Amish Christmas…

Well, thanks to our internet provider, Hughes.net, we are going to be having an Amish Christmas out here in the boondocks!  (Haha…)  Our internet is out, until probably Monday at pretty much the worse possible time for us… holiday order rush.  We have them all out the door, but we can’t communicate easily with those looking for tracking orders and the likes, because we are without the internet!

Now, you might be wondering, how the heck are we typing this post?  Well, we have a laptop and we’re down at the neighbors, borrowing their WIFI to check on the empire and do our best to respond to folks worries about orders and check accounts, all that sort of thing.  But it’s not like we can just move in for awhile, so, it’s check on it and then back to No Tech land of Windhaven farm!

In a way, it’s kind of nice.  Without the readily available distraction of the internet, we’ve been baking cookies, making fudge, watching videos, and just napping!  It’s actually been pretty nice.  I spent some time yesterday wrapping up all the goodies for my girls…  and enjoyed finishing a book that I started almost a month ago before the rock frenzy!  We did get a nice huge piece of carpeting from Lowes, only $37 and it looks beautiful in the living room.  Ratchet approves, he was on his back and just wiggling and rubbing on it like it was doggie Christmas already!

We have numerous projects around the farm that we have the supplies for and just have not had the time to get to them. So that will be our focus for the next month.  Mostly indoor things, because of the weather, but I have to say, this has been the MILDEST winter on my personal record scorecard… it’s 50 degrees outside right now…  Just mellow and muddy for the most part.  We’ve really only had one little inch of snow, everything else has been rain.  Considering that it’s almost January, I’m thrilled!  Our heating bill has been super tolerable.  Now, I know we really have two good solid months of winter left, and possibly a third…  but still, knowing that in 60 to 70 days we will start to see warm March springy days?  That just fills my heart with happiness!!!  The last two months have flown by, so it will not be long.  And this mild weather gives us time to do a few outside projects as well and is not so hard on the livestock.

We’ve pretty much had to start feeding everyone their total rations.  The sheep and pony do go out and graze, but you can tell that the winter grass is not very filling, because they spend a good deal of the day at the hay pile we set out for them.  Maggie and I are planning to build a decent little homemade hay rack for them, to keep the wasted hay down to a minimum.  But the sheep are not picky and will eat most of the hay, even if it gets strew about a bit.  And we have several muddy areas, so we gather up the spent hay and lay it in the muddy spots to make it a little nicer.  No waste here.

The chickens are starting to lay again, so that’s nice…  and since the Winter soltice was just a day ago, the days will start to get longer!  Yeah!  It’s always a little weird to have it dark by 5 pm outside.

So, everything is good here, don’t worry.  We’re just going to be web-dark for a few more days.  Time to enjoy the holiday, lay in bed a little longer and just enjoy some simple pleasures and cheer.  I’ve got a margarita in the freezer waiting for me, I think maybe Christmas Eve!  (It’s one of those little pouch drinks that I got about 2 months ago!!!  Big drinker here…)  And we’ve got a ham for dinner and lots of cookies and fudge!  And too many presents…  Santa Mom really went all out for her wonderful daughters…  I just love to spoil them a bit now and then, they are so cool!

I hope that each and every one of you gentle readers have a lovely and beautiful holiday season…  however you celebrate… and I hope that you will take a little time from the hustle and bustle to go Amish for a while, light a fire, turn off the tube and computer and just enjoy your family, play a game, laugh, drink and eat as we set this year to bed and look forward to a wonderful and blessed new year!!!

Do me a favor…  leave a comment about what you and yours are doing for the holidays and how you feel blessed…  what you’re looking forward to in 2012…   that will be a fun way to positively enjoy and cherish this special time!!!

I’ll start…    I’m so thankful and blessed for this beautiful little homestead and all the lovely and silly animals that give us endless amusement and joy…  And of course I just love my pair of wonderful kids…  who tolerate me when I’m stressed, and laugh at me when I’m silly and just don’t seem to ever want to leave me… and I love that so much!  We’ll be celebrating Christmas with a lovely little dinner and some presents and probably a game of Cataan!!!

 

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Sherri, Jessy and Maggie…

and of course….

Evee, Ratchet, Luna, Dixie, Topaz, Jack, Prince, Duchess, Duke, Baron, Cody, Noel, Holly, Molly, Fergus, Angus, Ivy, Iris, Bucka Roo, Copper, Dammartin, Irene, Mildred, Marilyn, Katheryn, Carolyn, Susan, Marjory, Maureen, Patty Ann, Nancy Ann, Cruella, Floppy Chicken, Bionca, Goldie, Elizabeth, Fiona, Emerald, Silver, Tourmaline, Diamond, Tasha, Edward, Amanda, Martha and Mabel, Turkey Girl, Hodini and Blue.  (Oh yeah and the 4 Amerucanas and the 5 Cuckoos Marans without names….)

 

 

 

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Lucky, the Chicken…

Meet Lucky.

She’s a BB Red English Bantam Game pullet.  She’s about 3 months old.

She was part of a little clutch of eggs that I bought from a lady on Craig’s List, 7 of them.  Fiesty, delightful little crazy chickens.   They were doing great with Pete (formally known as Petunia) and Daffodil, the older banties that we hatched during the summer.

But then for no go reason, the other 6 chicks began to pick on Lucky and made her head a bloody mess!  Maggie found her and rescued her from the bullies and brought her inside for safety.  She cleaned her wounds and put some BagBalm on her booboos…  (Great stuff for animals and people!)  and then installed her in an empty aquarium to heal up.

Well, she healed pretty nicely, still missing some head feathers but rather whole, so we slipped her back into the brooder at nightfall, to see how she might work back to her little banty flock.

And they attacked her again, making her bloody.  We had to get her right out.  So Maggie now has a new friend.  Lucky, the chicken.

But here’s the best part.  Lucky LOVES Maggie.  She coos and talks to her, she rides around the house on her shoulder or head and watches movies with her, walks around on her desk, just hangs out with her.

She GROOMS Maggie!!   And will tickle her ear and just adores Maggie in so many ways.  She tolerates Jessy and I, but Maggie?  Well, Maggie is her saviour.  She rescued little Lucky and thus became her only true friend.  We have tried to match her up with the two little chicks that hatched end of last week, thinking just maybe she might get a little broody and attach to the two little wobblies… but no,  She just pecked at them hard and sort of scared the little dorks, so we had to take Lucky out.  Lucky is a one woman chicken.

Maggie has a way with animals and they know it.  She walks around the farm yard with all her minions following her, baaing and clucking and meowing away.  She is never alone here at the farm.  Ratchet is her buddy and Luna keeps tabs on her and now little Duke, the kitten, is very attached to her Maggie.

But Lucky is super attached and getting more and more comfortable being a house chicken.  Maggie and Lucky were taking pictures of the little hen in the Christmas tree.  Yeah.  And I found them in the bathroom together…  Lucky was playing in the little puddles left in the shower.

I don’t know about you, but I think Lucky is one lucky little chicken.

Yep.

 

 

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Living Room is getting there…

Well, there is floor down there.  It took awhile but we got the nasty old carpeting and padding up and scraped the floor and removed nasty ancient tack strips that distingrated when we tried to pull them up.  Jessy and I cut up the carpet and got it started, but Maggie was the queen of the rehab and spent many hours scraping and finishing the whole room for us while we packed orders!  We are almost done.  Had a crazy order day today, but I suspect it will be slowing down soon.  It has to!  Christmas is just around the corner!

Can’t write a bunch, but here are a few pictures… we actually moved in the big furniture, the tv and started to set up the tree!  But we’re in crunch time, so we had to stop for awhile.  Hoping tomorrow to take a look at some rugs and such…  not sure if we will buy used or new yet… just going to see what they have and all at Lowes…  Thanks for the suggestions about used rugs and wonky smells… we have a 106 year old farm house that already has LOTS of wonky smells… don’t need to buy more!  haha…  Hopefully we will find something that suits our budget nicely, we’ll see!

In the meanwhile… enjoy a few pictures and we’ll see you all in a day or two!!!

 

 

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