Hi everyone. Today (and last night) is Rosh Hashanah, more commonly called the Jewish New Year....so....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Rosh Hashanah is literally translated, "head of the year." So although we aren't having a big celebration (we've just been to busy to prepare for it) we will think about the year to come, what we want to accomplish, and especially, ways we want to improve ourselves. We are eating apples and honey to symbolize having a sweet year ahead! The honey, by the way, was given to us by Charlotte's boyfriend down in Florida...his parents have a farm there and raise the honey bees themselves. It has an orange flavor, because the bees collect their pollen from orange tree blossums! It's delicious!

Michael and Zach (Davey's grandson) blew the Shofar on the porch. My grandson enjoyed some apples too!

We prayed that we would all improve ourselves, treat each other kinder and with more respect, strive to make our home someplace that the children WANT to be, the center of our lives, and a haven of rest and love for those we don't see as often (Charlotte, Kelsey, Travis and Amanda) because they are on their own.

My biggest flaw, which I hope to improve in the new year, is mis-scheduling my time, and getting all that I need to get done, finished! The bottom line is that I just take on too much and on top of that I'm a procrastinator. I have an article I got from a friend about how to deal with procrastination, so I think today would be a great day to read it! My mismanagement of time has led to not spending as much of my life with family, immediate and especially extended, and not sharing and keeping in touch with relatives and friends who we are apart from.

Remember that little bottle fed lamb I posted about back on February 4th? Well, look at her now! She's a moose, sooooo big and still being bottle fed, though I'm SURE she could be weaned. Problem is, if she doesn't get fed when she desires, she stands at the porch and screams "Baaaaaaaaa" for a long, long, long time...And it's not just her, it's her and two comerades (see 3 posts back, the sleeping lambs). If we try to ignore, and it's evening and they can see us inside the house, they will go from window to window crying!! In the past, all bottle fed babies stayed with the herd, but not this crew...they don't know that they are sheep...Look at Abigail, it seems as though she's saying, "Come on in, this is my porch, make yourself at home!"

We had an awesome week, got lots of stuff accomplished. The boys were able to remove some problem trees which were blocking a lot of sunlight to the garden area, and posed a threat to the house should we have another bad wind storm .

I was able to work in my garden and build some somewhat raised beds, surrounded with rock, to plant some root vegetables in. Root veggies do very well in loose, deep soil. I filled the beds with mulch, sand, manure, and some wonderful soil made from years of barn waste. It's so dark it's almost black!



Raegan, of course, wanted to be part of what we were doing, and played contentedly with some lawn garden ornaments for HOURS...a mama duck and 2 baby ducks. She washed them in the birdbath water, took them for walks, and chattered away endlessly. As you can see from the picture, we dress for comfort and work, not style, on our farm!


















Lastly, I got a few books in the mail, one I wanted to share which I started reading. It's called "Family Friendly Farming" by Joel Salatin. Joel Salatin is a farmer in Virginia I've admired for years, who promotes small, family run enterprises, in which the animals work through nature as they were meant to...not like most industrial, factory farms in our nation today, which produce the bulk of our food. The book is about working together as a family, side by side, to make a living, and especially to be good stewards of the land. I've read most of his other books and this too, looks like it will be a gem!

Well, I took pictures last Shabbat, but didn't get a chance to load them till this week, so I've got a few posts to catch up on!

Anyhow, last week was so warm and relaxing, I noticed EVERYONE was just having such a nice rest, so I went around the farm and took a few pictures. :o) It had been an extremely busy week, as the good weather finally overrode the bad weather, and we were able to begin spring work. It has been a blessing to work alongside each other!

Of course, when we tried to take pictures of some of our family, they wouldn't sit still anymore and had to cuddle (the cat).

Even the chickens were stretched out in the warm air, sunning themselves and stretching their wings out to dry.

The kids got in on the act too...though I think their picture was a little more staged than the animal's portraits! But I'm sure the feeling of relief and rest was authentic!

Well, this first day of the week we got a LOT done in the garden! We probably planted a couple hundred onions, and weeded and tilled up 3 long wide rows. We also spread some lime since it was a misty, lightly raining day. I also planted a lot of seeds indoors, to give them a head start in the spring. How do I know what to plant when??

I wanted to share with anyone reading, the wonderful tool you can get from your local Extension office. Each week, sometimes many days of each week, the calendar is marked with simple instructions telling you the best time to plant, order, pot, till,...anything to do with your garden. For an example:

March 11 - seed tomatoes indoors

March 12 - seed peppers indoors

March 13 - seed swiss chard indoors

The calendar is also filled with tips of when to fertilize certain plants, when to order certain seeds and plants, when to prune trees and fruit plants, the best time to put in a high tunnel, when to begin covering plants in the fall...it is really one of the best tools you can get for your garden, and it's FREE! Look up your local extension office in the phone book (might be under 4H) to find your local office. I am not sure if all extension offices have these calendars, but it's worth a try.

Well, this has been an incredibly busy week! I had a few special orders to finish, including the little sleeping possum. He looks about the same way I felt by Shabbat. I'm so thankful to have this set aside time to relax, rest, and meditate on my life.

I had to take my foster son to his second visit to the behavioral specialists at WVU this week. It is such a long drive, but it always leaves me feeling hopeful and rejuvinated in our long struggle we've had with his problems. We've had him over 2 years now (I can hardly believe it) and although there have OFTEN been times we were on the verge of calling our foster care agency and putting in a 30 day notice (for them to find him a new home) there are other times I'm so thankful we didn't follow through with this. Going to the behavioral specialists has shown me, once again, that although because of his Autistic tendencies, it seems at times he could care less about us, deep down I'm his mommy, and I think he'd just be "lost at sea" without us. We are what keeps him centered, as insufficiently as we do that, in his crazy, mixed up existence.

Chuck supervised the kids this week, in their free time, to get the fallen trees cut up, split, and stacked. With CJ's help, they got the carport cleaned out, and probably enough wood for next year stored up neatly in one corner. The back hill is now ready to be divided up, mapped out, and made into a large garden plot. I am also eyeing the spot just outside our bedroom window, another small fenced in yard, to put together a raised bed plot, complete with covers to begin growing soon in the year, and to extend our growing season in the fall.

Many seeds and supplies have been gathered, and we hope first day of the week (Sun.) to begin planting indoors, something we should have done already.

While cleaning this week, I noticed that Raegan (my granddaughter) and R. got extremely quiet on the porch (one of our blessed warm days last week!)...I peeked out the door and there they were, contentedly sitting in the lamb's cage, happy as clams. I snapped the pic at the top of the page...(note that the cage door IS OPEN...I did not put them in there so I could get more work done...)

I think maybe, the problem I'm having with keeping up this Blog, is figuring out what the subject/center of what I'm wanting to talk about, should be. There are a few really big "subjects" in my life....

Farming/Felting/Self Sufficiency....These things sort of go hand in hand. As things get rougher around the world and we have to find alternative ways to survive in the changing economic times, these things are very near and dear to my heart.

Homeschooling/Unschooling/Life Skills/Parenting - These things would encompass each other more so than other parts of my life, though they're so intertwined it'd be hard to write a seperate blog without tying everything else in.

Faith/Beliefs/Happiness/Mothering/Helpmeet - These things are also, of course, intertwined...but would not interest people, for instance, who come to the blog to learn more about felting and selling at the farmer's market.

Add to all 3 of those, my desire to share about foster care and adoption, and I could almost start a 4th blog. So what do I do? Have 3 seperate blogs and toggle between them? Or should I go ahead with this blog, and just pour my heart out, hope I don't offend anyone, and let them take and leave what they choose?

If you can't tell, I'm talking to myself...LOL...and I think I've just convinced myself that one blog encompassing everything would probably be best...maybe if I get too deep into my faith/convictions, I can put a link to more in depth commentary, should someone actually be interested!

So, onward!