Living Life, loving life!

It's that time in a dairy goat farmer's life when she begins to sell the offspring of the most recent  breedings. Since we have NO DOES to keep so far, we have 2 Sable Saanen bucklings and a Sable/Alpine cross buckling to sell as well as  a stray wethered ( neutered) Boer (meat goat who turned out to be a runt: too small to butcher but a nice enough size to be a companion goat or just a grazer). Hopefully by the weekend I will be less these 4 goats as I prepare for two more does to kid next month or so. These boys are beautiful and Nicholas, the brown and white boy is going to his new home this afternoon. The Boer goes on Saturday. I  "think" I have the other two boys sold as well...if I want to drive an hour + to deliver them. RELIEF!!!! We bottle the three youngest boys three times a day and milk, be it goat or cow milk  for those guys, starts adding up real fast when they drink gallons a day. It's always fun to have baby goats, but you "just know"  when it's time, and NOW is my time!

Naomi helps bottle the babies:Nicholas, Oliver and  Tristan

Oliver

Nicholas,

unashamedly our favorite baby so far this year!

Tristan, who is of the same father as Nicholas and Oliver, out of a different breed mother.
Daffodil, his mother is one of our triplets from last March, and has proven to be as amazing of a milk doe as I had hoped  when I bred her after several years of working toward  THIS  breeding. As  a first time mamma, she is giving us nearly 2 gallons of milk a day AND has the good milking teats and great milk production of her father's lineage along with her mother's superb milk production. I can't wait until her sister Topsy Turvy gives birth in May! Topsy Turvy is my  goat obstetrical miracle bottom-first breech baby . Trustfully she will NOT have triplets for her first kidding because that pretty much promises at least one breech baby when she comes due. If I NEVER deliver another breech baby, it will be fine with me!

Nicholas and Tristan



Nicholas and Oliver.How I wish their triplet sister  Pansy had lived! She looked just like Nicholas!

 Our winter this year has been extreme, even for the extremes we are so famliar with in Oklahoma, our  temperatures actually 100 degrees different last Thursday from the Thursday before! Taking advantage of the 82 degree days last week, we went outside to soak it up. We were babysitting Charlie for Hannah which added to the fun of a beautiful day!

 A week AFTER the -22 temps went away we had 82 degree temps so outside we went!
Charlie loves the swing!

It was even warm enough for Daniel to go out  for a ride in his wagon and enjoy it!

Naomi inviting Lilac our Calico to swing or play with  Charlie

Naomi in her cold weather boots taking Daniel out to visit with the horses

Holly, my Westie came out to play too

Back  in the yard, Daniel had a good ride thanks to his big sister!

Jael came out to play too. This was the beginning of a "Spin Charlie Around" game

` Now that the snow has all melted away and watered the eagerly waiting bulbs in my gardens I am thrilled to report that daffodils and crocus are popping rapidly, with tulips  and hyacynth not far behind. Also visible are the tiny grape hyacynth sproutings. My perennial dianthus are reemerging, joinging the pansies which never died off under all that cold and snow. I LOVE seeing blooming flowers a week after a snow storm!
As farm animals grow and thrive, as flowers do what God intended them to do, my next grandbaby is growing and thriving too!!

10 weeks and 4 days!! Wish I had the shot where Baby Rogers was stretching "her"  arms and legs too! Esther and Casey were super excited to see all that movement and hear the much welcome heart tones!

We are awaiting confirmation that our oldest daughter is also expecting a baby/babies within the next two weeks! The wonders of medical science boggle my brain and that God has allowed man to experience as much of HIS knowledge as he has boggles my brain even more.  I will miss being with Kari for this first ultrasound sadly. I was with her for her first ultrasound of her last pregnancy and I was I   who saw first  that there were TWINS, and not just one baby.

My youngest daughters are visiting  for a few days with their friend Taevy,  who is my dear friend  Anita's  daughter. The original plan was for the girls to be picked up on Sunday  but Naomi who does not do sleep overs very often, got a bit hesitant and THEN realized that she'd made a date with her brothers to watch the NBA  All-Star basketball game thatsame night, she was beside herself with conflict!! Rachel could not care less about basketball so she was fine with the afternoon plan and fine with later on to, but sweet Naomi!! She didn't want to be the least bit rude to Taevy and her family, she REALLY wanted to go, but brothers and basketball??????????????? NO brothers and basketball????????????? Taevy would  still be Taevy after THE Game was over so she picked my brain  and picked my brain and vascilated for quite some time before  deciding that she NEEDED to honor her promise to watch that game AND THEN  if her Daddy would take them to Taevy's house on his way to work the next day, she 'd be at peace with herself . APPARENTLY that   was a great plan because the girls called me this morning to ask if they could stay until Thursday instead of Wednesday afternoon. Ahhhhh, the joys and freedoms of home schooling:  take books along, take computer  work along, visit with fellow-home schooled kiddso and even school becomes a new adventure to share! I am so glad the girls are having a good time; they have been planning for quite some time and the next part of the plan is that Taevy will come visit here  for Spring Break in March.

Do I need to tell you that I MISS MY DAUGHTERS???????????????

WOWZA  I   miss my daughters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing that my youngest daughters are old enough to be gone from me for days "for fun" and not just for a "have to" kind of occasion. God knew that I would not be ready for my babies to NOT be babies forever, so He blessed me with Daniel   who WILL BE my forever baby! Life is so good because God Who keeps blessing my life is SO VERY  VERY  AWESOMELY GOOD: all the time!!