Morning has broken

At last: Morning. Last night was one of the longest nights of my entire life.
If you haven't read yesterday's post 'Otis the cat, Rotunda the fat', you might want to read that before you continue reading this.

Neither the bottles or the syringes worked so we have been using eye droppers to feed the kittens. It's been veerryy, veerryy slow trying to feed each kitten drop by drop. B#3 and #4 helped me with the feedings. We had to get up at midnight and feed them, then again at 3:00 am and once more at 6 am. I thought morning would never come while I was feeding those little things. But they all lived to see another day.

B#3 and I stayed home from church this morning; we were both waaay too tired to go anywhere. So this morning we have been helping mom make phone calls. We have called every vet clinic and animal shelter within driving distance asking if they could take the kittens off our hands; no luck though, they all said they were too full to take any more animals. :(

So now we are trying a different approach. we sent out some e-mails asking people if they want to try raising a couple of kittens. It's not hard raising them but 9 kittens is just a little overwhelming for us. We're also going to try and see if Olivia, one of our other cats, will foster Otis's kittens. Cats are extremely good about fostering so hopefully it will work. The only problem is that we can't find 'hide nor hair' of Olivia anywhere. That's the thing about cats, if you want them then they're no where to be found. But if you don't want them around then they're everywhere.

I guess we will see what happens later.

~B#2

Otis the cat, Rotunda the fat

On April 15th Mom blogged about our sweet cat Otis and at the bottom she put up a little poem that us girls had put together. Little did we know that we only had a few more months to be with her. I remember when we first got her, just a tiny little fluff ball of a kitten and she was always purring. I also remember, just yesterday, she was on my lap (purring of course) and I had no idea that it would be my last time ever to cuddle her. :(

At 5:00 pm today a truck came barreling down our road; Otis was crossing the road at the exact same time and the driver either didn't see her, didn't care or thought it would be fun, but Otis got hit and was killed instantly by the truck. The driver didn't stop, he just kept on driving. Luckily a lady in a car right behind the truck stopped and told us that one of our cats had been killed. I am really glad that she stopped to tell us; I have found entirely to many of our animals dead beside the road. Not pretty.

And what of the 9 kittens that were now motherless? Well, we are attempting to hand feed them ourselves. After Otis got hit we ate a hurried dinner and then went to town to get some kitten milk replacer and three bottles. I just got finished trying to feed them but they wouldn't accept the bottles or the syringes; maybe they'll be hungry enough later to accept a bottle.
Yes it does sound fun to bottle feed kittens at first, but then you think about having to feed them every six hours, and making nine bottles and then feeding the squirmy little things at midnight.
If we're not able to make any head-way by tomorrow I think were going to contact a vet and ask if they'll take them.

I will keep you up-dated on them. Hopefully I won't be too sleepy though. :)

~B#2

If You Give a Moose a Muffin

Well actually in this case it isn't a moose...but B#7 sure is enjoying his first taste of one of mama's banana chocolate chip muffins. Below you can see the before and after pics....

Today

I am not good at thinking up titles for my posts so please forgive the boring title that I came up with today. :)

We spent a little bit of time outside today; it was so nice. I just wanted to share some of the shots B#4 got.

Our handsome lil' man, B#7

Copper, our Golden Retriever and Octavia, one of our many cats...

Rats, B#4 got a picture of me. She knows I don't like to have my picture taken so she was really sneaky and waited till I wasn't looking. I was picking up some ripe fallen apples. Maybe I'll make an apple pie some time..

B#6 in one of our apple trees.

Mom and B#7, watching us.

I just liked this shot. :D

It was really nice being outside but of course every good has its bad. While taking the pictures B#4 got stung on the stomach by a wasp. She was laying on the grass right next to an apple and accidentally rolled on to the bug. I put some baking soda on the sting and she's fine now. :) Every body's playing 'Dutch Blitz' now. I don't like that game so I chose to do some blogging (My reflexes aren't fast enough for that particular game).

~B#2

A berry good day

Today was another day like Saturday, just like autumn. I like to say 'autumn' better than saying 'fall'. When I say the word 'autumn' I imagine red maple trees, cinnamon, watching Charlie-Brown movies and crisp, cool weather. Now with 'fall' I just think of leaves falling off trees and how winter is almost here. Anyway, I am totally off the subject. :)


Seeing that our blackberries were finally ripe we took full advantage of the nice weather and went berry picking. Afterwards I decided that I was in the mood to do some baking, so I made blackberry pie. Making pie is one of my favorite things to make besides bread. I like to do the lattice tops on my pies. :)



Consider yourselves very lucky to actually see me in a picture.LOL. I am extremely camera shy; but B#4 was the photographer during my baking process and she wanted me to put this pic up. Isn't my apron pretty? I got it for my birthday and I'm in it almost constantly.
Here's the lattice top half-way done.


Aaahh, the almost finished project.

And of course there's always a mess to clean up afterwards. (This is a just a small part of it)

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you.... the finished product. Hopefully it will taste as good as it looks because we might have company tonight. :)
~B#2

A taste of Autumn

Saturday, August 23rd, was a day I will definitely remember for a while.

The weather was perfect; not hot but not cold either and you could pactically smell autumn in the air. So what did we do? We picked apples!

I will admit that I mostly just supervised the whole time (that's a nice way to say that I was in a lazy mood). But... mom and B#7 kept me company. :)

Of course all the ripe apples were at the top. and ya' gotta do what ya gotta do.

Hellooo, up there! did ya' get anything?


And naturally we had to have home-made apple crisp for snack that evening. Aaahhh, it officially smelled like autumn; cinnamon and toasted apples... what could be better. :)



~B#2

The Dino Guy

I can't wait!! On September 12-13, 2008 Dr. Chittick will be coming to speak at Valley Bapstist Church!

Last year when he came I had no idea who he was or what he was going to be talking about. Listening to him just about blew my socks off! Dr. Chittick is a creationist who is a firm beleiver in Christ, loves to prove the evolutionist wrong using the Bible and not only believes that dinosaurs once existed but can prove that a few still do exist! I remember when he first mentioned that dinosaurs still existed; there were a lot of raised eyebrows and a few people laughed at the thought. He also likes to give real proof that the great flood really did happen, there never were cave men, that we're actually heading towards another ice-age rather than global warming and all sorts of other really neat things. He shows some really amazing pictures too. I hope he'll show it again this year, but last year he showed a video of a dinosaur that does still exist in the dark Congo jungle in Africa. It's rarely seen because it's so hard to penetrate the jungle. The natives who live in the jungle call it mohele-mbembe (moe-heelee- mem-bem-bay). It was amazing.

I highly recommend coming if you are within driving distance. You will definitely not regret it!

The address to our church is

2631 NE McDonald Lane
McMinnville, Oregon 97128

And it's September 12-13. On the 12th it will be from 7:00-9:00 pm
On the 13th it will be 9:00- 12 noon.

I really hope to see you there!!

~B#2

Books

A very original title I know. But I couldn't think of any other title that would fit what I am blogging about today.

I am a book worm. There is nothing I would rather do than sit down and read a book; but it has to be a good book mind you.

I prefer non-fiction over fiction, ever since I first learned how to read I preferred to read non-fiction. Of the late though, I have found some fiction books that I haven't been able to put down. The name of these intriguing books? Anything that Charles Dickens wrote. :)

A few months ago Mom checked out 'Bleak House' from the library. I had never read anything by Dickens before so I told myself I would read 'Bleak House' as my first. The book itself looks daunting; with 1018 pages, a different print than I am used to and they wrote things different back then. As hard as I tried I couldn't get past chapter one. So I gave up for the time being and began on 'A Christmas Carol'. Much, much easier. I've seen the movie lots of times so that helped and it was shorter. After I finished that I doggedly started on 'Bleak house'. In the end I skipped chapter one and started at chapter two. It quickly became the #1 favorite book of mine. Dickens had a true talent for words and making his readers see what was going on. I couldn't think of how to describe the book so I copied down what I found online.

Bleak House tells the story of the case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce in Chancery court. Bleak House is in England, the red tape of the law, the world in all its grime and glory. Here you will meet fascinating characters such as Esther Summerson the first person narrator of several chapters; Detective Bucket the first detective in English fiction; the grotesque Smallweed family; the street sweeper Jo and the comic Jellyby family. There are countless other characters, a complex plot and English prose written with verve and joy!

Esther Summerson is my favorite character, Mr. Skimpole is second. I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes to read!!

Along with 'Bleak House' I am also reading an auto-biography written by Dickens himself. It's been really good. And of course there's always Tennyson's poems to read. All three of us girls have been enjoying that.

About the pics. I have always liked the old-looking books over the new-looking ones. I couldn't resist taking these shots. Aren't they pretty? Well your probably asleep reading about a bunch of dusty books. Sorry! But hey, now you know what we like to read, right?

~B#2

She's at it again

By "She" I am talking about Otis, our cat. What is she at again?

KITTENS. 9 KITTENS.

Yes I did type that right, she had nine squirming, furry, mewing, adorable kittens this morning!



And you'll never guess where she had them this time. No, not the compost bin. No, not the chicken coop either. This time she had them, of all possible places, she had them behind the refrigerator in our barn!!

We keep an unplugged fridge in the barn to store animal feed and there's a 6-7 inch gap between it and the barn wall.

Otis thought it was a purrr-fect spot to raise babies. Apparently Otis and I don't see things eye to eye. She's just being a normal cat and found a nice, dark, warm spot to have kittens but it's also dirty, and Otis isn't the one who has to treat the poor kitties eyes twice a day when they become infected because they were raised in a dirty nest. Now, I don't know about you but treating 9 squirming, meowing kittens twice a day isn't exactly what I would call fun (if you think it does then call me and we'll talk).LOL.



So while big mama (a.k.a Otis) was eating breakfast we moved the kittens into a clean nest right next to the fridge. We held our breath as Otis stalked over and investigated her new abode. Please make her like it... I don't want to have to treat 18 eyes twice a day!

She sniffed it, walked around it and...HURRAY!! She went in! Thankfully she accepted the nest and hopefully the kittens will grow to be healthy, happy kitties.

~B#2

There they go...

Well, we finally did it: We sold our alpacas.

I posted them on Craigslist for $100 each and boy did they get attention at that price! (alpacas usually sell for waaay more) Two people immediately said they wanted them and then a few more people wanted more info on them. One guy that I talked to on the phone about them wanted to breed them to his female llamas! No we did not let him have them. :)

One lady from Washington came and bought Lancelot B#3's alpaca and then a couple from Aumsville bought The other two, Valentino and Sundance. It was so sad loading them up; when alpacas are scared they make the most heart-wrenching sound, kind of a soft hum. You would just have to hear it. I have never been good at good-byes and we didn't want to have to sell them (I will admit that tears were shed) but we knew that they would be happy at their new homes.

Luckily we have lots of pictures of them and both owners said they would send us pictures of them in their new homes. Still, it was so hard watching them leave.

~B#2

Danger is afoot

We have reached stage #2 in the swallow department: fledging.

The two older chicks hopped out of the nest yesterday; we lost one (the cats got it) and the other one is hiding somewhere around the front porch. :)

Earlier B#4 had found it on the porch behind some rain boots and tried to pick it up to put it back in the nest. The little thing got scared and tried to fly away but didn't quite make it. Guess where it landed. On B#4's head!! I rushed to get the camera before the bird decided to go away but it decided that B#4's head was more comfortable then on the ground and was content to stay.






I don't know where it is now but it's very interesting trying to go outside. Whenever you go out now, both parent birds start making a lot of noise and begin dive-bombing the unsuspecting victim (which was me). All I was doing was taking the kitchen scraps out to the chickens when the attack began; those little birds mean business! And to think, there's still one more chick left to fledge... Danger is afoot.

~B#2

Meet the flock

So far I have introduced you to our goats, alpacas, swallows, cats and whatever else there was; so now you get to meet our chickens.

This is Chica, our araucana hen. She surprised us one day with, not a green egg, but a sky blue egg! Most araucanas lay eggs of varying shades of green; I had never heard of a blue egg. Now we won't have to dye our Easter eggs. :)

Next is what we call "The broody hen". She used to be one of our best layers but then one day she decided that she wanted to raise some chicks. She never did hatch any because we don't have any roosters. Now she just sits in the nestbox all puffed up and mad-looking.

My personal favorite chicken on the whole farm is Lucy. Lucy is an Olde English Game Hen; which is the smallest breed of chicken. Of course Lucy doesn't know she's tiny, She's top in pecking order and all the other hens are afraid of her. Earlier in the spring she went broody but since there wasn't any pint-sized rooster none of the eggs would hatch. So I stuck a regular sized egg that I knew would hatch (we had roosters at that time) under her. 28 days later Lucy had a little black Austrolorp/barred rock cross chick to care for. I named the chick Susan. Now Susan is almost 3 times Lucy's size but she still follows her around and they both sleep together still.

The black bird in the pic is Susan and The little bird is Lucy.

It would take me most all day to write about all of our chickens so I will stop here. :)

~B#2

Our new neighbors

For a couple of weeks now we have had the experience of having swallows for neighbors; very messy neighbors at that.:) At first they had built their nest on top of our breaker box thingy but dad didn't want any swallows nests near the house (which is understandable if you have ever had swallow nests around the place). So he knocked the nest down. But those little birds were intent on having their nest right there so they built it again; and dad knocked it down again. Finally they gave up and built it right over our front porch (just to spite us!) Us girls begged daddy to let them raise a clutch and he relented. It's been sooo much fun watching them grow. Two of them are almost fully feathered and one still has some catching up to do. Well I'll stop talking and let you see the pics.:)

Aren't they cute?

Notice anything? I finally figure out the picture thing!! Hurray! Thank you K.V.!
Warning: Our posts may finally be a bit more creative now that the secret to doing things has been unlocked! Ha, ha, okay here I go....

~B#2

Pioneer days

On Saturday us kids and mom got to go to the annual harvest fest held at the Yamhill County Historical Museum. While small, it was fun. There was a blacksmith busy making horse shoes, A woman making bobbin lace and they were harvesting the oats and baling them that day too. One of the balers was done by motor power and the other one was done by horse power, er, mule power that is.:) The mules were a lot slower then the motor driven baler but they were much quieter and more fun to watch (at least I think so). We also got to have a wagon ride around the oat field; It was fun bumping around and listening to bells on the mules' harnesses. Despite all that there was and all that we got to do, our favorite part, believe it or not, was driving through the hay field that we had to park in! The farmers plant the hay in rows and so on our way in and out we had to bump over all those rows in our big fifteen seater van. We couldn't stop laughing it was so much fun! The van was bumping violently up and down and up and down. B#7 enjoyed the roller coaster of a ride too!:)

~B#2

Hats, Hats and more hats

Well, I finally found a hobby I can do...crocheting hats. I have been trying for years to find something I enjoy doing that can be done while DH watches a movie. I started out trying to crochet baby booties after seeing some of a friends baby's booties. I did manage to make a couple of pairs but once I tried a hat I was hooked. The cream colored ones in the picture are made from a pima cotton/tencel yarn, the pink one with the matching booties is made from bamboo/silk yarn and the purple one is made from 100% alpaca yarn, nope its not from our alpacas...although I am hoping the girls will give me some of the yarn that they have spun from our alpacas. Do you think one can crochet too many hats???

Kelly

It's just like Christmas morning

That's what it sure seemed like this morning: Christmas. A friend of ours had been cleaning out her craft stash and very graciously shared them with us. She does a lot of knitting, crocheting and spinning so naturally there was a lot of yarn, fabric, lace and other odds 'n' ends. It was heaven going through all of our newly acquired treasures. We had a whole couch and a half of goodies. B#4 was looking through the fabrics; dreaming up quilt designs. Mom, B#3 and I dug through the bags of yarn, ooh-ing and aah-ing over all the different colors and textures of the yarns. "Oooh, mom feel this cashmere yarn!" "Hey, this green would be great for a scarf!" B#5 was so excited to find some unspun fiber; he's been begging us to teach him how to spin on the spinning wheel (he's such a funny guy). B#6 had been given some dress up clothes so she was perfectly content. Even little B#7 had fun! So if you ever need some yarn....

~B#2

Electricity....Gotta love it

They say life is full of surprises and boy is that true.:)
This morning at about 8 a.m. I woke up to a loud ripping noise and then a crash coming from outside our house. I jumped out of my bed (top bunk mind you)when I heard mom start shouting "Oh my goodness! Mark come here quick!" As it turns out, a logging truck had just turned our corner and somehow got our electrical line caught on it. The driver had no idea what was happening and so off ripped the line. Us kids were quickly herded outside while dad went to see if the line was sparking or not. Luckily it wasn't but dad called the Sheridan Fire Department anyway. I'm sure we must have looked quite comical. We were all still in our pajamas, hair disheveled from sleep and then to top it off us girls were begging mom and dad to let us run inside to get dressed before the fire squad came. They finally relented and thankfully we were allowed to stay in the house.
The squad came but there was nothing that they could do so they left after half an hour. B#5 and 6 sure had fun looking at the fire trucks and talking to the volunteers. The fire chief came too! We had to wait for some electricians to come but time sure crawls when your waiting for something. Minutes passed...then hours... finally after four and a half hours with out power and water the electrician people finally came!
We now once again have electricity. You don't really realize how nice it is until you don't have it. Electricity....Gotta love it.

And one of these days I am going to figure out how other people manage to put up a picture, then write, then put up another picture then write some more. But I guess till then you'll just have to see the pics then read.:)

~B#2

Man's best friend

God summoned a beast from the fields and He said, "Behold people created in my image. Therefore adore them. You shall protect them in the wilderness, shepherd their flocks, watch over their children, accompany them wherever they go- even into civilization. You shall be a companion, an ally, a slave."
"To do these things," God said, "I endow you with instincts uncommon to other beasts: Faithfulness, devotion and understanding surpassing that of people.
Lest it impair your courage, you shall never foresee your death.
Lest it impair your loyalty, you shall be blind to the faults of people.
Lest it impair your understanding, you are denied the power of words.
Let no fault of language cleave an accord beyond that of people with any other beast- or even people with other people. Speak to your people only with your mind and through your honest eyes.
"Walk by their sides; sleep in their doorways; forage for them; ward off their enemies; carry their burdens; share their afflictions; love them and comfort them. And in return for this, people shall fulfill your needs and wants- which shall be only food, shelter and affection.
"So be silent, and be a friend to people. This shall be your destiny." So spoke the Lord.
And the dog heard and was content.
-Author unknown

Don't you just want a dog now?:)

~B#2