R's Exciting Day!!

Today was a BIG day for R!! She's been SO wanting to go to school for the last Oh 18 months or so since E started and today she got enrolled in our home school Academy!! I filled in all the required boxes and R got to hit the send button!! She was GLOWING she was SO EXCITED!!! I think she floated a couple inches off the floor for a bit!! We've already gotten confirmation that she's been enrolled, and the other 3 re-enrolled, and she has the same teacher as L and E. She'll be in Grade 1 come September!! She'll be great at it :)

IT'S MELTING!!!

March 21st/13

6 days Later on March 27th/13.

5 days later on April 1st/13

This really doesn't show the snow melt as well as some other areas in the yard and cow pen but these are the pictures I have. Under the trees in the yard we have grass and the cows have a LARGE patch of grass showing. The driveway in front of the house is almost totally dry except where the snow melt rivers run thru it off to huge puddles below the driveway. Yesterday we got rubber boots out and washed the snow pants and put them and the snow boots away!! Spring is coming!! :) 

Dough Works.

Dough Works.. several of the balls of dough have a couple of chocolate chips in them. The kids had a great time!! L's is the big man, R's is the little. E had the snake and faces and J had the two balls on the right. J3's is the face top left. 

G's Quilt Top.

She's very excited!! 

Baby S's Blanket.

Here are the 6 types of squares for Baby S's afghan I'm making :) 

I've made one for each of our children before they were born. 

It's tradition :) 

If you didn't know what sex the baby is, I guess you do now :) 

I have to make one more of each and put them together and I'm done :) 

Quilt Tops :)

E's is the purple and R's is the pink :) 

G's is on the list for tomorrow :) 

Backs are also on the list for tomorrow. 

They are laying on the wool blankets they will be covering, and have some room to spare.. 

Perfect :) 

YUMMY!

Beef roast from the other night.. 

Papa's on day shift... and renewing his love for BBQ!! 

Baby Pigtails! G!

Hee hee I'm so cute!! 

Pigtails!!

 Mom is so unused to putting in baby pigtails in baby hair that she couldn't get them even and could only get one in a picture at a time... until she got a shot from the top! 

Lift Power :)

First I have to say THANK YOU STEVE!!! For the wonderful idea!!! :) 

Lovely little addition to the farm this weekend..

What is it you ask??
It's AWESOME!!! 

L and E trying it out while J and J3 look on. Tucker in the way... as usual. 

The cows were pretty sure we should feed them as we did spend about 45 minutes in the milking area putting it all together and trying it out.

Here is a little clip to show you how it works. 

This wonderful idea makes it super easy to get those heavy milk buckets on to the porch after milking and makes it possible for me or J, maybe ;), to milk the cows no matter how much milk they are giving!! 

Just for reference Maggie is now giving 8 to 10 gallons a day... that makes for a pretty heavy bucket!! Much more then a 9 year old or a 7 month pregnant lady should be lifting!! Papa may even use this system to keep his back in better shape!! 

Maggie's Calf! March 22nd/2013

 I knew Maggie was in labor yesterday when I saw her with her tail up and how restless she was. She would lay down and get up and lay down and get up. When I went outside to take a looks see after several hours of watching from the window I saw this! There wasn't even time to go get the kids...I did get it on camera though and a MOVIE of his birth!! 

She just turned around, laid down and pushed him out!! Two pushes :) She MOOOOO'd while she pushed which I've never seen a cow do before! Isabel was quite excited too but after he was born she left. J and I pushed him up to her head as she wasn't getting up and she cleaned him off a bit. Finally I was worried because she wasn't standing up, after about 35 minutes, and got purposely too close and she got up. He got up right after that and was nursing very soon after that! When I saw how active he was I called Papa.. we'd not decided if we wanted him to nurse her or not. I thought we did because it's so much better for both of them but we've also had trouble with calves who suck til they are 2... or in the freezer!! As soon as Isabel saw him trying to suck SHE WANTED HIM!! I had to fight her off!! J ran back to the house and got a bucket of sweet mix and called her and sure enough off she went a running. He got her locked in the milking parlor, GOOD JOB J!!, and Maggie and baby had some alone time. He had a good meal and she cleaned him off. 

Isabel got left in the milking parlor for about 90 minutes.. I wanted them to have a little time together before I had to take him away. These same to cows fought over Isabel's calf last year and it got a bit rough so we figured it would just be safer to take him away from them both.. the same thing we did to Star last year. Isabel was actually using her head as a wedge to get between Maggie and the calf. She also used her head on Maggie a few times to chase her off.. what a circus!! When I found out we had a bull calf I WHOOPED super loud!! We don't know her exact dates but the later they calve often means heifer where as the sooner they calve means bull. I really wanted a bull!! 

So now he lives in his little pen in the front of the house! I'm SO glad Papa put it up on his last day off as I'm really not sure where I would have put him if not for the pen. Here are the kids checking him out. He's tired.. He had to walk, get pushed, a long ways from the hay bale, to the milking parlor (Maggie WOULD NOT go in without him) and then to the front of the house and his little pen. After I got him in I milked both cows and let them out. Maggie searched for him for about 20 minutes and unless he bawls she doesn't even call for him. He has a heat lamp because he was shivering. I also covered him with straw. This morning we hit -15C here and he was as far away from the heat lamp as he could get and still be in the pen.. so I think unless it gets really cold he will not be needing a heat lamp anymore! 

Last night when Papa got home we took a bottle out and got about a cup into him. His cord was still bleeding, which I'd been worried about all evening and googled, so we tied it off with a piece of dental floss.. what Google recommended. :) We had to do it twice as the first time didn't work but the second did and it stopped bleeding and this morning it's looking nice and dry like it should be. 

So here he is! He needs a name.. 

an M name, because he's Maggie's bull calf. 

We already have a Meatloaf.

Papa is thinking Milton . 

He is all black.. not a speck of white on him. 

I think Milton sounds smart and he is that!! This morning he drank a bottle full like a pro!! I don't see weeks of force feeding in my future with this little guy!! 

Still I do like my name too... Melt'n :) 

As in Melt'n in my mouth :) 

Maybe this guy will be Milton and his, hopefully, soon to be stall mate from a local dairy, will be Melt'n. :) 

So what do you think??