White as Snow, then...

...comes the mud.

The new exciting development!

On thursday we went to the stockyard to buy some goats; we were planning on getting either 5 or 6 goats to eat and clear brush off the land, and therefore making it possible by Fall (we are hoping) to sow our grass and finally getting our pasture ready for other animals.

We put up our fence the Saturday before, and the shed was finished before Thursday so we were prepared for the goats. We went to the stockyard on thursday and the first thing we did was look at all the goats and choose the ones that we wanted, all the goats were numbered with stickers and so we wrote down about fourteen goats that we wanted planning on choosing out the 4 or 5 that we like best. After we had finished choosing out our goats we went in a big room and sat down, in the room they had a half circle that the goats went through while a person does the auctioning. We must have missed a few goats at first trying to figure out what he was saying, but we ended up only getting 2 goats so we are going to go again this thursday and try to buy a few more.

-Smokestack

Our Precious Gift

Here are some 4D pictures of our little brother! They're rather low quality right now, but we'll do better later. Aren't those chubby little cheeks and little bitty toes adorable!

Pilgrims Report

There has been plenty going on for us pilgrims lately, so it's about time for an update. We're just about settled in now, although it doesn't currently look like it, since we're in the middle of some more unpacking. Country life has been wonderful, and somehow relaxingly busy.

Our garden on the farm has so far been protected from all of the wildlife and insects, even though we aren't there to watch it, which is truly providential. The corn is tasseling and some of the silks have been pollinated, so we can see some small ears developing. We have three cantaloupes and about seven watermelons, and we're just rolling in squash. We only have twelve plants and they're giving us more organic squash than we can eat! We accidentally let a few squash get too big (and thus too tough and bitter) to eat, and we didn't want to waste them, so- voila! Squash people! We also have 34 squash plants in the garden at home, and unfortunately, they're doing well.

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I was going to post some quotes and thoughts about America's founding and the signifigance of the Declaration of Independence on Wednesday, but another project took priority. We spent most of the 4th working on a multi-purpose, mobile shed on skids, to go on the farm Saturday, or early next week. It will soon be a part of the "exciting new development" I mentioned in an earlier post. My engineer father did a wonderful job of designing it to be light and yet sturdy. As soon as we get the roof and siding on, it'll be ready to go.

Due to a diplomatic misunderstanding, we have decided to let Miss Moo remain my Aunt and Uncle's cow- they didn't want her eaten. However, I'll still be taking care of her- I just won't be paying for it.

It's looking like it might rain soon, and we could really use it. It's as dry as a graham cracker and twice as dusty.

~Sherlock

The Buzzing of Bees

That is a sound that we heard plenty of last Thursday, as we went to Paw's to split his hive into two hives, with the new one to go on the land, as well as to rob some honey. Smokestack and I sat in the truck as we watched Paw take off the "lid" and a separating panel under that. Then he removed both supers (for honey) until he reached the brood chamber (for honey as well as eggs). He located his queen, and placed her back in his hive. Then he removed three brood racks and three super racks to put in our hive, along with another queen. He took three racks of honey for ourselves. W took the latter inside and squeezed the honey out of them, separating it into light and dark. After a long process of cutting, squeezing, and filtering, we had bottled almost a gallon of honey, which weighed over eight pounds.












After a break to let the bees settle- and to eat lunch- we loaded our new hive onto the truck and drove it over to our land. We placed it upon a frame that we had built Wednesday and opened the plug- well, Paw did that while we watched from a distance to avoid stings. Smokestack, the intrepid photographer, is the one to thank for these pictures, and he payed for them with the only sting of the day. I was too busy running around to get stung.

~Sherlock and Smokestack