So many blessings and changes. Hello from MT, I know.....

it's been a long time since our last post. Yes this blog has been inactive for some time now and we've most likely lost subscribers and pray they find us once again.

Where to begin, I'd say the beginning, right?  Since our last post we've had a lot of changes, ALL are blessings, even those that challenge us. Our focus has always been on our faith, we, sadly took the wide path for many years to avoid, well.... uncomfortable situations and we've been convicted for those situations and how we may have handled them. First we forgot our grounding rod, our center,  our faith that our savior is always there. The world wants to convince us that we can control the things around us, when in faith we know we can not and need prayer and supplication and a strong personal relationship with God. There is no aspect of our lives that He is not interested in, and longs for us to come to Him in prayer, seek His counsel, love and protection. While some may know some of the things that happened in our lives, the ONLY one who knows all of it, the good, the bad and the ugly is God, our savior.

Many things have made us the family we are now, there has been health issues with our daughter, my Mom. Job stressors, a new job for me( outside the home and farm), worldly family issues, accidents, death, money issues and alike. We all have them to a degree or another but it's how you deal with these circumstances that make you who you are. Sadly we admit that our reactions to some of these circumstances was not what it should have been and there has been a ripple effect. Some circumstances came to us with the ripples already in place and we floundered to make sense of this and all the while we should have been turning in prayer to God before reacting at all. When we face challenges, it's an opportunity for spiritual growth, a refining of sorts. We failed some and then we've had other areas that have been such blessings to our life and family.

We'd like to begin sharing our blessings, as well as our struggles. Our prayer is that it will be a blessing to others or at the very least a comfort. Sometimes, the world can make us feel so alone and isolated, when in fact multitudes feel the very same way, and may be facing similar challenges or have blessings to share that they feel no one else would be interested in hearing.

I will share that in re-reading some previous posts, where we were on our path, shows through and this blog will be different, one of encouragement, praise, sharing, comfort, love, interest and some challenges to you the readers as well.

Okay let's share some of our life in the last two years away in pictures( if I can remember how)

                                            God's promise to us all

Cortney's still catching beautiful shots

The passing of our first and beloved, Angel 

Montana storms, fierce and beautiful

A new addition, Cocoa

Yes, we're still gardening, although we've downsized

Still canning, dehydrating and cold storage in the cellar. 

Cortney's hair, it's darker and has more body now

Our granddaughter's plus we also have several adopted grandkids too

New hobby, spinning wool

The last two sheep we own. Snicker( brown) and Doodle

Mike's finally blacksmithing, one of his pieces created for me.

Still producing our own hay, better now with sprinkler irrigation

My love ( Mike), of almost 34 yrs.( this month)

Our new registered Nubian buck, Meeko

A doe who comes back year after year to have her fawns, twins in 2017

Blessings come in red, also yellow( pear crop was wonderful)

Another amazing Montana sky

A cold winter's flight, taken by Cortney

My Christmas gift, Mike made me a drum carder!

Mike with a nice lake trout, on an away trip.

A forged copper Rose, made by Mike

The loss of a dear friend of Cortney's, Erin, due to cancer.

The loss of a wonderful neighbor, dear friend, adopted Mom and spiritual mentor, Shoney we miss you.

There are many, more photos and stories to share, our prayer is that you'll be back to read and share them.

Blessings for your new week.

MT weather, it changes quick!

What a Blessing indeed! It's rained steady since night before last and last night guess what else showed up?.............. Yep SNOW!

 Oh well my stuff in the greenhouse is covered with floating row covers and the stuff in the garden is all cold weather crops so no worries and besides it's time released moisture*wink* This is why knowing how Montana weather acts that we've held off planting the tomatoes, peppers, okra and some of the seed crops. Our last freeze date for our zone is May 29th. Never a boring moment in Montana, that's for sure! LOL!!   Our pastures should green up real quick once we warm up again. Our overnight temp was 31F, yes chilly enough we had a fire in the ole' wood cookstove to take off the chill and again this morning.

Heading to the city to pick up our grandkids for an overnight visit, we'll have to play indoors because everything is VERY muddy, but I'm not complaining at all. :o)

It was funny to see the reaction of the animals this morning it went something like this; Hoss( our steer) was bellering, the goats looked totally discussed and wanted to be fed in their barn, the meat chicks hit the door and skidded to a stop, saying What the heck is that stuff?, the laying hens and turkey refused to step outside their coop, the barn cats just wanted food, for energy since they've long since shedded their winter coats and promptly headed back to the barn to sleep on their full stomaches in the hay all huddled together. Two of our dogs ran out as if they were kids and the newest dog( our rescued mutt) tip toed around like he didn't want to get his feet wet, LOL!!!  Animals are so much fun, especially if you take the time to see they all have their own personalities :o)

Enjoy your holiday weekend everyone.

Growing webbed toes....

Good day, well if you can call 8 days of off and on rainfall good. We are alive and well, after a course of 24 hour flu ran through Cortney and I last weekend and into early this week. Let me tell you I haven't been sick in 4 yrs and this flu bug was a doozy!  I was totally down and out for two days and it took another three days after that to even feel back to 100%  Mike was working out of town when it hit and Cortney did a great job, until she came down with it too, but thankfully by then I was recovering well .  That is one thing about having animals, they still need to be fed,milked and barns cleaned, it doesn't matter that you feel like death warmed over.

Not much progression in the garden, everything it setting in water and I'm praying it doesn't all rot. This rain, called a "Toad Strangler" by the local weather man, is supposed to last through Sunday.  I've lost count but in the time it's been raining we've received approx. 6-7 inches of rain and today is fore casted to net us another possible 3-4" !   The river is rising, but still not even close to flood stage and it's my prayer it stays that way too. Some creeks and streams in the area have been flooding and causing issues with roads but not anywhere close to our local.

Remember our goat girls, well the lady who we adopted them from hated horns and chopped back Gingers, but not enough to bleed, and then banded both of the girls horns. Yesterday one of Angels bands cut the horn and it was dangling, a bloody mess. We treated Angel with Yarrow( right on the horn sight) to stop the bleeding as well as Arnica Montana for pain. I then called the vet and we set up for her to visit at 9 am this morning, to remove the horn. After looking at both horns we also decided that the other  horn wasn't  going to  be on long either, so she sedated Angel, injected some pain killer at the base of the horns and proceeded to remove them both. I expected a bloody mess but the bands had done their work and really there was only a few drips of blood to wipe off her face.  It took almost an hour for the sedation to wear off and Angel is up on her feet, eating and drinking again. We'll keep a close eye on her today, but the vet says she's well on her way to healing nicely.

 All of our wet weather has hampered our yard and garden work, so not much to take photos of.

We did have our first CSA basket pick up yesterday. Thank the Lord for our greenhouse and all that is growing and producing for us.  It's our prayer that we see a couple good weeks of sunshine filled days and then everything planted should just POP!  I also have much more to plant, including our plants. The tomatoes are now 12-14" tall and the peppers and eggplant are getting root bound in their 6" pots. 
I need to plant some of the herbs as well, they are absolutely beautiful and smell so wonderful. 

I think later this afternoon we'll run into town( 26 miles north of us) and buy some feed for the poultry and stop in the local nursery and look at a few flowers for our planters. I'm also looking for Summer Savory and a few new herbs for our herb beds.

Speaking of poultry, we do have two turkey hens, who've hatched a dozen poults. We're trying to disturb them as little as possible, so they don't get chilled and end up sick and dying( the babies that is) 

We also have sent the lambs home and soon the two kid goats will be weaned and gone as well. Maybe this is a sign that our wet, cold, grey Montana Spring is coming to a close, BRING ON THE SUNSHINE AND HEAT!!!!! LOL!!!!  For heavens sake it's mid May and we're still burning a small fire in the stove each evenings to chase away the dampness. *sigh*  Makes it difficult to stockpile wood when you're still burning it.

It's been awhile and had some free time, so thought we'd check in and update our blog. Sorry the posts are far and few between but that life right now, I'm hoping to settle into a routine of posting, at least once a week.  Thanks for hanging in there with us, as I always say "Life is NEVER Dull on The Never Done Farm!   Blessings to each of you and your weekend :o)

Uggggh, Winter just keeps dancing

 We knew it was coming, so no surprise and although the moisture is a blessing, I'm certainly sick of this!

Good thing about metal roofs, the snow doesn't stay on long, just be sure your not under it when it comes sliding off *wink*   It's supposed to stop snowing this afternoon and begin rising in temperature  tomorrow, with chances of snow and rain everyday until early next week.  I'm sure glad we got composted manure spread and some tilling done before all of this. At least the areas we need to plant(salad greens, potatoes, onions and root crops) first are ready. :o)

 Okay the egg on the left is a turkey egg, normally larger than a chicken egg by  25+%. Cortney comes in with this chicken egg the other day( on the right) and it's larger than the turkey egg. We broke it and it was a double yolk, both yolks HUGE!  Poor hen that laid this monster, but no tell tale signs in any of the hens( we looked) and the egg didn't even have blood on it, Whew!

Chicken eggs is on top, you can see it is larger than the turkey egg.   BTW, PTL! we have a turkey hen setting on 35 eggs. Her hatch date should begin May 14th and my guess is the other two hens will join her in setting( they always do*sigh*)  Some chicken hens are beginning to show signs of becoming broody, so we'll let a couple set again this year.   Our Freedom Rangers are growing by leaps and bounds, right now they are at the scruffy stage, with pin feathers and gawky looks, LOL!!!   I'll get some photos ASAP, thankfully we got them settled in the brooder coop before all this weather hit. We're still running a heat lamp, but not for much longer, once they have their feathers all in off it goes. 

My back has been giving me fits*sigh*. I woke Sat. morning and almost couldn't climb out of bed, I don't recall doing anything that would have aggravated it to this degree. It's not been this bad in over a year, I deal with pain daily but this was a full fledged hit on the sciatica and my right leg was painful as well as tingly( if that makes sense?)  I've been taking Arnica MT and Rhus. Toxicodenron and it has improved from a 9 on a scale of 1-10 to a 3 today.  I sure don't need this with gardening season coming on and our memberships sold for our CSA garden. Praying it was just a fluke and I slept wrong or something.

Blessings for your week, we're looking forward to sunshine :o)
Kelle

Brrrrrrrr.......

    This cold front is a killer! PTL, it's only lasted a few days and is supposed to be well on it's way out of MT by this evening. Sorry to those to the East of us, it coming your way :o(
    I was up every three hours, or so stoking the wood stove and still our inside temps dropped below 55F, so our natural gas furnace ran off and on this morning, until we got up 5:30 am and stoked it again before heading out for morning feeding.  The outside thermometer said -22 and with a wind of at least 25-30 mph, so..... Mike figures it's probably close to -40F to -50F with added windchill.  All I know is that with long johns, sweats, heavy socks, my heavy chore coat, scarf, good snow boots, good gloves and my Elmer Fudd hat, I was a Popsicle when we came back into the house( 10-15 minutes)  The water troughs were frozen solid and that is the first time this entire winter that has happened.
     I sure hope this isn't a sign, that if Phil( the groundhog) sees his shadow today, that we're in for 6 more weeks of this sub zero junk!  Here we are making plans for getting our seeds started by mid month, have our CSA garden flyer's all done up, just need to make enough copies and post in and around our County and working on getting the beds in the greenhouse all ready to go, so we can get that early start!
     Those of you in the mid section of the U.S. we feel your pain, you it seems are getting a taste of what our typical winters are like. Actually I shouldn't be complaining about a few days of sub zero cold, we've had an overall mild winter. I think that's what makes it tough, it was well into the high 30'sF and 40'sF the whole month of January, even a few mid 50'sF, then the sub zero temps. slam us for a few days, then nice again. It's been a real roller coaster ride and while I've enjoyed the milder temps the up and down is hard on everyone, especially the animals.
      Cortney was scheduled to work but her boss called last evening and asked if we could come on Thursday instead. I wasn't thinking and said that's fine, well........ Cortney is working at the sheep ranch. All that she needed to do was make his lunch and finish laundry and mopping, so I told her I'd fill in for her. So today I will need to get my ducks in a row.  We'll be baking bread, cleaning the rest of the house( a deep down cleaning). We were going to do this yesterday, but Mike ended up off work due to the bitter cold so we worked on other projects and played a few games( we were making up for him not being home this last weekend) :o)

Blessings for your day!

Off again to a fresh clean start.....

or so the new blanket of snow makes it seem. Yesterday most of the ground was
thawing and muddy with very little snow left, only patches of ice.

Yesterday(Sat.) Cortney and I attended our friends annual sheep shearing. All
total 82 sheep were sheared, including a 300+lb ram. I'm NOT a spinner or weaver
but can however appreciate a beautiful fleece when I see one. Several of us cleaned up
the fleeces and my favorite ones were the brown and grey. Our friend raises Targees
and Romneys, each breed has it's own type of fleece, the Targee(sp?) fleece is lighter
and the Romney fleeces are much heavier.

It was fore casted that we'd get snow and finally about 2:30 pm it began, then by
3pm it was as if a blizzard had set in with a wind coming out of the Northeast
When we woke this morning the picture below shows the amount received.
It's a heavy wet snow, so good moisture content which is a blessing for our pastures
and upcoming gardening season.

If you'd click on this photo, you'll be able to see the steam rising off the river.

This photo was take at 10:30am and our temp was 22F, at 6am the temp

was 0F

This is on top of the cellar and it was glistening like diamonds, didn't

show up in the photo.

Shows how the snow was blown out of the northeast and it was an

interesting photo.
Again was trying to catch the glimmering of the snow, it does show on the

bottom of the bell.

Just a quite Sunday for us, enjoying the crisp clean new snow.

Blessings for your new week :o)

We've been busy and will be for a few more days....

Hello, remember us ? I know, I've been posting copies from newsletters I receive of items I think are important and news worthy issues. Why?, because life has been hectic since last weekend when we butchered our to hogzillas. I do have pictures and will share with a warning that some are graphic but..... not until after we cut, process and wrap them this weekend. Cortney and I will be busy into next week as well, rendering the fat into lard( our years supply) and making three styles of loose sausage. My plan is to do some tutorials on rendering fat into lard, and making sausage, of course sharing our SECRET recipes with all of our blogger friends*wink*

Last weekend was a beautiful weekend for Mike and I to butcher our two hogs, dressing out at around 350 to 400lbs each! See why I say above, HOGZILLA! We've never let them get this big before but we are hoping that we'll only have to raise them every other year. I'm going to pat Mike and myself on the back a little, from start to finish it only took us 2-1/2 hours( not including cleanup and tear down time ) Not bad for two middle aged folks*wink*

Mike worked as a butcher, in the summers, when he was in high school, so his experience was as always a blessing and this is the 6th year we've butchered our own pigs. We've always done all of our wild game too, just not our beef, because we aren't set up with a cooler to age them properly, yet!

The storm that was fore casted to hit us dead on, has arrived. It began snowing this morning around 9am and has lessened some and the size of the flakes have also lessened. Our accumulation is approx. 2-3" and still accumulating. It's fore casted to snow today, tonight and tomorrow, letting off by mid day Sun. The snow isn't very wet, in fact as time goes by it seems to be getting dryer and dryer( in moisture content). This should make the 30 mph winds fore casted for tomorrow and Sunday interesting.

Mike is off early today to clean our meat saw and set up in preparation for tomorrow's processing. Cortney and I are rearranging stuff in the freezers making room.

Well, better get to cleaning the freezers before it gets to much colder.

Blessings for your weekend