No Gifts under the tree

Yup you read it right. We had no gifts under the tree.(not on purpose, we were just to broke this year to buy gifts) Our kids didn't cry, I think they were sad but understood. We have never raised our kids to think Christmas was about gifts, but it was still hard to see them go with-out. However we had one of the most yummiest Christmas dinners ever. My hubby made 99% of it by scratch and it was so good. We invited our wonderful neighbor over and she is just a doll. She doesn't have children and we just adopted her. We like giving her gifts. My mom and myself made some knitted goodies for her and some other items and she brought over some goodies and the kids dove it. It has been one of the best Christmases ever! My sister Lori came over as well.
I love family and this was wonderful!

Beautiful Snow

Snow is so beautiful! It reminds me of good times, hot chocolate, making snow angels and snowmen.

One of my poor chickies

One of my chickens was found by some wild animal! Makes me so upset. I love my laying hens! Poor chicky

Pheasants and Scenery

This is some beautiful Christmas like tree's in the field behind our home. Frost on the ground. In person it was stunning!

This is my daughter Julionna walking on a tree log going across a creek we fell it over. It was so pretty there we left it!

This is me with Justenm Julionna and Gabe. Holding the pheasant I just caught stealing food from my chicken house.

This is my kitten precious. She is so beautiful, I had to share!

Fencing

Today was a day to work on fencing. My hubby did most of the work, but I helped some. My mom she was putting up chicken wire on some of the barn windows to keep cougars out and way from the goats. Slowly but surely the farm is coming together.

Goats on the farm

Yup we have goats. Our wonderful neighbor has lots of property right behind our house. She is not using it and has offered to let us use it with the barn. We got goats. Well my mom did so the kids can have them to play with. Goats are so fun to play with and they will be good for eating the black berry bushes down. Here is a picture of 4 of the 5 goats.

Were looking into getting some steer to raise and eat and later mom wants to buy a turkey and a few ducks to eat slugs and such.
God has truely blessed us.
We are working to finish up the show to have work parties for the charity. Not to much more to do, but it will be great once it is ready. We have some local ladies ready to help. Most of our members are online so this will be new to do hands on with people :) I admit I am nervous. Only cuz I do not hang around many people. I stay at home and work from there. Oh well I'll be ok!!

Journaling

I was reading through some of my Journals I used to write in all the time, even before my daughter Julionna was born in 1998. Anyway looking back its kind of neat. Its a history in itsself. I stopped writing when I got so busy that I put it away and eventually forgot. 4 years had passed and the other night I wrote in each Journal. Each of my kids have a personalized journal I made for them. Saying
Dear Justen,

gnjgiongjgoinmor

Love Mom

All my kids have their own. Its my love letters to them. I feel bad, so much time passed since I wrote last. Because I had so many things we went through, fun times and hard times I could have shared with them. Sometimes I wish I could turn back clocks just for times like that. But what is nice is I still have days ahead. And if I do not because non of us really know, then they will have love letters from mom. That is important for me and I hope for them. I love my kids. I also have a journal for my hubby too :)

Cleaning until my feet sweat in my boots...

Yup I wear rubber boots. lol I hate getting my shoes wet and I go check for eggs pretty often so my hubby purchased a pair of rubber boots. Well this morning I had someone coming over to bring donations. I looked at my house and

thought
So I grabbed the bleach bottle and started cleaning! lolol It needed it. By the time I was done my boots were wet inside with sweat. Yuck! You know if your ever cold, a good pair of socks and rubber boots will warm you. The boots hold in all the heat!!!

Goodbye Hippy Chick

My hippy chick was killed by a dog, or weasel or something

I miss my hippy chick. She was a good chicken. I think hippy chick was blind, I am sure that is why she got taken. It was in the day time..

One of my roosters...

Well the other day I noticed my rooster running up to me sideways and his feathers all out and he was making an odd noise. I could not figure out what was wrong with him. The next day he came shooting out of his house when I opened up the door to the chicken house doing the same thing. I was looking at him with curiosity. All of a sudden a few hens came out and my other rooster came out and had the same thing and appearance as my rooster that was next to me. I realized there is nothing wrong with my rooster accept he is in LOVE with my boots! LOLOL I wear them when I go to my chicken pen and my chickens follow me everywhere as I have been their momma. Well sometimes I sit with them and copy the hen noises. The hens like it, then I realized maybe my noises were good enough it fooled him. So now every time I go outside in my boots he runs up feathers fluffed and goes where ever I go lol its so funny! Now if I am not wearing my boots he doesn't come near me at all!


(the picture looks allot like my roosters but for some reason I cannot find my pics, so this is not my rooster)

Just a few of my favorite things...lalalalalallala

This picture is above one of our doors. ^ We had a struggle moving into our house and our realitors purchased this and gave it as a gift to us...it fit well

This was a great find. My mom purchased it for me from an antique place. I love pictures of people. My camera is from my phone so is not that good. But you get the idea...

This little russian girl looked so much like me. My hubby purchased this picture in an atique shop years ago. This picture believe it or not helped me heal during the struggles of dealing with sexual abuse. It reminded me how God see's me, innocent and pure.

A few family pics

Few pics of me, hubby and the kids...

Top pic is of my mom and her sisters, second pictures are of my grandmother Lottie and the third is me and my sister Lori

Picture of me and my sister Lori

Aren't we cute!

Before and after- What a chicken house

BEFORE

AFTER

Now we just need to paint it red and white to match our home....

My first Egg

Yup my chickies finally laid eggs!!! Here is a picture of my first chicken egg. Pretty brown egg!!

My rebellious Chickens

My chickens usually heard to the their pen when I direct them that way, or when its raining etc..never had a problem. Well the other day it was raining out pretty hard and I seen the chickens hiding under the tree, so I go to heard them, those buggers ran around the yard and refused to go to their pen. This is my dog sparky in the pen with them (different day). Anyway I looked like a chicken with my head cut off, soaking wet. It was pathetic and sad.
So after my mom helped try nothing worked. I gave up and let them be. Well sure enough if I did not make it to the house and the sun came popping out. I wonder if those chicken knew what was coming with the weather? How weird is that?

It was a hard week this past week

My little sisters father died at the age of 63. He just turned 63 10 days prior. He was like a father to me growing up. The funeral was on Monday. I am still tired from crying so much. But I know he is not suffering anymore.
Keith done many things wrong in his life, but he also done many good things.
One short note

Keith used to always have his handkerchiefs. Well all of us 4 girls wipes our tears away with his handkerchief and laid them in his casket to be buried with him. The picture is of them sitting on the bench we were going to sit at.

This is me and my daughter Julionna putting our Handkerchief in Keith's casket. It was a hard day. One thing I learned from it, is don't take life for granted. I will be contacting my own dad to tell him I love him.

Chickens are so fun to raise!

You know all of these years I wanted chickens, really since I was a kid. Well I am not disappointed. They have been such a blast to raise!
These chickens are so comical. I let them free range with supervision because they are my babies and I don't want them to get hurt. So I babysit them. They found our garden and they chow on weeds and bugs so I am very happy with that! This is an older picture of one of the roosters from the batch. Of course they are allot bigger now! Love my chickees

Family Reunions

Brian and I getting ready to leave for the reunion...




We created a neat forum and will be working on building a website for our family history here is the link Forum . Pictures of family reunion will be there!!

We went swimming and more

Brian and me

The Temperature was over 100 so we went swimming several times. We had fun! Our kids were not to happy when they were told it was time to go home!

Our son Paul getting dressed with his fancy rubber boots and his sister Julionna still swimming!

Then we went blackberry picking. Got lots of berries! YUM!

Humming Birds are so funny

These buggers are fast. I have them swarming my feeder and fighting over who is going to get the fresh yummy sweet juice. Its so funny to watch them humming by and challenging the next one, knocking into the air and making their funny noises!

And all of them have different colors. One actually has the colors of an orangutan and is so cute. Then there is an almost all brown one, then a red throated one and another is several different colors.
Humming Birds are fun to watch and we are feeding them too. Its funny to see them perched on the top of a tree branch. So small but so strong.
They also will buzz your head to get to their food.. lol

Where is the camara when you need it

We decided to take a walk last night. I am not sure of anyone else but when you see water such as a creek or river whatever it may be you all of a sudden are dieing of thirst. We decided the heck with it we are going swimming. So we finally made it down to the water (the Calapooia River) which is right next to us.
We got into the water and normally it is freezing cold because of the snow that comes off the mountains. This water was AMAZING! It was perfect. No freezing water. I know one thing we are going back there often! Its a walking distance away for heavens sake.

Its been so beatiful, I think I need to go outside and knit or do some gardening!

Roses and chickens

Yesterday we got 4 more chickens! They are beautiful chickens and are almost at the age of laying. Once they all start to lay eggs we can make sure our family does not go with-out eggs. LOL They will have more then they need.

Also my mom got a beautiful Rose that is like orange and yellowish. I have never seen a Rose like it! Plus I have my "HAIN" rose. It is purple. The same color I use alot in HAIN! Its really pretty too!

I have been babying a chicken we thought was going to die. But I doctored him up and I think she will be ok.

Last night we went on our walk (which I need). We decided to walk further then we typically do. It was so beautiful!! The sun going down was such a deep orange color. Just beautiful. It lit up the clouds and turned the tips of the clouds orange. Plus the mountain's we live around set the scene for a beautiful walk!
Walking every night has given me time to think and spend time with my husband. Our kids are happier here then when we lived in town. I am too!

Walking and enjoying the weather

I have to say it has been so very nice here in Oregon. We have been taking total advantage of the weather and living in the country. We have a garden now, chickens and one day maybe we will have some property and maybe get a beef! Now that would be great! Plus as mentioned before we have lots of fruit trees and found we also have some nut tree's! It has been a dream of mine to have a farm of my own. My kids can finally be kids here. When your out here you feel like your in another world compaired to when your in town. I thought I would miss being out of town. But I really don't. Besides having a house keeps me busier. Holy Cow.. Maybe just maybe my weight will go on the downside. I have gained 30 pounds since being in the motorhome, plus I was already overweight!

Plus Heavenly Angels in Need (HAIN) is also doing better then it has ever done. There is no more tention. Its been a HUGE blessing!

Life has been great! Glad to be here!

Coons or weasels

We were devistated to find that 4 of our chickens in one of our chicken pens were killed by a coon or weasel. Just heartbreaking. I know that a person is not suppose to be attached to a chicken. But I was. I had 2 of our chicks in that pen that I raised since they were 3 days old and was 6 weeks old this week. Just makes me sick. Needless to say that pen will get worked on. So the other chickens will stay with our other chickens in our save chicken pen and chicken house!

K- graduation Our youngest Paul

Paul was so nervious during graduation but I think he was also excited that he was going to FIRST GRADE! LOL He looked so cute in his little graduation outfit!

Chickens,hen houses and gardening

Brian and I have been trying to use the land God gave us to the best of its ability. There people whom have owned this over the years have planted fruit tree's and there are filbert tree's too. We have always wanted a farm where we could have chickens and be able to grow our own crops to feed our family and reach out to others to help.

As posted before my hubby built a chicken pen and they were finally old enough to put them in the pen and house to live. Now he finally had the chance to build simple next boxes. Here is My hubby and our son Gabe working on the nest boxes.

Then here are some of them installed in the hen house

Here are some of the chickens

Then we have been gardening and here are some of the plants

Working on chicken pens!!

I will load pics later.

My hubby and one of our sons helped him build nest boxes for chickens yesterday. (on fathers day) Gabe "our son" was so excited to help dad build these nest boxes. He was holding onto one end when dad was on the other carrying them to the chicken house. The chickens are in heaven now! We are excited to have at least some of the boxes in!

ITS RAINING AND POURING THE OLD MAN IS SNORING.........

My poor chickies are still so young they do not realize that they have to go into the hen house when it rains. I decided I had better go check on them. I am their mother hen, they follow me everywhere. Anyway I run to the pen, it was raining hard. I find all the chicks huddled in a corner in the pen all wet and trying their best to keep warm, some stuck in the fence. It was sad. I felt so bad for them. I was grabbing chicks and running back and forth trying to get them into a warm dry place. I was soaked to the bone cold. I think the chicks will be ok. I am just glad I decided I had better go check.
Can't wait until this rain goes away for a bit!

Our chickies finally have a home

My husband is building the chickens their home. They are finally old enough to graduate to their own home. We are still needing to put on the roof shingles and we are going to paint it to match our house. It will be cute! Anyway the pictures are not real good. My digital camara is toast so I am using my phone camara.

Here is the chicks with their new home!

Wemay get a garden after all

We are finding that we may be able to put in a garden after all. I already purchased the seeds and now its finding a tiller to rent until we can buy one! I am excited but nervious because of all the added work!! But my big bottom needs to work.

Planting tomoto's and Chickens

We finally got some tomoto plants planted! WHEW! Because we do not have a tiller yet we could not plant a garden. So I am going to plant what I cannot this year. I am also going to do some onions and potato's. We eat so much of these kind of things that it will be great to not have to buy them. Specially with the cost of groceries rising.

We also purchased some chickens (Austrolorps) not to long ago. We are raising them right in our frontroom. LOLOL Not to stay forever, but to stay until they have wings enough to live outside. Brian is building a small chicken pen for our 24 babies. We will never go with out meat or eggs again!!! Taking care of these sweet chicks has been a blast. They think I am mom and fly onto me when I get near their little temp. pen in the house. So sweet! Anyway I will be painting the pen to look like our house. Well at least the colors! I will post pics on a later date!

Home Sweet Home

It has been quit the adventure moving into this big house and learning where to put things, what to keep and throw away.
This is the first post on here. I just wanted to add something. I will be adding lots of things on here and hope you enjoy!