Shirley The Jersey. A Christmas Story.

Some friends of ours wanted to go on a trip, but they had a cow they needed taking care of . Papa said sure and told me later, but I was fine with that. They brought her over the 22nd of December. Her name is Shirley and she reminds me of a large happy dog. She is inquisitive and alert. She walked right over the wire fence to explore the pigs and right back in again when Papa put the fence down. She is easy to catch and lead and she seems to be, very much, a people cow. You know; instead of a people person? She's a people cow. Shirley is a purebred jersey cow with a rough coat. I'd never seen a Jersey with a rough coat. Looks neat. I knew she was in labour the night she got here so I put her in our new calf pen with Ivan, Isabel's calf, and watched her for a bit. Until 1am actually when my feet were frozen and my eyes kept closing all by themselves. I went inside to bed but resolved to wake up in a couple hours to check on her. I must have been tired because the next hour I saw was 8am!! I thought, for sure, there would be a calf but no! While I was still scratching my head over that she lay down and gave a little push and I saw feet!! I ran inside and woke up the kids, made them get jackets on and boots and we all went out to stare at the cow! Then we went back inside as nothing was happening..that friendly cow kept saying 'good morning' to everyone and wouldn't lay down again to push the calf out!!   I stayed outside and watched her and when she was down again and staying down I called the kids and they all came out and watched the calf being born! Papa stayed inside with S but the other 6 were all there. Wonderful experience! Shirley did so good and after the calf was out and she was up she shared the love and licked Ivan all over just the same as she did her calf! A Christmas Eve calf! What a wonderful reminder of life and love and Jesus! 

L hand milking Shirley. Norman is the red calf, Ivan the black calf. 

 What a busy day it was. A friend and two of her children came for breakfast, a wonderful lady dropped off a quilt, a couple of guys showed up to pick up a freezer full of old meat for bait (a very big pig that died a couple years ago in the bush that we were going to feed to the dogs and never did as it smelled so bad!), Papa took the oldest 4 kids skating with church family for two hours while I cleaned house and napped littles,  R and her 6 kids came to see the calf and have a quick visit. C's and their 4 boys stopped in to see their cow Shirley and name the new calf Norman (city slickers anyone?). At one point there were 17 children in the house! Papa and Mr. C went to pick up some hay. Everyone was visiting and having a great time! I totally forgot it was Christmas Eve! The dog barked, the kids yelled, Grandma and Grandpa are here! The families were introduced, the calves seen again, the snowsuits, gloves, hats and children packed up, hugs given, good byes said, Papa and Mr. C arrived. R and her children left, C's packed up their boys, checked and double checked for mittens and jackets and oh don't forget the babies boots! Than a moment of silence. Ahh. 

Children chattering excitedly, Christmas Eve! We've remembered! Gingerbread houses and snack night and Grandma and Grandpa and excitement reined! I remember Papa hugged me and I smiled at him and we went into the kitchen to set up for the gingerbread house decorating. We decorated, we chatted and ate, we even opened gifts and hugged and laughed and then we were saying good bye again to Grandpa and Grandma and yelling MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Then again the house had a moment of silence before the little excited voices. Reminding us. Another Tradition. A wonderful Tradition, the annual watching of 'The Nativity Story.'  

Later that night after the kids were in bed Papa and I took a couple deep breaths and finished a few surprises for the next days giving. When the house was ready for bed I went out once again in the dark cold night to check the calves and Shirley and marvel. Every birth is a gift but God becoming man, being birthed into this human world to save us from sin is the greatest gift of all! What a personal reminder of the magic of life, the God thing that opened my eyes and quiets my heart. Thank you Jesus! 

*Disclaimer. Our children close their eyes for several minutes several times in the movie 'The Nativity Story' we also fast forward the first part and both births. 

A Little Video Of The Piglets.

They are busy little things hey?? They are an hour or two old in this movie! 

G 16 Months Update and Pictures.

G is now 16 months old, walks like a pro, loves to dance (with or without a baby in arms), kiss (smooching noise and all), talk (and makes a bit of sense!!), play (babies, cars, whatever! My sewing machine!! How DO you put the foot back on anyway hmm G??) and EAT!!! She eats as much as L does on a fairly regular basis. She also likes being cute :) 

G almost always has crazy hair... conditioner keeps in down for a day or so but after that it's EVERYWHERE!! 

She has quite a vocabulary for 16 months and can say Papa (her favorite word), Momma, yes, drink, more, bye bye, kitty, I, me, hi, tickle. One day we all heard her say Me More food several times. Often I hear her say ME DRINK! She also says variations of the kids names.. none of which I'm going to try and write out the way she says phonetically as I don't think I'd come even close! 

Here is a short movie of her saying Papa and kissing her baby! 

Go Horse GO!!!

J3 loves this riding horse :) 

Here is a quick video of him riding it.. man that thing can really GO!!! 

Haha sorry it's sideways!!!

A Summer Storm!

We had a heck of a storm pass through here today! Papa called from work right as it was starting to tell us about it. He had a hail stone over an inch long in one hand and the phone in the other!! We measured one and it was 3 cms!! Man did it ever rain!! It was loud too!! Hail on a tin roof! Papa said one of his bosses car got dented by the hail!! Craziness!! We have a small branch on the driveway and leaves flew everywhere, but as far as I know that is the only damage we suffered. 

A neat picture of water falling off the roof.

The hail was BOUNCING on the trampoline!! And for some odd reason it only stuck on one side.

The hail that came off the roof! 

A peice of hail I found on the back porch! Excuse the dirty feet.. I rarely wear socks ;) 

Norma Jean getting a little bit of shelter under the end of the roof. Both the cows were there but one of them touched the hot wire and then only Norma Jean was there!! Haha! 

Hail on the bare ground in front of the laying hens winter house. There was a pen there all winter. 

The water rushing off down the driveway! 

The farm actually did quite well with the storm. Chickens huddled under trees and shelters. Cows fought for the best spot behind the house. Poor Star, the calf, got left out in it as I`d moved her this morning into the middle of an area with no good rain shelter, but she was grazing just minutes after it quit. The only animals that did not do well were the new piglets. Both older momma`s did just fine with their litters but the little gilt was in the middle of moving hers when the storm hit and 4 of them ended up at the neighbors in the bush and I had to go rescue them and put them by the new nest. I got a couple of piglet snuggles in exchange :) Last I saw the gilt she still had piglets in 3 different places but close together and was still trying to make a nest instead of laying down, like the other two, to keep her babies warm. She did lose one last night that we saw yesterday was not looking good. We think she may have lay on it as new pig mothers sometimes do. 

Baby G and the Jolly Jumper.

She loves it :)

And She Is A Yeller...

A short clip of Baby G yelling!! She does this a lot :) She almost never cries.. just YELLS!!!

Baby J dancing!!

It's just a short clip for those of you with slow Internet! He loved our little home church singing the other day. He would stop dancing whenever Papa changed songs but then start right up again. When we sang the 'Trees of the field' we clap and Papa raps on his guitar and Baby J would JUMP and look wide eyed around then just get dancing again and then we'd clap and he would JUMP and look wide eyed again. About the second time he did this the kids noticed and started giggling. Of course then it was LOTS of fun for Baby J. He's a little clown :)