It's hard being a mother

You may remember that Kiddo1 has two very special rabbits.  (If you don't, you SHOULD.)  Well, Trixie was out and about as usual with Kiddo1 doing typical sidekick duties:  riding on her bike, watching her play in the dirt, checking on the garden, etc.

Kiddo1 came in for supper and forgot Trixie on Kiddo2's tricycle.

And then it rained.  A LOT.

Kiddo1 awoke to pouring rain.  Then AND ONLY THEN, did she realize that poor Trixie was left outside alone.  

And the tears poured harder than the rain.

She begged for an umbrella to go and get poor Trixie.

And then she lovingly wrapped Trixie in a towel and placed her in the dryer for a tumble.  

After the tumble, Trixie was promptly tucked into bed with two blankets and three books.

It's hard being the mother of a rabbit...

The Griswold's Get Goats

Once upon a time, my dad heard a rumor from his friend that goats would take diseases out of sheep and you could milk them and never buy milk replacer again.  This was both music to my dad's ears and a clever ploy for this same friend to unload some goats.  

So we got goats.  And fell in love.  And got more goats.  My dad and I loved Nubians:  large bodied, arched roman noses, long floppy ears, and beautiful colors and patterns.

Hubby and I have been in search of a few goats for our farm.  We have some brushy/weedy areas that need some natural attention and we'd really like to milk a few.  I posted an ad on an online classified site and I was pretty specific....just floated my balloon to see if anyone would bite.

And we got some responses!  We wanted Nubian does, either in milk or freshening shortly and no horns.  The owners of three does lined up a pick-up date and we were set.

Problem:  we had planned on taking our diesel pickup with the stock rack to save on gas mileage.  However, it only seats two and Hubby is not-yet-a-goat person so I'd have to go along.  And seeing as how I'm a not-wanting-to-ever-fix-mechanical-stuff person, Hubby had to go along.  We called our trusty babysitter (Grandma) and she was not available.  

Plan B:  We moved the stock rack to the pickup box trailer and hitched it to the back of the suburban.  The 1990 Chevy Suburban, aka The Tank.  Both because of its size and its fuel consumption.  We strapped the three kiddos into the back seat and away we went!

We could only drive 65 on the interstate, so there was plenty of time for vehicles passing us to check out the set-up.  And to mock and ridicule.  And point fingers.  

Then add three floppy eared goats.  Well, it really was a scene from National Lampoon's Summer Vacation.  And while I never saw Christie Brinkley, I don't think she would have made "eyes" at our stock rack.  Just doing our part for tourism and family communication.  Because I'm sure there were lots of oil field workers who called home last night and said, "You are NEVER going to believe what I saw today..."

We had talked up the goats a fair bit to the kiddos so when we passed New Salem I said, "Kids, look on the hill.  What is it?"  Both Kiddo1 and Kiddo2 yelled "A goat!"  

Ummm, no.

After 10 hours and two different farms and three crabby kiddos (particularly the last 40 miles), we brought these beauties to their new home:

Scarlett is on the left - she is 6 and has amazing conformation.  Her udder is not the best, the right side is definitely harder to milk and the previously owners just decided not to milk it as well so it's markedly smaller and less productive.  But the left side milks great!  

Suzanne is in the middle - she is 2 and will freshen (give birth and start milking) around the 4th of July. Her mother gives almost a gallon a day so we have high hopes for her!

Rosie in on the right - she is 3 and will also freshen around July 4th.  Kiddo1 has picked Rosie as her favorite and is crushed that we don't milk her right now.

Scarlett is the only doe "in milk" and with her udder issues, we're only getting about 3.5 cups per milking.  With a family of 5, that's not quite enough for daily consumption, but we'll make due!

After Suzanne and Rosie freshen in July, we'll have PLENTY of milk!  Until then, Scarlett gives us good practice in milking technique and equipment.

The winds of change

By the end of the month, our farm will have:

• 450 chickens
• 25 turkeys
• 3 goats
• 6 sheep
• 10 pigs
• 1 dairy heifer

All of them using our grass and improving our soil.  

Hold on to your hats, folks, the winds of change are blowin'!!!

Now we're off to pick up our three goats...stay tuned.

I cleaned my freezer

I cleaned my freezer this morning.  The one above my fridge.  THAT one.  The one where I throw every little thing, just "pop it in the freezer".

Do you know how many little things you can pack into a freezer?  A LOT.

My goodness do I squirrel away little packets of stuff.

I didn't take a picture because we have to be family friendly here, naked pictures of chickens is OK, pictures of my freezer contents would require some black boxes.

Here is a list (as near as I can recall, I may have repressed some of the more gruesome images):

• 3 packages of northerns from this winter
• 3 packages of northerns from last winter (You may be asking, "How did you tell?" Freezer burn, my friends, freezer burn.  The chickens will be enjoying last year's catch.)
• A cool whip container (which I thought was weird seeing as how I don't buy cool-whip, but when I opened it...it was mashed potatoes.  Why would I freeze mashed potatoes?  A better question is "What was wrong with me that there were mashed potatoes left over??"
• Blueberries
• Rhubarb
• Frozen veggies
• Breast milk (Yes, you read that right, breast milk.  Having had not one but two daughters who had latching issues I have frozen many a container of breast milk.  But it's only good for 3 months in that type of freezer so out it went.)
• Three frozen bananas (If bananas go south on me I just throw them in the freezer and then make a big batch of banana something at once.  The kicker here is I didn't even know I had bananas in the freezer.)
• Lemons (At least I'm telling myself they were lemons.  They were lemon shaped and I think they once contained lemon juice but I can't confirm that.)
• A three year old package of Phyllo dough.  I'm sure I needed it for a recipe, but if I haven't used Phyllo dough in three years, there's a good chance it wasn't a good one.
• Random cubes of freeze dried baby food (I make my own baby food and freeze it in ice cube trays, one cube = one ounce.  Apparently, a few cubes got lost in the bowels of my freezer and their they were preserved in a dehydrated state.  Cryogenics!)
• A plastic pail of popcorn from my nephew the Boy Scout.  (You've all bought them.  I did and thought we had at least a half a pail.  Nope.  Someone, I won't name any names but it does rhyme with 'Bubby', has been eating popcorn on the sly because there were literally 15 kernals left in the pail.  Now, I don't care that he eats popcorn but we were storing an entire pail in the freezer for 15 kernals!!!  I could have thrown in some breastmilk or a weird banana in that space!)
• Cheese (There's always room for cheese!)
• Yeast (I buy it in 2 pound bags and it keeps well in the freezer.)
• Steaks and porkchops (I was wondering where those disappeared to.)
• Not one, but two containers of soup stock.  (Did I have to store that upstairs?  Why, oh why didn't I take that to the basement?)

Moral of the story:  We are having blueberry ice cream this Friday, banana bread on Saturday, cheese everyday and soup, steaks and porkchops sometime this week.  Don't worry, no breastmilk was served in the cleaning of this freezer....

Four years ago...part II

Four years ago today I was in labor with our first child.  Hubby was a fantastic coach and I certainly couldn't have done it without him.  Our nurse even complemented him on his coaching!  After a botched epidural at 6cm, I went au-natural for the rest.  I'll spare you all the details, but I will tell you this:  Giving birth to Kiddo1 was the most amazing thing I've ever done.

Here is our first family photo!  One minute we're a couple and the next...a FAMILY!

Kiddo1 weighed 7lbs 7oz and was born on the 7th of May.  Which is pretty remarkable until you add in this factoid:  Her parents were married on 07.07.07!

  My mom was teaching school.  She and Dad left as soon as the buses left at the end of the day to get to the hospital to hold their new granddaughter.

I love this photo of my Dad holding my daughter.  

Her birthday last year was the last birthday I celebrated with my dad.  

A goat milking stand

I am the daughter of a master woodworker.  I was patiently instructed on how to use tools and wood to build things.  I built a wooden chair when I was 5 years old.  It certainly wasn't fancy or square but it held me.  I don't build fine furniture, but I could, thanks to my dad.

I am married to a machinist, a metal worker, a gear-head.  He works in metals.  He can rebuild transmissions (I've got one in my garage right now).  Pretty much anything with metal, he can do it.

On our farm, that makes us a pretty good team!  Hubby is in charge of anything metal, I handle the wood projects.

My latest project is this:

If you don't recognize it, it's a goat milking stand!  And I didn't just build it to fill my Tuesday afternoon.  Next week we're scheduled to get at least one goat!!  (applause here)

I grew up with goats and am very excited about this new opportunity for our farm.  There will certainly be more pictures to share next week.

But for now my milking stand is empty and waiting...

Four years ago...

Four years ago, our lives were just a little different.

I was starting plants in the nursery.

My south garden looked like this (planted with strawberries and onions).

And I looked like this.  That's the first thing we ever grew on Morning Joy Farm!

Then life got really exciting...stay tuned for more!