Out of Hibernation

After a long hiatus I'm back to blogging. It has been a very hard and complicated year. So many changes. So many ups and downs. I suppose I will start where I left off. With springtime......and then summer.


Summer was very mild this year. That sounds like a lovely thing coming from someone that hates the heat and humidity of the deep south. However, it is not a lovely thing when it comes to gardening. The garden did not do well this year and even had we had brilliant weather the garden probably would have suffered as my health was declining. The other negative thing about the summer being so cool is that we did not have a lot of pasture grass for the cows. So that was a struggle all summer long. We spent a lot of days at the lake. It was nice to bring the kids swimming while I laid in the sun reading. I was so tired and it helped to just soak up the sun.







The most difficult thing to deal with was Joseph. He seemed to regress all summer long. It got to the point where none of us knew what to do and how to deal with him. Since then so much has happened but so little has changed. I eventually had surgery in August. After a hospital stay of 2 weeks I came home weak and unable to do much. We decided to put the kids in school as the load of homeschooling with my health AND dealing with Joseph was proving to be too much. Jeffrey was offered a full sponsorship to St. Gregory's Academy in PA. It is hard not having him here but he loves his new life!



After I recovered from surgery we started intense therapy at Madonna Hospital. It is an incredible place! It's amazing what they can do with the most brain damaged people. It was discovered that the damage, or at least most of it, was on his right side because his left side of his body was not performing as it should. He has made great progress with his physical abilities but I fear we have made no headway in his behavior. He is doing great in school. But we still don't know what the future holds for him. But then again, do we know it for anyone?

Christmas leaves me speechless. All 8 of the little ragamuffins where home. We were totally snowed in for three days. But when all was said and done we made it to 2010 as a family still holding on to the faith and each other.


And here we are......2010......and life on Terra Benedicta continues. That should read continues to change. We sold the cow. We could not afford to continue feeding her. And the milking was getting hard. The winter has been VERY hard. Lots of snow, storms, ice, and COLD temps. Hard to deal with one cow in times like this. We have lost several chickens to the weather. I think we are going to just keep 10 chickens for us. And now we have three ducks.


So although Terra is falling apart as a mini farm she holds on as a looney bin! Life is always interesting.

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!"

The New Cow

I spoke too soon. She made it here after all. And just in time. As they were pulling the trailer out to leave it started pouring sleet. Now tomorrow........in ice, snow and cold.....we have TWO cows to milk. Am I insane or what???? I think I'm the only one that is excited but I'm also not heading out to milk in the morning.

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening????

I wish we had an open sleigh for the horse to pull. Maybe one day. Mattie headed out today to take Bullseye for a ride before the big snow storm hits. I thought this was a pretty shot of her from the back window of the house.

The cow did not make it here today as we had trailer trouble. Maybe tomorrow but then we are suppose to have a horrible winter storm including some ice so I don't know when she will be here.

Feet are doing much better. I think by Christmas I will be moving around a lot more. I know we will have a white Christmas. I just hope any storms hold off so that the kids will all be here that day. I have a wonderful meal planned but different than the traditional turkey. I am doing a cranberry pork loin in the crock pot which is a recipe I got from a southern cookbook. Will also make my famous bourbon pecan mashed sweet potatoes. The only thing missing that day will be my extended family. One day we will have Christmas together again.

Winter in Nebraska

Didn't I just post an Autumn post? What a difference a few weeks make! I've never seen temperatures this cold this early in the year. We usually don't see subzero temps until January at the earliest and then only for a night or two. We have had highs in the single digits for several days. I took the above picture from my chair in the living room. I'm stuck sitting in this chair for another week as my feet heal. It's driving me crazy! The only time it pays off is when they head out to milk and it's -10 degrees....and that is the actual temperature. We are talking about -30s for the windchill.

We made a deal last night on a new milk cow. Bitsy will be here today, God willing. We are having another ice storm today so we are hoping to get her moved before that hits. She is carrying a calf which will be born in March. We will trade her new calf and Annabelle for her. So bottom line is that I will have 2 milk cows much earlier than I imagined. We will be breeding Britney again in the next few weeks and Hazel sometime in the spring. So life is moving forward here on Terra Benedicta, despite the frigid weather.

The chickens are busy, busy, busy. I get around 3 dozen eggs a day and sometimes even close to 4 dozen. There are 45 laying hens at last count. This has become a very important staple food for us and one of the biggest incomes in our little store.





Hazel, the nut........so, yes, we call her Hazelnut. This is Jeffrey's heiffer that we are daily having to chase back into the pasture. She is slowly settling down.

Jeffrey milking Britney on a cold morning with Annabelle tied in the other stall.