As I'm sure you've noticed, I've been ready for Spring for over a month now.  We started some seeds, which are doing remakably well compared to previous attempts at seed-starting (don't get too excited, mostly just herbs, some hot peppers, and some tomatos to grow in the house).  The little snow we had was melting fast and I would say that half of our land was grass or spotty snow.  Just last week I saw the first of the spring flowers popping up through the ground.  I was getting excited for the girls who must be really looking forward to some nice fresh grass after all these months of hay and grain.

But, alas, we suffered a major set-back in this department yesterday when I awoke to a foot of wet snow on the ground and plenty more falling.  We donned our winter gear and headed out to see if we could get the snowblower going.  After ten minutes of frustration in the realization that the auger wouldn't be able to handle the heavy, wet snow, we gave in and I called in to work.

Though I wasn't exactly psyched to get such a significant snowfall, I have to admit, it was truly beautiful.  After giving up on the snowblower and its deafening noise as it choked through the snow back to its parking spot, we headed to the barn to feed everyone an early breakfast.  The sun hadn't yet come up and we enjoyed some quiet time before the world awoke. 

The girls happily munched away at their breakfast of grain and some nice second-cut hay that we found at Guys Farm and Yard over in Morrisville a few days ago.  The chickens scratched away at the ground, finding grain and bits of stuff we unearthed after cleaning out half of the old straw this past weekend.  The pigs, in their own shed, grunted and squeeked through their mix of grain and food scraps.

There is something just so pleasant about the sound of contently eating farm animals.  I think it is partially due to the frantic moments before everyone is fed, while everyone is demanding their breakfast, that we come to really appreciate the quiet afterwards.  We rush to feed the pigs before their squealing could bother the neighbors, and we quickly feed the goats before we're covered in hoof prints, then finally cast out grain for the chickens before they start trying to steal from the pigs and the goats.  Once its all said and done, and everyone has fresh, clean water, we can sit back and enjoy the peace.

Our life doesn't seem to lend itself to too many moments of peace.  There is always laundry to do, dishes to wash, dogs to exercise, animals to feed, pigs to move from the barn to their shed, water buckets to fill, eggs to collect, reading/studying to do, goats to check on, home renovations to tackle, not to mention our full-time jobs.  So, during these quiet moments before the sun comes up and the sense of urgency to get to work (in one sense or another)arises, we find a second to stand still, hold hands, and breathe deep.

I used to be extremely obessive about keeping my car clean.  Minus the head-on collision it had been in, it was practically brand new when I bought it a few years ago.  After a few months and about a thousand bucks in parts, my little red Scion XA was as good as new thanks to my husband and father-in-law.  It was the newest car I've ever owned (only a year old) and it wasn't teal green, unlike my previous two cars.  I had a 'no food or drink' rule for the longest time for fear of spoiling the spotless interior.  I even put down blankets when we would lay down the back seat for the dogs to ride in the back.  Those days are no more.  (Note: this image was snagged off Motor Trend as I don't have a photo of my car- it looks exactly like this minus the hubcaps which were lost during an unfortunate encounter with a Melissa-sized pothole.)

For about a month now I've had a tarp and a layer of gently-used straw in the back of my car.  We brought all 'the kids' up to my Mom's in Montgomery on January 1st for a late Christmas celebration and I never cleaned out the car after we returned home the next day.  At the time it was just from sheer laziness, then I reasoned that we'd have to bring May down to the breeder soon so we might as well leave it.  But now that she's been bred and I have no current plans to cart my girls around I have no excuse.

But I'm going to tell you a secret:
            I do have an excuse- I just like it there.

I got out of work Monday afternoon in a less than perfect mood.  It had been a long day and I was bummed about the rain which was spoiling my plans for the evening.  I trudged out to my car and as soon as I opened the door to escape the 'liquid sunshine' so intent on permeating my jacket, I was greeted by the smell wafting out of my car.  The hay and used straw had been steeping in the confined space of my small vehicle and the relative heat from the past few days had exponentially increased the aroma.  It's a sweet smell that strikes a chord in my heart.  That heavenly smell brings me back to childhood days in the horse barn with my Mom and reminds me of the beautiful things that I am a part of now.

It is so easy for me to get stressed and anxious (trust me, I do it all the time: I'm an expert) but when I think of the life we are bringing to our farm and the potential we are creating from our own hands, it brings me such peace and happiness.  Taking care of so many lives and running our home is no easy task.  We worry about sickness and disease.  Are our goats going to have healthy pregnancies and will their kidding be easy?  Will our garden be successful this year or will we continue to have to buy our produce?  We worry about things that would keep some people from venturing into a life like ours at all.

Things that used to seem so important are so trivial now; homesteading will do that to you.  It brings you back to earth and shows you in black and white what life is.  Its never easy and I can tell you for sure that we've still got a long way to go and a lot to learn, but I love it.  I love my life, and I love my dirty, straw-ridden car that smells like the barn.

Sunday began with a little well-deserved sleeping in.  I got up around 7-7:30 and plopped myself down next to Kyle on the couch.  Today we were making a run to Lowes with our various gift cards that we had been given for Christmas, birthdays, and a couple that I received for being awesome from my health insurance company.  So we started our list.  We needed to get almost a dozen sheets of drywall to finish the guest room and the closet, some drywall mud, tape, a light for the closet, and I wanted to look for a mirror or medicine cabinet for our bathroom upstairs.

The weather wasn't looking all that promising, with showers in the forecast it was going to be quite a gamble to try to haul drywall from Lowes back to our house (a good 40 minute drive) without getting it soaked.  We loaded up a tarp and some ropes, just in case, and headed out.  First stop was Jana's in Jeffersonville where they make the best donuts in the world, for some breakfast.  I can honestly say we only picked up some breakfast sandwiches, no donuts this time...it was a serious test of will as they were the first thing I could smell when we stepped inside.  But, with breakfast in hand, and a full gas tank in the truck, we departed.

Of course, along the way the rain started up.

We got to Lowes and grabbed a couple of their big carts.  I was so excited to see the lack of cars in their parking lot, I almost always have an anxiety attack at Lowes with the quantity of people that are always there.  But we arrived and we probably only saw half a dozen customers the whole time.  We stopped by the drywall aisle to get that out of the way first.  Yes, it was raining, but if we didn't get the drywall we wouldn't be able to get much work done. 

Loading up drywall is my second least favorite home-improvement activity (first belongs to running drain pipes...serious pain in the butt that one).  While there, we picked up bucket # 1,002 of sheetrock mud (that calculation is a little overexaggerated, by the way), some seam tape, and another box of sheetrock screws.  We stopped over in the lighting department to grab an inexpensive wall sconce (I believe it was $17 or something like that) and then headed over to the vanity area to look for a mirror for our bathroom.  We found a nice big medicine cabinet, a little more than we were expecting to spend at $108 but what the heck.  So we headed back to where we left our cart of sheetrock to check out.

Along the way we just couldn't help but think we were forgetting something.  Trips to Lowes always take no less than an hour, and we hadn't even gotten frustrated yet...so something wasn't quite right here.  We stopped to look at router bits for Kyle's new toy that his lovely wife gave him for Christmas, and tried to find some new cartridges for our ventilators (no luck), but nope, couldn't find anything else we needed.  So we headed over to see what the damage was.  Ten sheets of drywall, mud, tape, screws, a wall sconce, medicine cabinet, oh and a couple switch plates came up to $220.  I did my happy dance a bit as I handed over our gift cards- which brought our grand total up to (drumroll please) ZERO!!  WOO HOO!

Thats right folks.  We walked out of there with our goodies with $18 left on one of our gift cards.  I couldn't help but smile as we started loading the sheetrock into the truck.  Of course, after getting the first pair into the bed, I stopped smiling...but hey, thats ok, at least I didn't spend any money on it.  We tied it all down, swaddled in layers of tarp and plastic provided by Lowes, and headed home.  Of course, by the time we got halfway there we were having some serious plastic malfunctions and had to pull over to resecure, as best we could, the protective barrier between our new wall and the persistent precipitation.  To no avail, another ten minutes down the road the plastic pulled up into all the wrong places, leaving the top sheet of our drywall exposed.  Whatever, another ten minutes to get home, there was just nothing to be done with it- it wasn't really raining all that hard afterall- more of just a heavy sprinkle.

We got home, and unloaded the drywall (yippy) into our workshop and headed into the house for some leftover chicken soup.  I was exhausted and it wasn't even noon yet.  We still had a long day of drywalling ahead of us.  But I'll get into that tomorrow.

I'm so excited!  We got our first measurable snowfall at our house a couple days ago.  Just a few inches, but its great!  The goats don't seem to care about it either way, although I did find Chutney curled up on a bunch of straw in the barn when I got home from work yesterday.  The chickens had obviously ventured out as I could see plenty of little chicken tracks scattered around the barn.  I wonder how they'll like it when we get a few feet instead of just a few inches.  We'll be snowblowing around the doors to the barn so they can come and go without having to swim through the snow, so it shouldn't be too bad for them.

Kyle's away at his class tonight so that means I get to keep myself busy with house stuff.  His 'away' nights have become my official 'clean the house' night.  Laundry, dusting, sweeping- you name it!- anything that has been building up during the week that I just can't stand to look at anymore.  There's nothing I like less than spending ANY of my weekend cleaning the house- ugh.

For once we didn't have a mountain of laundry to do so I found myself with a little spare time.  I'm making a double-batch of vegetable stock in preparation of all the soups I'm going to be making over the next week or two.  I don't know why I got into the habit of buying pre-made vegetable stock but I decided to finally snap out of it, especially when all it takes is a few onions, carrots, celery, peppercorns, bay leaves, and garlic (well, in our case alot of garlic).  I'm sure that not only will it be cheaper and healthier, but tastier as well.  It just makes me look forward to growing simple things like carrots, celery, and onions in our garden next year.  Look at me, winter has only just begun and I'm looking forward to spring already!  Maybe I'll start some herbs up in the windows...

Here is the recipe for the stock:
2 large yellow onions, peeled and quartered
2 stalks celery, trimmed and quartered
2 carrots, trimmed and quartered
1 cup mushrooms, including stems (I prefer baby portabella mushrooms)
6 parsley sprigs
2 bay leaves
6 peppercorns
at least 2 cloves garlic, peeled (I add a whole bulb when I double this recipe)
3 quarts water
(Note: I didn't have any mushrooms or parsley, but it came out tasty regardless.  Potato water in place of water from the tap is a great addition if you've got it, also if you've got any tomatos or turnips those are great additions as well- stock is my excuse to clean out the fridge when we've got some stuff a little past their prime.)

Combine all ingredients in a stock pot and bring to a boil.  Once it starts boiling reduce the heat to low/medium-low and let it simmer, covered, for two hours.  Strain all the solids out and let cool in jars or your preferred storage container.  I usually freeze ours, just for added peace of mind, but since I'll be using these soon I'm just keeping it in our refridgerator.

If you saute the vegetables a bit before putting in the water it really helps sweeten the stock- I like doing it this way most of the time- but if I'm in a rush I just throw it all in the pot and let it do its thing.

On another note, Kyle's birthday is tomorrow.  I'm so excited to give him his present, I tried to give it to him early this past weekend!  Hah!  But he resisted...amazingly.  I can't wait; I bought him a complete brewing kit so we can start making our own beer, wine, and best of all: HARD CIDER!!  We'll be able to start converting most of that great, home-made, frozen apple cider into some awesome, bottled, hard cider- I can almost taste it now.  I mentioned to Kyle as he was heading out the door that maybe we should just stay up until midnight tonight so I can give him his present as soon as his birthday begins!  I guess we'll see.  Regardless I should take out five gallons of cider to let it thaw out so we can get started right away.  Oh, and I supposed I'd better do some wrapping...hopefully I can find the tape.

No.  That isn't a typo...aren't you relieved?  My soul is in the same condition its been in for the past few years, I don't think about it much as I don't believe there is much I can do to change where it'll end up in the next sixty or seventy years at this point.  But thats not what I'm here to talk about, am I?  Nope, you're absolutely right, its not.

No, today is a very sad day, though, and that is what I want to share.

Two weeks ago one of my silly little Dansko clogs began squeeking as I walked down the hallway at my office.  It was just a little annoying, not at all embarrassing, mostly because it was just this cute little "ree...ree...ree...ree" as I walked along.  I just figured I stepped in something that was causing this new development.  It didn't really bother me that much, so I opted not to investigate any further.

Last week the partner of this clog picked up the habit as well.  It sounded like whenever I walked the halls here at my job my two shoes would be chatting together, perhaps wondering if I was going to take them somewhere cool for once.  They hadn't done any REAL work in a while and I couldn't blame them.  Walking carpeted hallways inside the building where I work doesn't really inspire any excitement for me either!

I couldn't figure it out.  I mean, leather shoes squeek sometimes, right?  But I've had these for at least a decade and I couldn't remember them EVER squeeking.  But regardless I continued on, just taking in the new feature of my worn leather footwear.  Until sometime last weekend when I bent to remove my well-worn shoes after coming in from visiting with my goats, at which point I saw the culprit for the squeekiness and my world seemed to slow and my feet simultaneously screamed "noooooooooo".

Well, Tuesday night has arrived.  Kyle is off for the evening at a class he's taking towards his Masters Degree.  I usually use this night to get caught up on house-work; dishes, laundry, etc etc.  But tonight I'm not getting much work done.  I've been fighting a cold for the past two weeks so I resolved to pay the bills, read up about beekeeping, finish the transfer paperwork for our goats, and work on today's blog post.  Shortly after arriving home I came to the realization that something was strangely amiss with my laptop. 

It had been plugged in all day but the battery indicator was showing as nearly empty.  Sure enough, when I unplugged the darned thing it immediately shut off and would not start back up again until I re-attached the power cable.  Looking online at replacement batteries that were listed at a minimum of $80 I was immediately shocked and irritated by the company who makes these things as it is only a couple years old.  This of course brings me to my rant for the evening- our throw-away society.

Most electronic devices nowadays are only meant to last for about two years.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2005 about 5.3 billion pounds of ewaste was disposed of in landfills.  The major trouble with throwing away all these little things is most contain quantities of lead and arsenic which are well-known carcinogens.  When these are buried in landfills the chemicals leach into the ground and eventually join with the groundwater, where it is consumed by billions of people.

Of course, with the way the world is now, a person can't seem to manage without a cell phone or a computer.  There is probably nothing we can really do about that (I'll most certainly fork over the $80 or $100 for a new battery for my laptop) but we certainly can make an effort to be sure the replaced item makes it to a proper recylcing facility.

You can find some information about recycling your old cellphones and computers at the Environmental Protection Agency's website or even at your local recycling center.

What is the DEAL!? I am not a supporter of television but I have found that if I've got access to it, I WILL, generally, watch it. And it has come to my attention that across my 900+ channels there are nothing but a variety of PPV movies (half of which are those ones you block your kids from), home-shopping channels, and a variety (and I do mean a VARIETY) of realityTV shows!

I can sit and watch real housewives in Orange County AND New York City, dog groomers, chefs, models, fashion designers, personal trainers, dancers, matchmakers, and tattoo artists....little people, fat people, people on drugs, and people who want to have a "red-neck" wedding. Sometimes they're competing for a title and money, other times, I'm not sure WHY they're on TV other than someone must think it is dammed good entertanment.


I rememeber when sitting down at the television at night meant good quality, cheesey-as-hell shows that had a message to them. Remember those? There would be a conflict and just when you think it can't get any worse some sappy music comes on and everyone decides to forgive and forget until next week when Eddie crashes Carl's car into the garage and tries to cover everything up with bondo. Or when Punky Brewster's friend gets locked inside an old refrigerator until she passes out and we learn the importance of knowing CPR...and that you should always watch your kids when you live in a shady area.

I guess I can't honestly say that I would like to watch those shows again (although I do wish they still showed re-runs of Bosom Buddies) but I'm just so sick of reality tv.

Holding it just out of reach he stares intensely, with his mouth slightly ajar and his little pink tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. The little orange bear is the center of his universe at this moment and nothing I can do can break his concentration. I throw it and he goes careening across the slippery wood floor with no heed for furniture or his own personal safety. There has been plenty of laughter over watching Ollie crash into the wall or bowl over Shyla in his attempts to get the little rubber toy as quickly as physically possible.

As he joyously trots back with his prize he chews on it as if loving the feel of the cheap rubber between his teeth. Laying on the floor with the little bear between his feet he proceeds to chew and chew and chew until one-by-one the little feet, then the hands, then the head are consumed until the little bear is no more. Even the squeeker is gone, thank you. Although, have you ever see the movie Snatch? Yeah, the dog swallows the squeeker and ends up with a squeek for a bark. Please, god, no.

I hate these toys; the constant high-pitched squeek they make anytime they are bounced, chewed, stepped or pounced on. I know; do dogs pounce? Well, my dog does, just like a cat...but without that whole butt-wiggle thing before hand.

Even when I make an attempt to hide one of these beloved squeeky toys he will search, non-stop, until he finds it and he never forgets where I put it. So even when I TRY to distract him with another toy, he always goes back to my hiding place (between the couch cushions) to look for the missing one. He's pretty fixated, maybe I should take him to see a shrink.

Hey folks! We decided to jump on the blogging-bandwagon to help keep in touch with family and friends. Seems like a fun thing to keep busy during slow days up here in Northern Vermont.

The day has been pretty sweet here. Right around 68 degrees and mostly sunny. Of course I've been helping Mom unpack, fun fun. Got the bar set up, so thats good. But haven't spent too much time out of doors today, but I'm lighting up the grill and testing out my BBQ skills later for dinner.

I think we almost ended up with another dog today, though. Can you believe it!? Me neither. This cute little chihuahua showed up at our back door who was sooooo scared but sooooo happy to see me. I thought someone just dropped him off on our road and drove away! :( But after walking all over Montgomery and finding NO ONE who knew the dog the town clerk said he belonged to these people on the next road over from us. And then of COURSE she worked it out of me that OUR dogs weren't registered yet!! Grrrr. Guess we'd better fork over the $14 for our two kids.