Busy Day

Rachel came home for the weekend yesterday.  Very nice to see her again. I miss having her around.

We continued to have babies all week.  No time to clean out the pens between mamas.  Today we started to clean the barn, but the moms just all started having kids.  We now have 6 possibly 9 bottle babies.  The last 3, mama had to be helped to deliver.  2 were breech and she was just too weak to push.  She had been in the pen for a week and wouldn't stand.  Hopefully she was just too heavy and now that she has had her babies maybe she'll get up and the babies will nurse.  In the end a few pens were cleaned out and fresh straw was put throughout.  When Brad came in there was another mom pushing.  One little tiny one is currently in the house so she can be fed every couple hours. We can only manage to get 1/2 - 1 oz in her at a time.  Hopefully we'll have a day or two of a break before a bunch more moms have a go.
Here's the little squirt of a bottle baby.

I managed to finish my Jan. and Feb. quilt blocks for my block of the month program and am now working on block 5 of another block of the month program.  I think things might be put on hold for a couple days though.  I do still have quite a bit of baking to do.  I managed to get some baking apples on sale for .99cents a bag.  I bought 2 bags, now I better do something with them.  I also have wanted to make Whipped Shortbread since before Christmas and still haven't done them.  Well I'm tired so that is all I'm writing about today..

More babies

Well we had 3 arrivals last night.  Good and healthy.  On the down side one of the moms is still in labour.  At this point we just need to get baby out.  The water broke this morning and baby still hasn't come out.  Mom has been pushing off and on all day.  We don't have any expectations of baby being alive, but we'd like to keep mom alive.  Needless to say I've been at the barn pretty much all day.  Brad wants me to go down with him when he gets home to help pull the baby out.

If all goes well, tomorrow is grocery day and visit with mom day.  I'm looking forward to it. 

I"m back to driving the van.  Brad's car is in need of an engine so he took mine (the car that is)  He has requested I don't go anywhere unnecessarily because the van takes more gas than the car.  Tomorrow's trip is necessary.

I made some progress on my 1 Corinthians cross stitch picture the last couple days.  Hopefully I'll be done page one soon.  I would like it done for the wedding to give as a gift.

I'm looking forward to Rachel coming on Friday.  I think I'll make her bring Danielle too.  Have a family fun day in the barn cleaning.. haha
That's it for now.

Our weekend disasters

Well it started pleasant enough.  My friend arrived on schedule with the kids and the dogs, no trouble.  Then within an hour our dog (who previously got along with my friend's dog) decided she didn't like him and drew blood.  Not much, but...so what to do..they are both outdoor dogs.  We brought ours in and hers out.  Less chance of marking territory. She followed me around all day, even in the craft room and she curled up on the cat bed.
Her other little guy is an indoor dog and he had to be tied in case of chewing and marking. Lyra was good as long as that fellow was tied, but as soon as he was loose watch out..I never heard such sounds or saw such a face as coming from that dog before.  Feeding time was to say the least interesting.  We were always switching off the dogs for pee breaks and food.
Sat. morning we had a new baby goat and my friend wanted to see it , so down to the barn we went.  They also wanted to try bottle feeding our other babies.

All was good.  We went to town-30 min. - to get some backing and quilt batting to get started on finishing one of my quilts and found that particular town doesn't have too many businesses open on Sat.  Not busy enough--go figure--a little disappointed we just got our groceries and went home.  Then pinned one of  my other quilts that I did have all the supplies for.

Brad spent from when we got home at 3 until 1:30 in the morning fixing his car that broke last week.  In the morning he came back from the barn with the news that one of our little ones had died.  We thought maybe mom wasn't letting him eat due to some sores on her teats.  Upon further investigation it turns out that was only the beginning. After holding mom so the other baby could suck I found out that some of her udder and both her teats were hard with no milk.  We attempted to bottle feed.  Not so good.  Ended up every time baby baaaahed we squirted some milk in.  In the end he got almost 6 oz.  We'll be trying again today and possibly calling the vet to see what can be done about mom, if anything.
Brad also attempted to go to his friends to pick up our deer meat and he made it 3 miles down the road and after getting stuck in drifts a couple times turned around to go the other way and made it 1.5 miles down the other way and his engine caught fire from working too hard to get through the snow.  Remember this is the car that he just spent all that time fixing.  So needless to say the weekend sure wasn't the pleasant time I was hoping for.  I didn't even get my cookies baked for Brad.  On the up note. I did get a great phone call from my good friend in Texas.  I miss her so much.  They are going to try to come up for Justine's wedding.

 I noticed this morning that the buses haven't been through, nor the plow--I'm suppose to get grain from the neighbour 4.5 miles down the road.. I wonder if I'll be able to.  I'll really have to listen for the plow later.

So what's up for today.  Chores and baking, laundry, cleaning out a kidding pen or two, getting grain, schooling Taylor, and making supper.  Maybe I'll be able to get a little crafting in there--not likely...ugh I'm so tired already and nothing has even been done.

A New Beginning

Well the teenage goats are gone.  All 120 of them.  Better late than never I suppose.  The man who took them said they looked healthy, just not very heavy.
  I talked to a friend who is also a farmer's wife.  I mentioned I was having a hard time with the knowledge that these poor babies were going to be slaughtered.  Her advice was to distance myself and try not to think about it.  I think she has the same issue with their cows.  So on with the new.  We moved all 26 new babies and their moms into the empty area.  Now we just have to watch them a little more closely as they are bound to be trampled with their mother's attempts to get outside in the morning.  One almost was this morning.  We also had a little guy left alone outside in the cold, snowy weather last night.  Her mom went into the barn at dark and she was left there on the pile of hay.  Good thing Brad went down just after dark to check instead of waiting until 9 when he usually goes to close up.  She may have perished by that time.  Even one of my little bottle babies couldn't wait to get out for hay this morning.  We had to track him down and bring him in to drink his milk.  We had 2 new additions to our collection this morning.  It was a pleasant sight.  Both dry and drinking and mom being protective.  Yahoo.  We got a heat lamp going, fresh water and some grain and got all 3 into a secluded pen.  Maybe we'll get a couple more today.
On the down side, our house smells distinctly of skunk.  I thought they hibernated...  I think it has taken up residence until our back stairs.  They are concrete homemade stairs hollowed out underneath for a dog house.  It is full of straw and some dog accessories because the dogs go in there to get out of the cold and wind.  I took a peek after I smelled the odour and it was very very strong in there.  I didn't see anything, but I wasn't going all the way in to check.  Maybe the dogs startled it and it sprayed.  Who knows?  Brad will have fun looking out for it.  Another critter for him to shoot.

My friend should be arriving tomorrow and hopefully we'll have a good couple days of stitching/quilting.  That is the plan though.  Maybe we can even watch a chick flick or two.  I guess I should make some more cookies today, Brad's stash is getting low and I don't want to be doing that with my friend here.  I should really be getting groceries, but I don't feel like going out today.  The wind caused some pretty good drifts last night and I don't feel like plowing through them.  I'll head out tomorrow morning. 

I guess my mind is pretty much empty now, my 5 day cold is almost gone and I'm feeling almost normal today.  I shall type again soon.

Is Today the Day?

Is today the last full day of these kids?  Hmmm we'll have to see.  The weekend was sad goatwise.  We had 2 moms lose 5 babies.  Not good for the stats book.  I also lost a chicken.  I think it was from the kaos the other day.  The dogs were pretty pleased that I gave her to them though.   I was feeling a little blue down there this morning thinking about all these joyful little beasts prancing around like they haven't a care in the world, knowing that possibly they have less than a week to live.  Saddle didn't want her full bottle amount this morning either.  I'll have to keep an eye on her today.  It could be that she is starting to eat hay and just doesn't want as much from her bottle.  The poor nannie that lost her babies was baaaing this morning looking for them.  I sure was pretty glum.  Hopefully the day will pick up and maybe when I go down this afternoon some wonderful mama will have had 2 healthy strong babies.

Well Taylor shot his first prey.  Brad made him shoot a porcupine yesterday on their way back from getting grain. I asked Brad why he made him do it and his answer was it was on his side of the truck.  I think Taylor was quite excited about it, but he knows I don't like the shooting of things for no reason so he made it quite casual.

I managed to bring another table into my craft room, so I can now sew in there.  It's starting to look good--I wish the trim was on etc. and shelves were up, but hopefully it will come.  All I need now is my tv and a comfy chair, so when Brad is watching something I don't want to watch I can go into my room and watch a chickflick and stitch in comfort.  I may steal Rachel's chair.(ssshhh). I have a friend coming on Thurs. to visit and quilt here.  Her, the kids and the dogs are coming for 3 ish days.  I hope it turns out to be a nice visit.  She is going to help me start the backing on the quilts I have.

I guess that is it for now.  Maybe one day soon I'll figure out how to put pictures up..

It's morning again

Well yesterday was kaos in the barn.  We couldn't feed grain--we were out--I think the goats rebelled.  All was fine in the morning, but man when we went down for afternoon chores.  All the older kids were in the chicken pen and had eaten all the grain there and dumped the water and probably gave all the chickens a near heart attack.  We fix that problem and give them some grain (we had just got some), moving on to the next room to the expecting moms and find that they had knocked the barrier over and trampled it in a winning attempt to get over to the hay and straw there.  They were climbing bales, stuck in pens etc.  I found one pen, with a new mom and her kids, full of other expecting moms.  It is still really cold here and I'm glad Brad is home.  He just finished feeding the horses a large round bale and hopefully will be plowing out the pathway to the barn and around the parking area.  I was informed on his way out that he needs some things from town so I'm to be ready to go today before all the stores close.  I don't know why I have to go with him on errands when he doesn't go grocery shopping with me.  Oh well.  It is a trip to town and I don't have to drive.  Maybe I can weasel a dinner out from him.

 Today is clean up the kitchen day.  I'm really bad with doing dishes and they are stacking up.  It is a shame that my boys really don't take the time to empty the dishwasher, but just pile dishes on the counter, then when it is empty not bother to look and still pile dishes on the counter.

I do need to start working on a Valentine's card for an exchange I signed up for.  Homemade Valentine.  Maybe I'll see some nice Valentine Materials in Walmart this afternoon when we go to town.

Will it Never End

Still snowing and blowing.  The shovelling and the truck tracks disappeared overnight. It was a huge hassle going to do chores this morning.  The horses were out of hay (round bales) so I had to trudge through 1.5 feet of snow to get over to them to feed them.  Then had to trudge through 1.5 feet of snow and drifts for about 1/4 mile to get to the barn to do regular chores.  I'm a little miffed because the guy that is coming to get the kids isn't coming until Tues. because the weather is bad.  I was ready to celebrate because today would be the last full day of chores including those kids.. now we have another 4 days..  ugh!  I'm glad at least Brad is home on the weekend and he gets to do most of them.  It is suppose to warm up considerably on Tues., but we'll see.

On the home front, got some baking done yesterday.  A big batch of raisin cookies, a small batch of chocolate chip (from a mix), small pan of brownies (also from mix)  and a loaf of Italian Herb bread to go with our roast that we had last night for supper.

Brad finally finished putting the door on my new craft room, hopefully the rest will get done soon.  I'm going to work on bringing my sturdy table from the old craft room to the new.  It will be difficult because it is full on top and underneath is full of boxes.  not sure how I'm going to manuvere that one.

Well off to have lunch now, then try and finish my book before afternoon chores.

Another Day

The weather outside is frightful is all I can say.  Taylor and I had to get grain in -29°C weather, then feed it to animals that really didn't want to be outside at all.  That was yesterday.  Today was a little bit warmer only -26°C  I shouldn't really complain there hasn't been a wind to speak of in the last 2 days. 2 and a half more days until pickup hopefully.  I'll miss all the little smiling faces, but I'll appreciate the added room and the new little ones will enjoy more space for running and leaping.  I'm sure the new mom's will appreciate a bit of space from their running and leaping little ones.  2 of the older kids got themselves trapped in the weighing cage this morning.  I don't know how long they were in there, but imagine their surprise when getting in there, the door shutting them in. We watched the older kids playing "King of the Hill" yesterday also.  One black and white faced one was butting everyone else who came up to the top of the hay pile.  The quite enjoyed the huge piles of hardpacked snow that Brad built up trying to make a pathway for them from the barn to the feeding area.  One of the few times I could actually like having all the little beasts.  They are quite fun to watch.

Janice, my neighbour invited me to join her book club.  She accidently ordered the bookclub set of a book instead of the individual so she thought "what the heck" and called a few people to see if they'd be interested in joining.  The first book sounds quite interesting.  The Wife's Tale  by Lori Lansens.  So we had tea and talked a little bit.  I haven't been out for tea for a little while so although short it was nice.

I guess that is all for now.  Maybe life will be a little more exciting further on in the week.

Same old stuff

Thurs. Jan. 6, 2010
My first attempt at a journal.. whew! 
We are coming into the home stretch with the sale of our 120 kids.  We received a deposit cheque yesterday and the man is coming next weekend to pick them up.  Finally there will be some space in the barn for the new moms and their babies.  I'm conflicted as to whether I wish to sell Curly though.. She is annoying, but extremely friendly and would be an asset to the herd. She loves attention. It would be nice if I could go down this afternoon and not find 2 or 3 with their heads stuck in the pagewire fence.  We're going on Day 3 now where someone has to get stuck in there.  They are also starting to enjoy getting stuck in the cage where the scale is to weigh them.  Maybe they are weight conscious and trying to keep fit.  The bottle babies are still enjoying their bottles even though the bottles are now diluted/mixed with powder formula.  Well I suppose the one with no name doesn't really like it.  I find the only way he likes to drink at all anymore is if he is held.  Talk about spoiled.  He will drink it diluted with 1 oz of formula whereas the girls drink it with 3 oz.  Hopefully they will start drinking water and eating hay soon.  But I suppose with 70 odd still pregnant goats the chances are high that we'll end up with more bottle babies.

Due to my assumed allergies/cold, I've had a headache for a couple days now so chores are not the funnest thing in the world to do.  But alas we must truck on.  Today is suppose to be grocery day and visit with mom day.  I really want to go, but my body is saying 'no' stay home and rest.  Christmas/New Year's really was a large handful this year.  Must be my age showing.

On the crafting end of things--I think if I go to mom's today we'll figure out some of the cards we wish to make.  We're attempting to make homemade cards for Christmas this year.  4/ month. I have also agreed to make 5 homemade gifts to send as a Pay it Forward.  I'll receive one in exchange for sending out five--hmm that doesn't seem fair. I'm also 'this' close to finishing a fall cross stitch picture that was started at least a year ago. Hopefully I can finish that today.  I also started a quilt block of the month on Tues.  We're actually doing 2 blocks each month.  I do have homework for that to do before Feb.  Plenty to do, no energy to do it.  I guess I better sign off for now until next time.