Friends

We have friends, homeschool friends here, some in Sc that we still talk to. But when recently asked to be someones "best friend" Nathalie answered, I already have one. Tad was quietly pleased to know it was him.

Its his fault, that she loves him so. He is good to her. She was told, by him, that they were twins when she was 18 mo old. She knew what twins were and she was pleased. We told him, you cant be twins, look at these baby pictures of her. "Oh," he says, "look how tiny her was! Her was the little one." By the time she was 18 mo old, they were the same size. So they have been raised together, nearly as twins though we didnt call it that. He cares for her and vice versa, while they occasionally scream at each other, and Nathalie does offer to trade him in on occasion.

All in all, best friends.

I woke up to see...

Goats in the front yard! This has become a common occurance. I had to put the 5 doelings in a barn with a closed off yard because they are small and pesky when they come in the shop WHILE I am working and chew on my hair, my pockets, my drill bit (imagine the startled reaction when I made it go!) So they got out last night because they are goats. This morning, they were all (5 little doelings) out with Nona, Pepsi and Arizona (pictured). I got everyone in but Ari who wasnt interested and she hung with the cat, me and my coffee for a bit.

I had every intention of trimming up this area anyways, so she is helping me out! Thanks Ar...

Now if she would only stomp the cat (who poops in the window sill outside unless we let her in then she poops in the bathtub!), I would agree to NEVER sell her or butcher her. The others, well we are going to butcher them bc they have made me ANGRY breaking out. Oh wait... I am a vegetarian.


What is this bug? Does anyone know? This picture is turned upside down, you can see the ceiling. This is the underside of something I was working on and tried to move it and discovered this guy!

The 2nd picture here is blurry but I have only 1 so I posted it anyways. This is a new rooster and little hens that the local goat herder gave us bc she had too many littles. So these are here in our sick chick's cage (sick chick died...). At any rate, they are here while waiting on new and bigger domicile which I am building. The rooster is of course a rooster, so this seems like odd behaviour. He is letting them hang under his feathers and he settles down around them protective like. There are 3 little hens under him!

So thats my morning so far, I have been up since 6 doing chores, hanging with the goats, cleaning barns, working on a mower (the mower guy fixed my mower but yesterday it quit working again so he stopped by this am at 8 to see it and it works now), photo-ing chicken and goat people and drinking coffee.

I made this!

Yes this is probably a simple accomplishment for a lot of people but NOT ME! My power tool knowledge was pretty low until this yr, in Sc we had very few good tools. In August after our tornado, we bought quite a few nice tools. Then Frank left so I didnt learn how to use them all. Since then he gave me my pancake compresser (mothers day) and a new drill. Now for my birthday, I got a cordless set and a 16" cut miter saw and stand. This is also going to be my next 5 yrs worth of gifts...


Tad was sick last night, throwing up, fever etc. He has been sleepy today and spent a lot of time laying on the couch and has eaten very gentle foods. While I was out working in the shop on this feeder, he became lonely so while Nathalie ran around playing, he rested on the feed bags.


The feeder was modeled after one similar that a friend made. She said hers was too short, the leg part. I assume she meant overall height as well and I remedied both parts so yes, she was my guinea pig! My legs are a perfect height so that a baby goat can eat from the bottom and my tallest goat can easily eat higher up. The top and bottom rectangle and the legs are 2x4s. The 4 pcs of wood that joined the 2 rectangles are ripped pcs from 2x4s that were on sale for being imperfect. Then the metal bits and the bottom are parts of my destroyed greenhouse! This was a great way to recycle something we cant fix.


It began to pour just as we finished this project, thankfully we did chores early! Nathalie enjoyed being a flying goat and Tad "snacked" on alfalfa and head butted Nathalie. The legs are slightly off or the floor is, either way its pretty close to perfect!

My new miter saw. Yes Frank, I said mine. Because it is mine! I will allow you to use it and maintain it but its MINE. Because I use it and I will have it beat up by the time you get home and possesion is 9/10 of the law.

The 2 drills, makes it possible to drill pilot holes and put in screws without changing bits EVER. Also included in the picture is my cordless (yes my) circular saw. The nice drill set can be Frank's.

This is to show the bottom, I cut the greenhouse panel so that it could be screwed in on the ends but the weight of hay, alfalfa and goat feet (bc they will put them up on the edge) needed the 2 pcs of rip 2x4 across bottom to stabalize it.

So thats it, my project for the day. I did have some help from Nikki (best friend in Ga) and Frank when I was having drill problems. This feeder is good for 1-4 goats, no more than that. I want to do a much larger slightly different version for the feedbarn and the 10 does. But this will work well for our 3 bucks.

Late 4th of July

Not a great angle but I love his eyes, how serious he looks. Often people say oh he looks just like his daddy! But he doesnt, she looks a lot like Frank and he looks a lot like me which is fine bc we are both so good looking! His eyes and features are mostly mine though his mouth is more like Franks. He had the same white hair as a child, and mine was red.


Nathalie catching fireflies, she learned that it will make your fingers glow if you accidently moosh one...


We live in a very tiny, teeny town. Which we love. Next to us is a tiny town. Slightly larger than tiny, teeny. So they have about 10 min of fireworks every 4th of July! I dont mind the small show because we get the large area of grass at the park for our kids to run about with a few friends and not worry about losing them in a large crowd. Between us and our homeschool friends, we were the crowd! I am not sure how to photo fireworks yet, I got a couple of good shots but mostly didnt get what I hoped to get as I was snapping.

The kids really missed Frank this 4th, they dont remember being without him for specific holidays because they were pretty young. Last 4th was our first in Ks and Frank was there with us. We did have some fun memories to talk about from last yr and we only have a little more left of this deployment!

Franks Birthday Present

This is Frank's Birthday Present. The kids are excited to play with him, and are practicing daily. Tad is already getting pretty decent! They are in love and it has eliminated all movie watching... Frank will be home sometime near his birthday and he has always wanted a pool table.

New goats... again

Yes, I bought new goats. I have taken some flak for this, not from my husband, mother, sister, best friends, but I have taken some from other people! I do not know why. Maybe this says something for those who DIDNT give me flak! They know me, they understand me and they love me! And I, love goats... We are moving to a registered herd for breeding and selling purposes and will continue with milk to sell depending on the customers available. We now own 3 breeds, we had alpine and nubian until monday and monday we added saanen.


We have not named the 2 bigger girls, they have registered names but they are stupid names and we will call them something different. This is the tame yearling, as you can see we got a collar on her. This side shot is to show what a healthy well cared for goat should look like. We got these 2 older girls from a breeder in Topeka and all of his goats were lovely! I am open to name suggestions, my brother has suggested Phoenix or Rain.

This picture is beautiful. She didnt know I was picturing her, we just bought this goat and already Nathalie loves her and the goat loves her back. They stood and looked for a long time, just leaning against each other. Nathalie is so relaxed and comfortable and the goats trust the children. The care they are learning to provide for a helpless creature is invaluble no matter what they do in life! Okay back to goats...


This is wild goat, she is getting better already. She was fine with us at her farm until she realized she had to leave her farm! She then balked. Day 1 she wouldnt come near us once out of the van. She cried in one corner of the goat yard (its 2 acres large) and refused to sleep in the barn with her sister. Lilith, brown goat, is an example of how your goats SHOULDNT look. We are working on this and her ribs/belly look so much better. Still super hollow in hips and is just a tall narrow looking nag. She has pretty color and face and once she fills out I think she will be lovely.

Far left in picture is our new girl goat baby, this baby is 10 wks old. Scout, to her left, was born Jan 26 so she is 5.5 mo old or 22 mo old and Jezzie, not pretty white goat, was born a mo before scout so is 26 mo old! So this 10 wk old baby already dwarfs them and her brother is even larger than she. Her name is Autumn. She is very pretty and super sweet, she likes to bite gently and loves to be kissed and be able to put her cheek next to mine, Nona is my only other goat who asks to do that.

Her hips also filled in nicely. She and her brother were owned by a couple in Ks who have 2 milking goats. They took excellant care of these babies and they are very tame. Autumn hates the lead though, she fights and bucks it and jumps up in the air to fight me on it.

Okay these pics not great, I was trying to get some good ones of Otto (tad wanted auto and I thought autumn went well with that but I am spelling him Otto). He wasnt being very still and he kept trying to give the camera kisses! He has some small scurs which probably wont cause anyone problems, not even him.

Again nicely built, very well cared for. He has gotten a bit dirty from riding in the van with 3 other goats on a tarp but he was nice and white!

Picture shows the size difference, I cannot believe he is 12 wks younger than Vlad and Chiva. Vlad seemed so big before! Otto has already become the king, he fought Vlad for this position, turned to fight Chiva and Chiva tucked tail and ran.

So thats it, we are up to 14 goats counting the alpine buck we are waiting on. We will pick him up when his papers come in. We hope to have all 10 does bred end of summer-fall depending on doe age and size so next yr we could have up to 20 babies or more!

More Visit

My sisters visit has a lot of pictures, her husband took some, I took some, the kids took some. The kids played with the baby, washed the car, hung out with Uncle John and Aunt Scarlett. We had a wonderful and enjoyable wk! My favorite picture is the black and white with Nathalie and Nika, I think both of them are beautiful in this picture, he is naked and cute, such soft lovely skin, thick dark hair and dark eyes. She is so fair with light hair, and freckles, and such beautiful long limbs. Her feet, legs and hands are long and slender and pretty! Yes I just love this picture...

Happy 7th Birthday Nathalie

My girl child is turning 7 on thursday. We did a party in may with daddy and now a party with friends and family in July. She wanted this party before my sister left so we had it at the mexican restaurant, her choice. There were more great pictures but here are a few.


New purse that my sister made for her out of prints that Nathalie picked in may.

Tad, Uncle John, Aunt Scarlett and new little cousin Nika who is 3 mo old.

Nathalie and Nika

She wanted glasses, she doesnt need them at all. I took her to the eye doctor and she nearly cried when he said you dont need glasses, so we bought these for her anyways. They have no prescription but look the same otherwise.

She was very excited and said thank you to mommy, daddy and Tad.

Here I was crying, and she was comforting. My sweet girl is big and grown up. She can sing and dance, she picks her own outfits better than I do and does her own hair. She can clean the house, she can cook. She can nearly run a barnyard. She can read, she can spell and man can she do math! She is girly, she is sensitive, she is emotional, she is loving, she is hardworking, she is brave. She has conquered her fears this yr bc she believed that God would help her work through fear of tornados and many other things by the age of 7.

She learned to swim last wk, she jumps off of a diving board. She can wrestle a 150 pound goat out of a barn. Twice. She can cut using our SHARPEST knife. Her dimples are still beautiful, she has more freckles than ever before, she is so much like her daddy and yet has so much of me. She is my favorite girl, in the whole wide world. No matter what I am given in life, I will always be glad that God gave me this girl. Happy birthday, My Love.

Cloth diapers

These are some of my sisters diapers, I cant remember how many we made but I think 19. They are for her son Nika whom you will see a lot of on here over the next few days! He is such a cute cute baby. His legs and waist are fit best by these fold over bound diapers. They fit him so well, I have some pictures of the fit also, will post more tomorrow.

Happy 4th of July!

Nephew

This little man is adorable! He looks just like his daddy. He is talking to my sister here about how the pool is so much bigger than this sink which is why he was crying a minute ago.


Looking at the camera as if the picture taker is crazy! oh wait... thats me.


He is really looking at Tad intently here. No, he doesnt exactly HAVE a diaper on, he did have however, a heat rash. We did naked time trying to alleviate this.

So sweet... I have many wonderful photos of Nika, his daddy John (incidently one of the most helpful and attentive dads I have EVER seen!) and his mommy scarlett! This is my sisters first baby and they are doing great, he is so cute! We have enjoyed them this whole wk and will be sad when they leave on saturday.