Hello everyone!
              What a beautiful weekend this is supposed to be :o)  Today we had to run errands in the city and when getting ready to head for the homestead I called Mike to see if he might need something. He didn't answer but I knew he was going to be working on his shop getting prepped for the trusses showing up tomorrow so figured he would call as soon as he could. He did call but was NOT working on his shop, he was instead on a fire on the river bottom, yes, our river bottom and it's burning out of control due to high winds! He was excited and yelling and with the wind blowing it made it hard to hear what exactly he was saying so we put the car in gear and boot footed it for home. Once home we could see the flames in the trees and brush up river from us and the air was very thick with smoke. All of the county fire departments have been deployed to our fire as well as DNRC's helicopter with bucket. The winds are howling at approx. 15-60mph and there are homes& barns threatened and a large haystack is ablaze and the wind is pushing it our way! I'm trying to decide if we should move our animals, or if we'll be okay because we do have a good firebreak on our side of the river, although I fear cinders blowing onto the barn or straw stack. This is I fear going to be a rough year for our volunteer fire departments, as there has been three bad fires already this month and it's not even close to the normal fire season yet. It's due to the above normal snowfall and rain last year, so the grasses and brush really grew tall and this winter has been just the opposite, dry and little moisture and all of that is just like tinder waiting for a spark*sigh*  Keep us in your prayers, please and we'll update you on what happens.

Here is a video from Wens. when the kids were two weeks old, it just tickles my funny bone, so had to share and a few pictures too, so you can see just how quickly these kids are growing.

We ordered our meat chicks( Freedom Rangers) again this year and they are due to arrive second week of April. Our turkey hens are being actively courted by our Bourbon red tom and we hope to have a good clutch from them as well. Our steer is almost ready to head to the butcher but first we have to find a calf or a bull for our Dexter heifer to have for company.  We're looking for a couple of horses, maybe large enough to make a team to pull a small buggy or wagon too, but horses here in MT are extremely high priced, not like in other areas of the U.S. where people are giving horses away, here the average price for a nice horse( maybe registered, maybe not) is $2,000 to as high as $8,500!
We really miss Mo, our fjord gelding but can't find any that we like, it's hard not to compare them to Mo*sigh*  Oh well if we're supposed to add horses to our homestead it will happen, eventually*wink*

Trusses will hopefully be up and held steady in place by Sat. evening :o) Then Mike and I are off to celebrate our 28th anniversary( which is actually tomorrow but I have EMT classes from 7pm to 10pm) and guess what, other than supper out, just the two of us, Cortney gifted us an overnight stay in a nice hotel with a pool and hot tubs, what a blessed treat. We haven't stayed overnight, just the two of us, since our honeymoon! :o) 

Glad you stopped in, hope you giggled at the video, of course Cortney's giggle is contagious, LOL!!! 
Have a full and blessed weekend everyone!

Some pictures and video from today.

This is a video from today, these doelings are so much fun!

                                    These two will be a week old tomorrow, already!

They love to climb and jump and are very curious of everything. Pansy( light one) is almost fearless and Poppy( darker one) is more of a Mama's girl, LOL!!!!

Have a blessed evening. :o)

We're still alive, in case you were worried! Update w/ pictures

It seems as if life keeps speeding up, rather than slowing down for our family. Since Christmas we've been enjoying spending time with our granddaughter, Jayla and our son, Jon whom we were out of touch with for over a year, so we have lots of last time to make up for. :o)

 This is our granddaughter, Jayla, she'll be two this month and is she ever precious to all of us!

                                  Grandpa, Grandma(me) and Jayla being shy for her pictures.

 Mike's Mom was married on New Years Eve to Leroy, who had been a part of our lives since Jon and Cortney were babies themselves. Leroy was diagnosed with lung cancer in July and  passed away the 26th of Jan. We miss him everyday, he was indeed a very special man to all of us!

                                  Our son, Jon and Jayla

                          Jon, Jayla, Great Grandma and me at Great Grandma's birthday party.

                                     We did a mini remodel in our kitchen, the refrigerator used to sit where the ladder is in this photo, but with the wood cook stove so close the frig ran all the time and with electric prices on the rise we needed to do something. So... where you see the frig. now used to be where my china hutch used to be and now the china hutch is where the frig used to be. Of course none of our projects go off without a hitch, and our hitch was.... the cabinet above the frig needed to be removed, but the installer used glue to place the trim along the ceiling, so when we removed it guess what it tore the sheet rock on the ceiling! Now we've patched this with mud and will have to sand prime that area and repaint the entire ceiling but it will have to wait until we're no longer using the wood cook stove, so we can tape everything off with plastic*sigh*

 While we were moving stuff I decided to paint two walls a sage green to give the kitchen some color. It turned out very nice and we all love the added color.

 Behind the stove is the second wall to be painted and then we finished off baseboard trim, ceiling trim and add a mantle to the brick behind the stove with a shelf that goes through to the living room side in the cubby hole behind the stove( see below). With it all finally finished we're moving onto finishing the mud/laundry room now.

                                            The cubby hole and mantle all finished


We'd been anxiously awaiting our does the kid, checking on them every couple of hours. On Feb 28th I'd checked the does at approx. 3:45pm and they both were in their barn because it was snowing cats and dogs and Ginger especially hated snow and rain. Both were fine, no sign of labor and distress. At 5:00pm we went out to do evening chores, as I open the gate I saw Ginger lying on the ground outside, I knew something was wrong, because she wouldn't have been out in the snow for anything, not even feed. I quickly approached her and realized she was dead, still warm to the touch, I tried to see if there was anything in the birth canal, but there was nothing. So sadly we lost Ginger and her baby(ies)  Now worried about how Angel was going to react to being alone I was up checking her every hour or so. On the morning of Feb 29th she was sad but no sign of labor, so we headed out for Cortney's cleaning job at 10:30am. When we arrived home Cortney went to let the dogs out while I checked on Angel when I looked in the barn, guess what I saw?????( see below)

                        Leap Year kids!!!!This little doeling all wet and trying to make it to her feet

               The white doeling was born first was dry and moving around well already. So we dried them both, cut and dip their cords in iodine and watched them nurse!

 Angel is Cortney's goat, can't you see how happy she is!  She was so worried about Angel kidding and the time she'd be alone, but she wasn't alone long, PTL!*wink* The dark doeling is named, Poppy and Cortney gave her to me because I lost Ginger, what a sweetheart my daughter is Huh?

                         This is Pansy, Cortney's doeling

                                 Angel is so proud, look she's grinning! Angel is such a wonderful mother too!

                               Happy Mama and kids! They doelings and Angel are all doing great, romping and jumping. Our weather has been so nice, 60F yesterday, so the kids romped, bucked, jumped and races off and on all day yesterday. Today is nice too, so they'll have fun again. I can't believe how quick they are and how fast they are growing. They are the highlight of our days! I'm still sad over the loss of Ginger and her kid(s) but that is unfortunately part of life, the vet thought since she'd been starved( remember we rescued and adopted them last Summer) that it weakened her heart and she had a heart attack, it had to have been something like that because it was only alittle over an hour since I'd checked she and Angel and both were chewing their cud in the barn.*sigh*
                               If I wasn't a glutton for punishment, I've added in an EMT course that will run til the first of June to my already hectic schedule. I am alittle stressed and this morning woke up with a head cold to top it all off!  Thanks for catching up and I hope to find more time to post pictures of the shop progress( trusses will be going up soon and then the metal roofing) the garden and our animals. Peace be with you all and know I think of you and the blog all the time, it's just finding the time and energy to make it here to post*wink*  Let me know what's been going on in your lives too, we love the interaction with each of you!
Many Blessing to each of you this week and in the coming weeks.