Farmwife's Journal - January 16th

We continue to spend many evenings playing hockey.  Last week we only played three times, partly due to the weather and also because I had a sore foot.  I stopped a puck from going into my goal with my skate, which wasn't so favorable for my foot!  My foot was really sore that night, and the next morning I had it x-rayed just to make sure it wasn't broken.  My foot turned out to be fine.  After babying it for a couple days, it healed up quickly.

Many nights Mike and I wonder if we are too old to play hockey so hard and so often.  Even though we have played together as a family for a few years, our kids (and their friends) just keep growing and getting harder and harder to play against. :)  Some nights we lie on the living room floor together moaning. :)  Thankful for our 303's (see my last post),  we are determined to continue playing with our children.  When I hurt my foot, my children were horrified by the thought that my hockey season may be over.  They really enjoy the family time together, as do Mike and I, and we all love having friends over to join in the fun.

Not much is new on the farm.  Kiow (buck goat) is still here.  We are hoping that Claire will come back into heat again, so we can get her bred.  It would be easiest to just put the buck in with all the does, but then they will all be due around the same time, which means that they will all be drying up at the same time.  Since our family doesn't really want to be without milk, we are trying to stagger our breeding.  Nature doesn't always cooperate with that program....still we are trying. :)

The puppies are doing well!  We have almost exhausted the meat we saved for them from our fall butchering, so now it's time to find other sources.  Knowing that raw meat is the healthiest and most natural thing for a dog to eat, we will continue to feed our dogs this way.  We do supplement with dog food when needed and for treats.  Jackson, our 8 year old Pyrenees, ate dog food as a puppy because we didn't know any better at the time, but it has been many years since we have bought a bag of dog food for him.  We just feed him meat from the farm and table scraps (which are usually from the farm).   As many of you have seen, he is a very big, strong, healthy dog. :)

A number of years ago (4?), Mike accidentally ran over Jackson with our skid loader.  It was horrible!  We thought for sure we would have to put him down.  Amazingly Jackson recovered!  When you look at him now, you can hardly see the effects of that accident.  I really believe that his diet is a testimony to his lack of joint problems and overall good health.  If a good diet works for us, it works for them too! :)  What you feed your animals does make a huge difference in their quality of life and longevity!