I have the droopsies about Christmas so far this year.  I just get so frustrated with all the whoo-haa this time of year.  It just seems every year it's more and more about the stuff.  Take that black Friday thing, people staying out all night and into the next day getting into fights, or being hurt by someone else, pepper sprayed in the face, knocked over and the likes for what? MORE STUFF!!  Even the stores around here were already putting Christmas stuff out before Halloween ever got here.  I would just love to have an old fashion Christmas when we focus on Christ and each other.  SSSHHH don't tell my kidos but I truly wish we had never begun Santa.  I know with some people this is a touchy issue, but it really takes all the focus away.  We always do the Christmas story on Christmas eve, and there have been years I made a birthday cake for baby Jesus, we were involved in the plays at church and the caroling but it still seems to center around all the stuff that we can give or receive. Maybe soon, this  mood will pass and I will become my usual Martha  wanta-be LOL.  
God bless ya,
Tara

Homestead happenings

Elizabeth with her Reserve Grand Champion Sim Solution heifer @ the AJCA Thanksgiving Classic

 

 

 

                 

 

                          

 

 

 

It has been rather busy around here lately.  We have been busy trying to do school work, fight a nasty cold bug and the holidays.  We had a really good Thanksgiving with all the trimmings, but while everyone  else was out shopping on Black Friday we were out livestock showing.  We had a big show on Thanksgiving weekend and the kids and calves all did well.  We have another show this upcoming weekend and that should be it till after the first of the year.  We have so much to be thankful for this year.  God has been so good to us.  Everytime we have needed something He has just been right there for us.  I don't know how people who do not have a close relationship with the Lord can make it.  He is my rock.  This is going to be a long winter for us, because of the shortage of hay, but I know He is going to see us through it somehow!  The Lord is also working in different areas of our lives right now, He has been dealing with us about where we attend church or as of lately not been attending.  We are struggling so much with this right now.  I pray we do His will and not our will, but sometimes that seems like a mighty hard thing to do. We covet your prayers right now.   Other than those things all is well on our little homestead. 
God bless ya,
Tara

Lovely weekend

Civil War days at a local state park. These two pictures were taken year before last.
And we all know why I don't have new pics;(

We had a great day Sunday at Civil War days. Got to see a re-enactment of a battle and of course JC loved it. We toured the old homes, dipped some candles and enjoyed the afternoon.
I also met some new friends, some other homeschool mom's and some that even blog! I am hoping to get to know them better. I love meeting other like minded folks! Last night after we got home we left out and went and picked up Josh's new show heifer. She didn't come off the trailer to well last night, knocked down all the fans and just was not happy, she seems to be somewhat better this morning, so maybe just maybe she will be calm enough by this evening to start working. We plan on staying home this week and working on school work and new calves. I have a new recipe to try this week and it is a banana peanut butter muffins. If they turn out well I will post the recipe.

This weeks menu:
Monday: Chicken strips, macaroni and cheese, and green beans.(all from scratch of course;)
Tuesday: Taco soup, cornbread
Wednesday: Deer steak, fried potatoes and cabbage
Thursday: BBQ sandwiches and chips. (made from a pork roast that will be cooked in the crock pot all day)
Friday: Hamburgers

Not to fancy of meals this week for sure. I want to really get a lot of school work done this week, and I wanted meals to be easy.
I normally don't plan a menu for breakfast or lunch because we normally have the same things toast, cereal, oatmeal, grilled cheese, or grits for breakfast and lunch is normally left overs from the night before or salads. This week though I did plan on making a big batch of Chicken salad for us to have for lunch and guacamole dip too!!!

I also am going to make a batch of those muffins and a batch of sausage biscuits to put in the freezer for my hubby to have to grab every morning to eat on the way to work.
God bless ya till next time.
Tara

Homestead happenings

Well today was another typical busy day in our household. This week we have been home quiet a bit and I have loved it. We have been busy with school work and trying to catch up somewhat. J.C. and I did a nature walk this week and did a leaf collage and studied why God makes the leaves change colors. We have just been doing normal everyday feeding of cows and calf watching. We still have two that have not calved on their dates and I am concerned that maybe something has happened, I will probably take them in another week and have them pregnancy checked. Elizabeth is working with the new heifer and we will pick Josh's up sometime Sunday or Monday. The boys have been busy hunting and Josh got the first deer of the season. I bragged on him that he is growing up and helping to feed his family, he thinks it's just fun, but I on the other hand love the idea of fresh meat in the freezer. He is even learning to process and wrap it. I would have pics, but we all know why I don't have any LOL;(
This is the season of thanks giving and we have a lot to be thankful for this year. God has blessed us with so much it is too numerous to say. I hope that you take the time and think about and thank Him for all he has done for you and your families. May God bless ya,
Tara

Busy days and State Fair update

We have been very busy around here, nothing exciting just regular stuff. We made it through State Fair ok. We were there for 6 nights and boy were we glad to get home. Unfortunately I do not have any pics because while there I lost my camera. The shame I know. I have been sick ever since we have been home over it. At least everything so far this year had been downloaded to my computer and the only thing lost was State Fair pictures. The kids did well, both got 2nds in thier classes, both got pulled in for the grand drives, but to no avail no reserve grands. Josh did however get 3rd in commercial heifer showmanship and we were very proud of him for that. Jeff's truck is currently in the shop right now. He was trying to change the plugs and broke one off into the head and so needless to say we had to put it in the shop. We already have one of the new show heifers and are working on getting another one. We are not going to get much of a break we will have a Thanksgiving show to attend and the kids are very excitied about this one.
This is a month of thanks and I thank God for all His blessings he has poured on us this year. God bless ya,
Tara

Another one done!

Well another show is done. I didn't get a whole lot of good pics of things, I was
To busy running around. Josh won his class, but should have got grand. I won't
linger to long on that one, or I might show my ugly side, and trust me it's not pretty.
Elizabeth won the Grand Maintainer show. We are all very tired and are now
getting ready for State Fair.

Josh with his heifer

Elizabeth with her heifer

Waiting her turn.

The guys who worked on the calves for us did an AWESOME JOB!!!
NO one can fit like they can.

Well as for us we will now rest a little bit today and then we will be off and running again.
God Bless ya,
Tara

Been a busy day for sure, made a trip to town for supplies and feed. It was supposed to be just a short trip, but too all day. My goodness everyone is grouchy here today. It seems everyone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. We all went to bed like that last night. Why is it teenagers think that they know everything and that we moms and dads have idiot plastered over our head.LOL If we make it through these teenage years we will be doing good!

Watched a very good movie on you tube tonight its called "180"moviehttp://www.180movie.com/
It will move you and give you lots to think about. We are a firm conservative family who does not believe in abortion, this movies showed what people think about it and their religious beliefs. It is so sad that there are so many people that are going to die and go to hell and they think it's just going to be a big party. Well folks that is the farthest thing from the truth. If you do not repent of your sins and ask God to forgive you and believe that God sent His son Jesus Christ to die for our sins that is exactly where you are going, and while there you will be tormented with darkness, pain and fire. But, the good news is that we are given a choice and it's a free choice for us paid by the Son of God, Jesus Christ. If you don't know Him I urge you to stop right now and repent, and give your life to Jesus. I promise you that life as you know it will never be the same.
God Bless,
Tara

A new goody!

Well we got a new goody this week. A new truck !!!!

Well new to us. It's a King Ranch F250 super duty truck, it is a diesel and I love it. My other truck was literally falling to pieces. We can only say it was by the grace of God that we got it. It was very quick, we came in drove it filled out the paper work and picked it up the next day. We have never been able to do something like that before. God is an ever loving and merciful one. God knew that we needed that truck , mine was on it's last leg. God is good.

Other than that nothing special going on. We are gearing up for another livestock show this week and hoping to take home supreme heifers. Hubby will be home this week and so he is going to try and get some brush hogging done and maybe get my fall garden planted and some firewood cut. I am looking forward to cooler day for sure. I don't like the cold but cooler would be nice.

We have 4 new baby calves so far and they all seem to be doing well considering our feed situation. Hopefully our feed will be delivered this week also.
I tried something new this month and tried to do a months worth of groc. in one day. I got lots of stuff, but this is going to take some work if I plan on doing it again, my list didn't cover everything like I needed it too. As busy as we are going to be for the next month I was trying to at least make something easier. LOL.
God bless ya,
Tara

Another show

Well there is one more down and two more to go for the year.
The kids did great, both won their classes with the maintainer and the exotic commercial heifer. Josh got in the top 5 in his age division is showmanship he was against 50 others. Elizabeth got in the top 7 in her age division,
I am a proud momma.

Future Hero

I have a little boy who dreams of being a hero one day!

He is only 6 and wants to be a soldier. He spends his
days making forts and running too and fro on this
old farm. He comes in the kitchen every morning and
says "mom, I'm off to fight the enemy, I'll be back"
I give him a kiss and off he goes. He'll come back in a while later
to tell me he's back and gives me all the details of where his patrol was and what his captain made him do. Imagination is running wild. He gives me another kiss, this time it's usually
a stinky one, but I love the smell of stinky sweaty dirty little boys.

I can't imagine ever sending this sweet little boy off to war one day,
but I am ever so grateful to the mom's of our American Soldiers who have
sent their little boys off to war to keep my little soldier safe.
And sadly lots of them didn't make it home to kiss their mommas.

We are so fortunate to live in this country, and many of us don't even know it.
I want to thank God for the men and women who are out there right now protecting us and for God allowing me to live in this place and for the sweet children he has blessed me with.
God bless America!

The sword you see was made by his grandfather. It is
a favorite of his, who needs fancy plastic toys when you have a
wooden sword.

First baby calf of the year

Well we have our first baby calf of the year and as you can see she is a dandy. She is so small. Her momma is a first time heifer calf and so between that and the drought this summer with us being low on feed stuff she is small. We saw her and mom on top of the hill as we were heading out to go to town one afternoon. She looked well that evening, but by that morning she wasn't looking to good. Mom hadn't even made a bag and was stepping all over her so we brought her to the house and gave her a bottle of colostrum. We then ran her mom across the road and put her in the front lot of the barn. I thought if they were confined a bit and the mom could get a little more feed they would do well. Well the next morn we went to check and they were both in the front lot and little one seemed to be trying to nurse more. I don't know what happened but the mom is an idiot she decided that being in the lot for one whole night was enough. She jumped the fence and litteraly got tangled up and was hung in the barbed wire. We had to cut her out. We got the fence fixed and no more done that then she jumped the gate. So we said to heck with it. We put her and the calf back across the road and as of earlier today the little one was nursing well and wagging her tail while doing so. Which by the way is a very good sign. We will just have to watch her closely for a while and see how they do. We have about 3 more that is due in the next week, so we are keeping a closer eye on everyone. We will have a steady progression of calves from now untill spring, our original cows will be having calves around Feb and March and the new ones we bought are going to calve from now untill the end on Dec. We are in the midst of a crisis here on our farm and that is NO HAY. The drought has everyone scrambling for hay and people are being ripped off left and right. There are a lot of people that are going to have to pay for charging 100 bucks a role to people who are desperate for it. We are desperate, but I just can't spend that. So I have been on the phone all day trying to come up with something else and I am about to get panicky. Please say a prayer for us. I know that the Good Lord gave us these cows this year and I know He is going to help us feed them.
God bless until next time,
Tara

Well County fair has come and gone. We had a good week all in all.
Elizabeth won Grandchampion Maintainer heifer and Senior showmanship
Josh won Reserve champion commercial heifer and Reserve steer and he won Junior
showmanship. JC got a little ribbon for showing as a pee wee. Elizabeth also won best of show
with one of photos. We are just now recovering, it was dreadfully hot, but we made it.
Thought I would share some of the pictures.

The calves, don't they look good. Considering its been an average 108 degree days.
The first one is Elizabeth's then Josh's heifer and little steer.

Josh is waiting his turn in the show ring

Josh with his heifer during the premium sale.

Elizabeth doing her thing!

Elizabeth in showmanship.

JC waiting his turn to mutton busttin.

He didn't last but about 4 seconds, but the first thing he said was
"do I get to go it again" and he was all grin.

JC showing the little steer in the Pee Wee showman ship.

One down and 3 more shows to go.