New Blog For Baby

I just wanted to let everyone know that we have a new blog specifically for the impending arrival of Baby Steck. Also a blog for family pictures. That way my homesteading blog will stay homesteading and I can go crazy on our family blog. : ) To get to it either click on this link: http://www.steckfamily.blogspot.com or click on my profile to the right and at the bottom of that page you will see the Baby Steck blog.

Neighbors Baby Goats!

Aren't they precious! They are like little boer dalmations. They got most of thier coloring from mama.

Mama and Baby

This is mama with one of her twin bucklings. So cute!

Just so precious!

Planting Party Next April! Save the Date!

I'm so sorry that I haven't kept up very well in the last month. My computer has a virus so at the moment I have lots of pictures to put up, but I haven't figured out how to do it from my mom's computer yet. Maybe today. Yep, I figured it out, more pics below. Enjoy!

Next April as you all know I will be having a baby, well it is also the month to plant the garden. Actually 1 week after the baby is due we need to plant the garden. Either I will be big as a house or I will have a newborn so I thought we could have a planting party, because I will need all the help I can get. So, tentatively we are planning the 4th Saturday in April, which is April 22nd to have the party. It will be filled with planting seeds and plants already started inside and we will have a big BBQ with tri-tip, chicken, and possibly Roger's famous baby back ribs. We will make a day of it. So, save the date! It will be lots of fun! Anyone coming from out of town is welcome to stay the night if they need to.

No worries the garden will be all charted and labeled so you will know exactly where the plants or seeds will go. Hopefully since it's after tax day everyone will be done with those. Haha! It will be funny if our child is born on tax day, well atleast it won't forget. ; )

Pumpkins!

Here are my festive pumpkins from the garden! Aren't they cute?

Butternut Squash!

You think we have enough butternut squash?! If anybody wants some let us know, we have lots! This is only 2/3 rds of them. Haha! They save well too so you can store them for a long time before you use them.

Which one is real and which is stuffed? ; )

I figured out how to download pics from my mom's computer. Yeah!

My mom's hollyhocks finally came up! I think we planted them a little late. Oh well, atleast one of the ten or so plants bloomed. So pretty!

Tobias

Here's my boy Tobias! He is getting a little stinky, but only if you stand really close to him. He bred all our girls last month. No one came back into heat so I guess everyone will be due in a two week span the end of February into early March. Were going to have a lot of kids running around! Yeah, they are so cute!

Minna girl. I guess we didn't shear her face as close as her body, she's getting that chipmunk look.

Shaggy Krystal! She really needs to be sheared, she can't even see with all those curls in her face. It just needs to stop raining for me to do it.

Maddie

Maddie looking cute! She's getting to be a big girl!

Rest in Peace Mr. T. Your hens and I will miss you! 

Hi all! I just wanted to update on some special news since I know some of you that check out my blog once in awhile don't know yet. Rog and I are going to have a baby in April! We are so thrilled! I am 12 weeks and we heard the heartbeat today. 160 beats/minute! The little guy is going crazy in there. If you want to check and see how far along I am once in awhile I have a pregnancy ticker at the bottom of every page. I've actually had it at the bottom since right after I found out, but nobody noticed. Oh well, I tried to hint it, but I guess it was too tricky. : ) 

Tobias by himself. He has actually gone into Rutt in the last week. Breeding season has begun here on the farm. Hope to have some lovely baby goats in the Spring. 

Here is Minna and Tobias on the left. He doesn't look the same without all that hair. They look so tiny. 

Here is Minna newly sheared. They look kinda funny sheared and in thier coats. I think I did pretty well for my first time as a shearer. I have shaved dairy goats for show before so that helped. 

Here are the 3 angora's. Krystal on the right hasn't been sheared yet. Her fiber needs atleast another month. Minna is in the middle and Tobias is on the left. 

Hi all, I know it's been awhile since I posted last with pics. So, I sheared two of my angora goats yesterday and forgot to take before and after pics, but here are some pics of them with thier goat coats on. All is well here, I will surprise some of you with other news on Monday. Enjoy! 

Sorry, I haven't posted anything for awhile. I have just been really worn out. The days lately have been very nice and comfortable. It is really great how fall seems to be creeping in. It is terribly cold at night though. It's wierd to have to put a sweatshirt on to go outside when we were in the 90's just about a week ago. Well, hopefully I will get some photos up soon and then we will spill some news in 3 wks. 

Shelby girl! ; ) 

Shelby doing her impersonation of down dog like her cousin Piper. 

Another shot of Maddie. 

A closer shot of Minna girl. She is just a doll. 

Minna and Krystal, my Angora does. 

Maddie-what a cutey! I couldn't get a side shot of her so we could see how big she has grown. She's too wiggly! 

I guess even Jasper wanted a close-up cuz here he is! Silly boy. 

Here's another side shot of Mr. Tobias. He's the Man! 

Tobias. He wanted to see if I had something for him to eat too. His horns are getting big. They should be curling soon. They will look beautiful once he has a full set. : ) 

Another close-up of Jessica that silly goat. 

Jessica giving us a close-up (Jess-yes you are the one that named her after yourself 10 years ago).  

Well I was going to put some of my sister and brother-in-law's pics up from thier yosemite trip, but alas couldn't figure out how to put them into a JPEG file. I often accidently figure out how to do those things and it just wasn't my day to fall upon it. They had some beautiful pictures. So, I haven't been putting any pics up lately cuz it's too darn hot to be outside let alone take pictures. Oh, well. I will try to get some this evening and put them up. It's not as hot this evening as it has been. Just been hanging out and I started cutting fabric out for my jean quilt. It should turn out to be a nice blanket for the winter. Very heavy and warm. Well, I will also update on some exciting news in October as well, until then I will try to get more pics up every week. 

This is the epitome of how it has been here. HOT!!!!!!!!!! Poor chickens aren't even laying. Hope next year will be better with more eggs and less heat. This is an unusually hot summer.