my floors and cupboards.

Have a Blessed Evening

Lisa