We Slept In!

My family is split this week. Three of us are at a big 4-H event and four of us are home. We are kind of taking the week off from some things. I was blessed by a friend with a BIG pile of groceries including some yummy quick fix items. So, I am not cooking much this week. The kids are off from school (we usually do some school year around)  and we are taking it easy for a few days. Tomorrow we start preparation for the Farmer's Market but last night and today we are playing.

Here are some of the things we have done and are doing. We slept in! Woo Hoo! Until 8:30 when my arthritic knee, er soccer injury, refused to be quiet. I had gotten up at 4:00 to open the house up to let cold air in. That is how we air conditon our house. We open it up in the cool of the morning and then "trap" the cold air in to keep the house cool most of the day. It works splendidly so long as we get a few hours below 60 degrees at night or in the morning. At our house, we don't have screen doors and the doors with their low thresholds let in much more cold air than the windows, so sometimes there are visitors. So far it has mostly been moths and domesticated animals. In the back of my mind though I half expect a skunk!

We got up and did our chores and went to town to the free lunch in the park where the younger crowd ate a ham and cheese sandwich, chips and and apple. Ezra harvested a little plantain for me while we were there. After a little play time at the park, we went by the store to pick up supplies for making Jalapeno fudge for the Farmer's Market. While I was there I bought a bag of fudgesicles These are necessary as we are making knitting Nancies this week. My friend Susan introduced Grace-Marie to the knitting Nancy yesterday. The little one though is a bit cumbersome for little hands, so we are making some with the tubes from the foil box and popsicle sticks. Look here to see many kntting Nancies. The one we are making is almost at the end. http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/knittingnancys.html I want to teach fiber arts to my younger chldren and having a snake knitting contest with these little Nancies sounds like a fun way to start.

Tomorrow we will bake breakfast bars, brownie bites, gluten free cookies and we will make Jalapeno , He-Man (4 alarm jalapeno and cayenne ) and jelly bean fudge. I will finish a batch of Meadow Magic salve and we will be packaging,printing, cutting and attaching labels to everything. Friday, we will be picking beets, lettuce, spinach, chard and radishes. But for today our biggest challenge is finding some friends to help us eat 8 fudgesicles so we can make our kntting Nancies.

Hope your day is blessed!

Lawana

Lawana

Farmer's Market Report

Jesse (9) and Grace-Marie (6) sold baked goods at the market on Saturday. They worked their table, visited with their little entrepreneur friends, lusted after other people's goods and learned a lot. They made 11 dollars profit which was all used to buy ingredients for the future.

Jesse is getting a handle on engaging customers and counting change. Grace-Marie is still pretty distracted, especially by the other tables and sellers, but is learning how to look people in the eye and talk loudly. Jesse is better at selling and counting back change than he is talking loudly. He is very quiet by  nature . I hope to get a picture of their table next week when my camera comes home from camp.

So... not much in the way of financial profits, but many benefits anyway. I enjoyed the time with my children.

This is what God's word says about what we might have been tempted to call an unprofitable day.

Proverbs 14:23 (KJV) In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.


Gotta go!

Lawana

It Is Breaking My Heart

I am going to have to give up my beloved goats. We have already had kids born and I didn't share any photos or birthing stories. I didn't have the heart to. I decided during the worst of the winter weather that I would sell my goats.Until I have the means to build a barn very close to my house to properly shelter my animals and my hay, I am going to have to be without dairy animals. I am unable to haul hay from the barn that our neighbor loans us and get it to the goats pens at the house. My children serve me tirelessly and kindly and take care of the goats throughout the entire winter. In spring, I am more able to navigate outside, but I still can't do the heavier work.

I love goats...all animals really. We moved to Montana with a desire to teach our children animal husbandry. In Alaska, we had the blessing of living a seaside subsistence lifestyle. Our children learned a great deal alongside us about how to make a simple living on an island in southeast Alaska. They learned to eat roe, seaweed, bear, sea urchins and anything else the sea and shore had to share. They also learned how to catch, harvest, prepare and preserve these foods. What they really couldn't learn there was how to care for livestock and how to farm. In the 8 years we have been here, they have learned how to care for horses, goats, chickens and now we are being blessed to learn about (and make our first costly mistakes with) pigs. I suppose, that with the goals being mostly educational and the secondary goals of wanting to supply clean, organic foods for the table, having 6 years with dairy goats has probably served its purpose. All of my children but one can milk pretty well, they all know how to care for the feeding and watering needs of goats. They understand basic genetics and reproduction and they have a gratitude and respect for where their food comes from. Though I am sad (and wrestle with feeling like a failure) I trust God to supply a barn if we need one and in the mean time to give me the wisdom and contentment to adjust to whatever situation He allows me to be in.

God is good in Montana. How about where you are?

Lawana