Farmer's Markets

J. and Junior enjoying one of our rare sunny days.


Yesterday Dave and J. went to our first farmer's market. He did well, selling over 100$ worth of soap. We are almost out of soap. I have two small batches curing at the moment, but it's not enough. Tomorrow I'll have to make a few batches, and really everyday for awhile. I'm not expecting to be successful every weekend, but one has to be prepared.

"Red Green" and his new tool. Mixing soap.

Dave thought he had invented a new way of stirring the soap, but it didn't really work well. He had a small paint mixer on the end of a drill, but it didn't make the soap trace any faster. I really don't know what the deal is with those stick blenders. Why they work so well. But like most soapers know they overheat fast. I have two identical ones and alternate them all the time during the batch and still they get really hot. Really I'd need another one for good measure.

Soap taking waaayyy too long to trace.

Today we went for a drive to the Bear River farmer's market. It was nice. It was smaller than ours but still nice, with lots of nice people. I love Bear River. Most of the buildings are on stilts, it's so cool.

J. in Bear River today. Notice the building in the background on stilts.

Bear River Farmer's market.

We left some of our soap in a local boutique there. Another local boutique approached me last week to carry our soap. She tried one bar and fell in love with it.

Well we've been having a few goat problems lately. First Cindi Lou is not still not being cooperative on the milking stand. Still pooping while I'm trying to milk her, squirming, jumping etc... just being a regular pain in the beeehind!

Next Febe has been having udder problems the last month or so. A few weeks ago she had a broken blood vessel in her udder. The milk was full of blood. Yuck! It's not dangerous to her or us, but needless to say, drinking pink milk is not very appetizing, let alone knowing it's blood.

So we called our trusty vet. He told us to take the kids off and milk her several times a day. That's kinda hard when you're working fulltime. I did what I could, but the kids refused to take the bottle. I ended up leaving them on her.

After 7 days it cleared up completely. Yesterday I noticed that it's back again. It's not as bad as last time. Dave never even noticed. I did. I figure it'll only take a few days to clear up this time, but it's still a pain in the buttocks and a waste of milk.

Next kidding season mark my words!!! I AM BOTTLE FEEDING THE KIDS!!!

Did ya'll hear me! Next spring I want you guys in blogging world to remind me of these words!

This year's greenhouse.

Tundra and Moocher playing around. Dave has finally finished the other end of the pasture.

Our son is growing up. Sigh.....he's actually mowing the lawn.

Growing up. Sigh...

Every morning when I milk Febe and fight...uh...I mean milk Cindi Lou, Tigger waits patiently for his treat....the strip cup. To people who don't know what that is, it's the cup you use to put the first three squirts of milk from each teat. This milk is used to get rid of bacteria that is harbouring in the teat and to check the milk for clumps, nastiness and blood. Cats don't really care about all that. I spoil the cats though. I usually fill the cup with milk, not just a few squirts.

Tigger having his snack.

Anyway I digress...Tigger waits patiently for the cup. He sticks his head in and drinks to his little hearts delight! Down to the last drop. The first few times, he actually would jump on the stand and curl around Febe's legs. After he got stomped on and kicked off he now waits at the bottom of the stand.

We moved the meat kings and laying hen chicks into the big pen. It's amazing to see the difference in size. They're the same age yet the meat kings grow so much faster!

Meat king in the front and laying hen in the rear.

We had to move the older hens, so that meant they needed new laying nests. So voila! Milk crates! It works actually very well and they've stopped picking at the eggs.

Our new nest boxes!

Well it's time to go separate the kids from their moms for the night.

Have a Blessed evening

Lisa

Growing up.

Upside Down J. on the monkey bars

I was pondering on this past summer, when I realized how much my baby has grown. Not only physically but emotionally and spiritually. He's become more responsible.

As much as I hate him growing up, it's also kinda neat. It's amazing seeing this little life you brought into this world, nurture it, love it, teach it, feed it, clothe it, pray over it and hope for the best. Then you see it blossom into a beautiful,God-fearing, God-loving, caring, hardworking person. Raising a child, you see the world through new and amazing eyes. You now see that a daisy is not just a pesky weed anymore, but a thing that houses little bugs (yuck), or a way to see if that little girl in your class loves you, or not.

Checking out the big toys at the breakwater they're building.

This summer I noticed that J. will get his snacks ready by himself, like using the microwave. Taking a shower and actually getting clean! Dave thought him how to drive the ride-on lawnmower. He now loves to bring in the firewood, because he gets to drive the tractor with the trailer. He's doing an excellent job and he's so proud of himself. We're so proud of him to. He goes to pick up the mail by himself.

First time driving the tractor

So proud and grown up!

There's so many little things that are too numerous to mention and yet some days you wonder if he's not reverted back to being 3 years old. But all in all my baby is growing up! Sniff..sniff...

Tomorrow is the first day of school. He's going into grade 4!! When he left for his first day of school in grade primary, I told Dave, "You watch, we're going to turn around and he'll be graduating from high school." Dave told me I was nuts. Well guess what...It was just yesterday that he started primary. Well that's what it seems like.

Time marches on. Things still need to be done like pigs need to be mucked out, goats need to be milked and puppies need to be taught potty manners.

Tundra on the trampoline!

Tundra is also one that is growing like a bad weed. The flea meds we gave her when we first got her stopped working, because she outgrew it before the other dosage was due! She gained 10 lbs in 2 weeks!

J. jumping on the beds at the hotel. Another little ritual we have in hotels. Can you tell we don't get out often? You can dress us up but you can't take us anywhere!

We all went to New Brunswick a few days ago for Dave's arm. We needed to wait over a year for a specialist's appointment here in Nova Scotia. Only a few weeks in New Brunswick. He got a few injections and we are hoping they are going to work. We crossed over on the ferry. It's a long 3 hour ride. But on the way back we chatted with two couples on the boat. They were great. One guy was a Bible thumping, fire and brimstone, Harley Davidson riding,Southern Baptist preacher! Another lady was a dog trainer. The ferry ride, just flew by! We have photos of them, but I didn't ask their permission to put it on my blog, so I won't. But that's what I love about travelling. It's not seeing new places and different things, which that is all fun too, but meeting new people. That's the exciting part!

Well we are battening down the hatches for Saturday. Hurricane Earl is going to hit us head on. Crud. We do need the rain, just not the winds. This is a picture of my sunflowers before hurricane Earl. I'll post another one after hurricane Earl on Sunday. I waited and waited and waited for blooms on my sunflowers. I finally got them this week and now Earl's going to show up and razor them. Oh I'm not impressed!

Dave and the sunflowers

But don'tcha find that they grew tall! Dave is 6 feet tall and they are dwarfing him. The heads are supposed to be giants, but I guess they put all their energy in the stalks.

Six little piggies and their momma.

Since there's only 6 piglets in this litter they are growing fast, fast,fast! They've been going outside now for a week.

Ginger

Oh and Ginger passed away this week. She survived the great mink massacre, but she couldn't escape old age. I had had her for over 4 years and she was old when I got her. I don't even remember where I got her from. She had also survived being almost pecked to death by her fellow hens.(Nasty things) But we had nurtured her back to health a few years ago. But old age marched and took over.

Well that's it for this week.

Have a Blessed day!

Lisa