I know, I know!

It has been ridiculously long since I last posted, and obviously a lot has been happening, including Christmas.... so I will just upload some pics and add some comments.  Everyone is great... the kids are excited to have Christmas break, and we have been taking care of all the animals, trying to keep them warm.  It's snowing again today... it never accumulates much, just 1-2 inches of either snow or sleet.  Just enough to keep us up on the hill, getting cabin fever!  We pray all of you are doing well, and had a blessed Christmas...

We are down to 22 chickens (lost one a few months ago) but they are doing great and still laying

Sam's 15 and lovin' life!

No, we haven't resorted to kidnapping!  These are actually our newest members of the farm being transported...

...being released...

Ta-da!  Aren't they cute?!  We actually have 4, although only 1 is ours... the other three are for friends... we are raising them all for breakfast and dinner!  Yum, yum!

They are Hampshire x Big Black, and let me tell you...they are FUNNY!  They are like dogs!  We've had them about two months now, so they are MUCH bigger than this now.  They will go to slaughter around 250 lbs.  They did escape about 3 weeks ago, and we panicked, thinking they'd be gone.  That's what everyone told us to expect if they got loose.  But as soon as I pulled into our driveway, they were all standing there, grunting and excited, looking for food!  So I got a bucket of mash and they followed me right up the path and into their pen, like a Pied Piper! Big goofballs.... but VERY entertaining.  And unlike what you hear about pigs, they are actually clean and don't like being messy.  They only wallow around in a mud puddle when it's hot, to cool off, because they don't have any sweat glands.  But their poo IS quite stinky... it's just as smelly as human poo, but they do find just one area to be their loo!  We love them, although we know they will be pork loin and bacon come spring.

He-lllloooooooo!  Actually, Molly, the big girl, is off visiting someone else's farm for a few weeks, being "courted!"  We are praying she comes back happy, satisfied and pregnant (it's her first time, poor baby!)  So hopefully, in about 9 months, we will be in the milk again!   The little guys miss her, she's a force to be reckoned with... she also thinks she's a dog... she literally runs around, prancing and bucking and doing goofy things.   We still need to de-horn her cuz according to a farmer friend of ours, "horns have no place on a farm!"

We get A LOT of wind up here, as you can see by our leaning icicle... we wear a lot of A&D and Vaseline on our faces during the winter!

This was the last snow... we have a real barn for them to go into now.... it's actually for milking Molly when the time comes, but it works great as shelter from the wind and sleet for them all.

There's our "smouse" in the woods.... now we just really need a mudroom!

Here's a flashback to Halloween... ours are Harry Potter and the black-hat detective, the other two are their cousins, who they LOVE to spend time with...

Here they are enjoying a nice afternoon outside...

inside drawing or doing school...

But their main love is still Legos!

Lots of baking...

and school projects.

We are plugging right along, and we all love it up here on the "hill."  We miss seeing our family and friends, but we are happy with this lifestyle we've chosen.  Eric has started a handyman business and sells firewood.  I do the occasional drawing, when requested (I wish there were more!).   On another blog featuring a couple who similarly uprooted and drastically changed their lifestyle, she says, "people either pity us or envy us."  It's not always easy, but it's always rewarding, and it's brought us closer to God, and to each other.  And for us, that's what's most important.   Happy New Year to you all... with love.