Richard & I arrived in Memphis this afternoon - glorious weather. Tonight we got our Private tour of Graceland & spent an evening looking around the Elvis shops etc. I took loads of photos but unfortunately we forgot to bring the camera attachment to enable us to transfer the pics onto the laptop SO I will give you a full tour when we get home.

Why are we here? Being licensees of Elvis Presley Enterprises we are down here for the EPE World Summit. There are folks here from all over the world. They fed us well tonight & we got a large goodie bag each. For the next two days we will be in meetings which we are actually looking forward to - should be very informative.

So as I do not have any photos to show you I am going to offer you some blog candy. Who did I meet tonight & shake hands with? And NO it was not Elvis! LOL! I will draw a name from all the correct entries on Thursday evening or Friday when I show you the photo. The winner will get to choose an Elvis Stamp of their choice.

Happy guessing!

Liz

Poor Richard yesterday had one very frustrating day. Our upstairs shower/bath started dripping a few days ago but by Wednesday it was so bad that we had to turn the water off overnight to stop wasting water!

SO he starts pulling it apart in the morning but of course these things are never as simple as one hopes. Access was very limited & in the end he had to cut a hole in the wall plus saw off some 2′ x 6’s” to get into the pipes. The folks who did all the renovations before us obviously didn’t think there would ever be a leak. Needless to say Richard worked on it all day & part of the evening. We now have a new fixture & are leak free.

The good thing though was that the weather was beautiful yesterday so Hannah was one happy little girl. Her & Daniel played outside for ages. Daniel introduced her to the old bonfire so both of them came in black & had to be dumped in the bath before they could even have their tea (dinner for those of you in the USA).

Even the goats were relaxing in the calm weather & as I looked out the window yesterday this is what I saw:

What a cute picture of brother/sisterly love. Evie is the one with her head on Goat Chop. As you can see some of the other goats were flat out too. Can you see Crystal in the top right corner? Fuzzy is looking at the camera, Milky Bar is behind here & then there is Chocolate.

The ones not pictured were in my lilac bushes!Today was windy & cold again so no playing outside for Hannah.

10 more turkeys arrived yesterday to make up for the ones not sent last week. They also sent 5 chicks to keep the turkeys warm. One chick died today but everyone else appears to be doing great. We hope to get the black chicks out tomorrow to the big chicken coup where they can be shut in & safe. They will still have a heat lamp but there is natural sunlight over there & plenty of space. One of them has already jumped out!
Have a great weekend,

Liz

Well the animals think it is Spring but the rest of us realize that it has disappeared for a while. Here’s a picture of the duck house on Sunday morning!

Yes our temps in the wind chill were 10 on Sunday. We have warmed up into the 30’s and alot of the snow has melted but it is still too cold for Hannah to go out & play and she is not happy. We were glad of the moisture though and the grass is now beginning to green.

Tonight I was here alone apart from the two little ones who were in bed so had to go shut the animals in and feed Rosie Lee. Rosie came to me for the first time tonight so that is a good sign. Much nicer not having to chase her. Rosco & Penny did not want to go to bed but eventually made their way to their pen. There were two stupid turkeys who had decided that they were not going to bed so I had to shoo them in. Once they finally got into the pen I discovered why the poor things would rather sleep outside. Jasper was on top of one in a shot & Harvey was chatting up the other one! LOL! Of course it is too dangerous to leave them out with so many predators around. We will have to put the new ducks that are hatching in with Jasper so that he has friends of his own kind.

Hope your week is going well. Busy here as usual but no complaints. We had a new member of staff start here this week - her name is Patricia. I threw her into packing orders on the first day & that can be a little overwhelming when you see walls & walls of rubber along with piles & piles of wood mounted stamps and you have to learn exactly where everything is. BUT she is learning fast & doing a fabulous job. WELCOME Tricia!

Take care,

Liz

Look what arrived yesterday!

There are 52 here & they are feisty little things. They are black broilers & we have found them to be very hardy chickens well suited for up here in the north & with all the predators we seem to have. One died today but that happens. No more turkeys have died so that is good. And yes they are all here in the living room. Y’know what though? They are so relaxing to watch. When we get a few minutes we just stand & watch them.

PLUS we now have the incubator running with 15 goose eggs in it & 18 duck eggs.

The duck eggs are our own but the goose eggs we purchased from a lady on eggbid.com They are a mixture so it will be a surprise as to what hatches. We normally only get a 50% hatching rate but that will be plenty. Something got into our ducks on Thursday night - one was dead in the morning & another had two broken legs so we had to put it out of its misery. We think that whatever it was tried to pull them out the hatch but didn’t succeed. Richard has now reinforced the door on the opening so nothing can get in.

Remember I told you we had shut Lilly in the barn hoping to catch Rosie Lee? Well Lilly snapped the gate in half - completely ruined so that was the end of that scheme. Michael finally caught Rosie Lee yesterday so we have now taken her away from Lilly. Needless to say Lilly was out bellowing all night. She has calmed down tonight & is in the barn. Rosie Lee was very scared last night but Michelle & I took a bottle to her this morning. At first she wasn’t interested but she soon got the hang of it. We are feeding her 3 times a day - Hazel has plenty of milk. By tonight’s feeding she was really into it & drank 4 pints. We left her shut in today so that Lilly couldn’t find her plus the weather was too bad for her to be out anyway.

Cinco, the bull, is so funny. He is Lilly’s shadow. Wherever she is, he’s right beside her. Talk about a match made in heaven

We went from glorious weather yesterday:

to snow today. The day started off as rain & snow so the ground got a real nice soaking which it desperately needs as you can see from the above picture. (Daniel & Hannah were filthy when they came in!) Tonight though the snow started coming down heavy & along with a cold wind so it is only 15 out there in the wind chill. I went out to shut the animals in & feed Rosie Lee & what do I see? A turkey sat out in the snow. I’m not sure it will survive - its wings were all iced over & it may have frost bite in its legs. Stupid bird - everyone else was in their warm houses. After feeding Rosie Lee I headed down to the cow barn. All the cows were in & were glad for some hay. Then I headed up & shut the ducks in or so I thought. I come up to the house & all the ducks are up here so I had to go back & open up the gate & their house & then shoo them into bed.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I’m looking forward to a day off. It’s been a long two days cutting rubber etc.

Take care,

Liz

Hey folks!

Spring must be here because look what arrived today:

Our living room is no longer quiet - these turkeys are now in residence. We ordered 40 hatchery choice so as to get a good variety. They only sent us 30 but we think there are 5 different types in there so that’s great. They are sending the rest out next week.

Alas turkeys are very hard to raise. Two have already died on us today for no apparent reason. We check them very regularly but come back to find one has snuffed it.

Miss Lilly is shut in the barn tonight. Both her & Cinco needed worming so we fed them hay in the barn tonight instead of outside. Caught Lilly but not Cinco. We’ll get him tomorrow. As for Miss Rosie Lee, she & Sir Loin just ran off but Rosie needs her halter loosening so we are hoping that by Lilly being in the barn Rosie will go in too. We are headed out of town here again in a week but once we come back I am going to take Rosie & put her in a separate pen. That is the only way we are going to tame her down - make her rely on us for her food.

This afternoon I went out to check on Hannah who was very quiet. As I crept around the corner I saw her sat on the concrete beside Chocolate & Chocolate would lean towards her & Hannah would stroke her. It was SO sweet. I quickly ran in to get my camera but when I got to take the photo Hannah had already got up. Took one anyway

Beautiful weather here today but there’s a storm coming over the weekend. I hope we get some moisture like they are saying. Our poor grass really needs it.

Don’t forget to join in the Backgrounder Blitz starting on the forums tomorrow.

Hugs,

Liz

Have I ever told you what a great team we have here at CHF? Did you know that there is a new CHF Challenge each week? Unbeknown to us, the girls decided yesterday that the CHF Blog Challenge #3 should be “Why do I love CHF?”

Having just now spent some time blog hopping I am totally humbled. Their comments are so meaningful & we really appreciate them but most of all we appreciate the girls for who they are. They are an honest & forthright bunch which makes working with them SO easy. Believe you me, no subject is off limits with them. I don’t get time to be in on their daily chats every day but when I do I am normally amazed. They have a genuine care for each other which is sadly lacking in so many places today. Even though we have yet to meet them all face to face they are truly our friends as well as our employees. In fact no one could believe that when we went to CHA this past February, we had never met Lisa Strahl before. Lisa & us had worked together for nearly 2 years but had never had a chance to meet. It made no difference - we already knew each other REALLY well & meeting just cemented the great relationship we already had. What else is special is that the team totally believes in us & the vision we have here at CHF and we just love them for that. Without them this business would not be where it is today. Their support is such an encouragement to us.
So if you want some more insight into who we are & what we offer please click on the links to the left and while you are visiting each blog make sure you subscribe. These girls are talented & are always happy to share their inspiration with you.

THANK YOU team - you are the BEST!

Liz

Hi folks!

So sorry for not blogging last week. Trying to accomplish 5 days work in 3 was no easy task but we finally got out of here on Wednesday evening.

BUT I need to backtrack a little so that you can see pics of the new bull. His registered name is Cinco De Mayo - we couldn’t figure out why until we looked at his registration papers. Guess when he was born? May 5th of course! So we are calling him Cinco. As you can see in this first picture he is not very big - probably only about 3′, if that.

He does need some training but is glad to be in with some girls. We put him in the pen next door first but that didn’t last very long - he soon found his way into where he wanted to be.

Now back to our WV trip. The whole family went & we had a fantastic time. We got to our friends late Thursday night. It was so good to see everyone again and quite refreshing to see green grass. We turned up at our other friends, Wayne & Charity on Friday morning. They had no ides we were coming & Charity’s face when she opened the door was such a picture. She was REALLY surprised but happy to see us. Later that afternoon we took a walk to our old house. That was kinda sad - the folks that bought it from us have done NOTHING since we left so it is in need of some TLC. Oh well, it’s no longer our concern but it would have been nice to see them keeping it up.

Our friends, Tim & Connie, where we stayed were such a blessing to us. We were able to relax & just be, which is what we needed. They had a houseful in and they also had a puppy so Daniel was very happy. Connie’s parents are living with them at this time & what a pair they are. They are 90 & 93 coming up on their 68th wedding anniversary. They are obviously frail but still have a great sense of humor & very much in love. When we came in on Saturday evening they were sat at the table playing cards. I sat down & watched for a while & then they taught me a new card game called Golf. They beat me hollow! I’m telling you, I could not win. He then began talking about life & how God has so richly blessed them. Life’s not been easy for them but they still feel blessed & I was SO blessed on having met them & spending time with them.

Sunday was a good day as we met a load more folks that we hadn’t seen in a while.

Dying of gluttony is a sad thing I’m sure you will agree. When we arrived home yesterday one of Michelle’s goats, Diva, was not looking very well. Michelle got her up & then noticed she had the runs so figured that she must have gotten into some grain whilst we were away. (If goats eat too much grain it can really make them sick.) Michelle went out to check her later but Diva had disappeared. She couldn’t find her anywhere! She looked again this morning, searching the ditches etc but to no avail. Diva had seemingly vanished. Later this morning, Michelle looked in the duck house never thinking that Diva would be in there but what did she find? A dead Diva! Stupid goat had literally died of gluttony. The duck house has only a small entrance designed for ducks not goats so Diva must have squeezed herself in there. (The boys had been feeding the ducks in there to prevent the goats stealing their food. Guess that didn’t work.) Nobody was upset here as we couldn’t quite believe what Diva had done.

We got some much needed rain today - not alot but a good shower so that should help the grass grow a little.

Hope you’re all having a great week,

Liz

Howdy folks!

It has been a glorious day here. Both little ones were able to play outside most of the day so they were happy. As for me, I decided this morning to bring Lilly & Rosie Lee up to one of the front pastures. Yesterday evening Michelle & I had chased Lilly & Rosie for quite some time before finally catching Rosie & putting them in the barn for the night. SO I was determined that that wasn’t going to happen again. I get Rosie out of the barn & open the pasture gate thinking Lilly would follow. Yeah right! When she finally did follow I was quite a ways off so didn’t want to retract. SO who comes out next? Hazel followed by Sir Loin! It takes all my strength to pull that calf & I am no weakling. Of course neither am I a fitness guru! BUT Rosie puts all four feet out straight & pulls back with all her might. I eventually won the battle, got them up in the pasture, went & got them hay & water etc & thought I was done.

I just get back into the house & Richard says, “Why is Lilly in the yard?” That stupid cow had jumped the fence. SO out he goes to put Lilly back in. In the meantime Michael is running all over the place trying to catch Hazel & Sir Loin who don’t want to be caught either. He succeeds & they get put back in the pasture. Richard puts Lilly back in only to have her jump right out again so she spent the morning out in the yard & Rosie Lee was by herself.

After lunch Richard took them back down into the pasture & tied Rosie up so we wouldn’t have to chase them. When Lilly is not around Rosie is very placid. I really don’t want to have to separate them but will if that is the only way to tame Rosie down. We do not need another ornery cow here, two is plenty.

As I was out later this afternoon I did remember my camera so thought I would share some animal pics. Rosco & Penny have really grown. They are very talkative & come running when they hear us. They love it when we take milk out to them. Here is Penny drinking as the water was still coming out:

AS you can see things are still pretty brown here. We have not seen rain this spring & really could use some to help the grass grow. Here are both Rosco & Penny with their heads in the bowl:

They live with the geese, turkeys & chickens.

The chickens like to lay their eggs in the grain bin. This is a Brahma chicken - they lay nice brown eggs and now Bella has a new trick. She will go into the chicken pen, pick up an egg & give it to us without breaking it. It is really funny - don’t know why she suddenly started doing that.

Hilda & Harvey are always watching us very closely:

Down in the cow pasture all was peaceful. Sir Loin was getting his afternoon cleaning:

… and Lilly & Rosie were resting. For once!

Hope you all have a great weekend planned. We are all hitched & ready to go. Hope to get out of here by 9am tomorrow. We have about 160 miles to go to pick up Little Pa (bull) but first we have to do some clothes shopping. I really do not enjoy clothes shopping but things have got a little desperate around here so the time has come. Poor Daniel has holes in all his jeans - being a boy he is really tough on his clothes. Hannah needs some jeans as her & light colored clothes do not go together. I also need new jeans. After chasing Hazel the other night my boots rubbed my heel so I have been wearing my sneakers down to the barn each day, Needless to say they are now a little smelly & really should not be worn off the farm! Next weekend we are flying back to West Virginia to where we used to live. The church we went to is having it’s 100th anniversary so it will be great to see everybody but guess what that means? I can’t go in jeans & a T-shirt so have to buy a skirt tomorrow. You’re probably all laughing at me by now but living & working here I have no need of smart clothes. I do have a couple pairs of smart pants but jeans & t-shirts are my general attire - very practical & easy to wash. I truly don’t believe in wasting time using an iron! GASP! In fact I cannot remember the last time I ironed clothes - I’m pretty certain I have not done it since living here. We just wash, dry, fold & wear so make sure the clothes we buy do not need any special care as they would be ruined the first time in the wash.
It will be a busy day but a good break.

Enjoy your weekend

Liz

Hi folks,

Last night when I went out to check on the cows I knew Bossy was not going to make it even though I was still hoping & praying she would. There I was sat in the hay beside her just bawling my eyes out. I really didn’t expect to see her this morning but alas she was still going. When I went out after lunch I came running back to the house - it was horrible. Richard had left to go work a stint in the ER so Michael came & put her out of her misery. There was no hope & we couldn’t let her suffer. Then the “fun” began of moving her but I won’t bore you with that.
On a brighter note it was a beautiful day & so Lilly & Rosie spent all day outside. I am halter training Rosie every day despite her protesting. This evening Michelle & I went down to catch her & drag her up the pasture into the barn. She is SO stubborn & of course likes to play “dead cow” so getting her anywhere is hard. Lilly is really funny to watch, like a bucking bronco at times but is an excellent mum & is warming to us ever so slightly.

After I had dropped off a cart load of hay & manure to the chickens I head back to the barn & Hazel is bellowing. I’m like, “What in the world is wrong with you?” I turn my head & Sir Loin is out in the yard! He had followed the goats through the broken fence & of course couldn’t find his way back. By this time the dogs are out in force & so Bella is chasing him. Sir Loin runs into the fence at full speed & bounces off then finally we guide him to the broken section & he finds Hazel.

Oh yes nearly forgot, we are going to buy a Dexter Bull on Saturday! He has been hand reared so apparently is very gentle. He will turn a year old in May. We had hoped, in time, to breed him with Bossy but that isn’t going to happen but we will breed him to Hazel & obviously Lilly. Hopefully with Hazel we can get some good crossed Heifers. Jersey cows are such fragile creatures that we would like to have a hardier milk cow & this cross should be a good one as a Dexter’s milk is as good as a Jersey’s but as cattle they are much hardier.
What a day!

Hope your week is going well,

Liz