Not raining yet

Today they have called for rain and it hasn't started yet and I thought it might not because the sun was out. We need the rain but the sun would be nice too. Have a lot to do today and I want to get up to pottery and work on buttons, mugs and plates and maybe throw a bowl or two. The new mugs I made came out pretty nice a few glazing issues but all I can do is keep trying. The next glazing tryout will be glaze the goat and wax over it and then dip the mug and see how that works with the glaze running down. This time I didn't glaze the carved goat but waxed it and then dipped the mug in glazes, only one glaze combo didn't work out that well. The goblet turned out really cool and the were it mixed with the other glazes and ran the bottom of the run broke in the incredible blue color. to do list: feed the goats, take pictures of the 2 goats udders hopefully they are fuller now then 2 hours ago so I get a good isea on how they look. put fencing up in back yard and put the goats in.

stream

watterfall

woods

drining thru the smokies

The best part of me job is the traveling getting to drive thru the smokies to go see customers and the customers are the second best. Took a couple of pictures and got to see those white looking magnolia blossoms on trees I don't recognize. was early in the morning and with my digital the light was tough.

1 day old

and mom is talking to me, her brother is in the shed probably hogging the recliner?? could be he has the remote and doesn't want to lose control over it.

here are pictures of the 2 new nigerian babies

still not great pictures it seems to be to early or late on the day and they move quickly. they are 2 days old.

2 new babiy nigerian goat kids a boy and a girl

Well Stella finally kidded this morning and of course the boy has really great markings, I am thinking about getting him wethered to sell as a pet maybe get a little more for him, sold my other spotted doe nubian cross for $70 which was more than I expected but she was really pretty. Hope to get pictures when I get home later today, I have 2 more close to going allthough blackberry isn't due for 8 days she didn't eat this morning. and faiths kid from last year has no tendons so she will go in 24 hours and of corse I am leaving for Asheville. Want to start using the milk for the goat I am milking for tracie to use to drink and for cheese. Great weather we are having.

Hope things are starting to look up

I have been sick since last friday over a week ago, finally went to a doctor and right now I am fighting pneumonia and a sinius infection and hoping that the drup levaquin won't give me and of those horrible side affects that i read about on line because I did have something scarry happening but by researching on line discovered i wasn't drinking enough water while on this drug and after consumong a ton of water it took about two hours and I felt better, and this side affect wasn't even listed the urge to pee even after one has just peed and then the lower groing pain, something to do with crystals in my urine but when I started drinking the water things really improved and now I dring a lot more water. that was scarry. But with this sinus and all i have been feeling so energyliss that frightens me more. i have to make myself feed the goats and do the basics. So far this morning I feel better sinuis still feel tight but clear breathing thru both nostrils most of the time but don't seem to get much air thru them. Haven't felt like working on anything , normally its' I want to work on something can't decide what to start and do nothing but think about it. Did get my beads out last night and looked thru a few books for ideas but just didn't start anything. Besides all this I am a procrastinator! Tracie and I sold some goats yesterday no bigs ones but that decision will come once I have all the babies and need to decide who to keep and who to let go. Feed isn't getting any cheaper and if we have a drought like last year they hay will in the ionsphere price wise if they even get to cut it. So far we have had some rain but near enough for the years, GA is 5 inches down don't know what we are and all it did was drizzle and make a mess yesterday. Still no new babies holding out to have them all at one time when I am not here.

Taking pictures at night

I also like taking pictures at night using my flash, but it is hard to get them clear. I also love taking pictures of bunches of flowers with the mixtures of colors and textures.

DISTANT THUNDER

I enjoyed sitting out on the deck last night, lights out and listening to the far off thunder and watching the flash from the lightning, there were a few jagged stearks across the sky. I imagine it took about 20 minutes for the storm to reach us, thank fully we did not get the full force and not enough rain. They are calling for a worse drought this year and we are still trying to recover from the drought of last year. After coming inside I started working on taking pictures of the buttons I am going to post on http://www.etsy.com/ to sell. I really need to keep it up to date but struugle with making the time to take pictures and post. My mugs with goats carved in that I do have sold, along with a few ornamnets. I got three sets of buttons posted last night hooray! I also sold 2 mugs at the pottery Studio hARTWORKS were I make and create all my pottery their web is http://www.hartworks.com/ that is so exciting for me to sell them in the gallery and they had only been there about 2 weeks. last week on my work travels I stopped at Carl Sandburgs farm to eat my lunch and walked up to see the goats and took some pictures. goats are as curious as cats and get into more trouble. Take a look at this goat if that bird house isn't anchored well it will be history!

Fog in the morning

ended up getting up early because my son needed a ride to drill he had a flat tire, after helping him pick up his limber last night, unload it cover it Ialso had to clean out the front seat for him so i was grumbling and lo and behold he went and asked his sister and she took him, I still have to pick him up around 4. I think he mentioned something else I had to do but can't remember what. Hmmm. I like foogy mornings that are so dense you can't see anything but just enough for that ghostly image of trees and buildings to come thru, it also looks neat if the sun tries to peek thru and makes everything glitter and sparkle especially after a heavy due or a light rain that has left the raindrops on the branches. I don't see it often. well time to go down and check the new babies and take care of all the animals.

Whats' happening on the farm

Belle had 2 kids today, a buck and a doe kid. The buck is a creamy white with long legsn and the doe is alot smaller brown with short black socks. They both have long thin ears and seem to be doing ok. I will weight them tomorrow. I am going to change their feed slowly mixing in the new feed with the old. custom mix, mixed for my feed store 13% protein and I will add the shredded beet pulp and sunflower seeds and corn gluten. It has raind on and off all day at times very hard, the barn area is a muddy mess I slipped and fell in the mud getting faith out of the chicken coop were she doesn't belong and breaks into when ever I forget to tie the string at the bottom to keep her out she'd rather eat laying pellets than her own feed go figure. I have 5 more does to kid one is due any time and the others are due in May and June. Rought year for getting them bred i waited to have kids for march and april but they just didn't take and to re breed.Hopefully i'll get more does I am 3 doe kids and 3 buck kids right now.
Had about 2 hours to throw some bowls the first one didn't go well and I turned it into a closed container to make into a hinged pot or an oil lamp. The second try I was able to make a cassarole it looked a little rough, I'll see how it looks on tuesday. Since I didn''t have much time the other pieces from yesterday were way to wet to trim and 2 hours isn't near enough for them to be dry enough to trim so I wrapped them back up and will have to trim another day.

I am working on a series of the photographs in all seasons and the last time I was up there the property is for sale so I am not sure how much longer this path will be there.

Still raining

We needed the rain after the drought last year. I really wish that when it is overcast all day it would rain then and get it over with. Yesterday we had a tornado watch until 1 am. our weather has been worse so I think below us in the state had the worst weather, which is a relief for me, I'll take the rain without the wind. I got up early so I can go get hay, then feed because the hay is in GA. and the feed is local. My feed store has brought in their own custom mix and if the goats like it will save me $6 a bag, I wish he would have done this last fall when one buys more feed thru the fall and winter. I will also have to pick up goats milk at tracies for the bottle babies, I can only use her milk for them since she feeds a medicated feed. I want to start jkeeping the milk I get from faith and rain to make cheese, so maybe with this extra milk I can do that. I hope I can get this all done earlyenough to find some time to get the pottery studio. I am working on trying to get my mugs bigger, larger bowls and I need to make dinner plates. I want to make salt shakers, cassaroles and strat a new mug line but don't have time right now. I started reading a book about boundaries. Very interesting. I have got to remember to sned the reg. paperwork in to the ADGA.

A long week

This has been one long week ! I have been busy traveling for my job trying to sell slabs of granite and othert counter top material. And then try to get to the pottery studio to work on my line of hand thrown carved nubian goat mugs I started selling on etsy a month or so ago. Finally home tonight and beat from a lot of driving. Hope to make it to the studio tomorrow. When I got home I checked to make sure none of my nubian goats had kidded, they shouldn't have but you never know. None have. Made sure the twins whose momma doesn't seem to have enough milk nursed on Faith.