Animal farm

My dad has had cows ever since before I was born. For a while when I was in high school and middle school we had goats. About two years ago my dad decided to get more goats (they keep down the brush in trees and in the swamp so it is less likely that you will run across snakes). I thought I would post pictures of some of the animals.

This is Shawn feeding Bear. Bear was born right before I turned 3 years old, so she was very old in terms of cow's age. This past fall she got to where she could hardly walk for more than a few feet before she had to stop walking. Then one day when I went to visit my parents she was laying down in the field and not moving. I went over to her and she was not able to get up anymore. So I told my dad and we put her to sleep. That is the animal that has been in my life the longest and I know it is strange to be attached to a cow, but I was. My earliest memories are of her. She may look pitiful in this picture, but she used to be a very beautiful cow.



When my dad first got more goats they were fairly young and very afraid of people. They ran and ran while I tried to take pictures of them until the ended up in a corner. The one of the far left is the billy goat and now he is very large.



Right after Christmas this year the goats had their second set of babies. These were the first ones born. The black one is a girl and the cream colored one is a boy. The black one is the cutest one so far. They are about three days old in this picture.



This one was born the day before we took this picture. It is another boy. The funny thing is that this boy and the one above have since gotten a darker cream color. This one is still the smallest.



This baby was born between the last two sets. His mother was young and inexperienced. His brother died when it was three days old and this one ended up getting stepped on by a cow because it was too weak to run away. The mother never got a full bag of milk and he was very weak. Jonathan ended up finding him barely alive and put him to sleep. He was less than a week old.



Since then another goat had a baby. It was one of the older goats that gave birth and it was only a single birth, so it was a big baby. We haven't been able to take pictures of it yet, but it is bigger than the other babies. We still have three other females that haven't had babies yet so there may be more to come.

Flowers and Veggies

We started actually working on our yard this past summer. We made flower beds in the front yard and along the edges of the house. The bed at the back of the house had veggies in it.

This is the left side of the front steps. We had elephant ears, coleus, dahlias, a red banana plant, and some petunias.



Across the walk way we installed was the big flower bed in the front yard. It had our lilies, a hydrangea, some daisies, and a few other assorted plants we bought at the botanical garden. We also put in some rocks for decoration, one painted orange with a paw.



This is the rose my dad had given me back the first summer we lived in our house. Next to it is a small dahlia we got at the farmers market.



This is the right side of the steps. There are begonia, calla lilies, irises that used to be my grandmothers (they didn't bloom this year, hopefully next year) and our japanses maple.



This is the back yard's veggie garden. It mostly had tomatoes. There was also some basil and oregano. Between the tomatoes there were marigolds. They supposedly keep away pests that kill tomato plants. We had four different types of tomatoes: a better boy, a hybrid that was disease and heat resistant, grape tomatoes, and roma tomatoes. Next year we may branch out to other veggies.

Things I've made

I made several things in the last two years. I crocheted scarves for my nieces last year (2007) for Christmas. Then I made myself and Shawn scarves. Then Shawn's oldest niece is pregnant so I made a baby afghan for her. Then I made one for our pastor's daughter who was pregnant with her fourth baby. Then I made a scarf for my mother-in-law and one for my sister-in-law. Then I made a hat for my dad. Then finally I sewed some place mats for my mom.

This is the afghan I crocheted for our niece. The baby is supposed to be a boy.



This is the afghan I made for baby Katie. I used the same patter for both afghans.



This is my sister-in-law wearing the scarf I made for her. Her son Alex was playing with it while I was taking the picture.



This is the scarf I made my mother-in-law.



These are the place mats I made for my mom. I got her to open them before we ate lunch for Christmas so that we could use them.

Other house pictures

There are several things that we have either added or changed about our house. First Shawn stripped the carpet of the stairs and painted/stained the stairs. Next Shawn built a coat rack next to the front door and across from the stairs. To make the coat rack look more interesting and older Shawn took his wood burning tool added detailing.

This is the close up view of the trim that was added to the stairs.



This is the view of the stairs from the bottom of the stair case. Shawn even stripped the old stain of the rail and stained it the same color as the steps.



This is the close up of the coat rack that shows the detail and the hooks.



This is the view from part of the way up the stairs looking towards the coat rack.

Our house

Many people have been asking to see pictures of our house. So I finally got around to putting our pictures up.

This is our spare bedroom. The furniture in it was hand made by my great-great grandfather. There is the bed, a wash stand that we use as a night table, and a dresser. We also have two antique chairs in the room, one of which came from Shawn's great-grandfather.



This is our dining room. It originally had a ceiling fan but we moved that to our bedroom and installed this light fixture. All the furniture was bought separately, but goes pretty well together.



This is our living room. The coffee table was a recent purchase from our favorite antique store. Shawn stripped the old finish (and all the marks that seemed to be nail polish or something else) and then put on a darker finish that matched our coat rack and stair case as well. The mirror above the sofa came from the SC State House. It was given to Shawn's mother as a gift many years ago.



We have more pictures of specific items that I'll post later. Also, when I was going around taking all these pictures, Shawn was already in bed sleeping, so I don't have one from the digital camera of our bedroom. I'll have to scan one in to show that.

Christmas family picture

Christmas night is usually spent with my dad's extended family. Last year I went crazy and had the get together at our house. This year it was back at my aunt's house. We always take family pictures at all gatherings, but especially at Christmas. This is my family's picture. My parents along with my brother and Shawn.

This Christmas was especially great because my cousin Lee was here from up north. It was the first time she had been able to attend a Christmas gathering in 11 years (I was in high school). Her mom was so excited and we were all very happy to have her. The one between the two guys in the back is Lee who lives in Pittsburgh. This is all of the Gunter cousins except one (Lee's sister).

It seems as though only my brother was looking at my camera when this one was taken. The other picture I had was just the same, no one looking the right way. We always have about 6 people taking pictures for every pose so no one ever knows where to look.