the pics i talked about. i just got a new camera for xmas and am still learning to transfer and upload pics from it. most of my pics are from the old defunct camera, but this program from olympus seems much easier to deal with. now i just need to learn all the features of the camera. we have appmnt. to get our taxes done today. i have mixed emotions about it. we are both on soc. sec., but we also sold our property in marysville last summer and got a decent down payment and are receiving monthly payments. so by about 2 p.m., we will be smiling or crying. we did make an estimated tax payment after we sold the property. we had to take our cat, norman, to see andrea in her capacity as vet again yesterday. he has had an abcess for a couple weeks. thought it was cleared up, but it came back. she opened it up to make sure it would drain. i still need to post a pic of him if i can find a good one. or take a new one. we have had dozens of widgeon ducks viviting our small pond for the last while. they like to get out of the water and forage around in the pasture. they move as a swarm. fun to watch. i wonder what kind of feed i could put out for them. i love to watch ducks land and take off. yesterday morning some landed on the pond, but it had a thin sheet of ice on it. i saw one pair come in. the drake stayed on his feet and skated. the hen fell on her butt and slid about 10'. no ice today.

change of status

guess what? after all this time with no postings, i have decided it's time for bonnie and i to get in the swing. i will first have to change the name of our blog. we are no longer animalless. altho we have always had at least one dog and one cat, we had no farm animals for a very long time, except piper and derek's horses at times. we also had their goats off and on. we adopted their goats, echo and stratton, last summer. then we had our property cleared out some, tore out all the old fences, and put in new ones. the entire property, except the yard area, is now usable pasture. last summer, we went to whidbey island to a small goat farm and cheese making place and bought 3 new goats and 2 sheep. i will post some pic's of them soon. the goats are beauty, blaze and pib. the sheep are spot and moe. beauty and pib are girls. the others are all neutered males. we also have sarge, who was carrie's australian shepherd. we got him from rob after he had to move to a smaller place. sarge loves it here and we just love him to death. he is so much fun to have around and has a very unique personality. very smart and so willing to please. we also have norman, our male cat that we have had for a few years. he and sarge get along well and play together, altho sarge gets a little rough with him sometimes. we also just had a garage/shop built. 30' x 40' pole type building. i will post pic's of it too. we have lived here for 32 years and never had a garage until now. the concrete floor hasn't been poured yet, but will be done soon as weather permits. speaking of that, i would not have had this building built in the winter if we could do it over. i now have lots of yard to restore. we had tractor/trailer rigs in here with 40' trailers, large gravel trucks and, soon, concrete trucks. oh well, i guess it will all work out. will give something to do with my toy we acquired last summer. a used john deere tractor 3520. it is a 2006 model, but only had about 150 hours on it. like brand new. front loader plus we now have post hole digger, rock rake, large seeder/fertilizerer and finish mower. ready to farm. lol.