moving

Well, here I am on the abandoned blog that will have to be renamed in light of the fact that we are leaving Weaver's Bottom.  After lots of action and events, we (the Weaver Family) will be relocating to Mt. Shasta again.  The land here is now owned by Tony's father and we have no ties to anything here other than biological family.  I will miss the late winter and early spring here in the hill country but am soooo looking forward to returning to the mountains.  My heart definitely belongs in the higher elevations.  The kids are also looking forward to returning to their birthplace.  Although we do have some good friends here in Texas, that we will miss dearly, it is time to go back home.  Because, it really does feel more like home up there than it ever did here.  I guess that this army brat has finally realized where she belongs.

chagrin

So, I feel the need to clarify, for myself, the purpose of this blog.  Originally, I had the impression that Weaver's Bottom would be teaming with life at this point.  People would be coming from all around to visit, learn something and commune with nature.  This was going to be the point of information for those interested in the place.  Basically, this is just a sporatic journal entry and a place for folks to look at farm photos.  Oh well,  in the future it will become more, I hope.

Well, most everything that I have attempted to start has fallen flat.  Homeschool families are now coming sporadically due to various reasons.  Right now it is officially summer vacation for most and that means more family time.  Recently, I have had several people say that they would come, and then not show.  Oh well.  I'm beginning to stop communicating with those folks that are all talk and no action.  I have too much to keep going here to deal with that.  Sorry. The classes that we have been planning for the last year haven't happened because we don't really know who our audience is.  We definitely don't want to be preaching to the choir.

Money has a lot to do with the lack of progress as well.  We purchased the school building almost a year ago and have made a nice school room and office environment, but the school just doesn't get used as much as we had hoped at this point.  Both Tony and I are wondering why we put so much effort into this project because we are still recovering from a long, hard winter that was longer and harder due to putting up the cash for the school.  I tend to teach the kids in the house mostly so that I can do house chores while waiting for the kids to finish their independant work but still keep them on task.  As they get older, I see the space being utilized more regularly for their school.  That is, if we don't sell the building...a thought that Tony and I have been tossing around the last few days.

Then, there is the sheer fact that folks just don't/can't relate to us.  I am really feeling like a loner recently.  Even those folks that are my friends keep mostly to themselves other than when we do a homeschool things together.  I guess that I am just lonely for my younger days when I had friends that read about current events and had a more cultural background and were generally more aware.  I am in Central Texas surrounded by people that burn couches along with anything else they deem trash.  I live on a watershed that people leave disposable diapers to float around next to the broken beer bottles on the rocks that kids play on.  I live near a highway where people drive enormous vehicles 1 mile or less to go buy their cigarettes and gas station coffee in styrofoam cups. 

I'm going outside now to milk my goats, walk my dogs, water the veggie gardens and look at the birds and butterflies pollinating this small patch of green surrounded by junky yards full of oil leaking, abandoned vehicles and scraps of delapitated building materials.

Have a nice day.

Skyla

goats

I made a new picassa album with a few goat shots in it.  I am amazed that I have been neglectful of that.  More recent shots will follow shortly.

From compost to rose garden

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.

Ages have passed since the last post.  Since then, we have had 3 more kids. 
Cat had two beauties, Priscilla ( a doe) and Elvis (a buck) that are now huge and 2 months old.  Because they are half Toggenburg and half Nigerian, we cannot use Elvis as a breeding buck as the strains will degenerate and we will have less prolific progeny.  Hence, Elvis will become smoked Cabrito this weekend at the hands of our good neighbor Fred down the street.  In exchange, he is going to weld some damage on the smoker so that we can have a complete outdoor kitchen once again.
Our smallest and accidental mama doe (dam) was Song who had 2 babies but only one survived because I wasn't around  when they were born and Song has who has never been a mama before, didn't manage to get the amniotic sac off of it's face and it suffocated unfortunately.  The other tiny, baby doe who was found shivering near the hay trough, was brought into the house immediately where she spent several days before going out to the pen daily.  After a month and a 2.5 lb. weight gain, Emmy Lou became a full time goat (at a wopping 4.5 lbs) and was left out all night with her mom and the others in the pen.  She is tiny still but the sweetest, friendliest little character ever.
After 2 months of nursing, I have finally started milking Skyla and Cat.  The babies are in with the bucks on the other side of the pen with very little painful pleading for milk - amazingly.  The mamas are eating and insane amount of grain while being milked but they seem to be producing a little more every time....So, the adventure continues!

2 kids arrived today!

Yes!  The children got to witness Skyla give birth to 2 adorable kids earlier this afternoon.  We got one doe and one buck.    The doe who is mostly black has been named Spring and the buck has yet to get a name but is wearing a very light buckskin coat...almost white.  Mom and kids appear to be fine.  We are still awaiting 2 does to give birth, so more kids to come.  She picked the warmest day yet since winter stuck - thank goodness.  We are really excited around here.  These were the first goats to actually be born on our property.  YAY!

Spring!

Today while walking the dogs around the property (something I do in the morning and evening - every day), I noticed that there are several of the early, small wildflowers poking through the dead grass.  The air was filled with the sound of twitterpated birds and there were several new gopher holes prevalent in the goat pen.  The goats are ready to start kidding any day and my 6 hens gave me 7 eggs yesterday.  One of the ladies is on double duty.  Very soon, I will try to get one of my hens to sit on a nest - unlike last year when we built the incubator and spent 3 weeks methodically turning each egg several times a day.  This year, there is simply too much going on with the gardens and Tony being gone so much with work, and so I have decided to simplify as much as possible.  Maybe it will work.

It is rather windy out there, but the sun is shining and the weeds are waiting to be plucked - lots of them.  I hope you are all able to enjoy a bit of this blue sky/warm sun day. 

at mom's, in her garden

This weekend marks a pretty special time for Tony and me.  NO - not because it is Valentine's day or anything even remotely romantic.  This weekend we are doing some major refreshing in my mother's yard and gardens.  Ten years ago, Tony and I house-sat for my mother who had asked Tony to put a small raised bed in the middle of her lawn where there was a perpetual dead spot.  One week later, she returned home to find that only about 1/3 of her grass remained and the rest was some amazing rock-lined, raised beds and and shale walkways that Tony designed and I helped implement.  It was the first garden creation that I ever did with Tony.  I will never forget slogging around in the thick, black clay-mud that exists here in Cedar Park or scavenging cactus, rocks and wood from the local woods that are now acres and acres of neighborhoods (only 10 years later).  BUT!...we didn't stop with the backyard.  We tore out sections of her front lawn as well that had never even contemplated growing anything well and put a stone border around her native trees.  I learned an insane amount that week amidst the rain and mud.  Most importantly, I learned that Tony is one of the most patient, knowledgeable and hardworking people that I know and that I had an insane amount to learn about gardening and not getting frustrated.  So, here we are a decade and 2 kids later.  Tony is still kind, patient and hardworking and I roll with the punches much more easily (up to a point) and have learned a lot about growing things.  I'm a lot more used to mud and don't even try to clean up my stained fingernails anymore.  I do still have a lot of frustrations when it comes to the garden but it isn't because of my ignorance or inability, it is mostly because of gophers, cutworms, drought and the like.  I'm so glad I'm still doing this and that Tony is still my man.  As I dig up 10 year old plants, I find that I am still learning too - Thank God!

Bee Caves Park

Today the kids and I went to the Bee Caves City Park to check it out for future use for other  homeschool events.  It is an awsome park that they are still in the process of building...it has only been open to the public since October.  There are original playscapes, lots of walking trails, pavillions with picnic tables, bathrooms that are actually well maintained with soap AND towels, a limestone ampitheatre that has percussion insturments for interactive play, lots of native trees have been planted, great basketball courts, etc. etc.  Gosh, it is amazing what a lot of money can do.  We will certainly be returning very soon.  Tomorrow we have classes here for art, music, gardening and some Valentines Day decorating to do for next week's LAHAC meeting here.  Off I go to feed animals and kids - maybe Tony will make it home in time to sit down with us...then again, it is almost Spring and his work has more than doubled.  Hope everyone is enjoying their day as much as we did.

fishy

I saw a fish while I was swimming.  It was eating algae in the water.  It was rushing down the river to the lake.

Brownie walking on (frozen) water

frozen morning

OK - today is officially the coldest day since we moved to Texas with a morning temp. of 14 degrees farenheit at 6am.  I didn't manage to get above freezing until about 11am.  Today was beautiful however.  Tony and I went on an early morning stroll with the dogs and later the kids joined us when Saturday morning cartoons got old.  Here are some shots.

REALLY COLD

You know that when the nightly news is talking about the upcoming cold-front coming in as their top story, that you might want to pay attention.  The wind is gusting up to 45 mph here and coming in from the North.  This morning, Tony and I have been winterizing a bit including putting up a new wall on the goat shelter, recovering the hen house and making sure that the dogs have warm spots picked out in their new pen.  Mostly they just go under the house and tuck themselves directly under the space heaters.  Healer is a mountain dog and has been in colder weather than this, but she is getting older. 

The kids spent all afternoon outside yesterday, thankfully.  The next few days are going to be spent indoors greatly.  Basically this means a lot more baking and crafting, game playing and long baths.  In our extra-small house, the bathroom is the only spot for isolated alone time and the warm water proves to be very calming.  Sounds good right about now...think I may take a soak soon.
I will be back on later to post a bunch of new photos.  Amazing stuff going on in nature around here.

here we go...

I am updating the blog for everyone...hopefully more interesting and useful to the family and friends.  I will be working on the blog specifically for the next two weeks to get photos in and posts categorized.  Maybe having a deadline will boost me to complete this task and help Tony's Wbsite gallery happen too.  Be seeing you all on the net.  Happy New Year.
Robin

Mission Statement

Weaver's Bottom is a private home and the first site of the I AM I Learning Center based in the Central Texas Hill Country - a place where people can explore the arts and natural sciences and learn about stewardship.  We are a homeschooling family living fairly sustainably on an organic homestead/farm/nursery/wildlife habitat with our dogs, cats, fish, goats and chickens.

Robin's First Post

Elder's First Post

Lily's First Post