Champ

This is a picture of Champ, he is my 9 1/2 month old buck. I bought him to be my herd sire.

 As you can see from the pics he is small, which is a little disappointing because I was hoping to end up with a really nice big buck to breed with the girls but we will see, maybe he will have a  huge growth spurt, he still has growing time. He also does not seem to understand what his job on the farm is but lately I have been noticing signs that he is getting the right idea. :)

As you can see from this last pic he is a very friendly goat. When I first got him he was very afraid of us and it took months to get him to tolerate us but now he loves attention. He also used to follow around my wethered goat like he was his momma, lol but this morning I saw Champ pushing around the wethered goat so hopefully that means Champ is learning to be the more dominant goat and will take on his role as protector.

Just an update on a little of what is going on around here. Blessings to everyone and enjoy the new year.

~April

How do you spend your week

Christmas is over and now it is the final week of 2011. How do you spend that time? This year I am choosing to use this week to relax from all the stress of getting ready for the holidays. I do not have to worry about baking cookies for the family get togethers, no more Christmas presents to wrap, soon there will be someone's birthday but that is only one present at a time, I take down my Christmas tree and decorations this week because I find a sense of peace from getting everything back to "normal". This is also a good time to reflect on the goals I am wanting to have for the coming year. I want to make sure they are doable so that I can accomplish them. I think it is awful when I set an unrealistic goal and then feel guilty because I was unable to accomplish it.

Caitlyn does not have school this week and my milk goats are dried up for breeding season so I am able to sleep in and I am taking advantage of the opportunity. Now I just need to work on not staying up late. It is important to allow your body to relax and rejuvenate. After all the work of getting ready for the holidays and all the excitement of enjoying them, this week is a good time to allow your body to heal. I believe that if you dont let your body rest then you will get sick so that you have to rest yourself.

I am also hoping to start my blogging more. I really enjoy it and hope to someday be good at it and have lots of people wanting to read it. I personally find my life uninteresting but I have had friends tell me I should blog about it because they think others would find it interesting so I am going to give it a year and see what happens.

I hope and pray that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a blessing filled year.
God bless!

~April

wonderful and busy weekend

Christmas is almost here! I am so excited! Even though I am far from getting done all of the things I need to do before the day arrives I am still excited about how close it is. It is unseasonably warm for this time of year. We are having 60 degree days with rain instead of 30 degree days with snow. The warm weather is nice but it does not feel like Christmas weather to me. It is raining now as I write this. I made our family ornaments for the tree with the kids this weekend. This year we included my newest daughter Sam. She has been my son's girlfriend for a year now and she is like a daughter to me. My son Tim and daughter Caitlyn also made them with me. Doug, my husband, isnt real crafty so I painted his.  I think they turned out nicely.

Doug shot the biggest buck he has ever gotten on Saturday. He was floating on air for at least 2 days because of it. I am not sure if he is still floating today because he has not gotten out of bed yet but I imagine he still is. It will give us alot of meat for the winter and like Doug keeps saying over and over, it has a big rack! I am very proud of him for providing so much meat for us this year. He is a great provider. He said he dove out of his blind after he shot it. I guess it is a good thing that he wasnt in his tree stand, ahahaha.

My sister and her family came over alot this weekend, it was nice seeing them, especially at church and it gave me some more bonding time with my newest niece. She is so pretty and sweet looking in this pic. I wont mention how she was 5 minutes before the picture was taken, lol.

Hoping all have a wonderful and blessed day today! God bless you all!

~April

my thoughts for the day

I have a few things I have thought about today that I would like to share with you.

I started my day off in town today because I needed a few things from the grocery store and while I was there a gentleman and I were both headed to the same place coming from two different directions. This is in the store on foot not on the road or in the parking lot in vehicles. Just wanted to clear that up. The gentleman did not see me which was fine because he obviously was going to make it to our destination ahead of me but all of a sudden he noticed me and even though he would make it in plenty of time before me this kind gentlemen stopped, apologized ( I saw no reason for an apology) and put his arm out for me to go first. He made me feel like such a lady by this one kind gesture. In a fast paced get there as quickly as you can world it is refreshing to meet someone who still treats me like a lady. Other then my husband of course, he is almost always considerate.  :)

Another thing I was thinking about today was how addictive the computer and television are. Even when I just plan on sitting down a few minutes and watching tv or checking my online community I can end up there for hours. Alot of times after the hours are up I really dont know what took so long and why it caught my interest so much. There are so many other things I could have been doing that would have been much better for me. No, I do not plan on throwing out the television or the computer or leaving my online friends on facebook but I do plan on spending less time playing the games. I would much rather read a book, spend time with my family, check on my animals, get outdoors and spend more time enjoying what God has blessed me with.

I hope you enjoyed reading my post and the day has found you happy. God bless you all!