A few days in paradise

Last week Patrick and I took a little trip to Cancun, Mexico.  It was a lot of work getting ready to go.  It involved making meals to freeze for the kids, laying out clothes for the kids, wrapping a-present-a-day for the kids (little treats to keep them smiling...like sunglasses, bubbles, silly putty etc), making lists and lists and more lists, arranging babysitters and then doing it again to fill in some holes.  Anyway, I remember thinking, during that week of preparation, I will NOT do this again, it is just too much work.  And then we left home.  It was just us....like I vaguely remember from days past.  And it was so worth it.  It was fun to hang out, and relax, and not cook, or wipe bottoms, and talk, and talk during meals that lasted over two hours that didn't involve spills or the words, "sit back down".  I remembered all those reasons why I fell in love with my husband in the first place (not that I had forgotten, the craziness of everyday life just takes over sometimes).  Of course, I missed those 5 living examples of our love who were back home having fun.  Best of all we shared our getaway with our best friends....friends from before kids who now have many themselves.  The time shared was such a blessing!

Your on your way to becoming a real farmer when....

1.  You clean up goat vomit several times in 12 hours.  (actually not vomit as much as regurgitated cud, but it all smells the same)

2.  You call a large animal vet before 8am.

3.  You hunt down a pharmacy that stocks activated charcoal.

4.  You mix the activated charcoal and water and fill a 60ml syringe and seriously wonder how you will get it down the goats throat without the help of farmer husband who happens to be at a boyscout campout.

5.  You stifle not-so-nice feelings about boyscout son who decided to let the goats off their picket lines yesterday.....when the favorite goat likely got into one of numerous poisonous plants in the yard.  Nevermind the goat chase that ensued yesterday afternoon involving the pregnant farmer mom, and the lecture on doing things correctly the first time.  (put the goats on on their pickets to eat at the hedge line....does NOT equal let the goat off their picket because their lines are tangled and hey....who would want to fix that?)

6.  Cry.  Ok.....real farmers don't cry.  Lets blame it on hormones and the fact I'm not a farmer....yet.

7.  Enlist help of farmer daughter to help in the lay down the goat, hold down the goat process (that went amazingly well), and syringe feed charcoal to goat who took it like a champ!

8.  Clean up goat as well as you can, check on goat every few hours.

9.  Make a list for boyscout son on chores for tomorrow.  Number one, bathe goats....number 2, clean out their stall!

Said and heard

Babysitter:  "Do you guys like chicken nuggets?"
Max (pointing finger):  "Now wait a minute....we are NOT killing any of our chickens."

Sean:  "I gave Max one peso, but my heart wasn't happy.  Then I gave him all my pesos.  Now my heart is happy and I am too!"

Happy Easter

Baby

Alleluia! He is Risen!

Got eggs?

New Girls on the Block

Welcome to the farm Marsha, Jan, and Cindy.

Old McDonald had a farm.....

And on that farm he had some chickens....which happen to be the highlight I think. The kids love the chickens. They are constantly picking them up and taking them treats like left over kitchen scraps. At one point I looked outside and saw Max running around the inside of the coop like an airplane. I headed outside, only to hear him yelling, "I am a farmer. I am a farmer!" Needless to say, due to all the "love" showered on the chickens we are only getting 1-2 eggs a day. I think the chickens might be a bit stressed out. I also think they are older than one year. Egg production decreases with age, and I think our hens are older than we thought. However, they are very entertaining. The kids let them out to roam everyday and it is fun to watch them search for worms and bugs and to dust themselves off in the flower beds. Tonight we go to pick up three more hens from a friend. She assures me they are great layers. That will be nice! The goats are cute, but it is taking a bit of time for them to warm up to all the human interaction. Before their house was built, we had to carry them from the backyard to the front to graze in the morning. (they were sleeping in a dog crate in the fenced in backyard). They hate to be separated from each other and would bleat until reunited. We tried walking them on leashes, but lets just say they aren't dogs. It didn't work too well, so to speed up the process we just picked them up. They seem to be a bit more comfortable with us everyday and farmer Max is happy that he can get near them without being knocked over every time. Poor guy was getting his feet knocked out from under by the picket chains they are on. He would get close and they would run the other direction and down would go Max. There were quite a bit of tears those first few days. Max was sure the goats didn't like him. In other farm news, I recently planted 11 blueberry bushes, and I have come to realize I really like shovels and wheelbarrows. Despite the growing "to-do" list, I feel better if I get outside everyday to do a bit of work. Perhaps being a farmer works like that. I thought I might be overwhelmed by the "never-ending-ness" of it all, but it is rather calming I think. Here are some photos of life on the farm.