Just BEAT the goat!!!

Now before you get all pissy... I am not talking PETA beat with whips and chains and horrible things. That rhymed! lol.. I am so awesome! Don't get bent out of shape! Just read on if you are curious.

With that being said, here is the disclaimer. I have already had my "happy pills" (Dr. prescribed) this morning so this post might not make sense. HA!

Yesterday, The kids and I went to get so groceries. The local GS had some decent deals so I felt justified in spending money that I should not have. Yay progress o soup! We are talking, like, BAGS of groceries! I know paper bags are awesome, but they tear so easily. Of course the grocery bag boy puts all 50 cans I bought in paper bags that tear as soon as I get them out of the van at home.

My 11 year old is yelling and screaming at me about having to help carry in the bags because they are broken and heavy. It is 8 pm, and I am certain that everyone in the neighborhood is listening to her yell at me. She has some lungs!

I hope you remember that, from earlier posts, my amazingly wonderful husband whom I love with my entire being, fenced in my entire front yard for the goats. He did this because we are going to build a new home and tear down the old one. It will be easier, he thinks, to fence in that small area where the house used to be. Now you are caught up.

My goats sleep on my porch. We have 3, 2 females and 1 male. The male is made of awesomeness, and he has a Mohawk! How cool is that?! He also likes to pee on his goat beard and rub it all over you. We play run from Huck a LOT! He is loose in my yard and can get to my front door. My yard is fenced in, and I can't drive my mini van in there!

So here we are carrying in there huge heavy bags of canned goods. We had to run for it. We had to beat him to the door. Unfortunately.....it didn't go well. We chose the team work method. I would place the bags on the porch, T was supposed to take them in to put them on the table, and I would put them away. It ended up that I put them on the porch, T got distracted, Huck ate the paper bags(which are apparently delicious) and I carried handfuls of cans onto the table to put away, while T was yelling at me to "Jut beat the goat mom.."You're okay if you can beat him to the door"! Great times. ... So fun.. Oh.. I also had to put up with being rubbed down by Pee Beard the Pirate (Huck's Nickname). I didn't beat him. He beat me. He is a fast goat! He might be a ninja... Awesome!
So, not beat as in harm, but beat as in outrun.

Food Saver deal

I hope it's not to late for this one! I got mine!! Here's a great deal on FoodSaver MealSaver Compact Vacuum Sealing System. You can get it for just $9.99 Shipped when you use code U1FV88A at checkout.

Choose from Black or white. Just head to Foodsaver.com and search for Model: FSMSSY0215-000. The $60.00 will come off at checkout.

My total was $10.71 after tax! To good to pass up!

My lil Daisy....

How cool! Last night I just happened to be on the facebook in time to get a message from a long time friend. She said that a new year of Girl Scouts were starting and asked if my girls wanted to join.

We love the GS's, and of course, I have mentioned my disability to ever say no. lol! I guess I just love to be to busy. I asked 'lil a' if she wanted to go check it out. Silly question! We went and she had so much fun! She was a little shy, but she will work out of that quickly I am sure.

She is officially a Daisy. Ya'll know me! We will be working toward so many patches it will be insane. What else does a stay at home mom have to do?

I wish I had pics, but of course my camera... I am about to call Dell and see what we can do. Next month Pics I promise!

Newest Member of the Family

Saturday was a Fantastic day.

Two months ago I had to call a local appliance store to get my washing machine fixed. I had happened to mention that I needed to talk to the repair man to warn him about my goats. I wanted to be cautious just in case Huck was territorial.

The lady I spoke to asked me if I wanted another one. Well of course I want another dairy goat! Because I apparently have no common sense. She told me how sweet and friendly this "nanny" goat was. She will eat out of your hand and the whole nine. Perfect! She will be as good as our LaMaunchas. They are my big babies. I love them. So friendly.. They come right up to you and play with you. They are lovable and will let you love and hug them. I was so excited.

The hubs made is way in this weekend, and we went Saturday to get her with feed, harness, and lead rope in had. This was going to be a breeze.

OH... HOW... WRONG... I... WAS....

This goat wasn't friendly. She was completely afraid of everyone, even the owners. They had gotten her a couple of years ago to eat down the grass in their pasture. First of all, goats are not grazers! They will eat grass if they have to, but much prefer tree leaves, vines, plants, etc. Secondly, They had not been supplementing her properly with feed. Poor girl. She looked healthy and we had her vet checked.

We chased that goat for 2 hours! TWO HOURS! We took 2 of the older kids with us, T and X. Have you ever seen 2 fat people and 2 kids try to outsmart and catch a goat on a 5 acre property with a POND! OMGOSH! I was relatively certain that we would all die out there before we caught her. There were snakes, bugs, grass 5 ft. tall...

It was a sight. My kids were trying to chase her over to us. My hubby, you know the genius, tried to lasso her. He did not have said lasso so he tried to make one out of the lead rope. I can't even begin to explain to you everything wrong with that. First of all, lasso's are made with stiff rope and a knot. My hubs was using a lead rope that is soft and has a huge metal clip on it. When thrown the clip automatically closes in the air because of it's weight, making it useless, and me angry that he kept trying it. I kept telling him why it wouldn't work.... He didn't listen. They never do.

Poor T and X. They chased and chased and chased.... LOL I mean all over. T hit a hole and bit the dirt crying and limping. X tripped over a fence post and face planted at one point. Then at the end of the fight X literally ran right out of his shoes! we had to spend a good 15 min looking for them. Poor kid, bruised his poor feet. He did a good job though. They both did. Even my wonderful, crazy, goofy, doofy, amazing hubby did a good job.

I hope they think I did a good job too. It was a LONG 2 hours, but I enjoyed it so much. It was a moment I will never forget! Now, The moment you have been waiting for.... our new family member

Gertie the Nubian. She is beautiful.

Please excuse the grainy pics. I had to take them with my phone cause my 6 yr old. decided to try and cut wires with pliers. she chose my camera charger. Kids are Awesome.

I don't have a title to this post, but I got a great deal!

I got the best deal today!

My hubby and I have been wanting to purchase some of the attachments for my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. I want all of them of course! We were looking for mainly the meat grinder to make sausage and process meat, and the Veggie slicer for garden season! I wish I would have had the slicer when making the sauerkraut in august!

I was on the facebook on one of the county online yard sale groups and someone posted them. I offered $50 for both and was very blessed to get them. If you look them up on amazon.com They are about $70 ea. ugh. It would have taken me forever to save up for that. Right now the grinder is on sale for $40.99 and the slicer is on sale for $48.99



I still saved a lot. Now all I am wanting is a grain mill attachment for my KASM, but on sale the are $100+. I will be saving up for that one LOL! I also found a great company with very fair prices on wheat berries!

On a separate note. We got 4 eggs today! More of our hens are starting to lay! It is wonderful! We will also be getting a new goat this weekend! YAY! It's free. Bigger YAY!

(Closed!)Kix it up a notch: GIVEAWAY!!

Welcome to the first giveaway here as What the 4h?!? We are gonna Kix it up a notch.

As a child I loved eating Kix cereal! It was sweet, and yummy! I would eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack if I could sneak it past my mom. Luckily, she worked a lot.. lol

My kids love Kix as well. From opening it 2 boxes at a time to decorating the Christmas tree with it. it is an ever present staple in our home. I have even been know to mix some crushed Kix cereal for an ice cream topping. It is awesome!

For over 70 years Kix has been providing families with a low in sugar cereal that is made with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. Now that is great!


And now for the giveaway...

Kix through MyBlogSpark are offering one winner 6 (YES 6!)boxes of Kix cereal!!! WOO HOO!! This Giveaway will run from 9-22-11 9:30 pm cst to 9-29-11 11:59 pm cst. 1 winner will be chose from random.org. The winner will be contacted by email and have 3 days to reply and claim their prize. If they do not another winner will be chosen.

Main Entry: Leave a comment telling me what you are looking forward to. Anything.. Keep it clean please. lol

Extra entries: (these will be checked)Please leave a comment for each entry.

Follow me on Twitter
Grab my button
Follow my blog

That is 4 ways to win! Good luck!
Disclosure: Kix cereal, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark."

The little things....

It is so funny how things work out. Chris and I had discussed owning dairy goats , although I want boer goats, and a week later... BOOM! Goats.

I was not ready for them. I hadn't planned on getting goats until atleast next year. I needed time to get the yard fenced, acquire a shelter, a manger, knowledge of goats, etc. There is a lot that goes into it, especially when one of those goats are pregnant.

I wanted to get started with chickens next spring. Then a friend offers a great deal that you just can't pass up....

It is so funny how blessed I am right now. The things that I haven't planned on happening for at least 6 months are being provided. Neat huh! I guess God has other plans for my family.

We got our first 3 eggs today. How EGGMAZING!!! lol. Pretty cool. I can provide protein for my family. Still waiting for my goat to have that baby..... Waiting waiting waiting..... It is exciting though. I cant wait to feed it and hold it. I think I will name it Molly if it is a girl.

That's EGGciting!!! wha wha wha...

The Coolest thing in the world happened last night. I got a facebook message from a friend asking me if I wanted some 4H chickens.
Now, let me explain, my grandma has been wanting some good juvenile birds since August. Most people have started auctioning their birds instead of selling them so it is difficult to get a good deal. She is in her 80's and she can't raise them from chicks anymore.


I was so eggcited (get it!) to hear she had some birds! I was able to get 20 chickens. 8 for her and 12 for us. What a blessing!


My grandma raised chickens all her life. They used to have the huge chicken houses and raise for Tyson. That was when I was a little girl. I ain't been a girl since a tiger was a pussy cat.

My grandma was reachin' in the pet taxi that I transported them in and hauling them out 3 at a time~!! She is Awesome! I just love her so much. My grandma is one of the greatest people to ever grace the face of the earth!!!!

T's Big Heart....

Wow, The weather has done an about face! The past week it was still in the about 100's.

Today, it is in the low 40's and raining. It is COLD! I told T to take the dogs out and watch them. She went out wearing a rain jacket and boots and came back in just the boots. I got up and looked out the door to see this:


Apparently, Hailey was cold and wet. The barn we ordered hasn't gotten here yet. So Tatum took pity on her and gave her a jacket. That poor sweet child... She has such a big heart. I just love her so much.

My barn should be here in the next week or two. My poor chilly goats...Glad I got it ordered before the weather got to bad.

Open up the barn door....

Isn't that an old cheer? Well that is just off topic.

Today the girls and I went to town. It was exhausting. Walmart was first, and we left with stuff we didn't even need, but then again, who doesn't at Wal~Mart.. They might be evil.

Then to Lowe's.. One of my favorite places.. DON'T tell the hubs. He'll make me go. ugh. It's only fun when you want to go. The girls and I went and picked out our barn! I am excited!

First we had to run in and out of every one of them and play, of course. Then we went inside. I swear every employee must have been on strike, but that one poor girl behind the counter. She was running back and forth like a chicken with her head cut off! I waited behind an older lady and her family. They had a problem of some sort. It took an hour... I am not kidding. I felt so bad for that nice lady. She never lost her cool one time. She was a great employee.

After that a guy finally made it to the front to help me. I picked out my barn and even got to pick out the roof color.. THEY are gonna come and put it together for me. Metal roof! Love the Red Metal roofs.. I know I am a dork.

It is just a small barn for our 2 or 3 goats (if she ever has that baby!)
What doe is look like? Well, Glad you asked...

Not actual size HAHAHAHA!

It is 10x16 and should be here soon. It is small, but big enough to fulfill my needs. I am uber excited! My first barn... Most people are excited about their first baby, or puppy. Not me, I have a barn on the way! YAY!

Men make me want to Scream curse words from the highest mountain..

OmGOSH! Why are men such Jerk holes? Seriously! What the heck is wrong with them that they can't even be a little nice... Yeah, you know I am gonna tell the story.

Last year for Father's Day, I bought my hubby a 60 in. TV with 3d. Yeah... I am that f'n AWESOME. I love my hubby that much. It is the first big, or flat screen TV we have ever owned. It is awesome. Better yet... I don't have to squint to see it! It is a win win for everyone.

My hubby walks through the door ever day and plops down to watch this television. The TV gets more attention than I do.

Since the day I bought it he has complained about it.... I have had to listen to him tell me how much he "hates" the AMAZING TV that I bought for HIM.

It is so hurtful. I have told him this before. I thought he had stopped. He hadn't mentioned the loathing of the TV for a few months....until 6:30 pm tonight.

What an *^*&^*&. Use your imagination. Then he HUNG UP ON ME. I called back and he DEMANDED that I APOLOGIZE to HIM!!! WTFrench Fries!!!!! I don't know what kinda stupid he ate for breakfast... Then(apparently he thinks he grew a huge pair over night) he TURNED THE PHONE OFF... WTHAWK!!!

Are men out of their mind? You take a woman that married you, raises your children as her own, makes sure everything is taken care of, loves you, and buys you the most awesome gifts ever and then you treat her like this. REALLY?

Failure....

Do you ever feel like the biggest failure on the face of the earth? I do... every day. I know that I am not. I know that am actually pretty awesome, but sometimes my anxiety and depression take ahold of me and carry me away. I think this is one of those times.

Last semester I did ok. I held good grades in my classes, an went to most of them... This semester I have been to 3 out of 7 classes.... yeah.. it is really bad this semester. What makes it really bad it that I am taking oral comm. Tomorrow I have to give an Introduction Speech in front of an entire class.

I have no idea who I am. I know who I was an want to be, but all I know is that I am a crazy as a loon lady that would be so excited to NEVER leave the house again....

How do you give an introduction speech to a group when you don't know who you are....Guess I'm just a crazy white girl.

A New School Year= A new chance to help our schools

Summer break has ended and children everywhere have filed back to school. They are bringing home homework and papers for parents to sign. So many schools are lacking funding that in our school this year we had to by the dry erase markers and overhead projector markers.

So many schools rely on Box Tops for Education to help them with things they couldn't afford normally like playground equipment. The wonderful people at Sam's club and My blog spark have banded together to promote the Box tops for Education Program. You can find Sam's Club's products like Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch,Honey Nut Cheerios, Nature Valley Oats 'N Honey Crunchy Granola Bars, Totino’s Pizza Rolls,and so much more...with Extra BOX TOPS!!!! Cut those babies out and get them to your local school asap!!!

Sam’s Club has our favorite back to school items from computers to clothing, and at the best values!






"Disclosure: The Sam’s Club gift card, information, have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark." and I am soooo late on this post.. sorry

The beauty a simple life. {Wordless Wed.}

Give and Take..Why do women always give...

My Husband... He is truly a blessing. I have no doubt that he is the man God intends for me to spend the rest of my life with. I might want to punch him in the face, violently, almost everyday... I said 'want to' not do!

My poor husband...We are never on the same page. He has His opinion, and then there is the right opinion.... MINE.

He decided to design the layout for the house we will have built when he moves down here. Well, it was a stupid layout. He had the house facing the goat yard. I don't want to walk out of my house and see horny goats humping, or crapping, or what ever other disgusting things goats will do. You don't put live stock at the front of the property. You put it at the back.
MEN!!!

Remember, in my last post, how I told you that we put up a fence in one day..... Well, to get the land layout like I wanted, I had to let him choose the fence layout.

I have a small home here in the big Ar. When our new house is built, we will tear it down (cause that what he wants, not I). I am very giving with that. I want to keep it to store, make cheeses, yogurt, etc. He decides to fence in the yard... My entire yard. Front porch and everything....Yep, He is awesome.

"So what", you say. Well, You don't have goats on your front porch.. Yeah, My goats sleep, and poo on my porch. I had to by a special broom to sweep the porch, 30 times a day. Not to mention the fact that I have to go out every morning and play chicken with Huck so the kids can scream and run out the gates to catch the bus....

My husband is a wonderful man, but this was NOT one of his best ideas.. I think he did it on purpose... It must have been payback for something. He laughs when I call to tell him. I want to kick him in the face.

Here is a video of the hubs and son playing with Huck.. Enjoy.

My Kids+Tag= Jealous goat.....Poor kids

Jumping in to raising goats is fun.. I have no idea what I am doing, but I am learning as I go.

I bought the most awesome book on raising goats and read the entire thing in 2 days. I have reread it a million times, and refer to it frequently. It is fantastic! I am relevantly certain that I can raise a kid from birth, to milking, to frying pan.

This book said that the best fence to keep goats safe is a chain link fence. The hubs comes down and we get all the family together . We rock out a chain link fence where we want to keep the goats in 1 day... It was so hard. Well, me being me, we get the typical 4 ft. chain link. You know where this is going right....

Yesterday, 4 of my kiddos were out playing in the yard. They happened to be playing tag. Have I explained how lovable Huck is? He LOVES to run and play.

He was so sad. He wanted to play too. He put his legs on top of the fence and pouted for about five minutes. He is so big, though, that I didn't let
him out of the goat yard. I was afraid he would get carried away and hurt the littles.

Apparently, Huck was having none of that! He trotted back a little. and broke into a run for the fence. That goat flew over that fence like a sparrow in the spring time. Magical.... until he landed and proceeded to play chase with the kids.

Poor kids, I am sure that several of them crapped their pants seeing this Mohawked goat, made of pure awesomeness, fly over a fence toward them. I probably would have!

Chris and I ran out of the house, but the kids said they wanted the flying goat to play tag with them... We were right there the entire time to make sure they stayed safe. They had a blast.... Especially Huck.

Oh, by the way... the goat won! All of the kids had to bathe, because the stunk to high heaven.. Male goats stink sooooo badly.

What is your family's happiness worth? The serious post...

Seven years ago I married my wonderful hubs and followed him to Texas. The pay was so much higher and with 5 kids (my 3 and his 2), a better income was needed to support the family. It was going to be great. Arkansas has a crappy rate of pay! There was no way we would survive on that income.

Working for the govt. is great. The insurance is fantastic and the time off incurred is awesome. Oh yeah, not to mention having every holiday off. It is a great job.

I spent so much time as a single mother of 3 girls with no child support that I missed so much of my girls milestones. I put myself through nursing school. This was my day:
5 am Wake up and get ready
6 am Get the girls ready for daycare
7 am Leave and drop the girls off
8am to 5pm At college
5:30am Go pick the girls up and drive them to my grand mothers.
leave for work
7 pm til 10 pm Work till closing
10pm Go to my grandma's and get the girls
11pm Go home and pass out until time to do it again

When we moved to TX. I got to be a stay at home mom. That is awesome (most of the time) lol!!!!

Things in Texas were a blessing, after 2 years we were able to buy a home big enough for our family. It was old, but it had 5 bedrooms. and 2 baths. SOLD! We were all over it. We had been renting a home that was maybe 1200 sq ft., which is a nice size, but not when you have 5 kids! It turned out that our payments were over $100 less than our rent! Woo hoo.

Things, however, got bad. Not with the family, but with me. My ad/hd got out of control. My depression was off it's leash and dragging me down. I was just not happy. I was miserable. Although I had great "friends", I only had 2 FRIENDS. You know, the kind you will talk to about anything, even your poop. Yeah, those kinds of friends.

I was just so alone all of the time. Imagine feeling like that for 7 years. I grew bitter and angry. I tried my best, but I was not myself. Of course, dealing with children with learning disorders is never easy, the school was calling me on a daily basis. My children were not happy either. After 7 years, even though I loved so much in Texas, I had to escape it. Texas was destroying me, and I couldn't take i anymore.

On Dec. 12, 2011, I went to church, came home, and left Texas. I went right back to the home I have owned in Ar. since I was 18. I finally felt happy. I mean like run in the fields, skip around the house with the kids, and play tag happy. I was HOME! The kids were so different too. At home, they are still.... ornery... but have not been in trouble once at school. YAY!!!!

What did I give up to move to Ar.?

$40,000/year...yeah..that is a LOT
a 5 bd room house for a 2 bd rm... for the time being...
seeing my hubby every day :( Till he can get transferred to Ar.

Does it mean anything? No....
Those things are just passing fancies (not the hubs silly).
Money means NOTHING without happiness. I would rather not have a dime to my name, as long as I have God and my family.
A huge house.. no big deal. We will survive. There are more important things in life. My grandma,growing up, had 8 siblings and they lived in a 2 room house with no ac, fans,electric, etc.

What is our family's happiness worth? I would give up everything but God. What would/did you give up for your family's happiness?

So, I think I was molested by a goat......

My journey began on Dec. 12, 2010. I decided to leave Texas, where I had been living for the past 7 years, and come back home to Arkansas. Why? We will discuss that in a different post coming soon.

Long story short... My hubby calls one day and says, "Hey wanna raise dairy goats"?
Now, we have discussed this before in passing. When I moved home we wanted to buy land and have a small farm for our family. I thought it would be exciting to have a nice sized garden, maybe a pig or two for breeding and meat. It would be nice to have a few dairy cows and goats and meat goats and cows. I also want 2 or 3 beehives. The kids and I have such bad allergies that the honey would help.

Big dreams...Lol

Well, The hubs knows a guy at work that raises dairy goats, and didn't want to mess with them anymore so he sold them to us for $75. It gets better... the female is pregnant. That is like 3 for the price of 1! Right now, at our local sale barn, they are selling for so much more than that! They are Lamaunchas and beautiful.

Meet the Family: The Male is Huck (huckleberry) and he has a Mohawk. He is made of pure awesomeness and will molest you. Trust me. I know :(

The female is Hailey. She is beautiful. Hailey (Mama Lamauncha) is so gentle and sweet. She will come up to me and head butt my leg or "paw" me when she wants me to pet or scratch her ears. I just love them both. When she "kids" I will begin milking her. Cheese, Milk, Yogurt, Soap, etc. Yay me...

Males are strange creatures.. They will pee on their beards and then proceed to come up to you and rub it all over you. They will also pee on you if they can! The hubs was on the other side of the fence and not paying attention and Huck peed on his HEAD! HAHAHA! I laughed for days. Well... Every time I go out to feed, water, or just love on them, Huck comes up to me and rubs his pee beard all over me.

One day it was really bad. I was working in the yard and he kept rubbing all over my hips, and butt. I tried to get him to leave me alone because I was patching a place where they were getting out of the goat yard. I was also on the phone with my daughters therapist office. Rhonda thought all of this was hilarious, and from the sound of it, might of died from laughter. I however did Not think it was funny! I was being violated by a goat, she is laughing hysterically, the goats keep escaping, and it is 106 degrees outside. What a day.

I got the hole patched after about 20 mins! Rhonda was still on the phone laughing it up. Huck finally left me alone, but I looked back and he was smoking a cigarette. So..... No, he wasn't humping me. I am NOT saying that! He was just marking me as his territory with his nasty pee beard. He is Pee Beard the Pirate. So, Yes, I was molested by a goat. Lucky me... :(

Huck says, "Hey baby, Wanna Wrestle!"?!?

Up and running....

As you can see, the blog redesign is finished. Kaye @ WAHMaholic did a fantastic job and I love it. I must admit... I am very picky, and she worked with me very patiently until we got it just right. Love, Love, Love her. If you are in the market for a blogover, check her out. Her prices are AWESOME, and so is the customer service!!!