On Sunday afternoon our other doe delivered a set of twin kids--a doe and a buck.  She's a big bodied girl and has only ever had as many as two kids--but they are always pretty big.  Again they were surprisingly gorgeous.  I'm really happy with how well it all turned out.  My big sigh of relief. 

     We have hopefully 2 more does left to kid but it will be some weeks yet.  The bucks broke into the girls field.  That happens occasionally and we are usually able to avoid pregnancy but a couple of the girls are looking unusually plump. 

     Well, we had our first batch of kids this afternoon.  I was napping with my youngest and one of my daughters woke me up, announcing that one of our does had kidded.  And they are absolutely gorgeous!!!  These are the best looking kids we've ever had and just the sweetest little things!!  2 does and a little buck (which we will probably wether... aka castrate) so far.  They are all standing on their own and eating well. 

     Evidently everything went well and the momma just popped them out with no trouble and is doing very well.  Her bag hasn't completely filled up yet and it is a struggle to keep up with 3 kids.  But in a few days everything will even out.

For the first 24 hours we feed them 2 oz. of their momma's colostrum every 2 hours which means that my oldest daughters will stay up all night with them.  They love this special time of playing computer games with each other while everyone else is sound asleep.  They will wake up my 2 youngest daughters at 8am for the morning feeding on their way to bed.  We are hoping that our other very ready doe will kid yet tonight so that the girls will only have to stay up 1 night.  Usually it never works out that way and one year we had 3 does kid a day apart each so the girls were up for three nights in a row!!  That was a pretty tough year for them.   

     The funny thing about our doe kidding today is that goats very rarely ever give birth during the day.  They love to wait until bedtime or the middle of the night!!  It's just what they do.  So this was very welcome to us.

     Hopefully I will have time for pictures tomorrow!!

     It won't be long now until our new kids start arriving--Goat kids that is!!  We're all very excited.  I should receive my order from Hoegger Goat Supply today for the last of my supplies.  Since I was so sick, I didn't get my order in as early as I would have liked and that has put some stress on me wondering each evening if "tonight" would be the night and I wouldn't have my supplies.  But we've made it, so that worry is a thing of the past now.

      My basket of general supplies is ready and waiting.  Clean fluffy towels to dry the kids off with, a bulb syringe for suctioning mucusy noses, iodine for dipping cords, baby bottles waiting to be filled with their momma's nourishing colostrum and other odds and ends.  After the delivery I like to fix the mommas up some tasty fiber cereal and molasses mixed with Goat Nutri-drench to eat after they birth to help regain their strength.

     We bottle feed our kids.  Our herd is closed (meaning we don't show and don't bring in new animals without quarantine) so we aren't susceptible to CAE.  I don't pasteurize the milk so the kids are getting good raw milk, which of course is better for them.  We like to bottle feed because it makes the kids far more friendly and easier to sell--everyone wants a goat that isn't afraid of them. 

     I confess that I worry about kidding a lot.  My mind conjures up a million and one ways things could go wrong.  I worry about the kids being positioned properly because I hate having to turn kids or lose them because they are in the wrong position.  This year I bought some coated steel cable in case we have another kid in that horrible position of the front legs coming out but the head is stuck, pushed backwards up inside.  In that position you need a "kid puller" to loop around the head and pull it down (it wants to keep folding backwards up inside unless you help hold it steady so that it can come out with the front feet).  We've only had that happen once but it was very traumatic to me. 

     I also worry that they will kid in the middle of the night and not survive the cold temperatures.  We've only had that happen once and was actually able to save the kids because I heard the kids bleating in my sleep, woke up and ran out to find them. 

     Then, once the kids are born I worry that they will be OK.  I worry that the mommas will be OK.  We keep our kids in the house for the first 3-5 days (generally in our bathtub) so that I am able to keep a really good eye on them and make sure they are eating and eliminating properly and that they continue to act normally.

     Sometimes I think that I worry so much so that when things don't go badly I have a huge sigh of relief that things went so well.  And if things don't go well I am mentally prepped for the worst case scenario.  I prefer the sigh of relief though!!

     I'll let ya'll know how things turn out!!

     I just wanted to let everyone know that I have put up a couple of new links in my sidebar that are special to me...

#1  My Homeschoolblogger blog, Tapestries of His Grace. 

#2  My ebay store grammyKscloset.  I usually have books there but occasionally other misc. stuff that I find and want to pass along to someone who could have better use of it than I do.  I'm a packrat and have loads of stuff that I need to list but not near enough time to do it. 

#3  The Bird HotLine.  After losing our dear cockatiel Polly over a month ago I've learned a few things--namely that we are not the only ones who have lost a bird!  This website is dedicated to reuniting lost birdies with his/her family. 

     Due to the terrible weather that we've had and the lack of food/water available, I am fairly certain that our Polly is no longer alive.  Nevertheless, I still call for her and pray that if she is alive the Lord would watch over her.  I've posted on the "lost bird" section of the Bird HotLine site in hope that someone will find her and contact us. 

     It's important that the word is spread about the Bird HotLine so that if someone loses or finds a bird there is a way to get that bird back to his family.  

     Wow!!  It's been nearly a year and a half since I last posted here.  I've periodically posted on my Homeschool Blogger blog but I've decided that I am now going to focus on this blog.  The main reason being that I really don't post about homeschooling--everything that I write about there is really more suited to this blog.    Go figure!!  So here I am!!

     I seriously considered deleting all of my old posts but decided to leave them be in case someone might find them to be interesting reading.  I did change my template though, to make it feel a bit newer to me.

     A lot has changed in this past year and a half.  My oldest son Stevie, and his wife Hannah moved out to South Carolina in Oct. '06 to be nearer to Hannah's family as she struggled to cope with their loss.   In Jan. "07 they lost another baby due to premature labor (again).  A few months later they had conceived yet again and the doctors discovered that she has a heart shaped (bicornuate) uterus.  Around 16 weeks they stitched her cervix closed and on December 20th, 2007 I became a grandma to little Silas David.  We couldn't be happier!!

Grammy (me) & Silas 

     They have since moved back so that Stevie can help with our family business.  Dh, Steve needs a break badly.  I suspect that he is bipolar or has seasonal affective disorder (SAD).  He has an appointment with our family doctor later this month to diagnose him properly.

     Farm life is a constant.  The animals need fed and cared for daily and it is grounding.  Peaceful. 

     We have added 3 Shetland Sheep (1 ram and 2 ewes) to our menagerie.  I love their bleating and can't wait until late spring to shear them.  I don't know how to spin or weave yet but hope to learn this skill in the near future.  Next fall we will breed them for spring lambs in '09. 

     Our Nubians are just beautiful.  We bred 3 of the does last fall and expect kids next month.  I'm so looking forward to having goat milk again!!  We are planning to buy a new buckling from a family in TN this spring and in fall of '09 we can breed all of our does. 

     I have all of my garden seeds ready and waiting.  I ordered mostly open-pollinated and heirloom seeds this year.  In these times of uncertainty I want to be able to save my own seeds each year.  Last year my garden was wonderful and I can't wait to get back to it!!  This year we are planning to process enough tomatoes, green beans, corn, and pickles to last a year for our family.  Which adds up to an astronomical amount of jars!! 

     I suppose I have rambled long enough.  I look forward to posting here often.

I've had several queries about how our family is doing with the loss of our dear son so I thought I'd give a brief update...

     The grace of God has really been amazing and we are doing well emotionally and spiritually.  We hit quite a snag though when my sweet daughter in law went into premature labor at 23 weeks and delivered a baby boy weighing 1 lb 7 oz and was 12 inches long on July 25th.  This was my first grandchild.  Well kinda.  You see, Gideon (the baby that was born premature) was a twin.  Our first real loss occured on May 20th--just 4 days before our own dear son was born stillborn--my daughter-in-law Hannah had a miscarriage.  We were devastated to say the least.  But when she didn't have the post miscarriage symptoms though she had clearly passed the baby we began to have hope that she might still be carrying another baby.  Sure enough an ultrasound revealed another baby who was strong and healthy!  What a consolation!!  Though we had lost dear Gabriel (what my son and daughter-in-law named the baby that was miscarried) we still had the hope of a grandchild to be born in November as we had planned for.  Then of course just 4 days later I delivered our little (well, not so little really!!) Aaron. 

     It was almost 2 months to the day later when Hannah went into labor and delivered little Gideon at 23 weeks.  We were heartbroken in a deep, bone shattering kind of way with so much loss in so little time.  Losing Gideon was perhaps harder than losing our Aaron as he was born alive and lived for an extraordinary 1 1/2 hours though his lungs weren't formed nearly enough to attempt to save his life. 

     The grace of God has carried us through this valley of intense grief and there were times that we have had serious concern for Hannah as she has struggled with her loss of their two children--her first pregnancy. 

     It was discovered that Hannah had a staph infection.  The doctors did some pretty extensive testing and concluded that she must have been bitten by something (they think that a spider might have been the culprit) that would have caused her womb to be attacked by the staph germs. 

     We are hoping and praying for life to fill her womb again as we are for mine too!  For both of us to have lost our children in this way seems so much like a spritual attack upon our Godly seed. 

     I have posted a few pictures on my homeschoolblogger blog if you would care to head on over there to take a look...  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/weareqf/

     OK!  I am officially traumatized!!  When our Nubian does kidded last spring we ended up with 3 gorgeous bucks.  This is the first year that we got so many and didn't lose any.  We knew that we wanted to wether them but my vet had been doing some research and wanted us to wait until the little guys were 5 months old before we wethered them so as to allow their urinary tract to fully mature and not be a problem later on down the road (a wether can have lots of troubles in this area).  Well, this is my first time to wether the bucks (we've sold a few and kept a few and several have had various illnesses and have died) so I'm a real newbie in this area.  So off to the vet we go earlier this afternoon for the dreaded appointment.  I knew that it was going to be pretty hard for them but I didn't know hard it was going to be for ME!! 

     The vet didn't have an assistant so I got to hold the pan of antiseptic for his tools and I got a birdseye view of the whole procedure!!  NOT pretty!!  On the way home I realize that I have no banamine so I can't even help out in that area!!  Poor little guys!!  And you have to understand that I have a very tender heart and love animals so this is really hard for me.  The vet assures me that by tomorrow they'll be just fine but I have to admit that I'm not sure that *I* will be!!

     When dh got home from work I told him all of the gruesome details and I announce that I don't know if I want to breed the does this fall.  Lo and behold if I don't walk outside and discover our buck in with our lovely ladies!!    So much for my plans!!  Does anyone else ever have days like this???  Sigh.

     It's been some time since I've posted here.  Our family has been through a lot these past few months.  Our dear baby went to be with the Lord shortly before I gave birth and so... well, we've been through a lot.  I've made some memorial pages for him if you'd like to visit and read the whole story...

http://weareqf.homestead.com/Aaronspage.html

     It's been some time since I've had a chance to sit down and write.  The final total of new kids was 5 with one being a preemie--I hate it when that happens because there is no chance they will live.  So we have 3 new bucks and 1 doe.  The children have been having lots of fun playing with and feeding the new babies. 

Zane and Jordan playing with one of the baby goats!

     I am almost due with our baby, myself.  I am looking foward to cuddling the new baby but do enjoy pregnancy and hate to leave it behind. 

     We birth at home unassisted.  Statistically, I am high risk regardless of my health because of my age and that I've birthed many babies.  We desire to avoid intervention and the Lord has led us down this different path of unassisted birth.  Our doctor is totally in favor of our decision and we are extremely thankful for her blessings. 

      About a month ago we made a visit to our doctor to get her take on my higher than should be normal fundal height and figured out that I am further along than I had originally thought.  I also had a bit of extra amniotic fluid which seems to have taken care of itself now.  And then we decided to have an ultrasound a couple of weeks later to rule out the possibility that there was twins which had been a big worry with my last pregnancy (not that we don't want twins, it's been my hearts desire since my first pregnancy, but there are more complications when twins are involved).  Everything looked great and we learned that we are having a boy!!  The only "complication" appears to be that the baby has a two vessel umbilical cord rather than the normal three.  Our doctor assured us that since all of the vital organs looked wonderful and baby is thriving that it shouldn't be anything to worry about. 

     So now we are just awaiting the new arrival.  I don't think that we will have to wait too much longer.  I have a few things left to get ready but for the most part we are just playing the waiting game. 

     Hopefully I will be able to post our birth story soon!!

     What a surprise I received this morning!!  We knew that kids were coming--and normally we know that our does are going to kid before heading off to bed and plan accordingly.  Well this morning I was dreaming that horses were chasing me but they weren't "whinnying" like horses normally do but were making strange "blaaaaaahhhh" noises.  It woke me with a start and I lay there listening.  I heard it again but still wasn't quite coherent enough to put it all together.  I sat up and opened the window to hear better.  I heard the roosters crowing and birds singing and finally heard that strange noise again.  A baby goat!!  I had decided to leave the goats outside last night instead of putting them in the barn since my son only had the "nursery" stall cleaned out and I wanted to keep it clean for when the new babies came.  I knew that it was going to be cold but it got a bit colder than we had thought. 

     I woke my son Josh (16) up and we hurried out to the doe field to find a couple of very cold kids.  We scooped them up in towels and hurried back into the house.  They were so cold and not very responsive.  I threw a couple more towels into the dryer to heat them up and we sat rubbing them and using our own body heat to warm the babies up.  Finally after an hour or so we woke my oldest daughter Sarah (18) up so that she could go out and milk the momma so we could get some warm milk down the babies.  By then my youngest, Eli (2) was awake and wanting my attention and wasn't happy to find his mommom's lap filled up with baby goaties and while we were trying to feed them they were bleating.  Eli kept saying "baby" and I think he must've figured that I had my baby!!  Too cute!!  I had to assure him that mommom still had our baby in my belly. 

     I had expected that with all that had occured the babies would be hard to feed--not want to nurse.  Not so!!  The slurped down their milk like pros!!  Yay!! 

     Our feeding schedule is to feed 2-3 oz every 2 hours for the first 24 hours.  The children love it because I let them stay up all night and play computer games while the adults go to bed.  It's one of their favorite times of the year.

     After the first 24 hours we move to 4 oz every 4 hours for the next 2 days.  We then move to 8 oz every 8 hours until they are 2 weeks old.  The next progression is to feed twice a day starting at 16 oz working up to 20 oz in soda pop bottles until they are approx 2+ months.  It is quite a bit of work but we have had great success with this schedule!  And we do not pasteurize our milk for the full benefits of the enzymes and vitamins/minerals.  We only feed replacer as a last resort knowing that momma's raw milk is exactly what they need most!

     Oh, and by the way...  It was 2 bucks.  We plan to wether them and turn them out to pasture with the does this summer. 

     We have at least 2 more does due to kid and I'll keep you updated!

     OK, it is officially spring.  So where are the nice spring temperatures??  Well, we did have some of those a week and a half ago.  And that's when my silly plum trees decided to blossom.  I really don't think that they are trees meant for this zone because we hardly ever have plums because of frost.  But they obviously don't know that.  Every year they bloom early, though I admit that this year they bloomed extra early, and then the frost kills all of the blossoms.  It's so sad.  Tomorrow we are supposed to get snow and tomorrow night they are calling for lows in the mid 20s.  That should pretty much finish them off!! 

     One year there were actually enough plums to process and I made a whopping four jars of jelly.  It was really yummy!!  Yes, I am thankful for the opportunity to have had those four jars of jelly--but I really would like more!  Is that too much to ask??

     I have a secret.  I plan to slowly replace those silly plum trees.  I'm starting this year with a Green Gage plum tree.  I don't know whether we'll cut the old ones down after the new ones are established and producing or whether we'll continue to take our chances with Jack Frost.  They are beautiful in bloom.  We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

     Yesterday, in my intro, I mentioned that we hadn't planned to breed our Nubian does, but this morning we noticed that one of our 3 year old does had "bagged up" (meaning that her udders are filling up with milk).  So if we're gonna have kids this year...  Bring 'em on!!    I am so hoping that we get lots of babies this year.  Never mind that I am due myself in about 5 weeks!! 

     I have read in several publications that bagging up can be a sign of impending labor.  Not so with our ladies.  Occasionally they can go up to 3 (and even 4 once!!) weeks full of milk and appear uncomfortable.  Poor things!  The norm for us is usually 2 weeks though.  We have had a doe that didn't bag up until after popping kids out--which is most confusing!!  Thankfully she is just our barnyard mascot now since she is quite aged and her udders are ruined from mastitis (she was in pretty bad shape when we got her--we were new to goats--and it was progressively worse with each breeding.  We retired her a few years ago.)

     I love new kids.  They are so much fun.  We hand raise ours using their momma's raw milk in regular baby bottles until there is too much milk to be fed from a 9 oz. bottle.  We then switch to soda pop bottles with the black rubber kid nipples.  We test for CAE every couple of years and/or before we sell any of our herd and haven't had any problems there.  We use the milk raw rather than pasteurizing it for the great health benefits.  Having raised kids by hand and also letting the momma's raise them, we've discovered that they are much more friendly and workable when raised by hand.  And it's fun!! 

     We keep our kids in the house for the first couple of weeks so that I can keep a good eye on them to make sure that everyone is eating as they should and that they are eliminating properly.  So far we've only had a problem once with scours (diarrhea) and have actually had very few problems of any kind.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! 

     I will write in the future describing our feeding schedule.  It's a bit complicated but works wonders for us. 

     Hello!  I thought I might introduce our family.  We are the Ellis Family and live in Central Missouri on our 32 acre mini-farm of sorts.  Currently we have 1 Appaloosa mare that is too wild and mean to ride (though the previous owners assured us, before moving thousands of miles away, that she was a wonderful horse.  And since we weren't experienced riders, we took them at their word!  Grrrr!), a couple of beef cows, a small herd of Nubian goats that we decided not to breed for kids this spring (though the bucks had broken in a few times last fall), free range chickens and guineas, a couple of egg stealing dogs, a few outside cats (can't classify them as "barn cats" since they just lay around on the front porch all day) and indoors we have a couple of parakeets.  During the warmer weather we house many critters that the kids like to "observe"--and a few come in of their own accord--like the snake we found in one of the bedrooms last year when someone left a window open without a screen on it!  That was pretty exciting!!

     I also enjoy gardening and only wish that I was good at it.   

     I love learning about new homesteading skills though my time is pretty limited to actually doing little more than learning.  Occasionally though, I manage some success on a project that is dear to my heart.   

     Our family consists of Mom (Kris) and Dad (Steve).  We've been married for over 24 years and have 10 living children (plus 3 in heaven) and 1 on the way, due in April.  Our oldest, Steve Jr. (24) is married to Hannah (22).  On down the line...  Scott (22), Sarah (18), Joshua (16), Bethany (13), Lillian (11), Hope (8), Jordan (7), Zane (5), and Eli (2).

     We have been homeschooling since 1986 and love it.  I've tried just about every different method just for fun but always fall back to the basic textbook/workbook format for the essentials.

     We have been blessed to operate a home based family business in the area of construction since 1993 and continue to grow. 

      And that's about it.  I hope to make new homesteading friends here and learn a lot!