Dozy dotes and liddle lamzy divey...

...A kiddley divey too, wooden shoe?

At every sunny chance I get, I take my goats out of the barn and let them "nom" freely on all the grass surrounding the barn. Saves Dad from having to mow. :) But since they're free to go wherever, I stay with them and watch over them. Much like David the shepherd in Scripture. I find myself thinking of him often while I'm sitting there in the grass watching my goats. Spending days at a time with the flocks of sheep must have been long and lonely, and a lonely heart with the right perspective turns to YHVH/God rather than depression.

I also find myself watching the goats and wondering if we'd be healthier if we didn't cook everything we eat. I mean, here are creatures that are probably FAR more healthy than your average human, and they don't cook the stuffin' out of everything. So I just have to wonder if maybe it would behoove us (a little pun there) to re-think what and how we eat. "But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee" What should we be learning from the beasts in our care?

Dreamin' 'Bout Babies

All last week I was dreaming about babies. And then, finally, on this fine Sunday afternoon...

There appeared Gimli, the small goatlet who hogs all the food.

And Aragorn. Epic and kingly.

They are so cute and doing so well. :)

Life on the Farm is Kinda Laid Back

First baby of the year. Her name is Naira.

Wolverine

Here's a look at my little buddy. First he was the Lego Man's little buddy, and then the Lego Man went on to bigger and better activities, and Wolverine became the big sister's project. And a good little project he has been. He now knows the difference between chewtoys and fingers, scratching posts and people, and occasionally uses each for their correct purpose.

Redneck kitten plays... (back when we first got him)

...and plays...

And bites...

Aww... :)

"No, Lego Man, I think we should put the experience points into this cat-egory."

And more recently...

Handsome rogue.

Me: "This isn't funny." Goat: "Maaaaaa!"

Once upon a time, Miss Heidi went to milk her beloved goats, Jasmine and Joanna. It was a lovely morning - overcast and a bit chilly, just the way Miss Heidi likes it. So with her pail a-swinging in her hand, she strolled down the hill to collect her four-legged-friends from the hillside.

But what is this? A goat cry from the wrong direction? Say it's not so! But, yes, a wayward Joanna stood in the brush, little tail wagging, and ears pointed straight toward the morning sky. At the sight of Miss Heidi, the little goat came tripping to her side. "Maaaaa!" she said. "How did you get out?" Miss Heidi asked. Joanna, not missing a beat, replied, "Maaaaaaa!"

With the goat being entirely unhelpful in the current crisis, Miss Heidi left Joanna and inspected the fence. It stood as strong as ever. She inspected the gate. Intact and in place. Or was it? Upon closer inspection, Miss Heidi discovered that when her little brother, Fritz, had done chores last night, he'd chained the gate incorrectly. The gate could swing open a little, but enough for a wily goat to escape into freedom and delicious blackberry vines.

So Miss Heidi finished her chores, chained the gate securely, and returned to her hill-top cottage. She poured herself another cup of coffee and sat down to blog about the experience.

~Miss Heidi

Ah, a Blessed Tuesday...

Today, I don't need to leave home for any reason except to run drive to the neighbor's twice to milk for them. Most people have neighbors a hundred feet away. Ours are, like, a hundred miles away. Okay, two miles. But I shall drive nonetheless. :-P

So my activities are attending my goats and the neighbor's goat, trimming hooves, and destroying an apron for the Rosie Movie. It will be much fun.

The idea behind the apron is that our nineteenth century (1800s) poor, little heroine's house burned down, she now lives in the barn, because she has nowhere else to go, being newly widowed, parentless, friendless, and she'd never let herself be a burden to a neighbor, because she feels herself unworthy. Months go by as she's fending for herself on the farm, going slightly insane with naught but her cello and rifle to keep her company. As I enter the story with my specialized makeup talents, she has decided she is going to die. The apron is the one she has been wearing these past months, and is stained, torn, and yucky, because she has no change of clothing. They all burned in the house. That's what I'll be working on.

First filming is Saturday morning. Eek! So exciting!

Wins and Losses on July 2nd

I thought I'd count up today's wins and losses.

Wins:
Got another few pages written in my book. It was a very epic scene.
Getting three T-shirts and a bag of M&Ms for $7. The shirts were half off, and then I had a 15% off coupon on top of that. Yay!
Having a steak waiting for me at home. Yum!

Losses:
A chipmunk introduced itself to my truck's tire on my way to work. ;'(
It's difficult to wash your face in the shower while you're still wearing your glasses. *facepalm*

Short Snippits. :)

Since I'm in a whirl of activity this weekend, here's a brief overview:

Yesterday, a friend of mine cut off the tips of some of his fingers. They got him stitched up and sent him home. Today they'll check him out again and then we'll know on Monday if he'll get to keep his fingers. Poor guy. Every time I see him, I say, "So how have you injured yourself lately?" instead of "Whatcha been up to?" :-/

In about an hour, I'll be going to a bazaar in the next village. Should be fun!

Tomorrow is the MCI (multiple casualty incident) drill for the Fire Dept. We had an hour and a half to do moulage makeup on 10+ "victims" (again, squeamish people should not Google "moulage." Moulage is making fake wounds and such.). I'm heading up this area of the drill.

And now I need to go tie up some cheese that's draining. Please pray for Clint's hand if you think about it! And his family. I'm sure they are worried about him.

Wordless Wednesday: Memememe! I wanna play, Dad!

Thursday Thirteen: Pictures of (Mostly) Old Fashioned Stuff

Three fabrics I've gotten at thrift stores. Why, however did you guess I love old-fashioned plaid and brown?

Close-up of the newest fabric (left, in the picture above)

Inkle loom, used for weaving belts/straps:

A felted cord (which I will make into a belt), which I supposed is old-fashioned because the general population has never seen felt in any form other than those little sheets you buy at craft stores.

Hurricane lamps with *surprise!* plaid bows. :-P I hope the picture comes out for you. My computer screen is wonky anyway, so I don't know if it's bright enough for you.

Quill pen. We cheated and stuck the guts of a ball-point pen in it so that it will actually write. My *real* honest-to-goodness quill pen with interchangeable tips and bottles of ink is put away. Rats and phooey!

My hope chest, which belonged to one of my grandmothers. Isn't it the most beautiful ever? :)

And the book, hat, and cloth doily. Embroidery on the doily done by my bosom friend, Laura.

Old Swedish (I believe) hymnal on top of a German calender book.

Sewing machine we got in England (2003) at a boot sale.

"Book"shelf:

Bench and desk with a woven tapestry showing pictures of prominent places in the county.

I've begun to realize that few people have home libraries anymore. Here's part of my family's home library. There are many other bookcases around the house. And stacks of books everywhere...

Nalbinding/Naalbinding/Nålbinding around a pencil to make the arm of a miniature glove:

That should be 13! For more Thursday Thirteen, go HERE. But first- one more picture, just because my darling Jerusha is so stinkin' cute!

There's a Hole in My Bucket, Dear Liza...

There's no real significance behind the song in the title. It just happens to be stuck in my head. By the way, do you know that song? I started singing it while at the Cowboy's house, and they all looked at me like I was mad. I thought everyone knew "There's a Hole in My Bucket."

My "surrogoat" children are growing up. 6 weeks old. Wow. Doesn't seem like that long ago I was down there with the nanny Joanna giving birth to tiny, little Gareth Joraiem and Jerusha Rielle. But the children are reminding me daily of how much they're growing. They destroy their little hay-fort-pen EVERY day. You have no idea how much I can't wait until they're too big to escape the hillside pen and I can get them out of the barn and out of my hair. Literally.

We have a bazillion little calves now. And there will be pictures of various baby creatures at some point so you can "awwwwww" over them.


As a side thought, I took the new kitten out to meet some of the older cats. The Blimp (fat, old, yellow cat) thought kitten was a bit of a novelty and cute. However, my cat Joshua (His Majesty, the .~*Self-Proclaimed Supreme Ruler of the Universe*~.) thought kitten was a shameful offering from his human pets, and please take it away, because I find it offensive and irritating, thankyouverymuch. *sigh* Cats...


In other news, not animal-related, I tried out naalbinding. I got a handle on the basics with yarn and a huge-ish, wooden needle. Now, when Cora learns something, the first thing she does is make it miniature. SO! I've almost finished a fingerless glove that is 1/5" across at the wrist. A little less than a centimeter. Yes, I'm crazy. News #2: I felted myself a belt. News #3: Yesterday, I found 4 yards of some beautiful, brown, high quality wool fabric (plaid) from New York... for $4.00 at a thrift store. Win! :)

We're out of badgers. Would you accept a Wolverine in it's place?

Yesterday, we got a new addition to the family from a neighbor. The Lego Man FINALLY got a pet of his own, poor guy. So he brought the little babe home and pretty much hasn't stopped talking about/looking at/playing with it since.

Introducing: The Wolverine.

He's cute and adorable and LOUD!

I Gots Me Some Culture, Yo

I thought I had plenty of culture before. Why, once I read the entire Reader's Digest version of Jane Eyre! How much more cultured can you get?

But, apparently that kind of culture is not what you need when making cheese. You need moldy-type cultures (could'a fooled me... I sure thought Jane Eyre was moldy).

So my dear mother just finished ordering some cheesy cultures (Chevre and one other) and butter muslin online. It will not be long before there will be a bounty of cheese in my home!

Although it won't look quite like those ^^ ...They'll be more crumbly and fresh and yummy. You get the idea. :) My dad says I will soon be "The Cheese Whiz." Um... Thanks, Dad...


Another bright part of today: my face is not quite so swollen today. One side is all purply-bruised, though. Ouch.

My New Mission In Life!

I have just discovered the perfect profession for me! Join up with Alvin and the Chipmunks and sing Munk Rock! Because...

According to my family, I look like chipmunk. Looking in the mirror, it looks like I'm holding a watermelon in my mouth. And that's about what it feels like. Ugh. I didn't realize that my face makes a perfect rectangle when it's swollen. Interesting.

Mighty Mike is down milking for me. He's even walking them out to the hillside to graze them. Yesterday, The Brain tried milking. Poor ol' city-boy has never milked before (the other day when he went down, he just bottle-fed the babes; he didn't actually learn to milk). So after about five minutes, we got a phone call from him: "Mom, I can't do it!" So my dear city-mom went down, assessed the situation, and called Grandpa, who finally milked the goats. Needless to say, I did not ask The Brain to milk last night. I asked The Cowboy to. The Cowboy is a fabulous goat dad. After he fed the babies dinner, he took two of them for the mile-long walk to the end of the driveway and back ("Gotta get their little muscles built up!"), then snuggled with the two babies that didn't want to go for the walk. I'm going to give him Jacen and Gary for "lawnmowers," and I'll keep Jerusha. Just in case you wanted to know.

I'm going to go re-heat my rice pudding now...

~Miss. Chipmunk

It's Keeping Me In Stitches!

The wisdom teeth surgery went very well, and I'm in very little pain. Just a bit of swelling, but ice is helping that. Drinking some lovely, warm chicken broth from a mug. Wow. Yum. I love this stuff. Not eating for nearly a whole day helped that, though. My dear mother has made mention of giving me a cherry smoothie soon...

And The Cowboy, Dad, and The Brain are being dears and milking my goats for me.

Love my family and my Cowboy. :)

Cora, Mommy to 4

Just recently, I became mama to 4 little kids. Two sets of twins, in fact! Their names are Jacen and Jaina (someone is a Star Wars geek around here...); and Gareth Joraiem "Super Gary" and Jerusha Rielle. Yes, I name every animal, including the ones that will end up on our plates someday. My animal-naming-style is Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Character Names With A Flair Of Hebrew Whenever Possible.

Here are some pictures of my adorable babies

Gary and Jerusha just after birth:

Me feeding Jacen, and Gary supervising:

Mom feeding Gary and being pestered by a hungry Jerusha:

The tichel (hair covering) is to keep the smell of goats off my hair, because my hair is a magnet to barn smells. It is not part of my normal attire. :-)

Pictures from around the farm

Some of the animals you'll see around my family's farm.

My Joshua, the purebred barn cat who thinks he is Teh Mighty Warrior. Here he plots to attack a fallen leaf.

Jasmine (brown) and Joanna (black and white). My brothers don't believe they're girls because they have beards. :-P

One of the new calves (Angus/Hereford). Ain't he cute? Awwwww... :-)