Merry Christmas!

I know, I'm a day late... but in my defense, I worked all weekend!

Despite the unfortunate work schedule, we managed to have a very nice little holiday here on the homestead.  I finished work around 4pm on Christmas Eve, so my family came to our house for a simple, early dinner.  My mom brought quiche, salad and pie, and I made sweet potatoes, asparagus and challah knots.  It was delicious, relaxed, and cozy. 

And Hubbybunch got me a fancy schmancy sewing machine for Christmas!!  I've always wanted to learn to sew... and now I will.  I sewed my very first seam this afternoon... after spending about an hour learning to thread the machine, heh.

My talented and artistic sister created a gingerbread house for us, complete with pretzel rod "logs", sugar chickens, and licorice hula hoops :)  Adorable.

Having worked the weekend, I took today and tomorrow off... and will pretty much be doing nothing at all but chilling out at home and feasting on leftovers. 

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday as much as I did.

A new addition to the family...

It's that time of year again.  The time when the nights are so cold that it hurts to breathe when you step outside to get more wood for the fire.  It always makes me think of the poor homeless critters... strays, pets that were discarded by uncaring owners... that have no safe warm place to call home.  It makes me think that it is my duty to provide such a home for at least some of those poor animals.

So, we adopted another cat.  That brings our total up to four.  I justify this by saying that four cats hardly even equals one dog.

He is a real charmer.  We have yet to decide what his name is.  The two top choices so far are Beorn, and Mr. Wednesday.

Merry Christmas to me!

Secret nests

GI Jane, our female Muscovy, has been disappearing for hours at a time.  She's always around for her daily sprinkling of feed in the morning, but every day she vanishes from sight for a few hours in the afternoon and evening.  We looked ALL OVER the property for her hidden nest.  We looked in the giant stack of hay in the barn where the chickens had been laying eggs, along the banks of the stream, in the smokehouse... she was nowhere to be seen. 

One day last week, Hubbybunch had a project requiring some lumber.  We have a stack of scrap wood in the top half of the barn.  It's a tricky spot to get to, requiring that we climb the ladder to the hay loft, walk tight-rope style across a wooden beam and climb up onto a platform about 12 feet above the floor where we have the lumber stashed.  Wouldn't you know it, THAT is where Jane decided to make her nest.

Pretty cozy, right??  In the Spring we'll have to let her hatch out a clutch of eggs, she looks like she has the whole Mommy thing down pretty well already!

Breeding bugs

Apparently that's what I've been doing for the past five days, in the back of my throat.
Got some penicillin-resistant streptococci of some sort making my life a living hell of fevers, body aches, jello and pus.  I am not having fun.
Especially since I've now used up all of my paid time off at work and have to take the remaining time as unpaid.  And since Hubbybunch had to spend $2700 getting the transmission of his car rebuilt last week.  And Christmas is coming and I haven't even started shopping.

I sure do hate being sick.  Bring on the clindamycin.

Mice

We have mice in our bedroom wall.  Every night around 12:45am, we wake up to the sound of them knawing on some wood.  It's deafening.  Something must be done.  Suggestions?