R.I.P.

Poor thing, not even a day old. The little guy was hanging out by the fence and our neighbor's Doberman tunneled underneath two fences to get to him. Grabbed him by the tail and drug him under kicking and screaming. Lily witnessed the whole thing and is pretty traumatized. She's upset because she couldn't do anything about it and had to stand helplessly by. She was very scared of the dog. Our neighbors came by when they got off of work and found him in their yard. They were so sorry and embarrassed, I felt bad for them and told them not to worry about it. They're going to fix the fence, but I have it blocked with large rocks for now.

*Sigh* At least my children are learning how to deal with sad things. That's important for when they grow up and learn that life isn't fair and never will be, that is, until Jesus comes to take us home. Then all things will be made right. God is good and He has a plan and a purpose in everything that He allows to happen to us. We may never know His reasoning until we see Him face to face, but we can trust Him to see us through the trials He gives us.

Busyness

Well, we've been keeping busy around here! Hope had her 5th birthday. She told Ginger that she was 15, and on our way to church she informed us that she doesn't do bad things like interrupt conversations anymore. I have no more babies in the house! :( If I had kept on at the rate I was going at in this past decade I should have had three more babies by now. I miss them a lot, but I am starting to enjoy my big kids more. I also like having a little more freedom to be able to sew, which is a good thing since I forgot to get Hope a birthday present. When we got home from church I raided my pink fabric stash and busted out a sparkly dress in record time. She loved it! Thank goodness little girls are so easy to please.

Sorry it's fuzzy, she couldn't stand still!

Let's see... oh yes, last week Faith and I had an opportunity to volunteer to help train Chico and Sacramento police horses not to freak out when confronted with a noisy crowd. It was a lot of standing around but was also pretty fun. The riot police even trained with us. Faith was so ecstatic!

Earlier that same day Abi and Lily got a chance to attend a free cooking class for kids put on my the Galley, a local kitchen supply store. The instructor had the genius idea of giving the kids plastic lettuce knives to cut the soft veggies with. They're sharp enough to cut soft things with, but not sharp enough to cut little fingers. He gave us one ;) They loved it so much they want to sign up for the next class.

Last but not least, Violet finally birthed her babies! Sadly though I'm pretty sure they're both boys. We'll have to sell them. Violet and Daisy are different as night and day. Daisy is a loud, pushy pig who will eat herself sick; and Violet is a timid, gentle sweetheart who will scrounge for Daisy's leftovers. Daisy moaned and yelled LOUDLY all night during the birth of her babies; Violet was so quiet we didn't know she had her babies till the next morning. I had to separate Daisy into a different pen because she was jealous of all the attention Violet was getting and kept on ramming her and trampling her babies. The good news about daisy is that her milk isn't sour anymore and we can drink it now without getting sick. I think she just ate something that disagreed with her last time we let her out to graze in the yard.

Well, I guess that's all I'll post for now. Things are happening all the time around here so that I can hardly keep up! Now this is what home schooling is all about! I love it!

Baby Goats!

Our goat Daisy had babies! Well, she did a couple weeks ago. But I couldn't let the chance to blog about them slip away. They are just SO darn cute with their long airplane ears! I spared you the gory pics  ;)

1st baby- Flora

 

 

 

Kinda wobbly.

2nd baby- Fauna

I found it!

Two pretty little girls.

Piggy back.

Patient momma.

It's Hot Already

May's mostly over and I haven't gotten much done around here. It's been getting hot here already and I really don't do well in hot weather, so I have to try to get work done in the mornings. I finished the raised beds in my vegetable garden. Originally I had planned to do an H pattern in the middle, but decided to go with a C instead. Now I have to work on the sprinkler system, the old hose is cracked and some of the heads are missing.












I don't have the money to buy mulch, so I'm using grass clippings in the pathways instead. I hope it works. I figure if you pile it deep enough it'll keep anything from growing.

















I'm still trying to fine tune the watering system in my greenhouse. When I first set it up in March there was so much water that the seedlings molded. Now all my rhubarb seedlings died from lack of water. I think the battery in the timer died so it wasn't turning on. This is what happens when I get lazy and don't check on them for 2 days. Grrrrrr!












Here's a little advice for those of you who have goats: make sure your children latch the gate of their pen properly, goats really like roses and strawberries. This bush had big beautiful clusters of roses on it, and the strawberries were lush and overflowing the top of the barrell. Another grrrrrr!

























At least my peas, lettuce, and artichokes are doing well. I don't know how long they'll last though in this heat. I almost lost all 20 of my Roma tomato seedlings because I forgot to water them during the same 2 days I lost the rhubarb. They popped back up after a good soaking, but some of the leaves didn't make it. I still need to get those in the ground.















































The goats are enjoying their new sun shade. Unfortunately the flies are too.












I've lost almost half of our 30 meat chicks that I got a few weeks ago. Some died from lack of water, some escaped their cage and were caught by Augie the dog to be shaken to death. Now I only have 17. Bummer. But seeing as how this is my first year raising meat chickens, I figured it would be a learning experience, and it has been.











Well, let's not end with too much disappointing news. Here's Hopie and her new clothespin hairdo. She could start a new trend with this.

















And here she is preparing for her new show "Cooking With Chicken Feed."