I haven't disappeared -- just too busy :)

Okay……….. I know I haven’t done a post in a couple of weeks. I need to catch everyone up on life at the Walker house. Tim and the boys have been really busy with the scouts and their activities. They have had spring camporee and participated in the VFW Memorial Day Parade. Tim let Zachariah go with the scouts for two days to spring camporee which of course thrilled him. All the boys enjoyed the hiking and camping. Elijah, Gabrielle, and two of Elijah’s friends participated in another competitive shooting match over by Anaconda. Both of the older kids are learning and improving their skill. As a side note – the weekend of spring camporee was also competitive shooting so Judah, Bekah and I were left at home by ourselves. It was a very quiet, strange weekend with most of our family in different places. When we had looked over the calendar and Tim realized that all the bigger kids were going to be gone he had talked about doing something different to make sure I was not alone with all the responsibilities for the animals. In my usual bullheaded fashion I smartly replied I had cared for animals and children for much of my life. I could handle a couple of days – did he really think I was a baby??? Next time I try to do that, will somebody please just shoot me?!?!?!

Friday was okay. The kids had handled the morning chores and I just had to maintain things for the rest of the day and do the evening feedings, milkings, etc. It took Judah, Bekah and I a lot longer than I hoped but I am out of practice after all. Saturday morning was another matter all together. The three of us got up and went out before breakfast to get things done. The dogs and cat were easy, the chickens weren’t hard, the turkeys and geese were a little more challenging but when I got to the goats things got a little more difficult. The goats KNOW who milks them and their particular feel. I wasn’t making anybody happy because I did everything different than the kids. The doe was kicking all over the place, screaming like I was savagely abusing her and making quite a roe. I finally had my fill, took what milk I had and got one of the abandoned kids. I hooked him up and let him finish my job for me – much to his satisfaction and the doe’s complete irritation. I fed the bucks and went to tether out the does for grazing. The doe that had thrown a fit already that morning got away from me and I had to chase her half an hour. We didn’t get the gate closed and more goats got loose. I finally got most of the does/wethers tethered out and decided GOOD ENOUGH! I was filling/carrying all the water buckets when Bekah starts screaming. I quickly waddle her direction to hear her saying she hurt her foot. She had removed her shoes which didn’t make me happy, but then she went back to playing with the baby goats so I said Mommy is ALMOST done. Let me finish up and we will go have some breakfast. I carry her closer to where I was working and set her down to play. I get about 10 feet away from her and she starts screaming hysterically. I look over and her foot which she is now holding in the air is gushing blood. Fabulous! I carry said screaming child into the house and find she has cut open her foot quite well actually and it is bleeding profusely. We came in cleaned and tended her foot. I started breakfast. Bekah looks at my pants and sees blood all down the leg of my pants and starts screaming hysterically again until I assured her that it was from her own foot and I was fine – no more blood would be coming – and I had to change my pants J

As things quieted some I called my mom – kudos to her for having balanced children and animals all those years. I think I would have said I am done with this way sooner!!! At the very least I would have cut our herd down – something – ANYTHING!!!! The rest of the day was somewhat more quiet. I worked on my projects; Bekah and Tudah played. The biggest hassle for the rest of day was the fact that Bekah kept letting the baby goats in the house because she missed them. Our house goats are doing well – growing nicely and they have finally moved outside completely. I should say I moved them outside and there they stay except for when Bekah-book still decides she needs HER babies and goes and lets them in the house!!! I was so glad to see my human kids return and be able to give them back their animal responsibilities! I love keeping animals but it was definitely more than I could keep up with that weekend.

Other than that I have been kept busy preserving. Tim asked me to try and empty out a couple of freezers for the summer to cut our electricity bill down. I love to can and put things up so I welcomed the challenge. I also hoped that it would be a great opportunity to work with Gabrielle, passing on more useful skills to equip her for having a home of her own someday. We completed one day of pressure canning and Gabrielle informed me that canning was definitely NOT something she enjoyed. Oh well……… so much for my imaginations of fun in the accomplishment of the task. She made it quite clear that she did not want to be participating. Overall, however I have to give her credit – like it or not – she preserved. We put up an entire freezer of meat, chili con carne, spaghetti meat sauce and beans. To give her a taste of preserving that is faster and a little more fun we also put up about 50 pints of strawberry rhubarb preserve, heirloom strawberry preserves, and a couple of pints of lemon curd. She did well.

In spectacular news our boundary line relocation is officially and completely finished!! I am so glad to see that finished up!! It took several days of my being in and out of the state offices most of the day, running errands, filling out and filing papers, searching for documents…… I have decided I definitely do not like bureaucracy but the Lord did give us favor. The people that I was able to work with really tried to be helpful and we were finally able to finish!! Tim and Elijah started our fencing last weekend, starting with sealing up our garden plot and running the boundary line between the two properties first. I will have to post some pictures. It looks great.

Tim also has been working with the older boys in the evenings to help a friend harvest trees that have beetle-kill. It is so devastating to see all the trees the pine beetles have killed – huge, magnificent pine trees completely destroyed. It will take years for the tree population to recover in Montana. It is truly sad to see. The blessing for us is that Tim is getting free firewood and very close to home which is a nice benefit. Hard work though. They have been cutting, bucking, loading, and burning slash probably 5 days a week for the last three or four weeks and have some weeks still to go on that project. They had an extremely exciting evening last week when the winds kicked up a slash pile that was thought to be extinguished. Tim, Elijah and the owners of the property fought it until the VFD came. Six trucks later and thanks to the work of some very good firefighters (and our guys!) they got the fire out. I think Tim said it burned about an acre. Thankfully it went through quickly and they only will lose a couple additional trees. It flash burned through with the wind and Tim had pulled most of the dead vegetation from around the tree bases. That area definitely shows the effects of the burn – the tree bark is black, etc. but I think the trees will live thankfully.

I guess that pretty much catches us up. Today it is a beautiful spring day and the lilacs started blooming a couple of days ago. I so enjoy the smell wafting heavily through the air of lilac and apple blossom. It is a good bloom this year. I am hopeful that our garden will also do well this year. Last year we had a late snows in May and June that pretty much diminished all hope of anything blooming or growing well. Our harvest was pitiful last year – a few green beans, a few peas, a few summer squash. a few potatoes – no tomatoes, no cucumbers – it was highly disappointing. Hopefully this year we will be blessed with a bountiful harvest.. We are hoping to plant the garden this weekend if we can get the wire fence on the wood work that Tim and Elijah have in place. Our PEARLS commencement is Sunday – another year complete for co-op. I miss the girls over the summer. I hope we can get together through the summer off and on to keep in touch. Monday the girls have their last get-together – they are delivering baby quilts they made to our local pregnancy resource center as gifts to the new moms the center serves and they have their secret sister reveal. It should be a fun – although very busy – weekend. I hope you can enjoy this gorgeous day!