The Goings On Around Here

It has been hot here lately......today what I at first thought was an overcast sky was actually smoke that had drifted down from the fire on some mountains near us.  It smelled a little smoky today!  But then we actually got some cloud coverage this afternoon, so that was nice.  Kind of makes me wish monsoons would hurry up and get here!!

Yes, I know....more goat pictures.  But my life has been consumed with goats lately - I never knew how time consuming bottle feeding was!!  Definitely not the same around here without Daisy....but I'm realizing afresh that "the Lord gives, and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord". (Job 1:21)

David took this picture....isn't it great?  I entered it into Hoegger Goat Supply's photo contest!!  Maybe, just maybe it will win me a free calendar(with this picture in it) and a $25 gift certificate! 

Okay, so this needs a little explanation - Mom left the room mid-diaper change and Isaac decided to take over.  At first Joshua wasn't too sure about the set-up, but pretty soon they were both giggling and I had to grab my camera!  

I love how sharp and clear these images are that my camera is taking.  The flash response is a little slower, so it's hard to get Joshua to look at the camera and STAY looking at the camera until the picture has been taken. :-)  But it's still great!

The ONLY green on our property.  Ugh - I am so tired of living in perpetual sand dunes.  Where is our grass??  Even weeds would be nice!!  We need rain so badly around here.  The tree is getting pretty tall; hopefully we'll get some peaches from it next summer.

Jonathan went for a ride this evening.  As I'm typing this, Jonathan is begging me to revise this to..... this is one of my double-bred dash4cash and easy jet fillies. She is from the double staple ranch in Patagonia.  Her mother had a speed index of 96. WOW.

Okay. So that's HIS thing.  Definitely not mine.  I know I must look horrible to have the privilege to live on a farm and yet not even like or ride the horses we have!! But I just don't care for them. Well, they look nice, but I don't like to get on them.  A little too dangerous - I like to stay on my own two feet, thank you.  :-)

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Bottle Feeding

Now that Daisy's babies no longer have a mama.....we are bottle feeding them full time.  Although it's sad we have to step in and do this, it IS pretty cute to watch - these baby goats are just so adorable when they're sucking down their milk!

Isaac had an absolute blast feeding Tex.  He was so excited to be able to "help Rachel".  You can see how much fun he was having!

David has been a big help with bottle feeding, and general care of all the goats.

I'm normally in there feeding one of them, but today I was behind the camera.  :-)  These babies attack their bottles like lions - you'd think I never feed them!!  They're doing well and are becoming so friendly because we're with them so often.

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Rough Days

So, the last few days have been slightly rough here at the farm. 

Isaac got his toes pinched in between Dad's heavy guitar case and the wall, and was very upset about it.  He asked for an ice pack, and once he started getting all the usual attention he perked up.  :-)

Five minutes later?  Perfectly happy.  And very glad to have a cold ice pack to play with. 

Today we have had horrific blowing dust!  It's disgusting - we have it blowing through our doors and windows, even with them all closed.  You just can't keep the dirt out around here.  Instead of black-outs, we call them "brown-outs".  Sometimes the dust gets so thick you literally can't see what's five feet out.  On days like these, we just stay inside!!

Ah yes, brotherly love.  Notice the choking action here.  But, it was a valiant attempt on Isaac's part to give his little brother a kiss!

Several days ago, Daisy, our goat that just kidded a week and a half ago, started feeling dumpy and out of sorts.   I tried everything - and today we had to put her down.  We're pretty sure she had Ketosis - and she went rapidly downhill today.  She was doing so poorly and I could tell she just felt rotten.  Thankfully, Jonathan was here to do what needed to be done. Very sad.  She was a mean little milker, but still a pretty special goat - I'll miss her.

The good news is, that though her three babies are now orphaned, our other goat, Pearl, is making the perfect amount of milk for them.  I had to wean Pearl's triplets the other day, so now all her milk is going to bottle feed Daisy's triplets.   It's amazing, because even though this whole thing was so un-expected, it's like God had provisions planned from the beginning.  Pearl happened to be bred 2 months before Daisy, so now her babies are the right age to be weaned, which means Daisy's babies can get all the milk.  Plus, Pearl happened to have triplets  - so she's making enough milk for Daisy's triplets.   If Pearl's triplets were the same age as Daisy's, I don't know what I would have done - I couldn't feed both sets!

  

I am utterly worn out, with all the goat work I've had to do the last few days.  Between feeding the babies and trying to save Daisy, I'm pretty tired.  Thankfully, homeschooling allows me to take time off when I need it - like now.  :-)

Joshua, with his perpetual grin, keeps me smiling!  He is so sweet.  (Believe it or not, though,  he does have an awful pouty side to him.)

That's it for now - in another hour I'm headed out to feed the babies again, and then milking, and then feeding, and more feeding, another round of milking.........  I am truly an official milk maid now.  Thank heavens for Pearl, our little Dairy Queen, who is making lots of yummy milk.  Her production has spiked (interestingly enough) today, so that's good. 

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Keeping It Real.

For all hard working daughters / mothers of big familes out there, let me put an arm around you and assure you that WE STRUGGLE WITH THIS TOO.

We have dirty dishes.  We have soggy diapers.  We have crummy floors.

Ever gone to someone else's house and observed how spotlessly clean and orderly the house was?  For some reason we have this expectation among ourselves that everyone else's home is always so much nicer and cleaner and prettier.  Surely they would never have a plugged potty or breakfast dishes still on the table at dinner.  All good familes have candles lit and freshly baked cookies on the counter and beautifully vacuumed floors and perfectly behaved siblings / children. 

Well, sorry, but that's not true around here!!  We sure try to make that our goal, but of course it doesn't always happen.  And that's okay.  Our goal is not to impress others with perfectly manicured lawns and spotless bathrooms.   Our goal should be to glorify and honor our Saviour, Jesus Christ.  In all that we do. 

I used to tell Mom how spotless my house was going to be when I grew up.  Well, I don't say that anymore, because I know it won't happen!!  Children are a part of married life - and children create messes and lots of work!  And that's not a burden, it's a blessing.  Instead, I want my goal to be to have a home that is peaceful, orderly, kind, and full of loving people that get along and reflect Christ's image. 

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It's A Buck's Life

Poor Samson has quite a boring life, I'm afraid. No one wants to clean his pen because he's agressive (even without horns) and he thinks he's a grizzly bear if you even enter his little goat kingdom.

So he spends the majority of his time locked up in buck prison . Notice his pen is the only one that has double fencing and stakes out front. He's lived up to his name well, I'm afraid! Here is what he's good at:

~eating

~smelling bad

~screaming at me every time I walk by

~jumping the fence to buck paradise

He's done everything a good buck should, so I can't complain!! During the fall months he comes in really handy. The rest of the year?

Well, he's a smelly pain. :-)

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Studying in the Trailer

For those of you who are homeschooled, you know that following a schedule / general routine is about the only way to get anything done.  Especially when you're juggling snack time, study time, music time, play time, rest time, work time, computer time.......etc.   Our schedule has certain people doing personal devotions at 9:00 in the morning.  Obviously, when one person is doing devotions, someone else has to watch one of the little boys.

Well, this morning, that was me.  While Mom had her Bible time, I took Isaac out to the fifth wheel (the only way to eliminate noise in the house is to truly eliminate it) and we had a great time together! 

I used the self-timer on my camera to take a few shots like this one.  Unfortunatley, the 10-second warning flash was too long of a wait for little Isaac and he was just blankly staring at the camera by time the picture actually flashed.

 Ah yes, school.  My intention was to get some study time in whilst perfectly obedient and compliant Isaac poured over his Winnie the Pooh books.  But uh, that didn't happen.  The only thing I got done was blog pictures.    (Mingled with telling Isaac to stop opening the windows, turning on lights, raising the blinds, unzipping pillow covers....)

This is Isaac's favorite pose for getting attention.  I just can't help but laugh when  he does this!!  Especially when he's being naughty!!  His addition of batting his eyelashes makes for a simply irrisistable little brother.

Semi-serious, semi-goofy. 

I didn't get any school done with Isaac to watch.  Because of course he didn't diligently study his My First Number Book. And he didn't sit quietly with his hands folded.

But - he made me laugh quite a few times in that 30 minute period!  And he provided me with some great blog pictures.  And he made me realize again, how grateful I am that he's my brother.    

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Farm Scenery

I am just loving my new camera!! (Thanks again, Mom and Dad!!) It is taking fantastic pictures. We have been having such gorgeous weather lately (yes, overcast skies for us is gorgeous after months of no rain) so it made for some lovely pictures.

This is the view I have from my bedroom window. In the summer, when we have our windows open at night, you can hear the horse's hooves clopping around outside, and an occasional horse-sneeze!

This is one of Jonathan's horses, Boon. He (Jonathan) was very excited that I got such a good picture of him and wanted me to put it on my blog!! (I was going to, anyway. :-)

I think the field across from us us growing corn. It's so gorgeous! Since our property is entirely void of green, a field of corn growing next door is very much appreciated.

This is one of the trees we planted last year. They have grown a lot and are starting to actually look like trees and not just twigs. I am looking forward to the day when they will actually provide some shade .....uh, that's a long ways down the road, by the way.

Josie, Pearl's baby girl, is a total clone of Daisy. We will have to sell her or we'll get mixed up down the road! We had a close call with a bad case of bloat last week with Pearl - I was positive she was a gonner and was up walking her and massaging her sides until 8:30 in the evening. Thankfully she is still with us. I am going to have to be extra careful with all that rich alfalfa!

Also, Daisy's babies are now doing well. The little girl is nursing great, so I don't have to worry about that anymore.

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Blanket Time

We have started an afternoon routine with the little boys called "blanket time". Each boy sits on a blanket with a bucket of toys and has to stay on that blanket for a certain amount of time. 30 minutes, an hour if we're lucky!

Joshua is so easily self-entertained; he could play for hours by himself! The whole system allows us to get just a few things done while they're temporarily occupied.

It's the temporary part of the deal that is the only problem. :-) But, it's a "problem" I'm glad to have on my hands - what would life be without these two precious boys??!!

So stinkin' cute in sunglasses!

David was supposed to be, uh, watching them. He was totally engrossed in his book. Once he gets his hands on a good book he can totally tune everything out.

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Daisy's Long Ordeal (And My Stressful Day)

Ever had one of those days where you wonder where your sanity went? Or if you ever had any in the first place? Okay, well yesterday was one of those days. Nothing big, just one thing after the other, ya know?!

So - yesterday morning at about 8:45, I realize Daisy is going to be a mama today. Great news! Thinking she would soon go into labor, I rush into the house and grab my two birthing must-haves: about a dozen towels and many pairs of arm-length OB gloves. Perfect.

Mom and I sat out with Daisy for about and hour and half, waiting, watching, and urging her to get moving!! All she did was pace around and act restless. Around noon, Mom gave up and went inside to feed the little boys lunch. Then 1:00 came around...still nothing. I finally let Daisy loose so she could eat and drink, and I headed inside to do the same!

It was around 3:30 in the afternoon when I started to worry. I have never had a goat birth drag on for so long. Daisy still hadn't even had many contractions yet, but I was still wondering what on earth was taking so long. So I called a friend of mine who has an abundance of goat wisdom (thanks Sarah!), and after assessing the situation she suggested just waiting it out. Within 10 minutes of putting down the phone, I headed out to check again on my poor pregnant elephant, and was shocked to see that she was actually giving birth!! Finally!

The situation here was less than ideal. Jonathan was gone at work. David was gone as well. Courtney was on a walk. And Mom was inside with the little boys. She told me to call her when birth was in progress because she really wanted to see it; but sorry, wasn't going to happen this time! Our goat pen is quite a ways from the house, so I had to just stay put and start working. Daisy already had one baby partially born, so I pulled that one out and laid it in front of her. The second one.....wasn't so easy. Here came a head, and a hoof, but the second front hoof was no where to be seen. Daisy was doing such a great job of pushing that the head was already out as well as one hoof. All the books I've read always say to "gently ease the baby back inside the doe and pull the other hoof forward." Yeah, right!! There was no pushing this baby back inside!! (And believe me, I tried.)

So here I am sitting in the dirt with a bellowing goat who has a head sticking out of her back end and me absolutely clueless. One minute later? A screaming goat with a head sticking out and my arm half inside her. Bad, bad deal. This was nasty!! Here was one of those moment where I looked up and begged God to help me deliver this super-stuck baby!!! I decided to totally extend the hoof I had already out to give her a little more room, and then just pull. And what do you know, that baby came sliding out. Daisy was ready to put me in prison by this point.

Crisis behind me, I ran to the house as fast as I could and told Mom if she wanted to see the last one being born she had better come now. However, she couldn't leave the little boys in the house alone, so 20 seconds later saw both of us pushing strollers at about 30 miles an hour to the goat shelter. By this time Daisy had already had her third baby, but the poor thing was still stuck in it's sack!! I raced over, tore the sack off, and then wiped her nose so she could breath. The poor thing had a rough start - she was barely breathing and was actually gurgling because there was so much fluid in her lungs.

So, there we were, sitting in the dirt, me swinging a baby by it's hind legs to get the excess fluid out, Mom in shock that Daisy had THREE, and both boys getting a lesson in goat anatomy at ages 3 and 4. It was a pre-curser to the lesson about birds and the bees.....Isaac kept saying "eww! oh no!"

We have two boys and a girl - the boys are fairly strong but the girl is a little weak. She's the biggest of them all, but doesn't seem to know how to hold her head up very well. (That's her above.) This, of course, makes nursing a challenge. She nurses fine as long as someone holds her head up there. She's doing a bit better today, but still a little weak. So, we'll see what happens with her.

Names? Wasn't even considered yesterday. I was just trying to survive through the whole thing. So the polls are open - what do YOU think? I'm open to name suggestions!

One the whole, it was one of the more stressful goat births I've ever had to deal with. But I'm thankful that God brought me through it and that everyone (so far) is doing well!

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My Typical Morning

What does a typical morning look like for me?

Goats - first thing - every morning. I try to be outside milking by 5:30. Last year I got so tired of milking at 7:00 or 8:00 because by then the hot sun and the flies where out - not fun! This year I'm enjoying cool milking mornings and fly-free experiences. Much better.

Pearl's babies have grown so fast - just another month and we will have to sell them! It's always kind of sad to see them go; but they're fun while they're here and I can always look forward to next year's crop of babies.

Right after milking, I bring the milk inside to strain it. (Look at that huge bucket in comparison to the low level of milk. Pearl's not exactly the biggest milk producer, but it's enough for us!)

Straining time. I've since gotten a stainless steel funnel, so I don't have to worry about using plastic anymore.

The finished product! We normally get 1/2 a gallon per milking, but this time I had to discard 1/2 a quart because we had a "hoof problem" during milking!

When I come inside, the little boys are usually in their booster seats eating cheerios. 30 minutes later we have family devotions, breakfast, chores, and then school. Isaac looks wacky here because he didn't want me to take a picture of him. But Joshua was more than happy to have his own photo taken!

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Looking In the Mirror

Joshua discovered the bathroom mirror today.

And he loved looking at himself. (He is so vain!)

And I loved looking at him. In fact, I loved his cute expression so much that I just had to grab my camera.

He's SO cute and he KNOWS it!

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