Our new calf is here

Today was the day Lilac had her calf. She started to act restless late in the morning. She kept trying to go into the blackberry brambles and hide out. We really didn't want to have to help deliver a calf in there! A little after noon I took her out into the yard and walked her around for a little bit to see if she would eat a little grass - she hadn't been acting very interested in the hay. She walked around and ate a little bit and then all of a sudden laid down. We were able to get her up and Todd and Abigail pretty much dragged her back to the grain bin and got her inside and then Todd had to head back to work. Things started happening pretty fast, then so I called the kids out so they could get in on the action. They all stood around the wall of the grain bin while Lilac delivered the calf. It was a pretty cool science lesson!

It was a very cold day, and the calf got pretty cold and listless shortly after being born. I stayed out in the grain bin with them most of the day drying her off, rubbing her to warm her up, trying to get her to stand and eat. When Todd got home from work he brought out a heat lamp and more blankets and we finally got her

warmed up and drinking from a bottle.

Winter Weather

Today is a very cold, windy, snowy day! So, of course, we have a heifer ready to calve. She's been showing signs for a few days now and we're hoping she will wait a few more days until the weather calms down before she has her baby. We are really excited about this baby! The mama is one of our Jerseys - a sweet girl who follows us around like a puppy dog for hugs, petting and especially treats! We are hoping to be able to milk her after she calves. It will be a new experience for both her and us! We don't really have a shed or barn for her to calve in, so we cleaned out the grain bin on Saturday so she can at least have a dry warmish place to be. It is really a pretty good size for her and her body temperature keeps it warm enough so her water doesn't freeze. There is someone who works with Todd who has an aunt who will come and teach us how to get started on the milking business.

Charlotte's Birthday and our Anniversary

Today was our 13th anniversary and Charlotte's 9th birthday. The years together have gone very quickly! The kids pooled some of their money and sent us out to lunch today. I picked up Todd from work and we went to the new Mexican restaurant in Shelbyville. It was a nice little date :) and it was so sweet of the kids.

Thanksgiving

We went to Clint & Dawn's for Thanksgiving this year. We headed up there Wednesday and came back home Sunday. It was really nice spending time with their family. The kids had a lot of fun together - it was a houseful!! Some of them went out hunting early in the mornings - Daniel shot his 3rd deer of the season, which was pretty exciting. They got to track it across the field and had to pull it out of a creek. We had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, and then got up early to go black Friday shopping the next morning to get a few bargains. The men and kids spent some time splitting wood for their wood burning stove and we spent one evening over at Clint's parent's house getting some wood split for them too. We didn't take our camera along, so we didn't get any pictures of our time there :(

October and November 2009

Well, I've done it again.

Somehow since we got our Facebook account, I have found it

easier to post quick tidbits on there instead of adding posts here. These pictures are mixed up, but for some reason I can't figure out how to get them in the right order. Anyway, there are pictures of all of the October and November birthdays here.

We are most of the way through "birthday season" here. Emily turned 7 and Abigail turned 10 in October. Laura, Heidi and Garrett turned 12, 5 and 1 respectively in November. Charlotte will have her 9th birthday in December and then Todd hits the big 40 in January. Then we wait until May for Lincoln's and my birthdays. We enjoy lots of birthday goodies at this time of year :) It is so hard to believe that a year has gone by since little Garrett was born. He has been such an added joy to our family. He has a great sense of humor for such a little guy. His new game is to run away laughing when I go to pick him up - but then he usually turns around and runs back towards me with his arms held high (just melts my heart). In case you can't tell, we are so so happy with all of our kids! One of his recent cute moments happened a few weeks ago - I was trying to rock him to sleep for a nap, and he wasn't wanting to settle down. Finally he sat straight up in my lap and yelled as loud as he could "LAURA", "LAURA". He has learned that when he wants his way, surely one of his sisters will let him have it :) - Not a good thing, but pretty cute right now.

We had an unseasonably cold October - but November has been milder. Today was a gorgeous, sunny day. The kids played outside with our newest batch of kittens for a while - Just as Lincoln is outgrowing the stage of torturing kittens by hanging them upside down by their tails or picking them up by their ears, Garrett has grown into it - poor kitties!

Heidi has turned 5 now, and is really loving to learn. She has started reading a little bit and it's fun to have her bring things to us and sound the new words out. I just love the part of teaching them to read when it finally clicks and they take off.

Emily has just discovered that she is ready for the Boxcar Children series of books. The other girls are just as excited as she is - asking her which part of the book she is reading - talking about the things that are happening... I looked over this evening and she was engrossed in her book and Laura and Abigail were hanging over her shoulders reading with her. :) So now we have 4 bookworms in the house. Her bigger sisters have been teaching her how to ride a bike without training wheels, which has been very exciting for her. Charlotte graduated to a bigger bike and handed her bike down to Emily and Emily handed her bike down to Heidi - so they are all happy. Heidi has been having fun riding round and round our porch (which really isn't very big - so she has gotten very good at turning :) - the other day she ran into the house yelling "mommy, mommy I just rode around the porch ONE HANDED - it was very hard")

The "critters" are all doing great. We moved the cows over across a stream crossing to our biggest pasture a couple of weeks ago. It is a great motivator for us to get a little exercise in when we go check on them every day or so. We have 12 cows/heifers, 1 little steer and 2 bulls now. 3 of the heifers are Jerseys - they are unbelievably friendly. They come up for hugs and treats (mostly treats) and then follow us around the pasture like puppy dogs. We are really enjoying them. We're not sure what we will do when they calve - if we will milk them or take them up to Arthur for a while and let someone up there milk them. We should start getting some calves in the next couple of months - right in the middle of the winter :P

Well, this is a long post, so I had better go. Maybe I will do better about posting next time --- we'll see.

August and September 2009

I can't believe I haven't written anything on here for so long. The days have been busy and full. In August, we went up to Seneca for a gospel meeting and brought Daniel and Jessica home with us for a few days. We really enjoyed having them here. We went to Lincoln Log Cabin, had a bonfire with a wienie roast and homemade ice cream, the kids put on a play about Abraham Lincoln, we had a BIG storm - so we set up a tent in the basement and pretended it was a cabin so we could play "olden days" while the electricity was out. We went back up to Seneca on Thursday for the day and left Daniel and Jessica with their mom. I told them I would get pictures put on here, so one of these days I will get that done.

We also enjoyed a day at the Decatur zoo with Laura, Samuel and Adrian.

We enjoyed the workdays at Brownstown getting ready for convention. Likely this will be the last year to use the dining tent there - they are hoping to have the new dining shed and cookhouse ready for convention next year.

We went to Shoals convention for Saturday night and Sunday and then had our convention at Brownstown the following week. Wonderful days! We are looking forward to getting to another out of state convention in a few weeks also.

School started here last Tuesday. Our first week was a good one. I have been tweaking the schedule a little bit and working on lesson plans this afternoon.

We are looking forward to having Todd's mom here in a couple of weeks. We're hoping to get a few field trips in while she is here - to the pumpkin patch, the planetarium, and maybe an apple orchard. She'll get in on a few school days, too.

Yesterday we put up a temporary fence to move the cows on to some fresh grass. It was getting pretty short in the pasture they were in, and we need to build some more fence over on the bigger pasture before we can move them over there. After they harvest the beans, we can use the bigger pasture, but if we move them now, the cows may harvest the beans instead. :) Unfortunately, we lost one of our Herfords this summer - her calf was breech and neither the cow or calf made it through delivery. We were gone when it happened.

Last evening we picked up a batch of 25 laying hens. The kids were excited about getting to gather eggs again - we will see how long that lasts :)

Well, this is just a brief summary of our summer, but I thought I had better get it written down before I forgot completely. I will try to get pictures posted soon.

Summer Days

We have been having a great summer so far. We had been planning to get a few days of school in during July, but haven't hit the books yet - too much other fun stuff to do. The kids have had some great experiences the past couple of weeks that will count towards school as field trips, though. Laura, Abigail & Charlotte got to go with Shelley to Conner Prairie http://www.connerprairie.org/ in Indiana. They had a great time going back in time and learning some about life in the 1800s. Later Laura and Abigail spent the night with some friends and had a history lesson about World War 1. A few days later they spent the night with some other friends and learned some about the Vietnam and Korean wars.

On Thursday, Shelley took Emily, Lincoln and Heidi to Mattoon to the little airport there. Gary gave them a tour of the airport. They got to sit in a real airplane and a fake airplane (I am assuming that was a simulator). They saw the yellow crop duster plane and watched some take offs and landings - watched some construction being done and then finished off with a picnic at the park.

Abigail and Charlotte have spent the last couple of days at B'town with Shelley. Yesterday they made a few batches of cookies for convention - Although it sounds like the cookies didn't all make it into the freezer. :) Today Todd and Laura headed to B'town to help work on the building project. The metal is getting put on, so I am sure it is looking more like a building instead of a skelaton. We were all planning to go, but Lincoln and Garrett both woke up with fevers, so Emily, Heidi, the boys and I stayed home. They don't seem to have any other symptoms, so hopefully it is a short lived virus.

Ouch!

I'm wondering if hitting your baby brother on the head and then gently kissing the owie cancel each other out?

Missing our girls

Today I am remembering what it was like to have 4 kids with no "big" ones to help. Emily was in tears when her big sisters left with Shelley this morning. We had jokingly told her that when they left she would have to fill in for all of them. She tearily told me that she didn't think she would be able to do all of their work and hers too. (I assured her that we had been joking and we didn't expect her to do all of that :) ) Before lunch I asked the kids to pick up toys - I asked Heidi to pick up the play food and she asked if someone could help her (read with a whine). I told her that she was one of the big girls today and Emily had something else that she had to do and that she could do it herself. She disappeared for a few minutes (I heard her talking to Lincoln). Then, here comes Lincoln saying "I'm one of the big gurls". She had been convincing him that he needed to help her because he was a big girl. (rolling eyes). He actually did a great job putting away all of his Matchbox cars! (and I didn't let him get away with being a "gurl" - Heidi somehow conned Emily into helping her along with setting the table)

Time with Shelley

Preps start soon here, and Janine has gone to visit family befor preps, so Shelley is traveling alone these days. She has been taking some of our girls with her for a couple of days at a time. Charlotte and Emily had their turn at the end of last week, tomorrow Shelley and the 3 oldest are going to Indianapolis. Shelley has a doctor's appointment there and she is taking Laura, Abby and Charlotte to Connor's Prairie while she is there. Laura and Abigail will have their turn to go with her at the end of the week. They (we) have really been enjoying time with Shelley. And she (hopefully-at least she acts like it) is enjoying time with the kids :) Although, today might have been a bit iffy in the enjoyment department. Some of the kids were pretty lively... about drove me crazy and I don't have far to go :)

Sunday Afternoon Naps

Travels

We had a great weekend in Michigan visiting Dawn's family. Saw lots of people at Tyler and Katrina's graduation party. The cousins had a great time together - the time always goes too fast.

Nothin' much happening lately

It's been a while since I posted anything. We have been busy, but nothing really exciting - just normal life. We're planning to move some cattle this evening or tomorrow, so I'll probably have something to say then :D The girls are out in the pool cooling off. We finally got it filled over the weekend, so this is the first time they have played in it (except when it only had a few inches of water in it last week). The boys and I are hanging out in the air conditioning. :)

Out of the mouths of babes

Heidi came up to me out of the blue today and said "Grandma Buelah is probably in Heaven today, isn't she?" "She died a long time ago, so she must be there by now." "Do you believe me?" - I thought that was pretty sweet.

Lincoln was really tired tonight. We were having graham crackers and milk for a bedtime snack. He got up from the table and said he was going to bed - headed back there - decided to come back for another cracker. As he was headed for the table he dropped his cracker and then burst into tears - "Now I have to go to bed, I dropped my cracker and it broke." I told him I could get him another one, but he insisted that he had to go to bed cause his cracker broke... So I rocked him for a little while and now he is happily asleep. :)

The past few days have been busy, but uneventful. Tonight we loaded Fred up on the trailer - he has a date with the abattoir in the morning. He wasn't keen on getting up in the trailer, but the bucket of corn was too tempting for him to resist. So we will be down to just the Beltie bull, who we are holding for someone from Indiana, and the bull calves. We will be very glad to only have cows and heifers.

We had some oatmeal left over from breakfast this morning, so I decided to make bread. It had been a while since I had made any. We ate a loaf for snack and a loaf for supper. It doesn't last very long around here - especially when we have fresh strawberry jam to go with it.

Special visits

We had a good meeting this morning. The Brownstown meeting and our meeting were together here. It was nice to have most everyone stay for potluck afterwards. Marco's family was visiting Marylou, so it was extra special to have them here too. The kids really enjoyed being together. We had a huge feast! There was way more food than what we could eat. Everything was delicious!

After meeting, I happened to look out the window and see a sheep on its side kicking its legs. Todd and some of the other men went to check it out, and found that one of the lambs and our yearling, Fern, were stuck in some poultry netting we had out there. They were very tangled up and in pretty bad shape. Unfortunately, the little lamb didn't make it :( Fern seems to be doing ok, but has a limp. The lamb that died was Harriett's little ram lamb.

We went down to Newton to the gospel meeting this afternoon. Then came back home and buried the little lamb and did a few other chores before putting the kids to bed. We moved Garrett out of his cradle into his crib last week, and now we are trying to teach him to go to sleep in it...he is doing pretty well with it, but it is hard on me to listen to him cry himself to sleep.

The kids would like us to put their pool up this week, so maybe I will tackle that job tomorrow if the weather is nice. They are anxious to get swimming. :)

I just realized that it was 22 years ago today that I graduated from High School. Time flies!

Out again!!!

We finally got the fences to keep the animals in. Well...except for the 3 sheep that like to get out under the bottom wire that isn't connected to the charger... But...if the gates aren't closed, it doesn't matter how hot the charger keeps the fence, the animals will get out! And the gate must have opened itself, nobody else seems to know how it got opened... :) My consolation is that I was talking to one of our neighbors the other day after I found one of his cows on the road. He said that in his experience, if you have cows, you can just expect that they will get out.

We woke up to 5 cows out in the yard. By the time we got out there, they were headed for the road...then across the road...then into the neighbors newly growing corn field. Those tender plants must have been pretty delicious, because the cows wouldn't be enticed even by buckets of corn. We were finally able to persuade them back across the road and into the fence again. Mom, you'll be glad to know that the cows that got out were our more gentle cows and not any of the bulls. In fact, Samson went home this week, so he and Fred won't be fighting anymore.

We have union meeting here tomorrow, so we spent the day getting ready for it. Talisha came over to help me wash windows and clean - thanks Talisha :) - while Todd was at B'town helping with the building. We are having a Mexican Themed potluck for lunch afterwards. We put together some taco fixings and made some refried beans, black beans and fresh salsa for it. Laura and some of the other kids made some snickerdoodle cookies while I was out mowing - they did a great job (I snuck one for my bedtime snack ;) ) It will be interesting to see what everyone else brings.

Our Current Critters

This post won't be very exciting. It is just a list of our current cattle and sheep so we can easily find it without having to go to the file cabinet.

Cattle:

Rosie - Female Hereford -

Blossom - Female Hereford - Born to Rosie in July or August of 2007

Stormy - Female Hereford/Black Angus Cross - Born to Blossom on May 13, 2009

Independence - Female Hereford - Born to Rosie in July or August of 2008

- Female Dexter/Red Polled Cross - Born April 2008

Jenny - Female Miniature Hereford - About 2 Years Old

- Male Miniature Belted Galloway - Not Polled but dehorned - About 4 Years Old

Oreo - Female Miniature Belted Galloway - Polled -About 2 Years Old

- Male Dexter - With Horns - Born about July 2008

- Female Dexter - Not Polled - About 14 Years Old

Jemimah - Female Dexter/Miniature Belted Cross - Polled - About 3 Years Old

Ribeye - Male Dexter/Miniature Belted/? Cross - Born to Jemimah about May 13, 2009

Fred - Dexter Red Polled Cross - Not Polled, but dehorned - About 1 Year Old

- Female Miniature Jersey - Less than a year

Shetland Sheep

Ruby - Female - Born 4/24/2005

Jasper - Male - Born 4/23/2009 to Ruby

Saphire - Female - Born 4/23/2009 to Ruby

Harriett - Female

- Male - Born 4/25/2009 to Harriett- died 6/7/2009 after getting stuck in some netting

Cheerio -Female - Born 4/25/2009 to Harriett

Cupcake - Female - Born 3/27/2007

Sprinkles - Male - Born 4/26/2009 to Cupcake

Frosting - Female - Born 4/26/2009 to Cupcake

Abigail - Female - Born 4/5/08 to Ruby

Gabby - Female - Born 4/25/29 to Abigail

Fern - Female - Born 8/1/08 to Cupcake

Daphne - Female born 4/9/08

Sweet William- Male - Born 4/25/09 to Daphne

If the shoe fits...

This evening we were getting ready to go to Bible Study, and Heidi was complaining that her shoes weren't fitting her right. I went downstairs to look in the boxes to see if we had a pair that would work for her. I asked her what size her shoes were...there was a pause...and then she said "they are about the same size as my feet"

I thought I would write a little bit about the beginning of our farm here. When we first moved down here and were renting a house while we were building this house, some very good friends of ours had a couple of bottle fed lambs. The wondered if our kids would enjoy having them and bottle feeding them - of course we thought they would, so Todd built a little pen and shed for them and the kids and I went down to pick them up in the van. They were so cute and little - they fit in a cardboard box. Anyway, we underestimated the amount of grass the little fellows would eat, and it wasn't long before their little pen didn't have any grass left in it - so...we let them out in the yard during the day when we were over here working on the house. They really enjoyed the shade of the porch - hence the name of our blog - "Critters on the Porch". They were the first of many critters that enjoyed laying on the porch. A couple of times they even made it into the front door of the house - they sure did skid around on the freshly laid and finished hardwood floor!!!

Our next experience with farm animals happened when we decided to get some chickens. We had been talking about getting some sometime. Todd was at a tradeshow for work and met up with one of our friends there. Brad asked if we were interested in their chicken house that they weren't using. Todd said we sure would be. About that time, Rural King - our local farm store - advertised their "Chick Sale". We figured we could get some, put them in the basement for a little while until Brad could get the chicken house up here for us. We had to buy at least 25 - so we did, but then we got to figuring up that if we ate 1 chicken a week they wouldn't last very long - so we headed back to Rural King to get more chickens. I think we finally ended up with about 60. Then, it started to rain - it rained and rained and then rained some more. The days turned into weeks and it was so wet Brad couldn't get his trailer in to get the chicken house out. The chicks grew and grew and grew and started flying out of their box and smelling up the house!!! There was a little falling down shack across the road from us and the farmer there said we could have it if we wanted it and pulled it across the road for us. So, that became our new chicken house - and still is working great a few years later.

Garrett's first "words" and the quiet country life

Our littlest farm boy has started talking - his first "word" was "er-er-er-er-errrrr" - imitating the sound of the rooster that likes to come up on to the porch to wake us up every morning (now that is a dedicated rooster!). His second word was "aaaaauuuuu" - imitating the bellowing cows in the pasture. And his third "word" - "aaaaaaaa" - copying the sheep and lambs calling to each other.

People think of the country as being quiet - I will say that it is not quiet - peaceful, absolutely, but quiet.....no. Last night we had the windows open - we heard geese, coyotes, cows, sheep, dogs, and a bird that sang the entire night. I think it must have been a mockingbird - it would sing about 5 or 6 notes, then change its tune for another 5 or 6 notes and then change again and again... It was beautiful singing, but not exactly appreciated in the middle of the night. And finally, the roosters started crowing - it is amazing - they come up to the porch at almost exactly the same time every morning - park themselves under our window - and let loose with their crowing. I think they must be punishing us for getting rid of all of the hens a couple of months ago!

I guess I should add one of Lincoln's cute sayings from today. He was really tired at lunch time so I was wanting him to sleep during quiet time. I rocked him for quite a while - finally I figured he was sleeping soundly enough for me to lay him down. I put him in his bed and covered him up - he peeked up at me and said "You are not making me happy." Closed his eyes again and slept for about 2 hours. :)

And the bull got out...again!!

Todd went to B'town today to help work on the building there. Our day here was going along pretty well - we were doing a little housework and laundry - until one of the kids looked out the window and shouted...you guessed it...Samson is out!!! This time he was in the yard by the swingset. Of course, Todd was 45 minutes away. I was able to go out and open the gate, and he walked right in - whew. Luckily the other bulls were safely in a pen that so far none of the cattle have escaped from - the sheep have because the bottom wire isn't hot and they are pretty short - they like to get out and wander around the yard for a while until some of the other sheep and their lambs start bleating for them to come back. Anyway, back to Samson... I called Todd and he headed home. We walked around the fence and found the place where it was shorted out - YEAH!!! - Todd put some tighteners on the wire so Samson couldn't walk under it anymore, we went and got our lead cows and led Samson back into the pen with them - walked them right back out again while he was enjoying some treats. By the time he looked up from his beet pulp, he had been tricked again!! Hopefully he will stay put this time!!!

More fun with the cattle!

(Before you read this post, I will answer a couple of the questions you will be sure to have - I know I would have some questions if I was reading about my son, daughter, brother, sister, friend... doing this - Yes, we do know that it is very dangerous to be in the pen with fighting bulls - and yes we are very, very careful while we are working with them - and yes, we are working on getting rid of the bulls - oh, and yeah Rog - maybe we should think about that cattle prod! ) Yesterday morning, just before breakfast, someone looked out the window and shouted - Samson is out!  Samson is a bull (the top picture) that has been staying with us for a few months.  He had been in a pen about 1/8 mile away from the rest of the herd - so he must have really wanted to get together with them.  He and our other bulls just don't really approve of each other, to say the least.  Anyway, Samson and Fred (the bottom picture) (we call him Friendly Fred because he is usually like a puppy dog - someone must have bottle fed him or something - he is very gentle - but we treat him as if he wasn't - because you never know with a bull) were going at it - round and round - banging heads trying to tear each other up...  So, we put away the eggs and sausage we were planning to cook for breakfast, pulled out the cold cereal - told the kids to eat and get ready to go to piano lessons, grabbed our sticks and buckets of grain and headed out into the pasture.  Really NOT my favorite job!

Some of the cows lead pretty well with a bucket of grain, so we got most of them - including Fred and Samson - into a pen.  Then came the job of trying to get one of them out while keeping the other in - not an easy feat with them being so interested in each other.  Finally after about 1/2 hour of going round and round the pen without much luck, I was about fed up with them.  I pointed my stick at Samson then at the pen and yelled "YOU GO"...then pointed my stick at Fred and then pointed out the gate and yelled "YOU GO" ------- and they went - just as gentle and good as could be.  Hmmmm.... I must get lots of practice with that tone of voice or something!?!

Then, this morning after Todd had gone to work, the kids were looking out the window, and again - someone yelled "Samson's out!"  and sure enough - Samson and Fred were at it again.  By now we were figuring out there was a "girl" involved.  So Todd came home from work - We got our sticks and buckets of grain - and headed back out to the pasture.  This time Fred wasn't so hard to get out.  We left a few girls in with Samson to keep him happy - they were still in there this evening.  We got Fred in a far pasture to get him fattened up for the freezer.  We are really hoping all of our bulls will be gone in the next few weeks.  

We also moved Blossom and Stormy into the pen with the rest of the Herefords.  They had been separated from the rest of the cattle since Stormy was born.  Neither one of them are very tame anymore - they have both gotten quite a bit of spunk.  We were able to get Blossom into a corral and squeeze her down so we could get ahold of her lead rope.  She didn't want to go, but we did finally get her over to the other pen.  Stormy has fully recovered from her difficult birth.  We went round and round the pen - she's fast!!!  We were finally able to get her in a corner and grab her lead rope - but then she planted her feet and absolutely refused to move!!! So we ended up carrying her across the pasture - she's no lightweight!!!  Another time that we were glad that we don't have any close neighbors to watch us! 

Memorial Day Weekend

It's been a few days since I last posted.  We had a nice Memorial Day Weekend.  Todd went to B'town to help work on the new building there on Saturday.  The kids and I stayed home and worked around the house a little bit - did some laundry, cleaning, cooking... :)  Sunday we went to meeting in the morning, then to the gospel meeting at Jean's in the afternoon.  We stayed there for a good steak supper with her family and then Leslie came home with us for the night. 

Monday we had a real nice Bible study after breakfast.  We read the first chapter of Ruth about the time that Naomi, her husband, and daughters went down to Moab to "sojourn" because life was too hard in the promised land.  Leslie told us that Moab was a type of serving the Lord in word but not with a whole heart.  

Jeremiah 18:10-11 says "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.  Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. "

Malachi 1:17 says this about those that do the work of the LORD deceitfully: "But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the LORD a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen."

So Moab is a type of a person who knows about the Lord and may even make vows to Him, but when it comes to really living the life God wants us to live they aren't willing.  Jesus said "if your right hand offends you, cut it off" but Moab "kept back his sword from blood".  When they made wine, they would let the dregs settle to the bottom and then "empty it from vessel to vessel".  When we let God lead us through experiences that cause us to leave behind the dregs of our own wills, we become sweeter and sweeter to him. How sad to get to the end of life and just have our selfish human nature instead of the Spirit of Christ - "his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed"

When Naomi and her family left the promised land they thought they were lacking and in the middle of a famine, but looking back on that time Naomi could see that she had "gone out full".  It would save us from so many poor decisions if we could just understand our current situation from the perspective of eternity.  Through of all of Naomi's experiences, she kept her relationship with God alive so that when she returned to the promised land, Ruth wanted to go with her and said "your God shall be my God".  

After breakfast, we headed back to B'town for more work on the building - only we found out after we got there that the work had been cancelled for the day because of rain.  Todd had his phone turned off and hadn't gotten the message.  We ended up staying for the day - I had a nice time with Talisha, the kids, ours and theirs, played outside in the rain most of the day, and a few others showed up to work after all.  Brad came home with us for the night on his way back up north, so that was another really nice surprise.

Laura & Abigail Playing at the piano recital 2009

Abigail playing Witches Brew

Abigail playing Night Train

Laura playing Solfeggietto

Laura Playing Harmony of Angels

Pictures of Jemimah, Ribeye, and Stormy

Here are some pictures of Ribeye and his mom, Jemimah. You can tell how small he is by comparing him to the fence posts.  They are about waist high.

The last 

picture is a more current picture of Stormy - she is really doing 

well.

2009 Recital

These are the videos of Emily and Charlotte at their Piano recital in April.  I will add Abigail's and Laura's after I figure out how to split up the file to make it smaller.

Emily playing Raspberry Popsicles and A Tisket a Tasket

Emily playing The Trumpet Song with Laura accompanying her

Charlotte playing Hoe Down and Cool Walking Bass

Happy Anniversary R & T

Happy 15th Anniversary Roger & Traci!!

Todd took the afternoon off of work today to be with the kids while I took Garrett in for his 6 month check up.  I don't know where the last 6 months have gone!  

Only read this next paragraph if you have a strong stomach!  Disgusting content follows!  Just before I left, Heidi came across the living room with a thermometer in her mouth.  She had picked it up from behind the faucet where Todd had laid it after we took the calf, Stormy's, temperature after she was born.  Imagine where you take a calf's temperature...and then imagine the look on Heidi's face when I told her where the thermometer had last been!  I really wish I had taken a picture of it.   She spit and sputtered for quite a while and then grabbed Laura's toothbrush to brush her teeth - which Laura promptly threw in the garbage.  Don't say I didn't warn you... :)

Todd got some pictures of Ribeye today, so I will get some posted.

Last evening we tried to separate the cows from the bulls that we had put together in the pen in the morning.  We took a salt/mineral lick into the pen thinking we could get the bulls occupied with it while we worked on getting the cows out.  We found out that they had really been missing having the salt lick while they were in the far pasture.  They went after it like it was candy.  There was no getting any of them away from it!  While they were busy, Todd was able to get a lead on one of the cows that hasn't been tamed.  He grabbed the lead and took a ride across the pasture (you would have thought he would have learned his lesson when the heifer yanked his shoulder out of the socket  last year - but he at least had a hold with both hands this time and was holding a rope he could let go of and not just a halter) Anyway, I wished I had had the video camera.  The cow jumped clear across and round and round the paddock with Todd doing a funny little dance behind her.  He finally decided to just leave her in there.  We got the gentle Herefords out, but ended up leaving the rest in there for another time.

We were able to get Jemimah into the corral hoping to get a better look at little Rib-eye.  Unfortunately she had parked him somewhere again and he didn't come up to join her.  We let her out just before sundown and she ran off to find him.  It was a bit of a rerun from Monday night - he hadn't stayed put - so she frantically ran around bellowing for him until she finally found him.

Today the kids had piano lessons, so I did my weekly shopping while they were there.  Then on our way to Bible Study we went by our current favorite store - Rural King - for some more fencing parts and goodies for the animals.  Had a nice meeting and visit afterwards.

Another day at the farm

This morning we moved the cattle into a temporary fenced area.  It is getting easier to get them moved.  Either they are getting more used to us, or we are figuring out what we are doing.  Or just maybe it is the new grain mixed with molasses that makes them follow us around.  The farmer who rents the tilled ground from us will be starting to work in the field pretty soon since it looks like it has stopped raining so much, so we needed to get the cattle out of that pasture before he brought his tractors in.  

We had another cow calve the other day - a very cute, very small bull calf.  He looks like he will be a true miniature.  I will try to get a picture up of him soon.  His mom is pretty skittish, so it is hard to get them to stand still long enough to get a picture.  Yesterday, she came across the stream crossing, but left him in the pasture over there.  I closed the gate across the crossing, not knowing she didn't have him along.  Close to sundown, she started frantically looking for her baby.  We went across and looked for him with no success.  We finally let her across again and she called and called for him.  This morning, after we got the rest of the cattle in the pen, we opened the stream crossing again and she came back with him in tow.  We were sure glad to see him! Next we are going to try to see if we can get her in the pen with Blossom, Stormy and the sheep.  We need to decide if we are going to make him into a steer, or if he should be left as a bull since he is so small.  His name is "Rib-eye".

Another Lincoln Moment

Lincoln just came in with a pile of his clean, folded shirts.  I asked him where he was going with those shirts (having clean, folded laundry around here is an accomplishment!).  He just looked at me.  I asked him again, then again.  His response...   I am going to put them away.  I never did find out exactly what he had planned to do with them?!?

Stormy update

Stormy has come a long way in 5 days! She is now walking, running & jumping a little bit.  She is nursing all on her own.  You would never know that she had had so many problems when she was born if you looked at her now.  It is amazing to think of how far she has come.

Lincoln's 3rd Birthday

Since we didn't have time to eat birthday cake last night, we started the day with birthday cake for breakfast!!  We figured it had flour, milk, eggs... all breakfast foods.  The kids did a great job on it - it was delicious.

Dad and Mom Fox came this morning to celebrate my 40th birthday and Lincoln's 3rd birthday.  It is hard to believe he is already 3 years old.  He wasn't sure he was ready to turn 3 this morning. He kept telling us that no he wasn't three yet, he was going to be three.  By the time present opening time came, he had decided that his birthday was alright after all.  His favorite present was a big red ball.  He has also been having fun with his new flashlight, batting tee, train to go with our Geo-Trax set, and tool box complete with real tools that his daddy put together for him.  One of these days we will go to the store and let him pick out something to buy with some birthday money he got.

We really enjoyed the day with Dad and Mom.  After lunch we had a DQ cake and also some brownies that Laura made and that we decorated with a farm theme.  The tractor was a bit big for the cake, but Lincoln liked it, so that is all that mattered. :)

We spent the afternoon outside, then went to Rural King with Dad and Mom on their way back home.  We picked out a really nice Red Maple tree for our front yard.  The kids wanted to get me something, so we put their money and some money from both Todd's and my parents together to buy it.  It makes it a very special tree that we can have around for years.  Todd likes to tell me that it was an appropriate present because 40 isn't old for a tree ----  I just remind him that his turn is coming in January!

My 40th

Today's post actually starts from last night.  We were in bed and just drifting off to sleep when I heard a huge commotion.  Of course my first thought was that there were coyotes in the sheep pen.  I woke Todd up and he jumped into his jeans, grabbed his gun, threw open the door and... the dog was still sleeping on the porch and it was completely quiet outside.  I went over to the computer to check to see what the weather was supposed to do, and there on the screen were about 5 horn blowing, confetti throwing, cheering party emoticons that my dear sister had sent me on yahoo chat at midnight their time to welcome in my 40th birthday.  (Thanks Dawn! :) )I found out that my 40 year old heart could still beat pretty fast!

We spent the morning taking care of animals, working on laundry and talking on the phone.

The girls wanted to make a birthday cake for me, so in the afternoon we made a German Chocolate cake (from scratch of course - they don't like to bake from cake mixes - it isn't real cooking...)  

We spent the evening in Mattoon doing some shopping, ended up getting home too late for birthday cake, and then took care of the animals in the middle of another big storm.   

Kid quotes

I was going through some of my e-mails and chats and found these:

Lincoln and Heidi are having a hard time going to sleep because of their naps today - and they are back in their beds - and I hear Heidi say "Lincoln" and Lincoln wails "I'm not Lincoln, I'm Don" and she repeats "Lincoln" and he repeats "I'm not Lincoln, I'm Don" - just wailing away - it goes on over and over again - finally Todd goes and sorts it out leaves the room and it starts again - so he calls out "Lincoln"...and Lincoln just bursts into tears - "I'M DON"  so Todd says - "Don - be quiet and go to sleep" it is now all quiet...   Kids - gotta lov em.

Lincoln is now going around saying "ain't ain't a word" - apparently he was listening in on grammar.

The other day I asked Heidi to go take her bath.  She looked at me and said "I can't wait until I am in Heaven".  I said, "what?"  She said "I want to be with God".  I said "That is very nice, but why are you saying that now?"  She said ... "Then I won't have to obey you".

Laura just reminded me of another one.  We were outside the other day, and one of our neighbors was doing some target practice.  Lincoln listened for a while then asked, "Is someone pounding posts?"  I said, "No, someone is shooting a gun."  He looked at me for a long time and then asked "Are you a little bit dead? - Did they shoot you?"

Lincoln's cute saying of the day

This afternoon we were trying to get out the door to run some errands.  Charlotte came in to inform me that Lincoln was dipping his head in the puddles left from last nights storm.  I called him into the house and he came in with his hair soaking wet - somehow he hadn't gotten wet anywhere else, so he must have been standing on his head.

Tamara - "Lincoln, don't put your head in the puddles, the water is filthy"

Lincoln - "I'm taking a bath - am I dirty?"  

The expression on his face was priceless.  He must have really thought he was washing his hair!

Our day today and more about Stormy

We had a busy day today.  Luckily we buckled down and finished the school year up on Monday so we didn't have to worry about that.  We started out by taking the calf out to the pasture to be with her mom.  We were surprised that the mom, Blossom, recognized her.  It was sweet to see Blossom come over to the calf, Stormy, and start licking her and making the low, quiet moo sound that cows use when they are talking to their babies.  Blossom still isn't walking very well.  She must have had some of her nerves injured when Stormy was born.  She lurches and sways her way across the pasture.  Stormy is still pretty weak, but she has started sucking pretty vorociously on her bottle now.  She is able to stand on her back legs now, but her front legs still give out on her.  She can move across the pasture a little bit, but on her "knees" not her hooves.  We were hoping to get her to start nursing, but between her falling over and Blossom lurching, it didn't go very well.  Todd puts her across his knee and holds her on with one hand while giving her the bottle with the other.  

Later in the morning, the girls had piano lessons.  The rest of us went to the feed store to get  feed corn and some calf feed, went to the vet to pick up some colostrum in case we have another calf needing it, went to Wal-mart and then home for a quick lunch - fed the calf again and then headed out to Arthur for milk and eggs.  When we got home, it was time to feed the calf again!  I am thinking our life just got a little busier for a while!  

Then the kids went in with the sheep for a while, looked into the bluebird house and discovered that the eggs had hatched, and climbed the trees that they have found nests in to check to see if any more eggs had hatched.  They couldn't believe it when I called them in for their baths.  It is nice that it stays light so late now, but it makes it hard to go to bed.  

The birth of Stormy

This story begins back in August of 2008.  We woke up one Saturday morning to find that our heifer, Blossom, had gotten out of our pasture and was visiting our neighbors cattle.  We spent the rest of the day trying to catch her and bring her back home.

Several months later, we borrowed a miniature Hereford bull for Blossom and one of our other small Hereford cow, Rosie.  After a few weeks we had the vet out to see if Blossom and Rosie were going to be giving us some new calves, and we were surprised to find out that Blossom was already several months pregnant.  Apparently she had been visiting the big Black Angus bull in the pasture next door when she got out in August.  At least we could come pretty close to guessing her due date.

When her due date got close, we penned her up in the pasture close to the house.  About a week before her due date, in the middle of the night (2:15 a.m.) Todd sat up in bed and said he had heard the heifer making a funny noise.  We got up and went out, and sure enough she was in labor.  After a little bit, we could see the hooves, then the nose, then nothing progressed.  We finally called the vet at about 4:15.  He came out and put chains on the calf's legs and got her pulled out.  The calf had been in the birth canal and without oxygen for quite a while.  Her tongue was hanging out, eyes rolled back, and she couldn't get to her feet.  It had been storming all night, so when she was born she was laying out in the rain and was freezing cold.   

After the vet left, we brought her into the basement.  We put 2 space heaters near her and put some heating pads on her.  We still couldn't get her warm, so we carried her to the shower.  She was probably the only calf in the county to get a warm shower that morning. :)  Our neighbor, Curt, came over and fed her through a stomach tube and gave her a couple of vitamin shots to help her out.  We stayed with her all day, making sure she was warm and trying to get her to drink out of a bottle.

The beginning of "Critters on the Porch"

This blog was started the day after we were out in the pasture most of the night with a heifer who was trying to deliver a calf that was much too big for her. Several times since our family has moved to the country we have looked at each other and said "we need to put this in our book". We jokingly call the book Critters on the Porch. I decided to start this blog to write down the stories that belong in our book. We have a family of 7 children. We currently have a flock of 14 Shetland sheep, a herd of 13 cattle (mostly miniatures), a couple of guineas, 2 roosters, 2 dogs, and too many "barn" cats to count.

I am hoping to use this as a journal, so most of the posts will probably just be "daily happenings".