Alex has always had an interest in photography.  He started with a Kid Tough camera that didn’t last too long.  Then, we purchased him an actual Kodak waterproof digital camera.  That was great until it got lost.  Then he started using our Canon pocket digital camera.  He figured out how to change it to Black and White mode and is very good at using the timer to stage pictures.  Today, Anna found the missing Kodak camera in the barn, under the pallets of hay (it was gone since last Oct).  Everything still works, so he is back in business.

All of these photos were taken by Alex.

So, Mack has lived with us for about a month now.  He came from a home with 2 working parents and a kid that didn’t do much with him.  Now, he spends time outside running until he is ready to sleep, sleeps until he is ready to run again.  When necessary, we put him on the dog run, but he is pretty good about staying with us around the farm.  He loves to chase the goats, but eventually, they get tired of him, and turn to butt heads.  That causes him to run away.  He tries to herd chickens, and so far, hasn’t eaten any.

Overall, he is a good farm dog.  He is very rough on toys and destroys tennis balls in no time.  Alex and Vicki found a substitute item for playing fetch – tomatoes!  Alex and Mack actually played fetch with a tomato for almost 10 minutes and he never bit through the skin.  He has a very gentle mouth.

Here are some pictures of playing with Alex.

My interests and hobbies are quite diverse, but I am somewhat a Jack of all, master of none.  With our adventure in farming, I have lost the ability to dabble in a little here and there and feel like I was honestly making some progress in each area.  Therefore, I have been taking a hard look at each individual activity and asking, how much have I done that in the last 2 years, how much do I want to do it to feel satisfied, is that possible.  While it seems a little extreme to completely stop doing things, that is where I am at emotionally to dedicate more time to what we currently have defined as important in life.  The current example is fine wood working.  I made the hard choice to sell most of my wood shop that is related to fine wood working (furniture, picture frames, etc).  I am keeping all my basic tools for construction type projects on the farm, but I don’t have time to build furniture with everything else going on.  Therefore, the shop space and money can be better spent elsewhere.  What else will go be the wayside?

Anna and I sat down and figured out our breeding plan for the goats.  We decided to breed all the does to the 2 bucks we bought.  It wasn’t too hard to decide.  However, we did also have some discussions about which baby goats we might keep, which does might get sold next year, and our herd goals.  If interested, view the 2013 breeding schedule and price list.

Have you ever thought, “Rob and Anna always seem to be doing something new on the farm.  How can I keep up with the changes?”  Many people who are reading our posts are clicking in from the Facebook links. However, as Facebook is always changing who and what I see (without asking me), I find I miss updates on other pages that I am interested in.

You can get an email each time we make a new post!  If you look on the right side of our home page, I have added the convenient ability to subscribe to the blog!