Why is it that my distant family members disapproval of my homeschooly lifestyle bothers me more than random strangers?  I am beginning to figure a few things out about that question.  Family members just can't manage to keep their opinions to themselves, but have difficulty just coming out with it as well.  So, muttering under one's breath right next to me or my husband about our choices just doesn't bode well with me.  Strangers or mild aquaintances are more prone to -  1.  Keep their mouths shut or 2.  Simply come out with their opinions/questions.  I prefer the directness myself.  Then again, I can honestly say that I despise fake people in general and would much rather  have someone just come out and tell me that they think I am an idiot and wrong as opposed to pretending that they are pleased with my company and lifestyle choices.  Blech!

And on to the homeschool/homestead news:

In the last week, Tony's grandmother (Maw Maw) died at the age of 81.  She was happy and ready to go after years of heart trouble and severe Type 1 diabetes.  Her funeral is tomorrow.  Although Tony is glad that she has finally found her peace, he is also mourning the passing of his extended family.  Tony comes from 5 generations in the Austin area.  His is an old hillbilly family that lived close together in the old ways for a long time.  As a matter of fact, Tony is the only kid that has ever moved away for more than 1 year.  Half of his life was spent in Northern CA.  He will miss hearing the stories from Maw Maw's childhood on the cotton farm down by Bull Creek.

Tony brought home a Texas Map Turtle hatchling that was stuck on the lawn of one of his clients.  Lily had done a report on Map Turtles several months ago and was excited to have this baby at home.  We decided that it's chances of survival on our stretch of the Llano River were extremely slim, and so we now have a use for the 55 gallon aquarium that was given to us last year.  "Sam" (not sure of it's gender yet) is living quite happily in his new habitat and much research has been done to keep him that way.

One of our baby bucks died this weekend unexpectedly.  Roy had been ok since birth but never seemed to thrive.  Deworming etc. simply didn't help and neither did anything else.  He didn't start eating grain until about 3 days after being weaned and grazed constantly.  He just didn't get up in the morning and I found him lying in the goat house cold.  None of the other goats are suffering at all but extreme pen cleaning happened nonetheless just in case. 

Cat and Skyla are the 2 does that I am currently milking.  Between the 2 of them, I manage to get about 4-41/2 gallons a week.  I have made cheese once and the kids are finally completely transferred over to goat milk.  Yay! No more buying cow milk until they dry up because I am breeding them again.  After figuring out all of my expenses, I am saving only about $16/ month on milk, but I think the quality is better and the kids are getting better nutrition from the goat milk too.

We also have a friendly hen now (given to us by a neighbor) that is named "Duck". She is a RI Red and answers to her name when called. I thought that any of the young visitors to the farm might enjoy petting a chicken because I am constantly telling moms not to let the kids stick their fingers in the chicken pen fence. Our flock is less than tame. The next bunch of chicks that we get will be handled a lot more and will be more tame.

Lily is helping out a lot more with the animal chores now that milking is happening.  She has learned so much from her animal experiences here and is somewhat convinced that she wants to be a vet.  She is particularly interested in biology and is always the one helping to doctor people and animals.  We shall see though.  I know that I am lucky to have her and that she is a huge help to me.

Elder is doing well with his eye therapy - making huge leaps in his visual and cognitive abilities.  It is so exciting to see him becoming more interested in more complex tactile skills.  He is so cool.  Yesterday he and Tony were working on igniting a match electronically for their homemade rockets.  Now they just need to research fuel options for propulsion.

The kids are doing well in their regular studies too.  We are studying ancient civilizations now as I have decided that they are old enough to deal with World History in a linear fashion.  Both of them are working on economics and time management on their own levels...I guess that I am too -ha!  Lily is tackling long division and report writing.  Elder is catching up on his lower case letter writing, simple word reading and is really getting bored with simple addition and subtraction.  We are starting to do more charting with him now that he is seeing better.

As for me, I have settled into my farm wife role a bit more solidly now that I have to milk twice daily.  I enjoy staying home but because the kids are often going to classes, I only get 3 days a week of solid home time when I catch up on house work and get that obligatory weeding time in.  I am still shocked that I have managed to knock down the thistles and sunflowers on over half the property simply from diligently waging war on them for 3 years now.  This year it is more the honeysuckle vines that are beautiful but grow in all the wrong places.

And there you go.  Look for some new photos in the gallery section.  I need to post some of the goat shots - sorry it has taken so long.