A Morning's View From the Bathroom Window

Of course I had to sneak outside with my camera:

Baby Season- A New Calf

We're adding babies left and right. We welcomed a little (well, kinda little) 88 pound calf to our farm family on May 1. 

All went well. The hooves were sticking out when Nate left for work and the calf was born when I checked an hour later.

Brielle and I got to watch as the calf flopped around and eventually took some steps. She made her way to Clydette's bursting udder and figured out the self serve system in a jiffy!

Brielle watched quietly from her perch on the 5 gallon pail. 

Clydette gladly guzzled down a pail of warm molasses water. We didn't milk her on Day 1, but did a little bit on Day 2, and gradually increased it to full milking by Day 4. 

We were prepared for milk fever (which is more common in the Jersey/Guernsey breed), and sure enough, she did get a little wobbly. The man we bought her from came out and shoved a calcium pill the size of a calk gun down her throat and she got over it with flying colors. He's been SO helpful in guiding us in the milk cow journey. We feel very lucky to have his support.

We let the calf be with her Momma for the first few days, and then started separating them for 8 hours during the day. This way the calf gets tame and Clydette is more willing to come in for evening milking.

Clydette is very gentle during milking. She never kicks the pail and usually just stands calmly and chews her cud. We've settled into a routine. I do the morning milking while Nate is getting ready for work, and Nate does the evening milking. It's so peaceful. We both enjoy it more than we anticipated!

We turned the downstairs bathroom into our milk room. Thanks goodness the calf takes her fair share because we have PLENTY of milk to go around!! The average lately is two gallons a day for us.

Our first try at making butter. YUM

Rhya almost always accompanies her daddy at evening milking time. She knows to sit on the stoop and wait for her turn to milk. She gets some squirts out but they usually go flying in random directions! 

How's this for a cheese press? The real ones are over 200 bucks...

Goats!!

We decided to let Clydette share our pasture with three frolicking Boer cross goats. We found them an hour away on Craigslist.  We made it a Saturday family outing and loaded up the dog crate into our all purpose minivan (love that thing), and headed up to meet our babies.

The poor babies had a big day, as they were only 12 weeks old and never been away from their mommas. We bought two white bucks and one brown doe. 

They were friendly, but afraid to come out of the crate.

Fred decided to show us how he was truly a goat.

Alice, Peter, and Fred, front to back. This pen is handy for keeping goats in!! We put them in here at first while they were getting to know us.

I can't let this video go unwatched! Blogs seems to make lives look picturesque and perfect, so this video is a check of reality. Enjoy, haha (btw this was the climax)

Birthday Party

Birthday parties are a HUGE highlight in the eyes of a four year old! Rhya had so much fun talking about being four, who was coming to her party, what kind of cake she'd have, etc..
The day finally came and Rhya was wondering WHEN people were going to come. It took an eternity for her to wait for the first car to pull in.

The girls are SO lucky to have cousins to celebrate with! We ate cheeseburger soup, cornbread, fruit, and salad. The funny thing about the eating arrangement was the the other kids finished up long before Brielle, but she didn't care. She sat at the table all by herself for at least 15 min. longer, happily munching away!

 Great Gpa Wayne, Great Gpa George, Gpa Mark, Auntie Shanda, Gma Mo, Daddy, Gpa, Uncle Travis

Present time equals lots of excited kids! The girls were greatly spoiled with lots of fun toys and gifts!

The cards were a big deal to Brielle. She loved to look at each one very carefully. It would have been fun to sit back and watch her open each one at her own pace, but somehow the clock ticks very fast during birthday parties!

Camping theme cake. Rhya had campsite number 4 on her cake and Brielle had campsite number 2.

Gotta love Brielle's finger going up to her mouth to feel her teeth just to be sure she was smiling.

All decked out in her dr suit. The kids had a blast fixing everyone up!

Brielle went STRONG and was super happy the whole party. She knew she was was wiped, though, and before the last guests left she crawled to the back of the play tent (that we had set up to go along with the camping theme) and fell fast asleep. She napped for over two hours!

Great Gpa Elmer stayed a bit longer than the rest. Rhya thought he might like to see her new birthday panties! HA! We sure missed Gma Jane this year. She used to be so involved in making the girls' day extra special.

Rhya and Brielle are SO lucky to have so much loving family close by!! Thanks to everyone who came and made their day special.

We've got a FOUR year old!

Itty bitty cutesy Rhya is now a bouncy, independent but yet dependent, FOUR year old! She loves to remind us of this fact. Age is a BIG DEAL right now. We talk about it multiple times per day. 

She started off her day bounding out of her room, eyes still trying to focus, holding up four fingers as high as they could go. "I am FOUR today", she exclaimed!! Shortly after that, much to Rhya's delight, Auntie Sarah called and sang happy birthday.

The call gave her the itch for more, so she suggested that WE call people so they could sing to her. Ha. I explained that we don't generally call people on our birthday for the purpose of getting a birthday message, but we wait for THEM to call us. Then I discreetly texted Kayla and told her that Rhya was hoping like everything to get more birthday calls. Kayla happily obliged, and Auntie Jen graced the phone a little later in the day. All three far away aunties made her grin with glee on her birthday. 

We attended story hour in the morning, which is always a huge highlight. Then we had a few hours at home before Daddy came back from work. It was a gorgeous day, so we ushered the girls outside. Rhya was pleased to see Gpa, Nama, Mike, Kristina, Grady, and Rayna pull in. She assumed that they were just coming for a Papa Murphy's supper. We hadn't told her that a big surprise was about to arrive.

She was busy wacking weeds with her daddy and playing with her kitty and family when a rig slowed down and pulled in:

What could it be?

Our new milk cow, Clydette! Rhya knew she was coming, just didn't know it was to be on her bday.

Rhya held Sawyer for security the whole time. Whenever she doesn't quite know how to handle something outside she seeks out her furry feline and occupies herself with him. It's just automatic and makes me smile. 

Checking each other out

She was very calm right from the beginning and settled right in.

Clydette facts: 3 years old, due with second calf on May 3, 3/4 Guernsey, 1/4 Jersey

We finished off Rhya's big day with a pizza supper. 

Birthday Party post coming up next.

A Special Girl

Rhya was on a roll of making me feel huge the other day as I was getting dressed:
"Wow, Mommy, I can see your tummy sticking out from underneath your shirt. Do you think it's a bit small? Here! I'll help you pull it down. Ooof. Ooops, now, look! It's too low on top. Look, you can see THIS. You think you should find a bigger shirt?"
"Your undies are HUGE! Is it cuz you're an adult?"
Why is your leg so wide right there? (points to my thigh)"

Rhya is also very good at making me feel loved. Multiple times a day she comes up to me and whispers in my ear:
"You're the only Mommy I ever like/want!!"
She usually follows up with a huge bear hug.

Today as we were driving she polished off her second dried pineapple ring. It had been pretty quiet in the van, as Brielle was napping and Rhya was gnawing away at her goodie. Pretty soon she piped up with a huge sigh, "WOW, Mommy! That pineapple ring sure made me chew a lot! Now my brain is all tired out!" Looong pause... "It's my brain, right?" I informed her that yes, her brain was in her head, but it was probably her jaw that was tired.

Before bed tonight she asked,
"But WHY can't we see God?" I said, "We can't see him, but we can feel him in our hearts. He helps make us happy". She said, "Oh! Is that what the pumping is then? Mine is pumping fast right now"

And She's TWO!!

Brielle's big day arrived on Monday, the very last day of March! We've been prepping her, telling her that it was almost her birthday, so she was tickled pink when she woke up on Monday and Mommy sang Happy Birthday.

We kicked off the day by attending our weekly ECFE class. It's always a highlight, so it was extra special when it landed on her birthday. We brought popsicles for snack (I apologized in advance to the teacher, ha!)

After getting home my little 2 year old helper offered her great assistance in the lasagna prep for her bday supper. She was very peticular on lining up the noodles.

The sun had come out after naptime, so we ventured to the field out back and enjoyed some water fun. The water was really gushing through.

The next exciting moment for our little peanut was when a couple of cars rolled in! First it was the daily excitement of Daddy getting home. Next up was Uncle Mike, Auntie Kristina, and cousins Grady and Rayna. The final car was Gpa, Nama, and Travis!! She bounced around with everyone and worked up her supper appetite.

She pounded down her smoothie with whipped cream, and then finished the rest of her supper. No such thing as saving the best for last.

Lately, whenever we ask Brielle what her favorite food is, she gets this sly little grin, and announces, "COOOKIIEEE!!!" Then she rolls with laughter. To her excitement, after her supper was completed, I told her to get down and look into the oven:

Brielle successfully snuffed out the candles with tiny little puffs:

It is SENSELESS to leave any drops of ice cream:

Haha, very funny, Gpa! Not sharing!

After supper we had a little living room present fun:

Family picture. Baby number 3 wanted to say, "Hi, see ya in 8 weeks!"