Nuts, Nuts, Nuts!

The time for nut collecting has come! Our pecan tree has started bearing nuts and we, (Me Elijah and Naomi) went out in the freezing cold and collected nuts :-) Thankfully mom said we could have hot chocolate when we came in. It was actually quiet fun! We made up a game that when ever Elijah knocked the tree with the rake we all had to scramble and pick up as many nuts as possible. The rake got stuck up in the tree a couple of times but we got it down all right. A pecan has a little outer pod that falls off when it is ripe. Than there is the inner shell that you have to crack, first we were doing this with wrenches which were not working very well so mom ordered 3 nutcrackers they just arrived yesterday and we are going to use them right now...so I should get off the computer and help=)

This a Drake nutcracker, the type mom ordered, it seemed to work well. It adjusts to the size of your nut,and cracks them fast and easily.

Love,

Quilting Maiden and Goat Girl

This is my finished quillow. It was quite easy to make, and I learned a lot about quilting in the process! It goes well on my bed and it is really warm at night (it's winter here).

it looks nice on my bed 

this is the back of the quillow. The inside of the pocket.

the front of the quilt

This is how to fold it so it fits into the pocket. 

Pulling the pocket inside out...

And there! Now it is a pillow! 

I hand embroidered the butterfly :) 

I don't have any instructions, as my sewing teacher showed me how to make it week to week. But Mum noticed that if you google 'making a quillow' there are lots of instructions on the internet! There are a few links HERE if anyone would like to make one too. 

Now to my goats! Keeping and raising goats is a family project for us. At the moment I am responsible for milking the dairy goats and feeding our two weak kids that needed a helping hand to get going. 

Here they are at 4 days old...Rebekah and Pip. When they were born neither of them could stand and we thought they wouldn't make it. Their mother had 5 kids! They are both very small, but we brought them into the laundry and started bottle feeding them and they are now doing really well. They are almost ready to go back in the paddock with their brother and sisters. Harmony, their mother, is happy to let them hang around but she won't let them feed so we will have to keep bottle feeding them for about 3 months. 

This is Harmony with her other 3 kids. 

and this is baby Rebekah thinking that my cheek is a teat! 

So far we have 14 kids...6 girls and 8 boys, and still have one doe to kid (which should happen tomorrow! Check my blog for updates!)