Crawling

My son is crawling, and therefore getting into everything and anything he can reach and even some things that I never knew he could get to! He is getting to be very fast at it, too. I set him down and in 2 minutes he's in another room trying to chew on computer cords. Augh, computer cords are the worst, because you can't really do much to prevent a baby from getting at them, except just watch the baby very carefully.

I'm also starting to sleep train him. That is a difficult beyond hard task, and it's not always going so well. Last night, for example, I got around 4 hours of sleep total, and that's a pretty average night's sleep.

Tonight I'm going to the Twin Cities to their Fringe Lottery to see if my sister and my company (SHARDS) will get to perform our play at the Minnesota Fringe this summer. I'm crossing my fingers! It will also be a good place to get to know people, make connections, etc... something that really, really needs to be done as I don't even live in the Cities and my sister is new to the area.

Overall, I've been busy but when am I not?

More Baby Pictures :)

Cavities!

I just went to the dentist yesterday, and I was expecting some more cavities, because I've been having a toothache and during my pregnancy my gums swelled up pretty badly and I have had not-so-great dental hygiene ever since. (Floss every day? I don't even shower every day!) But I wasn't expecting 10 cavities! Oy. Well there goes $350. :/ I guess i'm not too surprised though. I knew I already had 2 on my lower wisdom teeth, because I didn't get those filled before getting pregnant because I had the intention of taking them out... but since I got pregnant that idea flew out the window for a while. Now I will either have to get them filled or get them out next year... after they fill all the rest of the cavity-filled teeth this year. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it... besides go in to the dentist in a week to get 2 of them filled.

They also prescribed me a high-fluoride toothpaste since I drink well water, but I can't use that until I'm done breastfeeding (which makes me wonder how much fluoride is IN that stuff?)

Baby Kid Pictures

So I finally found my camera cord... it was behind the baby's dresser... weird. :P Anyway, as promised... pictures of our baby goats.

New Babies :)

This past week we got 3 new baby goats (well, 4 but one didn't make it)... the moms are being good moms, and the babies are eating well and cuddling up together under the heat lamp. :)

We are watching the other goats closely because we don't know when one will deliver. I think one is pretty close, but you never know when the babies will decide to arrive.

Also the young doe who lost her kid is back in heat, so she will probably kid in July.

The weather is warmer, the snow more like slush, the animal's eyes look brighter, and even though the sky is gray and the pine needles are frosty, there is evidence of the earth renewing herself. I can really relate to the pregnant does, who are slow and waiting, like the earth herself, urging time to pass just a little quicker.

Barn Fire!

Apologies for not posting in a while. Our computer has been down so it's hard for me to get onto the internet whenever I want to.
I've been having to do chores 3 times a day for a while, to check on our goats who are due to kid at any time. With the weather this cold, it's very important that the babies don't sit in a cold spot or they will die. We already found one dead from a first time mom who kidded much earlier than she was supposed to, and she never cleaned the baby off when she gave birth so it froze to death. :( So we put a heat lamp in our barn to warm up a spot for the mom goats to give birth.

Well...

While I was doing chores Monday morning, I smelled smoke. I looked around to see if the neighbors were burning anything but they weren't. I got a feeling of dread and opened the barn door, to get hit by a rolling cloud of smoke! The first thing I did was go in there and get the goats out! It wasn't a huge fire, in fact I couldn't see more than a flicker of flame here and there, but most of the floor was blackened and smoking and a support beam was pretty much gone from the fire, and the whole barn was under a dense cloud of smoke. I figured it must have been the heat lamp that started it, so I unplugged the cord from the heat lamp and ran up the hill to the wellhouse to get some water to dump on the fire. Several buckets of water later and there wasn't much improvement, so I went inside the house and got my fire extinguisher. Even that didn't improve things much, so I had to dial 911 and have the firefighters come put it out. I rushed around trying to get the cars and horse trailer out of the driveway so the fire trucks could drive in, and pulled down the fencing so that the firemen could get into the yard. In my rush, I drove my car into a snowbank! And after the firemen got here I realized that my hands were shaking. All I could feel was relief that none of the animals were hurt (well, a cat got its fur scorched, but he's doing fine) and that most of the barn is salvageable. Our milk stand got burned up and 2 hen nesting boxes, plus a barrel and of course the heat lamp plus the bedding, part of the floor, the support beam, and a couple of other wood pieces. Thankfully, we have stone walls on the interior of the barn! Oh, and the nice firemen even helped get my car unstuck!

Afterward, the firemen came to talk to me and told me it was a very good thing that I caught the fire in time, because the fire was creeping up to the hay loft and in a couple hours the whole barn would have been up in raging flames. He also seemed pretty amazed that I could think to do all that stuff and move the vehicles etc... because most people panic when they see fire. Hmmm... I guess I'm pretty cool when it comes to crisises.

Also, this is not the first fire that has started from a heat lamp, so I am definitely NOT a fan of those things anymore!!! We really don't need the financial trouble that comes with this fire, but hopefully the insurance will at least cover the cost of the 911 call. I'm pretty sure that barns are insured separately from homeowner's insurance so I doubt if they'll pay for the damages, so it's a good thing they are very minimal.

RIP Eclipse

This fall my yearling buck Eclipse became paralyzed. We were really worried about him and thought he was going to die, but he pulled through. Since then we have been trying to do therapy with him- we made him a sling out of old shirts and some twine string, and we've been stretching him and working with him. This past 2 weeks he really improved and we had high hopes of him being able to stand on his own and walk again. Then, these last 2 or 3 days, he took a step backward and was acting very tired, but still eating and drinking. This morning I found him dead as I was doing morning chores. I have no idea why he died, as he was out of his sling for the night and didn't get caught in anything. He didn't otherwise act sick, and he was for the most part out of the cold. However, it's possible he just got too cold because the weather has been particularly cold (in the single digits) the past couple of days.

I really wish it wasn't him that died. I raised him from a bottle baby... he would follow me around everywhere and he acted more like a person than a goat. I taught him how to eat grass and not to be scared of the dog (a lesson he never really learned too well). Before I had my human baby he was "my baby." When he was a couple months old I brought him to a preschool and let the kids bottle feed him. He just loved people. Even when he went into rut, I could still trust him, as he had the most gentle disposition of any buck I've ever met, especially when it came to humans. He never tried to be rough with me, the only time I had to worry was when I had treats in my hands because of course he would maul me for the treats! He was just as sweet as any doe (and often sweeter!). I'm so sad he had to go through this and that he had to die, but I guess I can't be too sad because at least I got to see him grow up and we'll probably keep both of his buckling kids from this past year. He probably also bred some does before he got paralyzed so hopefully he'll pass on his sweet disposition to more of our goats.

Rest in peace, Eclipse.