Well, spring is finally here! There are days that I wonder if it will really stick around as the mornings can be very cool but we are seeing 70 degree days! And I have things popping up in the garden. We extended the garden a lot this year and even have some separate rows of corn.

The white is shredded paper on top of our potatoes.

The cows are doing fine. Britney, the milk cow, is now giving us almost 2 gallons of milk a day but she is not happy with the fact that her baby is roaming the yard and not with her. The baby, Annabelle, is weaned and is like a pet to everyone. She is really beautiful. We will keep her and breed her so that we will have 2 milking cows. Here she is under the crabapple tree.

The second milk cow we had gotten this winter did not last but about 2 weeks here. She was very hard to handle and would not let us milk by hand. Jeffrey still has his cow, Hazel, but will be selling her soon.

The chickens are giving us 3 dozen eggs a day. I sell them at the dairy and to church members. Not sure if I'll replace any of these this year but I will be buying meat birds soon and this will keep us busy most of the summer. We are adding guineas and ducks to our order this year.

And in celebration of the warmer weather we have started going to the lake again with and without the kids. We took them Sunday to ride bikes, roller blade and scooter. Joe will receive First Holy Communion this weekend. He is very anxious for this! Well, that is all the "terra" news. As to the other personal family news, email me! It would be too much to try to post here. Busy days ahead. Hopefully I will keep the blog updated now!

Christmastide

We have been enjoying a most blessed Christmas! Hope that yours has been as blessed and joyful.

We did not keep the cow. She was just too stubborn to milk. She was a dairy cow that had never been milked by hand. I was not comfortable keeping her here with the children out in the barn around the milk stall. So we gave her back to her owner and the deal was called off. Besides, we are all so attached to Annabelle. She is a good calf. She is gentle and trusting like her mother, Britney. So we will have two cows in the future that we know we can work with.

The winter seems to be over. I know this is too good to be true but it sure seems that we saw the worst for a few weeks in December and now it's over. We have not dipped into those subzero temps since before Christmas. Most of the snow has melted and there is not much in the forecast for the next week. Really strange for January. I kind of miss not having snow, sledding and building snowmen at this time of year.

We had our church Christmas play on January 4th. It turned out just as it always does....chaotic and hilarious. I think that my children were the cutest, of course. The girls were angels, and the boys a wise man and a sheep. My little sheep was the cutest of all. He came out on stage waving and dancing. He had all laughing. Here are a few pictures from that most memorable event!

Little angels.....are you sure??????

A wiseman....or a madman?

My little lamb....and I mean that one!

Now that Epiphany is over we are trying to get back into the swing of things like school. I'm getting around much better and realize that I have so much to catch up on. I wonder if I will ever be able to do it. Volunteers???? Anyone???? And with that I end saying, "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"