I'm a wee bit late with spring happenings, but no better time than the present. We were late in ordering our chicks, and we purposely bred Moira's goat late so as not to have a newborn kid coming in February. So the usual spring happenings, just so happened closer to summer. Can you believe that tomorrow is the first day of summer?!?! I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around it!
This past week was busy with Moira and Flannery volunteering at Runner's Camp during the morning, then volunteering for VBS in the evening. The younger ones, all but Merida, partook of VBS. They had a lot of fun, and fit a ton of stuff into one week! We went to the 'grand finale' tonight, to see the kids perform their songs that they have been working on all week. Aubrey's age was up first. He and a few others just kind of sat there...doing nothing. The kids were taught hand movements along with the music, and the poor guy just sat there! Ha, ha. Jonah was next in line (as far as our kiddos go) and he did a great job. He was very outgoing about the hand movements, and looked like he was having a lot of fun. Last up was Jed. I was so proud of him. He was singing the songs to me while running errands today, so I know that he knew the words. I saw him singing on stage, and really putting effort into the hand movements. There was a leader up front doing the hand movements to help the kids out, and you could see when Jed knew the movement by heart, and when he didn't. It takes a bit for him to process what he sees/hears, and put it into action. But he did a great job, and he really had a great time!
It was weird to just have one little one with me for almost 4 hours each evening all week. Just the baby and me! Merida and I would play for a bit, then go out to feed the animals. I would give her a bath, and then it would be bed time. It was QUIET in my house. QUIET. Odd, very, very odd.
Not much else got accomplished, well, except trying to keep our one cat from eating our chicks. Sigh. He got one, thankfully I happened to go out at that moment to check on them. Since it is so hot here we need to check on all the animals often, but the chicks more so, to make sure they have water at all times, and that no one is over heating. I walk out and hear a chick chirping in the front yard. The chicks would find ways to get out of the barn, but they wouldn't go more than 2 or 3 feet from the barn. I thought, "How strange....I wonder what a chick is doing out so far from the barn." Um, yeah...I look down from the stairs to see said chick in the mouth of our cat! I saved her, we had to keep her in the house for two days, but she is doing well and back with her flock. We patched up all the holes we could see, but they were still managing to get out. Then we found that even though they are only a couple of weeks old (3 weeks maybe), some were able to manage flying over the divider between the goat area of the barn, where we are keeping them, and the old nesting area. So we had to put up some fencing to keep them in. So far so good. I haven't seen any chicks out since we've put the fencing up.
Here are some pictures of the new-ish things around the homestead:
Kittens. Five of them. One we are keeping. You know, you can never have too many cats! Cough, cough. We really need to get our female cats fixed. We had three, one disappeared (fox maybe?), leaving two to 'fix'. The other one almost died on us, and I thought that with her bout of paralysis that maybe she was going to be sterile? Um, no such luck. She is due to have kittens soon.
Oh my goodness...cuteness! They have full tummies, and are hanging out on the cool rocks. We have flirted with 100+ for a few days down here, so all the animals have been trying to find the cools spots.
Three of our 30+ chicks. I don't remember how many we got. They didn't have some of the ones we wanted, but shipped out the ones they did have, leaving us with a credit. We used that up, and then some, since they had a minimal shipping number. On top of that they always throw one or two more in each order, due to the unfortunate possibility that one or two don't make it during shipping. This year, all of them survived. But I didn't keep track of how many we didn't get in our first batch, but the extra one or two they added in for good measure, plus the number of chicks in the second batch. It is a bit over 30 if I am not mistaken. One of these days we'll count them. They move too quickly to try to count them right now.
Not the best picture, but these are the two bucklings that Moira's goat, Mocha, had. Mocha has been VERY people shy. So much so that Moira was going to sell her, and the bucklings and use that money to buy another goat. We know how hard it can be to milk our 'socialized' goats, and she didn't want milking to be an epic battle each and every day. Two times a day. For the next 6 months or so. Not fun. However, motherhood has treated Mocha well, and she has actually been coming up to us! She wants to be pet, and loved on. At first Moira thought she was sick! I mean this is a goat that would bolt if she even thought you might be heading her way. So for now it looks like we will keep her and see how the milking season goes.
Lots of refilling of water buckets going on around here. LOTS. For some reason this picture does not convey the 102* temps and the humidity. That water bucket almost seemed to be steaming it was so hot out. Each day the girls or I go out to top off or dump and refill the animals water buckets/bottles. Cat bowl, dog bowl, two 5 gallon goat buckets, two chick waterers, and 5 rabbit water bottles. The baby really enjoys helping. I LOVE how she tries to say the names of the animals. Doggy, cheep-cheep, bun-bun (for bunnies, so, so cute!), kitty, go (for goats).
Our peach tree actually has peaches on it this year. Last year it got some baby ones on it, and they all dropped off when they were all but an inch wide. This year there were a few that dropped, and there were many that we plucked off. But as you can see, we have quite a few 'brewing'. I am very excited to see how things pan out!
This one is getting a bit of it's peach color to it. A beautiful sight.
It appears that our plum tree is following in the peach tree's footsteps. This year is the first that it has any fruit on it, but all of it has dropped. Above you can see how tiny they are. I am hoping that next year we will see an actual harvest.
Our big growers. In the front left is our plum tree, behind that is our peach, and over to the right is our cherry tree. We have one apple tree that is growing well, but the others are still really small.
Our hoops have not seen much action this past week. With all of the camps, and the heat, they have been sitting here on our fence post....beckoning to us. We only have one room with AC in it. I have thought about bringing in a hoop to hoop in the AC, but too many bodies are occupying that room :-)
The boys had a crazy hair day at VBS this week. I used some green and blue food coloring on their bangs. It was only supposed to be the tips of their bangs, but it kind of spread. Thankfully it all washed out by day 2. They thought it was neat though while it lasted.
Time for bed! I am hoping for a good nights sleep. The baby has been getting her molars in. Teething = No Sleep. No Sleep = No Fun. And when she seems to be having a break in the pain...we had a massive storm come through waking me up, then Aubrey who came in a few hours later needing itch relief from some bug bites, and then a girl....and so forth and so on! Goodnight!
This past week was busy with Moira and Flannery volunteering at Runner's Camp during the morning, then volunteering for VBS in the evening. The younger ones, all but Merida, partook of VBS. They had a lot of fun, and fit a ton of stuff into one week! We went to the 'grand finale' tonight, to see the kids perform their songs that they have been working on all week. Aubrey's age was up first. He and a few others just kind of sat there...doing nothing. The kids were taught hand movements along with the music, and the poor guy just sat there! Ha, ha. Jonah was next in line (as far as our kiddos go) and he did a great job. He was very outgoing about the hand movements, and looked like he was having a lot of fun. Last up was Jed. I was so proud of him. He was singing the songs to me while running errands today, so I know that he knew the words. I saw him singing on stage, and really putting effort into the hand movements. There was a leader up front doing the hand movements to help the kids out, and you could see when Jed knew the movement by heart, and when he didn't. It takes a bit for him to process what he sees/hears, and put it into action. But he did a great job, and he really had a great time!
It was weird to just have one little one with me for almost 4 hours each evening all week. Just the baby and me! Merida and I would play for a bit, then go out to feed the animals. I would give her a bath, and then it would be bed time. It was QUIET in my house. QUIET. Odd, very, very odd.
Not much else got accomplished, well, except trying to keep our one cat from eating our chicks. Sigh. He got one, thankfully I happened to go out at that moment to check on them. Since it is so hot here we need to check on all the animals often, but the chicks more so, to make sure they have water at all times, and that no one is over heating. I walk out and hear a chick chirping in the front yard. The chicks would find ways to get out of the barn, but they wouldn't go more than 2 or 3 feet from the barn. I thought, "How strange....I wonder what a chick is doing out so far from the barn." Um, yeah...I look down from the stairs to see said chick in the mouth of our cat! I saved her, we had to keep her in the house for two days, but she is doing well and back with her flock. We patched up all the holes we could see, but they were still managing to get out. Then we found that even though they are only a couple of weeks old (3 weeks maybe), some were able to manage flying over the divider between the goat area of the barn, where we are keeping them, and the old nesting area. So we had to put up some fencing to keep them in. So far so good. I haven't seen any chicks out since we've put the fencing up.
Here are some pictures of the new-ish things around the homestead:
This is our pitiful almond tree. We have some trees that are growing like mad, and others...not so much!
Time for bed! I am hoping for a good nights sleep. The baby has been getting her molars in. Teething = No Sleep. No Sleep = No Fun. And when she seems to be having a break in the pain...we had a massive storm come through waking me up, then Aubrey who came in a few hours later needing itch relief from some bug bites, and then a girl....and so forth and so on! Goodnight!
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