07 July 2008

Alive And Kickin' (And Picture Heavy)

Been a while, huh?

Just like my knitting and spinning... sigh! What have you been up to?

The snow here has melted.









Spring sprang while I wasn't looking and summer's in full bloom already.








Springtime on a farm is amazingly busy and there hasn't been a moment to update you all, tho' I've taken tons of pictures. Poor Jeff had the duty of cleaning the deep bedding out of the goat barn after the winter season. He had to borrow this manure spreader from the neighbor, and filled it - by hand, by himself - several times before he was through. Ouch!






Remember Eggbertina?



She grew...



And grew some more, and was introduced to the flock...



And now she's doing just fine on her own with the other chickens - though she does still think she's a human child, and tends to follow me around as I do chores or walk the dogs.

I think she looks just like her papa:






The sheep and Angora goats went from being wild and wooly:





...to being much more comfortable.










The fiber is at a local processor this time, and I'm expecting it back in just three short weeks, rather than eight or nine months.

And here is an update on little Elfine!



The little buckling's name of "Periwinkle" didn't go over well with Cheff Jeff, and now he is known as "Jack". Probably a good thing.




Jeff successfully completed his certification at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and is now going to give exams to potential hockey referees throughout Wisconsin. That is, after his second knee surgery later this week. Go, Jeff! Not bad for a guy who didn't start skating until after we were married (fifteen years ago yesterday!)



And the next post has to do with... donkeys!

04 May 2008

Dear God, Part Deux

Dear God,

I apologize for giving you grief about the snow. I realize now that it was not so bad...

What with Friday being full of terrible thunder and lightning...

Chef Jeff being away at the Olympic training center in Colorado (more on that next post - and FREE TIBET!)...

Flower giving birth to her kids without the box stall being ready...

Pansy being secretly pregnant and also giving birth to her kids...

at the same time as Flower...

in the goat barn, which had just been cleaned so which had no bedding on the floor...

while all the other goats had to wait outside in the rain...

until I could find where Chef Jeff had the straw, which was nowhere, as we were out, so I had to find the wood shavings, and cart them down from the Big Barn, in the wagon, in the thunderstorm, wondering if I would be hit by lightning because of the metal cart handle...

and then slap myself in the face three times so I could stop hyperventilating and become coherent enough to grab my embroidery scissors (the only one at hand) and the kitchen twine (don't tell Cheff Jeff) and the iodine, and take care of the little goatie belly buttons...

and then prepare a separate stall for Flower and her kids, since she wanted to adopt all four kids as her own and wouldn't let Pansy near her babies...

and then eat an entire box of Godiva truffles in 10 minutes (thank you for making the UPS man arrive with them just in time, even if it was during the births.)

Never mind having the live trap catch four rats in the chicken coop at one time (how on earth is that possible?) and me having to run them down (in the thunderstorm) to the CRP land down the road and let them go free, hopefully never to return, maybe to live out happy rattie lives, or to become a yummy meal for a hawk or owl...

and then arrive inside the house, wet and tired, to be greeted by four very worked-up dogs having to be walked... in the thunder and lightning.

So believe me when I say...

I'll take the snow. Any day. No joking.


Sorry for the cruddy photos - Chef Jeff had the camera with him and only got home tonight. It was too dark to get a shot of Flower and her kids (buckling Periwinkle and doeling Lily) but here are pics of Flower's older daughter, Pansy, with her kids (both doelings) Elfine and Daisy May:






Pansy does not have mange; she is still shedding out her winter cashmere... what with all that SNOW we had recently, I don't blame her for hanging on to it!


And God, thanks for seeing me through all this, all alone. What a weekend. I need to order some more chocolate!