October 11, 2011 by Debbie.

Hope so, anyway! Summer’s heat and drought has hung on long enough. Actually, too long. We got rain over the weekend - almost 2 inches of that glorious wet stuff. We’ll need more before the drought is broken, but it’s a start and God will see it to the finish. I saw tender green shoots sprouting up in the yard and pastures. I wonder how the ‘grass fed’ producers are faring this year as there’s just not any grass for anything to graze on. Omega 3s will be down.

It’s our fall meat chicken raising time.  Our pasture coops are working well even if they don’t look pretty. They’re light enough we can move them as needed. The shade cloth works to keep them safe the Texas afternoon sun shine.

Homesteading has it’s trying times. Lately, it’s been the goats who have acted like true butt-heads - pun intended. Our new young buck has to stick his head through every opening on the fences and gates and get his head stuck. We’ve had to cut gate pieces, put up protecting fences to keep him from areas where he’s repeated this trick, and this morning I had to pull back on his back legs while John pushed his head out of a different gate’s wire fencing. He’s got great milk quality/quantity blood lines but I’m beginning to wonder about any smart genes in his pedigree.

One of the younger does who has never been separated from her momma is throwing fits because her momma is in with the buck and away from her. She spends her time screaming for her momma. It would be pitiful but this doe is almost a year and half old - she’s no baby! This screaming upsets the two pregnant does who frantically try to get to her to calm her down - maternal instinct showing up early.

It’s going to be hard to NOT post a ‘whole herd for sale’ sign out front.

Thank goodness for a calming hobby like quilting. Ha! Today I’m going to rip four cornerstones already deeply set in a quilt top because they just don’t fit right. They make my eyes hurt and quilts shouldn’t do that.

Here’s the 2011 K class’s quilt we’re working on. This is still on my design wall so the pieces don’t fit right (not sewn yet) together. The border is just a ‘wait and see’ venture but this is the idea.

I planned it so the 3 classes could each do two vertical rows of the quilt. They will get to plan where each square will go, help hand sew the squares in place and later ’sandwich’ the quilt, do a little top quilting and help sew the binding on. They’ll be involved in every step of the process. I had to prepare the squares by sewing the scrappy frames around them so there’s close to 40 hours of my work in this so far but I really enjoy this special time with the kindergartners.

Well, I’d better go see if Arador (buck) has tried to hang himself on the fencing again. I save him and he perfumes me with his wonderful musky stinky buck smell. What a trade.

Debbie

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September 25, 2011 by Debbie.

I didn’t think I’d like this blue and yellow scrap quilt. There’s something about working with a quilt, hand quilting by hand, that binds me to a quilt.  A dear friend of mine recently comment that this quilt calms her. What a compliment to me, to make a peaceful quilt.

These two quilts were fun quilts to make and are meant to be used so I had the machine quilted instead of hand quilted.

 I hope these two quilts will be sold together as a pair. The purchase prices from these quilts will be donated to a charity, either locally or nationally. Check out quilts.beulahland.com for more details and more quilts.

This last quilt is not for sale at all. I made this one for our granddaughter, Maggie, for her 18th birthday she’ll celebrate at University of Texas at Austin. She was accepted in the Honors Program - our first grandchild in college.  This quilt is definitely a change from my normal traditional quilt patterns! I call it Swirls of College Life.

I had Jean of Silver Threads in Bonham machine quilt it in purple thread, making the back pretty purple swirls.

 Now my focus will be working on the Kindergarten quilt. I thought I’d do it in the Quilt Across Texas fabric but decided it wasn’t quite right. I’ll still do that quilt, but switched to American Jane fabric instead for the K quilt - pictures and things little ones are familiar with.

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September 8, 2011 by Debbie.

It’s hard to follow that picture with words, but of course, I will!

Lilly’s coming back for a visit!! Yeah. She’s coming today and might get to stay for a week or more, as long as we’re allowed to keep her. She’s the grandkids’ dog so we can’t hog her all the time but it will be so nice to have her here again. She’s not met the youngest baby goat, Chici-BanAnna, so I hope Chici keeps her head on her side of the yard fence. I really don’t want an up close and personal visit between those two.

Isn’t she the sweetest thing? Her brother, Black Star just went home with his new owners. He left here with the name Black Star and was re-named Star Burns Bright Reese before he even made it home. He now owns a family out in Honey Grove way and they have built a ‘kid condo’ for him and his 3 year old play mate (their son). The son takes Star into the house and they play chase for an hour. Then the 3 year old puts a lease on Star and he goes out potty. It’s amazing to me how a 3 year takes such good care of little Star. Obviously, the parents did a lot right!

Our 100+ temps broke this past week. What a blessing cooler weather is! Now we  desperately need rain. Because of such a severe and prolonged drought much of Texas is plagued with wild fires. Please pray for our firemen  and for rain.

I started my fall garden inside but will transplant out soon. School has started and I already have a few days scheduled so I’ll have to be more frugal with my ‘free’ time. No time is really free - that’s what my lesson should be!

Enjoy your day. With a morning sight like ours, how could we not?

Debbie

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September 2, 2011 by Debbie.

This youtube is well worth your time!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/QuzhwkaNC40?rel=0

Can’t add anything to it. It says it all.

Debbie

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August 11, 2011 by Debbie.

Many people have asked if I sell my quilts.  I really don’t want to sell them because I don’t want quilting to switch from something I really enjoy to a business, yet I find my quilts stacking up here at home.  I don’t do well with ’storage.’ My philosophy is use it or pass it on to someone who will. So instead of selling quilts as a business I decided (after prayer) to offer quilts for sale as a ministry. The proceeds from the quilts will go to help out local and not so local needs.

In the same vein of not wanting to create a business, I have not designed a website with a shopping cart but instead I’ve just added another blog to display the quilts. If you’re interested in any quilt, just email me for details. The blog is at :

Beulah Land Quilts

I’ve only got a few quilts on the blog - more will be added. If you know anyone interested in quilts or who may need a special gift, please pass this info on to them.

thanks!

Debbie

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July 25, 2011 by Debbie.

I had the wonderful experience of dog sitting our neighbor’s 10 days last week. What an adventure! 5 different breeds, from a tiny little Yorkie to 3 huge Mastiffs, we had a time! The 5 little dogs and one white, one-eyed, Bull Dog stayed in the house and 4 Mastiffs and one ‘puppy’ Great Dane stayed in their air conditioned kennel. One of the Mastiffs, Lu-Lu, was allowed to decide where she stayed and she alternated between house and kennel, choosing to be outside during the day and on her master’s couch at night. The kennel dogs were allowed to run loose outside once the inside dogs had their ‘potty break.’ That was the adventure, getting everyone in and out, in and out. Thank goodness, all of our past dogs trained me well.

Tyson, the white Bull Dog, was so sweet. After he came in, he’d hide from me. I could hear his tail thumping the floor behind the table, but he didn’t want me too close. He was nervous without his people home, which I understood. I wanted so bad to kiss his puggy face, though. Isn’t that the sweetest face?

I was the puppy Scout’s newest bestest friend while I was there. She’d jump up in my face, straddle my legs, do anything to get my attention and almost bowl me over. The two male Mastiffs were lovers, they wanted to lean into my knees. Lu-Lu was the ‘watch dog’ of the bunch - first day she almost didn’t let me in the house and scared Tyson and all the little dogs back inside.

On my last day there, she let me pet her. I must have passed inspection … finally! Probably had something to do with the lunch meat and cheese treats I gave her!

Bribery has it’s virtues.

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July 11, 2011 by Debbie.

It had only been 6 years since John and I have been away from home overnight together (hate to get in a rut, you know) but we were able to go away overnight this past weekend. We headed up to OK City for a short visit  to Bricktown. Since we were staying only one night we splurged on the hotel right on the canal, Residence Inn. The hotel was worth the visit alone. It had a coffee maker. That rates HIGH on my plus lists for hotels. Each room is a suit with a fully loaded kitchen. Although we didn’t cook any of our meals there, it was nice to have a pot of fresh coffee when I wanted it and John fixed some microwave popcorn. Especially nice to have a full fridge with freezer/ice maker  to store our cooler items - insulin and diet drinks.

During the day we walked around Bricktown, ate at Spaghetti Warehouse and had dessert at an ice cream pallor - OK, John had ice cream; I watched him eat it.  We took the water taxi on the canal tour twice - that was my favorite part. Here’s a few pictures of the bronze statues depicting the OK Land Rush of 1889.

The man inn this first wagon is  a self portrait of the sculptor - whose name I’ve forgotten! He will be adding more in future years but the current display was very impressive.

John enjoyed the hot tubs and swimming pool while I read for awhile on Friday night before we went out for dinner and ‘night life.’ We quickly remembered why we don’t go out for ‘night life’ and came back to the hotel about 11:00 after a quick walk down Bricktown’s live music district.

Full breakfast at the hotel was wonderful, with Belgium waffles for John and an assortment of yogurts for me.  I think the best part of the hotel was they welcomed pets so we saw and petted several dogs during our short stay - a lot of Labs, although no Yellows.

We  headed out Sat. morning for the Martin Nature Preserve, north of OKC. It was really neat and inspiring to see things we could do here at Beulah Land in future years.  The wild flower meadow was all done for the spring, but still gave us ideas for our future plans. We especially liked the way the Center provided bird sighting at the bird feeding stations.

We were more than ready to head home after a extremely filling meal at Irma’s Burgers. Fantastic place! The drive home was slower than anticipated due to the outside heat - many cars and trucks by the side of the roads with overheating  and tire problems. God mercifully kept his hand on us. The outside temp showed 117 on the car thermometers.  I felt like Dorothy, striving to get home.

And it’s true, there’s no place like home!

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July 1, 2011 by Debbie.

I read on one of my homesteading lists that this June was the hottest ever.  That was no surprise as I write down each day’s high and low temps on my gardening calender.  When almost every date had either 97 or 100 for the high, I kind of guessed it was hot. I try not to listen to the radio except to catch the morning weather prediction. After that I don’t want some one telling me how hot it is; I walk outside and say, “Yep, it’s hot.” That’s enough info for me. I also figured it was hot when our grass stopped growing so fast and the pool water needs topped off two or three times a week. Yep, it’s hot.

Mercy’s baby goats are doing well. Two of the triplets are already promised, little all white Chici-BanAnna is still awaiting her next home. She’s so sweet it won’t matter to me if she stays here any way. Lilly, our granddog, came to visit for a couple of weeks. Then she went home and 11 newly hatched Buff chicks came to stay for a few days while their new people fixed up a brooder box of their own. Next week, Chloe, a black and white spaniel, comes to visit for a week while her people go to Florida. I’m with Chloe, I wouldn’t go to Florida willingly in the summer ever again for anything. We’ve had an open door policy on visiting animals and fowl for June and part of July. So, doesn’t someone want Chici-BanAnna to come visit them?

On the left, Joe is holding Boots and Alec is holding Chici-BanAnna.

We’ve picked some tomatoes, one or two at a time, not enough to cook with or can by any means. I gave up on the green beans. I harvested 3 beans the first time,  doubled it to 6 the next time, then the last time 2 beans. Gotta work on that bed, I guess. Yellow squash is setting fruit and we had one small one so far and one green pepper. The other pepper plants are buried under a maze of tumbling tomato plants that outgrew their space. I think my soil was too rich this year. The potato plants are lush and green still. They look beautiful as a decorative plant but I don’t know how they’ll do as a productive crop plant. I don’t want to try digging them til the plants start to die back.

Everything is dry without added watering as we’ve gone into summer lack of rain periods. I read in Surviving the Dust Bowl that 20 inches of rain in the North East is only equal to 16 inches here due to the heat and wind. I’ve been watering our new flower bed and it looks wonderful. The flowers have spread out and are covering almost all of the bed’s surface. Maybe I can’t eat flowers to fill my stomach, but I can eat them with my eyes to fill my soul, especially the tall zinnias that are so courageous to explode in this heat.

We butchered the last three almost adult turkeys (3 months old.) We froze two and split one with friends. The half turkey was more than enough meat for John and I two meals, plus some. The meat was very tender and moist, even the breast meat. We saved one turkey, who is 2 months old, who is named Thanksgiving. Next year we want to try a white heritage turkey instead of the bronze. I think 3 turkeys will be enough for us for the year.

I’ve been so busy with turkeys, goats and belated spring cleaning I haven’t had time to quilt lately but I did start a new string quilt.  Here’s some of the squares on my design wall.  I think I will turn it into insulated curtains for the living room during the winter time.

I pray everyone has a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July weekend, be careful with the fireworks. We don’t need any fires working on our lands!
Debbie

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June 5, 2011 by Debbie.

Been a busy, productive week here at Beulah Land. Mercy decided to kid on Wed., 6/1, on day 145 of gestation. I knew she was ready when she refused her breakfast and looked at me with eyes that said, “Just whose idea was this anyway?” By night time we had 3 live baby goats and one stillborn. Our herd grew by two little does and one little buckling. One doeling is already claimed and we hope the buckling as well. I always pray for homes before I breed and God is faithful to answer. There’s been times it took longer than I wanted. Here they are just hours after kidding.

It’s so nice to have my own personal Dr. Doolittle to bond with our animals. This was taken on Sat. You can see how they’re changing in just a few days. The little grayish one was born first and thinks John belongs to her - see how she snuggles under his beard.

That little grayish one, Boots, is named so because of the pure black ‘boots’ on her legs. She reminded me of Nancy Sinatra’s song, “These Boots are Made for Walking,”which fits as Boots is  already sold. It’s hard to get the babies to stand still for a picture so this one’s a little blurred.

The little black buckling’s name is just Black for right now as he hasn’t shared his real name. And the little cream colored one is Chici-BanAnna. John said she looked like a banana between the two black baby goats when she was born. And she’s a real flirt so Chici fits her as well.

Take a minute and watch this very short youtube video of the springs in the babies’ feet.

Our farm animals grew by the 3 baby goats but decreased by 2 as we butchered the adult breeding pair of turkeys on Saturday. We plan on roasting the 25 pound tom this morning, hoping a low temp, slow roast will keep him moist. As a standard Bronze heritage turkey he has nice layer of fat right under the breast skin to marinate him as he roasts. We’ll have enough for dinner and to freeze for many dinners ahead.

Hope you all had as blessed a week and weekend as we’ve had!

The Goatherders

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May 24, 2011 by Debbie.

Thank you to Bev Chambers for letting us purchase Arador, our new buck. He was only 3 months old when he came and was a little confused about the two willing does we put him in with but he has adjusted since then. Kind of like a 12 year old sliding straight into teenage hormones … male hormones!

Arador has blue eyes and is absolutely beautiful.

He’s got a sweet disposition to go with his sweet little face. We hope both will stay with him as he matures.

SugaBaby went to a new home last week which ’bout broke my heart.  Her two little doelings were slightly upset the first day but since have accepted Mercy into their stall as a substitute momma - as long as they don’t try nursing off her, that is!

Spice Cake loves to jump up on her warming box to get up close and personal with anyone who comes in the barn.

And  for those of you who read the Done and Done … Well, Almost post, here’s a picture of the finished Remembrance quilt, make with 1930 reproduction fabrics.

The colors are sharper and brighter than shown here. I don’t know how I can mess up pictures, but I do.  It’s done in my favorite block, Jacob’s Ladder. There’s so much potential with that block, depending on color and placement.

I started some sauerkraut in the crock this morning following R and C Dairy’s recipe on their blog. It’s been awhile since I’ve made it and reading about inspired me again. In 4 weeks or so we can top grilled brats with fresh, homemade sauerkraut. The gardens are doing well. After 4 plantings the green beans have survived the pill bugs. The Swiss Chard finally sprouted and looks like it might also survive the predators. It took 3 plantings for that success. The tomato plants look absolutely fantastic but not one tomato set on them yet. The potatoes are long and spindly. I’m not sure if that’s due to too much nitrogene in the soil or the tree shading the plants. Time will tell. They’ve set blooms so I should dig in a few weeks. We picked the last of the spinach, onions, broccoli and lettuce two weeks ago and planted more green beans in their places. The kale is perennial here so I just ignore it for the summer time; it makes a nice green spot at the end of the raised bed.

Ezzie is setting on 12 eggs and Yancy keeps gobbling to her, “Come out! Come OUT!” He doesn’t like her in the nesting box or maybe it’s he doesn’t like being ignored.

Less than 2 more weeks of school left. I’m ready for a break to focus on late spring cleaning, organizing the garage and cleaning out the buck goat area so Arador can go over there as soon as he’s a little bigger. Maybe attack the ’started but not finished’ chore list, too. Life’s good and God’s even better. I hope you find both so, also.

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