My Heart is Sad Today

My mommy heart is so sad today for my oldest daughter. Her cow, Maddie, died this morning. It is so very hard to watch your children as their hearts are breaking. She loves all her animals but especially Maddie. Who couldn't love a cow with beautiful, big eyes. Some might say, "You weren't attached to her, you didn't milk her or take care of her". And they would be right. But I am still so sad that she is gone. She was a sweet, precious animal. I suppose it has alot to do with the fact that I love my daughter so therefore I am heartbroken when she is heartbroken. But there is also that pregnant mommy side of me who thinks about this mommy cow who lost her calf and then her life and I am just sad. Pray for B#2, that she would know Jesus peace through this loss and the she would see HIS direction and leading in her life.

Barn Chores

Tonight I went out with B#2 while she did her barn chores. I sat on some hay bales with our barn cat pawing at me while watching the calf drink her bottle and all of the goats milling about waiting patiently for their nightly hay. It was quite pleasant to sit there and listen to the rain on the roof, smelling the hay and watching the nightly ritual of milking the goats. They are amazingly trained. One goat trots in for her milking time then the stall door is opened for her to trot back out. Then the stall door opens again to allow the next goat to trot right in for her turn on the milkstand. I even pitched in a bit and brought the animals their bucket of water...quite the farm hand, huh?

As nice and peaceful as that was, I think I will stick to an area I am much more comfortable in, my home and my children and leave the barn chores to B#2 and whichever of her siblings decides to help her.

Someone to greet me every morning

I have a new friend. Her name is Pippa. She is pretty young, only about 5 months old and there is something strange about her looks....

Well okay, maybe not so strange if you are a chicken...Anyway, for the past couple of mornings, Pippa has been showing up bright and early on the porch off of our dining room. It is hilarious to watch her peck at the window and turn her head side to side trying to look inside the dining room. When she isn't satisfied with that view of life in side the big house she proceeds around to the kitchen window and hops up onto the window sill to see what is going on in the kitchen.

You gotta wonder what is going on in their little heads sometimes.

Never a Dull Moment

,One thing I can say about living out here in the country...there is never a dull moment. We are borrowing three sheep from one of the girl's friends to keep our fenced pasture mowed down. Well, one day a couple of weeks ago we spent a fun Saturday in town doing some fabric shopping. When we got home I got busy changing baby's diaper and in comes B#2 running and crying. Oh no! What now? The running in crying has been a common theme around here and usually means something is dead. This time, however, it meant that the three borrowed sheep were GONE! Someone left the gate open accidentally while trying to chase some stubborn roosters who were going away that day. So with baby not quite diapered I called B#3 to come and finish up, told the other little ones to stay put with her and ordered everyone else to go sheep hunting. We must have sounded quite odd to anyone within hearing distance as we all wandered around calling, "here sheep sheep". All praise goes to the Lord that we found all three of them across the road in the "98 acres", as we call it. Then came the fun part of trying to lure them back by shaking grain in a bucket since they were scared of us. B#2 finally wrestled the lead sheep and pulled while a couple of us pushed all the way back down the hill to our property. The other two sheep gladly followed. Boy were we tired and our family friend, Katie, was able to go back to the fire station and say that she got to herd sheep today.

Then last Saturday, while helping a friend at a garage sale, B#3 called to tell me that a car had crashed through our front yard fence. I decided I should head home to see what that was all about. Sure enough part of our front fence is busted up and the guy didn't even stop to tell us he did it. According to the neighbor, he just checked to make sure his car wasn't too damaged and then took off. I thought maybe he might come back later and fess-up but here we are a week later and no sign of him. Add it to the list of things to fix around here. Now we have one more opening to worry about B#7 getting out of.

Hopefully all will be quite on the Western front on this sunny Saturday. Happy 4th of July to you all. And don't forget to pray for our nation, it sure needs it:)

Dead or alive?

Lancelot, B#3's funny alpaca, taking a nap and enjoying the sunshine. At first I really did think he was dead!

-B#2

The cow that became a goat

Hello all! B#2 here again. I know your probably tired of reading everything I write (which is mostly about animals) but I guess you'll just have to get used to me because I absolutely love to journal about things and this is doubly-fun because other people get to read what I write! Anyway you are probably wondering about the strange title that I put up there so here is the answer for ya'. :)

For a looong time we have been going back and forth about which to get, a cow or more goats. We have quite a few families who have been wanting raw milk from us but it has been very hard because we only had one goat that was giving not even a half of a gallon of milk a day. So we went to visit some people who had a Jersey cow for sale and talk a little with them to get their opinion on things (they had La Mancha goats as well as a bunch of cows). The cow was really nice She was A fawn color with white patches and her name was Sunshine. The people who owned her said she was giving about 3 gallons a day. Their honest opinion was that we should stick with goats and consider getting some La Manchas because they are supposedly the best milkers. I'm going to cut a little bit of the story to make things a little shorter. :) So we went home and talked about the issue and looked at some goats for sale online. It has been pretty amusing watching mom throughout this whole ordeal; One day she'll make up her mind that were getting a cow and all of us kids would be so excited then ten minutes later she'd say were getting more goats and no cow. Day after day We've been on a seesaw of indecision. Cow? Goats? Nothing? Both?
Then one day I was looking on Craigslist at the goats for sale when I stumbled across an ad for some Oberhasli goats for sale. Oberhaslis have always been my favorite breed of goat because of their coloring which is a striking black and Tan.
So we went to go see them and we immediately knew that we wanted these goats. So now we have one doe and we are hoping to get another soon. The one that we have is a ADGA registered four year old and is giving a little over a gallon of milk a day. Her name is Alexis and the other doe that we want is a yearling whose name is Struedel. Struedel is giving about half a gallon a day but is from very good lines and is expected to be as good (or better?) as Alexis by her second freshoning. Sorry the picture of Alexis isn't very good I'll try to get a better one soon. I'll stop here for now just because my hands are tired from all that typing but don't worry I'll be back. :)

P.S. Were getting our alpacas shorn (or would you say sheared?) tomorrow so I'll get some pictures of the process so ya'll can see what that was like.

-B#2

Tiggers and Zippys and Teddys, OH MY!

B#2 here today. Otis's kittens turned 5 weeks yesterday.:( They grow entirely too fast. Last week I found two kittens on the chicken coop floor; fearing that one might eventually get hurt I moved Otis and her kitties to the barn. They are absolutely hilarious to watch. Just to make things easier we gave them each a name. One is a fluffy tabby and white whom we dubbed "Tigger". We also have another tabby and white but he is not as cute as Tigger, anyway we named him Teddy. Next is Zippy. Zippy is a grey tabby who looks exactly like a cat that we once had. And last but not least is Minnie. She is grey and white and has a mouse-like face. We don't know yet which are males and which are females so we are just making assumptions for now. Earlier today Tigger was playing with Otis's tail; pouncing on it, biting it and just being adorable. At first Otis didn't mind but then Tigger bit her tail really hard, so Otis swatted him with her paw and the little tramp went sprawling. But he was after the tail again once he got up. Zippy is pretty funny too. If you are ever wondering where she is just look inside the food bowl! She has begun eating food and the food dish sides are so high that she has to climb in the bowl so she can eat.:D And the best part of all is that we might get to keep Tigger! He's the family favorite. But you still have nine kittens to choose from, so hurry and put a kitten on hold before somebody takes them all!

-B#2

Things that go meow in the night

This is B#3 writing today, and I'm here to inform you that the feline population on Mennagerie Farm has very recently increased from two to six to TWELVE! Allow me to explain. On Thursday, the twenty second of May, I was doing my chores inside when B#2 came in and said..."Olivia popped!" In case your wondering who Olivia is, she is Otis's sister. Anyway, with the camera in hand I (with B#2 and B#4) rushed outside and lo and behold there, in the exact same spot Otis had her kittens (in the compost bin), was Olivia and her six kittens. Three of them are black and the other three are tabbys. They were still damp when we went out and Olivia was in the way, so we haven't been able to take any pictures until today. Yesterday Olivia and her brood were moved into a cleaner, more comfertable nestbox. If Otis's kittens do not suit you, maybe Olivia's will. Don't delay, reserve your kittens today!

A strange occurance

Come thither my friends and I shallt tell thee a tale; A tale most strange, A tale that brings a smile but also brings tears, so listen my friends and hear the woefull tale of Boomer the bird.

Ookkaayy..anyway, B#2 again and today I get to tell you about yesterday's strange occurance. It was probably about late afternoon when coming from the living room we heard a strange tapping noise. Upon further investigation we found that a little orange and black bird was tapping furiously at one of the living room windows. I flipped through our well-used bird ID book and was able to Identify it as a male Bullock's Oriole. A beautiful bird that we only get in the summer (I guess he was a little early). After ten minutes or so he migrated to our Dining room windows. At first we thought maybe he was seeing his reflection and was trying to fight with it but our lights were off so there was no reflection to see and it didn't look like he was fighting with himself; He was just tapping at the window and watching us. I was able to get really close to him and snap some pics, He didn't mind at all in fact he wasn't the least bit afraid of us humans. So we decided that he must have been hand-raised and now wanted to be someones pet again. Of course I asked mom if we could let him in but a certain 17 year old brother convinced mom that it wasn't a good idea.
All throughout the evening and late into night he stayed there tapping away and watching us. It was his tapping that made us decide to name him Boomer, after the woodpecker in Walt Disney's Fox and The hound. Our Boomer also had a pretty litle mate who we dubbed Dinky, after the other bird in Fox and The hound

This morning somewhere around 7:00 a.m. something woke me up. Any guesses? It was a tap ,tap ,tap. Yup he was back and He wanted in. Later in the morning I looked for him but he was nowhere to be found. So I went out to the barn to milk the goat and take care of the animals. When I got inside the barn Otis met me a Cheshire grin that only cats can do. A few feet away was... The remains of Boomer the Bird.:(
He died a terrible death that he did not deserve, but he shall never be forgotten.
Thus ends my tale of woe.

Suprises in the chicken coop

Hi everyone! This is B#2 again. I just wanted to give you a quick update on our kitties. As you have been told, Otis had them in our compost bin (of all places) but after about a week or so, Otis decided that it was not a sufficient place to raise a family. So off she trotted to find a new nest. Any guesses on where she put them? In one of the Chicken coop nestboxes! Imagine my suprise when I went in there to look for eggs and Instead found Otis and her kittens! The kittens are almost four weeks old and like most kittens, are very fluffy and adorable. It's so funny to watch them wrestle with each other and they all lean out of the nest when you come in; hoping for a scratch behind the ears. Unfortunately They are becoming more and more curious each passing day and they are starting to climb out of the nest. This morning I found one of them two nestboxes away from the other littermates! In about four more weeks they will be old enough to go to new homes. Us kids were really hoping to get to keep one but alas and alack, mom and dad said no. All this leads me to say: Kittens Anyone?

-B#2

Everything Grows and Grows

One of our favorite children's tapes is by Raffi. We have been listening to Raffi for 17 years now, ever since B#1 was a baby. My sister in law introduced us to Raffi and we love to sing the Bubble song to the kids while they are taking a bath...okay, not the big ones anymore. Anyway, I digress...one of Raffi's songs says "everything grows and grows, babies do, animals too, everything grows". How true that is. Below is a picture of B#2's gander, Shem. He is now about 2 weeks old. His neck is still so soft though. I will try to get some updated pictures of the goats and ducks later since it is actually sunny today. I can hear the wonderful sound of the lawnmower as I type:)

A Day for babies

Today has been a day for babies for us...the girls came in this morning to inform me that Otis(aka Rotunda) had four kittens in the compost bin of all places. I guess it is nice and warm in there?!? Then a dear friend who had taken one of our previous milk goats called to let us know that she had her babies today. We were very excited about that as we get to keep the sweet little doe. Now we will have a doe and a buck that we can breed for more babies....we love babies around here:) All of this on B#7's 7th month birthday.

Rotunda

I have been wanting to have some updated pics of the ducks and geese on here but haven't managed to get any taken. I need to do it quick as they end up fully feathered within a few weeks and aren't as cute anymore...B#4's duck did make it through the night and is doing great(phew!!!) Anyway, this is Rotunda(not her real name). The story behind Rotunda, which is my name for her, is that she started out as an Otis. The girls told me that our new kitties were males but as time went on we realized that they were actually females but we didn't change her name from Otis. Now Otis(do we dare call her Otisina?) is pregnant and should have her babies any day now. She has always been a bit rounder than her sister, Olivia(pictured on right), but now has definitely earned the nickname that I gave her of Rotunda.

Otis the cat, Rotunda the fat.

Gentle and sweet, pudgy and neat.

She waddles around; Till our laps she's found

purring and pawing; scratching and clawing;

Till she falls asleep;

We stroke her and scratch her, enjoying the rest;

Here on the chair with the cat we love best;

And one day soon her kittens we'll meet;

With Otis as mother their sure to be sweet.

There's nary a kitten, nary a cat, who could ever be

Like Rotunda the fat.

By B#2,3 and 4

The Mennagerie Grows

I remember when the girls first mentioned getting Geese...dad said no way...too mean. Well B#2 made an appeal to dad that if she couldn't gentle the geese that she wanted we would get rid of them. Dear dad agreed so today they picked up the long awaited geese along with 4 Khaki Campbell ducks. Everything was going along "swimmingly":), until one of the silly little ducks decided to try eating some wood shavings. She swallowed one that was just too big so B#2 tried giving her some water and mineral oil with a syringe. Then I come along to the scene trying to be helpful:) and dropped the poor little gal from several feet up. So far she is still alive, amazingly. We will see if she lasts through the night....

Meet "the boys"

I have several different boys in my life. Sometimes when I say the boys I am referring to dad, B#1 and B#5 soon to include baby B#7(by the way the B's means blessings as children are a blessing from the Lord). But the boys I want to introduce you to today are our alpacas...or as Auntie M calls them....lopacas(she's from San Diego:). My girls like to come to me first when they want a new animal and try it on for size. If I am not opposed, then I am given the task of presenting their scheme to Dad. I am not sure how that works out in the manipulation department. Anyway the girls decided they wanted alpacas and I honestly thought they were crazy, there was no way dad was going to go for this one, goats, yes, chickens, yes, maybe even a pony if they really begged but not alpacas. Well low and behold the girls found one for $1 down in Eugene and upon talking to the owners they decided each of the girls could buy one for $1. They would even deliver them. Now supposedly we can shear them and make all this money but I am still very skeptical about that, especially for a $3 investment. But at any rate they are very cute. So meet the boys, aka the pacas...Lancelot, Sundance, and Valentino.