English Explorers Sword

This is Mooky's favorite birthday present. You can tell he likes it, because he willingly posed for the picture. I didn't have to threaten him with his life, or anything like that. :o)

Thief!

For the first time in a month we got a little produce out of the garden! We are getting a few more eggs than before as well, now that the Marans are starting to lay. (NO. The eggs were NOT in the garden.) I still needed to get a light set up for the chicks, and fill up water containers, so I set the veggies and eggs down on the spool.

That was a mistake! When I came back I saw Lily eating my veggies, she already slobbered all over them so I decided to take pictures instead of trying to rescue veggies. I did at least save the eggs though. I was amazed to see her eating the hot peppers like it didn't bother her a bit.

YUMMY!!

The milk is going to taste like jalapenos tomorrow!

Uh-oh.

Wait a minute!

Something is burning my mouth!!

AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!

Serves her right. :o)

Bowling

Friday: Dropped Kris off at the dentist.

Dropped Erinn off at GB's house.

Grocery shopping. Phbtbtbt.

Got gas. $$$$$$

Went to the feed store and as soon as we got out of the truck we were accosted by a psycho women wanting a ride across town! The ONLY reason I even had a conversation with her is because she was an older person, bless her heart. I didn't want to be disrepectful, but it quickly became clear that I wasn't going to give her a ride anywhere! She kept saying "I'm disabled and I need a ride across town." Then when Mooky got out of the truck, she walked around and sat down in his seat! I was standing on the driver's side and I told her that I had to go in and buy feed. What? You came to the feed store to buy feed? Good grief, I thought you were taking me home. No maam, will you please get out so I can lock the doors? What? I'm innocent. I wont touch anything. And I'm disabled, so I cant just stand around waiting for you to come back out.

Well, if you'd like to you can sit on the tail gate while I go inside, but I have to lock the doors. So, mumbling all the while about being disabled, and innocent, and where the heck is the bus driver, she got out and sat on the tail gate. I posted Mooky nearby to watch that she didnt steal any of our groceries, and went inside the store. I asked the employees inside if they knew who the crazy lady was, and they all went to the door to stare at her. LOL When I went back out Mooky told me that she had talked to herself the whole time, and kept saying, "Where's the bus? Where's the bus driver?" I didn't know if she was on drugs, or just mentally ill, but either way I knew that I didn't want her squished into the front seat of the truck with us. So, after the feed was loaded I told her I was sorry but there wasn't room for her in the truck because we don't have a back seat like that truck over there. (Kris got a good laugh when I told him that I'd said that.) That truck over there was another customer and his wife who were waiting for their feed to be loaded. She flounced off in a huff and the last thing I saw of her, she was talking to the people in the other truck. LOL. I felt kinda bad about not giving her a ride but she was acting mighty strange and I had to protect my little boy, after all! (OK, let's forget the fact that he is considerably taller than I am.) GB said I should have offered to call the police for her. Ha! I should have!

After that we had a good visit with GB and Aunt Loy while we waited for Kris to get done at the dentist. They finished his root canal, at long last!

Then, Kris called to say he was done, so we picked him up and then went bowling. We bowled two games, and had a lot of fun. At first there was no one there but us, then after a while a bunch of seniors came in to bowl. Mooky LOVES to bowl and was just barely behind Kris on the first game. By the second game he was wiped out though, and didn't do so well, but he really enjoyed himself.

After we got home Kris packed his stuff and headed off to the cabin for opening weekend of deer hunting. I hate it when he's gone. I'm used to him being gone in the daytime, but at night is kinda freaky. :o) Silly, huh?

Prayer Requests:
For Kiwi to get some relief from her terrible stomach pain and for the doctors to quickly figure out what is causing it.
For Mum and Dad, etc, to get moved out to the farm without too much stress.
For GB's broken arm to heal without needing surgery. (The doc told her on Tuesday that because of how it's looking in one area she still might need surgery.)
For Loy's foot to heal cleanly and the infected area not to get out of control. Also that the Lord would strengthen her heart.
For Kris to be able to finally get his root canal over with this Friday. There have been so many setbacks.
For Caleb's broken arm to heal quickly and cleanly.
For Sophie to not have any more febrile seizures, if indeed that's what it was! Go to http://halcymouse.blogspot.com/ for more details.
For us to be able to get all the details worked out on a GI for Mooky. We've had a hard time finding one who will take the insurance, who is accepting new patients and every time I find one they say they wont accept patients under the age of 18. We started looking in Kerrville and Fredericksburg, moved on to San Antonio, and now finally we think we have found one in Austin. Now we are just waiting on our doctor here to do the referral for the insurance so we can get an appointment set up.
For Alex, that she will have fewer headache problems once she gets her new glasses.

Pokey is missing again.

Pokey hasn't been seen since Friday or Saturday and we are really worried that a hunter shot her. STUPIDLY I didn't get the bright orange paint on her soon enough. She just wasn't sticking around for very long at a time, and spraying it on scared her. So, we came up with a plan to spray the paint onto a sponge, then dab it high on her neck where she couldn't lick it off, but it didn't get done in time.
Mr. P across the road said that he hasn't seen her in at least 5 days either. He feeds a bunch of deer out behind his barn every afternoon so I am going to go over there and see if she is among them. It's not likely because they always would run her off, and she preferred to hang out by the house looking for a hand out.
Dana is a little better this morning! Chewing her cud and she took a few tiny nibbles of hay, so I am hopeful.
Mooky is feeling the effects of all the sugar yesterday.
Erinn is her usual cheerful self!
Kris is dreading his dentist appointment on Friday because this is the longest root canal in dental history! Poor thing. :o(

Birthday!

Our tradition is that the birthday kid gets to make their own cake. This has always been one of their favorite things to do, and both kids are great cooks. Mooky picked out a recipe for pineapple upside down cake, and it turned out great!

15 years old!

YUM, good cake!

Grandpa and Granny came from Mason to join the celebration!

Dana Update.

Poor Dana. She has had a hard day. I really thought she was going to die this morning! Kris told me before he left that he CAN'T be the one to put her out of her misery if it becomes necessary. He asked me to call the Ogeas if it gets that bad. Thankfully, I did not have to do that today.
She FINALLY drank some warm water mixed with kefir, after I had been syringing kefir down her throat since 4:30 am. Then, she drank warm water with O7 in it from a bowl, and when she drained that I filled it up at the faucet outside and she drank half of that one!!!
She was so weak that she couldn't stand on her own, so really the only improvement until late afternoon was the drinking. Later in the day she heard one of her babies cry and she called out to him. That was encouraging. I brought them to her and she let them try to nurse, but there is no milk there. Thankfully they both take a bottle quite well.
I'm still not sure she will make it, but she is a bit better.
Going out to feed the last bottle of the day, and then going to bed!

Dana is really sick.

Yesterday afternoon Dana was not acting right and by evening I knew I'd better give her some meds. She stayed on her feet all night long, from what I could tell, until she finally could stand no longer. This morning I wouldn't have given her more than a 10% chance to live. She was COLD and very dehydrated. Sounds like pneumonia in her lungs. I've been spending lots of time trying to get various things down her and she did finally drink a lot of water! That is my only encouragement right now. She cant get up though, so in a little bit we are going to try to help her get up for a bit.
We NEED this goat! She's the only one in milk until late January. She's an excellent milker, AND I wont have enough goat milk to feed her kids if she dies. If it comes down to it, I will have to raise them on cow milk when the little bit of goat milk I have in the freezer runs out. And not only that, but we really like Dana. :o(

Valley of Vison

But Thou dost show Thy power by my frailty, so that the more feeble I am,

the more fit to be used, for Thou dost pitch a tent of grace

in my weakness.

Help me to rejoice in my infirmities

and give Thee praise, to acknowledge my deficiencies before others

and not be discouraged by them, that they may see Thy glory more clearly.V of V 341

I really like this prayer that Mum emailed to us this morning!



We got a lot of needed work done this weekend! The chicks are finally in the barn, but will need to be moved again fairly soon. They have gotten so big that they are a bit crowded in that older pen. We could put them in one of the new pens, but I am not sure they can handle the colder temps at night, even with a heat lamp. As soon as I enclose one of the new pens, they will go to the garden. Yes, it's always something!



Kris got a "chicken door" added to the chicken house. The main door keeps predators out at night, but the chicken door keeps goats, cows, and horses out while allowing the chickens free access to their food. He also had to add a wire cage to the bottom of the deer feeder because Thunder figured out that he could get feed out of without waiting for it to go off on it's own. Toasty (goat) figured out that whenever Thunder headed towards the feeder, it would be wise to go along with him. He cleaned up whatever Thunder dropped on the ground. Piggy.



Thunder also knows to come-a-runnin when I feed the goat kids! I wired this feeder up high on the fence so that the show goats would have to stand on their back legs to eat. Supposedly it helps build their muscles. It certainly does keep them from getting dirt, etc, in their feeder, which is a good thing! Thunder can easily eat out of it, so I have to be careful not to feed the goats anything that is bad for horses.

L to R: Diamond, Valley, Thunder, Little and Hershey

In the background of this pic you can see

one completed chicken tractor,

with the roof/lid propped open.

Mooky and I got the deck clean! There was firewood, jars, auction stuff and bags of outgrown clothes to deal with. What a relief to have it clean again. :o)



Erinn and I got the chickens automatic watering system set up and working. We got it cheap (used) at the auction and it will save a lot of time refilling chick waterers. They are drinking LOTS of water by 3 weeks old.



Almond has joint ill, poor baby. He has swollen joints in a front leg and a back leg which make it hard to walk. He hasn't been able to nurse much so he is getting lots of extra bottles. I need to be SURE to use iodine on umbilical cords from now on!