• December is here. Holiday season is upon us. And, we had our first snow fall.

• This year’s holiday photo included our 3 kids, 1 dog, 1 goat, 1 chicken & 1 tilapia.

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It’s been a crazy week! Lots going on.

• We added 3 goats to our herd. Willow, the mama. Betsy & Georgia the little girls.

• Willow is in milk, so I’ve been milking a goat for the first time.

• I cleaned up Farm Kid2’s flower garden near the chicken coops. I gave the cut flowers to the chickens – which they loved.

• I’m trying something new. I usually sprinkle flower seeds in the spring. But, they don’t grow well in Farm Kid2’s flowerbed. So, I decided I didn’t have anything to lose and sprinkled a bunch now, covered them in dirt and dried chicken poop. We’ll see what happens come spring.

• I ran my first marathon on Sunday. Part of the finisher’s swag was a cedar seedling. I got that baby planted in the ground. Now I need to find a way to keep the deer away from it.

• The well pump quit working. Thankfully, we were only without water for a few hours and it was an easy fix.

• The craziest thing that happened was that our dog found a porcupine. A porcupine?! I have never seen one or heard about anyone else seeing one around our house. But, sure enough, the dog met a porcupine.

• Now we’re in the beginning of what is supposed to be a horrible storm. Fingers crossed the power stays on.

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Spring is here and I’m loving it. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and I’ve been busy checking items off my outside to-do list.

• Farmer John brought home 4 chicks – 2 Welsummers & 2 Delaware. We have one Welsummer, but the Delaware chicks are new to us. They are a breed John has been wanting, so when he saw them he had to bring them home.

• A few herbs got transplanted into the garden, but many are still in the greenhouse and garage.

• I planted flower seed in the meadow and around the front pond, as well as around the pond in the bird village.

• I love the deer, but dang it I’d wish they’d eat only the weeds and leave my flowerbeds alone. I am thankful, though, that they quit nibbling on my lilac. It’s taken it a few years, but it’s finally looking fabulous.

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I’m trying something new this year – an update each week about what’s going on around our farm and garden. I’m aiming for just a quick rundown of the week’s happenings. Hopefully the coming weeks are not as eventful as this last week has been. It’s been a rough start to 2016 – which means it can only get better.

• It has snowed off and on since before Christmas. We don’t get many snow days around here, so it’s been fun. The kids have gone sledding many, many times.

• A couple days the cold temperatures and wet ground resulted in slippery driving conditions. That’s always exciting coming and going on our hill.

• Despite having moved Olaf to the garage to keep him warmer, he passed away New Years Day. Olaf was our pet and will be missed. I think I took it especially hard because I just watched my grandpa pass away the night before.

• The power went out New Years Day. No problems with it. It just added another jab in an already crummy day.

• We still have Oliver and Lois, so Sven is living in a chicken run for now. It’s absolutely not ideal. But, I watched Oliver attack Olaf and I don’t want the same thing to happen to Sven. Also, Sven is frightened of both Oliver and Lois – for good reason, they aren’t nice to him.

• We purchased quarter of a beef from a friend and is now put away nicely in our freezer just waiting for dinnertime.

• It took two trips due to a stubborn hog, but the pigs went to the butcher. Soon we will have pork in the freezer again.

• For some strange reason our dog, Remi, followed Farmer John when he left to take the pigs to the butcher. John noticed he was following him down the driveway and told Remi to go home. John assumed he did. Apparently, he did not. A couple hours later, at bed time, the dog was nowhere to be found. Because it snowed that day, John was able to track him. He tracked his steps 4 miles down the road. Then, they just stopped. We put up a sign & posted about it on Facebook. The next morning we got 2 leads and thankfully we got Remi back. He’s been a bit sluggish since then, though. I’m hoping he’s just wore out from the evening’s adventures.

• I ordered herb seeds. Woo hoo! And, a few flower seeds. I’m going to give sunflowers a whirl once again. I don’t know why. I certainly can’t get them to grow.

• I snapped a few photos of a Varied Thrush, which was exciting. They are so skittish and fly off the moment they get sight of me. I was/am quite thrilled this guy stuck around long enough (twice) for me to take his pic.

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It’s been a rough couple days. Earlier this week, I backed over our dog.

The kids & I were on our way to town & when I started backing up I felt a bump & heard him yelp.

Death is such a weird thing to ponder. Like, was it meant to happen that day? And, if so, why? Or did two off decisions that day just not work out? He didn’t usually lay behind my car. Why was he there & why didn’t he move? He couldn’t hear well anymore, maybe he didn’t hear me start the car? Wednesday is the one day a week I don’t usually have to go anywhere. This Wednesday I decided to take the kids on a field trip for school. If we would have stayed home like normal, our dog would still be with us.

He was 12 years old. We got him just days before finding out we were pregnant with our first child. He grew right along with the rest of our family.

My sister saw him at a shelter one day. She thought we might like him & we did. He was 8 weeks old & we brought him home. He was a yellow lab, possibly a mix. We named him Austin. One of his eyelids was not right. It turned in so that his eyelashes were facing his eye. We took him to the vet & he had surgery. The surgery did help his eye, but both his eyes ended up being slightly droopy & a bit watery from then on.

Doing what puppies do.

Farmer John had a German Shorthair when we got married. Our new puppy used him as a chew toy.

Resting after a long day of chewing anything in his path. He seemed to outgrow the hyper puppy stage fairly quickly.

When Austin was a year old & our oldest son was just a few months old we went camping at Crater Lake.

He was always very tolerant of the kids.

When he was 3, we went on a road trip to Minnesota. We had our 2 boys at the time. He rode in the backseat with them.

The first winter at our new house.
He lived with us at my parents house for a year while we were building our current home.

All the kids loved Austin, but our daughter played most with him.

She sat on him.

She covered him with blankets, then layed down beside him.

She dressed him up.

He was a calm dog. Then, we brought home a puppy. He was forced to play more than I think he wanted to. But, it was good for him. It kept him young at heart.

The two dogs would often hang out wherever the kids were outside.

He’d go for walks with us around our property. One day we walked down by the creek, through a huge mess of downed trees & overgrown vegetation. He was smart enough to know he didn’t want to tromple through that mess, so he waited at the edge until we came back. Then, walked home with us.

He liked hanging out on the front porch soaking in the afternoon sun.

As he got older, he spent a lot of time laying on the back step.

Austin & his buddy, Remington. Remi’s probably missing Austin as much as we are.

One of my favorite pics.
Our daughter likes having the dogs around. One day she bungee strapped Austin to the other swing so he would stay near her while she played. He’s giving me a Please help me look, but he never tried to move away from her or the swing.

I’m so sorry, Austin. We will miss you.

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