Haven't Been Online For a While

I've been running around the country the last several days!

I decided that I needed a little break from mommy-hood and so I took my three youngest to visit Grandma Grace in Kansas.

I left Olivia here to do all the chores by herself and she did a WONDERFUL job. I can't believe how grown up she's getting.

She had to take care of the chickens and keets (baby guineas), feed the baby goats, and do the milking. That's a LOT of work for one person, especially a nine year old.

Today, I think we're going to Bismarck to have lunch with a friend. We're also buying some cherries and apricots from her. (They're from her grandmother in Washington.)

Also, all you bloggers out there...does anyone know why I'm unable to leave comments on certain blogs (including my own)? Is there a certain something that I need to click, or unclick?

Farm Life...

...can be hard sometimes.

Yesterday, Sophia came running into the house to report that "Sundance's babies are dead!" When we went out to the barn, Sundance did indeed have two dead babies on the ground.

I took her into the milk barn and checked her and felt at least two more babies inside! I could tell that they were dead and I didn't think that I could get them untangled, so we piled into the pickup and traveled the 20 miles to the vet.

There, they delivered the two other babies and gave her some medicine to help prevent infection.

So, now, we have poor Sundance, who is calling for her babies and is in pain from the vet. We're watching her very closely to make sure that she doesn't develop an infection. The babies looked premature, so I don't think she'll come into milk.

But, at least, it looks like she'll make it.

On a brighter note, I finally got to drive the old '69 Dodge.

The guys have a '69 Dodge 1/2 ton pickup and I have secretly always wanted to drive old faithful. I finally got the opportunity today when Dana needed some fuel in the tractor he was bailing with.

My first car was a stick shift and I miss driving a stick! Someday, I'll have one again.

But for now, I need to get out and do chores.

Alexzander

I finally got some pictures of Alexander this evening!

Here's a good picture of his beautiful blue eyes.



Alexzander didn't know quite what to make of Cally the cat.



Kaia has been stuck in the garage for a few days until I finished the fence. Then, I realized that she can STILL squeeze through the cattle panel, so I had to double up the fence until she gets a little bigger!

She was excited to be back with the "boys."




I snapped this photo of some thunderheads.



We had rain today and then the afternoon was beautiful. But, right after I took these photos...in the middle of chores...we had a little shower.

In the barn, Zander decided that he would like to help himself to some of StarFire's grain, so he hopped up on the milk stand. StarFire wasn't too happy about it.



Never a dull moment with goats.

Rain, Rain, Rain

It rained all day yesterday; a fine, slow rain, but relentless.

We got about a half inch at home, but we weren't home, we were up to Minot and back.

We got our little Alexzander. (I'd go out and take pics of him, but it's raining really hard right now, he he he.)

So, now we're in the MiniNubian business.

MiniNubians are a smaller version of the full-sized Nubians that we currently have.

You start out by crossing a Nigerian buck with a Nubian doe. You cross for a couple of generations until you end up with a smaller version of the Nubian that gives quite a bit more milk than a Nigerian, but is much smaller than the Nubian...AND eats much less, is easier to handle, etc.

I'm really excited to start breeding this relatively new breed of goats and see how things go. It will be a new adventure.

Hope you're all having a great day.

Monday, Monday

We didn't do much yesterday. A few things around the house, but otherwise, we relaxed.

Dana's been working hard, as always, so a little R&R was what he needed.

Today we're going to pick up our little Nigerian buckling in Minot, so that should be fun. I'll try and post pics tomorrow as I'm sure we'll be late getting home.

Blessed Rain

We received a quarter inch of rain over night! Praise the Lord!

Swimming in the Slough

Around here, we have sloughs (pronounced sloo). They're really no more than low places in the topography where water collects. We really have them this year since we had all the snow and rain.

This slough is about 200 yards from our driveway and I'm surprised that I have kept the girls away from it this long! But, they finally had the thought that they now have their own private swimming pool, so, I'm a lifeguard.

Josiah was with Daddy this afternoon, so it was just the girls.

As you can see, Mariah wasn't really too sure about the whole idea, but the girls had a blast.





Jumping off the culvert.





A good time was had by all, as I spent the time sitting in the van, parked on the road, reading my book. I finished the book I was reading, Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. If any of you like non-fiction stories about weather, this is a GREAT book. I highly recommend it.

The book is about Isaac Cline, who was the chief meteorologist in Galveston, TX when the hurricane of September 8, 1900 hit. It was the worst natural disaster in the United States and around 6000 people died that day.

The only sour note was that about a half hour after we got home, the girls were covered in hives. No idea what caused that! Oh well, a little Benadryl fixed them up and I'm sure they'll sleep very well, he he he.

Kisses From Cookie Monster

Olivia and I had fun taking pictures this afternoon.



Cookie Monster, our newest little buckling, is doing very well.




He decided that Olivia's nose looked tasty enough to take a sample of.



It doesn't look like Olivia enjoyed it that much though, hehehehe.






This is Olivia's Oreo. She LOVES this goat and Oreo loves her. She was the first doeling born on our farm, so she's pretty special to all of us. She should be kidding later this summer.



We didn't do much today...just a lazy Wednesday at Swan-S Grove Farms .

We're having a little shower as I write this. Lots of bad weather in other parts of the state. I have a friend that lives south of Dickinson and it sounds as if there was rough weather there, so I pray she's okay.

God Bless and Protect you all.

Blessed Rain

We received rain today...finally.

We have had only sprinkles lately while north and south of us have received significant rain, and today was our turn, I guess.

According to our rain gauge, we received a little over two inches!

My garden is really taking off, but I'm a bit behind on weeding, so I won't take pictures.

Little Cookie Monster is doing wonderful. His mama is giving good colostrum/milk, so he's slurping that up.

Olivia and I worked on immunizing goats today. We finished for now, but they will all need a booster for their pneumonia vaccination in about four weeks as this was their first shot. After that, I'll immunize them once a year.

Hope you all had a great day!

Surprise in the Barn

Well, Sunday, Dana and I finally were able to work on gates and fences. We've been trying to get to it for weeks!

It was hard work, but it's so nice to have it done.

This morning, Olivia and I worked about half of our herd. There were several who needed boosters of CD/T vaccine and we vaccinated about 2/3rd of them against pneumonia. We'll finish the rest tomorrow.

We also had to treat a few goats for coccidia. They REALLY don't like the medicine. It's really bitter. We tried adding Stevia (which is a natural sweetener) and it actually did seem to help a little.

So, this evening, we went out to do chores and we found a surprise in the barn. Can you guess what the surprise was?



His mother is Daisy, and she has really been busy the last few years. She's kidded four times in the last 28 months! I guess she deserves a break! I didn't realize that had happened, or I would have been more careful. However, I hadn't actually sat down and thought about how many times she had kidded until I began writing everything down in one place from my notes that were scattered here and there (notebooks, calendars, etc).

She kidded in January and I had actually dried her off after a few months because she wasn't really giving that much milk for some reason. (I think it was just too cold this winter!)

I think she's going to give plenty of milk this time, though, because I milked out over a pint and a half of colostrum! Little Cookie Monster drank over six ounces of Daisy's good, rich colostrum, so he's settled in for a nice nap with a full tummy.

Olivia is going to call him Cookie Monster because his sister is named Oreo. I thought it was a cute name.

Independance Day

Well, we decided to do something different this year rather than going to the Mandan 4th of July parade.

We went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan.

It was a beautiful day for being outside and the kids had a blast. It made me think that we should do a unit on Lewis & Clark! (always the homeschool mom, I guess)

This is a statue in front of the Interpretive Center.



At Fort Mandan, the kids had tons of fun.



They had the MOST fun, though, dressing up.

Olivia in her garb:



Sophia and Mariah playing with the dishes:



Joey:



Miss Mariah:



So, remember the other day, when I said that Mariah didn't remind me of any of the kids?????

Mariah looks so much like Olivia here!



Fort Mandan is surrounded by trees and the grounds are beautiful. Here's a shot of Josiah and Mariah that I thought was cute.



I couldn't resist taking some pics of the flowers that were growing on the grounds. LOVE to photograph flowers, and orange is my FAVORITE color. I just LOVE ORANGE FLOWERS, lol!



Here are a few pictures of the Missouri River. There is only a 65 mile stretch where it's allowed to flow unfettered by dams and such, so it meanders across the prairie here flanked by beautiful trees and fauna.

I found a stand of Russian Olive trees with the Missouri River in the background.

First cultivated in Germany in 1736, the Russian Olive tree was introduced into North America in the late 1800s, and subsequently naturalized into the wild. It is considered to be an invasive species because it has low seedling mortality rates therefore crowding out native vegetation in the wild. It often invades habitat on the banks of rivers where a stand of cottonwoods has died. (information taken from Wikipedia)

Russian Olive is one of my favorite trees, next to the cottonwood. I know, I know! Cottonwoods shed (it looked at times like a snowstorm) and the Russian Olive is an invasive species, but...well, I just like them. There's no accounting for taste, they say.



The Missouri has a high level of silt, which it deposits as "sand bars."



Here's a couple of random photos I took of the kids that I thought were interesting.

Mariah is so photogenic. She has such a range of expressions!




Olivia:



Here's a photograph of my husband's hands.



His hands are strong, like my father's and grandfather's hands...the hands of a working man with the earth and grease embedded under the nails. He works so hard to provide for us.

And here's a picture of Joey and his new bike! Poor Joey has been riding girlie bikes, but not anymore!!



Hope I didn't bore you with all the pictures! But, it takes a lot less time to look at them as it does to upload them, lol.

Hope you all had a GREAT 4th of July.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!!

My Son

I decided that I needed to get some pictures of "my little man" on here since I had the picture of the three girls.



Sometimes I worry that he gets lost in the shuffle, but he seems to be able to hold his own with his sisters, lol.



He loves to go with his dad, too, so that helps.

More Pictures

I just thought I would put in a few more pictures that I took with my new camera. Did I mention that I LOVE it?

Here's a picture of foxtail barley that grows everywhere! My goats don't like it, but I think it's pretty.



I enjoy photographing nature as much or more than my kids, lol.

Here are some pictures of the goat kids frolicking. They're so funny. When one of them gets a wild hair, it just takes off running with ears flying everywhere. Then any baby in close proximity takes off with it.









Here's a couple of pictures of my youngest. It's been hard for me to figure out who she looks like.







You know how when you are watching your child and there are fleeting moments when you say, "Oh, that reminded me of my brother!" or "When she looks like that, she looks just like her sister!" Well, that never happens to me with Mariah, lol. She doesn't remind me of anyone. She's just...HER.

What is an SLE?

My good friend Dawn asked what an SLE is.

The single-lens reflex (SLR) camera uses an automatic moving mirror system which allows the photographer to see exactly what will be captured by the film or digital imaging system, as opposed to non-SLR cameras where the view through the viewfinder could be significantly different from what was captured on film. (information taken from WikiPedia)

It's the kind of camera that you can change the lenses on.

Been Away for a Few Days

We had a little mishap with the camera, so I didn't have pictures to post...the most important part, he he he.

Also, my computer was acting up, so I took it to the computer hospital, lol.

In Bismarck today, I bought myself a brand new digital SLE camera. OH MY GOSH!!!!!

I LOVE it!

I bought a Pentax since I already had lenses. (That's the brand of SLE I currently own.)

Here's a picture of My Three Girls: