The sadness of the farm

Despite our best efforts, Fuzzy died yesterday afternoon. The kids were absolutely devastated. I know it is a hard lesson, and one we sometimes shield our kids from, but death is a part of life. We really tried hard. I am not sure what happened. She drank her lunch bottle and by the time the kids got home from school she was almost gone. She died a short time later. Everyone feels responsible for it, but I wonder if maybe the mother goat sensed something about her and that is why she rejected her. It's not clear. A friend's husband also passed away yesterday, after a hard fought battle with cancer. It was a hard day.

Tornados with goats

Last night, I had a parent teacher conference for Saige. I was supposed to come home from that and Take the kids to 4-H. When I came out of the school, I had a few calls from Preston and a couple texts from Mallory. Mallory was home yesterday. She had texted to tell me that there were tornados in Wabaunsee county and that she had forced the kids to put on their shoes and take cover. I pointed out that Wabaunsee county is pretty far away, but Mallory just thinks you can never be too careful where tornados are concerned. She also told me that the kids were crying because their bottle baby was out in the shed. I told her to let Quincy go get it and then they could resume cover. ;).
The calls from Preston were to tell me that they fed the baby goat, set the bottle down to finish the other chores, and the cats had eaten the nipple off the bottle. It's always something isn't it?

I made a call to our local vet, but they were out of goat nipples. I really did not have time to go to Topeka. Then I remembered when Jim and I took the kids to Grant's farm in St. Louis. We paid about $50 to get some baby bottles of milk to feed baby goats. (Which turned out to be a strange way to waste money since the goats were full and refused to drink the bottles we bought). Anyway, I stopped at Dollar General on my way home and bought some cheap baby bottles. Little goat is fine with this arrangement.

4-H was cancelled so we had plenty of time to hang out in the basement with a goat!

I was laughing with Jim last night. The dog has taken on the job of cleaning Fuzzy. She is very serious about this job! The kids were taking turns holding her, videoing her, watching TV with her, and I even found Harper reading to her. She is a well loved goat! I just hope she doesn't decide she is a person the way that Curley has!

Sunday Funday

Since mass is now on Saturday evenings, I was excited about being able to sleep in on Sunday mornings. I stayed up late last night watching a Jim Carey movie marathon with Preston, folding laundry and getting a few things done. I was not worried because I was sleeping in today!
I should never even think sleeping in is a thing for me.
I woke up at 5 when I heard Mallory leave for work. I woke up at 6 to a weird noise which turned out to be the cat drinking out of the toilet. At 6:30 Preston came in to tell me they went out to do chores (without being asked) and that Mo was having babies. At 7, Preston was back to tell me that Mo did not clean up the second baby and that Quincy had broken it out of the sack and was trying to dry it off. Ok. Not sleeping in today!

I went down and observed the situation. Quincy and Preston were correct. Mo had cleaned up and was nursing the first twin, but would have nothing to do with the big girl who happened to be born second. After quite a while, we brought the baby into the house and dried her off, milked colostrum from the mother and started her on a bottle. She seemed to come around after that and was perky and loud!

Jim and I made a quick run for goat milk replacer. She is doing great on the bottle and since she is Cameron's goat, we waited for him to decide what should happen with her. The decision was made that the goat would be sold to Harper to bottle feed and raise as the start of her 4-H meat goat project. Harper was happy that she is a doe, and therefore won't have to face selling her! I had a hard time getting Harper to focus on anything except her new baby "Fuzzy" today.

We went in to the ball park clean up day. It is definitely spring if we are worrying about the ballpark! A lot of people turned out and a lot of work got finished!

When we got home, we put Fuzzy back in the pen with her mom and twin brother. The mom won't have anything to do with her, but was also not hurting her! Blitz spent a long time cleaning her! It was sweet. Tonight we went out to feed her, she ate her dinner and was snuggled up with her twin!

Harper sat in the barn with this baby for hours. She is sad she has to go to school tomorrow! It warmed my heart to see how excited she is about it!

Saturday surprises

The 4-H had a biscuit and gravy fundraiser this morning which we were supposed to work at. The kids and I ran out to do chores before we left and found sweet little surprises in the barn! Curley had a baby girl! I had been very worried about Curley having a baby or babies since she was a bottle goat who was abandoned at birth. I didn't know if she would have any mothering instincts. She proved to me I worried about nothing. Preston named his grand baby "Lonzo" and Curley did a great job cleaning and feeding her and is very protective!

Buttee also had babies over night. She had a boy and a girl twins. Preston had a really exciting morning!

He named the boy baby "Stripe" but has not thought of the perfect name for the girl yet! I swear nothing makes me smile more than baby goats! They are adorable. And I love their little cries.

It was hard to tear ourselves away from the baby goats, but we managed to serve biscuits and gravy! The kids did a great job and the Legion men were very impressed with how hard they worked. I don't know how much money was raised, but it was really busy! Harper was disappointed she could not go! Colin is home and he and Cameron worked all day at the Judd Ranch's bull sale.

When we got home, Glow was in the process of cleaning a baby! Quincy was thrilled! She only had one kid- a cute little boy that Quincy named Ed! I am already sensing how many tears will be shed in August when she has to sell this little one! The words "do not get attached" just don't work well for Quincy!

I adore our critters! Cupcake and Casper are getting big!

Our church switched to having Saturday evening mass rather than Sunday morning. I like the idea of Saturday mass, but I am not convinced that it will work well with our schedules. Tonight it worked though! Mallory needed a picture for a class project. She had interviewed grandpa earlier! I love this picture!

On the way home from church, Quincy was forcing us to listen to country music. Preston was fussing about hating it. He said it is all written about back roads, spitting, riding tractors and eating fried chicken. I fail to see how any of that is negative. Especially when the back road leads home. I love it out here - it feels like I live on a piece of heaven.

Week o'done

Tuesday, I left for work and realized the tire light was on in my van. Upon further inspection, there was a giant screw sticking out. I dropped it off at my cousin's tire shop and walked to work. I had just walked in my office when the phone rang. It was the Carbondale school calling to tell me that Quincy had put "bunch 'ems" in her hair and they couldn't get them out. Bunch ems are like little brushes that stick together and you can build Pom Pom type animals with them. I told the nurse I'm very sorry but she is just going to have to wear them and I'll deal with it after school. Landrie somehow got them out on the bus ride home, but I thought Quincy resembled the girl in the well on the Ring movies!

There was an author presentation at Harper's school this week. She has a bruise on her hand and is convinced it is an allergic reaction to having to listen to the presentation!

I had a band boosters meeting this week, and got done just in time to catch Cameron's presentation in foods from Australia during "International night." He was not excited about this, but it meant a lot of extra credit for his English grade! He and his partner made "Fairy Bread." It was terrible!

Saige was super excited about Dr. Seuss' birthday at school this week. They got cupcakes, and the PTO bought everyone in the district a new shirt.

Thursday, Cameron's basketball team played in the sub state basketball tournament against Hayden. It was not the best game of the year and they lost by a lot. This was the end of the basketball season for them.

While I was watching substate, Quincy's team was also playing their last game of the season. She had a great time playing!

Friday evening, Cameron played in the pep band at the girls sub state game. He reported that he had fun taunting people and he gets to do it again because the girls won!

Harper came home from school last night and told me she was soooo tired. She took a nap. When she woke up, she had a fever and said her throat hurt so bad. I looked at it and it was awful. So we went to express care where they said she had strep throat. She is on medicine now and feeling a little bit better.