Little house on the prairie?

We have had a very busy day today from start to finish.  We ran up to Northern Indiana today to pick up Matilda.  I feel like I live in an episode of Little House on the Prairie with all the critters I have and how I love to get back to depending on ourselves and not the local Wal-Mart for all our needs.

Matilda is Jersey cow that is due to drop a calf in about 2-3 weeks.  I wanted a milk cow before I got my goat Mona but dad was in no way having it at the time.  After the cow prices went up and he seen I was serious about milking my goat he caved in and said he would get one but he was NOT milking her.  Notice he said HE would get it and not I COULD get it LOL looks like I got my cow and he got to pay for it. It dont get any better than that!  He has 2 beef heifers he is keeping to raise calves so she will just give him another calf every year.   I wont be milking my goat anymore but I am still keeping her and Marigold her doe kid from this year.  I am very attached to Mona and she is not going anywhere. 

Once we got home and I finally got to the rabbit barn I got 2 more litters of Giant Angoras.  One litter is all black and the other has REW and black in it.  One mother I am not thrilled with but its her first time so maybe she will improve as we go. 

One our way home from picking up the cow I could not help but think of how God has changed the person I am in major ways!  I use to spend so much time and money going out to get high or drunk and the only person that mattered was me I had no animals and lived life to what I thought was the fullest. I look back at that person and can't help but wonder what I was thinking and how could I have lived life in such a way.  I know there is a reason for it and God had a plan to take me from where I was and make me who I am now.  It is true what was wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. In fact not only is it true but it is totally amazing!  To be so blessed by God in so many ways even when we fail Him so often.  However no matter how often we fail and much we back slide He is always there and this holiday is proof of His love for us and I pray all of you reading this keeps in mind the sacrifice made by Christ and if your not on the right track with God take this Easter and get things right with Him.  If you need help or have never heard anything about salvation and want to talk my email is psalms121@rocketmail.com feel free to hit me up. I am off to help get everything ready for Easter dinner and break out the BFL batts I am going to start spinning God Bless!

Shearing done!

I was able to finish shearing all my sheep yesterday.  The new clippers from Premier ROCK!  I had such an easier time shearing than with other clippers it was amazing.  Fleeces look so much better than last year as well I am very happy with them and now comes the part trying to figure out what do with all of them!  I have had all year to think about it and have nothing.  Yes only I can do that but I do have a ton of Angora to put with it..  My favorite fleece is a toss up between my Moorit Shetland ewe and my BLF/BL cross ewe, I think she may win once I get them cleaned up and carded.  I also named 2 of the ewes that did not have names before, Big Booty Judy and Fatty Mcgee.  A couple of the ewes need to put on a little and these 2 ewes need some Jenny Craig!

My goal was to have all the wool in my stash carded or spun up before I sheared this spring.  Well that did not exactly happen either.  I still have a one white fleece in my stash, one mohair and some llama.  I did just get back some white yarn that is from one of our ewes and my angoras.  This is the first yarn from only my animals.  I have another batch of Alpaca up at Natural Fiber Works to be spun that will hopefully be back soon.  God Bless! 

Chestnut Giants

I thought I would post a couple pics of my 4 Chestnut Giant babies there are also 4 black bucks in this litter.  As you can see I quite taken with the Chestnuts.  I love the color and hope to add a few more to my barn.

Top 3 are bucks in the order I would place them at this age.  They are still pretty young so it would be easy for this to change.  The first 2 are so close its really hard to tell.  I had thought I have 2 does and 2 bucks but one of them changed their minds and wanted to be a boy.

This is the little doe I am keeping I believe.  She soo did not want to pose at all and was in a mood tonight as well.  Thats why she is the one I believe I am keeping if she turns out to be a brat she wont be sticking around.  All the bucks are sweet as can be and so is momma so hopefully she will out grow it.  I also took pics of the 4 black bucks tonight who are DARK black but I will try and post pics later of them.  God Bless!

Mission Work

It truly has been a busy month so far!  I have started shearing the sheep but after 5 my clippers broke, just my luck!  After all the issues I have had with them I just ordered a new pair from Premier and they should be here shortly so I can finish up. If I could find someone close enough I would have them do the shearing for me but no luck getting anyone to call me back.

About every weekend this month I have had some teen activities at Church other than the one weekend I went to some concerts with some friends church and some of their teens.  Last weekend we went up to Indy for a Teen rally which ended up being very small since so many were on Spring break.  We only took up 9 kids I think which is very light for us.  However we did have a very good time and hearts were touched.

This weekend was a special blessing, the teen group had made a challenge to the adults to see who would have more volunteers show up at the new Mission work in Brownstown IN.  A guy who goes to my church is starting a new church in Brownstown and today we went up to help them re-due the building they had donated to them.  There was only 9 teens again today but we beat the number of adults from our church so the kids did a great job!  It was awesome to see some of them working so hard to help build a new church as well.  One of the coolest things though is that the Macedonian Missionary Service has came up to help build the church.  They have completely gut the building and started rebuilding it.  I was able today to help some with siding which I have never done before.  I also worked with Brant Lane which was a special blessing to me as he and his other workers go all over the place building churches and helping in any way they can.  I have heard him preach before but this was the first time I have actually met and worked with him.  They were a huge help in building the church I belong to with the building and the new parking lot we have in the works as well.  He was a super nice guy to work with and took the time to explain things to me so I was able to help them.  There was another guy named Paul who works with him who I also was able to work with and talk about funny!  He always had something to say.  All in all God really blessed this weekend and this month!  I have had a some really good times and am really looking forward to some of the things we have planned in April to do with the teen group.  God Bless!

Martin and Marigold

I came home from work today went straight to the barn and found these 2 little cuties! 

Top pic is Martin and bottom is Marigold.  She is a very dark choc color with the same markings as her mother.  I have seen Marigold nurse and do a number 2 but not Martin yet.  Both seem to be strong and doing well and Mona is a very attentive mom. 

I am hooked already on these 2!  Hopefully the sheep start lambing in a month but may stretch out for some time I am afraid the Cormo cross ram did not do the best job covering ewes (he is a bit young) so I put the Shetland ram in with his bunch to get them all but will be late lambs on the ones missed by the first ram.  God Bless!

Baby Pics

I took advantage of the warm weather tonight and clipped some rabbits and got a couple pics of the Chestnut Giant Angora babies.  This was a fun picture to take everyone bouncing all over while trying to get pics.

There are 2 does and 2 bucks I am hoping to keep one doe myself.  There are also 4 blacks in the litter.  I clipped Dusty's Amazon Woman tonight and bred her as well.  She gave me 8ounces of prime wool about 4 inches long she weights a whopping 11.5 lbs!  Sorry for the dark pic it was getting darker out when I got her clipped. 

Hope you enjoyed the pics and everyone made it through the tornadoes that came through over the weekend.  They were 30 minutes south of us but where they did hit it is very bad!  God Bless!

Angora Yarns and Prayers

Oh how I have neglected all my readers!  Its have been forever since I have posted anything.  I have really enjoyed the winter so far here in Indiana the temps for the most part have been warmer and not too many freezing days or to much snow at all.  How nice it is not to have to bust water dishes and tanks all time! 

Today we had our 2nd Saturday Spin in and Hoosier Heartland Alpacas in Seymour IN.  I took along some Chestnut Giant Angora I carded up the night before.  I have been on an angora spinning binge this week and spun a little over 8 oz of pure angora.  I typically dont spin a hole lot of pure angora I have certain colors I am "going to spin" but the sit in my stash forever and I end up selling them.  I decided it was time to get busy and spin them up myself.  Here is a pic of 2 I have spun so far.

On the left is the second clip from a Smoke Pearl French Angora.  She was between coats so it is mostly just a creamy off white.  The right is my Chestnut Giant Angora she is mostly gray unfortunately because I really like that "tweedy" look you get from spinning Chestnut wool.

On another note I would like to ask everyone reading to please pray for my mom.  She had a brain aneurysm  March 9th will be 5 years ago.  She had to go for a brain scan Monday of this week and they found another one forming right beside the one they had fixed.  She goes back to the Drs on March 2 to see what they are going to do, weather it needs fixed or they are just going to watch it.  The first one busted at work and she was in the hospital for about a month or maybe a little better.  Most of that in ICU.  I am hoping since this one was found and has not busted it will not be nearly as hard on her to get it fixed when the time comes.  It was a very hard thing to watch her go through and I hope she never has to again.  On the plus side God has brought us through this one and she made a full recovery so I am sure He has plans for this as well.  He walked with His children and carries them in times of need.  I can't help but remember Romans 8:28   And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  In times like this He uses verses like this one to bring me comfort.  There is also a song by Casting Crowns Already There that I love and brings me so much comfort.  I can't seem to upload the video here so here is along to it.  Please remember Mom in your prayers God bless you!