Little Fall Update!

Lots of things going on here at the Backwards Homestead! I am so ashamed that I have not posted in SO long! Boo me! Summer is always pretty busy, and this one was no different. I thought I would post. even if it is not anything specifically cool! So, here is a montage of a few of the animals enjoying the morning!

Heavenly little cabin!

But first! A picture of the cabin where Roger and I took out little mini VACATION! It was the most amazing time. Only two days, and it was cold, but I swear it was heaven. I absolutely adore this cabin and I wish we had one of our very own. I really had to have been born in the wrong era..Can we say pioneer life with internet?

Little piggies! Ok...Not so little piggies! LOL!

 These are two of the "little" piggies that were born during the ice storm last winter. They are some fat little sausages!!

Flossie!

Flossie and Elmer..Yep..he is nursing..Has he no shame! Then Ellie getting lovies. Yea, we hug our cows! :)

Ellie getting Trina hugs!

Morning kisses!

 Here are Renee and Sweet Pea. two of the new girls here on the farm. They are just adorable! Renee, the brown girl, is due to calve any day now and we are so excited!

Now THAT is a fine bull!

Here is Taz strolling on by to go out to pasture. Is he handsome or what?! We are also happy to announce that he is now a part of the Backwards Homestead clan. Yay! Thanks Sara and Earl for giving us the opportunity to try before we buy so to speak while he was visiting the girls. We promise he will have a great home here as we already love him!

HAY!!

Elmer, Porter and ClaraBelle  checking out the leftover hay after we moved the ring to add a new roll! Of course they had to flick it around a bit. Aerating I imagine...LOL!

Baelfire and his morning drink, lol

 Bae getting a cool drink after breakfast. He sure has grown into a beautiful young man!

Get to work Pud'nin!

Pud'nin moving one of the troughs over to the other side of the pen. They eat over here so we figured might as well set their table over there!

Charlotte pigging out!

Charlotte eating her corn. Beside the giant wallow they made with their water! Pigs...

"What are you looking at"

 Wilbur laying by the remains of his hut that he destroyed...What a silly piggy! Does he think winter is never going to come?!

We wanna eat HERE!

 The reason we moved the trough! These guys are determined to eat right here..So, we moved the trough so they are not eating off the ground.

Boo and her babies!

 See those little peeps peeking out? They are so adorable. Boo is a good Mama, but sadly she is slowly losing these guys to a hawk. She started out with 16 and is down to only 9... :(  Makes me sad! Hopefully he will move on and she can raise these babies without worry!

Squirt!

 Here is Squirt having her breakfast. She comes in every morning and every night to eat here in this stall. She is so smart and is now able to go out in the big pasture with everyone else during the day. Sweet Pea is her Mama, so it is cool to see them together. Although, she spends most of her time with Renee or Taz. She is just beautiful and such a sweetheart!

Here is Elmer and Squirt! He is a hoss! Hard to believe that he is just a month and a half older than Squirt! But, girls are supposed to be dainty! I guess we can say Flossie has power milk as we have shamefully never managed to get him weaned..Yea, as proven by the earlier picture, he is STILL on the teat!

Got hay?

 Pud'nins trusty tractor waiting to get to to work put out a roll of hay! Such a good tractor, I think it is Pud'nins favorite.

More fatty pigs!

Well, there you go! Not much of a post, but I hope you enjoyed the small update. Leave a comment if you have a minute, it makes me smile, lol  I will go with a picture of a flock of geese that I snapped a picture of as they were coming over the barn. I am not ready for winter, but fall is just dandy!

Farm Living Is The Life For Me!

Spring has finally sprung here on the backwards Homestead! Goodness know we are SO ready to put all the winter garb away and have a little green instead of snowy white! Even the animals are Happy Happy Happy!

YIPEEE!

Sun!!

Miley says spring calls for belly rubs!

Brandy must be thinking about something serious!

Loving this warmer weather!

Kitty darts out the door every chance she gets to come out with me and lay in the grass, lol She absolutely loves the outdoors. I think I am the same way! Doing my inside chores is way more boring than being outside any day!  I mean, dishes....or go plant something?!?!  We all know what is going to win, right?

King Blu!

Blu thinks sun is just the bestest! This was before his spring trim, and he was looking pretty shaggy!

What is going ON over there!?

 Clara Belle is such a pretty girl! Her ears say something has her interest, and I bet she goes to check it out! I figure she is looking for Flossie! She has NOT been happy that her friend has been on maternity leave!

This water really hits the spot!

Baelfire is growing So much! Here he is taking his long peaceful drink after his breakfast. He REALLY savors his water, lol We are all making bets about the color that is hiding under all that baby fuzz! Any guesses?

Hey! Mom! Mom! What are you eating over there?

Here is ELMER! He is so cute! I love this picture, even if there is a poo pile in the back there, but you know, such is the farm life! This little guy, is a fireball! He is never still, and has an attitude way bigger than he needs! I mean, look! Can you see all that majesty and self confidence stuffed into one little calf body!

YUMMY!

Here chicky chicky! This is part of our clean up crew. They go behind all the messy eaters and cut down on the waste ratio, LOL!

Hey! Scoot OVER!!

Here is Charlotte and her latest crew! These guys are just adorable! They are also quite piggy! They are 8 weeks old and ready to be weaned and move on to a pig pen of their very own!
The trees and flowers are also blooming and it smells so nice! I LOVE the smell of an apple tree in full bloom! Amazing! Here is one of our trees that is loaded with blossoms. I sure how we do NOT have a late freeze! The last two years we have not had any apples as the blooms were killed by freezy weather!

Lets hope we have a great apple year!

Wisteria

My wisteria is starting to reach for the sky! These are one of my favorite flowers and I am hoping it will travel along this fence and cover it with beautiful cascades of flowers! This is the third year it has been here on the farm, so hopefully this will be a big growth year!

Yep! Spring is HERE!

Grape Hyacinths! They are the sure sign that spring has finally arrived! So pretty! And LOOK! The lilacs are blooming too! Oh me! I LOVE LOVE LOVE lilacs!

You see it? Up there, in the top of the bush! Blooms!

I swear I absolutely love my life here in the boonies. It is just the perfect place for me. I love the lifestyle, as frustrating as it can be to maintain. I cannot imagine my life being any different than what I have right now. We still have some hard decisions to make, and some serious changes will have to happen so we can return our farm to the contributing asset that it is meant to be! We have let things get away from us, and it is time to buckle down and make our original vision a reality! 

Sometimes life happens. Sometimes we have a moment where we lose sight of what is important. Emotionally things have been tough, and I have been tested. My faith, my strength and my courage have all taken a beating. Between the farm, the kids moving, and the decline of my Mom with Alzheimers, the year has been a rough one. But with all of that, I choose to try and look upward, and forward. Many many blessings have been given to me and my family as well! So many things that I look to God with sincere thanks!  I pray that I can look to the positive, and pull myself out of this funk! As they say, it is all in the perspective! 

With that said, I promise that big things are going to happen here on the Backwards Homestead! Just wait and see! 

Of course I will be putting it all on here so you guys can take the journey with us! So keep checking back, and leave a comment or two so I know you have stopped by!

Baby Watch!

I am so excited!! The time is here to start keeping a close eye on Flossie because she is in the last stretch of her pregnancy. I get so nervous at this point!! I love this darn cow so much and the thought of her having any issues, and God forbid...I just cannot say it.. Who  knew that I would have such warm fuzzy feelings over a cow.

I have most of my birth kit ready, but I do need to get it all together and in the barn. We have everything for her yummy molasses water after the birth. I have come CPK in case of milk fever. I have Mineral Wells Animal Clinic on speed dial! Who by the way, is an AWESOME group of people. I swear, they are so patient with me, because I am quite a question box once I get going! Just LOVE them!
We also have little piggies on the way! Charlotte is also in the family way, and I have NO idea when they little oinkers are due, Oh no! I know when I thought they were Boom Chicka Wow Wow..ing. But, that due date came and went, so it was obviously just for fun. Now I have to get busy making a piggy maternity ward. So much to do! So little time! There she is, at the farthest trough. Pigging out!

 Here are the last babies, rooting away, lol They have really grown and may get a chance to go out into the pasture soon. I haven't asked them what they think about that, so it may be a bust.

 So, keep an eye out, I will be posting about all sorts of new babies soon. We all know that EVERYONE loves baby pictures!

Just Normal Happenings

Nothing awesome and interesting happening around the farm these days. Been one of those hum drum spells, with the normal just trudging along all normal like..Cows are still cows, pigs are still pigs. horses are still horses and on down the line. So, that being said, this post will probably be totally boring!

Blu taking root!

Horses having supper

There was also a cool Blood Moon! I sat out with Austin and watched until it was to light for him to take pictures. It was alot of fun, I really enjoy spending time with my kiddos, they are just awesome people.

Picture compliments of Austin Mathis

We are also awaiting calves from two of our girls. Flossie and ClaraBelle are both expecting. Flossie in January February and ClaraBelle we are not so sure. We were thinking October, but so far nothing! I am a bit worried that she is not preggo, but her tummy looks like something is doing somersaults! So cross your fingers!

Mmmmm! Water!

Scratch my neck pleeeeease!

Clara Belle looking all cute!

Is this my good side?!

Eleanor is also growing like crazy! She is almost as tall as her Mama!

Ellie having breakfast

We will also, possibly have little oinkers in February. Wilbur decided that he could not be apart from his honey for one second longer so he broke into Charlottes pen and they had a little couples time! We went ahead and moved her in with him, but alas, his first attempts were for naught, as last week she came back in and well...We shall see!  I will say, Piggy courtship is a bit unsettling as the boar makes a really deep rumble that the sows may find appealing, but it just kinda gives me the willies!

                                       Ignore the wind in the video, it was crazy that day!

There will be more really awesome things happening in the near future, but I just can't share yet! Stealing thunder is just not cool. So I will wait for the Ok to share the news! I will say, so I don't have a million people thinking I am getting more grandbabies, that is NOT it..YET! Although I am always open to anyone who wants to grace us with more grandbabies...
Now I am off to go check on the cast iron I have in the oven, if you like the post, or just want to say hey, feel free to comment below.

Looking a lot Like Fall

Fall on the farm is almost as busy as summer. We have to get all the animals settled and make sure they will have what they need for the cooler temperatures. Not to mention getting things squared away for the people here on the Backwards Homestead! As busy as it can be I will say, Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. The temperatures are much milder and the colors of all the leaves are just amazing!

Fall Sunset

This Fall we have two expectant mamas. Flossie is due in January/February and ClaraBelle is due anywhere from October to, well, we aren't too sure, lol Both girls are getting all round and although Flossie is not due for a while she looks massive!

Little herd of girlies!

Flossie having breakfast

ClaraBelle getting a little nibble of hay

We did manage to get the roof on the side shed off the barn, but still have to get the end boxed in for the expectant girls so they can stay warm and dry when the weather gets nasty. When you have animals it seems the winter preparation is never completely finished. There is always something that needs attention. Like hay, which Pud'nin has been baling like crazy!

Trusty Tractor

Square baler and yet another trusty tractor

The little piggies are growing like crazy. We only have two left that we will be saving for ourselves. The rest have gone on to their new homes and from what I hear they are getting fat and sassy. Charlotte is enjoying the smaller crowd and in November will go back in with Wilbur for a little couples time, lol

Wilbur

Charlotte and babies

Baby piggies having breakfast

Hard to believe that before we know it snow will be blowing and we will be looking for the coveralls. I know that it is coming, and I sure am hoping that it will not be as icy as last year! But no matter what the weather, we will be out and about making sure the Backwards Homestead is running smoothly!