The "Big" Farm.

My dad said something the other day about The "Big" Farm. I assumed he meant my house. But he set me straight - he and mom have the "Big Farm with the little barn" and I have the "Little Farm with the Big Barn". So now that we have THAT all straightened out . . . yesterday afternoon I went up to the original "Life is Goat" farm (aka the BIG Farm) to visit. There are kids running around everywhere! The oldest one is Barley's Nutmeg (Meggy for short):

In this picture she is nibbling on my leg. She acts just like her father (Tankie) . . . loves to be right up in your business all the time and LOVES attention. She practically came and sat in my lap for snuggles when I sat on the goat deck. Her mama, Barley, knocked any other kids that tried to steal my attention out of the way! Brown must be a recessive trait . . . Barley, Aphidia, and Maybeth are all white and they are Tankie's first generation (crossed with white Angora goats). Now that these girls have been crossed back to their father (NO, this was NOT intentional! What can I say? Tankie does what he wants . . . why do you think he now lives on my farm with no girls???) we are seeing a crop of brown babies. They are so cute! Which brings us to the youngest kid, Chickadee:

Here she is getting in a little nursing time with mom. Remember Fiddy (Aphidia)? My first grandkid? Well now she is raising a kid of her own. Guess that makes me a great grandmother. Sigh. I knew I felt old. Chickadee is only a few weeks old. She still staggers when she walks. She loves to drive her mother crazy by sneaking out from under the fence and wandering around in the yard where Fid can't get to her. She is awful cute to watch though!

Rounding out the kid cuteness are Zoeboe's twins:

Bulgar and Semolina II. My mother likes to call Bulgar "booger head" because he is always trying to get into trouble. Semolina was also the name of one of Zoe's triplets from this winter, but she didn't make it through the winter. She was a bit of a runt and Zoe just didn't have enough steam to take care of three kids. We loved the name though, so have recycled (much to my sister's disgust). These two are much more skiddish (must be the Angora in them) than Meggy or Chickadee, but they will still come nibble on your pantleg if you stand still long enough. And they are still small enough to escape under the fence and eat the goose food.

On the way back to my house I saw five moose last night. I didn't get any pictures since they were running pretty fast and it was pretty dark out, but it was fun to see them anyway. One was a baby (much bigger than these goat kids though!) and he had a very soft fuzzy brown look to him.

Love,
Turtlewoman

A String of Random Thoughts

First, pictures of Dylan! Finally uploaded from my wonderful and relaxing trip last weekend to visit Dylan, Debbie, and Eric. Here in this first one, Dylan is showing us a pose I call "VSB" - an abbreviation for "Very Serious Boy". He wears this face frequently as he has many things to think about and ponders them quite seriously. He also has a BEAUTIFUL wide-open toothless grin, but it is hard to catch on camera. I am told that Debbie and Eric have a hard time catching it too. However it should be noted that if Dylan ever needs a passport photo his head is the perfect shape (note that you can see both ears). =-)



In the next shot, Dylan is actually faking us out. To the casual observer it would appear that Dylan is calmly drinking breastmilk from a bottle. This is not the case. He is actually pushing the nipple around with his tongue in an effort to ditch the bottle. He is VERY good at not drinking a bottle. By the end of the weekend Debbie and Eric got him to be a little better at actually drinking it too, but as of this picure he was still being stubborn. =-)





Okay, on to the next set of thoughts . . . Goose Eggs. Yep, they are BIG. Definitely bigger than chicken eggs anyway (as shown) although I bet they don't hold a candle to ostrich eggs. So there may be some benefit to the six geese on our farm (but don't hold me to that . . . I haven't actually tasted a goose egg yet) aside from their potential as future down pillows . . . they actually also make better guards than the dog as they are fierce, scary, and will chase just about anyone around the yard if they are concerned.





While we are talking about the farm . . .


There have been several more additions to our goaty family. Pictured here is my dad holding the first set of triplets for our farm. Again they are Boer/Angora crosses. Mom Zoe pushed them out like a champ! Pretty much nothing fazes Zoebo. Their names are Buckwheat, Semolina, and Durham. They are the younger siblings of Barley. Apparently we have switched from biblical names for Zoe's offspring (Zacchariah and Zebediah) to grain names. Hey, I don't name the goats . . . I just post their pictures. Despite that half of the genetics off all of these goats come from my Tankie, I have not yet had the privilege of naming any of them. Since then Pansy has also given birth to Beetlejuice (younger brother to Aphidia) but pictures are still forthcoming. Keep your eyes peeled.


And last in the string of things that I have been talking about but not displaying is my knitting! Shown here are my first two attempts at mittens. I am getting better as I go. I was a bit dismayed that they Noro (blue/green) mittens are so mismatched, but I am hoping that their intended recipient (the very artsy Becky) will appreciate them none-the-less. They match a hat I made for her about a year or so ago.



Other projects currently in the works include Will's Penguin, probably a hat for my secret santa, and of course I think I have about three blankets and two baby sweaters in the works that have been temporarily abondoned. I have started to get my stuff into ravelry (well, I got the mittens in anyway) and now that I know how to do it (Flickr is pretty easy really) I will start to keep things in there too!

Well, that's all for now. It is a very snowy day outside and I am enjoying not having to be outside in it. I am puttering about the house, playing with my computer, and I will probably knit later. I may make it out to make gingerbread houses with Tripp, but depends on the weather and what Margaret is up to. She was on call last night, so may need to sleep today.

Also, hope this new holiday themed coloring is not too annoying. Does anyone know how to changed the blue background? I couldn't figure it out with the color editor. I am wondering if it requires knowing code so that you can alter the template . . . not a project I am up for today.

Love,
Turtlewoman