Happy New Year

 New Years Day 2013

My Love Bunnies

We had a very fun new years day! Dylan and I woke up early as usual to feed our goats and then we came back into the house and had an hour or so to talk and enjoy each other before Wallace woke up. Once he was awake we ate breakfast in bed, played with puppets and read a story.

Wallace and JJ

It was a beautiful sunny, cold day. All three of us got bundled up and took the trailer out to collect firewood. Wallace and I were toddling up the dunes and brought back deadfall branches. Wallace carried small branches back himself. Wallace and I weren’t much help; we spent most of our time walking up and down the road looking for cows to moo at. But, I was able to scout out plenty of good wood for Dylan to load in the trailer on our cow hunt. Once we had unloaded the wood Wallace had the rubber mallet and he was hitting branches with it trying to help his Papa process them. Then he climbed onto the trailer and threw off all the little sticks; he is so helpful. After all our hard work we ate minestrone soup for lunch and then all three of us took a nap.

The New Flock

Our friend Jeremy came over in the afternoon with his 10 month old JJ. He brought us some pork, a Red Waddler, he had just butchered and we barbequed it over oak wood. We ate it with applesauce and it was delicious.

Two Silkies

Wallace and JJ had a good play. JJ just started walking and Wallace would take his hand and him walk over to fun things like the chicken coup and the sawdust pile. Wallace loves to play frisbee and he was trying so hard to get JJ to play with him. JJ just wanted to hold the frisbee. Jeremy and I would throw the frisbee so Wallace could go hunt it and try to throw it back.

Patience 

After dinner our friend left and I remembered that I didn't make black eyed peas! I started to kick myself because Jeremy even brought us pork. I started to realize that this would be my first new years without black-eyed peas in recent memory, and I was getting pretty upset. I know that may sound irrational but please remember Dear Readers that I am pregnant. Dylan had a suggestion, "let's eat the peas dried." I thought that was a great idea. I got out the peas and we each ate two dried black-eyed peas, even Wallace.

Butters

 The story behind the tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Years Day, if you are wondering, is this. In the South during the Civil War, after the Yankees had ransacked the communities all the food that was left in the towns were grain silos of black-eyed peas. At that time in history black-eyed peas were not people food but rather live stock feed. Since there was no longer any livestock and the people were starving they turned to the peas. We eat black-eyed peas on New Years Day to celebrate the resilience and adaptability of the American People. It is thought of as "good luck" and said to bring prosperity to the coming year.

The New Flock

We had a wonderful Christmas Holiday. Except for a landslide of toys for Wallace and a fine box of See's chocolates we received nothing but practical gifts and we were over joyed!! With some of our gifts we were able to expand our menagerie. We drove through the town of Loma Rica on the way home from Winters and picked up two female goats. They are bottle babies, one and three weeks old. 

 They are playful clowns and affectionate. One is a white Sannan Bore cross and I named her Sugar Foot. The other is a painted brown and white Nubian Bore cross and Dylan named her Patience. Patience had turned out to be quite an ironic name. They are sisters. We plan on breading them for their delicious meat and trying our hand at cheese making. Sugar foot will only eat for me. The first few days I had to force-feed her and we were nervous she was not going to make it. We started adding whole cows milk to her formula and she has started to drink on her own. Hopefully she will thrive. These girls will never be up for slaughter so Dylan is going to harness train them to pull a cart. He even bought a book about it.

The Coop

We also expanded our flock of chickens. Dylan built a 20 by 10 foot chicken coup and Wallace and I lined the out side with scrap metal I salvaged off the property and big rocks I dug up. We drove to the town of Gerber and picked up a flock of 8 silkeys for a very good price. We gave our friends a Silkey Rooster as a Christmas gift and that leaves us with six hens. Butters my pet chicken is a silkey. They sell very well as ornamental birds. People in suburbs enjoy them because of how cute they are also, they can not fly. We bought butters for $15. The hens can sell for more, depending on the color up to $50. This may turn out to be a tidy income for us.

  Dylan and I are doing the best we ever have out here. Our marriage is very strong. We both feel a profound connection to our creator God living this new pioneer adventure and that has been very good for us. We are raising Wallace with a lot of love and trying to be the best examples of God's love we can be. We are happy and God has blessed us. 

Taken Today 1-6-2013

 We had a major blessing on Saturday. Since we have been in Oroville we have been cooking outside on a camp stove using propane. We have been buying it 2 pounds at a time in small 1-pound cans for almost $6. With some of our Christmas money I was planning on buying an adaptor for our empty 20 pound tanks and having them refilled for a much better price per pound. When Dylan went to load the tanks into the van he found them both full. Praise God. Those tanks have been empty for a year. I only had to spend $19 on the adapter instead of the $60 I was planning on.

Sugar Foot and Willow