Back To Homesteading

With William home for a week and his daughter and grandson down for a few days visit things around the homestead just didn't get done. Of course Miss Diva got her milking and the animals got fed but that's about it. We grilled out 2 nights, William took his grandson canoing one afternoon and they wet their hooks but caught no fish. I did alot of cooking as William enjoys home cooked meals and takes the leftovers with him to warm up on the road. I baked whole wheat sourdough bread, made a strawberry cake and baked some cookies. Lisa (William's daughter) brought her dog Snoopy with her. He is a beautiful husky but stays inside at her house. Here with cats inside and out the dog had to stay on the runner outside. My dogs were upset there was another dog, Miss Diva was upset that there was a dog outside the dog lot and the cats were upset there was a dog on the property. So I spent 3 days with lots of upset animals. A neighbor brought me 5 laying hens and they are already laying so are older than my hens and of course my hens had to be jealous and upset with their new roommates so I had to sooth ruffled feathers. One hen already layed a egg so the other hens are really jealous now. My daughter Maggie called from Tennessee upset this morning. After all the time I spent finding the 2 special ducks they wanted for Easter a big owl got Tom and now Jerry is all alone. The girls were upset and their dog got loose during all this and knocked over the rabbit cage and the top come off so the rabbit got away. It was a lion head rabbit they had since it was a tiny baby. The dog also knocked over the cages where they keep the wildlife rescue animals till they are re-released into the wild. The squirrels ran up a tree but when Maggie went over the squirrels hopped on her back and went back to their cage. The groundhogs ran and they caught 3 of them but the 4th got away. Maggie says he was to be released next week anyways and he comes up for food but runs if they try to catch him so he is fine. Seems like its been a bad week for the animals in our family. Hopefully things will change for the better. I am trying to save enough cream to make butter from the goat milk but it is going to take a while. Goats don't have alot of butterfat like cows. I made cheese twice this week and made a yummy mac and cheese with goats cheese. No one knew it was goat cheese till after they ate and commented on how good it was. When I told them they said make it that way from now on. I am going to make ice cream next weekend with goat milk. Tomorrow is my wash day and I have my washtubs and wringer here! I will be taking photos each step so you can see how it goes. My neighbors think I am crazy and one told me I should have been born in the late 1800's... I agree. I love living the homestead life! I admit I would miss my computer but everything else I could handle. We have had unbearable hot days and nights here and I wouldn't turn the air on. All the windows are up and we have lots of shade trees. William and I are use to it and don't mind it. Lisa was hot and my neighbors all have their air on and don't go outside during the middle of the day. Again I am the crazy lady in the neighborhood and spent the day cleaning out the tool shed. Will be back working on it tomorrow after I finish laundry. Life is good here on the homestead! God has blessed me so much. I hope your weekend was blessed and your week is filled to overflowing with blessings. I know this post is long but I want to leave you with my devotion I read today:
A Friend To Friends
Treat your friends as friends should be treated: be sincere, considerate, courteous, truthful, loyal, sympathetic,and helpful. If you are a friend, you will stay when others walk out: you will lend a hand when others fold theirs.
It takes time to make and hold friends; for relationships made fast seldom last. The cannibal who eats you up the first time he sees you will just as quickly become nauseated with you later.
Hold your friend close, but grant him freedom. Don't stifle him- let him breathe- for true friendship cannot survive when one is so smothered there is no free breathing.

A friend is, as it were, a second self -- Cicero
Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not-- Proverbs 27:10