Jennifer's Junky Life ~

Oh Deer

Who hits four deer in about two years? ...with the same vehicle? ...in the same area?

You might think that we'd get really upset and even a little ticked off every time we hit a deer but you'd be wrong...

{Photo from last summer.}

Mark and I, along with the kids, were on our way back from DL the other night and saw a deer standing right by the road and it just slow-as-can-be meandered right in front of us as we drove by. And we smacked it pretty good.

And we laughed.

Because it's pretty darn funny to hit four deer in less than two years. Not so funny for the deer, maybe, but sometimes you just have to laugh.

Seriously?! Who does that?

I can't wait to get a new (old) vehicle. I'm more than convinced that this one is jinxed, at this point.

{Photos from last summer. Nikayda taught herself how to do a front walkover and spent many hours practicing it.}

We lost the first bumper at the third deer. Replaced it with the forest green bumper from our old mini-van. (Our current one is plum color.) And, now this green one (pictured, above) was so trashed, Mark had to yank it off on the spot and throw it in the back with the kids.

And we laughed the whole way home. I'm still chuckling about it. Of all the luck in the world.

And, really, we're pretty fortunate if all that we lost is a headlight (in the third incident, as well), and a bumper.

or two.

The kids were with us all three times we hit deer on our way home from trips to DL (at dusk/night). The second incident was a near miss. As in a fraction of a second, on our road. I was driving that time and I had all the kids with me (minus Aria, since she didn't exist yet).

That one was just a few days after the first incident. And I was incredulous at our luck at that time. If I'd only known there would be two more!

The irony of it all is that we now have a plum color bumper on our van again after all this time. Mark was able to purchase an exact match from the junkyard today.

The only real criteria I have for our next vehicle is that I hope the windshield wipers work well and I'd also like the heat to regulate at a steady temperature inside during the winter time. And as a little luxury, it would be nice if the headlights were to shine more than twenty feet in front of us at night. {These ones are awful - although, unfortunately, that wouldn't have prevented these deer incidents.}

Whimsical Junk :: Closed Until Further Notice...

I've temporarily closed the junk shop. I'm due for my baby on Saturday so it can happen any time now. I plan to have the shop closed for a week or so after she arrives. I don't have a definite time frame - we'll just see how I feel and how my baby is.

I've been continuing with the sorting and purging around here. Although, in the last week or so it's greatly slowed down! I do, however, have a *huge* box of clothes and other vintage items that I hope to start listing sometime this spring.

I dropped off a bunch of boxes at the thrift a couple of weeks ago - and it's funny because I was thrifting in a town about 45 minutes away and saw one of the items I'd dropped at our local thrift. It was a vintage doll case. And I know it's the exact case I'd dropped off because of a mark on it! I hadn't realized that the items we drop are passed on to other thrifts but I suppose that's what they must do with their excess.

I was washing sheets today for the upcoming birth and as I was hanging them on the line, I noticed a pile of animal droppings near the clothesline that looked similar to bear scat. So odd, as we have three dogs! I'm still quite baffled. It could be something else (as I haven't looked it up to try to figure it out on-line) but either way - it was more than our dogs leave behind so I know it wasn't from them. I just find it hard to believe a bear would be that close to the house with the dogs around...

City Slicker Farm Girl

I'm so not a farm girl. Somehow or another I landed on a little hobby farm, though. But, admittedly, I don't do much as far as the animals go. They're pretty much Mark's hobby. Just like I have my thrifting/junking hobby. I help out when it's (absolutely) needed - which, luckily, is very rarely. The animals we have are all really low maintenance animals so it's pretty nice.

{Carter with his goat, Rio.}

{Gia and Charlie.}

I really enjoy the animals, though, even if I'm a total germ freak when it comes to animals. They're pretty fun to watch. Goats and chickens each have their own personalities, something I never knew before we started this little venture.

{I love being pregnant. It's easy for me to forget how rough it was in the beginning with hyperemsis gravidarum - and enjoy the rest of it all.}

{Meadow}

In an effort to continue working on a lawn this year, Mark is planning to move our free-range chickens out to the back field and keep them either fenced or in chicken tractors. (The big clearing in the middle of the woods, out back. Or 'out yonder' as the kids call it.)

{Nikayda with Charlie and Flossy.}

I need a haircut, so bad. I was hoping to get it all trimmed up before the baby came but I don't see that happening any time soon. I'm waiting on my birth (exercise) ball and an inner tube to use for leaning on in the birth tub. The package is expected to arrive on Tuesday, along with my oil for my wood cutting boards. I've never used any of them but I've collected a few thrifting and garage saling over the past year. Looking forward to sanding them down and oiling them up! - especially the big butcher block style one that will stay on the counter.

I'm also expecting the baby's car seat this week. It will be nice to finally have that, too!

{Totally an unflattering expression here - but I'm documenting the bump. I ran into the gas station the other day and the girl working the register said, "You must be due soon. You like you're going to *pop*!" I got such a kick out of that one. haha. I'm pretty sure my belly can't get much bigger!}

I'm really enjoying my laundry room. It's so nice being able to throw a load in the wash whenever I feel like it instead of waiting for Mark to get home to help me lug heavy baskets up and down the stairs to the basement. I know I'll really be appreciating it when the baby comes!

{Abram with Flossy, and Carter with Rio.}

Mark brought home a sink for the laundry room today. It was the kitchen sink of the lake house he's working on right now. I wanted a double sink for the laundry room and it'll work great. Hopefully, he'll be able to install it sometime this spring. It'll go in the white metal cupboard he found at the local dump this winter.

Saturday is my due date so I really, really feel like a ticking time bomb right now. The anticipation is killin' me! I just wish I knew what day is destined to be this little lady's birthday - but, of course, that would take away half the fun. I've been having a lot of relatively strong Braxton Hicks lately, so I imagine it won't be too many more days. But, who knows!

Springtime on the Little Farm

We have three goats giving birth this spring. Friday, our second one, Luna, gave birth to three kids. Two females and a male. So our little goat herd of six (three males and three females) is now up to thirteen. The last goat, our littlest Nigerian Dwarf goat, Bella, is expected to give birth within the next day or so. Hers will be the only all Nigerian Dwarf goats. The other two were bred with our half-Nubian, half-Nigerian Dwarf goat, Fergus. Nubians are better known as dairy goats. That's why all of these kids (*ahem* goat kids) you see in the photos have the longer ears, a trademark of the Nubians.

Mark had been hoping to milk one or more of the mamas but it doesn't look like we'll be getting any goat's milk this spring, what with the first having four and the second having three. They'll need all of their milk for their young. The smallest mama goat is just so small that even if she only has one or two, we don't plan to milk her either.

(Charlie, no bigger than a cinder block.)

It's amazing how quickly the baby goats are up on their feet and cruising around. I don't have any pictures of the newest babies yet. Although, one of the females, Coco, was up on her wobbly little legs within about ten minutes and even took off exploring right away. It was pretty funny to watch. And, incidentally, she's the most curious one and even now is the one off by herself checking everything out all the time. The same thing happened with the first batch. We just love Flossy (below), the little black goat - she comes running right up to you when you go out there and we're always watching her off exploring by herself, too. It's so fun watching them hop and prance around. They remind me of frisky little lambs.

These are the kids from the first birth. They're so adorably small! I feel like it's hard to capture just how tiny these little things are. Although, they've already grown in a week!

{Xena, who has four kids vying for nursing rights at any given time. Now, that has to be tiring!}

This has been such a great experience for all of us. The kids got to watch both of the births so far. We're hoping to catch the third, as well. So long as Bella decides to birth during the day like the other two - and not while I'm having my own baby!

One week 'til my due date. Hard to believe it could happen any day. I feel like a ticking time bomb. This time has just flown by! I'm getting a little anxious to be on the other side but taking it as it comes. The hardest part for me is the 'unknown' - I don't know when it will happen and I don't know how it will go. I like to know these things! :) But I know it will happen and I know I can do this. I'm really looking forward to having a precious little baby in the house again. We all can't wait!

Birth on the Farm

Birth is in the air around here! Our dog had puppies a couple of months ago and now our Nigerian Dwarf goats are having their kids. The first, Xena, our all black goat, just gave birth today to quads. Two boys and two girls. They came out every other - boy, girl, boy, girl. They are so tiny and so cute! Just a little smaller than a two-liter bottle with long gangly legs, if you'd like a comparison.

The kids and I witnessed the whole thing. I called Mark when the first one was born and he was already on his way home. He made it home in time to see the last two born. It was a really cool experience for all of us. It was the first time we'd witnessed one of our animals give birth. (Our dog gave birth in the night so we missed it.)

We have two other goats expected to give birth in the next week, Luna and Bella. I don't have pictures, although, Mark took some video but I won't have it up because of all the mess. We took it more for ourselves. But I plan to get some pictures in the next few days when they're all cleaned up and fluffy.

As I watched, I was in total awe at how 'easy' it looked for Xena. Those babies pretty much just fell out one after the other - with about 10 to 15 minutes between each one. They literally fell to the ground as she was standing. Quite fascinating for us relatively new hobby farmers.

I couldn't help but reflect on my own impending birth. And watching it all gave me an overall sense of calm. Birth is such a natural and amazing thing. And witnessing how peaceful it is was a great reminder for me that I need to stop this nonsense of feeling anxious.

It's funny, because I do get a little anxious once in awhile but I'm getting much better at squelching those feelings. And much better at feeling calm and confident about it all as the time draws near. And, ultimately, it doesn't matter how I feel now, because once it's 'go time', I always let instinct kick in and somehow or another calm takes over and I go through it all just fine. I completely trust in the process.

In other news, I shared this on Facebook already, but we have our laundry room! Mark hooked up my washer and dryer on Saturday. The room still needs to get painted, although, it's primed. And we need the floors and counters and all that good stuff, too. But for now, it's in operation!

I haven't taken pictures lately so no new photos for this post.

House Update :: Laundry Room

Mark began work on the laundry room this week. I'm really looking forward to being able to use it.

There are no windows in it yet - and it'll be awhile. But we're planning to have a lot of them in there, as well as a window or two between the wall of the laundry room/kitchen to let more light into the kitchen as that west wall has only one window in the kitchen.

I haven't finished filling up my retro mid-century hutch that I have in the kitchen but it's getting there. I hope to have it finished up today and then I'll get a picture up. It's just one of those things that makes me so happy. A dust-free place for all of my vintage dishes!

Our dogs had puppies this winter. Our male Aussie, River, and our female Siberian Husky, Willow. Unfortunately, they were born on the coldest night of the year and in spite of being in one of our little outbuildings with heat, three of them didn't make it.

(Yes, that's the top of a pineapple! Our compost is just to the left of this photo.)

We had originally thought there were only four but in the morning, we found a fifth one that we didn't know about. We were lucky to get Willow, the female, into the building in time for her to give birth. She put up a huge fight being put in there. The dogs use that building for shelter but she didn't like being closed in when it came time to have her puppies. She tore the place apart! I mean, like a wild dog. But we knew it was for her and the puppies own good that they were in a warm place when the time came - and she is not house trained so it wasn't an option to have her in here.

I always knew I wanted at least two dogs, so they would have companionship - but somehow or another we now have three! For now anyway...

Her name is Meadow and she's so cute. She's a good mix of her parents, light colored and has blue-grey eyes.

We had hoped when we went to get Willow and River, respectively, that they each would have had blue eyes but they didn't. There were no blue eyed Huskies and the blue eyed Aussie puppies were already spoken for.

The little male (the brown one) is being picked up tonight and going to a good home. I'm so happy with the family we found for him - I know he'll be in good hands.

I always say I'm not an animal person... and I'm not totally (okay, maybe a little) but I care about all of our animals more than I ever thought I would and I was really worried about sending little puppies out into the world. We wanted to have one litter and now we'll get our dogs fixed this spring/summer.

I can't believe it's Friday already. Another week has flown by. I'm 35 weeks along in my pregnancy. It's really starting to feel like it's getting down to the wire!

Animal Hair

Something on my mind...

I don't have pets.

At least, not the kind that live in the house. So, it can feel a little discouraging to receive things in the mail that look relatively 'clean' but have animal hair on them.

I order from Etsy and Ebay fairly often. Lately, three out of five things that I ordered arrived with animal hair on them. (And, to be honest, with all the times I've ordered on-line, it really doesn't happen that often but...) It's such a turn-off. It feels unprofessional to me when someone sends out products that have hair on them. Not just one or two accidental strands... Granted, they're not completely covered in hair but enough that you would notice when you're sending out your package.

It's not worth noting in my feedback - at least, I haven't. But I definitely think items should arrive without it.

I was window shopping on Etsy today and came across a pretty vintage blanket. So I clicked on the link to the item and all of the other photos had a big greyish-black, long haired cat sprawled over the blanket.

No thanks.

I have nothing wrong with people keeping pets but after seeing the pictures, I didn't bother to read the description or add the item to my favorites even though I really liked it from the first photo. All I could think of is how much black cat hair would be on it if I ordered it. And that can be a tricky thing to get out of a woven blanket.

(Speaking from experience...)

Down on the {Hobby} Farm...

Our neighbors are organic pork farmers and we love their pork but they have decided to quit the pork business. Their pork was so good, too! The best.

Mark has talked about raising our own for a couple of years. So we bought a couple of hogs from them. Then they got loose within two days and one of them had a heart attack when Mark and his friend went and caught her. So she died and now we're down to just one. Ironically, the only one we actually named.

Her name is Rose (above, left). And now it's getting really hard to say we don't live on a farm... what with six Nigerian Dwarf goats, a pig, two+ dogs, and 15 chickens.

Life is good. Except when the goats think they can just free-range all over the yard. (Read: goat droppings everywhere. Not.cool.with.me. The chicken sh*t is bad enough.) So, this spring our number one priority is to fix up the electric fence that the goats are supposed to stay inside of. Especially when there will be a bunch more added to the herd. The three females are all pregnant - and one is so large she's probably carrying triplets. (She's had them before.)

We have about an acre fenced off for them - plenty of space to roam and "free-range"! But they learned how to crawl under the wire on part of the fence and that was that. They tasted freedom and they loved it. Now since the fence is broken in a few sections (possibly from deer running into it) it's not working at all and the goats just step right over the bottom wire and in between the others to go back and forth as they please.

I'm a city slicker and I'm still wondering how this happened...

The funniest part is, I don't mind it (for the most part). The animals are all pretty fun and entertaining to watch. I just really, really struggle with the droppings all over the yard because they get tracked into the entryway. I have a strict, no-shoes-allowed-in-the-house, policy and everyone follows it, except the occasional company, but I still don't like it getting in at all. It drives me insane. And as we progress to make a real yard with grass around here, things will need to change. drastically. I would even like to keep the chickens fenced in somehow - but not sure how yet because it's more important to me that they continue to free-range.

I'm not a quitter.. I'm not a quitter... I'm not a...

Wow. Seriously... I can't believe how easy it is to not blog when you've not blogged for so long.

My sister, Sara, and I are planning to do the Midsummer craft show in our town this summer (in July...she was thinking it's July 9). I figure if I post about it we're committed, so it makes it feel more real. We did it a few years ago but even though we talked about it, we didn't end up doing the past two years. We're both very excited!

She sews and has a ton of cute stuff in the shop over at Circle Boutique (bibs, pacifier clips, burp cloths...etc...) I'm a complete blog slacker, and that means I've also slacked in helping to promote my mom and and my sisters' shop! So, go check it out! There are mostly baby items. But Emily has a few scrapbooks and Amanda has some headbands for little girls. Heidi no longer has any items listed because she is working on branching out on her own. I'll let you know when she has her (*ahem*...Beatle...) shop open!

I piled a bunch of stuff near the doorway in my room in the basement today. The room that you can't walk thru because it's so full of projects that need to be worked on. There are many things that I plan to paint and use in our home but I was happy to find a ton of stuff that I'd picked up to either refinish or repurpose and sell. There will be no shortage of projects around here for the craft show. Now to get the ol' wheels turning so I can come up with ideas for everything! I'm especially excited because my stash of vintage fabric and wallpaper have both grown since I did the last show. More options = more fun!

This afternoon, I finished painting the bookshelf I mentioned the other day as well as a tray that I will have at the craft show. I plan to line the tray with vintage wallpaper. I'll show more photos of the bookshelf when it's finished.

I need to allow the paint to cure for a few days before I add some vintage wallpaper to the inside and I'm hoping to find or make some decals for both of the sides. I used my free quart of Glidden paint from last year on these projects. I chose 'Tropical Coral'...but, to be honest, I was picturing it to be a few shades lighter, more of a nice granny pink, than it actually is. I think it would be better lighter when it's on furniture so I'm hoping it grows on me, or I'll have to repaint it.

It's been so beautiful lately. Sunny and warm. My favorite weather (mid- 60's to 70°). A little too breezy/windy for painting but I ran with it today and am glad I did in spite of the tiny little bugs that occasionally tried to paste themselves to my projects and thwart my efforts.

Our goats are back! And they brought friends. (Two of them are ours (Bella and Luna) but we have six here right now.) They were gone all winter while Mark was away. Our friends offered to keep them with their goats while Mark was gone and we greatly appreciated it! They're all Nigerian Dwarf goats so they're pretty tiny, although it's difficult to tell from the photos without anything for comparison. (Both photos were taken out back by our clearing in the woods.)

We are back to milking again because Quinn and Xena (not sure on the spelling of either) are both back again. We had them last year for milking, as well. Xena (all black) has her twins with her this time. Last year, her kids were weaned when we brought her here to milk.

I'm a total city slicker and admittedly don't take much part in the caring for the animals (which is Mark's hobby) but I do enjoy watching them and having them around for the most part. I just absolutely loathe the chicken sh*t though. Free range birds are great for many reasons. (#1: They help with the local tick population.) But not their droppings all over the yard. It's my hope that we'll have them more contained once we have an actual yard and a deck on the house. I love hearing the chickens cackling and clucking and the goats bleating when the windows are open or we're outside, though. There is just something about those sounds that I'll never get sick of hearing!

Shop Update...Coming Soon

I took a ton of pictures of stuff for the junk shop this afternoon while River napped. (I can't take my eyes off him for even a second when he's up since we're working on potty training.) He slept a lot today, the most he has since we brought him home -- and it was SO nice to get little longer breaks from him. He hardly napped the first day or two, so it'll be nice once he's all comfy and feeling at home -- and, hopefully, sleeping a lot more so I can actually do something around here.

I found quite a few things (mostly vintage children's clothing) for Etsy while thrifting locally and in North Dakota in the past few weeks amd I'm anxious do to a shop update. It's been awhile!

I still need to take some time to figure out how to hook up my new printer . I'm pretty sure once I do, I'll wonder why I took so long to get to it! (We've had it for over a week already.) New gadgets intimidate me. I'm just not in to reading manuals and learning how to use them. But I also haven't had much of an opportunity to get to it.

I bought some photo paper. I've never had photo printing capabilities here at home and I have a bunch of old frames in the basement waiting to be dusted off and hung on the wall going up my stairs. I might get to them in the next year or two...