These are a few of my favorite things...

I am feeling a bit low today. Not sure why....

But I know that when one is feeling low, a great remedy is to list things one if thankful for. Since I am at work and do not have my journal, I will make my list here......
(in no particular order)

~making it through the first decade of motherhood alive
~Micheal Pollan and Barbara Kingslover books, specifically Omnivore's Dilema and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle....
~roller skating with the kids the other night and not breaking a bone
~ nephews and niece
~great movies....most recently Juno (!), Charlie Wilson's War, King of California, the Amateurs
~upcoming trip to Maine to see the family!
~Gita's imaginary cat friend, Fairy Dancer...even though she gets into a lot of trouble!
~the spot on mother in laws hip was just a fingerprint on the x-ray
~blooming dogwoods, silverbells, and azaleas
~Noah's 11th Birthday! and guess what, he still likes me!
~Pandora (online radio....so awesome, check it out if you haven't...www.pandora.com)
~Saduko (or sa-dork-o, as it is known in my house)
~tons of local produce in the grocery store
~Nimaues dance recital at a nursing home next week
~our brand new super water and energy efficient washing machine...no more lugging a weeks worth of laundry to the laundromat every Friday!
~goat milk and fresh eggs

phew, it worked! I feel so much better

Homestead; Earthday 2008

I will now be playing the part of the DJ. I have a request for more photos of the homestead.

So, this goes out to those of you who care enough to ask and to those of you who may not really care but are curious about the strange ways of your back woods family....

Looking up past the gardens to the 2 houses (which are getting plaster this summer!)

Alex and the great day of building the grey water system(alternative to a septic system or city sewars)

Garden beds, mostly not planted yet....notice, no weeds!

Looking in between the 2 houses...up towards fire wood and the old barn...

Now looking down past the two houses towards the garden and the trampoline and our road

ye old homestead doggie, Atticus the bold

another shot in the garden looking towards our driveway

goatastic update

Having goat babies around is addicting!

I appreciate having this connection to the spring time...spring, after all, means more than just the onset of seasonal allergies and the promise of summer soon coming.

So now in my little world, spring time = goat babies in the barnyard. How wonderful!

Thunder and Rain are growing so quickly, thanks to all that delicious mama goat milk! They are now running and jumping and keeping us entertained. Thunder, the little boy, is showing off his male instincts by walking alongside his sister then placing a hoof on her back, as if to say "now we both know who wears the pants in this barnyard, right babe?" It won't be long before her realizes that it is really the female goats who "wear the pants" on the farm, or at least get the most respect and appreciation and handfulls of peanuts!

...ahhh

Goaty Babies

We did it! We had ourselves some goat babies!
Okay, okay.....Emilia the mama goat did the work, but it feels like a huge success!

Our new additions are baby boy Thunder and baby girl Rain (multiple choice quiz: What do you think the weather was on the morning of the birth? a. sunny b. snowy c. thunder and rain)
And here is their introduction to the world outside of the barn....

After days and days of checking on the pregnant mama and wondering if any slight shift in behavior could mean she was going into labor, Saturday morning she refused to come out of the pen. A few hours, a lot of goat goop, and a total of 7 adult goat herders, 5 children, and one goat midwife later, we became proud "parents" of the two miracles.

Emilia was bred to Gryffindor (chosen for his striking good looks and his cool name) 155 days prior to the big event. We assumed she was pregnant, especially when she started getting wide around the middle, but we did not feel too confident after a false pregnancy with another goat, Sparrow, earlier in the year (turns out she was just putting on a little spring fat...really, it happens to the best of us). But a week or so ago, when she started drifting from the herd and spending most of the day laying down along side the barn wall, we figured we had some babies in our future. And we were right! Thank heavens! And thank heavens one of those babies is a girl....the fate of any male farm animal is usually less pleasant than his female counterparts......

The babies are now running around and nursing like crazy. Today was the first day we took them out of the kidding pen to meet the rest of the herd. We will do that for an hour or so each day until they are two weeks old and ready to spend the whole day with the adult goats.

Noah, Nim, and Gita are quite obsessed with these new additions to our family. In fact, we a have hardly seen them since the birth....and when they finally do emerge from the barn, they inform us that while they are playing with the babies, they have also been sweeping the barn, scrubbing the milk stand, and "grooming the goats" (helpful, even if they use the bucket cleaning scrubber as a goat brush). We have put the hammer down on the request for them to sleep in the barn with their new friends.

We are so very happy! Thunder and Rain have brought a sweet new energy to the homestead and remind us why it is so good for the kids to have farm animals....note, it has been exactly 2 days and 3 hours since Noah and Nim last begged me for a hamster and I am hoping the baby goats filled that need.....I'll be keeping my fingers crossed!