Baby Bunny Pics

 

O.k., so this isn’t baby bunnies. It was on the way to the baby bunnies & I thought it was so sweet. Jess and two of her big puppy dogs.

Jimmy and Jerry

(named after the gourds in Veggie Tales)

 

I know I have posted this before, but I love pictures of baby animals, so bear with me. The night before she kindled there was nothing but straw in the box.

 

Sometime during the night she pulled all her tummy fur dug a deep little pocket and gave birth in the hole, then covered them up ever so carefully again. They are about 4” down in straw and shavings with the fur packed neatly all around.

 

The bare naked little kits. I haven’t pulled them all out, but we are now thinking there may be 7 alive! They are very active and jump violently when you disturb them.

 

Ugly cute little fella’s huh?

  

Love the wrinkles. ;)

Almost kissable…….almost.

Clumsy Pregnant Me

I am always such a klutz as I grow bigger with baby. I trip, stumble or, worse yet, fall.

Which leads me to my post. With Junie, I’m milking her around the clock every four hours for the first two days to feed the babies their colostrum and get her milk in well. I LOVE, love, love this, btw. Last night I milked at 10:30pm, then 2:30am when it was dead calm, dark and snowing heavily. It was just breathtaking. Again at 6:30am.

At 6:30, I was tired, tended the goats, and let Junie out of her stall to jump on the milking stand. A physical battle ensued getting this stubborn 200lb beast on the stand, she refuses to go, but I won. I sat on my 1 legged milked stool and milked her out. As Murphy’s Law would have it, after aaaaall the milk was out, the milking stool snapped. Instead of catching myself, like I am convince I should have, I fell backward to the ground rather hard on my back, aaaaall 12 precious ounces of colostrum poured down my sleeve, on my face and chest. I was in coveralls, but still, it was icky sticky colostrum. Ewe. My arm hurt and my head hurt. As I fumbled to my feet(stiff Carhartt coveralls + baby belly = fumbling) I looked at my spilled milk and sighed. Then came the warm blood running down my scalp and face. My head really hurt. I threw the bucket down and stomped up to the house, defeated. Paul happened to get out of bed and dress to come sit with me in the barn, even though I told him to stay in bed and sleep in. He met me on the way into the house covered with milk and blood running down my neck and face, LOL!! What a sight.

I finally got to feel what the kids feel when Daddy doctors them so tenderly in the bathroom(I do throw-up, he does blood, it’s an agreement we had since our first child). Doctor Daddy washed me up and found, as expected, a rather small cut on the side of my head that bled like a stuck pig. I little tylenol, coffee, shower and a good breakfast fixed me up great.

Stayed tuned for itty bitty baby bunny pictures!

Kids on the ground! Part III

This is to answer the questions why we take the babies away from mamma at birth. Well…it isn’t nice and I DON’T like doing it. However, we learned the hard way that if the babies nurse on Mamma for even two days and then we take them away they are;

1. VERY hard to train onto the bottle, kinda like breastfeeding a child then switching them to the bottle…it is a time consuming fight. 

2. They will do everything in their power to get back to her, this means nursing through the fencing as Mamma positions herself so they can steal, and getting over the fence even at a young age. 

3. They will suck all *our* milk from Mamma dry in seconds, appallingly efficient little stinkers.

We will not remove the kids from Jackie and Chloe because they are not kept as our primary milkers. Junie is our family’s source of diary products and IF we want every bit of our 1.5-2 gallons of milk a day from her, kids can not be in the picture. We work very hard to get her production up that high by handmilking.

I’m not sure, but I think we can put her kids back in with her in a couple weeks as she will not nurse them and they will never associate her with milk, only the bottles we bring to them. She will get her babies back in the pen then. Until then she can smell them, see them and talk to them all the time as they are in a still right next to her.

So that is why we must be meanies and take them away. She is a diary goat and this is her life, and really, she gets over as quickly as you put alfalfa in front on her face.

Kids on the ground!- Part II

 

Oh happy day!

Two kids down and I am still holding Junie in suspicion. She, again, looks awful big to be done kidding. 

 

The first information that arrived at the house, via children, was incorrect. It appears the kids had JUST dropped. Still wet, cold and hungry. Thank you Lord(reverently said) for sending Paul out there first thing this morning!! They were chilled. I got Junie on the milking stand(so good to be home) and milked her out of the thick yellow colostrum.

 

This time we took the kids away immediately. And guess what? Not a single problem getting them on the bottle, they each sucked down everything Junie gave them like pros!

 

Two bucklings! See Mindy, I have learned to tell the difference! Last time I was so confused.

 

Awwwweee…..

 

Airplane ears. ;)

 

Mamma a little anxious about her babies, but a little hay solved that one.

 

First steps…

 

Back feet first…

 

Straighten out…

 

Up on the front legs….and….

    

Wallah!!! No help from the human!

 

 

Emma in heaven…

Bailey hasn’t forgotten what that milk bucket means.

 

Oh, and we found Mamma rabbit kindled last night,too, lucky for me she was kind enough to leave 5 of her 7 babies un-eaten for us to enjoy!

Kids on the ground!

The coldest morning of the year, well under 20F, and Paul just came running in the house and said that we have two kids on the ground. Junie was twins, all white with red ears, Junie has them dried and happy, she isn’t supposed to do that withOUT me! I MISSED IT! Pictures to follow, I haven’t even seen them yet. Enjoy your cooooooooold day…

Just kidding…

Man this is frustrating! I wish the goats could talk and we could know if we can leave or stay home. Come to find out Jackie can loose her plug “days/weeks” before kidding, which is what happened last night, leading us to believe she was beginning. Nothing more has happened.

Then Junie wasn’t eating grain this morning, she was doing something that looked just like pushing(stretching?) and I was sure she was going to kid, yet she hasn’t lost her ligaments and now I go out there and she just walks around….no straining, but still disinterested in grain. Hmmmm….animals. Can you tell this consumes our life until the kidding is over? The last thing I want is for my goat to kid by herself and drop a little one the ground and have it freeze, so I get a little uptight.

Email address added…

Other than commenting on my blog, in which I can not email commenters back, I have now placed contact information to the top right of my blog so you can email me if you wish(Hannah!). There have been a few of you who I wish I could have contacted and visa versa.

The lack of posting is due to a puter bug we got over the weekend and an unusually busy week. I’m hoping Jackie may kid tonight…hopefully sooner rather than later. It is supposed to snow tonight, thank you Jackie for picking such a wonderful night, thankful for insulated Carrhart coveralls, this is the only job I don’t do in a skirt! Knowing her, she is just teasing anyhow.

Pictures to come IF anything happens and goes as planned…please no vet, please no vet, please no vet….

Saturday

Not the best weekend. I just spent hours getting “System Tool” off our computer. Luckily, I already knew about this fake program, but to make a long story short, it took a lot of work to get it off.

No goat babies. I go out there and talk to my goaties and they all look at me, chewing their cud, like “Why are you coming out here all the time?” So help me, if I come home from church tomorrow and there are kids on the ground, and I missed it, be assured I am going to throw a fit.

Then, now that hunting season has just ended there are gobs of duck flying into our field out back…gobs. The boys are learning ducks are smarter than we give them credit.

I was awful tired today, but avoided the couch as it makes for an unproductive day and well, it doesn’t change things(for me). If I lie down, I still get up tired. ;)

Paul took me out for lunch at Homestead, it was nice to sit at a quiet table overlooking the golf resort with a handsome man, being served, eating hot food. We were intrigued by the goofy people out there in the freezing temps, blistering wind, playing golf. Really. Crazy people in our world.

On a happy note, when I went to my usual Saturday morning coffee with my sister(minus my mother who abandoned us for the 75 degree weather in Palm Springs for 6 weeks) at The Woods, you know, the best coffee shop in Whatcom County?  my niece Emily handed me a little brown bag. Inside was an aDORable homemade pillowcase this sweet blog reader(I hardly know) made for my little Gracie. If my camera hadn’t been thrown in the garbage can and the garbage taken out, I’d show you a picture<frustrated grin>. Whaddayado. I will have to post soon on the dilemma the pillowcase caused in our home, which she will get a kick out of. Thank you Nancy!! I am going to sit in bed and read through the magazine tonight. Gracie already stuffed her pillow in the case and is making it clear it belongs to HER.  Her NEW pillow case that is HER’S. It’s not from Second Chance or Goodwill, it’s NEW. And it’s HER’S.

Wordless Wednesday

           

If You Give A Mom A Muffin

by Kathy Fictorie - based on "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie” & “If You Give a Moose A Muffin” by Laura Numeroff

If you’ve been a mother for more than 6 years, chances are, you’ve read the above mentioned book. Our Pastor’s wife read this at the beginning of bible study last Tuesday. I had never heard it and it made me chuckle.

If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. She'll pour herself some. Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.  She'll wipe it up.

Wiping the floor, she will find dirty socks. She'll remember she has to do laundry. When she puts the laundry in the  washer, she'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.

Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper. She will get out a pound of hamburger. She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With A Pound Of Hamburger.)

The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail. She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow. She will look for her checkbook. The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.

She'll smell something funny. She'll change the two-year-old. While she is changing the two-year-old the phone will ring. Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.

She'll remember that she wants to phone a friend to come for coffee. Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup. She will pour herself some.

And chances are, if she has a cup of coffee, her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Isn’t that the sweetest? I find myself living days somewhat close to this at times. I make a hot cup of coffee after our morning is finished, only to find it three hours later, cold in the microwave. It is all in how you view life…it IS our calling to serve, rather than be served and it IS a blessing to be last, rather than first.

May we thank the Lord for days like this 1. Because we even have a family. 2. Because we are at home, able bodied to care for our children 3. Because it is within our grasp to take some opportunity for the flesh to pity itself and respond rightly and bring glory to our sweet Lord and Savior. 

“…even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."Matt 20:28

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jn 12:24

 

Farm Report Winter 2011

 

Our Bourbon Red trio, aren’t they pertty?

 

 

We were doubting Jackie Chan was pregnant because she never seemed to grow. I went out there two days ago and her udder is swelling and hardening and she is *loosing* her ligaments which is a sign of her body preparing for kidding? I dunno.   

See? She just looks normal. I think she does.

Chloe is a lowrider. She also has me stumped and I can’t figure where she’s hiding the kids. I see them kicking up a storm so I know their in there!

Posing pretty. She is showing no signs of kidding soon. Tomorrow will be possible due date #1, as it is five months since the buck was with them. I am washing my bottles and getting the birth kit put together…very exciting!!

Then there is poor Junie. She can’t hide a pregnancy to save her life. She carries those babies straight out the sides!

  

She is huge, I wouldn’t be surprised to see triplets again!

 

 

Look at the difference between these two goats! I think it is hilarious. Junie is waddling when she does walk, but pretty much hangs out in the barn.

 

 

 

Our flock of guineas. If you ever get the chance, raise guineas for 1 year. It’s an..experience. You won’t have to feed them but during a long snow when the ground is covered. They totally sustain themselves, they’re amazing. You won’t want them longer than a year as that is about all your nerves can handle. They constantly make noise, they *bark* at e v e r y t h i n g, are untamable, and they fly, like, away. Oh they come back…but be warned.  Oh, and they’re uuuuuugly.

 

 

So why do I have them? I saw them at the feed store as keets and thought they were cute. No other reason.

 

Riley. The big, dumb, happy-go-lucky, loyal to the end, best described as Doug from the movie UP, it is not funny. That is totally our dog.

You’ll be talking to him, throwing the ball around and he will do the “Squirrel!” thing and you’ll have snap him out of it and call his attention back. Seriously not much up there.

 

Well, it is Sunday evening, movie night, and I need to go make oodles of popcorn ;)

Woohoo!

See this? Our first 2011 Bourbon Red fertile turkey egg, two months earlier than expected. Pure gold.

I also want to say THANK you for all your sweet excitement & rejoicing with us over our little one. I am so blessed with good friends who have nothing but kind words to offer. It may be #8, but I am no less giddy inside anticipating the arrival of this little bundle of joy than I was with #1, #2 or #3...if anything I look forward to those sleepless nights and smelling like rotten milk, lol!

The days are too long and we pray the Lord will see fit to allow

her to be delivered safely in our arms in June. 

Meet Baby(In Utero)

 

I wasn't going to get an ultrasound, but not knowing whether it was a boy or girl was driving me crazy. My mother, who is as bad as I, kindly offered to pay half. The deciding factor was when I found 1st Impressions, in Bellingham, that will give you a 10 min gender ID ultrasound, no diagnosticsand it was very, very inexpensive compared to the $350-$950 alternative.

Paul and I made the appointment and went today. The tech sent us home with a 25 minute DVD set to classical music and used the pointer to mark feet, hands, mouth, etc. We even saw him/her yawn!! It was so dern adorable! He/she was playing with his/her feet and even at one point the cord got in his/her way and he/she gently pushed it out of his/her face as it was bothersome...too cute! I could have sat there all day watching this little one playing with toes, clasping hands and kicking at the doppler. Very active, no doubt about that.

My heart was settled when we clearly saw the placenta placed in a good spot, the tech also seemed to look at the heart for a bit. After a few minutes I asked her, "I know you can not tell us a thing(they make that clear), but what if you saw something odd, would you encourage us to get a diagnostic ultrasound?" She said "No, I'd call your midwife today, tell her what I saw and my concerns and get things rolling." Oh that made me feel good! She does *look* and in a *way* it is diagnostic.

We had Pastor L., his wife, who is due a week ahead of me with a little girl, and his sweet family over for dinner tonight. It was soOOoo fun to sit down after dinner, as we had promised the children, and make the announcement with friends. We all watched the DVD together then after about 5 minutes there appeared an arrow on the screen and the words being typed at the bottom of the picture....

......"I T ' S   A   G I R L !!!"

The girls high-fived each other, a tie maker, back to even numbers, four daughters, four sons, and my sweet little baby boy Elijah stays just that, my sweet little baby boy. ;)

Simple Homemade Lotion Bar

Jessica and I went to the store to shop shoes, when at the counter there was a cute pretty little tin with a lotion bar in it sitting there batting it’s eyes at me. It looked new, not totally smothered with OP germs, so I indulged. OooOOooh, it smelled heavenly and felt the same on my skin. I wanted some. It was so expensive. I wanted some. It was so expensive, I looked at Jess…I just couldn’t do it. I flipped over the expensive chic lotion bar made with all-organic ingredients and copied the ingredients down in my head. The first four ingredients were oil, beeswax, butter and oil. Not exactly Einstein’s brainchild.

I came home and decided to wing it …

I eyeballed >1/4 C of beeswax…

  

1/4 C of organic coconut oil…

3/4 teaspoon organic fake vanilla EO scented oil…

4 drops grapeseed oil as preservative (optional)

 

Melted it all in a double boiler…

    

Poured said mixture in environmentally friendly recycled yogurt cup and…

Tada! Less than an hour after coming home I have my very own hand lotion bar! It smells dreeeeamy and my dog keeps wanting to lick my hands. Ewe, ewe, ewe.

My daughters looooove it! Isn’t she beautiful?! I can’t believe how old my little Emma looks here!  All lotion bars feel a little greasy, as does mine at first, adding shea butter would help. After 2 minutes my hands were dry to where I could write with a pen, not bad. The moisturized(not greasy) feeling lasted for a couple hours if I stayed out of the dishwater.

Jessie loves it for her elbows and knees, Emma uses it on her hands and Gracie and Elijah on their chubby legs and arms after their bathes.