Vitamins and Bananas

The goats got tired of 'Vitamin Sandwiches' so I came up with another way to get them to eat their vitamins. We have trained our goats to eat bananas. Some of them loved bananas when they first got here, others took a few months (Clover-the Nubian) to almost 2 years (Janice-the Saanen from a real dairy) before they liked them.

Each goat gets 1 multi-vitamin and 1 Vitamin C each day. Ginger (the goat with 'udder acne') also gets 2 zinc pills each day to help her skin.

I cut a banana into 5 pieces (we have 4 milking goats and 1 buck) and push a multi-vitamin in one end and a Vitamin C in the other end. The mushier the banana is, the easier it is to push the pills in.

One banana and the pills ready to go.

You can see the vitamins stuck in the ends of the banana pieces.

These goats love bananas! It doesn't bother them one bit to have vitamins inside. This is much easier than making vitamin sandwiches. It is probably cheaper, too, since I am not using molasses every day.

Weeding....

I am still way behind on weeding! Some days I wonder if I will be caught up by Christmas or not. If you are behind on your weeding, these photos should make you feel a bit better. I don't know anyone whose flower beds look as bad as this one does.

I've always got excuses... death in the family, homeschooling, church responsibilities, practicing guitar or piano, going to the doctor ... there is always something that gets in the way. And I am usually happy to let stuff get in the way since I don't enjoy weeding that much.

It took me about 40 minutes to clear the area that is just dirt. You can see behind it how much more weeding there is to do.

Here is a picture of the whole flower bed. There are many days that I would love to just spray Round-Up on the whole thing and then turn it into a parking area. We need the parking area anyway--but we don't have the cash for it right now, so it will stay a flower bed for another year.


Here is the same bed from the road. There are some few beautiful plants in there, if you can see them among the weeds; Peonies, Sea Heather, Lavender, Iris, Day Lillies, a small climbing rose on the fence, and a few others that I don't know the names of. This side of the flower bed looks better than the other side because one of the neighbors across the street has to look at it. If I make myself weed, this is usually where I start.

I'm sure I'll be out there again tomorrow. Hubby is on a business trip for two weeks, maybe I'll find time to get this bed cleaned out and mulched before he gets back. It's a good thing that he doesn't care about stuff like weeding flower beds (or cleaning house), because then I don't feel like such a failure!

I think the flower beds all look best when they are covered in snow!

Prayer Shawl Number 3

Here is the last Prayer Shawl I have made in memory of my mother who passed away in July. It will be sent to my sister's church.

Someone was wondering why I was sending the Prayer Shawls to other churches. The reason is that the Savior did something for me that I cannot do for myself--he saved me. I am doing something for my sisters and my mother that they cannot do--I am knitting Prayer Shawls.

The table is new this year, so is the umbrella. One of the reasons I got them earlier this spring was because my Mom was going to come this fall and spend two weeks with us and she sat outside often. She would have arrived last Wednesday and would have been here for another week. So, these two weeks are especially hard because I think about all the things we would have been doing while she was here.

Have a blessed day. Try to do something for someone else that they cannot do for themselves.

What you wanted...

We attended a Storytelling Festival this weekend. It was wonderful! So many great tellers!

One gave this quote at the end of her story.

Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known. ~Garrison Keillor

So true!

Family Photo

This was taken inside at the restaurant that we had the family dinner at after my Mom's Memorial Service. I am the one in the green. No, I don't look like my sisters. We don't all share the same parents. I have one step-sister (in black) and two half-sisters (on the left and right). My father (who adopted me and my brother) is in the back, and my niece is in the front. Really, it doesn't matter who shares which genes because we all love each other. We are a family.

Orange Blossoms

My friend gave me an small orange tree last fall that she had almost killed. She said that she always forgot to water it and that if I wanted to, I could try to save it.

I took on the project because my 2nd daughter (Spunky) loves trees and plants in her house. Her hubby didn't really want it because RN's plants tend to get bugs in the house.

I fertilized it once a month with Miracle Grow Azalea, Camellia, Rhododendron Plant Food (1 Tablespoon in 1 gallon of water). Wouldn't you know that scrawny little tree shot out lots of new leaves! Within 2 months there were three times the amount of leaves!

We moved it outside in the spring and the leaves continued to grow. The scrawny little tree became a beautiful bush. The little tree is not in direct sun, it sits on the corner of the patio where it gets watered by the sprinkler every day and is in the shade of a maple tree. I think it gets direct sunlight for about 3 hours each day.

A few weeks ago we noticed lots and lots of tiny buds--so did the bees! We've been anxiously awaiting the blossoms and yesterday they began to open!

I can't wait to see the honey bees all over it tonight. I wonder how many of those blossoms will turn into fruit.

The scrawny orange tree turned into a lovely bush. The fruit is very sour but they bright and cheerful to look at!

Prayer Shawl Number 2

I was able to finish the second Prayer Shawl while I was in Massachusetts. My Mom loved lavender, the flower, the smell, and the color. I left this one with my Aunt. She often gives Prayer Shawls to those in need. The church she used to belong to had a Prayer Shawl Ministry. She is so far away from that church that she is currently looking for another one closer to where she lives. I told her that she could either keep the Shawl herself if she wanted to, or she could donate it to the Prayer Shawl Ministry at her new church.

Lavender Prayer Shawl

On this Prayer Shawl I slipped the first stitch of each row as if to purl. The last stitch of the row I knit through the back loop. Now that I have my camera back, I'll try to take some photos of how to do that and post it. I love the way the edge turns out this way. It is so straight and even!

Me and my Aunt. She is wonderful!