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Just tell me when you get sick of updates... :) Atira had only one fit last night and Bobby was still awake (though I'd been asleep for an hour) and he helped with it and witnessed the violence of it for the first time. The key seems to be letting her cough through it and then get her calmed down as quickly as possible so she doesn't start again. She laid down on her bed (propping up does seem to help) and I talked to and prayed with her, rubbing her back, and she fell right to sleep. Slept peacefully all night. The most remarkable thing about this all is how normal they are during the day. They drag a little bit, a little tired, but it's not even as bad as a cold aside from those fits.
We're thinking of going ahead and catching a fireworks display somewhere tonight, but because of the pertussis we'll have to avoid people and won't get to hang out with our dear friends like we were planning to. I know the kids would enjoy it (duh) and I'm kinda sick of sitting around myself! I can hobble around pretty good but that foot does start to throb if I'm on it for long. I poked around in my garden yesterday and overdid it. But my plants missed me!
We called the Martins to come pick up the Brownie goat. Just can't get used to her milk and although, like I said before, we feed it to the babies and it frees up the tasty milk for us, we decided it was just that much more work. I really prayed about whether to sell all the goats, sell some... how to not "give up" but still practice wisdom in knowing what I can handle right now. At first I had my mind made up about what we should do, but as I prayed it became less and less clear and I really wanted to know what Bobby and my older kids thought. Well Bobby insisted we stick it out and keep Gran and Dessy. The girls felt stronger than I expected about keeping their two doelings. We talked about means of management and quickly came to a workable solution. The biggest blessing for me was realizing that I'm not in this alone. Most of the time I assume I'm the only one commited to homesteading (though the kids love the animals, of course) and the whole burden is on me. But this goat discussion taught me that I was wrong. And boy, sometimes it feels so good to be wrong! If you know Bobby you're probably amazed that he had an opinion on it at all... he's a very laid back guy that usually takes the "whatever" approach, espeically to "my" projects. The fact that he holds an opinion on this subject is enough for me! The rule is: If he cares at all, we do it his way!
We're going to sell the two almost 3-month old wethers ("August Leggo Larry" and "Log" - aka, Auggy and Loggy the Lunchmeat brothers) at the swapmeet this weekend (or at least try). We were going to raise them and butcher them this fall, but I don't see how it's sensible. If we had an area for them to browse, it'd be different. But it's not cost effective to be buying hay. We were given two cable runs that we hooked up for Gran and Dessy which freed up the corkscrew tethers. We'll put the two doelings on them. Farra and Atira are commited to tackling this with the knowledge that if it gets to be too much work for Momma, the doelings go. I think we have a workable plan and I'm feeling very good about it.
Now, about those chickens we were offered...
A friend of a friend lives near a farm that raises chickens for Tyson. Tyson came to pick up their birds and ended up not taking about 3,000 birds the farm had raised for them. This friend of a friend saw an opportunity and bought about 2,000 birds at 50 cents a piece. He's going to get them to butchering size and will sell them for 75 cents each in 2-3 weeks. My friend wanted to know if I would want any and how many? Well, I'm the only one she's talked to that has freezer space.... but gosh, look a few posts back to see how my first butchering experience went! I would have to hire someone and by then I'd be paying about what I'd pay in the store... for the same cage-raised bird! They're talking about having a big butchering day and my friend and her husband are going to do about 100 birds themselves. It's tempting... but I think we're going to pass. Bobby liked the idea of getting cheap food, but when I asked, "Well, are you willing to help butcher?" he decided it wasn't such a good deal after all.
And that's what's going on at the Willie Farm today...
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