Sunday April 29, 2007

The weeks are just going by so fast. I cant believe it is already Sunday again. This week Addisson was back to dance and preschool. Last week they were off for spring break. Tuesday I brought Quinlyn into Addisson's school and she search out her sister, ran over to her and gave her a great big hug. It was very cute. We had also brought in her kittens to show the class. They all really liked them. After preschool two of Addisson's friends came over to see the baby goats. She had so much fun playing. Once they left she kept asking when they were going to come over again.

Asa was off on Wednesday. We had a very busy day. We were out of the house by 8:30am. The kids were dressed and their hair combed. Asa had been up since five am and had all of the animals fed. We had lots of errands to run and we had to be back to the house by 1pm for an appointment. We went to Gander Mountain, the YMCA to sign Addisson up for soccer, the shoe store, Walmart and the feed store. We bought Addisson a new pair of sneakers, pink, of coarse. Considering we were pretty busy we had a fun time.

Once the outdoor furnace man left, Asa and I went out side to hook up the electric fence. There was a string on the pole and Asa was trying to get if off with out touching the fence. Than didnt happen. He got zapped so bad it dropped him to the ground. He was in pain. And I couldnt stop laughing. I wouldnt have been laughing so hard but he was laughing too. We put the baby goats in there with Happy Birthday. The goat kids kept getting zapped. It took them quite a while before they learned their boundaries. Every time they got zapped they would kick, jump and run in the air. It only took Happy Birthday once getting zapped. She is loving being in with the kid goats. She is head honcho. She has no one to pick on her. Often when we look out at them she is running and playing with the babies. Very cute.

Next we had to get the calf house out of the barn with the doe goats. This winter everything was frozen and the ground was covered with snow for months we were unable to muck the barn. We had several months of poop build up around the calf house so we couldnt lift the house to move it. Asa borrowed the Hay guys tractor, because ours wouldnt start, to pull the calf over on its side. It took quite a bit of force even with the tractor. Once we had it on its side we now had to get it out. Which we remembered we had enclosed the barn after it was already inside. We didnt think we were going to be able to get it out but luckily the side was broke so we were able to squish it enough to twist and turn it to get it out.

Our next project was to start a new pig area. We are going to put him in with about 50 round bales of hay that have been sitting by the house for years. He should be able to turn them into the ground and get rid of them. Especially once we get our second pig. We pounded posts and set up the panels to find out we were 2 short.

One day this week our neighbor came to the door about 7:30pm. Her 4 year old little boy was missing. She asked if we could help her look for him. Asa took the truck and went down by the trailers and the pond. I went out and looked in all of the buildings. It was probably a good hour or more before they did find him. He was about 1000 yards back behind their house on their property in the woods. I don't know the whole story but apparently he was playing with their new puppy and just wandered away. It was very scary.

On Sunday Asa was working on some new fencing and was going to put Janet and Happy Birthday in the area. Janet is the boss of the herd and Happy is the poor step child no one wants around. While Asa was working on the fence he had those two tied together so they could roam around the yard and eat grass. It was quite a combo. At one point Janet got spooked and Happy paid for it. She got dragged into the kids slide and half way across the yard. It was kind of funny in a sick way but I did feel bad for Happy Birthday.

Back to the kittens. I have been having to do Kitten torture patrol since we got them. What I mean by that is watch the girls like a hawk on how they are treating them. Quinlyn is the worst. She squeezes and loves them a little too much. Today she was carrying one by the throat, tail, skin. What ever she can grab.

The other day we went to the state park which has a really nice playground. Woody went with us and he had a blast. It was one of our first warm sunny days. The girls had Woody all over the play equipment. They had him jumping over and going under balance beams. Up and Down the stairs. He even chased them while they were trying to swing. The girls tried to get him to go down one of the slides with him but he wouldn't do it. He did try going up but that didn't go too well. Everyone was having a great time.

We added to our animal count. Currently it is

5 Turkeys
2 Kittens
3 Cats (2 Barn - Sparkles has been demoted from indoor cat to outside barn cat)
6 Goat kids
19 Doe Goats
5 Buck Goats
1 Pig

Our two Kittens are very tiny and cute. One is a tabby with 6 toes, his name is Jinx. The other kitten is black with a little bit of white on it's belly. His name is Salem. Today I looked outside and I thought Jinx was dead. I saw Woody in the yard laying down throwing the kitten in the air. It looked like a limp noodle. Once I shouted at him he dropped the kitten and walked away and the kitten quickly followed behind him. I was surprised it wasn't dead.

Later that morning while we were feed the animals the kittens followed the girls to feed the pig then into the milk barn to feed the baby goats and then they ran behind the girls all the way back to the porch of the house. It was so cute seeing these tiny kittens running behind the girls. At one point Addisson looked back to see where they were and wasn't looking where she was going and tripped over a mound of hay. She took a pretty good digger, but she got up and kept running.

Friday we had the baby goats out to play. They follow you everywhere. If one gets left behind it blaaas like crazy. They also walk between your legs while you are trying to walk and they trip you or make you kick them. It is annoying. They also try to eat your pants/shorts and lick your legs. Their tongues are like sand paper. The goats were trying to help Grandpap fix the tailgate of the truck. We had a salesman come to the house and the baby goats tried to get into his car. For those of you who remember Happy Birthday who was on the porch for a long time. Well Grandma had flashbacks when she looked out and saw 5 baby goats on the porch and two of them were standing on a plastic tub looking into the window crying. They also run into the house very quickly when ever you aren't paying attention. Asa came into the house and 3 of them ran in behind him. Then he had trouble getting them out. He would throw one out and another would come in. The girls thought it was hilarious.

Monday April 16, 2007

We woke up today to a surprise snow storm. There was 8-10 inches on the ground. It was very wet soggy snow. We had lots of trouble getting out of our driveway again. But we finally made it out about 11 am. The roads were bad for a while. We ran a few errands, went and saw the peeps at Agway. We learned they wont sell you just one or two. You have to buy a minimum of 6 chicks according to state law. We were all surprised.

Friday April 13, 2007

All week we had been planning to go to the drive inn. It opened this weekend. When Asa got home on Friday he was tired and didnt want to go. I immediately made him a latte and got the girls all hyped up so he wouldnt say no. Getting the girls hyped up didnt take much because they were already so excited to go. After the latte kicked in we were on our way at dusk. I packed dinner for us and snacks and we headed 2 miles down the road to the drive inn where we saw Meet the Robinsons and Wild Hogs. After the first movie I put Quinlyn in her car seat and she fell asleep right away. Addisson soon fell a sleep on her Dads lap. We got home about Midnight and transfered the kids to bed. It was a really fun time. Even though it was very rainy and cold.

Saturday April 14, 2007

Asa was off of work. He got up and started farm chores right away while I made breakfast. Soon he was off to the dump and I was vacuuming. It was a pretty nice day, 45 degrees F with not much wind. Lately it has been rainy and very windy so it was a nice break. We worked outside for most of the day. Asa worked on cleaning out one of the buildings. They hooked up the generator to see if it worked and used it to vacuum out the grainery building. It was a mess. He had 5 big garbage cans full of Oats and still isn't done cleaning it up. We took the Oats out by the pond to feed the wild life. We were stuck in the mud and by the grace of god we miraculously got unstuck after about 10 minutes. We really don't have any idea how we got out but needless to say we did. The girls played hard outside in the mud and were very tired. Plus they were up late the night before. At one point Addisson came and got us and said Quinlyn is stuck in the mud. We looked over and sure enough she was. She couldn't move. Both boots were suction into the mud. Asa also got stuck while trying to get her out. But he was able to get out right away. He had to lift her out of her boots and then pluck each boot out with his hands.

I was picking up trash by the Hay Barn. I got a whole truck bed full and I wasn't done. It looks better but it is unbelievable how much garbage and trash is around the farm. It keeps surfacing. Everything we do seems to just be cleaning up from the previous owners. Other than putting up fence for the goats we are just cleaning up. Asa and Grandpap did get the electric fence working for the goats. They are happy to be outside.

Sunday April 15, 2007

We went to a home show in Watertown. After lunch Asa and Cheryl went to spend the night in Syracuse and Asa and I drove home. On the way home we went to look at some of the lakes near us. It turned out to be an adventure. The kids were sleeping so we went down a side road off the main route. I knew there was a lake back there but never had seen it. Along the way we saw several lakes. We also thought we were going south but ended up going north. It was a fun game of lets see where this road goes and if we can get home with out going back the way we came. After two hours we finally made it back home. We even cheated and ended up having to look at a map. In some areas the road was washed out from all of the rain and the Indian River was flooding. We saw musk rats, ducks, turkeys, deer and grouse. It was quite fun. It is very easy to get lost back here for there is no mountains to indicate west.

As to Grandpaps blog. Quinlyn had shut the door and I went to go use the bathroom and I really had to go. But the door wouldnt open. We tried many other things first. Our initial thought was to just sledghammer the door down but then we thought we didnt want to give grandpap a heart attach so we decided to take the hinges off first. It worked.

Quinlyn and I did our morning chores, it was raining. She wore her new rain coat and boots. She looked so cute. However she did go puddle jumping. I dont think she missed one puddle. She loved it. And she actually listened when it was time to come inside.

Addisson and Quinlyn called me to come and help today while I was in the middle of a conference call. They told me that Mommy and Grandma were ripping the bathroom apart!!! This could be a problem, as we only have one. But it turned out the door was stuck and they are just fighting to get it open. However, they had ripped the front cover off the existing door and had both hinges were now off. Wow, what determined women.

God bless you all,
Love to all,
--Asa Reed Jr.