For Thanksgiving

I'm looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday next week - and am taking time the next few days to get prepared. I have 3 wonderful little helpers who love to cook with me in the kitchen and it is very interesting to listen to their ideas of what they want to see on the Thanksgiving menu!

I hope you all enjoy the time of this holiday season and find it spent with lots of family, good food, safety and health!

Blessings!

Today's Birthday Girl

Is me! I'm so very thankful the Lord has allowed me to be here to celebrate the beginnings of another year with my family and friends! I feel very blessed! Today we're taking it kind of easy - most of our celebrating will happen this weekend.

The girls have picked up little surprises for me - my middle daughter couldn't wait and gave her present to me last night - a lovely bracelet she had picked out at the homeschool craft fair a couple of weeks ago. I must say she did an exceptional job picking it out - it has to be one of my all-time favorite bracelets. For a 7 year old, she certainly picked something she knew I would like! Haven't had a minute to make a picture yet, but I will and will post it.

My 4 year old wants me to make my own cake, because she said my cakes taste the best and since she isn't old enough to make one for me on her own, she could help me - isn't that sweet?!

My oldest has something up her sleeve, but has been good at keeping it under wraps so far.

So here's to much thankfulness for a day of celebration with my girls!

Working Toward The Holiday

Today I took a little time to enjoy the beautiful sunshine with the girls. We spent most of the afternoon washing and detailing our truck - it looks so much better now and is much cleaner and neater inside and out.

I've also been working this weekend on making my list for our Thanksgiving meal. So far it looks like we'll have a pretty traditional Southern meal: Turkey, Dressing, Gravy, Sweet Potato Casserole, Cranberry-Orange Relish, Spinach Salad, Homemade Bread, Cheese Ball and Crackers, Strawberry Tarts, Tropical Upside Down Cake, Lemon Meringue Pie, Iced Tea, Wine and Coffee.

A few items might change as the day actually approaches - especially if we decide we're more in the mood for one item than another.

Going out tomorrow to check on our cows and all the new little baby calves. Will also begin putting in the entrance reducers on our beehives to get them ready for winter. We've been having such warm days still that I haven't done this yet, but pretty soon the nights will start to get chilly.

We've also been raking a lot of leaves and putting them in our compost pile so we'll have some extra rich dirt for next year's vegetable gardening.

How's your weekend been so far?

A Visit With Santa

The girls had a great time the other night when we stopped by Bass Pro to let them see Santa, play some great games and do a little Christmas shopping!

Bitty Baby Cow

Went to check on the cows and the new bull yesterday afternoon - the new "pecking order" seemed to have been established and all was well in the pasture.

Sugar Plum Princess still wasn't keen on bringing her calf up, but I did get a quick glimpse and photo using my zoom:



And another shot of our new bull, who seemed happy to pose yesterday:



This weekend starts our fall beef deliveries - so it will be busy!

Recent Arrivals

We've had several new arrivals on our ranch in the past few weeks - thought it was time to finally get the photos uploaded and share them!

Here's a heifer calf born 02 Aug 2009 - here the calf is 3 months old. It belongs to our friend Mr. Thomas, who keeps one of his cows on our pasture:

Here's one of our bull calves born 14 October 2009 to Lollipop (mom is protectively watching him - she's a 1st calf heifer and we were there when the calf was only 3 days old):

Here's a heifer calf born 16 October 2009 to Lana:

Here's our new herd bull that arrived on Sunday afternoon, 01 Nov 2009 - he's 18 months old, about 1200 pound Angus. Temporarily called Little B by breeder, although the girls all think he needs a name that sounds a little stronger. I'd agree.

We have a calf that was born on 31 Oct 2009, but the mama (Sugar Plum Princess) had it hidden yesterday and I didn't want to disturb them, so I'll have photos of that new calf later this week.