M.I.A.

Ok, I am officially the worst blogger EVER. I think all the time of posts to write and then never sit down and write them before they are forgotten. And then I am stuck sitting here feeling that I need to do some sort of catch up post, as if anyone really cares. But, somehow it feels necessary, so here it goes.
On the goat front, my silly goats are going to be the death of me! They are constantly escaping the pen. Christian expanded their pen so that it is a really big size and they have lots more grazing room, and the seemed to kind of freak them out. Ever since then, they have been on a mission to escape it. It got so bad that we finally decided to install electric fencing. So, last Sunday Christian spent the day running a strand of electric all around the top of the fence. Monday morning when I went out to get my ladies for milking all the goats were gone! I found them in some really high bushes behind the pen, but i was so frustrated. They had trampled down the fence under the electric strand. Obviously, we are going to have to run a few more strands lower. When they get out, they really don't go far. They pretty much stay in the yard, but they do like the bushes behind my neighbors house, too. That would be fine except that they have started venturing onto the neighbors porch, around the other side of their house and dangerously close to the busy highway in front of our house. I am so tired of chasing them!
The milk has kept me busy, too. I have taken them down to one milking a day and that supplies me with about a gallon of milk/day. I have been making cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. I am a bit like Wallace in my love for cheese!
I have been making mozzarella, feta, and chevre. I have also made yogurt and ice cream. Goat milk ice cream is pretty awesome! Now, to get a dairy cow and never BUY dairy products again. :)
Guppy (yes, we decided to keep the dog's original name) has turned out to be the best dog ever. We are loving her so much! She is not the herding dog that we had intended her to be, but she is the greatest family dog. And a family that doesn't have Daddy home very much needs a good (large) dog to protect us at night. ;) She is very patient and tolerant with my wild girls. In fact, she seems to enjoy them laying all over her. She has become my baby. She dutifully follows me everywhere. The only problem we were having with her was when she was outside, off leash. She was gone! We could not get her to come back to us until she was done roaming and playing. I was so scared that she was going to get hit by a car because she would not listen to us and would run out in the street. So, I researched and invested in a SportDog training collar. I LOVE IT!! I worked with her for about 2 days when we first got it. She is a super smart dog and it didn't take long. She now comes immediately when called. If she gets distracted, all it takes is a reminder beep from the collar and she comes right away. The best investment for a pet ever. I don't even have to reminder her very much anymore. She seems much happier to be outside with us, now. She likes to run and play with the goats and then always comes back to be close to us. Now that she knows her boundaries, she does not seem to be confused about where she is allowed to go.
On the school front, we are really busy. Locksley is doing Foundation Collegium this year and loving it. I'm not sure exactly how to explain this program, but basically it is an all encompassing program that covers Biblical studies, history, literature and philosophy from a christian worldview. That just seem the tip of the iceberg on what she is learning. She is writing speeches and essays. She will be doing a symposium and an oral exam at the end of the semester. She also has a 500 word memorization project from the Bible due at the end of the semester and the reading is intense. But, she has risen to the challenge and is doing great. She attends the class 2 days a week, but spend most of her other two days working on the assignments for the class. She does math and Science on the other three days, as well. She is a very independent worker and I am really impressed with how motivated she is to stay on track. She is really wanting us to get her a program to learn the Chinese language, so I will be looking into that over the next year.
Ruby has started taking violin lessons and is enjoying that. As the middle child, she really needed something that was all her own. So, we are enjoying having that time alone each week. I leave the other girls with Locksley, while I take her to her lessons. That also allows me to sit in and watch the lessons. And all four of the younger girls are taking dance, too. It is so adorable to see all my ballerinas. Naomi was so silly! She thought she was in control of the class and kept telling all the other girls to "Stand up and spin around like me!". So cute!

I think that is all for now. I will try to be more diligent about writing here. Though I feel like most of the time I am repeating what I have already written on Facebook. But, I do enjoy using this more as a journal of sorts. It is much easier to look back over old posts and "reminisce" than it is to do on FB.