Happy NEW Year!!!

 Hi everyone, I can't believe that  Christmas as already past and the new year  has come!! Has everyone been having a great year lately ?? Well I have.

 Here are some of the things that has happened lately. First, we got three new dogs- two puppies and one full grown male for our breeding system. The puppies names are Patriot who is a male  and he has a lot of energy to burn off and  he is a great puppy dog. Glory is a female puppy from a litter from Buster. She is a cutie!  Crunch is the full grown male that we are using for breeding.  He is great at fetching and is a structurally correct Lab!! Now we have seven dogs total. That is the most we have ever had.
  
Bethany came home for Christmas and she staying for two weeks. She came on Christmas day.  It is great seeing her again.   




                                                        Here are some pictures of our new puppies.

                                                                      Glory      

                                                                        This is Patriot.  He is a male.

                                                                   Glory and Patriot having fun!!

                                                                                      Crunch

The Latest News!!

Hi every body!  How do you like the change of weather? It went to being really hot to cold. I think I like the cooler weather better. Oh  my, I can't believe that it is going to be October tomorrow. This month has gone so fast.

I have started school, I am home schooled so I do school at home.This year I am doing school online so I have to go to different libraries to get internet because our connection is not that good. This online program is called e2020 education. It is a very easy program to understand.

Up date on my horse (Addie). Addie is do so well I have been training her to rear (but not wile I am on her). She rears so high that some time I think she is going to fall over, but she doesn't.I have also  been training her to bow, she still needs work on that though. Addie has been doing really good on her barrels and cow cutting too. Yesterday I went out to our cow pasture and I was herding one of our steers. I decided to let her go and see what she would do, so I did. Guess what! She knew what to do she just went at it and I was holding on so I wouldn't fall off. Sometimes  she turned so sharp that I thought that she was going to fall over. After a little while I had to stop her because she just kept herding that steer and didn't want to stop. So I had to stop her before she fall over died from running and working too hard.  She is a great cow horse.
                                                     Here is a picture of Addie rearing.

Colorado Trip and Fair Week!!

7-6-12- It has been a great summer for me and my family.  On July 6 we left for the National Dairy Goat Show in Loveland, Colorado.  We had  some bad things happen and other we thought would never happen. Two of the biggest things that happened was one of the trailer tires fell off when getting on our first highway. The other thing was that our best goat Thea, died. But other than that we had a great vacation. We hiked up to Horsetooth Mountain,  went riding up a big mountain with horses, went to Wyoming's capital building, but did not go inside.  We did some other things too but to top that all off, we went  to  the Rooftop Rodeo in Estes Park, Colorado. We also did pretty good at the goat show too. 
                                            Here are some Colorado pictures-

                                           One of the cool pictures I took at the Rooftop Rodeo

                                                        Horsetooth Mountain

                                                       

The Rocky Mountains

                                 We girls went riding in the mountain.  Mom is on Geronimo, Abigail on Captain, I am on Scout, Rebekah on Cash, and Elizabeth on Mr. Wilson. 

        8-12-12 - Our family just got back from the Calhoun County Fair. It was a great week for me and my family. I took a goat and pig, Abigail took a dairy starter calf and a steer,and Elizabeth took a goat and pig also. Ben and Rebekah just helped show our goats. Abigail won showmanship on her dairy starter calf and  I won showmanship on goats!! I was so excited because that meant that I could do the "Show of Champions". Show of champions is for whoever wins showmanship with their animal. They can go around and show all of the 14 species of animals on Saturday. I had a blast since it was my first time. Abigail won the Senior group and has now won the Beginner, Intermediate and Senior trophies in the Show of Champions. We are so proud of her. Elizabeth won Grand Champion on her Market wether and got third on showmanship with her pig. I was really sad when I had to sell my pig (Sue), and Elizabeth was sad too with her pig (Sparty).  Bethany came down  to spent a couple of days at the fair since she had to crown the next queen. We were so glad she could come down!!
                                                  Here are some pictures at  the fair-

                         Abigail achieved her goal of winning all 3 trophies in her 4-H years.

                                                            Me in the "Show of Champions"

                                                               Me and my pig Sue.

                                               Bethany crowning the next queen!!

7~1~12 Hi everybody! How is your summer going? Mine is going great! Are you sick of this hot weather yet? I am just a little. I think we need some rain but we need to trust God that he will provide it for us. (All things are possible with God).
 Right now at Harvey's farm I am picking blueberries and raspberries. I am glad that God made fruit. They taste so good that if I eat one berry I can't stop eating them! I do stop eventually  though ;).
 Here are some pictures of our one cute pup. We named him Porky cuz he gets all the milk.

summer update

   6 ~ 2 ~ 12 -  Hi everybody! Guess what!! Our family is going to Colorado  for the National Goat Show. We are leaving on July 6. Bethany is not coming.:  (Mom , Dad, Elizabeth and Ben are at a goat show today.  Abigail and I needed to stay home and do the chores.
  I am all done with SCHOOL for the year!! and  I have been working at the Harveys with my sister Abigail. We have been picking a lot of strawberries. The Harvey's farm is a berry farm that has strawberries in the spring and into the summer, blueberries in the summer. They also do raspberries and chestnuts in the fall. It is a great place to get your fresh fruit!! I work there almost all summer long.
    Elizabeth and I brought our horses into the Tekonsha Memorial parade. It  was a great experience for Addie. She was not that bad. She liked to walk sideways on the road during the parade though. Addie does not like trailers going past her but she did really good for the parade. I  rode Addie all the from our house to where the parade started in Tekonsha and then I had to ride her back too. I rode her back because she did not want to load up into the trailer. So in that one day I rode my horse 8 miles. I was soo tired after I did that. But it was fun too. Addie is doing really good. Today I did barrels with her and she has learned so fast on doing them. The best time I have gotten on barrels is 19.15 sec. The only big problem I am have with her is for her to load up into the trailer.:(   But she has been a great horse for me.

                                  
                                                             Elizabeth and Daisy

                                                      Addie and me in the parade!!

Molly is going to have puppies on the 18th of this month!!  Hardly and Zoe are growing too fast, some times I get Zoe and Liberty mixed up that is how much they look alike. We have six dogs right now. That is the most we ever had at one time. Plus Molly is going to have some pups soon too. I like our labs, they are really fun - loving and love to be right beside you. I say that because our dog Liberty loves to go wherever I go so I call her my side kick :). Have a great month and enjoy what God has made!!
         ~ Rachel ~

 Hi every body, I can hardly believe that it is gong to be May tomorrow! Who likes the month May? Well I do!!  My brother Benjamen's birthday is on the 21st.

This Saturday we are having an open house for our milk shares and our farm. We show people around our farm, give demonstrations on how to make soap , how to make goat cheese and how to make bread. It's a day to show people how we do milk shares and we also get more people interested in  milk shares too. We do both goat and cow shares. I prefer the goat's milk to the cow's milk. God has blessed us with the milk shares. We have about 25 milk share customers.

Tomorrow we are having a group of homeschoolers (CCHE) over to show them the farm and every thing else.
We are going to have some games, a farmyard scavenger hunt and other games too. We are going to give pony rides, with Elizabeth's horse. Elizabeth and I are going to show how to do barrel  racing. We will also let the kids do some hand milking on some goats.

Horse training!

      We have started a new horse training course.  It is called Pat Parelli Natural Horsemanhip.  We have been going to a friend's house to watch his movies and read about how to train horses.

We have learned some interesting things. First, I learned that a horse has a right brain and a left brain. I will explain what I mean. When a horse is left brained, they are using the thinking side of their brain. They are calm, willing to learn. When a horse is right-brained, they are not thinking. They are trying to protect them self from you. A horse thinks you are his preditor. A very intersting thing is, a horse can read you like a book. The second thing I learned was when trying to catch a horse in a pasture you have to let  the horse come up to you. If the horse is bad at catching you, you have to be patient. The other thing you can do is to lay down on the ground and wait for the horse to come up to you.  Also, when catching a horse, you have to smile and be all friendly. Remember a horse can read you like a book. So when you go into the pasture and if you are smiling the horse can sense that you won't hurt them.

My first thing I have tried was to sit with my horse for 30 min. The first time I did it Addie came up to me right away and that was a good sign. Then she would walk away, then come back to me and sniff me. If the horse touched me, then  I could try to touch the horse. I had to sit really still and not make any noise. When I tried this the second time I gave my horse treats. That was not good for me to do that because I learned that I have to get the horse to come to me.  Giving a horse a treat will just make the horse like the treats instead of you.

I want to learn a few things too. I want to try to pick up my horse's back feet without being scared. I can do the front easily. I also want to learn how to train my horse to trust me more.

This is a whole new world for me!