Domino

A few months ago we bought two new goats, and I am finally getting around to blogging about them.

As you know, we had three goats, Snowy, Sylvester and Esau. Snowy and Sylvester are La Manchas (the "earless" breed), and moved in with us 2 years ago. They grew up together. They have different moms but probably the same dad. Esau joined us from a different farm in December of 2006. He is a Nubian.

Domino and Elf, our new goats, shared a dad, but had different mothers... the mothers of Snowy and Sylvester. So the four LaManchas were all half siblings in some way.

Sadly, a few weeks ago, Elf died due to pregnancy ketosis, a metabolic disorder that can affect goats during pregnancy. We did not realize what was going on until she was too far gone. It is actually easily treatable if you recognize the symptoms early enough, but poor Elf was stuck with us, the people who don't have a clue. It made us very sad. But we have learned, and I don't think it will happen again.

Thankfully Domino had lived with the other goats for long enough that she felt she was at home and did not seem to be affected by Elf's death.

Domino is a very sweet little goat. She is pregnant, and due any day now. We are SO excited to be having kids, and soon thereafter, milk!

You can see how she got her name:



The baby loves the goats, who are patient with him:



I think she looks like she is smiling in this one:

Breaking the cuteness meter

They're like a cutesie poster from the seventies...



Zeke (on the left) and Belle (on the right) are three weeks and two days old. Mama Molly is having no trouble with her postpartum weight loss program while nursing her mammoth babies.

Horse Lesson 47

Today's guest blogger is my beloved husband, Stephen...

(This lesson builds upon horse lesson 12 - corelary to Murphy's Law)

A horse can spin in a circle much more quickly than you think it can. Why is this important? Because it means that a horse can kick you in the head, even if you think you are safe. So let's give a practical example of how these two lessons come together.

The horses were separated from the cattle by a fence, and had been for some time. I could feed the cattle grain without worrying about the horses. Because of short supplies of grass lately, the other day I opened the gate to let the horses and cattle share the same fields.

I knew full well that it would take quite some time before the horses discovered the open gate, so I decided to feed the cattle. Let's look back at lesson 12: "The horses may not come when called, but they will come if you don't want them to, so use proper caution." Now you can see that I've failed to heed lesson 12. So what happens next? The horses immediately chase the cattle away from their feed and start eating it.

Problem is, the cattle feed makes horses sick. So in this real life example, I had to try to get the hungry 700 lb horses away from the feed and into stalls. And this is where we learn the lesson of how quickly a horse can spin around and point its backside at you, already locked and loaded. Chasing a horse away from feed makes him mad! I figured as long as I kept in front of him, he couldn't kick me. But much to my surprise, a horse can turn around and point his back legs at you faster then you can scream "I'm going to die now!" The Good Lord clearly has more work for me to do down here, and I avoided being hit by the horse.

I got a scoop of horse feed, and tried to lead the horses away. No dice. I chased the horses hoping they would head far away. No dice - they just ran in circles around the feed. After a while, the sly animals would stop about 50 feet from the food and nonchalantly eat some grass. Then, as I walked toward them (and away from the feed), they would suddenly bolt past me back to the feed.

After a 15 minute wrestling match, requiring physical stamina and a whit sharper than that of any horse, I finally managed to corral the horses, and so completed horse lesson 47.

Patti's note: Not knowing the whole story, I watched this transpire through the kitchen window. I thought Stephen had decided to break the horse (who can not currently be ridden) in the middle of an open field. I thought he had gone mad. I saw Joe try to kill him. I prayed and prayed. Later when he came in I said, "I was praying for you," and he said "That explains why I'm not dead."

Storms

We've been having some pretty strong storms coming through in the past 24 hours. As I type this I hear thunder in the distance. I'll be shutting down the computer right after I post tonight.

Last night, as the computer was shutting down, the power went off. Poor computer. It was pretty mad this morning. Took the Midas touch of Stephen the computer genius to get it to even turn on.

I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. There was the sudden rain, and windows to close. Then the baby with a cold who wanted to nurse. The dogs wanted to come in and sleep in the laundry room. Molly was going to leave her babies behind but Stephen wouldn't let her. They were way under the back steps out of his reach so he made her stay with them.

We got settled in bed again then heard a crazy racket which turned out to be huge hail stones attacking our roof. After they stopped, MY cold kept me up coughing and looking through my books for herbal remedies that are safe to use while nursing.

I got to sleep only to be awakened by more heavy rain and piteous whining from the puppies. Molly was trying to move them in the downpour. So Stephen brought them in and Molly and I dried them off (I used towels and she used her tongue. Ick).

Eventually I did manage to get several fitful hours of sleep. Sounds like we may be in for another night of adventure tonight!

Here is one of the hail stones that came down last night:



We seem to have a trend here. Everything is Texas-sized... first puppies, then hail... what next?!

Belle and Zeke

The puppies will be three weeks old now in a few days and they are shockingly large. No wonder Molly could only fit two in there! She moved them into a larger doghouse, and a few days ago had to move them under the back steps. They are going to be some big dogs!



We've named the boy Zeke (on the right) and the girl Belle (on the left). Zeke had just been getting a bath from Mom. Belle needs one... happens frequently when your floor is dirt.



I included the picture of Molly nursing Belle to give some perspective on her size. Her eyes have been open for less than a week!

Snow for the Texans

Little Guy had a rare chance to bundle up when we were in PA on vacation.



He lay on the floor waving arms and legs, unable to even roll over. He reminded me of the little boy in A Christmas Story who can't put his arms down when his mom dresses him up in his snowsuit.

The big kids had fun. They played in snow, shoveled and swept snow, and caught snowflakes on their tongues. They sampled maple syrup drizzled on snow (yum!) a treat enjoyed in childhood not only by their heroine Laura Ingalls Wilder, but also by their very own Yankee mom! Farmer Boy even got to go sledding and sprain his wrist. He had a blast earning his ace bandage. A time-honored tradition!

Hard work on the farm

(Our guest blogger today is Little Guy)

You know, this farm thing, it isn't easy.

I'm out there in the afternoon, and I'm watching Mama feed the goats. Then she's watering fruit trees. Then feeding cows. Then carrying gallon waterers to the chickens.

She's wearing me out!

Picking up toys from the yard. Sweeping the front porch. I finally just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer when she started shoveling chicken manure to move to the garden.

I'll tell you, the woman doesn't know when it's time for a nap!

All the rage among the laying set

Apparently the flowerpot idea has caught on...

Lunar Eclipse Tonight!

There will be a full lunar eclipse tonight. It will be visible at moonrise in the U.S. Here's more info from NASA:

"In the USA, the eclipse will already be underway when the moon rises on Saturday evening. Observing tip: Find a place with a clear view of the eastern horizon and station yourself there at sunset. As the sun goes down behind you, a red moon will rise before your eyes. Rising moons are often reddened by clouds or pollution, but this moon will be the deep, extraordinary red only seen during a lunar eclipse."

You can also check out this NASA site for more information.

For the Austin area moonrise is at 6:27pm. For other areas, you can find it by plugging your zip into Weather Underground then scrolling down to the astronomy section.

Creative hens

Our free range chickens missed the orientation in which we gave tours of the nest boxes in the chicken house. They prefer more interesting locations to lay their eggs:

Farm Dog vs. Lap Dog

When I was a kid, our beagle had puppies. This was a highly monitored event. My mom got a big box and lined it with clean blankets and put it in the kitchen. When the dog started giving birth late in the night, we got up to watch, and got up several times throughout the night. We made sure they were free of their sacks, and that their mom licked them and that they nursed. Those puppies were adored! When they got older, my mom put an old playpen in the living room and we put them in there to romp. We loved taking them outside and rolling around with them.

Fast forward to today. Molly and Luke do not come in the house, unless it is really cold or stormy, and then only in the laundry room. They swim in the pond and roll in the dirt (and in Molly's case other more fragrant brown patches). We have not had Molly fixed because we thought someday we might breed her. She is a full-blood Australian Shepherd, which are extremely smart animals, and very helpful as farm dogs.

I am an advocate of spaying and neutering in general. When we first got a cat on the farm, Farmer Boy and I did a little math project in which we determined how many cats would born from our female over 10 years if she had five kittens a year, and each of them had five each year. It was astounding (if I remember correctly it was over a million). We spayed the cat, and Luke came to us neutered. It is much easier to control a female farm dog's reproductive life than a male's.

Nevertheless, this time we had a surprise, albeit a welcome one. We had been discussing getting a livestock guardian dog for the goats, and now Molly has seen fit to birth two! We will have to see if they end up with stronger herding or guarding instincts. I am hoping for the latter as I'd like to put one with the dairy goats (we have five now, and babies due in the next month), and have one to put with the meat goats we will be getting in the near future.

Thinking back to those days of squeaky clean beagle puppies, I have to laugh. It took a great deal of convincing to get Molly to come out of the dog house so I could put a clean blanket in there AFTER she gave birth (you would not believe the condition of the one she actually birthed on). Later I went out and she had moved it aside so the babies were on the bare dirty floor. Even with more clean blankets she is tracking loads of dirt in every time she goes out and returns. We did not see either baby born, nor did we ensure she licked them or nursed them or any other good veterinary suggestion. She just did it.

It's not that we don't love our animals, we just have a very different relationship. In some ways it may be healthier for all of us.

Surprise!

I did not expect to be blogging about this so soon.

Introducing Molly's new babies...



Back in December, Molly was clearly in heat. Luke is fixed, so can't become a daddy. But this cycle, for the first time, a Great Pyrenees from up the road showed up. Molly and Luke kept chasing him off, but he managed to get Molly to let him mate... both Farmer Boy and I saw it. I watched her and she didn't seem like she was pregnant, until Monday, my first chance to really love on her since we got back from our trip. I noiced that her nipples were quite engorged and deduced she'd be having babies soon. I didn't realize HOW soon!

Tuesday, when Farmer Boy came in from his chores, I asked him if he'd noticed how swollen her "breasts" were. He said, "I didn't see her." That struck me as odd, until {oh!} "Put your boots back on and find her... check the dog houses; she may be having puppies already!"

Shortly thereafter, the children's squeals of delight from the front told me that she had indeed been busy! :-) Molly had one BIG baby girl (you can tell her daddy is a big boy) by 9:45 Tuesday morning. I could tell she had more coming throughout the day, but she never seemed really agitated. By nightfall she still had only one. I was a little bit worried until I googled it and learned that dogs can go up to 24 hours between birthing puppies. Sure enough, Wednesday morning we had another puppy, a little boy this time. This morning, Thursday, we're still at 2, so I think she's done. They are quite big for a dog her size, so I suspect she only was able to carry two of them.

We are greatly enjoying having new babies around again!

Morning view

This is what I saw as I stood at my kitchen sink this morning to begin breakfast preparations...



The fog hovering in the valley, the calf nursing, the knowledge that I am looking at our own trees on the horizon, the rainbow painted in bold horizontal swaths... I am so undeserving of this view, and the intricate and precious blessings that surround me at every moment.

One of the many gifts of this farm is how present we are to the miracle of life. There is less to distract us, and the boldness and beauty of God's creation is more in our face every moment. We are also aware of the constancy of change. That view is gone now, but in that fleeting moment of its gift, I was called to stop and be fully present to the moment.

Stop today. Breathe in the fullness of the life that you have been given. Open your eyes to see the beauty right in front of you. Engage fully with someone you love. Today is all we have. Worship the Lord with your full presence in His world.

Blogging break

You may have noticed that I have not been keeping up with my 10 minutes a day of writing. That's because the kids and I went away for a vacation to balmy Pennsylvania (where 37 was the highest temperature during our visit). I took a break from everything, even e-mail, and it was HEAVENLY!

We visited dear friends for the week... it was so refreshing, both physically and spiritually. I have some great pictures of the baby in a snowsuit. SO cute! I'll post them when I get the camera dock hooked back up to the computer.

While we were gone Stephen was a busy boy, not only working his full-time off-farm job, but making some major progress on some of our big projects. I'll have pictures of those too.

Room with a view

This morning I was standing in the kitchen drinking my tea, looking out the window at this happy domestic scene:



On the right you can see cattle circled around some food. There are chickens smattered across the center. On the far left are Joe the horse, Ruth the mule and Dominic the donkey. Stephen is standing holding the baby, with The Princess right next to him. The dogs are to the right of Stephen.

I realize at this small scale things are hard to see, but I think you can get a sense of how peaceful and happy this view was for me.

Sick horse

Poor Joe got colic today. Stephen found him lying on the ground partially entangled in some fencing.

Sad, sick Joe then had to be walked for hours until he felt himself again. Seems his tummy just couldn't handle the fresh rye grass growing in the pasture he was moved to last night.

But now, according to Stephen, "He's fine. Walking around. So you can say that your superhero husband saved a horse's life."

The man thrives on emergency.

Non sequitur

Driving from ballet to gymnastics today, the van was quiet when this conversation sprung up...

Princess: "I always try to be nice to Farmer Boy. Non sequitur."
Mama: "What?!"
Princess: "I always try to be nice to Farmer Boy. Non sequitur."
Mama: "Non sequitur?"
Princess: "Yes."
Mama: "Where did you learn non sequitur?"
Princess: "From you."
Mama: "What does it mean?"
Princess: (thinks for a moment) "Well, you know, if we were driving along and talking about ballet and I suddenly said 'I like going to bible study on Thursdays', well, that would be a non sequitur."
Mama: "Yes, it would. Yes, it would."

She's five. Look out world!

Inspiring Quote

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." (Scott Adams)

The Princess (age 5) on Organized Sports

"I really like being a goalie for baseball."

Farmer Boy is 10

My baby has hit the double digits!

Farmer Boy turned 10 today. His party theme was "Whacky Games". The kids played Crazy Auto Race, Coconut Bowling (coconut for a ball and milk jugs for pins), 3-legged Race, Noodle Baseball (pool noodle for a bat and beach ball), Balloon Soccer, and Stuff the Shirt (in one minute stuff as many balloons as possible up a big shirt you are wearing).

3-Legged race:



Noodle Baseball:



Stuff the Shirt:



The cake was a joint Mama/Farmer Boy creation:



He conceived the castle and implemented it himself (those are candy legos). All I did was bake the cakes and make the grass, moat, bridge and road. He also laid out the figures, put "crocodiles" in the moat, and created the jousting ring and dragon jail.

Stephen observed that it was the first interactive cake he had experienced. With each slice of cake, new drama unfolded on the scene. Falling walls received the most enthusiastic "audience" response. Observe how the dragon has broken free from its jail cell and wrought havok...



Happy birthday, sweet son. We are so proud of you, in so many ways!