Furniture Polish....

....a la MJ's.

1 c olive oil

1/2 c lemon juice (fresh, just toss the lemon remains down the disposal for freshening!)

1"x1" piece of beeswax, melted

Mix it all up quickly so the wax particles are as small as possible. Use a soft cloth to rub into wood (cabinets!), let sit a few minutes, then buff with a clean dry rag.

Morning happenings

Chives are up, and the cucumbers, cantelope, and beans in the Myrtle basin are up.

The kids aren't thriving, but getting enough milk (from the dribbles they happen to swollow) to survive. I tried the flutter valve nipples which Lady and Dapper seemed to like better, but Alec does wonderfully with the regular one.

Got a quart and a half AM milking from Belle. Yippee!

'Little House' schedule

I love 'Little House in the Big Woods'. It's my favorite of the Laura books, and the pictures are just so sweet. I was thinking about my goal of slowing down and getting back to the basic stuff (instead of rushing though or skipping basic stuff in order to have time to do things that are less necessary or just of leisure or entertainment, most likely costing me money). I remembered Ma's saying:

Wash on Monday

Iron on Tuesday

Mend on Wednesday

Churn on Thursday

Clean on Friday

Bake on Saturday

Rest on Sunday

While I can't realistically follow this schedule to the letter, I think it's a good idea. It can be so overwhelming to try to do a bit of everything everyday, and never finish or accomplish anything. I think I'd like to adapt this list to:

Wash and Clean on Monday

Iron and mow on Tuesday

Sew on Wednesday

Wash and Weed on Thursday

Bake on Friday

Projects on Saturday

Rest on Sunday

I also love how these things that Laura listed are what is to be done after the everyday things like dishes, airing the bed, feeding/ milking, etc.

I'll try it and see if I get more things done this way.

Curbing the Impulse (purchase!)

Even though DH has said time and again what a pain those reusable shopping bags are for the baggers to fill, I went ahead and got some. I know it seems counter-productive (saving the environment and all) to buy bags vs. making, but they were $1 and my time and fabric were well worth it.

I had to get some things at the store this morning, and set a '3 bag limit' for myself. I kept thinking about what I could get to fit into those 3 bags I had. I passed up on a LOT of impulse items, knowing that I needed the room in the bags for other VIP items.

Also, I had cash today, and I kept very close track of what everything cost so I would avoid extreme embarassment at the checkout if I were to come up short. Normally, a few ($5, $10, even $15) dollars over I wasn't too worried about, but I didn't even have a back up card with me.

These are interesting findings....I might try again. ;)

The Fruits

Look closely....no, really. It's there.....

I laughed out loud when I looked at this and then thought of the 8 half gallon jars that Alee is sending me.

Getting used to each other

Even though we had the 'girls' on the milking stand about once a day for the past couple weeks, it is still a challenge getting Belle to stand still. She has kicked, stomped, bucked, and knocked over, stepped in, and completely mocked the milk pail....I might be getting a hobble until we get better at this.

Her udder is filling out well, but her teats are very small (as compared to my only other experience with milking a goat) which makes getting ahold of her pretty difficult. I am hoping over the next couple days she will fill up even more which will help.

The little doeling seems to be doing ok, yesterday we made sure she had a few sessions with exclusive feeding rights without her brothers pushing her out of the way.

We are down to one turkey. The fatality rate at the Funny Farm is depressing.

In the Daylight

My guess of 2 bucks and 1 doeling were right! The bucks are much more lively and curious (coming right up for the camera!) and the doeling is a little shy (but looks to be very healthy, just a different personality).

Belle is doing well, her udder is filled out and her babies are pushing each other out of the way to get to her!

I will be headed to Higley for nipples that I forgot yesterday...hope they can manage until tomorrow.

On a side note, we lost 2 turkeys last night. Must have been too cold?