Today was a VERY busy day!

I was busy preparing a gourmet Valentines day dinner for my sweetheart, but I also needed my oil changed. I struck a deal with Emma “you change my oil, and we’ll let you live here for free”…. she went for it!

And then something to “increase the power” that involved chains, jumper cables, and packing gravel into my tail pipe…I’ll let you know if it works!

Happy Birthday, Emma!

We can hardly believe that Emma turned 6 years old already this past Sunday. We had her party at a gymnastics place and the girls had such a blast running around. Then it was out to dinner with her aunt and uncle and she was pretty wiped out by the time we got home.

We are so proud of our little girl and think she is such a wonderful kid. She is super tall and super healthy! Emma is doing a great job with school and loves to be with all of her animals on the farm when we are done with school for the day. She is one of the most affectionate kids I have ever met and I live for her hugs!!!

Here are some birthday pictures Don took. Oh, I made her birthday cake from scratch and Don did the decorating on it. He’s the artist…not me! I am the baker.

Grandma Sharon got her an Easy Bake oven...she loves it!

Silly Family

Gifts from Family

Tears when the party was ending.....

A Visit With Friends

Last night, we had some friends visit: Kim, Valerie, “Frank the Tank” as Emma calls him and Val and Frank’s 2 month old, adorable baby boy, Jackson. Our cat decided that the bouncy seat must have been brought in for him and made himself right at home in it.

I spent the day before everyone arrived making homemade sauce with tomatoes form our garden last year. I also made homemade meatballs with chevon (goat meat) from the goat we had processed in December and everyone turned out really well. Of course it was served with homemade garlic bread! After dinner, we just spent time hanging out.

Until I have another baby of my own, I will hold my friends babies!

Here is Emma with baby Jackson, and then Emma with Kim and Jackson:

Here is Emma, Val, Frank, Jackson (falling asleep) and I all sitting on the couch:

And then Emma wanted to read an entire book to Kim (and Angel kitty who finally decided to get out of the bouncy seat):

Emma is doing really well with school. She really loves Math and has really excelled in Phonics and loves to read. We are all ready to get outside and patiently waiting for Spring to arrive. We will be starting seeds indoors to get a head start on our plantings. We also will be putting in a new garden, which I am so excited about since it will be about three times the size of our garden last year.

Cora, my doe, is expecting babies in march, so I am nervous and excited. She is getting to be a little chubby, and Emma swears she can feel babies in there. Ptolemy (our other goat) is extremely funny and loves to follow Emma around. They really adore each other. All the other critters are doing well, and I think they are also ready for some warmer spring weather!

Emma’s 6th birthday is this Sunday and she requested a Unicorn cake, so I will be making that from scratch and posting pictures form her birthday celebration.

Christmas 2008

Well, we did our annual trip back to Wisconsin for the holiday. Of course, we had all kind of problems getting to the Wisconsin airport and getting out of the Wisconsin airport! But Emma is a great little traveller, so it went fine. Emma had a great time with her 20 cousins there and loved spending time with her grandma. They had 4 feet of snow while we were there, so that was fun and made for a very white Christmas. Our neighbor here took great care of all of our critters on the farm, so they were all happy and healthy when we got back home.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Me with my little nephew, Zach

Emma had a sleepover with her cousins and they all took a bath! Especially since her cousin Brooke got some “Glitter Lava” stuck in her hair that I needed to try and wash out before mom showed up for her.

Emma could not wait to make Gingerbread men cookies with her grandma.

Emma and her cousin, Dakota.

Emma and her other cousin, Harrison.

A few presents…

Her favorite present this year was a huge stuffed horse.

Don got some nice hunting stuff for Christmas.

A few more presents….

They had 4 feet of snow when we were there! It was pretty and fun.

Snow fights with dad and her cousins.

Emma and her cousin, Ty, making snow angels

My newest niece, Emily. This is child #6 for my brother Scott and his wife Julie. I held her a lot when we were there…

So now that we are home, we are starting to plan our 2009 garden. It was almost 60 degrees here today, so we all have Spring fever now really bad. We are in the process of collecting seeds for the upcoming growing season. Seed catalogs and internet seed trading like crazy. My goat, Cora, is looking fat and pregnant, so I am anxious to see how many babies we end up with and keeping my fingers crossed that it all goes well! I am looking forward to fresh goat milk again rather than having to thaw out stuff from the freezer.

We received about 4 seed catalogs in the mail the other day, so now we are starting to plan what we want to grow this year. Our garden will be much bigger since we are putting some of it down below in the pasture. I am looking forward to growing more melons, squashes and all kinds of fun stuff.

Time to get back to those seed catalogs…Happy New Year everyone! We hope that this year brings you lots of love, health and happiness.

Food Matters

Take a minute to watch this movie trailer, and then get the movie. Lots of good information and I hope everyone I know watches it. Very important stuff.

MORE CHICKENS ?!

Well, today we hatched another batch of chicks. I tell ya, it’s almost as exciting as christmas!
One thing that makes it so fun is with multiple hens and roosters we never know what they will look like!
One thing is for sure, they are ALWAYS cute!

EMMA CAN READ!

I know it’s cliche’ to say “they grow up so fast” but they REALLY do!
Where did the last 5 years go?
She does 3 part math problems in her head (taught herself).
And now she is reading, and doing some VERY difficult physics challenges online!

Well, today is the day…………

I hope you did too (or will)
There are many reasons to vote in any presidential election, but this election will be talked about for a long time to come.
I (like most Americans) am a firm believer in the saying “don’t ever discuss religion or politics”. Who am I to question your beliefs or political views, and who are you to question mine or try and influence me?
If every eligible US citizen votes in the presidential election then the individuals running this country will be a true representation of the political majority. The system is far from perfect, but it doesn’t work AT ALL if we don’t vote.

Just another random shot of my kid :)

I had a photoshoot yesterday and since I am now Mr Mom on the weekends Emma was my “assistant”.
She was a ton of fun and was a perfect little helper. Here she is waiting patiently as my clients were camera right waiting for the wind to stop.

“Squigs” was a nickname I gave her as a newborn as she was very “squigly”!

Tough Times…

May you live in interesting times”
This saying was used by Robert F. Kennedy in his Day of Affirmation Address in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1966.
“Before I left England for China in 1936 a friend told me that there exists a Chinese curse — “May you live in interesting times”. If so, our generation has certainly witnessed that curse’s fulfillment.”
— Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, Diplomat in Peace and War, 1949

“Many years ago, I learned from one of our diplomats in China that one of the principal Chinese curses heaped upon an enemy is, ‘May you live in an interesting age.'” “Surely”, he said, “no age has been more fraught with insecurity than our own present time.” That was three years ago.”
— Frederic R. Coudert, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, 1939

I think it would be a stretch to presume that these are the most interesting of times, or that there aren’t people in the world that are much worse off than we are. That being said, if things get much more “interesting” we will be jobless, homeless and eating tree bark and snow this winter! Good thing we have a freezer full various tomato “sauces” and have a nice Fall garden going! I hope Emma likes to eat a lot of spaghetti!
As most of you know, the company that Kim worked for laid her off a few weeks ago with no notice. She is currently pounding the pavement for another job to try and avoid any number of worst case scenarios and to avoid having to put Emma in daycare full time to go make some money. We decided that “being broke” was better than putting Emma into a daycare for 10 hours a day. Like most working class families, we live at the level that our combined income allowed us to. Consider that we have animals to provide for and a 1 hour commute to and from work, there is not much of a cushion should almost 50% of our income suddenly evaporate.
In the past I have sold some of my photographs online, one at a time to support my photography habit. This time I am actually selling them to try and keep food on the table and a roof over our head.
I have always listed my pictures as 8×10 prints for $35 and I processed them and mailed them off. This time I am going to do it a little differently… OK, a LOT differently. I am going to copy EVERY SINGLE ONE of my pictures to a disc and offer it for sale for $49 plus $5 shipping. Although I think this is a great deal, it gets even better when you realize you will be able to print as many copies as you want in any size you want. You could even print some as gifts! My only good faith request would be to not print them and sell them.

Let us know if you are interested. Below is just a sample of the pictures you will find on the disc.
Drop us a line at
Don and Kim

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