"Making the Most of Every Opportunity"
This year our garden is doing great. I wish we could ship produce to Africa. However, it’s reducing our grocery budget, as we have (almost) stopped shopping altogether until the move in February. This allows us to help more–praise God.
The rights of all fundamentalist Christian parents are being threatened by the current Texas case. Members of a group are being stripped of their children based on simply the “potential” for abuse–not based on actual crimes–all resulting from a court order resulting from what has been proven to be a false report. If you homeschool, spank your children, or ascribe to any other worldview that is at odds with society as a whole, you run the risk of being labeled part of a group that has the “potential” to abuse your children. This is scary stuff for any loving parent who ascribes to a Biblical worldview.
Read this article for details: http://www.blacklistednews.com/iNP/view.asp?ID=6369
We are excited to have gotten our new goats! The brown and white one is named Cassie, and the white one is Pixie. Cassie is already milking, and Pixie is supposed to kid sometime in April.
Of course, there is a bit of a learning curve on the goat thing for us. We’ve never milked a goat but have enjoyed learning about it (a good article, with pictures, on wikiHow), and we have some very informative resources like “The Encyclopedia of Country Living” and “Barnyard in Your Backyard,” in particular.
Oh, and I had a great chat the other day about “Integrating Little Ones into Your Homeschool” on Cindy Rushton‘s Talk-a-Latte program–ramping up for her Ultimate Homeschool Expo–can’t wait for that!! If you aren’t able to go to your local homeschool convention, definitely attend this one; it’s ALL online! Anyway, during the chat I mentioned the new goats, and someone asked me for good Web links to research the topic. I didn’t remember any off-hand. I asked her to email me…and she didn’t, but maybe she’ll visit our blog–or the link will help someone else. 🙂 There is a forum with some “101”-type information at http://www.dairygoatinfo.com/. Another good starting point is http://www.goatwisdom.com/. Finally, try http://fiascofarm.com/goats/index.htm or http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/ (this is a great forum with information on raising all kinds of animals!). Too much information?! Yeah, right now we’re a bit overloaded…but it’s been fun.
One of the things we were concerned about was that we’d invest a lot in goats, fencing, supplies, and so on…and we wouldn’t like the milk. But, we’re happy to report that it tastes much like cow’s milk and everybody loves it! Of course, we’re probably getting less than we should, given that we’re novices at the whole milking thing…and the bucket is getting stepped in and tipped over until she gets used to us and we get used to her. But, so far so good. We’re pressing on. 🙂