My stories...

I got two more pictures to post, but nothing else...sorry.

Okay, so I'll post one of the stories I wrote on here and the other, there is a link. Both were for contests, which I didn't place in. The second one (posted here) is horrible, but I'll not make excuses. The first one (the link), I thought was quite good. I spent a lot of time working on it, but it seems that I didn't put enough sexual content to win first place (I didn't put any). If I had know they were looking for that kind of stuff I wouldn't have bothered entering. Although the link is to a Harry Potter fanfiction site, so...beware. And I am a converted Severus Snape/Hermione Granger fan, so that's the pairing of the piece. I know it sounds weird, but there really is only 19 years difference between the two...weirder things have happened! The second one had to be Flash Fiction (1000 words or less) and it had to involve a flood (interpreted however I wanted). But most of the review I got on that one said they couldn't understand the story. But it's hard to fit a whole story in under 1000 words! If you'd like to comment, really be honest. Don't worry about my feelings, I'd rather get the bad news now and know what I need to improve upon then get it down the road when it's really crucial.

First story: How Severus Stole Christmas

http://www.thepetulantpoetess.com/viewstory.php?sid=12194

(I don't know enough about HTML tags to make this an actual link...sorry, you'll have to cut and paste)

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Second story: Understanding

Dalton tromped through the marshy swale. He dourly scanned his surroundings, focused on his impending fate. He turned his attention to the naked trees surrounding him, arms outstretched toward the heavens praying for the early spring rains to pour upon them, bestowing greenery to their bodies. Dalton too looked up for understanding to rain down and redeem him. Sighing, he continued his search for his unsuspecting victim.

Deep in thought, Dalton unknowingly trudged past the little elf crouching in the tall grass watching with glassy eyes. Perceiving another presence Dalton swung around. Standing at full height, the elf spread his arms up and chanted in foreign tongue. The spell swallowed Dalton. Empowered with the spell’s meaning – he controlled destiny. Despite the motives for his choices, fate would shift to his needs and wants.

Dalton could here a faint grunt followed by a slightly louder thump, the sounds continued to repeat. “Urggg”…Thump! The sky gray with storm and the air full of unease, he silently drew closer. Spying a little cottage, he investigated around back; there was the man he’d been searching for. Unbeknownst to Dalton’s presence, the man continued to chop wood. A leer splayed on Dalton’s face as he relished in the feeling of what he was about to do. Just as the ax swung down Dalton shouted, “General!”

Recognizing the voice the General panicked, the ax veered off course, a sickening thud sounded as it sank into his foot, sticking. Crying out in pain, he tentatively extracted the tool. Blood spilled from the wound and soaked his leather shoe. Slowly spinning on the spot, General Gratin winced and faced his intruder. Even through the evident pain, recognition could be read in his eyes, quickly changing to fear. Gratin composed himself despite the agony.

“So you’ve finally found me. I’ve been expecting this day for sometime,” Gratin said, trying to appear calm. He pushed the wood off and sat down on the chopping stump; grimacing as he gingerly adjusted his wounded foot, blood still seeping out of the gash.

“Are you going to deny me the privilege of a fight, General?” Dalton questioned,

“Like you denied it from me in battle?”

Gratin replied with a smirk.

“If you are here to kill me I will defend myself, but I will not play games.” Gratin’s voice slightly quivered.

The General casually leaned over and picked up the hatchet lying next to the bloodied ax. Leaning over, he pulled out a swatch of fur-covered leather and polished the blade.

“What do you think happened in battle all those years ago? That I betrayed you? I was saving you! I did what had to be done.” Gratin spat.

Lies! It had taken years for Dalton’s memory to recount clearly.

Dalton searching for his fallen weapon, the elf approaching, their eyes locking with understanding. Abruptly General Gratin slashed his sword – the slice sending a shock through Dalton as the elf was struck. Realizing the next blow was for him; lunging forward into Gratin’s torso and the butt of the sword coming down upon his head. Darkness.

Dalton had stood impassively in the same spot the entire time. He’d watched the General pick up the hatchet and knew its purpose. Dalton was unfazed. Fate had bestowed a gift. Destiny would change with his will. His life was law, he could not die or fate would cease to exist.

“You tried to kill me!” Dalton screamed.

“The elf should’ve come to me, not you!” Gratin glowered then flung the hatchet.

Dalton refused to move, fate would provide. The weapon rotated beautifully and sunk into Dalton’s right shoulder. Staggering, he regained his balance and surveyed his injury with a sharp inhale. He delicately extracted the blade from his body, blood freely flowing. Upon inspection he noticed the wound wasn’t extensive. Fortune had smiled upon him; Gratin was powerless before him.

“You can’t kill me, fate and I have united! You may have delayed it Gratin, but destiny was not deterred!” Dalton mocked.

The sharp jabs of pain and rapid swelling drew Dalton’s attention back to his body. This was no ordinary wound.

“Surprised? I didn’t throw it to kill you, just wound you.” Gratin confessed. “I already told you, I’ve been waiting…and preparing. This leather’s laced with the deadly venom of the Hydros snake. You will never find the antidote, your death is imminent.”

Dalton questioned fortune. He had come to avenge not only himself but fate as well; Gratin must pay for the setback.

The pain shifted to a dull wave throbbing through him. Instantaneously, he transformed into an ox. The venom must contain hallucinogens; there was no other explanation. As death approached, he released his bowels. Nothing was making sense. The pain of the venom intensified – confused, he turned in a circle. Stumbling over his many legs, he fell into his steaming dung. Strained breathing, he lay humiliated feeling cursed rather than blessed by destiny.

Gratin staggered over, with fearful eyes.

“No! What are you doing?” Gratin screamed in rage.

The jabbing pains subsided. Immediately Dalton’s strength returned despite his wound. He climbed to his feet, bowed his head and impaled Gratin. The General gargled a moment and then was still.

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Rain poured as he ambled lost through the swale, questioning fate for humiliating him instead of rescuing him. Couldn’t fate have just killed Gratin? Why had he transformed. He had hoped it was hallucinogens from the venom, but he was still an ox, wandering lost.

The ground rumbled. Suddenly consumed in a flood of chilly water, Dalton struggling to swim. The current was too fast; he was going to die a bovine. Instantly he transformed into an otter. Comprehension surfaced, fate hadn’t humiliated him. It had redeemed him. The ox dung must have been the cure! And now he was an agile swimmer able to withstand the surging water.

Floating on his back, Dalton searched the skies; thankful they had answered the prayers of the naked trees – sending rain and his needed understanding.

New Year Again!

Geesh! These years are going by fast. Well, I guess that means I'm busy. I am just going to upload a bunch of pictures and hopefully they will come up. News...well we've added four more goats to our original two, so now we have six! I think that's enough to say we have a herd. We got a wether (castrated) a buck and two females. So sometime this month we should have the girls go into estrus (in heat) and our expensive little buck will do his thing and around May or June we'll have four more baby goats! And milk! Wonderful, free milk. And all the cheese, cream and ice cream you can think of! Our evil plan is working! (name that movie).
Well, we have great news. Spencer got promoted at work, he is now a full time teacher and he gets a lot more money with it. So if we keep living like we're doing, we should pay off our debt really quickly. He is going to do really well as a teacher. The lady they canned was terrible...she just isn't teaching material. So hopefully he can get those kids back on track. I am taking my Orson Scott Card class this sememster...the first class is next week. I am a bit nervous, but I hope it teaches me a lot. I entered two pieces in writing contest the past two months but didn't get anything. One got terrible reviews...I learned so much! And the other piece I got a five star rating, and 18 reviews full of praise and a couple of people marked my story as a favorite on the website. So that was encouraging.
My primary calling at chruch is going well. We have a lot of fun with the kids. Spencer is the Ward Choirister and we had a great Christmas program. He's trying to start a class to teach people music on Wednesdays so that they can learn and maybe join the choir, or just sing better in church.

Meredith is growing so much. She is coloring almost completely in the lines now...I'm not sure when that milestone is supposed to be reached, but Spencer says that she colors better than all the kids in his elementary class, but they are Emotionally Disturbed along with other problems...so I don't know if that's saying much. She was doing really well with her potty training, and then it just went out the window. She refuses to sit on the potty and she goes in her panties. So we went back to diapers for a bit and we'll see if a break helps.
Xavier is a smart little guy. As Gary would say, he's "Jolly". Which he is. He's always so happy, he giggles and laughs, easy to please...unless it's night time and then he turns into the Devil. Sleep? What's that? I'm slowly becoming an insomniac. I guess I'll get some sleep when the kids are married and gone. Right? He is crawling (kind of...more of an army crawl). He can sit up too. He eats non stop and he loves food, any kind, any time, any where. He thinks Meredith is the greatest, and she loves to preform for him too. But she doesn't like to share with him yet. If he crawls into her room she will physically push him out and try to put up the gate to keep him from her toys. She will grit her teeth, run up to him and yank away whatever he is holding that she thinks is hers. But if he's in the crib, she wants to get in. If he's in the playpen then she wants to join. If he is having a bath, she takes her clothes off. She doesn't get jealous but she gets attention hungry.

Well, of course the rest of these pictures will not load. Sorry! One day I'll just put them on facebook...one day. But not today, the beans in the pressure cooker are done. Time to make some chili!

Holiday Rush

Okay, so as you have all know seen, I am a liar! I said that I would make more regular posts, and here I am a month and a half later, and I'm writing my post. I guess it's just getting to the point where blogging has lost its interest for me. I just don't feel it. Anyway, I know I have tons of you who love it, send me emails wanting more updates, calling, blah, blah, blah...so I will continue to update, but I don't think it will be every week - ever. Sorry folks!
Well, so back at Halloween I went to a Harvest Party at a friend of ours. They have this super nice farm about 45 minutes away and we had a ton of fun. It was a pot luck thing, so I made a spider and eggs out of dinner rolls. It was great. You got to make cold cut sandwiches out of it. They let us milk their cow too. It was awesome! I can't wait until we can milk our own goats. Xavier was a dinasour, it helped keep him warm. It was a bit chilly outside. Meredith didn't dress up, but I don't think she minded. She has more fun with the cow and pigs.
For Thanksgiving we went to a friend's house. It was nice to not have to cook. The food was great, and we met a lot of people too. And we got to play Bachi Ball too! I love that game. Meredith found some kittens on the front porch and fell in love. She wanted to take one home so badly. She cried pretty hard when it was time to let it go. I felt so bad. Miss Sophie wont play with her, and this cat was pretty well tempered. But we don't really have a need for cats. If Meredith made a pet out of it, it wouldn't be a mouser.
One of our hens got all broody and layed a nest of 10 eggs. She dutifully sat on them until they hatched, then left them alone. Out of the 10 only three hatched completely, and only two were ever found. One was found drowned in the water bucket and Julia by chance went outside and almost stepped on the last one. She brought it in and we weren't home. She didn't know what to do with it, so she just held it by the wood stove so it would stay warm. We found a box and a lamp and set it up. But the chick didn't live a week. Meredith played a little too hard with it on the second day and it seemed to recover, but it was lifeless three days later. Spencer went outside and snapped its neck to put it out of its misery. Next time our hen lays all the eggs we will put them in a brooder on our own and hatch them.
So Spencer is done with his semester. He only has three classes left and student teaching. We were praying he'd get the job to teach this spring, but the school he works at doesn't have enough students to need another teacher yet. So in the fall he should get the job. It's a big pay raise, so it would help if he got it soon, but they need 12 more students and I don't see that happening in three weeks time.
Xavier is sitting up for short periods of time, and he's trying to crawl. He gets all all fours and sways back and forth. But he plops back down and then drags himself across the floor army-style. He has his two bottom teeth and it hurts bad when he bites. He loves sweet potatoes, carrots, crackers, applesauce and bananas.Meredith is talking a mile a minute now. She says words I didn't even know she knew. She is doing wonderfully with her potty training. She loves to wear "pampies" and she usually does a great job sitting on her "poppy" when she has to go. But when it's time to poop she usually goes in her pampies. When she goes potty, she throws her hands in the air and yells, "Yeah!! Skikers!" and she gets a couple stickers for going in the potty.I went to the bathroom the other day and she tried to go get me some stickers and reward me. It was so cute. When she goes potty at church while in nursery and we give her stickers, she passes them out to the other kids. It's so nice to see her sharing her reward with others. We didn't even ask her to, she just does it. I entered my first story into a competition last month. It didn't do great, but I got an average rating of 3.17. But I honestly learned a lot. I have another two I'm entering this month. I should be able to get one down a month on average. I find it really difficult to cater to what they are looking for in the story. It's good practice. I am so nervous for this Orson Scott Card class next semester. I am still trying to find a babysitter for Wednesdays so I can go, but I don't want to impose on anyone.
I am really enjoying my Primary calling, but I feel like I am doing Sharing Time every Sunday. I'm not, but it feels like it. I'm not complaining, but I just feel like the kids might get tired of seeing me infront of them every week. Spencer has been called as Music Chairman, Ward Chorister and Choir Director. He really doesn't want to do anything with music, but he is the most qualified in the ward. I think he does a wonderful job though, not that that helps.
Well, as usual, my pictures wont upload. I'll try to get them to go up on facebook and on here later. If you aren't on there, you should join and be my friend! Well, Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!

Autumn Activites

The changing of seasons tends to mean work in our household. We have so much to do to prepare for winter that we find ourselves busy all the time. It happens to be Walnut season, so we spent a few minutes every couple of days picking up the fallen nuts and putting them on a tarp. We then ran them over with the car to open up the fruit, (which resemble in looks and scent that of a lime) and then pulled out the nuts.Then they have to air dry a bit so now they are in our storage room. We did about a five gallon bucket full and that was it. We don't think we'll be able to use all those walnuts anyway. So the rest just go to the chickens. But the fun part of it was while we were opening up all the fruit, sometimes they would be rotten inside and it would be covered in maggots. Meredith took them under wing and adopted all the little maggots. She got a bucket and began to collect them. So would hold them a little too tight and they'd die, unbeknownest to her. She even tried to bring her "pets" into the house. But that is where I drew the line. I remember playing with maggots when I was her age with my cousin Sarah. They were our pets too. But we found ours in a garbage can, not in a walnut.

Meredith has been undergoing potty training. She seems to do well with it when she feels like it. She loves the rewards we give her. Usually it's a sticker to put on her poster and a piece of candy. She is always so proud of herself when she goes, as we are too...usually we're more excited than she is. She has even gone number two in the potty as well. For now I'm letting her run around the house bottomless and when she has to go she runs over to the potty. I keep it upstairs since I doubt a two-year-old bladder will wait until we make it downstairs to the bathroom. I think once we get to the point that she recognizes that she has to go we will move it downstairs and get her going in the bathroom. If we put on panties she just pees them, so it's bottomless for her.But of course we put on a diaper when we have company or when we are going out somewhere. She's too distracted with people to focus right and go in the potty. Once she walked in her room, closed the door, peed on the floor and came back out to tell me what she'd done. I then realized that she had been standing next to the potty when she decided to run to her room and go in there instead...I don't understand what she was thinking. Oh well, accidents are expected.

Xavier is the happiest baby I've ever seen...at least by day. He giggles at Meredith all the time and he loves to play peek-a-boo. This picture is just like the one we took of Meredith when was this age. He couldn't figure out what was on his face.He rolls over both ways, and he can sit up now. He can get his knees under him, but that's it...he's not pushing up on his arms yet though. Meredith calls him Xay-Xay. She just started, before that she called him Bebe. So at least she's trying his name. She is quite the little mother. She "feeds him" by lifting up her shirt and puts his head up to her chest so he can breastfeed. She likes for us to hold him on her shoulders and then she takes him around the house for a walk, it's what Spencer does to her. She feeds him with his spoon, but ends up gagging the little guy. But it's wonderful to see her being so concerned for him and helping me around the house. Her life revolves around herself, but when she looks past it, the first person on her list is Xavier...he's a lucky boy to have her as a sister. At night Xavier seems to think it funny to wake up and cry. I know babies do this, but not every morning at five. I mean, only one hour away from the alarm going off, why...why can't he just sleep one more hour? But it's getting to the point of annoyance.

I've been working on baking as of late. I rather enjoy cooking and think I'm somewhat decent at it. I still seem to stink at anything involving yeast. But I've made a few breakthroughs. I made some croissants which turned out to be better than anything we've ever had...except for those that we ate on our honeymoon in England. They were really easy too...just very time consuming. But the dough freezes well, so we just make a big batch and then freeze it so we can make more later. These have yeast, and yet I did really well with them, maybe because they are a type of pastry, and I love pastries and they love me. Then I made some English Muffins (sorry no pics) and Spencer almost wet himself with delight. He loves English Muffins. They are quite easy to make and don't take too much time for a bread-type food. They tasted better than what you get at the store and they were huge too! Lastly, I made some bagels. These were great, they took the least amount of time to rise and they were fun too. They boil first and then bake. Also, you can put goodies into them and they are best homemade. So now I feel better that my bread loaf never turns out the greatest. I'm glad I've found one of my talents after so long. I find cooking really theraputic and relaxing. If I find myself mad or upset, if I start baking I'll feel better almost immediately.

Well, we are winterizing the house and looking forward to the cooler weather. We're getting twenty-five more female chickens tomorrow because the demand for eggs is so high for us. We're getting four more goats in a few weeks and then going to mate them in late November, early December. We are having fun canning (thanks Gary and MaryAnn for the canner!) My book is constantly expanding and growing. We are really happy with life and hope you all are too. P.S. Don't forget to VOTE...I don't care who you vote for as long as you know the facts and you vote...so many people don't vote and that's stupid...if you don't vote, don't complain! Now I've said my two bits.

And the Beat Goes On...

My favorite word of the week has got to be: dour. I find it a wonderfully descriptive, and all inclusive adjective. I've found so many situations to fit it into and I'm having fun using around the house. I'm sure Spencer is sick to hear me use it. I can imagine his eyes rolling right now. I'm not saying I'm exhibiting this word, far from it. But I've found a use for it in my book and I'm happy to report that several of my characters will be quite dour indeed. It always make for a good story.

I am so excited! Tonight I get to meet Brandon Mull, the author of the Fablehaven series. He is wonderful. They are somewhat children's books; but I find them interesting since they are fantasy books as well. He is speaking at Southern Virginia University and I was invited by a professor to attend his class. It should be awesome. I'm so nervous.



Spencer is reading a book for one of his classes, it is, "Chasing Vermeer". A wonderful book for children, but it's a mystery. The children use these mathmatical blocks to help them solve the mystery. They are called Pentominoes, it's like saying Domino, but put the word Pent infront of it and take away the D...took me a while to figure it out. Anyway they are super awesome tools for thinking mathmatically, you have to get them to fit together and make a square or rectangle without any gaps or overlapping, there are thousands of solutions depending on how big of a square you make. I am going to the craft store to buy some small blocks, glue them togehter and make the twelve different shapes. They are named after letters of the alphabet, whichever they resemble the closest. I think they will be a great tool in homeschooling.

Meredith has been using the potty. We are so proud of her. She wont tell us when she has to go though, but if we take off her diaper and leave the potty out, she'll run and sit on it when she has to go. If she has a diaper on, she'll just use it. At least we are getting somewhere.

Xavier just went to the doctor and he weighs 15 pounds. He's dropped from the 90% to the 75%! But his height is only in the 50%...I want him to be tall, not short like me. Meredith already got that, so I hope he gets a growth spurt later on.

Meredith ate some poisonous berries yesterday, they are called Poke Berries. They grow on a plant called Pokeweed. I called poison control, and luckily, she'd only eatten a small amount so she was fine. If she'd popped in a few more she would have been puking, and if she'd eatten a whole bunch her respiratory system would have been paralized and she would have died. So we are going to be cutting down all these weeds soon. They are only toxic to mammals, so our goats shouldn't be near them either. But they are great for birds. So we acan just feed them to the chickens. Some people actually eat the leaves and berries in a salad...after they boil out the toxins. Weird! Why not just eat lettuce? Anyway, some websites state that these plants, once mature in late fall will glow in the dark, creepy. They are all over here in Virginia, and I've lived here a while, and I've never seen anything glowing in the dark.

Here it is, by popular demand, a picture of our eggs. The first two are white eggs that come from our leghorns. The first egg has a double yolk. You can tell because it's so much larger than the first. And no, if this egg were to be fertilized, it would not be twins. The yolk is the food for the baby chick, the white is the part that becomes the chicken. This is why chicks can live without food for the first few days and are able to be shipped across the country to farms. Nature did this so that the chick would have food while waiting for the fellow eggs to hatch. The hen doesn't let you out until all or most of the eggs have hatched, so they would starve before getting food if they were the first egg to hatch. The third egg is a brown one from our only female Astro. she is a beautiful hen, and the rooster is beautiful as well. The egg can seem a bit purple, or maroon, but it's supposed to be brown. And the last two are from our Americanas. The fourth egg is green while the last egg is blue. It's hard to tell the difference, but heck, you can at least tell it's not the normal white egg in the grocery store. They are quite mild compared to store brand eggs, the yolks are almost orange. The actually remind me of the color of the yolk in the Cadburry Easter Eggs. We have a few people buying some. I know organic eggs sell for a lot in the store, but our chickens are going to lay eggs whether or not we sell them, so we aren't charging huge amounts. If anyone close by wants eggs let us know, we'll see if we can supply some to you.
Well, it's back to my book. I have to learn how to write imagery, which I apparently stink at.

Also, one last note. I am grateful to all of you who read my blog, and love it. I love each of your blogs as well. And I do read them. I just hate posting things because I have dial-up. IF and WHEN we get high-speed, I will be more faithful in posting comments. It just takes all my patience to make my own blog, as well as pull up everyone elses. So by the time I read your blogs, I find that I cannot stand waiting another ten minutes to say what I wanted to. Beside, by then I've told myself I was going to say something stupid as a comment anyway and you wouldn't want to hear it. I hope you all don't think this blog thing is one sided. Sorry!

Same Old Stuff

I have been writing my book for the past month and I am really getting some great ideas. I have a book called "Writing Fiction Step by Step" that is helping me some perfect my book. I am really trying to be positive that I can pull of an actual book, and eventually a seven book series. Speaking of books, a friend of ours, Jeff Benedict (also an author of several books) teaches a class at SVU. He is having a guest speaker, Brandon Mull, this semester. He invited me to come to his class that day to listen to him. For those of you who don't know who Brandon Mull is, he is one of my favorite authors; he is currently writing a series called "Fablehaven". It's a children/youth series, but it's fantasy so I have to read it. I am so excited to get to hear him speak at the end of September. I am trying to rub this in Charlie's face since he is a fan of the series as well, (and my mother too!)
We have our goats now too.They are named Cameo and Topaz...they came with the names. They are both does and we are looking to breed them in November. Another friend of ours said he can help us find a buck to sire the kids. So hopefully by February or March we will have our own milk (a goat has to have a kid before it can produce milk...some people don't realize this so I'm answering it before it's asked). Milk is expensive, it costs more for a gallon than gas does - nearly four dollars!
Our chickens are now giving eggs as well. We have some small rose colored ones, and some tan eggs too. Our Americanas are giving us blue and green eggs too! It's really fun to see what Spencer brings in every morning and evening. Our ducks have been laying too, but Ida (our dog) keeps eatting them. We had to build a house that she can't get into so we could keep the eggs for ourselves.Meredith is just the little artist! She loves to draw, paint, create, you name it, she wants to try it out. She can draw animals now...they are somewhat recognizable...her favorite animal to draw is a cow, followed closely by the horse. And she remembers days later what it was suppose to be, so it makes sense to her at least.
We've reached the stage where it's hard to understand what she's trying to say to us. She slurs her words and sometimes they don't seem to make sense. I feel so bad not understanding her, I know she's trying to communicate, but it makes no sense! I would hate to be misunderstood all the time.
Spencer's new job started two weeks ago. But school hasn't offically started yet, not until Tuesday. They have eight students so far for this special needs school. The name of the place is Rivermont. It's small with lots of teachers and councelors to help the kids on a more intimate level. It should be interesting. He is the only guy and there is a lot of drama with all the women. There will be another guy working there, and he and Spencer are friends...we go to church with them, so it should help. Spencer needs other guys there or he might go insane!Meredith loves the animals. We just put her inside the fence and she will play forever. And I don't have to worry about her getting out...it's electric. And trust me she knows better than to touch that fence! We all touched it and she will not soon forget how that feels. It hurts. But she's more interested in herding the goats in and out of the barn, or trying to rake up the straw. She loves to feed them too. She always goes out with Spencer in the afternoons to feed the animals and gather eggs. Today she held about five chickens. She is an animal lover. It's nice to have her with them while you're out in the garden. That way she's not stepping on the tomatoes, or eatting all the raspberries. It's a lot of room for her to play in too.
The goats like to taste us...it feels like they are trying to eat your clothes. They grab a piece of the fabric and start to "chew". But since goats only have teeth on the bottom they obviously can't eat your clothes. They will sit there and gnaw at it, but all it does is accumulate goat spit. They bleat all the time and even headbutt the dog when she nips at them. They are going to take some time getting use to millking...very jumpy when you try to touch their utters. We are planning on getting 2-4 more pretty soon. So we should have some ice cream all the time, as well as fresh butter and heavy whipping cream. For free! All it costs is $13 for the bag of feed and that covers for maybe six months! They just eat the hay in our field, and the leaves off of bushes and trees, the especially love the thorny plants and weeds. Xavier is doing really well. He is such a good baby. I get compliment on him all the time. He is beautiful and chubby. He only wakes up twice a night and he sleeps a lot during the day too. He is just a big eatter. He loves to smile, coo and suck on his fingers. He's drooling a lot, so we think he is beginning to teeth already. He has learned how to roll over from his belly to his back and he always looks so confused and startled as to how he got in that position.
Well, I have about four more pictures, but they are not loading. It's been about fifteen minutes and they will not pop up. I'm sorry I will have to try tomorrow. That's basically it. It's getting late here and I'm falling asleep. I will try to update on a more regular basis from now on.

For the Beauty of the Earth

So it's been almost a month since I've written on here...wow does time fly! We have been super busy this summer. And we haven't even finished yet! At the beginning of the month we went to VMI for the 4th of July. Meredith had a blast before hand, but got really bored with the fireworks. After the third or fourth one she was done. Then on the 6th we had Xavier's baby blessing. We had a house full that day! It was really nice though and we were able to feed everyone with food mainly from our farm.

Then my two youngest brothers stayed with us for almost two weeks helping us on the farm. We got the bathroom painted, the classroom painted, and the stairwell too. They took care of the animals outside and helped pick vegitables in the garden...as well as eat them too (they weren't too keen on the eating part). They put up the electric fence around the barn for our animals and mowed our huge lawn. They really helped out and we were really grateful to have them over and spend time with us...it was a lot of fun.


While they were here the County Fair took place. Julia entered some Chocolate Chip Mint cookies and won 2nd place! I entered a Chocolate Zucchini Cake and won 3rd place, and also my really good Autumn Apple Pie which won 1st place!!!!! I was so stoked! I have a blue ribbon pie. And I am not modest about it in the least...okay I am. But I'm still really proud. Next year I'm going to enter in some artwork and if I can finish it, some cross stich too. I also want to enter in more baked goods. Spencer is going to enter in some veggies, because when we saw the competition we realized we had produce just as good as theirs. It was so much fun. Meredith loved the animals. We spent most of the time walking up and down the barns looking in the stables at all the 4H and FFA animals. Xavier's favorite exhibit was the quilts. He loved the colors. The third place quilt was his favorite. He was just laughing away at it...or at least the big red ladybug on it.I am told that the colors babies are most receptive to is black, white, and red...well he was very receptive! I guess I love the fair so much because my favorite musical is "State Fair". I am thinking about entering my pie into the state fair in two months, but I'd have to drive up one day to enter it in and then come back in a few days to see what ranking I recieved. And that's a lot of driving just for a pie (the fair is in Richmond). And it costs for admission into that fair as well.
Then to tell the boys "Thank You" for helping us I took them over to the Natural Bridge Cavern...which is the deepest cavern on the East Coast, or so they say. It was nice...but not a very long tour. Which turned out fine for me because Xavier got hungry half way through so I was trying to feed him. And Meredith was a bit scared at the new surroundings and wanted only me to hold her and then got jelous while I was feeding Xavier. And she kept crying "Mommy! Mommy!" so I would hold her and it echoed loudly and made it hard for the others on the tour to hear the tour guide. And she didn't like that the guide kept stopping to explain different rooms in the cavern and she kept trying to wander off in the darkness. Oh it was lovely fun.
I took the boys back up to Ohio, to their new house right outside of Kirtland, OH.So I just had to go see the Mormon Historical Sites. It was really nice. I got to spend time with my family, except Kathryn who lives in AZ. I was there for a few days. We got to go play at Lake Erie. Meredith loved it. She is a collecter of rocks and this beach was nothing but smooth, colorful rocks.







So she tried to take a few home, but luckily got tired of holding them on the way back to the parking lot. It was a nice visit...but very humid being right on the lake. While up there I got to visit the grave of a good friend of Spencer's, John Cutler. Turns out my parents moved into their old ward. They had just moved a few weeks before. It was nice to go pay my respects.Xavier went to the doctor this past Friday and got his first set of shots...he cried but only for a minute. But he weighs a whopping fifteen pounds and he's only two months old. Meredith didn't weigh that much until she was six months old. I have a fat, but healthy baby! I must produce pure fat in my milk!
Now that I'm back at my house I've done nothing but clean. Everything go so behind with projects left and right and not until today did it look somewhat recognizable. Last Saturday we spent most of the morning harvesting crops from the garden. We have so many vegetables that we were somewhat baffled with what to do with them. Gary and MaryAnn had said we could have their canner, but it didn't get down here in time...So we've just been freezing everything. All the corn is picked, shucked, blanched, cut off, bagged and frozen.

We ate the peppers ASAP as well as the carrots that were ready. We discovered that you can freeze tomatoes...so that's what we did...and will have to keep doing. We will have tomaotes coming up for a few more weeks as well. Our squash and zucchini is finished growing for the most part. Our green beans, or pole greens (whichever they are) are done for the season too. We must of had over 12 pounds of green beans alone these past few weeks. The peas never made it to a meal. Turns out they are Meredith's favorite! She also loves the cherry tomatoes a whole bunch and we only got 3/4ths of those into the house.

She was helping us pick them, but just kept eating them. The same thing with the corn. She just kept eating it raw...which is very tasty I might add (but gives you the runs so eat in moderation).


Our potatoes are going to be over 70 pounds when we finish harvesting them. We've been trying to eat those as fast as we can as well because we dug up more than we could handle right now.


Our butternut is looking really good too. The pumpkins are getting huge and I cannot wait for Thanksgiving. The cucumbers have turned out to be a bit of a problem.






We have so many that we honestly don't have room for them. I have never seen such huge cucumbers, some could be mistaken for watermelon (which we've harvested three of at the moment). I've pickled some, made some into salads, we are eating them raw at almost every meal. The chickens are sick and tired of the things too.


If anyone has any good cucumber recipes or preservation methods please let us know! If anyone around this area wants some let me know and I'll bring them to church. We also have some cantaloupe too which I hate but Spencer is enjoying. And last but not least, our ducks have started laying eggs. We are so happy! They are almost a full two months early on when they should be ready to produce eggs, so we weren't really expecting them, but Spencer found them on Saturday. We found another on Sunday morning so we fried it up and tried it out. It tasted awesome. It was so much more than a chicken egg. It was fresh...at most five hours fresh. It wasn't grainy in the yolk like a chicken egg can get, and it had a strong flavor that was very tasty. Hopefully the chickens will start soon too.






We are feeling blessed with the abundance coming from our farm garden this year. What I find amazing it that you can have one little plot of land full of the same kind of nutrients within and plant some seeds that all use those nutrients in their own special way and come up with some wonderful fruits. It's amazing how the Lord has made this world work, all the diversity is just amazing, and a silent testimony and reminder of his hand on this earth. I really love trying to be self-sufficient (except for the bug bites, those I could live without).