Where did June go?

Well, June was an extremely busy month. We took the kids on a trip to Florida for a week. In Orlando, visiting Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. We had a great time. Ha, we stayed at a Super8 in Orlando that was pretty much an adventure in itself. The bathroom door wouldn’t close tight so no one could lock it which proved to be a major fear factor to Em. A previous person had set the drapes on fire and they still hung in the room, burned up at the bottom. I should have brought a chicken or two along to clean up all the crumbs and nasty stuff from the floor. To top it off, since it was a tad depressing to be there, we stayed away every night till 11 or so and one night when we got back the maid had left the door propped open…apparently all day long. Oh ya, then there was the intentional overcharge I had to call customer service to get reversed. Lets just say Super8 wont see our $ again. Did I mention the light fixtures didn’t have covers, just bulbs hanging from the ceiling? Yep that was an interesting 3 nights.

The rest of the week was spent at the Hilton in Melbourne, much nicer! We went to the beaches along the space coast every day and swam in the ocean and picked up shells. It was so relaxing. The kids enjoyed the beach more than the theme parks.

We were home for less than a week, just enough time to do laundry and pack up again and Steve & I headed to North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia to celebrate our 22nd anniversary. We visited my brother John and his family. We hadn’t seen them for almost 2 years, so the kids had really changed. We spent a day and a half visiting the Biltmore house, boy was that cool! On the way home we stopped for some dinner and Grant showed us his cool trick of swallowing a piece of spaghetti and then hacking it back up in one piece. Pretty cool trick to a 4 year old! We laughed so hard we were crying.

After hanging out with them for a couple days we drove up into Virginia to Monticello and the Walton’s museum. We had fun just flying by the seat of our pants; deciding each day where to stay the next night and what to do the next day. No preset plans, just doing stuff on a whim.

After flying home and doing laundry and such we packed up again and headed to Omaha to visit family over the 4th. The fire works were great, too bad we didn’t stay long enough to even see all the immediate family.

I’m ready to stay home for a couple years now. All that going is a bit much to someone who doesn’t even leave home for weeks at a time! The animal caretaker I had hired left the garden gate open and the goat had a heyday! I think some stuff will survive, but she sure enjoyed her time in there. Thankfully I dried a bunch of spinach before she trashed things.

I’m so behind on housework and work in general that I feel like I’m barely treading water! Not to mention my wallet shrunk as well as my pants. Let’s just say we were very patriotic and did our part to stimulate the economy. Now to buckle down and get back on track around here. So much stress I think I need a vacation, wow, what a vicious cycle. :o)

May 29th Tigris had her baby, a darling little doeling we named Gretel. The dairy we bought her from seemed certain she had twins, so we had Hansel and Gretel picked out, turns out she only had a Gretel. She weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 9 oz. now 5 weeks later is over 40 lbs! I think she’s a keeper! She has a great personality as well. Cheddar is giving over 4 lbs of milk a day now. I’ve got folks lined up to barter milk with. I may sell goat shares.

Clover is ready to drop her kid(s) any day now as well. I’ll post pictures when she does. She has been showing signs for 2 weeks now, I’m growing impatient!


Family at Cocoa Beach. I'm behind the camera.


My handsome son. Isn't he a cutie?


At the Enchanted Forest in Florida. Making sure his sisters stay cool. What a thoughtful guy.


Gretel, just hours old. Oh my gosh, isn't she adorable?


John and his family. We had a wonderful time together. The empty spot is for thier daughter. She is in China with her school band getting ready to play in the olympic's opening ceremony.


Slidig Rock, in DuPont State Forest in NC. Kids were hiking up and riding it down, using it like a slip n slide! Mama woulnd't be happy.


Monticello. We spent the whole day there. Very interesting, and oh yeah, it's on the nickel.


A stop along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The buildings were almost 200 yrs old!


Garden Pre-goat. Spinach is in the foreground. Peas are in the back right.


A close up of the spinach patch.


Spinach. The leaves were huge. Wow, what a great crop this year!


Drying some of the harvest. Getting ready to make Spinach egg noodles.


Spinach patch post-goat. I was pretty much ready to make goat sausage on the spot. Her only redeeming quality is that she is ready to kid at any moment. Saved by the kid!


Peas post-goat. They were loaded too, literally hundreds of pods. Now not a pea on them. Oh well, next year!


Corn. Not sure how that will turn out. May get a few ears? Hoping so anyway. Guess I'll have to hit the farmer's market to fill the freezer this year.


Making spinach noodles. Not all was lost! Getting healthy...using our fresh goat milk and fresh eggs. Even ground my own wheat.


Some of the finished product hanging to dry. Can't wait to eat it with a bit of goats cheese and goat butter. Hmmm..... a little goat sausage could add some nice flavor!