He is Here

Gabriel William arrived July 14th. He is a joy and blessing.

Farm Girls.

Laura LOVED feeding the kids this spring!

Elizabeth hugging Milla, one of the few doe kids we had born.

Daddy and his girls.

Back After A Long Absence

I haven't posted here in too long.
I did have a reason.......

 I had a rough start to this pregnancy and just gave up the blog for a while.
I am feeling much better now but these two keep me pretty busy!

I'm going to try to be more faithful though.
We have been busy with many things, a farm open house, vacation in Florida, guests, a busy holiday season, kidding seaso, and now focused on gardening and preparing for a soon to arrive new baby!

This and That

A pile of things ready to go on our trip to Virginia.

Me at the ice cream shop in Charlottesville VA.

Laura with Bill on the train.

The girls with Bill on the train.

Elizabeth playing in the cupboard.

We spent several days in Virginia visiting with friends and family. One day we took the train to Charlottesville and enjoyed a picnic at Carter Mountain Orchard with friends, shopping, and we went to Kohr Brothers ice cream parlor.
We were only home one day before heading south to Georgia to show goats at the GA State Fair.
Our Helena was Reserve Grand Champion SR doe, and our Clementine was Grand Champion JR doe.
The last week or so we have been busy trying to get caught up on everything here after being so busy with Elizabeth's party and travel.
The goats are starting to cycle and several are bred.
Our summer chicks moved into the layer barn and should start to lay soon.
The ducklings are huge now and moved out with the big ducks.
We have a wonderful new soap made with pureed sweet potato from our grden. Its called Sweet Tater, and it smells wonderful and the sweet potato adds Vitamin A to nourish skin.
This week we have harvested zucchinis, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, spinach, kale, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green beans. We're thankful God has blessed our gardens and given us such bounty to eat!
I have more photos from the trip but have not uploaded them yet.
Hopefully I'll be updating this blog a bit more now that we are done with our travels for a while.

Elizabeth's First Birthday Party

S'mores on a stick

Party table and some decorations

We hung these signs on the gates to the front yard as a reminder to shut gates!

Watch out for the beehives!

Picnic table ready for the party.

Cupcakes.

Cake! Delicious almond flavored birthday cake.

More cupcakes.

The cake was so pretty!

Candy corn cookies.

Elizabeth just before the party.

Another view of the party table.

These are all photos I took pre-party. I did snap a few during the party, but they seem to not have saved properly. I still need to add photos of Elizabeth eating her cake!
The party menu was:
Pigs-n-Blankets
Caramel Corn
Cheddar Popcorn
Herbed Goat Cheese with crackers
Vegetables with dip
Caramel Apple Bar--sliced apples, warm caramel sauce, and mini chocolate chips, crushed graham crackers, chopped pecans, and sprinkles for dipping
Pumpkin Bread with Devonshire cream
Cheese Straws
Candy Corn Cookies
S'mores on a Stick
Cake
Cupcakes
Cider
Apple Alamode Punch
Pumpkin Spice Lattes

It was a lot of fun to plan and prepare for this special party.  It was an honor to host so many friends who came to celebrate with us. And we are so grateful for Elizabeth's first year of life. She is a joy and blessing to us!

Sweet Potato

Have you ever seen a sweet potato that weighs five pounds and two ounces? I harvested this monster today!

Train Ride Fun!

waiting for the train.

On Labor Day we rode the Missionary Ridge local steam train.

train turning around at the roundhouse.

here it comes!

Laura watching the train turn around.

Elizabeth loved the train!

Train on the turntable.

A trestle bridge we passed.

The girls with Mommy.

It was raining and Elizabeth loved reaching out to feel the rain.

Here comes the steam engine!

Two trains.

Freight train passing.

Elizabeth waiting at the train station.