A New Start

I keep saying I will get better about blogging, and I keep not doing it. Here is another attempt.

We had an amazing Easter. It was sunny and warm. We started the day with a good old fashioned Easter Egg hunt. We took the dogs and the goats, who love to come on walks with us.







It was also the day that we put our Cornish Cross chickens we are raising for meat outside in their new chicken tractor William built. We'd like to raise some duel purpose breeds for meat in the future, but this is our first try raising anything but egg layers, and we just went for what was easy. It is nice to have them out of the house, and they seem quite happy in their new home.



I stopped buying meat at the store a couple years ago when we started raising pigs and the occasional steer. I don't like how animals are usually raised by the meat industry and raising our own animals is our way of dealing with that. However, that meant I was no longer buying chicken. I LOVE eating chicken. We don't do our own slaughter and butchering, and it was really too expensive to pay someone to slaughter chickens, so mostly we just did without. This year we came up with a solution. Some of our good friends are going into it with us, and in exchange for us doing all the raising and feeding, they will be doing the slaughtering and cleaning for us. So now both families will be getting excellent, humanely raised chicken. I'm so excited. I'm already thinking of recipes. In the mean time, it is fun to watch them be chickens.





Usually we have ham for Easter, but I forgot all about thawing one. So instead we had Caramelized onion and mushroom quiche and Rhubarb pie. It was one of the happiest and most content days I have had in ages. A perfect day spent at home with the family.

I will actually write in my blog this year.

I was all fired up to blog regularly, right up until our computer bit the dust. Then my netbook decided to not work on anything related to google... which I still have not fixed.

About the time that I finally got on a new computer... I managed to slip on some snow, and crash my truck right into a telephone pole, which promptly broke and fell on top of the truck. I was ok, but it was scary and I managed to total the truck and knock out the power to all the surrounding area.





Not long after that, we lost all of our goats to a mysterious ailment, possibly poisoning, including my favorite (and bottle raised) goat Ramses. Then our llama Ziva fell in the barn and managed to break her neck, killing her instantly. The last two months have been very stressful and needless to say, I'm ready for things to start getting better.

On the up side, the family is doing well. My husband and daughter keep me going when I am feeling down or just painful from the fibromyalgia or my TMJ. They won't let me feel too sorry for myself. :)

We bought a Berkshire gilt pig this winter and named her Fiona. She will be our sow and have pure breed Berkshire piglets for us when she grows up. She is very friendly and we have brought her in the house a couple times to cuddle with us.

I got myself a Kindle this year and have been busy filling it up with favorite books and discovering new books as well. I have so many to read! I'm not sure how I will do it all. I love reading though so at least I will have fun doing it.

I don't really do resolutions, but I hope that this year I will keep up better with my blog, and keep in better touch with my friends. I'll try not to be a hermit.

Zoo Trip

We had a wonderful trip to the Woodland Park Zoo today. Alice took the bus with her school, and then William and I drove down to be with her. We took lots of photos (William's still need developed)and I wanted to share a few of the best ones. I just wish I had grabbed my spare batteries, as my camera died part way through the day.


I like this one even though there is a plant right in the way... ugh!



Could these girls be cuter?



I just think green snakes are adorable.



Because I'm a plant person, I took just as many photos of plants as I did of animals or the girls. :)Orchids anyone?





There was to much glare on the glass by the Jaguars to get really good photos, but I got a kick out of this one.



This peacock stole the show... he stood right by the food court showing off for his fans.



How often do you see the back side?




My favorite photo of the day...





We really enjoyed seeing the wood duck exhibit. Although, the only ducklings we saw were in the lion exhibit... we did wonder.



We are tired, but what a wonderful and fun day!

Introduction

I am so excited to be blogging again. It's been over a year, I think, since my last blog post, which is far too long. Since then I have mostly abandoned MySpace in favor of Facebook, mostly because more people I actually want to talk to are on Facebook. The one thing Facebook seems to lack is a good blogging option. However, over the past several years I've notices people writing lovely looking blogs on Blogger, and I thought I would give it a try. I have an old and moldy blog on Livejournal, and I have no idea if I will still keep it up or just let it gather virtual dust... I will have to see how it goes. I think I like the set up options (such as following friends blogs on other sites besides Blogger) and feel of Blogger better.

What will I be likely to talk about? Will you be interested? I'm likely to talk about my family, my land, some of my family's health issues, my passions and hobbies, our animals, and anything else that catches my attention. I may bring up my spirituality in small doses, though I do not expect any of you to share my beliefs. My beliefs are important to me, but I am not likely to hit anyone over the head with them. Although I may occasionally comment on current issues, I'm unlikely to talk about politics. My husband and I have somewhat different views and I am not a person who enjoys debate (at least not about politics) so I will likely keep my opinions on that largely to myself. I get enough politics at home whether I wish to or not :).

You are likely to get to view a vast number of photos. I'm an avid amateur photographer and take LOTS of photos. I just wish I had a better camera. I have not yet experimented to see what posting photos here is like. I hope you don't mind visiting a few old favorite photos, because I might post a few over again.

There may occasionally be reviews of music or books that I am enjoying. I'm a big fan of librarything, and if you are curious what kinds of books I read or subjects I am interested in feel free to look. I made sure to put my librarything widgit up first thing, before I even managed a post.

Also be prepared for a healthy dose of family research and history. That seems to be where most of my energy is going these days, partially because even when my fibromyalgia is acting up and I feel like hell, it is something I can still do and enjoy. It is also excellent for nights when I can not sleep.

If you are really really really lucky, I might even post a few of my poems or drawings.

I hope my friends and family will come visit me here, and though this does not take the place of phone calls, letters or emails, it will hopefully fill in the gaps between them. I miss and love you all, even if I do not say so enough.