Baby Day!

We've been anxiously waiting all week for Mazy to have her baby/babies. For the last two weeks we've been able to feel some knobby legs kicking around in there. We've been feeling her tail ligaments to keep tabs on how close she might be to kidding. A the while she's bagging up more and more every day. Last night, the poor girl's udder looked like it was going to pop, and her ligaments were the loosest they had been. Just in case, we put Mazy in the cleaned out kidding stall with some heat lamps. Just in case. Right before bed, Mom and I headed out to the barn to check on mama goat - no new developments. At 6:30 this morning, Mom checked on the goat again, and still nothing. Although her ligaments were pretty gosh darn loose. We knew she'd kid today.

Fast forward only an hour. We get a call from the post office saying they had a cheeping box with our name on it. The baby turkeys are here! We've also been waiting for them all week. Mom started pulling herself together to go pick up all the tiny dinners. 

Jess had already headed out to the barn to do her chores when she hears this 'BAA!!!' Ohmyword. Baby goats! It's twins - a boy and girl. Jess comes in and tells Jake the latest and greatest in news from the barn (since he was the only one in the kitchen at that time). Jake runs up to tell Mom then runs out to the barn (with just a t-shirt and shorts on, might I add). There were two shivering little ones in the corner opposite the heat lamps. We just missed the birth (whine whine) 

Once we got the twins warmed up a bit, we realized that we still had to do chicken chores, meat chicken chores, goat chores, milking, and fetch the baby turkeys. Oh yeah... At least we already had a brooder tank set up for the turkeys. ;) I think our barn has reached maximum capacity now.

Well, I'll stop babbling and let you see all the new little ones! :D  

Turkey dinner. In six months.

Mamma goat. With a cutie bug in the background.

Thing 1 and Thing 2. That's little mister on the left and little miss on the right. We're thinking that we like the names 'Benedict' and 'Beatrice' from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. We'd call them 'Ben' and 'Bea' for short. :)

Our next doe is due in about 2 weeks! :D I don't know how we'll be able to contain all the cute that's going to be running around. 

Bucket Hoarder

Picture stolen from here

Something about being on a farm...
You tend to collect stuff.
A lot of stuff.
Tools.
Implements.
Out buildings to store implements.
Scrap wood.
A shed to keep the scrap wood dry.
Pallets.
Mismatched dirty socks.
Bills.
Duct tape.
Saw blades.
Broken things.
Sputtering things that won't start.
Fencing supplies. Or at least enough supplies for part of the job.
Old cats.
...
Buckets.

Yes, dear reader, buckets.

There are a thousand and one uses for buckets!
You can haul feed, carry water, collect water from a down spout, drill a hole at the bottom to water baby trees, tote all the supplies for a project to the site, put extra milk in to clabber for a chicken treat, trap a mean rooster when you are otherwise defenseless, loading up with garden bounty, soaking bare root trees until you can get them in the ground, empty out an aquarium, contain the snake when cleaning the tank, soaking grains, sitting on it, contain paint, collect rocks and treasures, use as a hat, catching a drip, berry picking, 'bucket listing,' keep compost contained until you get it to the pile, etc, etc, etc. I'm sure I'll forever be adding to this list.

But you can't do all these jobs with one bucket. Eww. That would be rather unsanitary. So you amass enough to equip an army. It doesn't usually all happen at once - slowly, slowly, you gather some for this job, when they're on sale, or just cause you feel like you don't have enough. But then your neighbor brings down a pickup truck load (not exaggerating here). He bought them to water his baby Christmas trees, but purchased too many. So he gave the left overs to us. He said something about us being able to use them. ;) We can haz buckets now. If you ever have a job that needs a bucket, I think we've got that department covered.

They're HERE!

The daffodils are blooming, the song birds greet the dawn with a chorus of their sweet chirping and trilling, the grass is looking shaggier, our first mamma goat is due to kid in 3 weeks, and we now have tiny pompoms inhabiting a corner in the barn. Yep, meat chicken batch #1 has now taken up residence. It's always exciting when the first batch of chicks is in the barn; over the course of the winter, you forget how adorable the puff balls are and how sweet their little cheeping is. 

The baby Cornish roasters arrived this morning with the typical phone call that comes when everyone is still in bed. ;) But never fear! We were semi-prepared this time! Yesterday afternoon, Dad, Emi and I got the barn all cleaned out (all that deep bedding that has been building up over the winter) and the brooder area set up. All we had to do was flip on the heat lamps and fill the waters. Actually, everything feels too clean now - there's an echo. Oh well. We've filled the cavernous feel with the never ceasing peeping of chicks. ^_^  

After watching the news last night, we (okay, maybe it was just me) started thinking that the chick's box was going to get stuck in the Denver airport since they had a lovely winter storm blow in. (The very first time we bought chicks, they got stuck there for several days. Needless to say, it was a rough start to raising poultry.) But that pessimistic voice in my head was quickly silenced. All of the chicks survived the trip, and they're all feisty little goobers. 

And thus begins a summer of meat chickens. We learned from last year though - I put a cap on how many chickens we'll grow. 300 chickens is too many. ;) 

Country Chic Bridal Shower

Has it been a week since Sonia's bridal shower already? Wow, time is flying. I think I need to get started on my bridesmaid dress because the wedding is coming up quick. ;) 

So. Want the lo-down on party details? (you're supposed to nod your head 'yes' at this point) I don't blame you. 

And in case you're wondering, much of the inspiration for the decorating and whatnot came from pinterest. It's pretty simple to get the gist of what the bride wants when she has a board for wedding plans ;) 

Emily H. made up these gorgeous biscotti! We dipped our double-baked goods into chocolate, let it solidify, them piped on the words and doodles. :) Super easy, super cute.

And how can you have a country chic shower without a chalkboard, boots and a pitchfork?

A close up of the centerpieces

And mason jars. Can't forget the mason jars.

The bride isn't huge on everyone staring at her while she opens the presents, so we recruited the guests' help for assembling the wedding favors while she unwrapped the gifts

For an activity, guests created a country song for the bride and groom via 'mad-lib' style.

These paper lanterns get used in just about every party now. Lol!

And when the bride has food restrictions, you make sure that she has something to eat at her own shower. ;)

A better view of the centerpieces

The devotion was a time of prayer led by a good friend of the bride

Favor making

And now for pictures of everyone's smiling faces. :)

This picture makes me laugh. A lot. 

She has that glow about her. :)

This also makes me laugh.

Can't you tell that they're sisters? :D

Flower toss!

All pictures courtesy of Christi

Sebastian the Hedgehog Plushie

Sometimes when you see a project, you just have to make it. Thus is the story with this little dude. 

Let me introduce you to Sebastian the Hedgehog Plushie. 

I was perusing some handmade toy pattern lists, when I found this little gem here. He was begging to be made. 

And sew him up I did. I had some micro suede left over from a vest, and bunches of little brown and tan scraps laying around. Whipped out the pinking shears and snagged some of the safety eyes from my crocheting sister's stash. I'm debating whether or not to give him legs, attach some ears, or embroider on a nose. :shrugs: He'll probably get those eventually.

Conveniently, it's my sister's b-day, and she was asking for a hedgehog and an otter (it's a BBC Sherlock fandom reference. There's also a hedgehog in 'The Hobbit' which is where his name comes from). Well, dearest, you're getting your hedgehog. I couldn't find any otter patterns.

'Down on the Farm' Baby Shower

Remember the wedding I was in last year? Well, the happy couple is going to join the ranks of moms and dads in just a few short weeks! Yep, they're going to be parents. A neighbor and I organized a shower to help welcome their little boy.

Decorating was easy once we decided to do a farm theme. ;) 

The excited grandmas-to-be did the devotion

There was a noticeable theme when it came to the gifts. ;) 

Corn-fed baby

All pictures courtesy of my good friend, Seriah

Baby Quilt Top - 'Spring Chicks'

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Back-to-back weekends: a bridal shower and a baby shower. Mix in daily life, and you have a good idea of what I've been up to. ;) I'll post pictures once I get them pulled together. 

One of my goals was to have this quilt project done by the baby shower for the mamma-to-be... but I didn't get it finished. (Big surprise there) I got the quilt top finished though! I'd say that's a step in the right direction. 

I've been working on the embroidered blocks all winter (when you have ADD and there's a TV or Shakespeare class going on in the background, well... let's just say that I'm not a very fast worker. ;) ), and the quilt blocks are simple 'shoo fly' which were easily finished in an afternoon. The original pattern that I was working from called for teeny-tiny 1.5" blocks all put together for the sashing, but that became really tedious really fast and they didn't line up. :face palm: Needless to say, I got to spend some very good one-on-one time with my seam ripper. I think that tool needs a name, actually; I use it so much. Since I took these pictures, I've been able to get this all quilted up, so now it just needs some binding then it's done! :)