Right after I was blogging last night my husband checked our very due mama goat and she had her baby during the storm. She had a little girl we named Angelina.
The weather was cool and nice today. We worked in the garden all day. I say "we" loosely because my boys worked in the garden today and I kept them company. They planted more cucumber and green beans. Plus they weeded the areas that needed it. I did some mowing here and there.
The most exciting thing today was when we were out in the far field fixing fences and we saw a skunk. Then the skunk started to act funny and became confrontational (we then knew it had rabies because of a skunk my sister had at her house). One of my sons ran for a gun and the other stayed with me. My survivor son that stayed with me hit it with a stick causing it to fall over. By this time, my other two sons were running back with the gun. One of them killed it and then we triple black bagged it.
We fixed fences today in the back where the good-for-nothing goats had been escaping to eat leaves. We worked for an hour or so on the fences until the skunk episode happened. Then we moved to the garden.
I went to a friend of mines sons baseball game tonight. They wanted us to go and see them play and with the night being cool and nice we went. It ended up being a nice night.
I am finally starting to get back into a routine again. I have organized my household again. We have been working in the garden. The square of potatoes is doing wonderful. We have 56 tomato plants, 36 pepper plants, 8 watermelon plants, there are 4 cucumber plants in right now but we have to put at least 4 more in there. We have planted cilantro, basil, and oregano for our spaghetti sauce. When we were in Vegas on vacation we assume the turkeys and peahens ate the onions and garlic because they are always in the garden. We still have a lot of room in the garden to put whatever else we want to grow. We have green beans to plant but haven't gotten their section ready yet.
Monday we had a baby goat born. It is a baby girl we named Jean. Then yesterday we had another baby goat born. This one is a boy we named Flower (mother is Thumper and Flower on Bambi is a boy....long dumb story, but we named him Flower). We have another mama about to kid soon, also. She is looking more than ready.
My son has over 20 turkey chicks hatched and doing great. We are trying to become self sufficient and by raising the turkeys and chickens we are beginning to get that way. We have quite a few chickens that we could eat if it were necessary. We have 3 full grown male turkeys ready to eat. They are huge now.
We were in a terrible storm system tonight. We were in a tornado warning for over an hour. We are in a watch right now. My sister was at church when the warning came in for my county and by the time she got out of church her county was in the warning. She had a scary drive home from church. We were praying her through this horrible time. She made it safely home and was glad to be home.
I stocked up on food, especially staples. There is rumor of a truckers strike because of the gas being so high. If the truckers strike it will be hard to get supplies in and out of cities. In fact, at Sam's Club they are limiting the rice. I was getting empty here because I did smaller groceries in March and April to have extra money for vacation. I bought 75 pounds of flour, 25 pounds of sugar, 25 pounds of rice, 25 pounds of pinto beans, and lots and lots of other things. I spent $650 at Sam's. Then the next day I went to Wal-Mart and got all of my Wal-Mart stuff (food and bathroom stuff) and spent another $600. Then I went to our neighborhood market and bought the stuff I buy there and spent another $40. I have so much food in the house right now. Plus I went into Tractor Supply and bought all of the animal supplies for the month. I am stocked and ready for at least a month, if not more.
We have been busy preparing for something....who knows what?????....but I am prepared for it.
Well all is peaceful on the farm. We returned from vacation in Las Vegas. A good friend of mine followed me back with her family. I had a great time with her all week. She got to see life out here "in person" and put all she has heard in perspective. She brought 12 of her kids with her and her husband flew in 5 days later. Then they stayed for another 5 days before they had to leave. I wish they could have stayed longer. I know her kids had a great time. I pray she had a great time, too.
I hope to be able to blog regularly again. My life feels slow and quiet. I felt like I had a lot of kids before we had house guests, but after having 4 adults and 26 kids in the house I feel like my house is empty (I would take visitors anytime...it gets lonely out here in Texas). Other than that, everything is going okay....OH! We had to have our favorite horse put to sleep. She got sick when I was gone on vacation, and got worse and worse until it became hopeless. We are all so sad.
Happy Mother's Day!
Brenda
I haven't written in a while. It is hard to get into the writing thing after being away from it for a while. I am back in Texas. Great friends of ours followed us back to Texas for a visit. They have 12 of their kids with them. We have had a great time, but it is busy and a lot of kids. I love have them here. Will write soon.
The weather in Vegas continues to be beautiful. Today got a little windy but I am used to the winds in Texas. Wind now represents clothes blowing on the line. I love wind (not too hard of winds).
My kids were invited to my brothers house for a sleepover. They have an old boat in their very large (one acre in Vegas is huge) back yard. The boat is like a play house that their kids play in and on. My four year old daughter was playing on the boat and fell off on her face. She looks terrible. It is a desert here. Her face is scatched up and bruised. I am going to see how it looks tomorrow. If it doesn't look any better I might take her in to make sure she didn't break her nose or eye socket. She is now feeling really good right now.
We have a week left here in Vegas. We leave next Sunday. My daughter has her dance on Friday. She went looking for a dress today, but didn't have any luck finding anything. She brought a dress in case she didn't find anything here. We are probably going to look on Monday.
My sister and I were laughing the other day because we came all the way from Texas to Las Vegas and we have spent more time together than apart. We are still each others person we are most like. It is easy to be around her and her family.
Have a nice night.
Well I got my mom fix. Today was such a great day with my mom. We went to dinner and then did some second hand shopping. To finish off the night we picked up ice cream cones and headed home. I feel so much better. I am lacking the "mom" vitamin as well as many others I am sure. I came home and took a long bath and read for a little while. Most of my kids are at my brother and sister-in-laws house for a sleepover.
My daughter is going to the prom with a friend of hers here in Vegas. My sister is treating my daughter to having her hair done for the prom. She is so excited (well we all are).
The weather has been beautiful. I have been enjoying the beautiful and predictable days. It is much drier out here than I remember. I guess since being in Texas we got used to the humidity and now the dry heat feels harsh. I also don't remember noticing the heat the same way. I am getting to be a softy I think.
blessings,
Brenda
I am sitting here in my kitchen (in Vegas) and all of the kids are in bed and the house is quiet. There aren't very many things in the house because they are all in Texas. The few furnishings that are scattered around are mixed matched and worn. My wonderful parents filled the house with food and supplies so we would be comfortable. They brought a dish set over, pans, utensils, linens, and so much food. You would have thought they knew I was coming into town on an extremely tight budget. Then a friend of mine (a great friend of mine) brought tons of chicken, bags of chips and salsa, coffee cakes, bagels and bread, and the comfort only a friend can give. I am so blessed.
I am feeling down. I am so happy to be here visiting my parents. I am so happy to have made the trip safely and without any problems. I am so blessed to have my good friend following me home to Texas for a visit with me. I am so blessed to have this house to stay in while we are here. Then why am I blue? What keeps me a little in the dark in my happy moments, especially lately. You don't know me so it is hard to know, but I am generally a "get over it and move on" type of person. I feel like as I get older I am more sensitive to my place in the world. I am aware that I affect everyone's life that comes into contact with me. I can impact it in a good way, a bad way, or just indifferent. I am trying to impact the world in a way that they know I know Jesus. That not a negative thing would be believed if it was said about me. I want to climb into a closet and cry. I want to scream out all of my sadness and hope someone hears and understands. I want to feel the control I used to feel over my life. The closer I get to God the less control I know I have. My flesh screams out for control. I kick and scream trying to gather control up. God is in control. He's got my back. For a control freak like me, I have to pray through this tough time. I have to leave the driving to God and know He has it covered. I will be better off. I feel emotionally drained. I feel ungrateful. I will be better soon. I just need to work through this. I feel lost.
Church was great. It felt wonderful to worship and learn. To see old faces and meet new ones. I was happy to be back in our old church. I missed it. We are in a Baptist church in Texas and it isn't the same. Well, I better go read my Bible (to gather renewed strength) and much needed sleep (I am on an air mattress).
Night.
We are in Vegas now. We left Texas on Friday. We traveled all day Friday and Saturday. We got here in Vegas on Saturday afternoon. It has been a whirlwind since. It has been so nice to see my parents and my brothers. I was so missing everyone. I can't believe how nice it feels to be here. At the same time it is so much uglier than I remember. Everything is beige and creams. I forgot how many people are on the road at the same time. I don't miss any of that. I do miss family and all of the shopping Vegas offers. When I say shopping I am referring to thrift store and second hand shopping. I have been shopping since I got here for clothes to last until I come back again. I love second hand shopping.
My husband is home taking care of the farm. We had another baby goat this morning. He was there. Lorraine had two kids, but the first one was still born and he couldn't revive it. The second one was born very bruised in the legs. The surviving baby is a boy he named Charles. He is nursing well and doing good.
I am missing Texas. My garden is growing weeds as we speak. When we get back I have so much to do. I have to get the rest of the stuff in the garden. I will have to give my husband a much needed rest from all of the chores after his two weeks of caring for the place all alone.
I will try to blog more, but I have been very emotional lately. I hope we made the right decision moving because my parents seem to miss us. I know I sure missed them. Have a great one.
Blessing, Brenda
Who would have thought that I would have a funeral for a cat? Anyone who knows me knows that I take life by the neck and “just get over it” is closer than anything to my attitude. Today has been a horrible day. One of the mama cats died. She had eclampsia. I started noticing her acting odd last night, and by this afternoon she was dead. My daughter (my whole family) is devastated. It was my daughter’s cat and she is totally a fragile girl to begin with and this is going to be hard on her. So we had a funeral of sorts. I didn’t really know what else to do to make her feel like there is some closure. The hard thing is she has 6 kittens. So far the other 3 cats have taken turns feeding her babies. They started doing this last night. It is so weird, it’s like they knew something was wrong. One of the other mamas in particular is overly motherly. She has been stealing her kittens for days now. I also have kitten formula and a bottle.
Each time something happens it seems like I am barely able to survive it, but we get through it. Believe it or now I am the strongest person a lot of people know. I try to keep everything to myself. It is easy to put on the strong face and push through... the hard part is admitting to emotions (besides anger).
As anyone that reads this knows, I haven't been blogging lately. It started with one of the quads dying. I felt so sad about this. I was so disappointed that I had committed so much to them and one died for no apparent reason. Then four of our cats had kittens within a three day time frame. We have a total of 19 kittens. We obviously aren't keeping them all (my sister and a friend are taking some). Then I have to get the females fixed. We still have one pregnant cat to go. The quads (well missing Butch 
) suffered from bloat and had to be taken off milk replacer. Because it was time to wean Belle we started milking her mom and giving the quads the milk. They are doing so much better.
We are going on vacation to Vegas next Friday. I am dreading it and absolutely so excited at the same time. It is an expense I don't really have and I am missing my parents so much.
We have been working in the garden. It is time for us to get the rest of the veggies in before we leave on Friday. The potatoes are up and some of the corn. I see a few of the garlic, but no beets yet.
We got a new horse. She is a three year old buckskin mare. I will take a picture of her soon. She isn't broken yet because my husband wanted an unbroke horse. She is sweet and seems easy natured. We have hatched 8 ducks, and 20 something chicks. We are drowning in animals. I feel like the zoo keeper without the staff or facilities. We are doing fine, but it is exhausting. Most days I am fine, but lately I have felt sad.
My husband goes to Vegas for quarterly doctor's appointments. This time while he was there he kinda hinted that maybe we were better off in Vegas with all of the opportunities it has to offer instead of here with all of the space. It just makes me second guess our decision to move here. We totally felt it was God that lead us here and now that we are here we are confused. I am sure it is the enemy, but it brings me down. Vegas only offers financial advantages nothing more. We have lived there for just about my whole life. I always felt like there was something more than it had to offer.
Now I am sitting at the kitchen table blogging and wondering what I am doing. Is opportunity more important than getting back to basics? Is the rich man any better off than the poor man? I wonder sometimes. When I get weak I also second guess our decision to be dresses only. I know wearing pants isn't a sin but is it right for my family? I wonder...We are always the freaks everywhere we go. I want to just fit in and feel normal somewhere...Am I the only one that feels this? I just keep pumping along. The feels always pass and I continue on.
My two sixteen year olds just got their learner's permits to drive. I am excited. I already have 4 drivers in the house, but there never seems to be enough drivers or vehicles. My kids are getting old.
Hope everyone has been well. Thanks for reading and being concerned about me not writing. I am alive and well (well sort of).
Blessings,
Brenda
I have been thinking about Aunt Mary (the great aunt that lived with me in Vegas and I took care of since 2001...she died at age 89 in Nov.) all day. I first thought of her because my husband took my little ones to the corner store (5 miles away) to buy a little treat. My house was so quiet. I was thinking what it would be like without all of the kids underfoot (my aunt never had children and died a lonely woman by choice). I am so thankful to have a house full of children.
I went to church this morning for the first time in two weeks because I have been sick. It felt nice to be back in church. We had a fill in for our Sunday school class and he was refreshing. He asked us a question that stayed with me all day as well. If you were to stand trial for being a Christian and you couldn't take the stand would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian? Would people be able to see how you live, hear how you talk, watch how you act, and feel how you love? The more I thought about the question the more convicted I became.
We are suppose to have some strong storms blow through here tonight and into tomorrow. I think we are ready for them. I took the clothes off of the line. The quads are settled for the night. All of the things that could get ruined in the rain were put away. The chicks are in. We refilled the gallon water today. We have enough food and animal food to last a couple of days. I don't really know what else to worry about. We lose water when we lose power because we have a well. One day we will have generator backup, but for now we don't have water if the power goes out.
I pray for everyone struggling with weather issues. Stay safe.
Brenda
There is so much work going on over here it isn't funny. With the weather getting nicer and the day longer we have been enjoying the outside even more than before. I did a ton of laundry. My son cleaned out the chicken coops and made nesting boxes for two of the coops that didn't have raised ones. My other son worked in the garden. My daughter cleaned the inside of my van. Another daughter baked some oatmeal cookies. My little ones worked in their garden (they used the extra stuff and made their own little garden area). It just felt nice. I will take another picture of the garden with the onions poking their heads through. It looks encouraging. All of the goats are doing good. I am down to feeding the quads 3 times a day. They are doing incredible.
Thanks for all of the well wishers we are finally starting to feel better over here.
Brenda
Well there is a light at the end of the seemingly endless tunnel. We are all starting to feel better. My voice is about 75 percent back. The weather has been warm and beautiful. I was able to stay outside for a good portion of the day and we got a lot done. My son planted new plants we had bought. Two of my daughters worked in the garden planting more onions. I rounded up the little kids and we picked up trash that some how always makes it was around. Two of my daughters picked up the piles of leaves that they raked up the day before. I let my quads run around all day. I also let Tasha and her twins and Lindsay and Belle run around. We put the horses in the back field with the goats (not the babies or mamas). My older 6 kids ran into town to get out and do some shopping. They had a great time and I had a relaxing time with them away. I only had 8 kids at home and they were such fun.
My husband saddled the horse and let the kids ride. They were so excited. He has been teaching them to ride for a while. Today they were showing off for me. They were riding without him leading and they got to ride down the drive (about 300 feet) and then turn the horse and ride him back. They go riding with him and their horse just follows his horse, but here they were totally in control. They all felt like real cowboys and cowgirls. The night was beautiful and as I watched the kids riding I again appreciated the lifestyle we are now living.
Did I mention my husband is driving me nuts? Well, he is. When he is in a bad mood he drives me nuts, but when he is in a good mood he drives me even more nuts. I have no sense of humor and he is trying to make me laugh!
Shelby the duckling is doing great. Its incubator mate that was put in the incubator with it died before hatching. We don't know what happened. The book said things like this happen.
Brenda
I know you guys are all probably sick and tired of my animal happenings, but it is my life now. Here is the latest addition to our overcrowded family. It's name is Shelby whether it is a female or male. 
I will put more pictures as it fluffs up a bit.
Everyone is still sick, but we are getting some well and other are now sick. It will be another long week.
Blessings,
Brenda
It started snowing this morning. It either snowed, rained, or hailed all day long. It is so cold out today. Here is a picture of one of the side fields. You can see the snow wasn't very thick yet.
Here the snow is much deeper. This is a picture of our barn/tack room. The door leads to the tack room side and on the other side is the opening to the barn.
Here some of the kids played in the snow. We are all very sick still, so I didn't let the sick ones outside for more than it took to throw a snowball. I stayed in as much as possible.
These are two of female Polish Sultans. They didn't know what to do with the snow. They were afraid to move.
I didn't get a whole lot of anything done today. I was awake all night sick. I have a horrible cough and have kinda lost my voice. A few of the kids are sick, too. I napped in the morning a little on and off after I fed the quads. They think it is a cruel thing to make them stay outside in the cold weather, but there isn't anything I can do about it. I can't contain them in the house and a covered corral with hay and a heat light is as close to comfortable as I can do. They are going to have to try to adapt (I talk a hard game, but I check them all day and up to midnight when I go to bed).
The snow was the hot topic around here today. I am trying to get better and get things done. Hope everyone is well. Brenda
There is a room built onto this house off of the back door. It has three windows and a glass screen/storm door. It isn’t a huge room, but it isn’t tiny either. I would guess it to be like 12’ x 10’ more or less. One of the window glass got broke so it is screened on that side instead of solid glass. It has a water tight roof and has terra cotta colored tile. There isn’t anything special or horrid about this room. If this room was on my house in Las Vegas I would have put shelves and house plants, some outdoor wicker furniture, a lamp, a big area rug, and the like. Out here we call the room a mud room (literally). With animals and dirt there is no way you can just walk into the house with your shoes on. I put shelves in the mud room, but not for plants, but for shoes. The tile is nice because it is easily cleaned. We hang wet coats and muddy things. It has also taken on the shelter for the animals when the weather is bad (not the big animals like horses, but he domestic animals). Usually I prop the door open in a storm and allow the dogs and cats to come in and out freely. I have a dog cage in there for my not-so-friendly dog so she doesn’t kill the cats and chickens (they are not in the mud room, but some wander on the side of the yard that the mud room door opens out to) on a stormy night. Well, what prompted this post is last night. It snowed out and was windy. The temperature dropped to 26 and was very cold. My quads (baby goats) weren’t doing good at all. They didn’t want to eat and were shivering under the heat light. I tried bringing them into the house like before, but they were just too big and wouldn’t stay in the laundry basket. I even tried to strap another laundry basket on top to keep them in and they just knocked the basket over and rolled it around. So we fixed the mud room up. We blocked half of it with the dog cage and other things to create a corral of sorts. We put hay down and then put the quads in there under a heat light. We put all of our herd of goats in the covered corral. We moved Belle and her mama to the quad’s corral. We left the twins and their mama in the same spot. Domino (black and white lamb and Shirley (baby born Dec.) can’t be with the herd because they don’t like Domino and Shirley is our males baby so we keep her away from him. So Domino and Shirley were in the mud room, too. Two of my dogs were in the mud room, and four of the cats. We were laughing so hard at how far we have come (I would say fallen but life is different here not less or under how we lived in Vegas but surely DIFFERENT than we lived in Vegas). The snow was blowing everywhere and the kids were scrambling to settle all of the animals. I was making dinner and each kid that came in asked me how dinner was coming. The outside was so cold, but the inside was toasty warm with the smell of pan fried pork chops. These are the moments when our decision to move to the middle of no where feels right.
We had the worst storm last night. Actually we had a bunch of storms that came through last night. It was an uncomfortable night. We kept losing power. Something kept beeping once the power came back on. The kids were all awake because of all of the noise the storm made. I had to try to make it out to the barn in the absolute pitch black. Even with a flashlight you only saw just where the light (2 million candlelight power) was shining. Luckily by the time I made it to the barn the lights went on again for a while. My baby goats were a little spooked. They are always under a light and with the power being off they didn’t know what to do with the dark. I left a lantern lit on the kitchen table and a candle burning in each bathroom. I tried to get to sleep but I was a little worried about the storm and the kids.
I am feeling better today. My sore throat is much better and my ears are only hurting a little. Hopefully today will be a more productive day. I have a list a mile long to accomplish. Today I am adding a new kid to the sick list. She is driving me nuts. She just cries for everything and says, “Okay, mama.” to anything I suggest. She is so miserable. She needs to be Tylenoled up and put to bed with a movie (that actually sounds great to me, too!).
Stay safe. I praise God for the storm last night. I praise Him that no one was injury or nothing was damaged (that I know of, yet). I praise Him that only 3 kids are sick and 11 well. Thank you God for a solid home that allowed us to be safe from the storms (they are His storms anyway).
I survived today. I am not really feeling any better, but I know it won't kill me. I tried to nap but wasn't successful. I did rest and felt better doing that.
We are in a tornado watch right now. Tomorrow there is a chance of snow with the high around 40. Go figure.
I have to go to the store and pick up a few things we ran out of. My daughter also has an orthodontist appointment tomorrow. I am hoping my son can take her and pick up the list stuff for me.
Can you believe we are already in March. I was just worrying about the holidays and now they have passed and old news. I am amazed at how fast life is passing me by. My kids are growing up in front of my eyes. I don't have any babies anymore. My youngest is going to be 5 in May. I remember my oldest being 5. Where do all of the years go?
I have to appreciate the moments in life more and try not to rush through my day waiting to finish one thing and move on to the next thing. I am always working a list, either written or mental. I need to slow down. Truth is I am so much slower now that I am in Texas compared to Vegas. I am learning to enjoy the day and weather out here. We live and learn.
I am home sick with my youngest two kids. I have a bad sore throat, and the two little ones have a fever, sore throat, and cough. It looks really bad out here. It is windy and cold. We have a possibility of severe weather today. We are also in a wind advisory.
We worked hours in the garden yesterday. My hands are killing me. We planted over 200 onions, a whole square of potatoes, and as many corn. I need to get some more onion sets because last year we had over 100 and didn't have enough. I don't think I am going to make it out today with how I am feeling. I still have beets and carrots to plant right now. The rest has to wait until the weather stays warm (in Texas the weather is so unpredictable to say the least).
We have 18 chicks hatched so far. One of the Americanas doesn't look like it is going to make it. It has something hanging off of it and it isn't getting smaller, but larger. It is up and walking, but not thriving. The rest are doing great.
The quads are doing great. They are all outside and go through the night without feedings. I now feed them at 7am, 1pm, and 7pm. Right before I go to bed I go out and give them a bottle to hold them all night. I am sure they are old enough to make it 12 hours overnight, but I am not comfortable with their size to let them go 12 hours. I will let them go 8 hours now, but not much longer. Soon enough they will be just eating the three times a day.
I am going to get some laundry done. It shouldn't kill me to move around and at least switch the laundry. I really just want to snuggle up in bed and watch a movie. Maybe when the other kids come home from church I will do that.
Blessings,
Brenda
Today my son checked in the incubator and discovered the eggs were hatching. They weren't due until Sunday. This is a Polish Sultan egg hatching.
The chick is starting to work it's way out of the shell.
It doesn't really look like it in the picture, but these eggs are much smaller than regular eggs.
Isn't this amazing! God is incredible.
Here is a picture of the chick out of the egg. It hasn't fluffed up yet, but will shortly. I will have more pictures tomorrow with all of the other chicks that hatch overnight. We are so excited.