February 27, 2007

Hello, Today is Woody's birthday. He turned One or Seven in dog years, We sang him Happy Birthday at least twenty times today. We have been singing him Happy Birthday for weeks now. We made him a doggie cake made from dog food and bones. We even stuck a candle in it. We took it out before we gave it to him to eat. Then we all went sledding. He had a great birthday. We even let him under the table during dinner to lick up all of Quinlyns scraps. Even Grandma went sledding with us.

Addisson was off from school last week for winter break so the girls and I went to my parents house in CT. We had a good time. They like going down there. Quinlyn gets into every thing. We cleaned my mothers walk in closet. We had at least five big bags of garbage and lots for Good Will. It looks beautiful now. It took the whole time we were there to get it organized. Grandpap even fed them breakfast a few mornings and read them books. They liked that. Addisson on the drive home said she was really going to miss Grandma.

The local vet stopped by today. Tuesdays he is in our area. We didnt even know he was coming. He just stopped in like so many people do. It is a common practice here to just stop by. No one ever seems to call. He said he was here last week but no one was home. We didnt even know he was coming. Anyway he looked at the goats and thought they looked great. Didnt charge us and said dont waste your money on me. Just keep doing what you are doing and get more goats. He said our property could maintain 1000 - 2000 goats if we rotate them correctly. We only have 26 currently. That will be a long while before we can get that many. He said put most of our money into fencing. Which we have been doing also. Its nice to hear we are on the right track.

Today at lunch we were having hotdogs and we were debating wheather the bread was moldy or not. I said I didnt think it was, grandma wasnt sure and Asa wasnt sure either. He decided to take one for the team and lick the suspicious parts. He determined it tasted like flour and we were ok. This is similar to touching the electric fence to see if it is hot or not. The other day while feeding the goats he stepped over the fence but it zapped him on the inside of his thigh. He said the fence works.

It was above 40 degrees F today and things are starting to melt. We can actually see grass in a few spots in the driveway. It is suppose to rain on Friday which will make every thing a big muddy mess.

Monday February 19, 2007

I have a few cute stories to tell. First, the girls were taking a bath this morning and they have a doll that has her own bath tub and it has a shower cap. Addisson filled the shower cap with water and held it up to her breast and said " Mommy, look I have a breast like yours now". I said "yes, but I think yours are perfect just the way they are". She only did it a few more times. I don't think I gave her the reaction she was looking for. Chalk one up for Mom!

Over the weekend when Asa was home. The girls love it when he is home because they have a great time harassing Asa. As most of you know we are living in pretty close quarters and the only room in the house that has a door is the bathroom. However most of the time it is open because the kids will come in and visit or follow you into the bathroom. NO privacy. Asa was taking a shower and Addisson had to go to the bathroom. We only have one bathroom. So sometimes lines start forming. Well, Asa, hates when someone poops while he is showering. He thinks it makes him feel less clean because he has that smell all over him when he leaves. I know weird. Anyway, Asa was showering, Addisson was pooping and I had to wipe her butt, then Quinlyn came in and we were all getting rowdy while Asa was showering. Then I had to go and I had to poop. Well he had double poop now while he was showering so he was getting hysterical. It was the four of us in this small bathroom. Asa starts with " is this a potty party or what". Addisson then goes to get Asa and Cheryl ( Grandma and Papap) and invites them to our Potty Party. I am still on the toilet, door wide open, Asa is naked trying to get out of the shower and her comes grand pap. He is in the door way of the kitchen and living room looking into the bathroom. It Really was a Potty Party. Now it is our family joke to crash in on someone and call it a Potty Party. The girls did it to grandma today. Although it just wasn't as funny the second time around.

I went to take trash to the dump today but is was closed when I got home. I then moved the truck close to the goats barn and figured I would feed them since I was right there. When I came out our neighbor was plowing are driveway again. YIPPEE. We were all very excited.

Tonight Asa fixed the electric fence in the barn for it hasn't been working because of the snow drifts. The goat have started getting very lax with the fence and they have been trying to get out when it is feeding time. Not anymore. He fixed the fence and then we got some new food for the goats and we had to mix it since it came in 100lb bags. Addisson had a good time mixing the grain, oats, corn and sunflowers.

Sunday February 18, 2007

The preschool Valentines Day party was fun. We had a little trouble getting there. Grandpap took Addisson to school but when he came home he parked in a bad spot and got the car stuck. We all pitched in to get it unstuck only to back it up to get it really stuck. I then tried to get my vehicle out. I was able to back up and with lots of Reverse then drive and back and forth motions I was able to get my vehicle out after about 20 minutes. I made it to the party just in time. It wasnt a pleasant seen on the Reed Ranch trying to unstick vehicles. Grandpap had a huge frozen runny nose stuck in his beard. Grandma was ticked because "no one should have to live this way, this is ridiculous and soooooo on". It was very cold. It was in the negatives while trying to get the cars out. When I returned from the party at preschool I noticed right away our drive way had been plowed. I thought our neighbors must have rescued us. Yeah. And sure enough they had. When I had entered the house Cheryl (Grandma) was quite pleased. She said I was just about to go off on these conditions and not being able to go anywhere and I noticed our neighbors were digging us out".
The snow pile is about even with the top of the roof of the house. The kids love it. With in a few hours the big snow drift was back across the drive way and even bigger. But we were still able to get out.

Grandma was doing laundry on Friday and came across the famous yellow dress which had what looked like cat poop in the dress. The dress was in the laundry basket. She asked the girls what it was and where it came from. Through lots of questions and lots of patients we discovered that Quinlyn had squished the poop right out of sparkles and she tried to clean it up with Addissons yellow dress and she put it in the laundry basket to get washed. And through out the process Addisson supervised and helped Quinlyn clean it up. We all had horror mental pictures in our heads; knowing Quinlyn sucks her thumb. Did she wash her hands? Did she get it on her hands? Did she really squish sparkles to poop? She said a_huh and nodded her head yes when we asked her if she squished the poop out of sparkles. We didnt come up with that question until much later. We thought the cat just stopped using its litter box and pooped on the dress. But after further questioning the truth prevailed. We just had to ask the right questions! It was gross but after it was all over we had a chuckle over it.

We signed up to be in a study for the Cornell Extension office. We are in a pilot program of Mentors and Mentees. There are few alternative farmers around this area. Most are dairy farmers. We are the second phase of the mentor program. This is where new farmers or ranchers like us get a Mentor. In our case someone who has goat experience. We were contacted by our this weekend. She is very nice and has milking goats but has had meat goats in the past. She is very knowledgeable. The Mentor was designed around kidding season. Asa and I know very little about kid birthing and she is here to help. She is currently kidding her dairy goats and we will be going to visit her farm soon but for now she came to visit ours. She spoke to us about vaccines, what they should be eating, minerals and deworming. We knew and had started this process already but we were giving our goats the wrong dewormer. She said it works but many of the goats already have a resistance to the dewormer we were giving them. Most of the knowledge she pass on to us is not found in books but through experience. She was out at the farm today and was very helpful. We had our buck in with the girls and some days they would look pregnant and other days they wouldnt. She said they maybe pregnant but none anytime soon. She liked the look of our goats. We think she was expecting the worst and came up surprisingly pleased. We did vaccinate the goats today and she gave us a bag of minerals which we didnt know we should be feeding them. She said especially in winter. Overall she provided great information. Now we will visit her farm and fill out a report and send it back to the Cornell Extension office.

Addisson and Quinlyn had ice skating today. They did very well. They started their routine for an end of the season performance. They are going to be little sailors skating to "Yellow Submarine". It will be cute.

February 14, 2007

The fruit and cheese cabobs were a hit at preschool. Addisson and Grandpap had a great time making them. Today we celebrated Valentines Day at dinner. The girls got cards from both grandparents and Aunt Midge sent them a tin shaped heart which had pricesses on it for Addisson and one that had pooh on it for Quinlyn. They had a great V Day. Addisson helped me make a pink cake for dessert. Asa brought home a dozen red roses for me. The girls also got bubble bath and stuffed bears from Grandpap and Grandma Reed. Addisson helped make Valentines for her classmates. Her party at school is tomorrow. We cut out paper hearts and sewed them together with ribbon and put a CD with Addisson's favorite songs on it to pass out to her friends at preschool.

Monday February 12, 2007

Hello----I cant believe it has been almost 3 weeks since I have written in the blog. Sorry!

I am not sure if anything eventful happened. Quinlyn started ice skating with Addisson. They are both doing great. Quinlyn cant talk much yet bu she can ice skate. We just chuckle over that. I have a cold. Grandpap is here for 10 days. Tomorrow is Addisson's snack day at school. Grandpap and Addisson made fruit and cheese cabobs. Grandpap will get to stay at school and help out because it is her snack day. She loves it when he gets to go to school with her.

Today they went sleding and played outside in the snow. Poor Quinlyn, she was inside taking a nap. They had fun. It has been cold here. Last night the wind was blowing so bad. Grandma's bedroom was 43 degrees F. It was so cold in her room. Tomorrow it is suppose to be -15 and -25 with the wind chill. YIKES.

Everyone keeps asking if we have lots of snow? We dont, we only have about a foot on the ground and it didnt come all at once. It has been a few inches at a time. However, about 20 minutes south of us in Watertown they got about 3 feet all at once. And about an hour south of us they have 10 feet of snow and are expecting 2 to 4 more feet. That is a lot of snow. Asa and I want to drive down there just to see what it looks like. I have never seen 10 feet of snow all at once. But we are afraid we wont get back.

No baby goats yet. We are hoping for some in March. Nothing new to report. We are just chugging along waiting for spring.