Happy Fourth Of July From Idaho

This year we were invited to celebrate Independence Day with several other families from our church. Now usually when you think of a church outing you would think nice, mellow people, everyone relaxing, kids playing quietly, maybe some hymn music playing in the background. Not so with our little group of party goers! The email I received stated this:

Happy 4th of July,

Just a couple of things in preparation for our celebration this afternoon. 

1. Parking... please drive on in to the house, unload, and then either you, I or John will take your vehicle back up the hill and park on the taxiway.  The trail down to the house has been trimmed, so its not quite like a jungle.  Consider it your very infrequent opportunity to enjoy valet parking .
2. We intend on celebrating our liberty by exercising our 2nd amendment rights to own and bear arms.  We will have a range of sorts set up away from things... so bring your firearms that you are itching to shoot... ammo would be good too.
3. Fireworks.  Feel free to bring fireworks if you would like.  When it is about dark we will restrain the children... with force if necessary... and combine our forces for a firework show!!

We look forward to celebrating with you!!

Soooo, with these guidelines in mind, we loaded the Suburban and went on our way to what was sure to be an awesome party, loaded with food and fun. Instead of writing about it though,  I am piling on the pictures and yes, some videos of the action. Hope everyone had a great 4th, I know we did

And then, let the shooting begin!

And then there were fireworks, nothing like a little total chaos to end the day !

The children ran around lighting everything they could get their hands on.

I have lots and lots of pictures of the action and want to thank the 

Primers for having us out to celebrate with them, and on that note,

Happy Independence Day America !!!!!

P.S. I will be uploading videos to Facebook in the near future so keep and eye for that!

The Saga of The Never-ending Project.....Part 1

Ever feel like what should have been a quick and easy project has turned into something else?? Well thats whats been going on at my house for the past couple months. In March, despite several warnings that "goats can read", we decided to take the giant leap of buying meat goats and chickens to help supplement our normal food shopping. I mean really, with hamburger going over 3 bucks a pound and a dozen eggs topping out at 2 dollars , it only makes sense to try and be more self-sufficient in someway, why not meat and eggs? Our intentions were of course pure, provide for our family, reduce our monthly food costs, eat healthier, all good principles, principles worth exploring. So, first things first. As with any animal project, you should make sure you have shelter and a fenced in area, after all, these animals will be providing you with food, they should have proper homes. Everyone tried their hand at ideas for the new goat pen and chicken hutch and in a short amount of time we had enough designs to begin implementing our building plans. First though, we had to go pick up our does. We opted for a shelter built into an old chain link dog kennel that we had received from someone my husband knows.

Dog Kennel with built in shelter

Dale and the girls drove over by Cataldo to pick up our breeder does so that we could start our own little mini-farm. When they arrived home, they had the cutest little girl goats! They were very very upset about having to leave their previous life. The boys carried them into their new home and wow did they raise a ruckus! You would have thought we were killing them the way they were screaming, silly goats. The girls named them Claire Bear and Chloe.

Chloe is in the red and Claire is in the green

At this point we had already started the bigger pen for the wethers and the buck we would be picking up in the next couple weeks. Here are some pictures:

floor foundation

Joshua Helping

Hand mixed concrete pour

finished floor joist system

We finished the foundation and floor joists all in one day which in itself was a minor miracle as it hadn't stopped raining for at least a month. The ground was totally soggy, like an over full sponge that can't take anymore water..squish squish squish. A short side note for you: I don't know if you can tell or not, but my husband is a contractor....this goat barn is very very well built and will not be going anywhere, EVER. I think it would take a major earthquake to move this thing. Anyway we got enough of the goat barn done to be able to pick up the 3 wether goats and a baby buck for our breeding stock. I cant seem to find any pictures at the moment oh well.

We have been working on the goat barn/ chicken pen off and on for 2 months now.  The chickens are very happy running around the yard eating bugs and mice, and the goats stripped every branch they had in their pen. The baby chicks are still in a tub, being way to small to let out to roam right now, and all is well on our mini farm. The chicken coop part of the barn is in the process of being built and is moving right along. We painted the floor a white vinyl paint to make rinsing off easier.  At this moment we have 49 animals if you count the dog,  cats and horses, oh wait we have a turtle also, that makes 50!

Part 2 Coming soon...

Random thoughts......

This past week was a rough one. Usually I would have been helping out with our churches VBS program, but I was not feeling well and decided to wait till the end of the week to help. As I was sitting around in my very quiet home (all or most of the kids were helping out with VBS this week), I decided to read a book called the" Fruit Of Her Hands" by Nancy Wilson, its about respect and the Christian woman. I never thought I had a problem with respect, until I read this book. It was harsh ! Some of the things I have said and done have not been very respectful. This is a hard thing to find out. I think I knew some of it in the back of my mind, but had not made the connections between my dis-respect and the way my kids are dis-respectful. While reading the book I made some resolutions to practice respecting, in particular my husband. I also realized that my lack of respect was a direct result of my not trusting God. All this time, I was fairly certain that trusting God was not an issue for me, but it is. He either is who he says he is or he is not. I believe he is exactly who he claims to be, and that I CAN trust him with the issues in my life. This is almost always easier to say then to do. We show it everyday in different ways and in different areas of life. It reminds me of a poem I once read called Let Go and let God, because if we don't trust him how can we let go? I have been so angry with my husband over things that are big and small and it is ALL because I did not trust God ! Not only that, if I didn't trust God how in the world was I ever going to trust my husband the way I should???? The bible commands me to be respectful to my husband, regardless of whether I think he deserves it or not. This flies in the face of currant societal norms, and is very difficult when there is no trust. The point of all this is if you truly, truly trust God the way you should as a Christian, then respect will not be so difficult because you KNOW God is concerned with your everyday journey. You KNOW he is kind and compassionate. You CAN trust him with your marriage, husband, children, work, friends, your LIFE!! So, Let Go and Let God!

LET GO AND LET GOD!

As children bring their broken toys     with tears for us to mend, I brought my broken dreams to God, because He was my friend. But then, instead of leaving Him, in peace, to work alone; I hung around and tried to help, with ways that were my own. At last, I snatched them back and cried, "How can you be so slow?" "My child," He said, "What could I do? You never did let go."