We Have New Kids!

Born on Friday, June 14, 2013 at 6:30 and 6:40. The first born is a Doeling and she is naturally polled (no horns) like her Mother. The second born is a Buckling and we aren't sure yet about whether he will have horns or not. I really hope he doesn't because I hate disbudding, but we will have to wait and see.

Here are some pictures that I took of Hazel kidding, so if you are squeamish about this sort of thing turn back now or just close your eyes.

 Hazel needed a little help with the clean up process and Angel needed to make sure everything was alright and that anything that might draw in predators was cleaned up. She also needed some bonding time with her new charges.

The Doeling has erect ears like her Saanen Daddy.

The Buckling has floppy ears like Mom.

Flight of the Bumblebee

Actually only a few make it to flight, most of them end up lying in wait on my bedroom floor.

In case you are a new reader I will recap our living arrangements. We are living in our barn until our ship comes in, at which time we hope to build a house.

We can't see the ocean, a river or a lake from here, so I don't know how the ship will get to us. I have a suspicion that the ship is not even coming but we still keep waiting for it.

We don't have drywall or any kind of ceiling in most of our humble home, it was suppose to come on that ship as well. But we do have insulation in the ceilings. For some reason, the bumblebees chose our bedroom ceiling insulation as a good, safe, nesting area.

We had a good working relationship with the bumblebees to start out with, we didn't bother them and they didn't bother us. It wasn't until the new babies started hatching out that the problems began. Newborn baby bumblebees are not that frightening, and can in fact be considered cute like most babies.

I discovered that little baby bumblebees can and will sting if you get under the covers and try to share a sleeping space with them. That sting is just a little annoying and the pain doesn't last all that long.

As time has gone on we have found that baby bumblebees grow into children then into teenagers rather quickly. In each stage of their lives we have also found that they struggle to survive in the frigid temperatures of our bedroom.

With our little window air conditioner cranked up to its highest or should I say, lowest setting, only the very strong and healthy young bumblebees can actually find and use their wings successfully.

The rest of them end up scattered around on the bedroom floor on their sides trying to right themselves. They do occasionally make it to the side of the bed and manage to crawl up onto the bed or at least under the covers. It is really nice, if when they make it under the covers that they then find and figure out how to use their wings. That way, the noise will alert you to their presence.

I would venture to guess that we have killed approximately 14 flying bumblebees recently inside our house. I would not even try to guess how many we have picked up and disposed of that were on the floor and bed. We are starting to see a decrease in numbers, so I would say that we are about to be done with it all.

I had considered us pretty fortunate that we had only had one stinging incident and when I went into the bedroom to turn the air conditioner up a little because the weather outside had cooled down so much. I felt a little foolhardy to be in that room with no shoes on. While I thought on these things a sharp pain shot through my big toe.

My DH and I spent some time discussing which was worse; a bumblebee sting or a hornet sting. He assured me that a hornet was much worse. He gave me no sympathy whatsoever. As if I should just forget it ever happened.

Then last night he got up several times after we had gone to bed. I warned him each time. Finally, this morning, I heard him say, "ouch!" and I knew what had happened. I was ready for him too. I told him it was nothing and that a hornet sting was much worse.

This has all brought about a scientific study. I was telling a neighbor about my Husband getting stung by the hornet the other day and she told me that she got stung once in her arthritic, swollen finger.

After the sting her finger never bothered her again and all of the swelling in it went away. Now my DH's toe that he just got stung on has given him fits throughout the years, we'll have to wait and see what happens.

More On Amber

Since I have been asked some questions about Baltic Amber, I will tell what I know. I got started with Amber after my DIL (Daughter-in-law) asked me to buy an Amber necklace for the baby, they were suppose to relieve teething pain and slobbers. I ordered one that she picked out on eBay. I was amazed by how my Granddaughter stopped slobbering. So I did some research and discovered that adults with arthritis were reporting pain relief with the necklaces and bracelets.

I have had neck pain for many years and found total relief with a necklace. I then bought bracelets and more necklaces for other parts of my body. I have put necklaces on my shoulders and elbows secured with ace bandages. My Son has secured a necklace on his aching knee with an ace bandage.

I have even bought elastic braces and sewed the Amber beads on the inside for quick and easy help. The Amber does have to be applied directly on the pain source. So it has to come in contact with the skin at the sight of your pain. I have found that it starts to work within 10 minutes of application.

My other Son and Daughter-in-law were babysitting an infant who was teething, she was a mess with slobbers. I took my necklace off when they had her at our house and slipped it on her neck, within ten minutes her slobbers had dried up and she went to sleep and slept for a long time. They told me that she hardly ever napped and if she did it was just for short periods.

Amber is hardened sap from trees. It comes in many different colors and can even have leaves, debris or insects inside it. The very best color to get for pain is yellow that is not clear, it has more of the properties that you need to relieve your pain.

I have Bracelets that are made with elastic and they are really pretty tough. They also come on strings with clasps. I have not had any problems with any of my necklaces or bracelets except for the time that one of my goats grabbed a bracelet to eat it. She did break the elastic and ate several of the beads before I could get them away from her. Goats love the smell and taste of real Baltic Amber.

Just Confused

Others that I know who have goats know exactly when their does are in heat. I have always had trouble with this. It seems that my does do not show obvious signs. I turned Cooter in with five does last winter and when spring rolled around I only had three does who looked bred, the other two were questionable. Two of the does had twins and the other was carrying triplets when I lost her and all three babies.

The other two does never produced any kids and I never seen them show signs of heat. I also never seen Cooter breed any of them. After the babies were all born and I was ready to put their mothers back into the goat lot, I took Cooter to the pen up the hill. Then tied him out every day to eat grass and weeds.

One day in October, Collette who was always a trouble maker and tried to be the herd Queen started acting submissive and quiet. She also showed an interest in going to visit Cooter, so we took her and she stood quietly while he bred her. I sold her not long afterward and also sold Cinder as a doe in milk. I was milking Calico at the time so I kept her in the barn stall and put Cooter back in with Paris.

So, this is where we are today, Paris looks bred but I have been fooled before. On Saturday, she had a long string of goo and so I thought that she must have gotten out sometime this summer while I had Cooter tied out eating grass and went to visit him.

When I seen the goo, I assumed that she was getting ready to kid, so I put her in the barn stall with Calico. She doesn't have any sign of an udder but that is not too unusual. On Sunday morning she had blood all over her tail. But she didn't act strange other than she was crying continually and wanting to go back to Cooter.

Yesterday she had more fresh blood and today she doesn't seem to have any new blood. I have asked the powers that be if this could be a heat cycle and have gotten conflicting reports, some think that she is getting ready to kid in the next few weeks and some think that it is just a weird heat. She has quit crying now and acts fine, her temperature has been normal through all of this, so I am just stumped and don't know what to expect.

If you have wondered why I haven't been blogging lately this is part of the reason, along with a new Grandson, who is just too handsome. Also there have been Christmas programs to go to and the usual fun things to do around the farm this time of year, like breaking ice and carrying water. I have also been trying to do some Christmas shopping and catching up on my rope halter orders.

He's Here!

My three Granddaughters got to welcome their new little baby brother to the world Friday afternoon at 2:30, he weighed in at 7 lbs. and not quite 2 oz. He was 19 in. long and has a full head of dark brown hair.

My Quiet Day

This day started out normally with me waking up while still in bed. From there things went a little haywire, which is somewhat normal also. I am not upset or disturbed because for the most part I have enjoyed most of the day.

My morning was marred by my goats being out, I chased them around for a little while before finally catching them and putting the two yearling does in a dog kennel where they couldn't get out. Then turned around to the sound of a stallion screaming and kicks being administered. One of the broodmares and a two year old filly had knocked a gate off of it's hinges to get in with Badger our Grullo Stallion.

He was just trying to be friendly, after all they had come into his pen. They were kicking the daylights out of him. I managed to get him out of his pen and into the mare and foal pasture, then managed to get the mare, 3 weanlings and pony out of their pasture and into the dry holding lot. I left the offending mare and filly in Badger's pen. Then tied up the gate as well as I could. I felt like we were playing musical chairs.

I was scheduled to watch my three Granddaughters in the afternoon and as is always the case when they are here, my phone rings off the hook. The girls are very young and needy, they are especially needy when you are on an important call. There were a few times that I felt like jerking the phone line out of the wall and pitching the phone out the door, when the calls weren't important. It is odd to me that the older girls can be calling for my assistance over and over, the baby can be crying loud enough to wake the dead and the person on the other end of an unimportant call cannot tell that I am busy and don't have time to talk.

Two calls were important, one was letting me know that they had decided to buy a nice little AQHA Palomino gelding named Midas from us. They came to look at him yesterday.

The other important call was from a man who bought a horse from us several weeks ago. He has been riding his legs off, his daughter and Grandkids have been riding him as well. But after loading him in his trailer many, many times and even taking him away on a camping trip, the horse has decided not to get into the trailer anymore, not even for food. I gave him my suggestion, it involved pressure and a stick.

I chose today to try out a new recipe, since I didn't already have enough to do. My new recipe turned out well, but not worth the time invested. Somehow I managed to get my goat milked and my buck put up before dark, after the kids left. The DH and I even stole a couple of minutes to sit down outside and talk after he got all of the horses put back where they belong and got the gate repaired.

Exciting News

Yesterday was an exciting day. My expecting Daughter-in-law had her midway ultrasound and was suppose to find out the gender of the baby. They have three daughters ages 5 and under. We have been calling this new baby an "it" which is a little uncomfortable. I waited for her phone call and when it came, she was cruel and told me that the baby wouldn't cooperate and that they couldn't tell what it was. But that she was coming down to show us the 15 minute video.

I told my Husband when I hung up that she said that they couldn't tell, but that she was probably lying to me. He didn't understand why she would lie to me about it until I told him that she was bringing a 15 minute video down.

As soon as they arrived, I started interrogating the girls. They were very convincing and I started thinking that she had told me the truth after all.

So we watched the video and I first thought that I saw boy parts but then I thought I saw girl parts. Finally right before the truth was revealed, my DIL admitted that she knew and wanted to know if we knew, which we didn't.

Then the lady doing the ultrasound, after shaking the baby several times trying to get it to uncross it's legs, circled the area and it was plain to see that it is a boy. I guess the lady knew right from the beginning that it was a boy but she knew that they already had three girls, so she made them wait until she got a really clear picture so they could see for themselves. His big sisters will finally be able to quit fighting over who has to play the roll of the Prince.