Even with our small herd it’s difficult to remember all the identification and medical records for each goat. To keep track and stay organized I created a few worksheets to help me manage our goat family.

I am offering these sheets as free downloads that you print at home. You will need the latest version of Adobe Reader to view the PDF’s. It can be downloaded for free from Adobe.

identification & medical records

This 3 Page PDF is ideal for identification and medical records. There is also room to add other information such as where you purchased the goat and any awards she may have earned.

breeding record

1 page for recording breeding and kidding information.

milk production record

2 pages to record milk production for the entire year.

Please enjoy these printables! However, do not sell or share the file as your own. Also, do not post the PDF on your social media page, please link back to this original post. For more about the Terms of Use, click here.

The sheets are letter size and would work in a 3 ring binder.

However, I prefer Staples Arc system for my planners and record keeping. It is not the cheapest option, but I like the versatility of the system. I actually have 3 planners/record books. I use one for my everyday planning, one is for my Ridgetop Digital Shop business, and one is for all our farm and garden records.

Enjoy!
And, have fun staying organized!

Looking for more organizational printables? Check out my other site, Ridgetop Digital Shop.

The post Goat Records – Free Printables appeared first on .

About one year ago I came up with the idea to open an etsy shop selling digital graphics. Near the end of summer, fears set aside, I opened the shop. Six months later I get to celebrate 100 sales in my shop. Amazing! And, thank you!

I have been a stay at home mom for the past 13 years. Last year, for the first time, all 3 of my kids went to public school, giving me a few hours each day to myself. It was time to put that graphic design degree I earned to work. Doing something I enjoy outside of mom stuff has been wonderful. And, earning a few bucks is rewarding in its own way. So, thanks again to everyone for supporting my small business.

Photo Booth Props

My etsy shop primarily sells photo booth props at the moment, which I love. We live in a stressful world, and I love that people can let loose and enjoy their friends & family using props made to celebrate life’s milestone’s. Click here to download snowman props for free.

Thank You Freebie

My other favorite type of item at Ridgetop Digital Shop are tags. They come with a digital png file for digital scrapbooking or journaling and also a printable sheet for other crafting or party needs.

As a thank you for a great first 6 months here is a printable sheet of my Fresh Eggs tags. They are primarily used for placing on egg cartons when selling your own eggs, but also look great added to spring craft projects.

Thank You Coupon Code

As another thank you here is a coupon code good for $2.00 off anything more than $2.50 in my shop.

————————————————————————

coupon code:
CELEBRATING100
expires March 31, 2016

————————————————————————

How to Apply Coupon Code:
1. Once you add an item to your cart, click apply shop coupon code above Item total.
2. Enter CELEBRATING100 and click Apply
3. The coupon discount will adjust your order total

Etsy Affiliate Link

If you have been wanting to open an etsy shop, here is an incentive to do so. Clicking this link and opening your shop will earn us both 40 free listings.

Here’s to another hundred sales!

The post Celebrating 100 Etsy Sales appeared first on .

Day 3 includes yet another house in the Portland area. The house is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places, but that’s not why most people visit the house. The house is now a museum, the rooms turned into galleries.

If you enjoy natural science then you will adore this museum. If that’s not your thing, then you’ll be really bored here. It really is a museum of pretty much only rocks & minerals.

Technically, it’s called the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks & Minerals. But, who’s going to say all that? We just call it the Rice Rock Museum or even the Rock Museum.

The home turned museum was built in 1952 by rockhounds, Richard & Helen Rice.

Right out front is a large quartz piece found in Arkansas.

Main Building

The Rainbow Gallery is one of our favorites.
Top: In normal light the minerals aren’t all that wowing…
Bottom: … But, wait a few seconds and the lights go out. Then, they cycle through both shortwave & longwave florescent lights. The minerals react differently to the varying wavelengths. They seem to glow.

Top: A visual representation of the hardness scale of minerals.
Bottom: The kids can even test the hardness scale themselves.

Also on display are examples of how minerals are used in our everyday lives.

Synthetic Bismuth from Germany
To be honest, I have know idea what that means, but I thought it was super cool.

The lady on the left is carved from jade. The piece on the right is agate & from Beijing.

Mt. Hood Aurora Borealis carved from contra luz opal by Thomas Harth Ames.

Dennis & Mary Murphy Petrified Wood Gallery

Carved Lewis and Clark

Bottom Left: The green stuff is Pyromorphite. Found in France.
Bottom Right: Wulfenite. Found in Arizona.

Recently a letterbox was hidden at the museum. Of course, we had to find it.

The rare, beautiful & famous ‘Alma Rose’ rhodochrosite. From Colorado.

Cut gems

Northwest Mineral Gallery

As you enter this building you are greeted by this huge opal filled thunderegg found in Oregon. The thunderegg is Oregon’s state rock.

Mesolite. Found in Washington

Another good sized Thunderegg. These rocks are dull on the outside, but beautiful inside.

These thundereggs are about fist size, a more typical size.

Oregon’s state gem, sunstone.

I loved these 3 paintings showing the process of a petrified forest.
Top: “Before Petrification: A forest, including fallen logs is depicted. Volcanoes are erupting in the distance. A lake separates the forest from the volcanoes, and the lakes water cools the lava.”
Middle: “During Petrification: Logs are buried under lava (basalt) and a top layer of soil has developed, implying a long passage of time since burial. The overlying basalt and soil create anaerobic environment preventing the wood from decomposing. Silica rich water seeps down through the soil and basalt to the wood and precipitates microcrystalline quartz (agate/chert/jasper) and/or opal. Other minerals/elements in the water (eg iron) cause the coloration.”
Bottom: “After Petrification: A new landscape exists and erosion has now exposed the now petrified wood to the surface.”

Outside

Left: There is a huge rock pile outside. The kids each got to pick one to take home.
Right: Farm Girl was sweet and gave me her rock to put around our pond. It’s sitting next to a love rock.

My kids love this Rock Museum. We’ve visited it a few times and I’m sure we’ll visit it again.
To see what others are sharing for the month of October check out write31days.com

The post 31 Days in Oregon: Rice Rock Museum appeared first on .

Throughout this school year we’ve been celebrating Mexican holidays & doing crafts to go along with them. Recently we celebrated Cinco de Mayo.

I was really hoping we’d be able to finish off our year with a trip to Mexico. I’d love to see Chichen Itza & other Mayan ruins. But, that didn’t happen. Bummer.

But, we did create some fun crafts.

Double Headed Serpent Mosaic

Years ago we went on a cruise through the Mexican Riviera. On the ship was a version of the Double Headed Serpent. So when I saw the mosaic craft at That Artist Woman, I knew it was one we were going to do.

I cut the serpent shapes out of stiff cardboard.

The kids used tempera paint on the entire serpent. This doubled as “grout” on their mosaic.

I must admit the other thing that drew me to this craft was that it required egg shells. I’m always on the lookout for ways to use eggs. I had recently colored eggs to place in the background of a few photos of our new chicks. This was a perfect way to use up those shells.

The kids used watered down clear Elmer’s glue to adhere the colored egg shells.

Farm Girl & Farm Kid1 chose to use buttons as their eyes. Farm Kid2 cut out circles from index paper.

The mouth & teeth were cut from white index paper.

Mosaic Masterpieces

Other Crafts Inspired by Mexico:

Papel Picaco

I checked out a book from the library to look at for our papel picado craft.

We used tissue paper and scissors to create designs from the book.

We strung them all together on string & hung them in our house.

Sombrero

I saw a photo on Flickr and loved the craft. So, we put together our own version.

I created a hat template out of index paper. Then, the kids traced the template onto old file folders & cut them out.

I got out a pile of crafting goodies for the kids to use as they wanted. Farm Kid1 decided to use the shavings of a colored pencil for decoration, which I thought was an original idea.

Then they cut out an oval & drew on a nose & mouth. I love that the eyes are covered.

Fun Crafts = Fun Times

The post Double Headed Serpent Mosaic appeared first on .

On a fairly sunny day in May, the kids and I spent the day exploring sites in the Columbia Gorge.

COLUMBIA GORGE INTERPRETIVE CENTER

Although I wanted to see other things, my main reason for going to The Gorge that day was to visit the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center. So, we went there first.

The Interpretive Center is on the Washington side of the Columbia River, but I had planned to drive most of the way on the Oregon side, up I-84. Even though, for the most part, I knew where to go I still turned on Google navigation. When I got closer to Portland, Google Maps changed my route. I don’t know why, but I followed it. It now had me crossing the Columbia River in Portland and driving the rest of the way on the Washington side, on SR-14, part of the Lewis & Clark Highway. This was my first time driving up The Gorge via Washington.

BRIDGE OF THE GODS

After touring the Interpretive Center, we drove over the Bridge of the Gods to get back to Oregon. As well as being a cool looking bridge, it is also part of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Cheryl Strayed ended her PCT travels here, as she tells in her book Wild. She was a nut & probably never should have hiked that trail as inexperienced as she was. But, it is a great story about not only her journey on the PCT, but also her journey through life getting her where she is now. It’s inspiring. I can’t wait until the movie comes out.

PACIFIC CREST TRAIL

Just over the bridge, in Oregon, is the little town of Cascade Locks. Here, we hiked a short way on the Pacific Crest Trail in search of a letterbox. Which, we found. Yay! One day we will hike more of this trail.

CASCADE LOCKS

We found another letterbox not far from the sign.

I’ve only been to Cascade Locks once or twice before, and I remember getting ice cream cones from this place. So in adding to that memory, I treated the kids. It was a warm day, perfect for licking ice cream.

BONNEVILLE DAM

BONNEVILLE FISH HATCHERY

From the dam, we went to the Bonneville Fish Hatchery.

MULTNOMAH FALLS

Our last stop of the day was a quick visit to Multnomah Falls.

Multnomah Falls is the highest year round waterfall in Oregon. Second largest in the US. The Upper Fall plummets 542 feet. The Lower Fall is 69 feet.

A few months prior a boulder fell through the Benson Bridge. This bridge allows you to continue your hike across the Falls and up to the top. The bridge was being repaired, so it and the trail were closed. It is now open, though.
The furthest we could go up the trail was to this observation point, which was fine since I didn’t want to spend a long time at the Falls anyway.

Excerpt from the journals of Lewis & Clark, April 9, 1806
“we passed several beautifull cascades which fell from a great hight over the stupendious rocks & the most remarkable of these casscades falls about 300 feet perpendicularly over a solid rock into a narrow bottom of the river on the south side. . . . several small streams fall from a much greater hight, and in their decent become a perfect mist which collecting on the rocks below again become visible and decend a second time in the same manner before they reach the base of the rocks.”

It was a long, fabulous day. I don’t even remember the kids arguing much.

The post Columbia Gorge Day Trip appeared first on .

To hold all their papers and crafts from our study of Mexico, the kids made quick and easy lapbooks.

The lapbook is made from two index folders taped together. A third index folder was cut to make pockets, which were taped to the full index folders.

We kept it pretty simple. The cover has the Mexican flag glued to it and stamped letters to spell Mexico.

Inside the lapbook holds a variety of items we worked on throughout the year, including the double headed serpent mosaic.

Celebrating Dia de los Muertos?
Check out the printables at Ridgetop Digital Shop.

The post Mexico Lapbook appeared first on .

Throughout the year we have been working on our Native American History Pockets. This was something all 3 of my kids could work on as a group & I loved teaching them all together.

We used construction paper & yarn to create the books. Super simple & inexpensive.

We learned about 8 different tribes throughout the US & Canada.

This post contains affiliate links.

The cover of Farm Kid2’s book.
It is a 12″ x 18″ piece of construction paper cut to 12″ x 12″.

We began each pocket with the kids coloring the pieces specific to the tribe we were studying, while I read the information booklet.

This book has 9 pockets, each made from 12″ x 18″ construction paper. I folded up the bottom 6″ inches of the construction paper & stapled the sides to create the pockets.

The first pocket includes a picture dictionary, a map showing the shelters from each tribe & a comparison chart.

Throughout the year I read stories about Native Americans, typically legends. The books weren’t always on the specific tribe we were studying, but they were from a nearby area. I thought this would help the kids get a visual of the types of clothes they wore & the environment they lived in. Two of the books we enjoyed were The Story of Blue Elk and The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush. Have I mentioned how much I love Tomie dePaola? Well, I do. I think his books are fabulous.

Each pocket had an activity or two specific to the tribe, such as this mask from the Tlingit.

It was especially fun to see real life examples of masks and other items used by the Native Americans when we visited the Portland Art Museum and the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center.

In The Seminole tribe pocket, there is a recipe to make hominy. We didn’t make it.

But, in the Navajo booklet it mentions that they ate fry bread with most meals. I did attempt making fry bread. It was delicious, but not very flat.

We tried the fry bread two ways – one with cinnamon & sugar, the other with lunch served taco style.

We worked on these pockets throughout the year. When possible we did a pocket to go along with other units of study. For example, we completed The Inuit pocket during the winter when we were reading Jan Brett’s Three Snow Bears. You can find a mural to print of The Three Snow Bears on Jan Brett’s website.

I enjoyed the freedom of homeschooling & changed things up to fit our needs a couple times.

#1: The tribe the publishers chose for the NE part of the US was The Iroquis. But, I wanted to tie this unit in with Thanksgiving, so I switched the tribe we studied to the Wampanoag. I found my own information about the Wampanoag to share with the kids, but they were still able to do The Iroquis activites.

#2: This History Pocket book was geared towards grades 1-3, so some of it was a bit easy for my 11 year old. Because of this, I came up with a few activities I thought he would enjoy. The book has a wampum craft for this pocket, but I chose to have the kids make a wampum belt instead.

Since the kids were learning about the shelters of each tribe, I wanted them to craft at least one shelter. I chose a teepee when we were studying The Sioux.

I am a fan of History Pockets, & this one did not disappoint. The tribe booklets were thorough enough that the kids learned a few key things about each tribe without being overwhelmed. I especially liked that it included the first pocket, which was a quick way to see where the various tribes lived & we could easily compare their lifestyles.

The post Native American History Pockets appeared first on .

To go along with our Native American studies we visited the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center. This was our first time exploring this museum.

I was surprised at the variety of exhibits. We were there for the Indian artifacts, but also learned about the natural history, transportation, & community of the Columbia Gorge.

FIRST PEOPLES – THE CASCADE CHINOOK

We began our tour in the section of the museum that housed the items we came to see, The Native American exhibit.

Left: Standing tall & proud in the middle of the exhibit is a replica of  Tsagaglalal: She Who Watches. She is probably the most recognizable petroglyph in our area.

Top Right: Carved totems or sticks & Shaman’s spangle or shield.

Bottom Right: Canoe anchor & net sinker

Top Left: Knife – Stone blade attached by pitch to antler handle.
Not long before we visited the museum, Farm Kid1 asked me how the Indians made knives. I had to tell him I didn’t know, but probably out of bones or stones. I was happy to see this example & an explanation of what it was made from.

Top Right: Gaming stone – rolled or kicked by teams in the “kick” game.
Holy cow, that must have hurt when you kicked it.

Bottom: Root gathering or storage bags.

Left: Ceremonial dress made from buckskin with bead & shell embellishments

Emory Strong Library
Emory Strong spent more than 40 years researching the early people of the Columbia River Basin. After his death, his family donated his collection to the museum. Walking in the library is only available by appointment, but we could see all the memorabilia & artifacts through the glass.

TURNING POINT & THE CORPS OF DISCOVERY

With Lewis & Clark exploring the area in the early 1800’s, change was certainly coming. Between 1850 and 1853 land speculators & settlers filed claims under the Donation Land Act along the north bank of the Columbia River.

Top Left: Council Fire on the Columbia by David Manuel
A bronze sculpture with Native Americans & members of the Corp of Discovery. There was a small sign encouraging us to find a few items in the sculpture like a quill pen, fishing net, & blue trade beads. I love things like that. I guarantee my kids would have took a quick glance at the sculpture and moved on. Instead, they examined the sculpture searching for the items.

Bottom Left: Model of the Clahclehlah village
Lewis & Clark visited this site in 1805 & 1806. It was excavated from 1977 -1979 during the construction of a powerhouse at Bonneville Dam. Many artifacts were found.

Right: Items typically traded by the people of Clahclehlah in the early 1800’s, such as wapato roots, salmon tails, hazelnuts, tobacco, wool blankets & dentalium shells.

EARLY CHANGES

This area focused on the pioneers moving to the area & the military forts needed to protect them from Native Americans.

1907 dry goods store front
The real Doumitt Store closed in 1957.

The store windows displayed items available at the store. I love the items from this time period.

TRANSPORTATION

A small area is dedicated to sternwheelers & the SP & S (Spokane, Portland & Seattle) Railroad. I’ll admit we didn’t spend a lot of time in this area, although I do find the changes in transportation interesting. The sternwheelers were basically put out of business once the railroad came through. I’m curious to see what, if anything, makes automobiles obsolete.

Bailey Gatzert pilot wheel
The Bailey Gatzert was a sternwheeler built in 1890. She ran up and down the Columbia River & also around Puget Sound until the 1920’s.

HARVESTING RESOURCES

A large, open area showcases the timber & fishing industries.

Top Left: Logging equipment

Top Right: 1930 Caterpillar Tractor

Bottom: 1921 Mack Log truck. Max speed is 17.2 mph

Top Left: Typical airplane to deliver air male, a 1917 Curtiss JN-4 or “Jenny” bi-plane.

Bottom Left: The Corliss Engine, a giant saw mill steam engine weighing 32 tons. This thing was huge. It was made in 1895 & provided energy to a sawmill until 1949.

Right: McCord Fishwheel Replica
I asked Farm Kid2 what he thought this huge contraption was used for. He said he thought it had something to do with catching fish. I thought he was crazy, but it turns out that he was right. The wheels were placed in the Columbia River scooping up fish & dumping them into boxes. They were very effective. By 1935 they were banned in both Oregon & Washington.

HARSH DEMANDS – BONNEVILLE DAM

It is a small section of the museum, but I found the effects of Bonneville Dam & our need for its hydro-electric power very interesting.

COMMUNITY GALLERY

Inside & around the “house” are items about the people in the community.

Left: An old scrapbook. I’m so tempted to make one of these oldies, but goodies, for my kids. It’s a much better way than an old box to hold their memorabilia.

Right: Canteen cup with WWII battle locations inscribed

JAPANESE COLLECTION

An added bonus at the museum was their Japanese collection. We had just finished studying Japan, so it was great timing to view items from that culture.

Since Japan is right across the Pacific Ocean many Japanese immigrants came to the Pacific NW in the early 1900’s. They helped build roads, railroads, & tunnels, they planted orchards & operated ranches.
Top: Kazeon-bosatsu (Goddess of Mercy)
c. 1600
The gold ball in her hand represents happiness, joy & good health

Top: Wedding kimono

Bottom Left: “Beautiful Woman Just from Bath” by Kitagawa Utamaro
wood block print. copy of 1797 original
When we went to the Portland Art Museum I was hoping to see a wood block print, which we didn’t. So, I was glad to see one here.

ROSARY COLLECTION

I am not Catholic, but this was amazing. The Don Brown Rosary Collection displays about 4000 rosaries.

OUTDOOR EXHIBITS

Court of the Cedars
Carved in 1980 by Dudley Carter at 90 years old.
Right: Primitive Woman

Top: Early logging & road building equipment
If you are someone who really likes machinery, this museum had lots of machines to admire.

Bottom: 1959 SP & S diesel locomotive
Supposedly there is a geocache hidden on that train engine, but we didn’t find it. Dang it!

I am definitely glad we went to this museum. We learned so much about the Native people & the many changes over the years in an area not far from our home.

The post Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center appeared first on .

Throughout the year we learned a little bit about a few different Native American tribes. When we were studying the Sioux of the Great Plains the boys made teepees out of paper bags.

This project was completed in one sitting & made a great visual when learning about the Sioux. We learned that the teepees were positioned so the door flaps opened to the east, the direction of the rising sun. We learned that the designs painted or embroidered on the outside represented something significant about the family living in the teepee. They had fires & cooked in their teepees. This, of course, created smoke. The hole & flaps at the top of the teepee were there to let the smoke escape.

This post contains affiliate links.

I used the tipi project from this Indians of the Great Plains stencil book as a guide for our teepees.

It seems so simple, which really it was. But, it still took a little trial & error to get the template just right for the boys to trace. It’s basically a half circle with wings at the top to create smoke flaps.

The boys cut open a paper grocery bag & traced around my template onto the bag. Then they used oil pastels to decorate their teepee. Both boys chose to use one stencil from the book, as well as add a few other design elements

The boys used tape to fasten the paper bag into a cone shape. We found we needed to add tape to both the inside & outside of the teepee to keep it together. Then they taped 6 skewers on the inside to act as the long poles holding up the teepee.

Left: They folded out the smoke flaps.
Right: And, they folded out the door flaps.
They also added toothpicks to act as pins holding the teepee together.

Farm Kid1 chose to add long poles (aka skewers) to the back of his teepee through the smoke flaps. Farm Kid2 chose not to add these poles.

Farm Kid1’s teepee

Farm Kid2’s teepee. The symbols on his smoke flap represent 3 days & 3 nights.

This was definitely a fun project. I had fun seeing what designs the boys came up with. They turned out so well I currently have them displayed on our mantel.

The post Paper Bag Teepee appeared first on .

After visiting Bonneville Dam we drove a very short distance to the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. It is on Tanner Creek, close to where it empties into the Columbia River. This is also the location where Lewis and Clark stayed on April 9, 1806. The last time we were at the hatchery was in 2007, on our way back from Idaho. It certainly was time to see it again.

This hatchery is Oregon’s largest & has been around for over 100 years. They hatch Coho Salmon, Chinook Salmon, and Steelhead for release in the Columbia River. Some young fish are also sent to other hatcheries.

The hatchery is managed by Oregon Fish & Wildlife & is part of the Bonneville Dam Historic District.

REARING PONDS

SPAWNING BUILDING

Spawning takes place during the fall. We visited the hatchery in the spring, so nothing was happening here. We did watch a video on the spawning process at the hatchery. The video was a bit graphic, but very informative. The part that I remember most is fertilization of the salmon egg. Many eggs from females are held in a bucket. The sperm from the males have been collected in a cup. The sperm cup is then dumped into the bucket of eggs. Voila, fertilized fish eggs.

STURGEON VIEWING & INTERPRETIVE CENTER

Inside the building you can view Herman, the Sturgeon. Honestly, I’m not sure if Herman was out the day we visited. This was the largest sturgeon we saw and I’m not positive it’s him. Herman is more than 70 years old & over 10 feet long. I don’t think this guy was quite that long. Either way this one was fun to watch.

A few other fish were swimmin’ along with the sturgeon.

We also viewed the sturgeon from outside, looking down into their pond.

This was a fun place to take my animal loving children. I’m glad they got to see conservation efforts at work.

One of these years, I’m going  to have to make a point to visit the hatchery in the fall to watch the spawning.

The post Visiting Bonneville Fish Hatchery appeared first on .