Saturday Night Excitement- a Rattlesnake

Every family has different excitement in their lives. We are in that harried time as we get ready for the coming school semester, hunting season, etcetera.  I am often known for saying that my life is boring, that I just have too many chores to be that interesting, but then other things come along, like this visitor from Saturday night...

We treat the beneficial things around here like pets, so to speak. So with two non-venomous snakes considering our property home, we are careful to collect the eggs on schedule and watch what we are up to. We reason that they help with neighborhood rodents, but also with keeping rattlesnakes at bay.

Saturday night, I was working on dinner, and Bailey was working outside in the goat pen. Suddenly she came in, and brought me the dog, saying she thought there was a coiled rattler in the doe pen, and Shadow had alerted on it, not leaving it alone. (So much for that rattlesnake evasion training I paid for...)

Charlie was on the phone, so Wyatt went out to help her until Charlie could go help. I was appointed to keep Shadow from letting herself out to help and not burn dinner...

This was somewhere in the realm of four feet, and was not rattling, but was coiled to strike when Bailey pulled Shadow back and tried to look with her flashlight (the battery was dying, great timing, right/) Just a little Saturday night excitement and a reminder that boots are a requirement...

Adventures in Home Repair- the Ceiling Fan Edition, part one...

Part of the fun of being a military wife is all of the fun things you learn to do on your own. And with your kids. All military wives know the same fun of any wife whose husband travels for work. You know, the cars where the alternator dies and all of the electrical goes out in the fast lane at the top of a hill at rush hour and you pray as you muscle it down the hill with a foot on the brake, hoping the other cars let you over so you can coast into the church parking lot at the bottom of the hill in the scary part of town? (Cue kind father in law to bail you out and bring a mechanic to the rescue... husband had barely crossed the state line when that happened!)

Yeah, that kind of fun. And I must note, my husband's deployments and TDYs, incessant as they were, never took him overseas. He almost did, but then they changed his orders. I know how lucky I am, but I still spend a good bit of time on my own, troubleshooting issues, hiring contractors when needed, and learning LOTS of new skills!

I have long been terrified by electrical work. It is on my list of classes to take, when the time arises (haha), but until then, I will learn a little at a time. Recently, a ceiling fan with a light, originally installed by a contractor (long story) literally fell out of the ceiling. Thankfully, no one was right under it, but it did sustain a couple broken light globes and a bent fan blade arm. 

I did what any goofy girl who no longer trusts contractors but wants it fixed would do...

I took pictures of the parts left behind, and stopped at the local Ace Hardware on the way home. While I really like Lowes for a number of things, when it comes to quirky how tos and random things you only run into in your part of town, the local small hardware store is a good first stop.

So I pulled out my not-so-smart phone and showed him what was left and where I thought it had failed,

which was this bracket you see below.

The man agreed with me that washes might be just the trick to getting the tiny screws to hold in the bracket. Then he explained how to hook up the wiring- white to white, black to black, and add the blue to the black bundle since it had a light on the fan, and leave the green as it was for the ground. That sounded easy enough, so I purchased washers and headed for home. Note to all of you for future reference- the washers actually needed to fit in the bracket- oops- so luckily we have a big stash of washers in the tool shed!

That afternoon, Bailey tried to hold the fan up for me to wire back together. We realized quickly that was just too awkward. So we took a bar stool, and stood it on the counter. We propped the fan on the stool, and the kids tried to help me by passing tools up when needed and making sure I didn't knock the fan down. 

That way, the wiring went pretty easily.

See? All hooked up, with the little things screwed on to hold the wires together properly.

The kids ended up having to help me shove the wired in while positioning the fan rod arm in the bracket. But then the housing went on fairly simply. And the big exciting part- it turned on! 

I decided to wait on getting new globes (and of course trying out the fan) until I figured out how to bend the arm back into place. I am still having trouble with that part. In fact, I stopped and looked at parts while getting paint at the big hardware store over the weekend. Turns out, the guy there thought I should give up and buy a new fan.

I am not ready to give up on it yet, gonna stop at ACE this week and ask about that part, and see if Wyatt can help me try again tonight, too.It is never as simple as it should be, but if we can figure this out, then Wyatt and I are going to put in a new fan switch in his. A little more intense on the electrical, but I found an online how-to, so you never know...

What a Day!

We feel so blessed to have had two beautiful baby goats born here at Patriot's Dream today. The mama dam, a light carmel pygmy and father sire, a light grey agouti pygmy buck, blessed our farm with one light carmel buck and one dark agouti/ black buck.

As beautiful as they are, we can see how their mama loves them, but cannot seem to get them to nurse.  Mama is fighting to feed them herself and not be milked, so we were only to get a few ccs of colostrum for each of the babies thus far. Bailey is out trying again with a syringe at this late hour, trying to get something in them but keep them with their mama.

Those sweet, beautiful faces are so worth all of the exhausting effort. We know how blessed we are to have the opportunity to care for them, even with the ups and downs and exhaustion that comes with it.

Maaaaa! They sure do have a lot to say! They are full of life and cuddles.  We have not begun to think of names for them yet, if you all have ideas, please feel welcome to share!

Baby kisses are oh, so sweet!  You can see the love on mama Silver's face.

We have also had a couple Buckeye eggs go into the incubator this week, along with the little bantam Cochins that excelled at fair last year. The brooder space is overrun, and a few of the larger ones are waging escapes, telling us they are ready to move tot he next brooder on the back porch.

The mama goose is busy sitting on her eggs, answering the question as to whether we will be trying to hatch them. Her gander has taken to his role of protector fervently. They selected an are away from their usual space, under planter boxes by the swingset, so we will have to see what will happen so we appropriately move the protective enclosure in for her.

Surrounded by cuteness, we are working our way up to the county fair next month, and still enjoying the adorable babies form the photo contest.  Please take a moment to vote for your favorites!

The link to vote for the baby animal photo contest:

Baby Animal Photo Contest Voting...

If you have a photo or note about what's going on at your farm that you would like to share, please feel welcome to send them along to the blog and facebook page in a message to me. We would love to share them, and our readers love (like I do) to live vicariously. Hey, don't we all?

Adventures with Crazy Mama Hens

Remember those new babies we told you about last week? The ones hatched by the runaway hen who snuck out of the big pen to hatch eggs in the loft of the garden shed and eat all the lettuce from the raised beds?

This is a pattern for a couple of our hens, who are tremendously insistent upon becoming mamas, but are not all that good at selecting a safe place to hatch energetic little ones or good at managing their little ones once they arrive.

So once Wyatt found the little ones, we began the process of watching for babies to fall from the loft, and watching for the mama hen to be gone so we could relocate the chicks to the brooder inside. Then yesterday, Wyatt found three of the chicks in the floor of the shed and the mama running around outside of the shed, confused about managing the chicks in different places.

I was in town finishing work and some errands, and Bailey called frustrated with her brother for his insistence that the babies should all be caught, and with worry about his less than brilliant ways of climbing up to get them. I told Bailey that he was right, and told her where to find things so he could climb to the loft in a safe way.

When they called again a little later, the little ones wee in a crate of straw, on their way to the brooder inside- a total of six adorable little ones.

The little ones settled into the inside brooder right away, with the bigger chicks who were a week to two weeks older taking to the "mother hen" role instinctively.

By the time I got home from town, they were all doing fine, and names like Cinnamon and Cinnabun, Speedy and Speedy 2 were already in the works. 

 Care to guess which is which?

The largest of these are Brahmas who were hatched inside, there are also Silkies and the little barnyard mixes who seem so intent to be members of the flock.

The really red one just right of center is Cinnamon. Think Wyatt;s heart will ever be too full to love another little animal? I don't! And for all he says the goats aren't necessary, just wait until Silver kids... 

Well, that is enough of a break for me. We began work on the new doe barn this morning before Charlie left for work. He will pick up a few things for me tomorrow with the big truck, but for now the kids and I need to get back to that special project we started outside. We will share some photos of that tonight!

The Great Pancake Race

Okay, so not the best photos, here! Tuesday was National Pancake Day. Been a crazy week of sick kids, extra work issues, and just lots to do, so we are just getting to the fun of it.

Have you ever had a pancake race at church? There is this old story about a pancake dinner on Shrove Tuesday, where a woman was running so late she ran down the street flipping the pancakes in the pan. I remember when we ere in California, our church had a big fun event, and among the things we did was a pancake race through the church parking lot.  We flipped pancakes and ran down the race course, trying to keep the pancake flipping and get across the finish line first.

So after chores last night, I made the first of the pancakes for dinner. Then Wyatt set up a course, and we took turns running the course and flipping pancakes while timing on another.

Bailey has a pretty good time, at 14 seconds, once Wyatt stopped sending Shadow to steal the pancake.

Wyatt reran the course at 13 seconds, and threatened to eat the pancake before I could run the course.

Wyatt decided to use defensive maneuvers on me while I ran, but then I ran it in 12 seconds once I was just trying to defend against Shadow the pancake thief.

We had a good time in the end, and I would love to do it with them again!

Do you have any fun silly traditions for Lent or other times?

Progress, Slowly but Surely!

Sometimes life just keeps throwing things at you to see how strong the core is and whether you can withstand the storm.  Last week, we learned the doe barn and the shower are definitely not very strong. Wel,, we had been putting those back together and helping them stand up for years, but the shower wall cracked open and the doe barn was a complete loss in the storm last week.

But life goes on, you pick up and keep going, and learn and are made better in the process.  While I could go for a little less of this shaping, I am learning a great deal, and the applied math is quite the ongoing home school lesson plan as a break from the books!

These photos are the sprouts in the new baskets. They are finally sprouting. Much of the way these baskets work is very different than the prototype containers I had been using. Once I get the correct things down to an exact science, I will share exact timing and measurements. 

If you have any you would like to share, there are several folks wanting to learn! Please feel free to comment directly to the blog so they can benefit from your knowledge and experience.

We did have one mishap where I was moving the stack for watering, and all the boxes fell and had to be put back together. I am a bit of a klutz, as you can tell...

On Monday, the kids and I began the research process on the new shower in earnest. When we renovated the master bedroom and bathroom about ten years ago, we put in a corner shower unit. Back then, it was a great choice, really opened up the room, and the plastic wall were really the latest.  (Hard to believe, huh?) This one was initially put in wrong, so Charlie and I had to do the best we could to try to redo it without damaging it, and in the end I ended up redoing the glass and caulking every year since. So when the crack appeared i the plastic wall last week, it was more annoyance than surprise.  

The design in the bathroom layout really needs to stay though, so my options are a different shower of he same type, a different shower of an upgraded version, a different one of a quarter round version, or a similar pan with tile walls and similar upgraded glass doors. 

The nice gentleman at Lowe's helped me inspect the pan on all of them, and showed me that the upgraded version of what we have was on a clearance sale. So, is that good or bad? Charlie and I thought about it, and yesterday, I went back and purchased the whole kit. I have 90 days to change my mind or change my mind about the walls and put in tile, so now I just need to decide whether I am really up for the entire installation. The demolition, on the other hand, I know I am up for, this thins has been annoying!

I think I have the doe barn issue narrowed down to a couple of possible solutions, which Charlie and I are still debating. But I need to get it fixed fairly quickly, so I do need to get on task with that!  What do you all use for your does? We do have one separate kidding pen, so sectioning off isn't a big deal, but we need something that will provide shelter from heat and wind, sun and rain, etc. And which will hold up to the weather and wind, while providing support as it will be a chunk of the fencing of this pen.

Well, slow and stead progress moving forward. The shower didn't fit in the little SUV, so the truck has to go back for it today, and hopefully this afternoon that new pen project can make some headway.  Oh, and kudos to those nice folks at Lowes. The recognized me, took time to help me, went out of their way to try to get everything together and keep me on time for work yesterday, and laughed their way through the ups and downs, evening noticing the USAA on my debit card and asking for my military ID so I could have a discount above and beyond the clearance price. So often doing things by myself as a military wife, I feel like there is a neon sign above my head saying cheat me, I feel so blessed when I do things usually left to the men and have such a wonderful experience!

Love to all, and have a wonderful day. Relish the blessings where you find them!

Topping Off the Weekend on a Positive...

On the way to town this morning, we dropped Bailey off at church. She attended a service and youth group, then volunteered in the nursery. I had thought for sure that I was going to be back for her on time, but in the end a BIG thank you to Pastor Todd for dropping her off at the library.

I spent much of the with Wyatt and Shadow at the Ag complex, where pre-fair for the dog project was taking place.

Wyatt and Shadow are improving, and with the additional year, Shadow was far calmer and not trying to play with all the other dogs. As we dashed up to pick up Bailey, they cuddled up and fell asleep in the back seat.

On the way home, a quick stop for the library books, one item for dinner, and an ice cream cone for all the hard work on all of their parts!

We are beginning to dig out from the storm and make plans for the new doe barn. Too bad we don't have more rain in the forecast, though!

Still, I am thankful for the full rain barrels to begin the new week.

Tomorrow, more of the photos of the contest prizes will go up. Are you getting your baby photos ready?

Another Wild Week for Us!

Wow, I think Wild Week might be an understatement.  This week was a very busy one in the bi academic projects of the year...

on Tuesday, the kids competed in Science Fair.  (had to sneak a pic of Wyatt in his interview)

While Bailey awaited her two interviews, we wandered the Air and Space Museum where the science fair took place. I couldn't believe Wyatt managed to fit in the cockpit of this tiny exhibit!

This exhibit from a bomber group was one of Wyatt's favorites. He loved looking up inside at the bomb bay and the turret guns, and was fascinated at how they also performed humanitarian missions.

He says he would love to restore one of these.

This is Bailey's project on goat stifles. 

This is Wyatt's cycle generator.

His poster

the baby chick that hatched on Monday...

As Monday was my sister's birthday, she got to name her, and chose Gilberta.

With lots of rosemary on hand, lemon rosemary chicken went into the crick pot.  Weeks like this require crock pot time!

Shadow was pretty bored with poster making, and wasn't at all happy with me that Wyatt wasn't cuddled up with her for his school work.

On Saturday, the kids both competed in National History Day. I knew Wyatt was fighting being sick, but he had put so much into his project. I dropped them off for their presentations and had to go teach at work as part of an ALS fundraiser/ awareness event.  Then I picked them up to take them for a treat before the awards ceremony.

They were so ready to go home!

By the time we got home, Wyatt's fever was in full, so Bailey and I went out and split up the feeding and chores, though we did take a little break for a quick driving lesson. =). We also found the first Polish egg from the new pair tht came to us in January. We will see if anything develops with it!

Today, with Wyatt sick and me staying up much of the night with him, we stayed home from church and began to get some new things done. I will get you an update on some exciting new other things happening here tomorrow!

Our First Polish Egg!

On Saturday afternoon, when we returned from town and got started with chores and feeding and changing waters, we found a new surprise int he Polish temporary pen- 

our first egg from these new friends!

It was tucked safely int he incubator with a couple eggs from the Light Brahmas, to hopefully see them hatch together. As this is their first egg since they came here, likely their first eggs wince the cooler months, the likelihood isn't all that great that it is truly fertile, but since the Polish project is all about seeing what we can hatch for the youth of the 4-H club for next year, we will try anyhow!

We will keep you up to date as we candle and watch for hte hatch. Have a great week!