Peanut in action!

Here is a short video of Peanut. He is growing quickly, he is still smaller than our cocker spaniel, but getting stronger daily. So cute to watch the little fellow running. We are hoping Beauty continues to do well, if not we will have to take her to an Equine Specialty Dr. for an ultrasound. Hope we don't have to! Josh learned tonight what happens when you startle a new mother horse, she bites you on the shoulder. Oww!
Planning on getting 2 more babies some time this week from our vet, stay posted to see what kind!! :)

Welcome, Lil Peanut!

Our colt has arrived! Beauty surprised us on Saturday night, June 6, 2009 with her baby boy. I checked her over around 4 p.m. and she wasn't showing any signs it would be soon. So Shawn and I took the children to a hot air balloon festival, a little over an hour away. We enjoyed watching 23 balloons take off, and return later in the evening for a night glow. We got back around 11 p.m., and Shawn, Noah and I went out for the night feeding and check-ups. To our surprize, we found Tinkerbell (goat), in the dog pen with our border collie and cocker spaniel! It was quite the shock to greet the dogs that were jumping up the side of the pen, and be greeted with a third nose jumping up baaing at us. Shawn went into the horse and goat pen, and Beauty greeted us like normal. Shawn's light shined enough that I saw a tiny object laying on the concrete behind Beauty. I said,"There's a baby!" and Shawn said, "A baby what?" I wondered what kind of baby he thought we were expecting, but told him a horse. I quess I kinda wondered if it was a goat too, as our goat is getting plump, but she was only 9 mos old when we got her. Anyway, the baby was already cleaned off and pretty much dry. Momma had problems though. She didn't clean like she should have. Dad came up and helped the little guy nurse. We decided to call the lady we got Beauty from, and she said Beauty should have passed the placenta by now. So I put in an emergency vet call at 12:15 a.m. Shawn and I waited up till 2. I put in another call, in the mean while I kept checking to see if she cleaned. She was up and down, rubbing, rolling, trying to pull out the placenta. At this point, we wondered if she prolapsed her uterus. Finally went to bed at 3, I got up and went out at 4:30 and 6. At 8, I called one of the vets at home. Turns out this vet was on call, and didn't hear her pager. She came out around 10. We didn't make it to union meeting. :-(

Beauty did pass the placenta right before the vet arrived, however, she did need 2 shots, and medicine for infection of the womb. The colt checked out fine. Beauty did bleed every few minutes all afternoon. Called the vet a few more times, she decided to come and check. Again, right before she arrived, Beauty passed a large volume of blood, then that was it. Both doing great today. So cute to watch the little fellow run around.

We couldn't decide on a name for him. He is extremely tiny. When he is laying down, he is only 7" from belly to back! He almost gets lost in the hay. He stands at 17". Weighs between 20 and 25lbs. Sorry, didn't get a length. He goes under his mama's belly with no trouble, (she is around 38" high.) Josh wanted to name him Peanut, and we all agreed it fit him.I will try to include a video of him running and playing later.

Busy weeks!

Hi! What a busy 2 weeks we have had. Lots of things to post, and will probably forget some of it, but the most important one, Noah is now a walker!!! He took a couple of steps on his own last Wed. (5-27-09), and by Fri. (5-29-09) he was walking across the room on his own. If possible, he is now into more than he was before. His favorite game to play is put things in the trash and see if Mommy notices!

A few posts back I mentioned one of the kittens were missing. Momma Cat, Minnie, kept wanting in and out of the garage. I finally went to the area she keeps coming from, listening, and I heard a faint meow coming from a very large brush pile. Minnie hoped in and crawled to the bottom. I climbed to the top and looked down, and there was the missing kitten! She had been going back and forth almost a week. Poor little kitten outside by itself, while other 4 were in the dry garage. I couldn't leave it, so Zach and I climbed on top and after almost 1 hour, many cuts, bruises, and several days of a banged up shoulder and back, I rescued the lone kitten. Just as I had hold of it, Minnie brings another kitten in the pile. I quickly grabbed that one and promptly deposited both back into their box. Minnie must have the urge to move them, the next day while I was volunteering at school, we came home to an empty box. I knew they were somewhere in the garage since she was shut in. Finally found them in a different box under a desk!


Kids are now officially done with school, although this summer, I am working with them to keep what they learned fresh in their minds. As soon as school starts up in the fall, they have achievement tests they both have to take. They really enjoyed the end of year carnival, and field day. The little boys and I went for both events, so fun watching my children having fun!

My niece also graduated on Sat. the 23rd. Her party was on Sunday. I can't believe the little 3 year old that I loved bringing to the farm when I first started dating Shawn has graduated!

A family friend came to spend the week, hoping to help Dad make hay. Weather didn't cooperate, but we were able to use his help for our barn! He installed 2 cross windows in our barn, for lighting, and for the breeze. What a difference it made!


Beauty hasn't had her foal yet, which most likely means she will be having a boy. She is showing signs it will be soon, she was due on the 1st.


Last night, Shawn helped stack the first cutting of square bales. Dad cut and round baled about 3 wks ago, now he is working on square bales. He has a field down that he was hoping to get baled last night, but a storm came up and it has been drizzling on and off all day.


The electric fence is up and running! We finished on Memorial Day, and turned the horse and goat out. They enjoyed exploring their new area. We also gave Beauty her first bath since we bought her. It was so hot (94 degrees with about 70 percent humidity) that I think she enjoyed it.


Let me see, found kitten, rescued 2 kittens, carnival day, field day, graduation,electric fence, new barn window, Beauty bath, and oh yeah, Zach is having more problems with his mouth. He had a slide accident on Mothers Day, and hit his jaw hard enough the dentist said if it was an adult, it would have shattered their jaw. It has caused the roots of a tooth to die, so he is scheduled to have it removed and a spacer inserted. Wow, what a long post, sorry!! Here is a picture of the kittens today. Their eyes are starting to open!

Garden planted

Josh, Noah, and I planted the garden this afternoon. We put in sunflowers, sweet corn, silver corn, lima beans, cabbage, lettuce, 2 varities of onions, cantaloupe, watermelon, and carrots. I am waiting a bit for the pepper plants and tomato plants. We had frost on Mon. and Tues. A.M., but none this morning, it was 40. Today it reached 81 and sunny, a beautiful day. I also finished putting the insulators on the T posts. Getting closer to electric fence!
Kitten update: Minnie is venturing outside and leaving the kittens a lot longer. She was meowing a lot today, so I let her out and she joined the boys and I in the garden. :-) I noticed tonight when I was by their box that several are sneezing. Hope this is normal, as I haven't really watched kittens this close. Ours growing up were barn cats, and normally pretty wild. The cat we had when we first married, Salem, that had kittens, had them in the insulation under the trailer we had at the time.
We went to school tonight for success night. This is a new thing the school put on to show what the kids have done throughout the year. Hard to imagine only one more year for Hannah and then she is off to the "big" school. We learned tonight our favorite teacher is retiring this year. I was hoping Zachariah could get her next year, 3rd grade, but I'll keep praying God will give both of them the teacher that is best for them. It is getting harder each night to get the little ones in bed. They are so ready for summer break (5 days left!), and so is Mom! I love having them here at home with me all day. Even on the full moon days and its crazier than an unorganized zoo, how wonderful I feel to be blessed with these children, and how undeserving to have a husband devoted to me, and little arms to wrap around my neck.

Family Day Fun, and Hannah's talent show

We went to a family fun day this morning, and the kids had a blast, until we got rained out! The fun day was sponsored by an excavation company. They have heavy equipment for children to ride on. Zach and Josh rode on a bull dozer and a large track hoe. There was a pig chase, pony rides, bounce houses, archery activities, petting zoo, kiddie tractor pedal pulls, straw maze, smoke house and more. They had lunch for a dollar, and that bought a slice of pizza, bag of chips, and a pop. This was the 3rd year we have gone there. Here are some pictures.

Hannah also played in the school's talent show. Here she is playing, sorry for the jiggles! I was holding Noah and filming. You did a great job, Hannah! We are so proud of you! The girl announcing Hannah had a bit of trouble. I think her nerves were getting her!

It wasn't raining here yet when we got home. So, I mowed grass, Shawn burned brush and put in some fence posts, and while little ones were taking a late nap, Shawn took down the woven wire fence I put up a few months ago, while I drove more fence posts in. We are getting ready for bigger, electrified fence, pasture. Good night to all!

We have kittens!

Yesterday afternoon, Minnie had her kittens. All 6 of them! 4 white, 1 black, and 1 that looks like its mother. Sadly, tonight, the runt died. Here are some pictures of the cute little ones.Here is momma and 2 babies.Pardon the blood, Hannah put this diaper box with hay in it in our garage, hoping Minnie would use it. We were sure surprised to come home and find 2 kittens in the box and Minnie walking around in the garage greeting us! What a cat. I picked her up and put her with the 2, and several hours later she had 6. I watched the tail end of 2 being born. So neat. She is doing better than I thought since she isn't much more than a kitten herself. She is 10 mos. Let me know if anyone would like a kitten!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY, JOSHUA!!

Happy 4th Birthday to you, Joshua! Wow, look how big you are getting. We had a wonderful birthday with perfect weather. Josh and his sister and brothers and cousin, Emily, played outside together all day long. We had a small birthday party at 2, with Grandma Karen and Papa Chris, Aunt Diana, Aunt Sandy, and Emily.

The highlight of Josh's day was riding in Grandpa's tractor! He was gone all morning, and came later this afternoon. We moved the kids play gym today, getting ready for more pasture field. We also had Grandpa move a tractor tire feeder for the horse and goat. Grandpa took Josh for a ride in the tractor, while Hannah, Zachariah, and Noah rode in the bucket. The kids had a blast playing in their "new" play area.

We took Josh to Cracker Barrel for his birthday supper and for Mother's Day. He got a little embarrassed when the waitresses sang to him.

So, little buddy, we are so thankful we still have you after Mommy accidently dropped you and caused your skull fracture, when you was a tiny 6 month old. I still get upset with myself even today, after 3 1/2 years. We are so glad that God put you in our family.

Here are a few pictures of our day. Birthday boy with cake and presents.Riding with

Grandpa.Hannah a little bit scared! See the new leaves? Here we go!

Noah on his own!

Hauling the tractor tire.What a cutie!Boys playing in the gravel.

I felt the baby kick!

I was so excited yesterday morning while doing the morning feeding. We have been trying to decide if Beauty is really pregnant or not. She definetely is! After graining her, I stood watching her sides to see if I could detect movement. Sure enough, I did. So I put my hand to her side and received a healthy wallop! The children were so excited when I told them Beauty's baby kicked me, although they thought she or he was already born. I took the boys out last night for the night feeding, and after we grained the goat and horse, both boys felt her stomach. Zach accidently clanged the buckets together and startled the baby, we watched it give a mighty kick as soon as the buckets hit together. We are looking forward to the due date, which is suppose to be June 1st. So, watch for more pictures to come of hopefully a healthy foal!

More babies will most likely make their presence known. Our kitten, Minnie, now almost 11 months, is due. Her sides are swelling tremendously! We thought we had time to get her fixed before this happened. Oh well, the kids are excited about these babies too! Here are a few pics of the mamas to be!

Precious Little Things

Little things in life that are so precious, like the innocence of my child sleeping. And the joy of watching the older ones trying to carry on a ball game in the yard. And driving to meeting with my husband by my side, and the precious little ones in the back seat. So thankful for all things I forget to be thankful for.

Summer must be around the corner!

What a wonderful weekend we had. Beautiful weather, sunny, mild breeze, and temperature a high 90 degrees yesterday! Even today is super, with 90 again and bright blue skies.

We received so much to feed us at Sp.Mtg, and during our worker visits. Looking forward to another Sp.Mtg on Sunday. We had the privelage of having Norma J. and Dorothy L. for supper and night on Friday.

Noah didn't have such a good weekend. His croup seemed to worsen instead of getting better on the 3rd day. Must be because I thought I had it figured out! Noah, Shawn, and I had several sleepless nights. Friday night, actually Sat. morning, after a really restless night, when his fever hit 103.5 , and he was making a strange sound like a cough starting and not finishing, and he started "twitching", we decided I better take him to the E.R. for another round of steriods and an Epi breathing treatment. Shawn would stay home and get breakfast for the workers. :-), and also take care of the other 3. Noah and I got there at 3:30 A.M. The Dr. started the steriods and breathing treatment within a few minutes of our arrival. I also requested a chest x-ray to make sure there wasn't hidden pneumonia (been there with Zach). Thankfully that was negative. They did a horrible upper nose swab to make sure it wasn't whopping cough due to the fact its spreading through the community. Hope to get the results of that back in another day or two. Then we got to go home! Arrived home a little before 5:45. Noah was the only one being treated in the E.R. and I was thankful for the quick trip! Shawn did get breakfast for all of us, since 7:30 came and my alarm went off, but I didn't move according to Shawn. So, thanks, Honey, for taking care of us.

Sorry about the smudge. I thought it was the camera and would show up on the computer, then I found a baby thumb print on my lens!