Well here is a little in brief with the highlights of things that happened from September - December.
SEPTEMBER
This year we lost one of our bee hives completely and the other didn't do very well because of all the rain. We only ended up with 3 1/2 gallons of very dark honey dew or forest honey.
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| Me uncapping the honey |
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| Ken and kids extracting the honey |
One crop that did well again this year to spite all the rain was the potatoes.
The largest pile are the reds. The smaller piles are other varieties that we tried this year; brown, mountain rose, fingerlings, and Yukon Golds.
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| Oak and the tater piles |
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| Last years light fireweed honey VS this years forest honey |
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| Lisa and her pack goat Tamarack |
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| Wyatt up the tree Oak down below |
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| Oak with a large red potato Wyatt photo bombing |
OCTOBER
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| Cocoa Butter Soap |
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| Oak helped unmold the soaps |
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| My first batch of Goats Milk soap |
We got a new livestock guard dog puppy. He is a Maremma/Great Pyrenees and his name is Rover.
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| 9 weeks old |
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| Tank |
Kids had a good time trick or treating and got lots of goodies.
Only in Alaska do kids get full size boxes of cereal while trick or treating.
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| Enjoying some sugary cereal that they got trick or treating. |
NOVEMBER
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| Kids Tank and Rover 12 weeks |
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| Oak, Lisa, Wyatt |
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my Mom, Dad, September, Ian and Our Pastor Earl and his lovely Wife Lynn. I especially enjoyed spending time with Lynn visiting after dinner. We had a great time sharing stories and lots of laughter.
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| Pecan Pie |
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| Apple Pie |
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| Pumpkin Pie |
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| Grandpa and Wyatt wrestling around |
I got to use the fine china that Ken's Grandma Rose gave us for the first time ever. I had never even seen it. It was packed when we got it and then we moved so I had never even opened it until Thanksgiving day. I had to go online to see how to properly set a table and to find out what all the pieces were for lol...
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| Adult Dinner Table |
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| Kids Dinner Table |
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| Rover 15 weeks |
DECEMBER
Ken started fixing up the old plow truck and added the towing equipment from the broken tow truck onto the plow stuck. It is still a work in progress.
The kids all set to cut down the Christmas tree
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| Oak |
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| Lisa |
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| Wyatt |
They each had a turn at cutting
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| Wyatt |
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| Lisa |
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| Oak |
Tank Supervises
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Then they hauled the tree home.
The animals are all enjoying having a heated barn. Rover is peeking into the barn to say Hello.
Rover and Tank wait patiently outside the Turkey pen.
The kids all took part in the Church Christmas Play. Lisa was Mary, Wyatt was an Angle and Oak was a sheep.
Lisa made Christmas Cookies. The Santa faces were special for Santa she said.
It's Christmas Eve and the scene is set.
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| Cookies and Milk for Santa |
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| Gifts are under the tree |
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| Stockings are hung. |
Christmas Day
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| Stockings are full |
Our traditional homemade Christmas doughnuts.
A game of Marbles after opening gifts.
Rover got to spend a little time inside with the family on Christmas morning.
New Years Eve
We had a nice little fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.
After all the food was cooked we added some little packets to the fire that cause the flames to burn all kinds of different colors. We sat back watched the fire and listened to the owls. At 7:00 pm it was chores as usual. We milked the goats and closed everyone up for the night. The kids went to bed. Ken and I enjoyed a couple of glasses of sparkling cider before we too headed off to bed. New years or not the wake up call is the same when you have animals to milk and feed.
We want to wish all of our friends and family a wonderful New Year. We hope that God's blessings will be abundant and his presence ever felt throughout 2015.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
