different... that is about all I can say on that!
On a positive note, we took our LGD Sheba down to Boise to have her hips and
elbows x-rayed to check for dysplasia. We are planning on getting her bred in
May to a very nice boy who lives in Northern Idaho if he passes his health
clearances. We should know if Sheba passed in the next couple of weeks. I am
trying not to worry, the vet said she looked good, but I hate the wait!
We are also in the process of trying to find a place to buy. It is not going
as we would like, there are not many places that fit our criteria that are also
affordable around the Fruitvale-Council area. We have heard of places down in
Cambridge, up in New Meadows, etc, but our goal is to stay in the
Council-Fruitvale area for several reasons - first and foremost being this is
where Colin works and we do not want to add any more travel time to his commute than we absolutely have to.
Second, I want to be close to the mountain and the farther south of Council
you get, the farther away from the mountains you become. On the flip side, I
want to be able to grow peach trees, so anything north of Fruitvale is pretty
much out for that (too cold!). We realize we might not be able to be as picky as
we would like in the long run, but for now we are sticking to our guns and doing
alot of hoping and praying! We have a list of some of the top "must haves and
wants" which are: between 10-20 acres, irrigated, pasture and hay ground, 3+
bed/2 bath, garage/shop, barn, fenced. We find the perfect house, but only on
>5 acres or on acreage that is not suitable for pasture or hay ground, or we
find the right amount and type of land but no house - or it is way over our
price point! Patience, I am hoping, will eventually pay off.
day and we are finally ready to start selling our surplus eggs. I already have
one person interested and am hoping to pick up enough people to sell at least 5
dozen a week for now.
presentation and he did really well. He will be giving the same presentation for
his 4-H demonstations, so by Fair time, he should know it by heart. Now we have to work on our daughters 4-H demonstation project, she can also do chickens, but I think she is leaning towards arts and crafts.
Spring is coming! We had been enjoying the snow so much after living for 8 years without it, but we had an extremely long very-cold spell which took alot of the joy right out of it. Now that it is March, I am ready for the snow to be gone. It will be one year that we moved back to the Ranch at the end of this month - and as with every year, I ask myself: where did it go? It seems like just a few days ago we got our first chickens, our first goats, started building our chicken coop... and the time has gone by too fast. This year we will not be tied down building (I hope LOL), so we are planning on spending more time fishing, camping and rock-hounding... and maybe a little gold panning!