Surviving Chicken Pox in a Large Family

In the works!

Mary Joy–4 months

 

I reeeeally need to update my blog. Here’s a picture of  the poor baby that never gets blogged about.  She is growing up too quickly.

Hunting. Opening Day 2013

Opening day success

Jacob took out his first two Canadian Geese. One Greater Canadian, one Lesser Canadian.

Daniel also took out his first two Lesser Geese!

Daddy, well, daddy got skunked.

…but he got over it.

The boys were quite humble and didn’t rub it in too much

Thank you Josh M. for so very, very much for making this one of my boys most memorable days EV-ER!!

Summer Days

If there’s one thing country homes lack that city homes have, it’s cement/sidewalks for tricycle riding. That is pretty much the only thing I think we lack, imo, and there are plenty of other wonderful things to fill that hole. BUT…we’ve always hoped to have a cement pad poured at some point.

Then there’s a foundation for Nana’s cabin.

Daddy holding his kiddos attention

“The truck is coming! The truck is coming!”

Poor driver had to maneuver our goofy back driveway.

Elijah captivated, to the point of drooling, by the big cement truck

Starting the pour!

Micah was so thrilled to be helping Big Boys this time, no longer sitting on the sidelines! That smile was pure joy of being allowed in the work zone and running an errand for Daddy.

Jacob was s’posed to work that day so Mr Vdh came to help. VERY thankful he came, too. It was hot and things set much faster than hoped.

 

Screet, fill, screet, fill, float, trowel, screet, float. Jacob got off unexpectedly early, we needed him! What a blessing to have strappin young men.

Ahhhh, my new patio! The hole near the house is our crawlspace access and the two squares in the middle are our septic tank access points. We are going to tile all three so they are flat.

Done, now onto the cabin.

 

 

Trowel master Micah! He worked so hard in that hot sun. He is like a pitbull when it comes to work, he grabs onto a job and does not look up until it is finished…and well!

 

After lunch, Jacob took out two large blighted peach trees and plowed the garden they were in for grass seed. He has quite a knack for that tractor.

Dan grabbed the sawsall and trimmed fir tree 15ft up.

 

No matter how much teaching, threatening, bribing…one unnamed little still snuck out and ran over the new concrete leaving his footprint forever.  <sigh>

A hard day’s work should end with a hard day’s play. And it did, down at the irrigation pond.

Swimming with the bluegill

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“Look mom! Jessie taught me to swim!!” Hmmm… that doesn’t look like swimming to me.

Daddy. His own little island.

 

 

 

Nice dirt mustache Miker T Biker

Lydia and baby belly.

To end the day, the tractors came to rake and collect silage. One little boy sat and watched the whole operation.

One little girl was a tad scared of the big machines and loud noises.

 

What did I do? Plenty really, I worked right along side the guys as much as I could, but come late afternoon, I polished my nails and sat by the kiddy pool with my raspberry tea.

I’m not a big blogger anymore, but you can see the kids are growing up nicely. Jacob is working his first summer job, a new baby due in 3.5 weeks and life is good. Not because it is problem free, but because the grace of God is, and as these children grow older we find ourselves more and more asking for and receiving strength and wisdom from being at His feet as His mercies are new every morning. Great is HIS faithfulness as called us to this adventure in parenting these wonderful creatures He has given us.

Ode to my hardwork’n man

This is week five or six of Paul’s *out of town* days preparing berry processing lines for the approaching season. He’s da man who has a knack of getting them to fit and run well. This last week was his longest week. These old ratty boots tucked under the kitchen table did NOT go unnoticed this morning. Surprisingly, they were the talk of the house and put smiles on many faces.
80 hours clocked this week, very little sleep due to snoring roomies and he just crawled in bed at 6am after leaving Salem, Ore at 9pm last night. As he held to his promise, I assume there are three hours of catnaps in there. I all but begged him to get a hotel last night, but he just wanted his own bed and I can't blame him. We turned on the white noise machine, blanketed the window and kissed him morni...I mean night.
FYI, I took some of his overtime and ordered him a new pair of boots!

Junie has twins (graphic?;)

 

Here is my sweet Junie. She is five years old this Spring and this is her fourth kidding with us. We make sure any child that has not witnessed birth was out in that barn watching. This answers many unknowns for the little kids and stops imaginations from forming wrong ideas. Once Junie was done with kid #1, Gracie looked up at me and said “Wow, mamma. I thought a door just opened in her stomach and baby fell out onto the ground.”  Then we talking about the events that followed. The placenta, the cord, meconium, nursing. A single kidding is so rich in education and glorifying God  as we watch the process. 

Laboring. She got down to business, boy.

And it couldn’t have gone more text book perfect. Of all my goats, Junie is who I worry about the most. Junie would go to the vet at any expense, can’t say that about the others. She is our family milk supply and our family pet. ..o.k., my pet.

Junie gave a couple real pushes and look at that perfect little head with the little eyes and little mouth. So sweet. Two little front hooves followed under her chin…perfect. I still helped her out as she couldn’t quite get the shoulders out fast enough for me. ;)

Out popped this cute little doeling! All legs. All white. As usual.

She got the best cleaning job a mother can give and within minutes was on her strong feet and nursing.

A few minutes after that, she delivered the same way, this little buckling. Half Saanan, half Nubian.

“Life is good”, says Junie.

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I expected to photo Nice’s kidding, which happened today. However, after taking wonderful pictures leading up to the birth, a little bum with a tail presented….wagging. Seriously, a goat with two tails. That is NOT what I wanted to see. Long story short, I was able to get one back leg out, but we ended up slooooowly delivering a breech doeling. “The next one will be photograph worthy", I thought. Nope. When the buckling presented, there were two back knees folded up. She delivered(assisted) that one buckled little knees and backwards, too. Both kids are doing great, though. Gorgeous and strong. 2013 kidding is over! Thanking the Lord for a productive season, a tripled herd size and no vet bills!