My first entry

Well, here I go...my first blog entry. Over the last couple years I've begun reading other blogs, mostly about farming, homesteading and goat raising. I have found these blogs to be informative and inspirational but perhaps more importantly they are a link to others around the world who are living similar lifestyles and seeking similar goals. As a stay at home mom with an almost three year old and a five month old baby, it is challenging to get out and socialize as much as I'd like. I don't meet as many new people as I use to. My intentions are to post often, probably late at night after the kids are in bed. I am looking for a way to document and share the interesting aspects of my days. I will have to share little things about my kids that probably no one cares about than myself. However, the bigger picture includes a stay at home mom's attempts at: cloth diapering, cooking, animal husbandry - including raising Lamancha dairy goats, chickens and turkeys, making my own of everything I can including, herbal medicines, soaps, cleaning products, candles, cheese and other dairy products, gardening, preserving and the list goes on.

My husband and I have been building our house,(out of pocket - while we live in it) over the last five years. Our property is about nine acres of west facing boreal forest in the hills above Fairbanks. This is our second winter raising goats and we are in the process of drying off our last two does before kidding season begins. This is our first year raising Bourban Red Turkeys and laying hens...so we have been doing a lot of research and hands on learning over the last few years. It seems as there are always exciting new things going on here. Over the last couple weeks I've been researching chicken feed recipes. For the first time, instead of crumbles we brought home six hundred and fifty pounds of whole grains, alaskan fish meal and some additives. I mixed a hundred pound recipe up and started feeding it along with the last of the crumbles.

The other excitement is that I am housesitting for my folks for ten days and it is giving my husband a chance to do some tiling projects in the house without the kids or I around. We are hoping to finish the some kitchen projects, tile our entryway and hearth along with the entire bathroom... its a big list, so we'll see what all gets done. Over the last week I've been working on getting a webpage up and running. It is mostly a way to advertise and show off out goats. We should have kids for sale this spring. Some of our long term goals include possibly selling vegetables, eggs, soap and anything we can think of to make a living working for ourselves. When the page is complete enough I'll link to it and it should all just be a bunch of late nights for me as this one is quickly turning into...goodnight