St. Paddy’s Day SHS

This week was a wonderful collection of St. Patrick’s Day prompts for Scavenger Hunt Sunday.  I loved it!  It would have been better if we weren’t still being sucked into mud with every step, but we did pretty good.  The prompts:  lucky, Irish, daylight, pot of gold, and clover.

You can decide which picture goes with which prompt.

Flower-SOOC

Joe

Haley and Bud

Is it just me or does it look like she’s had a few too many green beers?

Haley

Sallie

Myson-SOOC

Okay, the next two are obviously for pot of gold.  That one was a bit more difficult, but I did it!  I’ve called my corn Iowa gold before, so that works.  I usually call the container a cauldron. If you want to be truthful, it’s probably an old chamber pot.  Hey!  She didn’t tell us what kind of pot it had to be.

SOOC

No leprechauns!  Only chickens here.

I’m also linking this to SOOC Sunday and Weekly Top Shot.

2012: A Pictorial Review

Ashley has decided to let us review our year in pictures through Memories, Dreams and Reflections.  She’s given us some great items to find.  I must say I smiled and I cried as I went through my pictures from 2012.  Some of these I’ve shared here or on my other blogs.  Some I’m sharing for the first time.

1.  Me!  I was playing around at Halloween time and took this self-portrait.

2.  I Love You.  My boy is all grown up, and I don’t get to take many pictures of him these days.  Here he’s helping bale hay.

3.  Still Laughing:  As I headed East this past summer, I updated my trip on Facebook through Beavie.  Here he’s getting gas in Indiana.

4.  Winter Wonderland:  With no winter last year, it’s a good thing we just had a blizzard for some winter wonderland pictures.  While we were still under a blizzard warning, the temperatures dropped enough to give us a sundog.

5.  Birthday:  March was Myson’s original birthday.  I do adore my little boy.

Myson

6.  Friends:  From my trip to New York where I got to meet and spend time with my Goat Sisters.

7. I Was Inspired:  It really is a miracle to be on the farm and witness or assist in this process of life.  This is Pistol’s birth experience, just the way it’s supposed to happen all on her own.  You can see the entire process HERE.

Lolo and Spike

8.  Spring Fever:  Spring can only mean babies!

Nate

9.  Travel or Vacation:  Yep, it’s my New York trip again.  This is a vineyard above Lake Canandaigua.

10.  Summer Days:  There’s not a lot I want to remember about the horrible drought we had this year, so I’ll share the beautiful flower gardens at Sonnenberg Gardens in New York.

11.  A Day in My Life:  My life revolves around the farm, and I will admit the goats are my favorites.  Last year, there were a lot of kids born.  These are Kizzy’s triplets.

Kizzy with Paul, Mary, and Peter

12.  All Smiles:  People often comment on my goat pictures telling me it looks like the goat is smiling.  They do smile.  It’s not just the way their mouth is shaped because they don’t always smile.  Like humans, they will smile when they are happy (or see the camera).  I have to say it was harder to find pictures to illustrate this than I thought it would be.  I could find pictures of them with food in their mouths or smiling or no smiles, but it was hard to find one goat with the two different looks.

13.  Autumn Harvest:  Fall is my favorite time of year, and I took so many colorful pictures this fall.  I do think the eagle flying by the corn and barn is one of my favorites though.

14.  Family or Home:  This is a collage I created for the prompt home earlier in the year.  It’s still true.  My animals are my family now that my son is grown.  Home is where the animals are.

15.  Celebrate!  With the drought we had this year, I was very concerned about the crops, but I had a great harvest, and that was certainly reason to celebrate.

16.  Let’s Do It Again:  How I would dearly love to get together again.

17.  I Miss You:  I lost Mushu, my wonderful companion of nearly fourteen years, this fall.

Mushu

I also lost my beautiful Jilly due to a traumatic birth.

Jilly

18.  Beautiful:  I do think Haley is a very beautiful, elegant lady.  I just love that this was taken in May before the drought made everything dry and dusty.

Haley

19.  Dress Up:  My goats put on several plays this last year, and my wonderful mother was such a good sport to dress up as the troll in Three Billy Goats Gruff.  In this picture, the troll is talking to the littlest of the billy goats.

Mom and Myson

20.  Macro:  This shot is one I took to go with a poem.

21.  Holidays:  I took a lot of holiday pictures this year, but I think the ornament in the snow was my favorite.

22.  My Favorite:  This turned out to be one of my favorite pictures of the year.  It was simply looking between the rows of corn, but it turned out pretty cool.

23.  Don’t Ever Change:  I know it’s going to happen, but I don’t want to watch Snickers change as the cancer continues.

Snickers

24.  Just Because…So There!  Maxine’s baby from this year is Norma Jean.  She was an adorable calf, and she’s grown into a beautiful heifer.  I’m glad I decided to keep her, and I look forward to her return home next fall.

Norma Jean

25. Hopes and Dreams:  I’ve already shared that I want to really refocus my efforts at cleaning up the farm and planning to build an on-farm market and events center.  This is the windmill shot I put on my business card and farm website.

I’d also like to point out that I started a Facebook page for the farm.  You can get there through the button on the sidebar.  I hope you’ll like the page and get to see even more photos from the farm.

Be sure to visit Ashley Sisk for more pictorial reviews of the year.  I’m also linking this to Clever Chicks Blog Hop.

Getting MJ Ready to Move

Now that the corn has been harvested (and Maxine will be home soon), I need to get MJ ready to move into the cornfield.

There’s quite a bit of corn left out there that they will enjoy eating.

Since they are ruminants, I need to make sure he’s getting a bit of corn along so that his system is used to it.  It’s very important to make sure ruminants don’t have sudden changes to their diet.

In case you can’t tell MJ enjoys the little snack to get him ready.  I also went and shut all the gates to the cornfield.

I also got the cattle shed ready by closing off the part where their hay is stored.  Hopefully, they won’t decide to eat it before I tell them it’s okay.  That’s part of their winter home below.

Norma Jean was scheduled to be weaned today, but she is still close to her mom.  In a couple of days, Maxine should be home, and then I’ll move them both into their winter home.

Linking to Homestead Barn Hop.  I’m also linking to Macro Monday even though these are more close ups (it’s hard to do a macro with MJ because of his size).  Hope that’s okay.