Farm Life

These are my kids and our first baby goats since moving on to the farm. Alec is the oldest at almost 13, she is holding Victor (twin to Victoria, the other white/gray goat). From left to right is Jian (9 yrs) holding Cole (born on Thanksgiving), Saylor (5 yrs), Maryn (5 yrs) holding Victoria, and Tommy (7 yrs). That is JinXie the cat that showed up this summer and has made herself right at home.

We are a family of six, soon to be seven. Our family is waiting for a referral of a baby girl from Ethiopia. I believe we are second in line for a referral, and are hoping for next week.

This summer we moved on to the farm where I grew up. My kids have grown up on this farm as well, as they spent every weekend here with my parents when I worked. It has been so much fun watching the kids experience the same things I experienced as a child.

We have a horse and his ever present side kick, Sunshine, the boer goat. We purchased five pygmy goats in August, and have been waiting all fall for babies. Life on the farm is hard. On Thanksgiving, I went out to fed after putting the turkey in, only to find Cole's twin dead, still in the placenta. I was heartbroken. It kills me any time anything dies, and to know this baby didn't have a chance because I wasn't there to help really hurts me. It was a big lesson for the kids on life and death. Three days later, Alec witnessed the birth of Victor. And we all got to see Victoria's birth about 15 minutes later. She was so strong, and was up and moving within a few minutes. Yesterday, I found her panting and weak. We watched her all day and finally went to a friends for antibiotics. When I returned her to her pen, she was so weak, she couldn't nurse. I brought her in the house, as I was so sure she was going to die. She was breathing 160 times a minute, and went through periods of complete exhaustion to standing and panting. This morning she woke up bleating and looking a little stronger. I took her back to her mother and she immediately nursed. I still don't know if she will make it. She is still breathing very fast and is weak, but she is curled up with the other babies under a heat lamp right now. At this point, I don't know if I want to have any more baby goats. I can't stand the thought of losing any, and this is too hard emotionally to watch this little one. We'll see in the morning how she is doing.

We also have some chickens, one of which Maryn raised in the house this summer when the mother wouldn't accept it. A dog, three house cats, a parakeet, and a pond with lots of big koi. The kids are great with the animals, especially Maryn and Saylor. They help me feed every morning. Alec is also a great help, as she takes care of her horse and does all the feeding on the weekends.

Moving on to the farm has been a lot of work, but so much fun. I learned to bush-hog this summer, and I love it. We put in a pool and spent most of the summer in it. We also put up a wood play set this summer. Try doing that with one adult and five kids--fun! we have a huge paved driveway between the house and the barn where the kids can ride their bikes, scooters, etc.

So this is some of what farm life is like for us--1 mama and soon to be 6 kids.