Lifes Transitions

Well it's been a while since I've been here. Life has taken many turns around this little place.
We had a crisis with my mother-in-law which has turn out just fine. Then there was a crisis with my dad that has been somewhat resolved. We just didn't have the time we needed to take care of my precious goats so we sold them. Fortunately we were able to sell Queen Zelda, Jessie and Luke as a "family" and to my knowledge they are still together. Zelda was in milk at the time and was quite the milker. Baba went back to her original owner and much to our surprise she was pregnant and gave birth to a beautiful little girl, a very very healthy little girl too. We sold Zelda's boy, Zippy, on the same day Zelda left. It was so sad to hear her calling across the pasture for him. It's just not right but necessary I know. So we are now goat free. Sad, I really miss their personalities and the life they brought to the pasture.

We also sold the chickens, chickie town and all. A nearby lady had gotten a government grant to start a farm where everything is done organically and as natural as possible. School children will be able to come to this farm and collect eggs and milk cows and see just where their food comes from I miss them too. They were always so busy.

We still have our dogs, in fact we have acquired another one. He is a black lab, 9 years old and has somewhat been a part of our pack since he was a pup. He belonged to my daughter. This is the greatest news of all, not the dog, but why we have him. My daughter and her hubby adopted the most beautiful baby. He is now 11 months old. He's been home for 3 months. Unfortunately the dog, Broch, did not like sharing with him. The baby has been the most joyful thing to happen in our family in a long time. It was quite the roller coaster ride of emotions just to get him here. First all the paperwork, then the long wait to get a referral, then the wait for the first visit, ahhh then they had to leave him there not knowing how long it would be to go back to get him. Finally the call to go bring him home. He was sick with a double ear infections which resulted in ruptured ear drums and they basically go and just have to take him out of what has been his home for a few months. It was a combination of excitement, sadness, joy, fear, uncertainty and so many more emotions not to mention the sleep deprivation of travel and sick baby. Sick baby that is somewhat terrified. They are all doing wonderfully now tough.

Needless to say the road between my house and my daughters (about a two hour drive) has seen much of my rubber :-) I think seeing my daughter be a mom is such a wonderful thing. To see her make such an effort to do everything she can for his best interest is just awesome. She makes his baby food and honestly after tasting the difference I'm not really sure why any baby would eat the jarred stuff except that's all they know.

We still have a small garden and are trying to do everything possible to keep chemicals out of our food. I now understand "why" killing prey bugs which also kills predator bugs only increases the bug problem. So this years I've been seeing a lot of lady bugs all over the place and every time I see them I say "hello lady bug good to see you, eat all you want."

Well hopefully I can post more regularly now. The smoke has somewhat cleared and I have a little more time. I'll get permission to post a pic of my grandson for my next post.

So where have I been??

Well the days are zooming by even when nothing is going on but since Christmas Eve the days have been a blur. My mother-in-law had an accident on Christmas Eve. She fell and hit her head on a ceramic tile floor. Ouch!!! We think she fell early that morning and my daughter and son-in-law found her that evening, so she was unconscious pretty much 12 hours. They did emergency surgery and she was in a coma for several days. All in all she's doing amazingly well especially since the surgeon didn't really have much hope for her at all. She's doing physical therapy and has been released to an Assisted Living Facility to continue the therapy. We are now starting our barrage of doctors appointments and I'm sure they will all say "come back in a couple of weeks." So that's where I've been between driving to the hospital (an hour one way) and rushing in and out of my house it's been a crazy two months.

Now how is my little pregnant goat :-) She's a round weeble she is. I think she's going to pop any day. Her due date is March 5th so we are watching the signs constantly. I sure hope she picks a warm day to deliver. Generally goats will go into labor during the warmest part of the day in cold weather and the coolest part of the day in warm weather, that gives the babies a better chance of survival. Ha, guess that's another one of those things the Master thought of. I'm sure that doesn't always happen but generally that's what I hear. I went out today and sang her favorite song "Soon and very Soon." While I sang I gave her a massage, she kinds gets that spacey look in her eyes. Not sure if she's tuning me out or not. Only the goats like my singing.

Well off to check on her again, it's really cold and I sure hope she waits a couple more days.

Snow Snow beeeeautiful snow!!!

We had a great big snow and it complete shut down the town :-) Our town doesn't handle too much snow well but that's okay since it usually doesn't stay around long anyway. The dogs loved it. Rory danced and pranced and ran all around while Annie just tossed her ball in the snow then dig it up with both paws, snow flying all over the place. Papa decided to let them run in the pasture since the goats were in the barn, ha, Rory made a beeline for the pond and jumped in. Crazy dog. Rory has become our working dog. When we walk back from the barn to the house she insists on carrying something. I usually give her a scoop or bucket and she proudly carries it all the way to the house. Sometimes she doesn't want to let go.
The goats are staying in the barn during the snow. They have a little play area and we put them extra hay. They still expect a nice warm snack around lunch so I soak a little beet pulp in warm water topped with a little molasses and cut up oranges or tangerines. Jesse's not crazy about the beet pulp so I put a few peanut hulls on top for him. They are all happy campers.

The chickens took one look at their snow covered ramp and said "nope, not going out today." So they just stayed inside and of course I felt sorry for them so I made them some oatmeal with yogurt and raisins. They too are happy campers.

So all is running smoothly at our little pretend farm. We even have an official name "Midlife Crisis Farm." We decided this was our crazy time so we gave it a crazy name :-) I have come to realize though it's really not farming. Farming is hard hard work and it takes years to establish a farm as something really productive. What we do is a hobby. But that's okay we enjoy it. I have a hard time with the animals though. Since we don't raise them for meat and I get a lot of joy from them I don't see me ever getting to the point where their sickness or death is just part of the plan. I think that's one thing I will love about heaven, there will be no sign at all or even any hint of "death." No dead leaves, no dead trees or branches, no dead or "struggling to live" animals. An no mean people that are cruel to animals. Well I'm going out to walk in the mush now that the snow is melting. Gotta go see all the lovies!!

I think I saw her belly roll!!!!

We decided to let Wyatt and Zelda mate this fall and of course being new at this whole thing we didn't have a clue!! So we thought Zelda might be, possibly was, could be, should be pregnant. I have read there's really no way to tell for sure until the last 4-5 weeks. So she's been getting a little pudgy and round but hey that could be from what is causing the rest of us to be pudgy and round :-) But this morning I was brushing her (she loves to be brushed and rubbed) and I stopped for a few seconds and just watched and I saw a huge roll in her side. Cool!!!! I think she' s got a little goober in there. I'm so excited and nervous. You know just like people you read and hear all the horror stories about kidding.
We sold Wyatt and I think he's found a good home. We thought Basil (BaaBaa) may be pregnant too but not because we wanted her to be. She's not showing any sign at all of being pregnant, which is a good thing. She was just a little young yet.
Luke and Jesse are tremendously happy that Wyatt is gone. Now they can all play and jump and be frisky without Mr. Horns butting in. The fact that he had horns and none of the rest did was not a good thing. The breeder said he was disbudded but those horns say a different story.
Most of the ducks have gone to good home. There were just too many of them and darned if two more, a huge male and female didn't just show up for dinner and stayed. Where they came from I don't know. They were muscovy too. We're down to 6 chickens and plan to get a new batch in the spring. I think I'll try Speckled Sussex this time and maybe another kind.
That's a short update on the animals. It's been awhile since I've been in the kitchen. We had a sad accident with my mother in law over the holidays so we've been back and forth to the hospital since Christmas Eve. I'll post about that separately later today.
Gotta go check out that belly one more time :-) YAY!!!!

Ah HA!!!!!

It wasn't enough that the ducks were eating all the tomatoes now I see Rory has joined them. She started out picking out the nice pretty cherry tomatoes only the red ones. Now I see she's decided to eat green tomatoes and any size. Maybe she watched the ducks and thought she'd give them a try. Usually she eats them on the spot but occasionally we'll see her slinking off to the deck with one in her mouth to eat in private. Crazy dog!!!!

Speaking of ducks, well some of them had to go. We caught as many as we could and gave them to a nice man with a nice big pond. We found a way to make peace with the rest of them . . . feed them. Yes I said feed them. We thought if we take food out to the pond where they hang out they would stay away from the chicken feeder. So far it's working pretty well. This morning they were all standing by the edge of the pond waiting for breakfast. After they eat they swim and preen themselves all morning.
Hey did you know that mama duck controls how long the babies stay in the water. Left to themselves they would stay in way too long, get soaked, chilled and die. Mama knows when they've had enough and makes them get out. Isn't that cool!!!
And by the way we have a mama sitting on 11 eggs right now. Eleven more ducks!!!! What are we going to do with all these ducks?????

Making the neighbors happy!!

Papa is making friends with the neighbors by cutting the tall grass in the pasture. He's having a blast doing it. He also thinks the tractor was made to run on the NASCAR track. Meanwhile I'm just having a blast with the goats. We gave the girls their last shots this morning and since I introduced them to black oil sunflower seed they don't even notice the shot. Of course Basil is still looking for a cookie. She loves cookies. Oh yea and those cute little ducks are still being very annoying. They trash the cats food and water constantly. I have to keep an eye out and scare them off when they come around. I hate it cause they are good to have around. Maybe we can figure something out eventually.

Honey, we got us a tractor!!!!

It's here. Last week we went to visit an old friend that had a tractor for sale. We bought it and on the way home we tried to figure out how to get it home (it was about and hour drive.) Well we called another friend that has a roll back wrecker and he gladly went to pick it up. They just arrived and here's the pics of our new David Brown Case 1212 Selectematic. Quite the tractor. I believe my grandpa had one just like it or at least very similar. Now I just have to get Vince to understand "safety" when using a tractor, something none of my uncles or cousins ever practiced on the farm.

As for the goats, today we gave Zelda and Basil their antibiotic shots. Oh if only they knew how hard that was on "us." I managed to provide a pretty good distraction though. I mixed up milk replacer and put it in a baby bottle, dipped the nipple in a molasses vitamin mix and ta da they both latched on and barely flinched. Then I let them sip some "goat Gatorade" to make sure they stay well hydrated.
Zelda can suck that stuff up very quickly. Here's Basil saying "you're going to stick me with whaaaaaat."

Chocolate mama duck

Yeah!!!! She finally hatched her eggs. Poor thing sat there forever it seems like. We'd check on her every time we went out and finally we saw her walking across the pasture with her little fuzzy duckies. Vince checked the nest and found 14 hatched out eggs and 6 that didn't hatch. They are sooooo cute. As she walks them across the grass she slides her beak in the grass showing them how to find food. Then when she got to the fence she kept gesturing with her beak for them to go forward. They all went through then she climbed through. When the mama ducks swim with their babies they will swim out in front then turn around and swim backward almost like they are counting heads and making sure everyone is there. It's really fascinating to watch how they "teach" their babies and take care for them. Eewe then a day or so later we went out to the farm and there was a big old black snake with his head down in her nesting hole. Ucky!!!! He slithered away but not before Vince gave him a backache with a timber. Gross!!!! Yea I know black snakes are good snakes but a snake is a snake and I will just kill the mice some other way.