More Spring Flowers

Assalam alykom:

I really love to photograph nature. All of these beautiful flowers where photographed around my farm, my friend's farm and along the rodesides here in Nebraska.

Spring Babies

Assalam alykom:

I am a little late with this post since it is around summer now. Here are a few babies that are around my farm. The rabbit my son is holding is a wild rabbit. It was so cute! We put it back where we found it. The little chick was hatched by my duck. She started to lay her eggs in the chicken coop. So, she laid on a few chicken eggs with her duck eggs and this little chick hatched. The nest of robin eggs was found in one of our barns. I just love the color of them.

Spring on the Farm

I just love spring flowers. I try to take a picture of every flower there is on my farm. I discovered that I had lilacs, which is one of my favorites! I brought them in many time and filled my vases.

Our New Kids

Some of our goats finally kidded. The whole family witnessed the birth of one goat. She delivered three kids. For homeschooling, biology does not get any better. The kids where amazed at how a baby comes out. However, they where also disgusted when she starts to lick them clean. It was a big ordeal that day. It was 0 degrees outside, and we were so afraid they would freeze to death. We found the mother goat in labor. We decided to drag her across the property and bring her to our sun porch. After they were all delivered, we took them all to a cozy room in one of our barns. Later that day, the kids went to check on the other goats and another one had delivered four kids. One died shortly after being born. We also moved her to the same room. There is still another pregnant goat left. She was very upset to see her friends go. So, we put her in the room too! After a few days, we moved them all back to their big barn and pasture. Unfortunately, another kid died. He was very small at birth and just was not strong enough. He was my favorite and was the cutest one. As the week progressed, we noticed that one goat had a very hard udder and she looked in pain. The kids and I loaded her up in the back of the van and took her to the vet. He said she had an infection and needed medicine. He said she would need help feeding her babies. We have had to bottle feed some of them to help her out. They are so friendly because of this and the kids love to go in the pasture to play with them. It has been a month now and there is still a third goat to deliver. The goats are nice, but they are not dairy goats. Therefore, there is not enough for us to milk them. They are meat goats. We are not much for eating goats. We prefer sheep for eating. I suppose we will keep a few as pets and then sell the rest. It has been a wonderful experience raising these animals.

Chickens, Ducks, Geese and Their Eggs

Some of our animals have really interesting behavior.My children are making so many observations and learning so much! Our geese are probably the most interesting in their behavior. When we first got them, the girl goose(also called a goose. The boy is called a gander)
laid an egg right in the middle of the barn. The kids found it and at first glance was not sure what it was because it was so large. Well, it was very cold weather, and she laid it in the middle of everything. So,we decided to eat it. It has a milder taste than the chicken egg, and the white part is very transparent. I was not to crazy about eating it, but my kids where very excited to try.

After eating a couple of the goose eggs, she started laying her eggs in the chicken nesting box. Well, the chickens do not like the geese because they are mean and always bite them. So, revenge is in order. They would peck her eggs open and eat them. Well, a week later, she decides to make a nest in my basement window. There are decorative rocks around the house there. She has pulled all the rocks in there and made a nest. We brought her some hay and she pulled it in there too. She also seems to be pulling her feathers out and using them. This is still not the safest place. She sometimes gets up in the early morning when it is dark and she eats. At this time, something is crawling in there and stealing an egg. So far, two have disappeared this way. Another time, I was organizing the basement, and I saw a chicken in the window instead of the goose. The chickens had got in there and where pecking an egg and eating it. They must still want their revenge. Finally, she seems to be settling in there. We have three eggs in the window, and she only gets off of them once in a day in the late afternoon. Before she started laying her eggs, the male goose was so aggressive. Now, he spends his days alone while she sits on her nest. He is very quite now and does not say much. However, if we go look at her she starts honking, and he comes running and hissing at us. There is a picture here of him, and he is so funny!

Another egg story we have is our attempt to hatch eggs in the incubator. We have goose, duck, and chicken eggs in the incubator. I am hopeful they will all hatch, but it is entirely experimental at this point. The other picture is the eggs in the nesting box. Everyone favors one box, and everyone is laying their eggs in it. There is both duck and chicken eggs. They seem to be laying good. but no one sits on them. So, they where ice cold. Well, I just collected them and took them inside for eating. We tried the duck egg too. The same as the goose egg. I was not thrilled about eating it and prefer chicken eggs only!

A few new birds

Assalam alykom:

I have been so busy with homeschooling and my farm, that I have not been able to give time to my blogs. We have a few new additions to our farm. We bought a few more chickens, a pair a guinea hens and a pair of white geese, and one turkey. The chickens are laying lots of eggs, and we are enjoying eating them. The guinea hens are scared most of the time, but they make beautiful sounds. The geese are very aggressive and chase and hiss at everyone on the farm. The kids have to show them who is boss. My little girls are especially venerable. They are about the size of the geese and the geese feel comfortable running them down. I told the girls to flap your arms and run at them when they do that to you. This seems to work, but when the girls are not paying attention the geese sneak up to them. It is funny and the girls love to chase them back. There is a sad story about our turkey. He was staying in the big barn in the back behind some boards. He felt comfortable in there so we let him. One morning we went out to feed everyone, but we could not find the turkey. I found alot of his feathers, but not him. Later that morning, we found his body in the pasture with his chest and head gone. I asked my local vet because I was afraid it was coyotes. I would then fear for my children. He said coyotes would eat it if it was already dead in the pasture, but they would unlikely enter the barn and kill it. He said that a raccoon would do this though. Sure enough a few days later after I prayed Fajr, I saw the raccoon in the pasture. It looked about 35-40 pounds. He is now on our hit list. I do not want it to kill any of my other birds. Our goats have finally kidded. So stay tuned for me to load up the cute pictures.

The Newest Member to our Farm

Assalam alykom:

We now have a male sheep for our little farm. We have 1 white female hair sheep and 1 female wool sheep. We just got this little guy who is a hair sheep. We are going to slaughter the wool sheep for meat and keep our herd all hair sheep. They will be much easier to take care of in the summer because you do not have to clip the wool. Our goats still have not had their kids. We will be so excited when they do. Every day we go and feed them and think that they had them. I will be posting the pictures as soon as they arrive.

My Pita Bread

Assalam alykom:

Well, Pita bread is an essential staple to an Arabic household, and since the nearest Arabic store is 2 hours away, I needed to learn how to make my own. I have a bread machine and this makes it a little quicker and a lot easier. Here is the recipe I use. I got it off the Internet.

*3 1/2 cups of white bread flour. I also made brown pita bread. I made it with half brown flour and half white bread flour.

*1 1/2 cups of warm water

* 1 teaspoon of salt

*1 teaspoon of sugar

*1 teaspoon of olive oil

*2 1/4 teaspoon of yeast

I put all of the ingredients in my bread machine on the dough cycle. This cycle mixes it, kneads it and rises it one time. Once it is finished, I take it out on a floured surface. I then divide it into 8 small balls. I let these balls rise for about a half an hour. They will rise a little and then I will roll each one out. The oven must be very hot. I put it on about 500 to 525. I have an iron skillet inside the oven getting hot. I place each bread one at time to cook. It only takes about 1 minute or two. You have to watch it. The puff right up and look real nice. I let them coll and they taste really wonderful. Because I do not add any preservatives like in the stores, they are fresh for about a day or two at most. I tried making a whole bunch and freezing them, but they where not so fresh. Now, I just make a batch every other day and we always have fresh bread.

Yougart Balls

Assalam alykom:

Well, with the closest Arabic market being two hours away, you need to either stock up or make your own. At first, I stocked up. The stock is gone and now I need to make my own. I make my own yogurt and I can do many things with it. This is how I make my own yogurt:

1. You bring milk or cream or half/half to a boil. If you use cream, it will be very rich and tasty.

2. Let the boil milk come to room temperature. I do this by sticking my finger in it and counting to ten. If I can tolerate the heat up to ten it is good.

3. Once it is room temperature, add store bought plain yogurt. I use Dannon or Stoney farms. For a small pot , I use 1/2 the tub of yogurt. Stir in the yogurt, put a lid on it and wrap it in a towel. Keep it covered for at least 24 hours. You can keep it covered for up to three days. The longer you leave it the more sour it becomes.

4. Once the yogurt has set and finished, I start my balls. I drain the yogurt in a cloth or paper towels for at least 2 days.

5. Once it is drained and of clay consistency, I roll them into balls and set them on paper towels. I leave them for another day.

6. Once they are dried a little, I put them in a jar of olive oil.

It takes a while to make, but they are worth it. They are very tasty for breakfast with a hot cup of tea and pita bread. I just started making my own pita bread too. When I have a chance I will load up the pictures.

Our Snow Man

Assalam alykom:

Here is our first snowman! The kids had a bunch of fun making him