The Young Dairy Farmer's Wife

Life is good. . .

2012-02-13T12:57:00.000-06:00

Lil' Miss is so easy it's ridiculous. I find myself holding my breath, waiting for her to wake up one day and be high maintenance like her brothers. I'm sure if it doesn't hit soon, it'll hit at puberty, haha.
I never understood when people would ask, "Are they a good baby?" I kept thinking, "Well yea?" I mean, who says, "NO! They're terrible! I mean, all the crying and pooping and you have to FEED them all the time!!!" ? Even for as difficult at Preschooler was as a baby, I always thought he was a good baby. Then Toddler came along and he was so much easier, I finally started to realize how much Preschooler wore me out. Now, Miss Ellie is cake! For as difficult and stressful as her pregnancy was, she's a dream baby! If they keep coming easier, we may wind up with 12! (haha, j/k, Husband says NO!)
Yesterday we had Lil' Miss's newborn pictures taken. It was only 19* outside, but the photographer is a convenient 2 miles away so we braved the cold. Her studio stays a balmy 81* to keep baby all cozy and sleepy so it wasn't that bad ('cept I wore a sweater and wished I hadn't since we were there for 3 hours!)
Here's a sneak peek at her shots:

First shot of the day

For being less than 6lbs, she's still got some rolls!

She looks so sweet here. . .

Despite the crown, I like this one - I just wanna kiss all over her cheeks!

My FAV! Those are my boots and this is totally more my style!

I can't wait to see how the rest turned out. We got maybe one shot with the boys - despite trying to bribe them with Scooby Snack fruit snacks, (which made me feel like a dog trainer. . .) they weren't in a sitting still mood. There's also a shot w/ Hubs and I and one w/ Lil' Girl and Husband that I'm excited to see. Jess has awesome props and we even got a shot using a blanket that she ordered off of me. ;}

You're not going to believe this. . .

2012-02-08T13:06:00.001-06:00

But Miss Ellie is here!

My water broke Saturday (the 4th) morning at 12:20 after losing my mucous plug only an hour earlier! Contractions didn't want to come tho and at 9:30 we left to go to the hospital which included a turn-around because I forgot my purse and the camera (oops). They started me on pitocin at about 1:30. I really didn't want it b/c I've heard all the horror-stories of how hard pitocin makes your contractions, but once you're water breaks they pretty much put you on an 18 hr time limit to get baby out and at the rate things were going, I wasn't going to make it. I figured pitocin was better than the alternative (heading straight for a c/s), but a few hours later I was crying through the contractions - and I'm not a crier! I wanted to go all-natural, but I was so exhausted from that past few weeks and I figured since the pitocin already had me stuck in bed so I couldn't walk through the contractions - I may as well be comfortable. Half-way through a particularly hard contraction (well, there were ALL hard, but this one REALLY smarted!) I yelled, "Go get the epidural man!" at The Husband. He got me through the rest of the contraction and then made me look him in the eye and tell him that I wanted an epidural. He said he didn't care one way or another, but he didn't want me to beat myself up about it later. I caved. I couldn't take it anymore. I've had an all-natural delivery and while it was empowering in a way that I may never know again - I knew that I didn't have the strength to get through the contractions and have enough left to push later.
BOY! I can see why women get them all the time! My epi turned out to be textbook perfect - took the edge off, but I could still feel the contractions in the form of a lot of pressure and I knew when it was time to push. I only pushed 1 1/2 times! I gave one good push and the doctor told me to push again and I started to, but then he said, "Welp, she's out!" I was even talking through the whole thing (imagine that!). Crazy!
We did have a little hiccup in that my blood type is O+ and her's is B+. So when I was pregnant with her, my blood formed antibodies to fight off her blood (mommy and baby's blood mixes a little during pregnancy b/c of all the exchange of fluids). So when she was born she still had some of these antibodies in her system which made her more prone to jaundice. She didn't really have jaundice, but the doctors wanted to make sure that they stayed ahead of it and so they had what's called a billi-blanket on her. It's a pad with strong UV lights (but not enough to burn her) that lays next to her skin. It was kind of a pain b/c it was hooked up to a machine and the tube wasn't very long so anyone holding her had to sit right next to her bassinet. The boys got a kick out of it and called it her flashlight, haha.
Speaking of the boys - they're doing great. Preschooler LOVES her and is very protective - Husband and FIL had to distract him out in the hallway so that MIL, BIL, and BIL's gf could hold her! Toddler didn't know what to think at first, but he's warming up to her and he now calls her "My baby" (meaning his baby) instead of "Your baby" or "Paul's baby" and he's held her once or twice for just a few seconds.

So on to the good part, here she is!

Elaina Renee
2-4-12, 5:22 p.m.
6 lbs. 1 oz., 19.5" long
She's so tiny, neither of the coming-home outfits that I had picked out fit her! So Daddy had to go shopping and get some preemie-sized clothes to fit. She's still a very odd size. The preemie stuff is nearly too small b/c she's still kinda long for her size. But she swims in the newborn size and the only thing NB she can wear are onesies and that's if I put a preemie-sized long-sleeve onesie underneath for padding, haha.

And she has hair! DARK hair!

Weell, at least for my kids. Her hair is the same color that mine is now, even tho I was born blond (er, rather bald). My guess is that it grows in blond, but we'll see - there's a lot of dark hair on my dad's side.

Moo-cow hat!

Fuzzy pic, but this shows her billi-blanket (the glowing green thing). When she was all wrapped up it made her look like a Glo-Worm!

She's a very good baby. The first night we were home she woke up at 2:00 and then at 7:00 - and we were up for the day then so it was a good night! Last night we had a few issues because we both kept falling asleep mid-feed so after 5:00 she woke up about every 1/2 hour for an hour-and-a-half. Husband let us sleep in and so when we finally got up at 8 she was hungry and ready to eat. When she is awake, she just lays there staring at her surroundings. The only time she fusses is when she's got a gas pain or she's hungry. I really hope she stays like this! It'll make life so easy!
I'm so in love already and while I LOVE the newborn stage, I could spend all day just sucking in the baby smell, I'm already daydreaming about getting her out and about on the farm. Until then I'll just enjoy laying around being lazy and snuggling ;}.

Nesting on the farm. . .

2012-02-03T12:50:00.000-06:00

It's a funny thing being pregnant on the farm. I don't remember the nesting being so bad with the boys. I think it has more to do with the fact that there's not much I can't do in the house. It's carrying over to the outside. Along with stocking up on cloth diapers (ones that we use for burp cloths) and getting all the baby clothes washed - I've also been stocking up on feed for the goats and chickens for the next few weeks. It's not that Husband can't take of that kind of thing, but I need an outlet for my urges. That - and I'll have a lot less whining to listen to if I have everything ready for him to take over my chores ;}. Plus I hopefully won't have to worry about Husband having to run to Terre Haute for feed for awhile.

Hear that Husband? I'm covering your bases so you have no excuse to leave me alone in the house with a newborn and the boys! Buahaha - you're stuck in here with us!

I was really hoping that little girl would decide to come today and be born on the 3rd of the month like her brothers and cousin. It would just make things easy for Husband to remember. But seeing as how I still wasn't dilated at all as of yesterday - I don't think it's going to happen. Boo.
Oh well, Husband has to work all weekend anyway and while he could take time off of work, it's really not good timing and would only add a bunch of stress when he did go back to work.

Until then, I'm boiling bottles (but don't intend on using them for awhile):

And I need to order my cloth diapers.

I've got the hosp. bag packed,

My mom bought the baby a new diaper bag - after previous experiences, this is all I'm taking. We live close enough to the hosp. and there'll be enough visitors that I can always have someone bring me anything that I realize I need.

Homecoming outfit that I knit.

Back-up outfit in case the other one doesn't fit.

the car seats/booster seats all arranged in the car (it'll be interesting getting everyone into the car), the Pack 'n' Play all set up, the newborn clothes washed and ready (and about as many baby clothes/hats made as I think I'm going to get in),

Moo-Cow hat (got the idea off of Pinterest)

Ack! A sea of pink! Well, not all of them are pink, but the pink just overshadows everything else.

and the baby bedding washed and set up (but we probably won't use it 'till we get moved and the baby nursery done in the new/old house).
So I'm pretty much ready. Or so I'd like to think.

Middle of . . . Winter?

2012-02-02T12:24:00.000-06:00

You wouldn't know it by standing outside, but we are into Winter here in IN. It got near up to 60* here and there were times when I got down-right hot! It felt good tho, to have warm sunshine on my face. There's a rumor going around that winter is finally going to rear it's ugly head. . . in April. Eek. But for now we're enjoying a little taste of Spring.

Babies have started coming on the farm (tho not mine yet).

Here's the first two calves of 2012! The little red one with the spot on her head on the left is a heifer, she's the younger of the two. Even tho we aren't planning on any calves 'till end of Feb/March, these babies are actually late! We had a few in the Fall herd that didn't get bred 'till late. I think we may have one or two more to calve from that group.

Next I'm waiting on the goatie girls who are starting to show a bit.

I'm relieved to see Paprika getting big. She's so hard to keep weight on and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get her healthy enough to carry her baby(ies). She's still got 2 months to go and if she keeps up the pace that she's going at, she's gonna be one wide girl! Baerli is also starting to show some too, but despite being nearly as big as Paprika now, she still acts like a little kid and won't stay still long enough for me to get a good shot of her - even when she's eating! She's due 3 weeks after Pappi. Then there's Kit-Kat, she just looks pregnant, but isn't, haha.

*We interrupt this broadcast to bring you: Dinner.
Sorry 'bout that, I got side-tracked and stayed busy most of the night.

And last but not least is moi:

Forgive the dirty mirror, I used the boys' bathroom. . .

Me? I have 2 weeks at least (but hopefully less!) to go. I went to the doc today and I'm still not dilated in the slightest, boo. . . I was REALLY hoping Lil' Miss would come tomorrow and be born on the 3rd of the month like her brothers and cousin. My next "look forward to" date is the 13th or 14th. The 14th is the Half Moon and both of the boys were born the day before a phase of the moon. The 13th would still fit into the "3" theme we have going on, but I'd also really like a Valentine's Baby! It'd be a great way to mark the 7th anniversary of the day that The Husband became The Fiance.

So. . . on with the waiting game. The story of my life. I don't think I'll ever have a time where I'm not waiting on SOME kind of baby. There will always be cows, and God willing, one day there'll be grandkids to wait on. ;}

She flipped!

2012-01-26T03:02:00.001-06:00

I'd have gotten the news out sooner, but my battery charger to laptop died and my laptop's battery is pretty well shot anyway so it lasted a whopping 5 mins. before shutting down.
But she flipped! I went for a NST (non-stress test, where they monitor the baby for awhile to see if you're having contractions and how well the baby is handling them) yesterday and the doc said he could feel baby's head down. Then he checked to see if I was dilated (which I'm not, boo) and he said he could definitely feel her head. (I should think so because I'm pretty sure he was reaching for my tonsils! Ow!)
I'm so relieved! I was starting to get a little nervous. I think the chiropractor was too - she showed me how to do the Webster technique on myself and told me to have The Husband do it on me every night to help things. But, her perfect record won't be ruined on me!

I figured that once that stress was over, I would get some more sleep at night. Wrong. It's 3:45 a.m. and I'm still up. I've tried to go to bed twice now, it's not happening. Especially since Preschooler woke up puking. Yay me.
But when I'm not being distracted by puking 4-year-olds, everything under the sun seems to pop up in my head when I'm trying to go to bed.

What if the doc was wrong? Maybe he was just feeling her butt?
Surely not, he's been doing this for years, right?

I sure hope all this rain and mild winter means a better growing season this year. Lord knows we need one.
Remind myself to check to see if the spring forecast is up on the Farmer's Almanac website.
Find a paper Farmer's Almanac and check the spring forecast.

I wonder if MIL works this Saturday. I really need to get to Bloomington to that Green Nursery store and stock up on cloth diapers. I bet Sister M will go with me. She loves B-town and will probably know where she's going better than me. I bet Mom would watch the boys for us too! I just need one day to myself to be able to shop and relax (two things that usually don't go together for me). This may be my last chance to have some "me" time before baby comes. I'll tell Husband that. He'll understand. We were just wondering if we could sneak away for "us" time, he'll understand that I need some "me" time too. . .

Hmm. . . how am I going to find room in the calf barn to set up separate pens for the goats? Paprika is going to need to start switching feed in about a week and I gotta keep the other two out of her food.
I wonder if she's really starting to show (she's got about 9 weeks left) or if she's just getting fat.
I bet she's starting to show - she's always so thin, I can't get her fattened up when she's not pregnant!

I wonder what's up with Preschooler? The school nurse said he had an accident today at school (of the nasty kind). Maybe he's got a bug? But that's nothing unusual for him. . .
But he ate 3 pieces of pizza for dinner and was running around fine and hasn't had a fever at all. . .
Maybe it was the bath water I caught him drinking, they did use a lot of soap tonight. . .
Note to self: goat milk is good for tummies, goat milk soap is not.
I think a combo of the pizza, soap water, and running around may have done him in.
He was coughing a lot after he went to bed tho, maybe it's too much phlegm?
I'll see how he is in the morning and call the doc. . .

I need to get cracking on those baby announcements if I'm going to get them done before lil' miss shows up. I feel bad that I didn't send them out with the boys, but with the current state of my family's not-getting-along-ness, I'd better send them out or else no one will even know she exists!

I wish doctors made house calls, I'm really tired of driving the 1/2 hour to Terre Haute.

I really hope lil' miss decides to stay head down. Surely it's harder to flip up than it is to flip down, right? I mean, it's harder to get up from a headstand than it is to get down into a headstand.

I wonder when we're going to have CousinD, CousinA, and CousinA2's baby showers. . . it'd be nice/fun if we could do them all at once, but they may not like that. Oh, and we need to throw CousinD2 a wedding shower as well. . . Oh boy, this spring/summer is gonna get busy!

I'm liking the name Paisley right now. Is Paisley Renee too sing-songy? I know it's trendy right now, but Paisley is a nice down-to-Earth name for a farm girl. Plus it starts with a "P". Husband likes names that start with a "P". Paul, Owen, and Paisley - that sounds nice. And I could decorate her room in Paisley and it'd be perfect!
Now I'm just getting silly. . .

I wonder how long I'll have to be in hospital. . . I hope I can get home ASAP like we did with Toddler. I really don't like staying in hospitals, the nurses always pester me right when I've just gotten to sleep or when I've got visitors. . .

SEE?!?! How's a woman supposed to sleep like this?!?

Farm Hands

2012-01-21T12:23:00.001-06:00

Tehehe

So, that's not exactly what I mean, but I thought it was cute ;}.
Farm hands are great, every farm should have some. We have to produce our own. My relatives joke that we keep having so many kids so we'll have help around the farm. Because, you know, 2 1/2 kids is SO many!
But they aren't all wrong. I always envisioned a big family (or maybe just 4. . .) with everyone helping each other and working together. I love it when I see my boys helping each other or one of us adults with things on the farm. I got the biggest kick out of watching them "help" The Husband move some logs a few weeks ago. He carried each log in the middle and had a small boy on either side doing their part. Poor Husband, it took him twice as long to move the wood than it should have, but it was just too cute and it was good for all three of them.
I'm thankful that I have a bunch of big, strong, handy men around - and they don't mind my kids tagging along. Even BIL will come pick one or both of them up if he's going some place on the four-wheeler or tractor. My boys even know how to start the four-wheeler, but luckily they're still too small to reach the gears so they can't go anywhere. The guys don't even mind working on a tractor in our "Shade-tree Mechanic's Shop" (a.k.a. my front yard) with the boys being nosy. They just put the little boys to work by having them hang on to various wrenches.

They're getting on-the-job experience from birth. Even on things as simple as helping move some hay bales.

Notice that "Piggy" had to come too.

And yes, this little girl is going to have to help too. I've come to terms that we may wind up with a "girly-girl". Something that I don't deal well with. Having grown up a tomboy myself, it would be my luck that I wind up with a girl who's obsessed with princesses and pink and sparkly things. It happens. That's fine - I'll make her all the tutu's and dress-up clothes that she wants. But she'll still be out collecting eggs, milking cows, and cleaning out goat pens in her tutu and rubber boots. ;}

Stubborn

2012-01-17T21:48:00.001-06:00

I can't imagine where she gets it from. (note the HEAVY sarcasm here) Poor kid, it doesn't matter who she takes after, she's going to be stubborn. Puberty may not end well for one of us. . .
Had an ultrasound today, Lil' Miss is still breech. Booo. On the positive side, she's about 5 lbs. 7 oz.-ish. She wiggled her little fingers at us and was practicing breathing, all good signs. She's frank breech, meaning that she's folded in half so her feet are up by her head (she's more flexible than I ever was, I took dance class from the time I was 3!). She was making faces at us as well, too cute!
Another good note is that the OB said that he'd give me 'till my due date to get her to flip. But if I go into labor and she's not flipped, I need to come into the hospital immediately for a c-section, especially if my water breaks. The danger (which I don't really see as danger, women used to deliver breech babies all the time and still do in some places, but my OB won't deliver them vaginally) is that the umbilical cord could come out before the baby since baby's head isn't acting as a cork to block the "exit hole". If (big IF) the cord comes out first, then it will get kinked/squished when baby tries to come out and this is not good. But, I'm not worried about this, because I'm going to get her to flip.
But anywho, I do have one more option if it looks like she's not going to flip. There's a midwife who does homebirths who is fairly nearby and she'll do a manual version (use her hands to move the baby from outside my belly). I hear these are really painful so this would be a last resort.

Regardless of how this goes, we're going to have a baby in a month or less!

Dunno if I mentioned this or not, but I received a Cricut Expression from my Mom for Christmas. "A who-da-what?" You ask. It's this fun machine that cuts out shapes for paper crafts like scrapbooking. But it's not just limited to cutting out shapes for your scrapbook (which I'm terrible at keeping up with BTW), it can cut through vinyl and felt making it great for home decor too. Ya know those fun wall decals with sayings like "Family" and "Peace, Love, Joy" ? Now you can make them to say whatever you want! They even have special ones that cut out objects from icing for cakes! (my cake-makin' neighbor has one, too cool!)
Anywho, in order to get these shapes, you buy cartridges that you load into the machine. They're kind of expensive, and at first I almost made mom take it back because I couldn't justify spending so much on such a luxury item. But this was Mom's reasoning: "It's like a Coach purse, it's a gift. Maybe you wouldn't buy one for yourself, but it's nice to have. Plus, now I can get you cartridges for birthdays and Christmas and stuff." Ok, I'm not really a Coach purse kind of person (tho she did give me a knockoff one once). I'd have used a metaphor like: "It's like an electric chicken waterer. Nice luxury to have - but not really a necessity." But I knew what she meant.
To prove her point, Mom got me a cartridge called "Country Life". How perfect is that?

"Country Life" images from cricut.com

This is just a sample of the images that comes with cartridge. I'm super excited! My brain is going into overload thinking of all the crafty things I can do with this. . . stuff for my soap business like signs and packaging, signs to decorate the cow/goat pens at the fair, stuff/picture frames/other decor for Lil' Miss's bedroom! Finally, I can get exactly the decor I want for her room w/o paying a ton at the baby stores. I see a felt banner w/ the letters of her name (whatever we decide that may be), I can actually get a milk cow and, GASP! MILK MAID! Images to decorate with! The only shape I wish this cartridge had was a goat shape. . . Hmm. . . I'll just have to figure out how to slim down the sheep and put horns on them to make them look like goats. . . I'm sure there'll be some posts to come to show some of my artwork ;}.

So, this winter is going by quickly so far. Especially since it's 1/2 way through January and winter finally decided to show up. It was 52* this morning and it's supposed to get down to 18* tonight. That's Indiana weather for ya! We still haven't had a hard freeze for any length of time. I wonder what effect this will have on the coming planting season. It's making a mess out of the farm and there are times when FIL can't get into the fields to spread manure because it's just too sloppy.

She's done it again. . .

2012-01-11T09:17:00.000-06:00

Last night was the first meeting for our local 4-H Goat Club. This year there's a new club leader and I contacted her wanting to know if there was any way that I could help out. She asked how much I wanted to be involved (which was a lot). She said she needed help, especially with the fair since some her other help were club moms who had their own kids that they would be chasing around, trying to get ready for the show, and then asked if I wanted to be an assistant. Sure! Why not? We live at the fairgrounds that week anyway.

Uh DFW, you're taking this on being 8 mos pregnant and soon to have a 3 kids(one being a newborn)to raise? You do know you're crazy?!
Yes, I know this. Haven't we established this?

I was never lucky enough to be in 4-H as a kid, even tho I secretly filled out a membership card to be in the Horse & Pony Club once. I figured that once I was enrolled, mom would be forced to take me to the meetings and let me participate (I may have even forged her signature). I was wrong. I was so jealous of my school friends. Despite growing up just on the outskirts of town, we actually lived in a country school district and most of my friends were farm kids. At least my brother and I could talk my mom into dropping us off at the fair during to the summer. We would even spend several days there, going home with a church friend of ours who showed pigs.
We have some neighbor kids who are also in our church family and who show our cows and goats in the fair. I've seen how much work these kids put into their animals and other projects and how mature and responsible they are for their age. These kids are going to the be role models for my own kids. Not that I force it on them, but it's inevitable for how much time we spend around them. Since The Husband and The BIL grew up in 4-H, it's one thing critter-related that I want our family involved in that I don't get "here she goes again. . ." looks for. It'll be awhile yet before our kids can join. Preschooler's only 4 and there's limited things in the Mini 4-H division for him to do.
Despite my lack of total knowledge of the ins-and-outs of 4-H goings-on, I have a pretty good idea, and after last night's meeting I realized that I knew more than I gave myself credit for. My lack of showing experience was actually one of the reasons why the new leader wanted me on board. She figured there were several new parents and kids with little to no show experience as well and they may feel more comfortable coming to someone like me. There's another mom who's helping too who does show goats on a fairly local level and is a veteran 4-H mom for those that have some more experience as well.
It should be a fun year! The new leader seems like a very fun person. She knows her stuff, but she's not know-it-all about it. I'm excited to be involved. I'm a learner and this is a great way for me to gain some knowledge and experience alongside some great kids and their parents. By the time my kids are old enough to join in the fun, we should be pro 4-Hers! ;}

It's that time again!

2012-01-05T13:48:00.000-06:00

Anyone else planning their garden already? The seed catalogs haven't even come out! Yet I'm sitting here with graph paper, ruler, and pencil in hand, daydreaming of warmer Spring days.

Tracker is helping too. (Well, more than he would be if he were awake, anyway!)

Normally my cabin fever is what sets this off, but I haven't run into cabin fever yet. The weather has been abnormally warm, despite a freezing cold snap at the beginning of the week. It feels like early Spring out, it's supposed to get up to 50* and it's January! I'm not complaining one bit because the few days that I've had of dealing with frozen water tubs and hoses is enough for me (but I'm not so naive to think that it'll be the last of it).
It could also be that my nesting instincts are kicking into gear and since there's nothing that I can do to act on them in the house, I might as well put this energy to good use elsewhere.
At the new place, we'll have about a 40'x90' well-established garden (Whoo-hoo!). We had some practice on the garden last year, but only used about 20'x40' of it. While the garden is only 1/3 of a mile down the road, it just wasn't easy for me to get over to tend to it by myself and with the boys. This year will be so nice now that it'll be in our own yard!
Another good thing about having a baby in February (I keep finding more reasons as I'm trying to make myself feel better about not having a Spring baby, again) - baby will be eating solid foods when things start coming ripe in the garden. I'm hoping to be able to make nearly all of baby's food, it'll be healthier, and cheaper ;), than buying from the store. I want to freeze a good bit too since she'll probably still be eating purees for awhile after the harvest is over.
I'm also trying to figure out (guess is more like it) what varieties to plant to make good baby food. I had to learn the hard way last time that butternut squash goes over much better than crookneck squash. I'll be planting some baby carrots this time.
I just have to remind myself (but The Husband does a good job of this anyway) not to over-do it. I have to remember that I'm going to be moving, having goat kids (and subsequently goats to milk), and small kids still running around not only during planting, but all summer when I have to tend to the garden as well.

Let's see

2012-01-04T12:23:00.000-06:00

If I can type upside down!

My view

Yup, guess I can.
You know you've become a mom when you're bent over backwards over the edge of the couch trying to get a breech baby to flip while talking to your son's preschool on the phone while trying to push an 8 week old puppy out of your face and blogging about it all at the same time.

So, bummer news. Yesterday my midwife informed me that it was her last day. I had no pre-warning of this at all. I found out later through the grapevine that she was wanting to move closer to home (in Kentucky) and had been looking for another practice. Once the OB that she works under (Dr. N) found out that she was looking elsewhere, he just told her to leave.
She seemed bummed about it, but I was flat-out panicked! Everything that we talked about in trying to get Lil' Miss to flip - was just brushed aside by Dr. N when I saw him. He just said, "Just PRAY that baby flips. Sometimes they flip at the last second. We'll do an ultrasound in 2 weeks to check on her, but if she doesn't flip then we have to do another c/s." That's exactly what I was afraid he was going to say. Ugh. He wouldn't give me any kind of advice as of what to do. He won't do a version (manually rotating the baby) because I've had a c/s before and it puts a lot of pressure on my scar. Nevermind the fact that I've already gone through the pressure of labor and delivery on that scar! Ugh.
So I'm going with what the midwife suggested. I'm trying the techniques on spinningbabies.com and I have an appointment on Friday with a chiropractor. I guess there's something called the Webster Technique that can help get my body in the right alignment to get baby to flip. I've never been to a chiro before, so we'll see how this goes. Sometimes it can take a few sessions tho so I'm prepared to give it a shot (or 12 if that's what it takes).

Now, I have a lot of faith. I know that everything I have is because of Him, and however things go is how God deemed it should be. But it's like what the grandpa from Where The Red Fern Grows says, "You gotta meet God halfway." I'm not going to just sit around on my keester, twiddling my thumbs while wishin' and hopin' instead of doing my part to meet God halfway.
Should I have to have another c/s, I'll be able to choke it down a lot easier if I can at least say that I did everything I could to get this baby to flip. If another VBAC just isn't in the cards, then it's not meant to be. But it won't be by any fault of my own.
Another c/s will definitely hinder how many more children we have from here on out. As of right now, I want more. But our lifestyle and my own personal beliefs and feelings about it doesn't allow for the recovery time that a c/s takes. During recovery, I'm not supposed to lift anything other than the baby for 6 weeks. A MONTH AND A HALF! And that's no vacuuming and even no driving. How am I supposed to be able to take care of 2 little boys, a newborn, and get my chores done when Husband isn't around? So yes, I will do everything within my power to avoid that chaos waiting to happen.

Nearing the End. . .

2011-12-30T16:06:00.000-06:00

Of 2011, that is! The Husband only has one more day of being able to say "The baby isn't comin' 'till next year!" Haha, now I don't have to hear it anymore. He's in denial of how close it is 'till the baby comes - just 7 weeks (or less, hopefully).
I did some calculating yesterday. Since I'm pretty sure we don't have any cows getting ready to calve within the next 32 hours or so, I went ahead and counted up the bulls and heifers that we had in the 2011 year since I wasn't very good at keeping up on it. We're at as close to 50/50 as you can get. 30 heifer calves were born and 31 bulls. That's not too bad at all, ideal really for us since the farm is about at max capacity as it is and we can't always keep a lot of surplus heifers as replacements and the sales of bull calves help pay the feed bills (organic feed ain't cheap!).
Also, Miss Annie (who I've mentioned Here) is due to kid on the 2nd. Even tho her kids won't be mine, I'm excited to see how they turn out. She's bred to Baerli's sire and being able to see two years worth of kids for myself will give me a good idea of what her kids in the future will look like. Her doeling from last year (out of the same buck that Annie was bred back to for this year) won Top Jr. Dry Doe at a nearby county fair. If Husband doesn't out-right say "No", I may try to buy a doeling if she has one. Annie isn't coming to stay with us until her kids are weaned, about mid-April so I wouldn't have to worry about weaning the kid anyway. . .
Stop. Stop it, Ashley - you have PLENTY of goats already!
You were thinking it too.
I did draw this up tho.

Tee-hee-hee

I couldn't help myself. . . the inspiration bug hit me. I'm so going to order one and Lil' Miss can wear it to the goat show at the fair next summer! I'm thinking a lil' denim skirt (or shorts) and some lil' cowgirl boots. . .
I need some more ag-related baby things. . . I have all these ideas rolling around in my head but nothing to show for it so far.
I'd better get to stocking up. I think nesting is settling in.

The First Day of Winter

2011-12-21T19:21:00.000-06:00

How did you spend the first of many (for us, at least) winter days? We had fun watching the kids at Preschooler's Christmas Family Fun Day at his preschool.


(In green) Refused to sing - like Father, like Son


And of course a visit with Ol' Saint Nick!

We've also been busy welcoming this little booger into our home! He was the boys' Christmas/Potty Training Reward Present (and hopefully one day Husband's hunting dog). Yup, that's a 6 week old Beagle puppy you're seeing! We named him Tracker, after Preschooler's favorite stuffed dog. The boys are doing great with him and other than having his days and nights confused, he's a good puppy.

Yes, I know - there's a baby on the way.

Are we nuts?

Yes, we have goats to prove it.

Bummer. . .

2011-12-13T19:42:00.000-06:00

Well, all didn't go as I'd hoped today. We had an ultrasound to check on Lil' Miss' heartrate and to make sure that the placenta had moved out of the way of my cervix. Both of those things checked out great! Hooray! The placenta not only moved out of the way, but it's no longer anterior either, it's posterior (meaning that it's not over the baby anymore) which is why I've been able to feel her kicks and bumps much better.

Baby is measuring right on schedule - well, a day early anyway. But she's done that at every u/s we've had so she's still right on track! The tech estimated that she weighs 3 lbs. 10 oz.

Oh, and she is still most definitely a GIRL! I asked the tech if she could get us a better shot b/c Husband doesn't believe the pic she gave us. So she showed us again. Yup, ALL girl. Husband (because he can't help himself) said, "I don't believe you guys. I'm going to laugh when there's a big surprise when the baby is born!" The tech (without skipping a beat) said, "I won't. I KNOW it's a girl b/c I won't tell anyone the sex unless I'm 100% sure." I giggled. Husband fake-argued again, and the tech went, "Look buddy, they PAY me to do this! I KNOW what I'm doing. Look at that screen and tell me you see anything there. No? That's because THERE'S NOTHING THERE!" By this point I'm giggling so hard that she had to reposition the doppler b/c I made baby move.


This is a butt shot of Lil' Miss (she'll hate me for this one day, LOL) - see where the arrow is? They're pointing to her little girly parts. To the left of that is her butt and the long parts coming away from her crotch to the right are her thighs. Dunno if you can read it, but towards the bottom it says I'M A GIRL - this is the best shot we could get.

Speaking of baby moving; despite all the good news that we got today, Lil' Miss is going to have to be doing a LOT of moving if we're going to continue to have a VBAC. She's breech. I know there's still plenty of time for her to flip - but the boys were head-down from 20 weeks on. As FIL said it, "You'd think you guys would know how to put those things in there by now!" Like Husband, he thinks he's funny. It's a little discouraging, but I'm already researching ways to get baby to flip. There's even a website for it calling spinningbabies.com, haha! One lady on my online birth board said that her friend put a bag of frozen veggies on her tummy to get her little one to flip! I know it sounds crazy, but I'm crazy enough to try anything! In the meantime, I'll just walk around in a hand-stand everyday.

I also wanted to get a good profile shot of baby's face since they're much cuter than the straight-on shot that I got of her. But, she was again not cooperating and between her arms in the way and the umbilical cord in her face, we couldn't get a profile. The tech did get me this shot tho which shows that she has Toddler's chubby cheeks! I think she's going to look more like me b/c I compared what I could pick out as her bone structure to my baby pics and there's a resemblance.
Well, let's just hope she looks more like me. I mean, I'm no beauty queen, but Husband as a girl? Poor kid.

Tilt your head to the left - if you close one eye, stand on your head and pick your nose, you can see her nose, her chubby cheeks, chin, mouth, and her left eye close.

It helps if you have a good imagination when looking at u/s photos.

Also on my online birth board, we started a little "club" called a birth bead exchange. All the moms who want to participate pick out a bead what represents something to them about the baby. You get enough for each one of the moms in the group (plus you). I picked out an amber-colored bead because Toddler was tired of being at Hobby Lobby and that's the one he snagged and took off with. By the time I caught up to him, we were already at the register, haha. I took them from him, meaning to march all the way to the back of the store again, but then I realized that they're the color of the maple syrup that we make each winter. We usually start tapping the maple trees around the middle/end of February (depending on the weather conditions). So I bought them anyway to symbolize wishes for healthy babies that soon all of us mommas will be pouring syrupy-sweetness all over! We send in our beads to a "bead momma" who sorts them all out and sends one of each of them back to each mom. I got my beads back last week and here's how they turned out!

There were only enough to go around my wrist 1 1/2 times because only 1/2 of the moms who said they'd participate actually did, sooo. . . I just used the extra beads that I'd sent in as spacers and made it big enough to wrap twice around. The brown ones are the ones I picked out. The beads are for good wishes/prayers during pregnancy and labor and to give us a focal point to use during labor (which I will definitely be using because I stared so hard at the clock during my labor with Toddler that I was starting to believe that it hated me). I have yet to get the email that another mom was supposed to put together explaining the meanings of each bead, but from what I've gathered of some of the moms; the silver one in the bottom picture has a "2" on it for February - the 2nd month of the year, and the big red heart one in the top picture is for Valentine's Day since it's in Feb. I'm (not-so-patiently) waiting for the explanations. . .
So, that's what's up with the baby.

On another, more holiday-related topic: don't try to wrap gifts in your mudroom - you'll only get hay and dirt stuck on your tape.

A Few of My Favorite Things. . .

2011-12-12T14:01:00.000-06:00

We finally got our Christmas Tree put up today. Yes, I know - kinda late. Husband is taking a few days off this week so we finally had time to get one. I'm a firm believer in live trees, but we haven't been able to get to an actual U-cut yet, so many of the ones that we went to when I was kid have closed down. So, we usually just get one from Lowe's or Wal-Mart, or wherever we can find one since we usually don't get one 'till about 2 weeks before Christmas. There's a reason for that too - the boys are still young and I can only keep them out of/off of the tree for so long. A month of it would kill me. We also got a small tree this time, it's somewhere between 5'-6' and not very wide. We don't have a large living room and the boys are getting to where they need more room to play. Which is fine with me. When we make "the big move", we'll have more room for a nice big tree.

This year was still really fun to put up the tree. The boys are old enough to "get it" and they could help put ornaments on the tree - too fun to watch! They Ooh'd and Aah'd over each ornament and despite the fact that the ornaments aren't evenly spaced or have color spaced out evenly (there's a few spots w/ a concentration of blue or silver balls), I'm leaving it the way it is - because it's the first tree that the boys have helped decorate the most.

Setting the tree up outside, looks nice on the porch - dontcha think?

Helping daddy put on the skirt

Putting on the star

I have no idea what they were doing, but Preschooler just wanted to hold hands and enjoy the moment ;}

Where does food come from?

2011-12-08T11:06:00.000-06:00

I know I've made posts about this topic before and my astonishment at how little the American public seems to know about where their food comes from. It's not just kids these days, or even my generation. Some of the questions my mom asks about knock me off my feet. And these are coming from a women who was raised in Knox County - a near-total agrarian society! My Papaw (her dad) was raised on a farm and that's where I heard all my farm stories growing up as a kid. (He'd probably tell you in his Papaw voice that he was under the impression that I was not a fan of goats after a pygmy goat jumped into a kiddie-train with us when I was 3 and I wound up screaming and climbing on top of my Mamaw's head while she held my 1 yr old brother - LOL.)
But I was on my birth board this morning (a message board for moms who are due in the same month as me) and I brought up the topic of Who didn't know where their food comes from? This is a board with nearly 10,000 members of all walks of life. I was pleasantly surprised to find that while the majority of them live in urban dwellings - including several from Los Angeles and other major cities - a good bit of them did either garden or knew how to from growing up with parents who taught them to garden. One girl even laughed that her in-laws were surprised at how much a city girl from L.A. knew about vegetables!

courtesy of City Slickers Farm

Now, while this makes me feel a little better about the future - as we were all agreeing that it was important to teach our children about where their food comes from - it also makes me feel a little. . . I dunno. . . worried?
A lot of city-slickers know more about where their food comes from - and I mean EXACTLY where it comes from because they either buy at farmer's markets or they make it a point to only buy locally-grown food - than some of the people who live down the road from us! I seriously had two little girls at Farm Day this year asked me "What's that? Is it a donkey?" - pointing to Paprika! Now, I wasn't raised on a farm, but I went to school with a lot of farm kids and even I knew all my farm animals by the time I was in kindergarten! It really bugs me that kids know what a marmoset or a water buffalo is, but they don't know what a goat is! I asked them and they said that they'd seriously never seen a goat, not even in a book. (WHERE are these children's parents???) And these are kids from around our neighborhood - they go to the school that is just a mile from my house!
It's a good thing that more education and awareness is out there for people to learn about how food is raising and harvested. Farmer's markets, the organic boom, urban farming. . . these things are bringing agriculture into the cities. But there are still a lot of people who live smack-dab in the middle of the grain belt and have no clue what crops are being grown alongside the interstate that they drive on daily. I've known several people who think we're pulling their leg when we try to explain winter wheat to them. I'm not saying that everyone should be an expert in agriculture - I'm no expert on plumbing or electricity. But considering that everyone HAS to eat - isn't it a good idea that they at least know what they're eating?

Hmmm. . .

2011-12-07T10:15:00.000-06:00

If you haven't picked up on it yet, I'm due in February. In ten weeks as of tomorrow actually.

I've had this little nagging fear (or hope, really) that we'll have a February like last year's February and that we'll be snowed or iced-in and I'll have to have this baby at home (Oh shucks! ;} ). Husband is not keen on this. I dunno why, he's delivered enough babies and he's even helped do a c-section on a cow once when he worked for a nearby Vet in high school. When I joke about having this baby at home in a snow-storm, Husband says, "Well, I dunno where you're going to be at, but I'll be at the hospital." He thinks he's funny.
So, I thought I'd look into the forecast for February to see whether my fears (hopes) are worth getting worked up over. Here's what the Farmer's Almanac says about the February Forecast:

February 2012
1st-3rd. Fair skies.
4th-7th. Stormy conditions pose no threat for Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, thanks to retractable roof at Lucas Oil Stadium.
8th-11th. Accumulating snows Kentucky, Ohio, then clearing. Fair elsewhere.
12th-15th. Flurries, especially Great Lakes.
16th-19th. Stormy conditions spread in from west.
20th-23rd. Some light snow/rain might graze Kentucky. Elsewhere, mostly fair.
24th-29th. Snow flurries, chiefly Great Lakes

I'm due the 16th (17th if you go by the ultrasounds that I've had). Yup, sure enough, there's a storm brewing for then. But my boys were born on the 3rd of the month, fair weather. Then, there's the theory of going into labor according to the phases of the moon. The 1/2 moon is on the 14th of February, my boys were both born the day before a phase of the moon - meaning if Lil' Miss follows their trend then we'll hit the 13th (also a "3" date). Flurries are nice. A nice little soft flurry of snow would be a lovely day to be born on.
So basically, we could either be in the clear, or get caught in a snowstorm. Haha - Husband is going to be a nervous wreck!

I'm also a little excited/nervous about an ultrasound that I have next Tues. This ultrasound will basically tell us whether or not I'll be allowed to try for another VBAC or not. If the placenta has moved away from my cervix, lil' miss's heartrate has stabilized, and she's not breech - we'll be in the clear. Sounds like a lot to accomplish, but I'm optimistic b/c the conditions we discovered at my last ultrasound were kind of conditional. The placenta grows and moves as the uterus does to accommodate baby so there's been plenty of time for it to move, especially considering that it was only partially covering the cervix. Lil' Miss was wound up at the last u/s and wouldn't stop moving so that could explain her wonky heart tones (plus it's normal for 20 week babies anyway since the heart is still developing at that point). And there's really no reason to think that baby is breech, but you never know - they check for that anyway.
I'm excited to see her and hopefully I can get some more pictures of her, ones that are clear enough to scan and post since the other ones are pretty fuzzy.
Wish me luck!

Time is a funny thing. . .

2011-11-28T19:56:00.000-06:00

Time can heal wounds. Time can make us see more clearly, and time can change minds and hearts.
When I first got pregnant with this little one, I was a little less-than thrilled. It wasn't that I didn't want this baby - all babies are a gift. It was just the timing that I wasn't happy about.
I didn't want another cold-weather baby. I sure as heck didn't want a winter baby!

Eskimo baby!

I swore after Preschooler was born that I would never have another fall baby. Of course, circumstances changed things and then Toddler's birthday hit just a month after Preschooler's. But February was just wrong, wrong, wrong. All wrong. Not only was it smack-dab in the middle of winter, it was smack-dab in the middle of kidding season (for many goat owners anyway). Waiting all winter on a baby was surely going to make my cabin fever even worse, and then I'd really be stuck in the house once the baby was born. How was I going to get all those cute newborn shots on the farm that I wanted? I don't think laying a naked baby on a round bale covered in snow is wise. I didn't want a baby with a purple birthstone. What if it was a boy? Not that boys particularly care about that sort of thing, but I've been wanting to get a mother's ring or necklace of some sort and having a purple stone in there would lead people to automatically think that that child was a girl. I also didn't want an Aquarius baby. They're supposed to be "unique" and always trying to prove how different they are from everyone else, which won't mesh well with Husband's personality at all. G-G rolled her eyes when I told her we were due in Feb. b/c nearly every day of February is SOMEONE'S birthday, my step-sister and Mamaw's included. Of course, these are all silly things to be peeved about. I certainly didn't act anything like my astrological sign (Aries) when I was a baby or growing up. I was quite the opposite really.
But now that I've had 7 months to get used to the idea, February isn't such a bad time to have a baby. From a farming standpoint, it's pretty good timing actually:
     *Things on the farm are pretty slow that time of year, it's not planting or harvesting season and I won't be up for either as I get closer to my due date. Plus, it'll be more likely that someone will be around to either help me out with the boys or get me to the hospital when I do go into labor. As much as I like to take care of myself, driving while in labor isn't exactly safe. . .
     *Let's be honest, how much am I really going to get out with a newborn? Between recouping from labor, a lack of sleep from all-night feedings, and trying to keep up with the boys as well, I'll be too tired to even care about stepping out the front door.
     *By the time it is planting season, baby will be big enough to be outside for a length of time, but will still sleep alot. I can either get out during naps, or take her out with me by putting her in the baby wrap or letting her lay in our baby tent (boy I'm glad I didn't sell that thing now!).
     *Paprika is due April 1st, Annie is coming mid-April (a new doe that I'm excited about, but more on that later), and Baerli is due April 21st. So I'll have a couple of months to get baby in a routine before I have to start milking again.
     *Luckily this baby is a girl - she can have a purple birthstone! ;} And I may be lucky enough to have a Valentine's Day baby. I really hope so, that would be too fun. Since my kids like to steal holidays (Preschooler was born on Labor Day) and other people's birthdays (Toddler was born on Nephew's birthday), she may as well hit Valentine's Day because it's also BIL's gf's birthday. (Fun fact - GF, her mom, and her grandma ALL have the same birthday!).
     *An Aquarius baby may just be what Husband needs. It'll teach him to be more flexible ;}.
   *We have a neighbor who is a maternity/young child photographer and has her own studio just hardly a mile down the road so I can still get really cute newborn pics inside using some farm-y props.
Of course, I don't have to emphasis how important those last few reasons are, hehe.
     *Oh! And the most important reason of all: she'll be out of the squishy wrinkly age and will have plumped out enough in time to wear all those cute little summer dresses!

February is really turning out to be a great time to have a baby on a farm! My only qualm now is that they're calling for a lot of snow this winter and I'm hoping that we aren't snowed in when it's time to get to the hospital - for the sake of Husband's nerves. Haha.

Let the Holidays Begin!

2011-11-28T18:30:00.000-06:00

How was ya'll's Thanksgiving? Ours was great! This was the first year in my entire life (seriously) that I only had one place to go. We always, ALWAYS had at least 2 places to go to on Thanksgiving since I can remember. Then when my parents got divorced and remarried things get a little hairy. Once Husband and I started dating, things really got outta whack.
But this year everyone planned their Thanksgiving all at the same time. There was no way we could be at three places at once. Since this was the first big holiday without GFIL, we knew it was going to be especially hard for Husband and his side of the family, so we decided that that would be the one we would go to. This Christmas is going to be especially crazy - with 4 places to go all in one day! - so we figured we'd take this holiday easy.
We also decided that from here on out, we're playing by the "Every-other-year" rule. All this time we felt like we had to rush around like beheaded chickens and make it to all the sides of the family because our families live fairly close to one another. But it's gotten to the point that we no longer enjoy the holidays because we're so stressed about making it to a certain place on time and the boys are cranky because their routine is all outta whack and just when they get to playing with one set of cousins we have to rip them away to go see others.
Not anymore. I know I'm going to get some backlash, but we just can't do it anymore.
I had a first on Thanksgiving too, Husband volunTOLD me to make a black-raspberry cobbler for Thanksgiving dinner (lunch in GMIL-speak) so I did. And I was pretty good at it! Usually when I try to do anything involving crust, it gets ugly. Things are thrown at Husband's head and my rolling pin takes a lot of verbal abuse. . .

I got all the crust in the pan and on top in one try!

Of course, baby had to be in the middle of everything, haha.

But it was a great day. We got up Friday morning and took the boys rabbit hunting with FIL's new 7 month old beagle puppy, Belle. She came from a family who'd bought her for their kids (who were 4 & 2) and realized that she was not a good fit for their family when the 4 year old wouldn't take care of her. Umm. . . yea. But she's here on the farm now and happy as a clam. Their loss, really - she's the sweetest thing, she knows her name and she listens very well for being so young.
No deal on Black Friday could top watching the boys chase Belle around in the woods. Even Toddler kept on her heels the entire time. Sometimes he had to be carried, but he was such a little trooper and I think he walked 1/2 a mile himself, tripping over roots and rocks the whole way. Preschooler loved it. He kept pretend whistling for her (he can't whistle so he puts his finger in his mouth and makes a high-pitched squealing noise) and was so delighted when Belle would come running to him.
The boys LOVE Belle - she's smaller than they are and even tho she still jumps on them some, she doesn't get as rough as the bigger dogs so the boys feel like they're "in control". They take turns holding her collar and walking her around and playing tug-o-war with her.

Preschooler with Belle and Bentley pouting in the back.

This is all great because we're getting them a beagle pup for Christmas (or two, if Husband has his way). I know, I know - we're nuts getting a puppy in winter with a baby on the way! But it's also Preschooler's reward for potty training. We're nearly completely potty trained and I'm so relieved and thankful that I'd buy that kid a whole litter of puppies if it weren't for the fact that that would defeat the purpose of having potty trained critters in the house. . .
The boys also chopped some wood. Well, they cheated this time and used the hydraulic splitter, but this was pretty knotty wood so it was almost necessary. After watching Husband and BIL a few times, Preschooler decided that he knew what he was doing. He jumped in and took over the lever before the big guys could barely get another log in place and he was great at it!

Toddler decided that he wanted to try too:

The boys got a little tired after awhile so he cut them some seats, hehe:

It was a great day and we finished it up with Thanksgiving with my mom and step-dad. It wasn't the traditional turkey 'n' ham meal, but after 2 days of turkey (Husband decided that the day before Thanksgiving was a good time to grill wild turkey), we were good with deer steaks.

Prayers needed. . .

2011-11-18T09:10:00.002-06:00

I'm not one to air others' business, but I'm feeling very vulnerable as I sit here wanting to do SOMETHING, but can do nothing but pray. A dear good friend of mine, one of my church family, is in need of prayers for herself and her family. She's due just 10 days before me, but last night after our church's Thanksgiving Dinner she went into labor. All I've heard so far is that they took her baby boy via c-section this morning. I don't know any more about how baby or mother is doing, but prayers would be appreciated. I'm caught between being scared for my friend and feeling grateful that our little one is healthy and safe.

*** UPDATE *** I finally received word that little man and momma are doing fine! He's only 2 lbs. 10 oz and 14.5" long, but he's strong! God has truly blessed their family and I've never been so happy for someone else in my life!

I think I have a problem. . .

2011-11-16T13:39:00.000-06:00

Somebody help me, I can't stop!

Duck and Cover!

2011-11-15T11:45:00.001-06:00

The DFW's gone mad!
I really think I have gone mad. I mean, I'm always itching to do something crafty anymore, but I may have jumped off the deep end. I've been a layette-making fool lately.
This right here: This was just too easy. (I'll be posting a How-To on my Secrets page soon.)

Baby tutu. I wanted something purple to match Lil' Miss's birthstone but threw the brown in there b/c I'm not really a fan of purple.

I also made these to match the little Kimono top I made earlier.

Knit pants

Then I was at JoAnn's on Saturday for their Veteran's Day sale. They had Simplicity patterns on sale for 5 for $5!!! I saved like $75 in patterns alone! I picked up a couple of vintage patterns and this was one of them. I had a bunch of sheets of felt and old embroidery thread lying around so they were free to make. They're hand-stitched felt booties and after these I decided that I'm not cut out for embroidery. I'm going to try to figure out a way to machine-sew a pair using a different material.

Booties.

And then I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday. I really need to stay away from there. Actually I just need to stay away from craft aisles in general. Despite my allergic reaction to pink - I spotted the jersey knit fabric in the scrap bin and it was 1/2 off so I snagged it. Then I found the elastic crocheted ribbon and the hair bows. . .

Uh-Oh. . .

And this is what came of it! There was much swearing in French and arguing with the sewing machine last night (It's my fault, I abuse her.), but this is the finished product. There's a few things left to do on it - like the snaps. I couldn't find green snaps so I thought I'd paint them! Wrong. The paint smudged off when I hammered them on. So I think I'm going to find some tiny green bows and glue them on over the snaps.

Long sleeve onesie and matching headband.

Ok, enough of the pink.
While I was at HL, I also picked up a couple of 99 cent bandanas and this is what became of them:

Pillowcase dress from bandanas!

Not too bad for a $2.00 dress! It was so easy too! I whipped this out in an hour this morning before Preschooler even got on the bus! I had the ribbon already, but I'm still deciding whether I like that big of bows or not. I may switch it out for smaller ribbon once baby gets here - I think they may just irritate her. I have some other things that I'd like to change, but I was going off of some loose directions and I know I can make one in fewer steps. This is much more my style - handmade, simple, country.

** Ok, I totally just realized that I didn't post the kimono shirt that I made! (my pg brain is fuzzy enough as it is and I'm suffering a terrible cold on top of it - I posted it on FB) Not gonna lie, it might be the cutest thing I've ever knit!

I should be so dissappointed in myself, but I'm too excited to care!

2011-11-07T09:52:00.000-06:00

IT'S A GIRL!!!

We peeked. I couldn't help it. When we went for the big 20 week u/s, the tech practically told us what we were having. Actually, she blatantly showed us several times even tho she didn't have to - after doing this twice already I knew what to look for and could tell right off the bat what this little baby was.
So we had to come up with a girl's name because I knew our chances of this one being a girl were pretty good - but this is no easy matter between Husband and I. The Name Game gets dirty, down-right ugly even. So - he said that if we're going to go through all of this trouble, we might as well confirm that we were indeed having a girl to save us a lot of heartache.
So I caved, boo. But I'm not even that disappointed in myself - not like I was with the boys anyway. I'm just too excited!
I can pull all the girl clothes out from behind the door on Husband's side of the closet that I've been squirreling away. Hehe.
Despite this weekend being crazy with the first day of the Winter Market (which went well, btw), one of my best friends from high school's wedding, and a banquet to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Tippecanoe (which was mandatory for Husband per Uncle Sam's orders) all on Saturday, we managed to get some shopping in up in Lafayette/ West Lafayette.
Of course, since Husband and BIL are Purdue Alums we had to get one of these:

(the tutu part)

And we're going to need these too:

And I bet I could make some of these:

(cloth diaper - too cute!)

Husband is in denial. He's also entertaining the idea of suing the military - LOL. There's this report going around (really, it's an Old Wive's Tale because similar things have come up after every war) saying that some chemical or radiation or whatever that the guys are exposed to from the equipment that's used to defuse bombs while over in Afghanistan mess with their "boys" and cause them all to have girls after returning home. HAHAHA! I dunno if it's supposed to be true for women soldiers too, but I think it's funny. Oh well - so long as baby is healthy, I'll take it!
NOW - the hard part. Coming up with a name! Husband and I have different tastes when it comes to names. While we both like old names - he wants archaeic names! (Ewald anyone? bleck!) He's still insisting on naming her Stanley. . . what am I going to do with him?
I'd like something classic, something timeless. Something that we can use Ellie or Ella for a nickname (am I asking too much?). We've already gone through Elliotte, Elaina, and we're debating Eleanore. It's my Mamaw's middle name, and Husband is kind of stuck on it. The problem is that it reminds us too much of an older Eleanore Roosevelt. While she was a great lady, that's not exactly the imagery I want conjured when people think of my baby.
The name also has to go with Renee. My Papaw always wanted a Renee and he called me Ashley Renee my entire life (even tho my middle name is Nicole!). So Papaw is going to get his Renee one way or another. Again, I just don't like it enough for a first name.

Other names we've considered:
Jocelyn (Josie) - taken
Cora (family name) - taken
Adele - taken
Charlotte - taken
Illa (my Mamaw's mother's name) - Husband doesn't like
Naomi (my Papaw's mother's name) - I don't like the way it sounds
Well, we still have just over 3 more months. I'm just used to having a set name by now!

You might be a Farm Mom if. . .

2011-11-03T11:21:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was kind of a crazy day. It wasn't the norm, but it wasn't out of the norm either.
Husband stayed home from work so help me out because I had to a glucose screening (where they draw your blood, make you drink this glucose mix stuff that isn't super-tasty, make you wait an hour, and then draw your blood again). I had to leave by 8 to get to the dr's office by 9 - meanwhile Preschooler gets on the bus at 10:30 so there was no way that I'd be able to make it back by then, plus taking toddler with me to appointments is a pain for both of us b/c he gets bored easily. Anywho -I was STARVING because you're not allowed to eat anything before the screening so I hadn't had anything to eat since dinner the night before. So I went and did all that and had my regular prenatal check-up. Baby was extra wiggly and the midwife said between all the timings that she could get before the baby would move again - the heartrate was between the 120's and the 140's. 140's is normal for my babies so we took that as good.
Then had to stop at Rural King on the way home to get chicken and goat feed.
Get a phone call from the bus depot - they're running 10 mins. late. Call Husband to let him know the bus is going to be 10 mins. late.
Pull into the driveway at home - the tree that stands 10 feet from my front porch is laying across the driveway. Husband and Toddler are standing there with a chainsaw and big goofy grins on their faces. The tree was pretty well dead anyway and we'd been meaning to cut it down, but I was nervous about doing so b/c it was in close proximity to the house, the red barn where our satellite dish receiver is mounted, and the green barn. Husband managed to not hit any of them.
Help hold gates so Husband and FIL can put in some round bales for the cows and load up the manure wagon to make a delivery to a neighbor (for which neighbor traded FIL more sweet potatoes).
Then it was time to load up Miss Paprika to take a trip across town to see her new boyfriend. As I'm walking out the door, I get a call from Preschooler's school. Preschooler tripped going up the stairs to the slide (yea, he's gotta be my kid) and got a nasty goose-egg on his head and they want me to come in a see him ASAP. Great.
Load up Paprika in the back of the Envoy. Husband is driving and I'm in the back holding on to her so she doesn't jump into the back seat with Toddler. Get to school - Husband goes to check out Preschooler, comes back out with Preschooler - they want him sent home b/c of liability reasons. Oh, right! I'm gonna sue over a little bump on the head. The kid has worse accidents in our living room. Whatever.
Drive Paprika out to the buck - she doesn't want to go into their barn, but suddenly changes her mind when she catches a whiff of the three stud-muffins on the other side of the fence. (I got a message today from the lady saying that she's pretty sure Paprika will be bred today after all the commotion that went on last night, haha).
Drive home, get a quick nap before my mom picks the boys up to go to the Bouncy Barn over in Terre Haute. (It's this big warehouse filled with a bunch of bounce-houses and my mom takes my boys and my nephew about once a week to go blow off some steam - it's GREAT!)

Whew!
While modern conveniences have made the modern farmwife's life much easier - we sure do know how to find ways to make it more hectic! I'm learning that there is this very funny balance of town life and farm life. I used to hear stories from some old-timers about how getting to go to town was a real treat. And the lady who issued us a building permit for our house told me that I was going to be doing "real" grocery shopping now - where you stock up on everything you need for the week instead of running into town every time you forget something. But this isn't really the case in my modern farmlife. "Town" is spreading out to us, our neighborhood is getting more and more crowded by the year - with a house going up across the street, and two more going up just a mile down the road as well. I'm glad that our kids have opportunities to experience things and make memories at places like the Bouncy Barn and The Children's Museum, and they go to the store enough to know how to behave (fairly well) in one.
I feel like we live three different lives: The Farm Life - where everything is slower, we're fairly secluded yet surrounded by family and friends that we love dearly. Where the jobs involve dirt and animals instead of computers and cubicles. The "Normal" Town Life - where preschool and grocery shopping are intermixed with trips to the bank (where MIL is the assistant manager) and we full-fill our social obligations. Then there's the Army Life - the constant interruptions to our everyday routine that happen often enough that they are part of the routine, the periods of missing Husband mixed in with the periods of being around each other constantly. I'm not exactly sure how my brain compartmentalizes all of it. Each life is separate and yet overlaps the others. Then there's the constants no matter where you go - laundry, dishes, and naptimes waiting at home.

FINALLY!

2011-10-26T18:58:00.000-05:00

I finally caved and bought a camera today. It's a Nikon Coolpix L120. I really needed to get one before this weekend so I could practice a little and get decent shots of the boys in their Halloween costumes (they're pirates this year, big surprise there. . .). I think I was trying to hold out for a "good deal" on something that I really didn't need. I'm not advanced enough to need anything past a point and shoot right now, but I wanted something a little better than my last camera. I loved my last camera, but this one's pictures are even more clear and once I get to playing around with it some more, I'm sure I'll be taking all kinds of pics. I'm just so excited that I can actually see what I'm trying to photograph!
By the time I got home from running errands, it was cloudy out so I haven't gotten to see it what it does with sunlight, but that's ok - I wanted to see how well it does in different kinds of light, especially in the calf barn b/c that's where about 70% of my pictures are taken! Haha.
So here's a little phototour of what I've managed to get so far today. I figure I need to get Husband familiar with the new camera too since he'll be the one taking pictures when Baby Wegner comes!

Our metal cow

Jax stalking something. . . I took this from about 75 ft. away

Has a B&W option.


Zoom in on Simba's butt. Took this from across the living room - abt 8 ft away.

Goodbye Moonpie. . .

2011-10-25T17:29:00.000-05:00

I hated to do it. I really did. But this is a part of farming. REAL farming, not just "breed everything, keep everything" farming. Sometimes you just have to let go. I sold Miss Moonpie today. I made sure that she was going to a good home this time tho (unlike what happened to Miss Belle and Coco). The girl that came and got her shows Oberhaslis and I was up front about Moonpie's less-than-stellar performance in the milk pail. The girl has some other goats from Moonpie's bloodline and was still very excited about getting her.
I've made it a personal rule to always be honest and upfront about my animals. From what I could tell, Moonpie isn't a milker - she didn't even have enough milk to feed her own babies last year. Even in the small-scale farming world, that's not going to cut it.
While I will do whatever needs to be done to keep my animals happy and healthy - bottle feeding is not something that I wish to do on a yearly basis. Bottle feeding goats is a whole 'nother ballgame as compared to bottle feeding calves. It's time-consuming and while I don't mind it, I have to be honest with myself about what I'm going to physically be able to do once Baby #3 comes along. Feeding a newborn and bottle feeding baby kids every 2-4 hours isn't going to work. There's no way I could take care of the rest of my family and obligations as well.
That's another lesson that I've had to learn - I'm not invincible, I have to know my limitations. This is key to being a farm wife. Don't get so gung-ho that you overdo it or else your animals will suffer, your family will suffer, and you'll get burnt out quickly. I had all these plans for the upcoming year: breed all my does and have 6-8 kids next year, get new chicks to raise, expand the garden some more. . . It can't all happen with a newborn and two other rugrats running around.
So, new plan:
Breed Paprika and Baerli, just be content to keep Kit Kat as a pet for the boys.
This is who I have picked out for the Alpines:

"Jason" for Paprika - gee, wonder what color their babies will be?

This is the lil' guy I have planned for Baerli - old pic, but he's the same age as Baerli. Again, I wonder what color their babies will be???

And then, the other reason for selling Miss Moonpie:

"Annie" - darker doe on the right.

Miss Annie will be coming to live with us in the Spring. She will be fresh in January - bred back to Miss Baerli's sire.

"Daytona", Baerli's sire and the buck that Annie is bred to. I'm seeing a pattern here . . .

Also: adding some more to the garden. Hopefully the weather will cooperate in the Spring and we'll be able to plant early enough that we get some peppers, potatoes, and onions in. We only used about 1/4 of the garden this year so there'll be plenty of room to add some pumpkins and extra rows of corn ;}. I'm also hoping that we don't flub up our peas next time either.

May/May not happen: chicks. I've found a site - mypetchicken.com. Where you don't have to order the required 25 chicks like at the other big hatcheries. I'm going to order less chicks, but make them all female so I should be able to keep my costs about the same as if I'd ordered 25 straight run chicks. I want to get more Cuckoo Marans and Ameracaunas - I just LOVE those colored eggs and I'd like to get some blue ones in this time.

That's my tentative plan. Of course those of you who read my blog regularly know that things rarely go according to my plans. It's going to pretty much be "sit and wait", especially with this baby coming. It's a good thing I'm pretty good at rolling with the punches!

I will hopefully be getting Annie about mid-April which falls into my plans of having kids due in April so that I have a few months with baby before having to start milking.
If you're seeing a pattern here with the doe/buck pairings - I swear I didn't plan it that way! LOL. I'm very excited to see how these kids turn out. I may/may not also be purchasing any doelings that Miss Annie has, we'll see when that time comes. The boyfriend that I have picked out for Paprika - she's been bred to his sire, "Jake" with awesome results. Mr. Jake throws big babies - the last litter of twins that Paprika had of his were near 8 pounders so we'll see what Mr Jason does. Baerli's half-sister that was out of Annie and Dakota last year (born just days after Baerli) won Champion Dry Doe at the Putnam Co. fair so should Annie throw any doelings this year, I'll be sorely tempted to get one and see what this year's fair holds for us.
Just thinking about all of this is making my head hurt. . . I need to draw all this out on paper.

Barn Chic?

2011-10-24T15:13:00.001-05:00

Ok, I dunno who comes up with this stuff.

I found this on Pinterest.com today and it was a labeled "Chic Barn Style". I don't think one can use "chic" and "barn" in the same sentence. I'm pretty sure it's an oxymoron.
While it's a cute idea and makes a barn seem more 'comfortable' to a non-farming person, it's just not. . . right.
In my book anyway.
For one - white doesn't belong in a barn. Barns are supposed to be messy. They're supposed to be cluttered and dirty and smell like hay and earth and living things. Barns are not for high-maintenance people.
But, I will say that I have been in/worked in plenty of barns like this one. I will note that they were all horse stables too. Horse people are funny. I used to be one of them. Horse people are high maintenance people. Even if they aren't worried about themselves so much - they're definitely worried about their horses. I've worked in stables where the floor is so clean you can eat off of it. You can actually be in the barn for hours and not get dirty! One stable I worked at had an air conditioned/heated viewing area for the indoor arena that included a full kitchen, leather furniture, and a TV with DVD player. The bathrooms had showers in them and they were also heated/air-conditioned. I mean seriously if you walked into the front door you thought you'd just entered someone's mansion - complete with chandelier in the entryway.
Now, what other people do with their barns is their own business, but I hope that this is not what people are expecting when they come visit our farm - else they're going to be severely disappointed.
I find it amusing that "country" is now "chic". I giggle at farms that look like Martha Stewart took over. I think these places should have their own term. They're not all Hobby Farms - many are full-fledged businesses (tho I don't see how anything gets done when there's so much fuss being made over "looks"). But I just feel that non-agriculture-related people should have a warning as to whether they're going to a working farm where they're likely to get muck on their shoes - or if they could seriously consider wearing white pants save for the dilemma they may run into if they spill wine on them.
Sometimes I think that I should put some effort into "cleaning up" the barnyard. I know I've heard MIL say things like "Even I'd have chickens if I could have a cute chalet like that one!" before. But I love the way our farm looks. Even the old corn crib that sits in front of our house who's red paint is nearly gone and who's doors nearly cause a hernia to open and close. I even love the faded mint green barn that houses my chickens and acts as the workshop whenever the weather doesn't permit our shade-tree mechanic's shop to be open.
We don't have a gorgeous sprawling lawn. Despite Husband's efforts to grow "lawn grass", I'm pretty sure if we let it go it'd go straight back to pasture within a year or two. There's no real fancy landscaping, just an old water trough around our farm's sign that MIL plants petunias in in the Spring, and mums in Fall.
No, our farm may not be chic. You're very likely to get muck on your shoes, and I definitely wouldn't wear white pants (or any other color pants than denim or Carhart really).
But it's our farm. It's the most beautiful place on Earth, and to be honest - the only chic I'd even wanna see around here better be fluffy, eat scratch grains, and peep!

Hi, I'm Here

2011-10-18T11:59:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't been on much. Things are slowing down a bit for us so I actually have some time to write, but I feel like there's nothing worth writing about without sounding like a broken record.
Our Farmer's Market is starting a Winter Market this year. I was on the fence about doing it since I would really like to start sleeping in on Saturdays (haha, yea right!) and having the whole day to spend together as a family when Husband is home (of which he is currently not, being in Kansas >Sigh<).
But, they've got it set up so I really have no excuse. For one, it's going to be held on the first Saturday of the month only, it's going to be free for this year since it's kind of our experimental year, and it's indoors so I'm not dealing with the weather. How could I really say no to that? Since there's no rent, I could do it as long as I feel up to it and then quit in February until the regular season starts back up again in May. Until then I'll be too busy with the baby, moving, and kidding season (and possibly baby chicks? Husband says No, but I have all winter to work on him ;} ).
Also for this winter I've been stockpiling ideas for crafting. They say we're to have a wet winter, but with fairly normal temperatures. Sounds mild enough, but in Indiana (or our part anyway) that means a lot of just crappy weather. I don't mind winter nearly as much when it's snowy, but wet winters chill you to the bone and just make a mess of everything. So, another winter cooped up inside.
I figure I'll start stocking up on headwarmers and fingerless gloves that seem to be hot right now. I should have been working on those already, but I had other things on the brain and couldn't get motivated. I'm going to concentrate on more "gifty" items since we're getting into "gifty" season as the holidays approach. I'm also working on putting together some soap gift baskets.

(images not mine, just for example purposes - found on google images)

I'm also adding this to the list:

I know, I know. I'm nuts. I see massive frustration in my future. It's not that I don't know how to do cables, or that they're all that difficult for me. In fact, it's the opposite. I get to where I'm comfortable with a pattern and then I start losing track of rows/stitches counted and then my pattern winds up not being even. Then there's a lot of unraveling involved and starting over. . . and that's when the frustration turns into determination and I get to the point where I just hurry up and finish the thing just to get it done so while it looks ok, there's little mistakes and oversights here and there. But I like to have a big project to work on when I need a break from the monotony of all the little projects like washcloths.
Soon, I'll hopefully have a new camera to play around with. I was planning on hitting the Black Friday (or Cyber Monday these days) sales to snag a good deal, but I don't think that I can wait that long because I want to be able to take nice pictures during the holidays. So, I'm scouring the 'net and trying to find the best deal that I can live with. Wish me luck!

Nesting??

2011-10-11T13:52:00.002-05:00

Whew. I dunno what is the matter with me! It's like I'm having premature nesting (I hope this means the baby isn't coming super-early or anything!).
Yesterday Husband and I cleaned the carpets - which meant that first I had to get down on my hands and knees and scrub out all the sticky, crusty stains that the boys left under their beds and various other hiding places (brown banana anyone?) - THEN vacuum the tar out of the carpet to get anything else up - we have cheap, cruddy carpet. Then Husband worked the carpet cleaner because it's down-right heavy and I was already wore out. So we were feeling pretty good about ourselves for that accomplishment. But over the past few weeks (since I found out I was pg actually) I've been going a little batty about the condition of the house. I'll get the sudden urge to clean all the baseboards (I can tell you THAT'S never been an urge of mine before!) or wash the walls. It's been just recently since the weather finally dipped below 85* that I've finally had the energy to do anything about it.
Since I was having such an urge yesterday, I went a little bonkers and swapped the kids' rooms. The plan is that the boys are going to be getting bunkbeds for Christmas and will be sharing what is now just Preschooler's room. Toddler's room will revert back to the nursery until the "Big Move" to G-G's house in the spring. Since we store all of our clothing totes in the attic of MIL's garage - I usually get out all off the clothes that I think we'll need 'till Spring so that I don't have to try to haul the totes back down half-way through winter when it's icy (and I'll be 7-8 mos pg this time). All the clothes were sorted through, all the too small/out of season clothes were packed back away, the baby clothes that I thought we could re-use were brought out, and all of Toddler's clothes were moved to the closet/dressed in Preschooler's room so that the baby clothes could be put in Toddler's closet/dresser.
WHEW! I have no idea where the energy came from. It's like my nesting instinct has kicked in - but it's still waaaay too early for that. I'm thinking that maybe since the boys were fall babies that my mind automatically relates fall with the nesting urge?
Once I got all of that done, I started taking inventory of what we had/ what we still needed for baby. Unfortunately since the boys were born in the fall, a good part of their old clothes are out of season. So whether this baby is another boy or not - I'm going to have to do some shopping.
Then after all that and dinner - I decided that I needed to go through the boys' toys. Big mistake. I pulled out all the baby toys so that I could save those before the boys destroyed them. Then I tried to get out all the toys that were too old for them. We've gotten a lot of toys that aren't really appropriate for their age right now - but I couldn't just hide them away for later because when someone gives you a gift - they want to see it opened and played with right then. So then the pieces get scattered before you even have a chance to realize that this is not a 2-4 yr old toy. I managed to find most of the pieces of the Hot Wheels tracks and games for ages 6+ while the boys were preoccupied with The Lion King and packed them away. But it wasn't pretty. There was a lot of throwing objects and Husband opted to hide in the living room - occasionally stopping in to take candid shots. He thinks he's funny.

Yes, that's me in the toy box trying to put together the 6 different Mr. Potato Heads that we have. . . I gave up trying to stand on the outside because it was too much bending over, haha.

Oh! BTW! I forgot to mention that Hubby shot his first turkey! With a BOW! He called me on my cell on Saturday night while I was in Wal-Mart with the boys. I got some super jealous looks from some guys that were passing by when I squealed "Boys! Daddy got a turkey!" Haha. Apparently Wal-Mart on a Sat. night with their screaming kids during hunting season is NOT where they wanted to be. I'm super-excited for him and I'm waiting on the weather to cool off a little more so I can make turkey 'n' noodles!

A Few Days Late

2011-10-05T08:42:00.001-05:00

I'm a bad mom.
Monday was Toddler's 2nd Birthday AND my nephew Jude's 3rd Birthday, AND our 20 week ultrasound for baby. And I didn't get anything written for any of it. It's been a crazy week and it's only 1/2 over.
Toddler didn't get that it was his turn to be the birthday boy. He kept telling me it was Preschooler's birthday (so did Preschooler). I kept having to remind him that he's 2 now - he tells me he's 4 like Preschooler. Whatever.

Toddler with his jungle animals present - I actually got him to say 'cheese'!

He was excited all day because he got to spend all day with just Mommy and Daddy since Preschooler was at preschool, which is rare for him. He even got to go with us to the ultrasound appointment. I don't think he really knew what he was seeing on the screen, but everytime we told him that we were seeing his baby, he clapped and yelled, "Yay!", which made the ultrasound tech laugh.

Baby was awefully wiggly! He/she was kicking and punching and wiggling. Everything is developing right on schedule, but the tech did find a few things to keep an eye on. For one, the placenta is slightly anterior - which means that it's above the baby instead of under like normal and this explains why I haven't felt baby's kicks and punches as hard as I did with the boys. This isn't a big deal, but it is also low and partially covering the cervix. This is not good. I won't be allowed to have a VBAC if it continues to cover the cervix. BUT it can move. The midwife explained it to Husband like this: You ever write on a balloon, and then blow it up? The letters move and stretch when the balloon is inflated. At my uterus expands with the growing baby, it can pull the placenta out of the way. Hopefully this is what happens. I really don't want to have another c-section if I can at all avoid it. The other thing to keep an eye on was that baby's heartrate was a little irregular. I noticed that whenever the tech tried to get a recording of it, it started out with really slow, uneven beats, then it became faster and more regular. This is still kind of normal at this stage in gestation. But, if baby doesn't have a strong, regular heartbeat - it can be an indicator that something is wrong. So, we're going to have another ultrasound at 32 weeks to check on the placenta and heartrate. By 32 weeks, the placenta will have moved if it's going to and the heartrate should be more stable. If the heartrate is still shaky - I still won't be able to VBAC because baby's heart won't be able to withstand the stress of labor.
A little disappointing, but I'm not stressing too much over it because A LOT can change in the next 12 weeks.
SO, I know you're wondering. . . we stuck to our guns and didn't find out the sex. Husband wouldn't let me. I gave him several chances to let the curiosity sink in, but he wouldn't cave. The ultrasound tech wasn't helping tho! She got kind of pouty when we told her that we didn't want to find out - she said it was the best part of her job! I could see that. She tried and tried to get me to cave. When it was time to "find out" (this is a complete anatomy scan so they do check out the girl/boy parts and put it in your file even if you don't want to find out) she told us to look away. Let me tell you that wasn't easy! There was a screen 2 ft. in front of my face so I had to stare (VERY intently!) at the ceiling.
And of course she had to keep making comments like:
"So, you have two boys already huh? Hmm. . ."
and
" Are you picking up what I'm trying to show you?? You know what you're looking at, right?"
Of course I knew what I was looking at. After having 2 boys, I know what to look for. But I've never really seen a girl ultrasound in person so I don't have anything to compare to. I think I know what I saw, but baby's hand was down there a lot too so I don't know if I was seeing hand, boy parts, the tell-tale "three lines" that you're supposed to see for a girl, or fingers. The fact that baby had hand down there makes me think it's a boy, haha.
In the beginning we had some good profile shots of baby's face. These are my favorite shots because you can see the shape of baby's nose and mouth. Compared to what the boys looked like - it has more of Preschooler's nose, but Toddler's mouth. Which makes me think that they'll have Toddler's chubby cheeks too. I hope so anyway because they're so darn cute.

Preschooler at 1 month. Yup, looks like a lil' old man.

Toddler at about 3 mos. in the moo-cow bunting sack!

This is going to sound funny, but I think if it's a girl, I'd like her to look more like Toddler - he has these gorgeous long eyelashes and big round eyes and I think he'd make a cuter girl than Preschooler would. Maybe it's because Toddler looks more like I did when I was little. Preschooler looked like an angry old man when he was little - he obviously takes after his dad, haha.
Either way, the poor kid probably won't have any hair for awhile. My babies are born with hair - it's light and fairly long - but it falls out and takes FOREVER to grow back in. Husband says if this one isn't born with red hair, he wants a paternity test. All the women Wegners born into the family have red hair, or at least have a red tint to it. I hate to tell him, but there isn't a single red hair on either side of my family. Not as far back as anyone can remember. I think we're the only Americans of European descent that don't have a drop of Irish blood in them.
The u/s tech did sense that I was going to cave so she took a pic of the baby's goods and sealed it in an envelope and wrote on it, "DO NOT open until POST-Partum!!!." Haha. She told me she'd put it in my file in case I wanted it for later. I may ask for it after the baby is born to put in baby's book since we have the "It's a boy" pics of Preschooler and Toddler. That's only fair, right?
Another fun thing I did this week was mail off my Birthing Beads.
Que?
Let me explain. I belong to a birth board - a message board online for women who are due in the same month. It's like an online support group. One of the expectant moms saw this idea and thought it would be fun for us to do. You pick out a bead, any kind of bead you want really, and you buy however many of them that there are moms in your group. Since there's like 1,000+ women in this group, and out of that at least 100 wanted to participate, we broke off into groups based on the week we're due. So I went and got 22 beads. You send your beads and a message into a "Bead Mom" who takes 1 bead from each mom, packages them up, and sends them back out to each mom. So, you send in 22 beads of one kind, and you get back 22 different kinds of beads ('cept I forgot to keep one bead for myself). Then you make a bracelet or necklace or chain out of them. You also get a copy of the message each mom sent in explaining the meaning behind their bead or a prayer or whatever message they want to send. It's supposed to be something to bring you courage during labor and something to focus on. (Trust me when I say that after hours of being in labor, you start to think that the clock you've been staring at hates you.) It's a good feeling to know that there's other moms going through what you are (probably at the same time!) all over the country that are thinking of you. It also makes a cute gift for the newborn baby.

These were the beads that I chose. Since baby is due in Feb. and the birthstone is amethyst, I figured everyone would get lots of purple beads. So I tried to choose something more Earthy, something that would tie in the farm and the births that we're surrounded by all year. I picked these because Toddler grabbed them and ran for the door and by the time I caught up to him we were near the registers anyway. Haha. But then when I took them from him, I realized that they reminded of the Maple Syrup that we make every winter. We start tapping the trees in February (which I may miss this year). So I sent a message praying for sweet healthy babies to pour our sugar-lovin' all over!
Since the deadline to send in the beads was the end of October, I probably won't get the other beads back 'till sometime in November. I'm excited to see what everyone sent and the meaning behind each bead!

Half-Way There!

2011-09-29T10:09:00.000-05:00

I'm 20 weeks (5 mos.) today! Whoo-hoo! We're half-way there lil' one! And my Miss Clementine had a bull calf just a minute ago! I hope that isn't a sign. She always has bull calves tho so I won't read too much into it. (then again. . . so do I so far!)

20 weeks

Of course now that we're half-way through this. . . I'm having second thoughts. . .
Not about the baby! We're having our big 20 week ultrasound on Monday. This is when they measure the baby, check out all the vital organs . . . just make sure that everything is developing as it should and that there aren't any obvious problems. I love watching this u/s because baby is usually wiggly and big enough that you see things clearly. My kids usually suck their thumb or play with their fingers and toes. This is also usually when most parents find out the sex of the baby.
But I don't want to find out. At least, I didn't up until now.
The problem is that there are sooo many cute little girl Fall clothes out there right now. Since baby will be born in Feb when it'll still be cool for awhile, I could totally still use those cuddly sweaters for the first few months at least. And the boots! They have the CUTEST baby boots out! Cowgirl boots, snow boots, moccassin-like boots, rain boots! Why can't they make those in my size?
I have to fight the urge. I was so incredibly disappointed in myself the very second I found out what the boys were. I'm going to stick to my guns if for no other reason than to say that I can do it.
But the boots. . . I'm a sucker for boots. . .
My other second thoughts are about the names we had picked out.
For a girl we had Elaina Renee. Elaina so we could call her Ellie. My Papaw always called me Ashley Renee (that's not my middle name) because he wanted a Renee. So Papaw is getting his Renee one way or another. But meaning is important to me for my kids' names. I hated Paul. It's an old man's name! But it's a long-standing family name and Husband had it picked before I was even in the picture so I couldn't argue that. Owen means 'well born' and he was my VBAC baby. But Elaina is from the Greek Goddess Helena. Do I really want to give my kid a diva complex? I don't deal well with high-maintenance women. Our chances of having a girl are dwindling and if we do get a girl we'll probably only get one so I want to get this one right!
For a boy we had Nolan Sawyer. Nolan was a compromise - Husband wanted to name him after Stan "The Man" (the baseball player), but there's no way I'm naming my kid Stanley. My friend's golden retriever is named Stanley and I'll forever associate Stanley with dogs. I'm the same way with Bailey. So Husband got Nolan (after Nolan Ryan, another baseball player) if I got Sawyer. My issue is that I'm wondering if Nolan and Owen are too tongue-twisty. I'm sure people will call them by the wrong name all the time - like twins that have names that are too close together. I know twins Haylee and a Kaylee and I don't even think the poor girls know which one is which anymore.

I think maybe the pressure is getting to me. Since the name game is treacherous for Husband and I - we have totally different tastes in names - I won't push the Nolan issue. I've been saying "These are our boys: Paul, Owen, and Nolan," in my head and out-loud and I haven't screwed it up yet. But Elaina may still be up for debate.

Cravings. . .

2011-09-25T14:38:00.000-05:00

I need to get off Pinterest. No, really. Browsing photo after photo of amazing looking food is not good for my cravings. I normally have a major sweet-tooth. Like, beyond chocolate. Chocolate isn't enough - I need the hard-core kid candy like the kind you get at Halloween. I pretty much single-handedly ate all the of Now & Laters out of the candy bag from the birthday party. I couldn't stop myself!
But now it's not just sweets. It's pretty much all of my normal bad-for-you-but-oh-so-good cravings on steroids. Well, not all of them are bad.
Pinterest isn't helping. While browsing through pictures, I just went from craving these cinnamon-roll-like desserts called Resurrection Rolls from Eat at Allie's Blog: http://www.eatatallies.com/2011/04/resurrection-rolls.html. They're marshmallows, dipped in butter and cinnamon & sugar, and then wrapped in crescent rolls. Can you say Divine?!
To my stomach nearly DEMANDING Lemon Garlic Herb Shrimp from here: http://www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com/2011/04/roasted-lemon-garlic-herb-shrimp.html. I love seafood and Italian - it doesn't always like me back tho. I do like it cooked however - cold shrimp in cocktail sauce doesn't do it for me and you won't catch me anywhere near sushi. Luckily you don't find those things too often on a farm.
Speaking of food on the farm. . .whenever we need meat, we head off to the meat market - a.k.a. the freezer in the dairy parlor where we store all our beef, fish, and deer (and the occasional black snake if BIL is in his prankster mood). Husband and I use deer burger in place of hamburger in almost all of our burger-foods. Spaghetti sauce, Lasagna, Chilli, Jerky, heck even Hamburger Helper when I'm in a pinch. It's much healthier than beef. While it does tend to get dry because it's less greasy - you can mix and egg in when making patties to make the meat stick together better. Honestly I can't tell much of a difference anyway - but then again I like red meat of any kind.
Garlicy, buttery, cheesy, pasta-y, red meat-y. . . yup I'm headed right smack for a heart attack by 35.

Pregnant women in the Parlor

2011-09-21T20:41:00.000-05:00

I happened upon a pleasant surprise today when I came home from shopping over in the next county. When I got home there was a red car parked in front of the milking parlor. Hmm . . . not a car that I recognize and most visitors to the farm don't drive cars anyway. Since I'm nosy, I decided to investigate. I told Toddler that Papaw (FIL) was in the calf barn, he's always super-excited to see Papaw because it may wind up in a tractor ride. ;} Toddler squealed and took off for the calf barn. This was my excuse to "chase him down" - a.k.a. snoop around and see who the visitor was.
It was the FDA lady. She's pretty young, I'd say about Husband's age - so near around 30. Not only that, she's pregnant too. She's due in Dec. tho, I'm jealous. So of course we got to talking about pregnant lady stuff. Like maternity jeans. Poor FIL. On top of an analysis of the performance of each of our milkers (the machine part, not the cows), he also received an education on the various types of panels used in maternity jeans. While FDA lady was checking out the condition of our inflations (um, the liner-thingy that goes inside the tubes that milk each teat) and running tests, we were discussing which style of maternity jeans worked, which ones didn't. Why we didn't like the mid-rise panels because whenever you bend over your butt-crack shows. How pretty much all maternity pants are useless for farm work. Things that we do/don't do around the farm now that we're pregnant. What our doctors say about what we should/shouldn't be doing around the farm. . . He took it pretty well tho. Actually, I think he was amused b/c I kept glancing over to see that little smirk on his face that means he's getting a kick out of something. Later when we recanted the story to MIL, she was impressed that he stood there that long because in her recollection - he could've cared less about that stuff when she was pregnant. I'm sure he still could care less, but I think he was more entertained by watching us two girls gab on like a cackle of hens.
It was nice tho! Finally! Another woman who "gets it"! You'd think that living on a family farm that I'd be surrounded by women who understand what it's like to be pregnant/raise kids on a farm, but alas that is not the case here. Nothing against them, it's just that MIL and G-G aren't exactly farm fanatics like I am. Oh sure, they worked on/around the farm when needed, but they're much more comfortable indoors. And when they did work on the farm, they pretty much did whatever they were told to, but weren't about to jump head-first into some of the dirtier jobs. Back when FIL and G-Pa sold the Holstein cows that they used to milk (I think it was in '88-'89? All I know is Husband was a little tyke.), MIL said she'd never milk a cow again. And she never has. She'll come down and help feed calves - I mean, who doesn't love to do that? But so far as I've known she's never touched a cow.
'Course MIL and G-G's memory of milking cows involved sitting on a little milking stool and having to bend over to attach the milkers - and they milked each cow one or two at a time. While that sounds fascinating to me - there's a much more personal relationship with each cow when your head is buried in her side and her hooves can actually clock you in the head - it doesn't sound very comfortable when you're pregnant. I milked the entire time I was pregnant with Preschooler, even the morning that I went into to labor, but we have a pit that you stand up in to milk so that the cows udders are right at your level. Much less labor intensive and there's much less chance that a flying hoof is going to make contact with your belly, or your head.
But here I was talking to a girl (I say girl because I still don't exactly consider myself a full-grown woman yet) who was about my age, who was passionate about farm work, and who didn't think it was at all necessary to stop working around the farm just because we happen to be a temporary incubator. The cows don't slow down, and they're on their feet a heckuva lot more than we are, and we're not growing 50 lb. babies either! I almost wanted to get her email or phone number (which I'm sure I could swindle out of FIL if I really wanted to) just so I could have someone to chat with and relate to, but I'm sure neither one of us would get much work done if I started that.

What to blog, what to blog. . .

2011-09-20T17:29:00.000-05:00

>SIGH< There's not been a whole lot worth writing about on here. . . I'll think of something, but then I don't have any pics to accompany my thoughts b/c the camera is on the fritz so only the most important photos get taken (and not very well either).
The boys had their birthday party on Sunday. Because their birthdays are a month apart (to-the-day, Preschooler's is Sept. 3 and Toddler's is Oct. 3), there's no use in having separate birthday parties. I'm not making our friends and family try to schedule in two visits to the farm during this busy time of the year. So, I just picked a date half-way in-between and went with it. When they're old enough to invite their own friends and have their own thing, they can have separate parties. Plus, it's easier right now b/c they can both open presents and I don't have to try to pull them out of each other's stuff.
Despite threats of rain all day, we had a dry party.
The boys had their own cakes, thanks to my awesome neighbor who decorates. Toddler had a John Deere cake and Preschooler had a pirate boat cake. They ate it too.

Then the mayhem of opening presents ensued. Things got a little hairy with two of them. MIL wasn't helping as she was trying to just help Toddler with his, but they were moving at a different pace than Preschooler and I and I couldn't keep track of which gift came from who. . . Thank You notes were a headache last night. . . And this was all despite telling no one to bring gifts! Oi, they all meant well. We are blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.
Now I just have to figure out what to do with it all since our house was already about bursting at the seams. . .

I'm hoping to get some pics cleared off of my SD card because on Thursday we're headed off to Farm Day! I love Farm Day. Every year, good friends of the family who live just 2 miles down the road host the Kindergarteners from Jackson Township Elementary (just a straight-shot through the woods from the farm and where the boys will be going to school). They have nice big tractors and combines for the kids to climb on, a big pond where the kids can feed pellets and watch catfish come right up to the dock. Every year we get asked to bring a milking cow and calf, and last year (and this year) I'm bringing some of the goats. Other neighbors down the road bring some piglets. . . it's a neighborhood affair really, haha.
Two years ago when we did this, I was in labor with Toddler. I was on the phone with my mom: "Mom, my contractions are like 7-10 mins. apart and they aren't even consistent! I'm talking to you through one right now, it's not that serious! No, I'm not going home just to brush my teeth, if things get worse I'll just go straight there from here and if the nurses are that close to my face, they're too close!" I got off the phone after 15 mins. of trying to convince her that I wasn't heading to the hospital any time soon (turned out it wasn't until 10:40 the next morning that we decided it was time to go). One of the chaperoning moms goes, "OMGosh! You're in labor?? And you're here?? You go girl!" I saw no reason to skip out on the entertainment of kindergarteners trying to milk a cow just because I was in early labor. I was right too because a few hours later my labor stalled until the next morning. Last year there was a chaperone mom who was 38 weeks along and waddling around the farm, haha. (basically she was within 2 weeks of her due date for my readers who don't have much experience with pregnancy)
It's too much fun just to listen to the questions that people ask. The most surprising ones are usually from the parents! It's amazing how little people know about where their food comes from. You can't expect everyone to know the mechanics of how to milk a cow - I don't know the first thing about plumbing - but some questions about knock you on your butt and you're left wondering and stumbling while trying to figure out how to answer them exactly.
Some parents just don't "get it". Despite the teachers warnings to send the kids to school in play clothes that day - there's always one or two little girls in all-white faux fur coats and sandals. And they're always the ones that leave the messiest, haha. It's a fairly clean operation, the kids aren't having to hang around in animal pens or anything, but they always find a pile of gravel to play in or decide that they REALLY want to hug those cute (but smelly!) baby pigs. . .
So, we'll see how things go this year! It's always a hoot!

Old Wive's Tales UPDATE:

2011-09-09T11:23:00.000-05:00

I've been bad at keeping up on this. I think the Old Wive's Tales about gender are fun. We're not going to find out the gender early with this one so instead I'm doing as many tests as possible to see which ones are "accurate" with this baby.
Here's the standings so far:

Girl: 10, Boy: 2
I did try a new one this morning - the baking soda test. You put some baking soda in a cup and pee on it. If it fizzes, then baby is a boy. If it doesn't, it's a girl. No Fizz! I even drank a Coke last night before bed so I figured the acidity would set off the baking soda.
I had Voodoo lady do the needle test on me last Sunday. She's not really a Voodoo lady - she's FIL's cousin. But she's the one who showed us the needle test so she's the designated needle-tester (and deemed Voodoo lady). First try - boy (Preschooler). Second try - boy (Toddler). Third try. . . boy. Fourth try. . . stop. WHAT? I don't think so. We're having 4 (at least), even if I have to adopt! The needle test had been 100% accurate for DH's family, but it does always change with me. It told me I was going to have a boy and a girl, then stop. Then it said boy, boy, girl. Then stop. But it's always been accurate for the current baby at the time of the time. Now, I've done the test on myself 3 times and it says Boy-Boy-Girl-Girl. Every time. So I'm going for a third opinion on this one. I need to test Hubs. (we tested BIL and BIL's gf and they both said Boy, Girl (with a BIG circle for the girl so we teased that it's either going to be a BIG baby, or twins! BIL turned a little pale).
BIL's gf then ran home and tested all of her sisters and her parents (she has 3 sisters). Her parents matched - 4 girls. Her older sister who's getting married next month matched her fiance (1 girl, 1 boy). Her younger two sisters each had girls too I think.
I was also getting excited in the beginning b/c the baby's heart rate was 176 (OWT says +150 = girl, 150- = boy). But the hr always starts out high and then gradually drops. At my last appt. it was in the 140's and both of my boys were in the 142-145 range. Maybe baby was just sleeping? MIL says that BIL's heart rate was always really high and he's obviously a boy. . . We'll see what it is next Mon. at my next apt.
Ultimately, what does my gut tell me?
I have no idea. It's speaking Swahili I think. At first I was convinced it was a girl. But then, I was convinced with Toddler too. I even cried when we found out he was a boy. Not because I really cared that much about the sex of baby, but because I was wrong! What kind of mother was I if my mommy intuition was so off??
Sometimes I'll get myself convinced that it's another boy. But there's always this nagging little voice in my head telling me that it's a girl. It's got to be a girl. I'm not one of those people that winds up with 5 boys, I don't have that kind of luck. My luck is pretty even - I get a lot of things to go the way I want, and a lot of things that don't. Toddler didn't go the way that I thought I wanted - but I wouldn't change him for the world, not even if someone told me that I could change things to have a girl and then have Toddler later, nope.
Even if we do wind up with all boys, that's what I always said I wanted - Wish granted! A girl would be nice tho, just one. So that I'm not totally outnumbered here (not that I can't handle them!)
So this baby is just going to keep me guessing 'till the end. I can't wait for the surprise!

The Boys of Fall. . .

2011-09-05T11:55:00.000-05:00

Happy Labor Day!
While the rest of the country takes a day off, this farm gets to work. We had a cold front move in yesterday and boy does it feel like fall today! It's only 63* right now at noon - just two days ago it was over 100*! That's Indiana weather for you.
FIL and Husband have been busy chopping silage this morning. The boys are "helping" in their normal fashion - which usually means riding the tractor with Papaw and chasing the dogs around. They might as well enjoy it while they can. . . I'm thinking next summer their old enough to start painting the silage wagons. . . haha.

Toddler w/ Papaw (FIL)- notice he had to bring his toy pig too.

Well, that's one way to pull-start a tractor - behind a chopper. . .

We also had a surprise calf.

That's actually not much of a surprise - it's always the cows that FIL isn't watching to go into labor soon that calve. But this one he totally didn't expect. FIL and Husband had gotten done milking this morning (usually around 7:15-7:30) and FIL had finished breakfast and was headed back up to get to work when he noticed that the cows were leaving the lot about 8:00 but that one had stayed back and had just pushed out a tiny heifer calf! Oops. Normally we don't like to "milk through" - which means that you milk a cow or goat (or whatever it is that you're milking) through an entire year. Some people do this on purpose if they have a heavy milker, or they don't want to re-breed and deal with unwanted kids/calves. We need the the calves as replacement heifers or as bulls to sell to help supplement feed costs. Plus we feel like it's really hard on the cow to not give her a break, especially before she calves. This is actually the second time we've done this - the other was last fall.
HOW?? Well, we do have a tagging system - we micro-chip our cows. Yes, our traditional, old-fashioned, family farm uses such fancy technology as micro-chips to identify our cows. Ear tags fall out, collars fall off, but it's pretty hard to lose a chip implanted in your butt. Each cow has it's own unique number, which we record in a book along with their date of birth, their mother's number, dates that they calve, if they have a heifer or a bull, and then there's also a place where we record their daughter's numbers so that we can track lineage when we need to.
Normally we dry the cows up about 9 mos. or so from the last time they calved. But when there's a heavy milker like the one that calved today, we don't think to check her calving date from last year b/c she doesn't look like she should be drying up soon. Husband just checked all the milk cows back in July to see who should be getting close to calving, but apparently we missed drying her up. (notice how I blame Husband - it's always his fault, hehe ;} )
I also got some shots of my two favorite kinds of wildflowers - Bachelor Buttons (I think that's what they are anyway) and Morning Glories (what can I say? I LOVE blue wildflowers). They grow rampant along the silage pit, but I have yet to figure out how to get the Bachelor Buttons to grow where I want them to. FIl says that most farmers burn out the Morning Glories (GASP!) b/c they'll take over a cornfield, but they're fine along the silage pit and add some 'pretty' to a normally not-so-attractive spot of the farm.

"P" is for Preschooler!

2011-09-03T07:51:00.000-05:00

Today is Preschooler's Birthday! I can't believe it's been 4 YEARS since that little booger came into my life. (and quite the traumatic experience it was!) He's been making waves ever since, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
We're not big on giving the kids TONS of gifts for birthdays/holidays. I just don't want my kids getting wrapped up in the "keeping up with Johnny" mentality. Our kids have everything they could ever need/want. And we want them to understand that.
BUT, that's not to say that a trip to Toys 'R' Us wasn't called for.
Sorry Preschooler has no pants on. . . he managed to wriggle out of the them last night and I was too excited to give him his gifts to take the time to put some on him.

Toddler was more excited about the camping set than Preschooler was.

Preschooler was all about the pirate set! Ok, well that was a weird "cheese" face. . .

P - P is for Preschooler and Pirate, and of course, Paul!
A - A is for Awesome kid!
U - U is for Unique - you'll never meet another kid like Paul!
L - L is for Looker. What can I say? The kid is cute! I mean, who else can pull off a cowboy hat, eye patch, pirate hook, fake marshmallow, guitar shirt and a Pull-Up? Well, I may just be partial. . .

BABIES!!!

2011-09-01T09:43:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get newborn pics taken of the new baby. After having our family pictures taken around the farm last fall by Miss Jackie - our awesome neighbor and Preschooler's Sunday School teacher, I've been spoiled.

I scoff at studio portraits. Why have a blah gray background when you have an entire farm to use as a backdrop? And I may be partial, but we have an exceptionally gorgeous farm to photograph. ;}
Problem is, baby is due in February. . . February here - no matter how mild - is not exactly prime outdoor weather for a newborn. Especially if I'm going to get those oh-so-squishy nekkid shots. So how do I get farm-themed pictures if we can't be out on the farm?
There is always an answer right around the corner. Literally, my answer is right around the corner. She lives about 2 miles West, and 1/2 a mile North of us.
Jessica lives just down the road. I met her through a mutual friend who suggested that I could make her some knitted/crocheted props for her children's photography business. Actually, Husband has known Jessie for awhile, he worked for her dad (our vet) in high school. They also used to be dairy farmers and just yesterday they bought 4 bull calves off of us to raise. Jessica is in the middle of building a super-nice studio for her business (with a whole upstairs just for props!) and since she's a born-and-raised country girl, she's an expert on getting that "farm" feel, which isn't easy in a studio setting.
Here's some shots that I've found that I really like. Some may have to wait 'till spring to get and that's when I can get Miss Jackie back over here.

I'm totally working on a chickie hat right now and I already have a big egg basket like that one.

Must find a wooden bucket. . . or maybe I'll go w/ the washpan look.

LOVE this one! I'm going to have to clean up my boots. . .

Gotta figure out a pattern for the back. . .

A good way to get the boys in there if I can get them to sit still long enough.

And some others that I like:

Def. going to have to wait for spring at least

We have a similar one like this of Toddler's feet wrapped up in Husband's dog tags.

HA! Thought this was too cute. . . squishy bum. . .

Just in Case You Were Wondering. . .

2011-09-01T09:04:00.000-05:00

Here's how it turned out. Sorry the food placement wasn't exactly fancy. And I promise there were other colors on my plate than just yellow.

Lemon-Garlic Chicken

Eh, it was ok. A little dry. And really you couldn't taste the lemon or the garlic at all. All you could taste was the Worcestershire sauce. But it did have a good flavor to it. Must improve. . .

After dinner we went over to G-G's to play around in the garden. Well, the boys and I played, Husband actually worked some - sucker.

Moo-Cow wanted to check out the garden too.

The Aunts and FIL had gone out to eat for G-G's birthday, so I didn't have to listen to any ridicule about my earlier phone call to Aunt D3. . . hehe.

In other news. . . I'm 4 mos. along today! Whoo-hoo! I'm finally going to start taking "the bump" pictures. Before there just wasn't much change to record. I wasn't very good at keeping up with this with the boys. I got to about 5 or 6 mos. and then just didn't care to take pictures of my ever-expanding belly anymore.
Today we also have an Open House for Preschooler. This will be the first time that Husband gets to see his school since he was deployed last year when we did all of this. Preschooler is super-excited to show daddy. Daddy wants to see if Teacher is hot (typical male).

Cooking. . .

2011-08-31T17:16:00.000-05:00

This is me trying to make Lemon-Garlic Chicken. Recipe calls to put chicken in a shallow roasting pan and cover with marinade.
Me: (calling MIL) "MIL! PICK UP THE PHONE!" (does not pick up)
Me: (calling Aunt D3 who is at G-G's house w/ Aunt D1 and Aunt D2) "Ok, so what the flip is a 'shallow roasting pan'?"

Aunt D3: Well, uh. It's usually a deeper pan with a lid.

Me: Right, that's what I thought, but this recipe calls for a 'shallow roasting pan' and mentions nothing of covering it.
(D2 in the background):What's she making?
D3: (now puzzled) What are you making?

Me: Lemon-Garlic Chicken. It's just 3 pieces of chicken, I don't want to dirty my roasting pan for three little pieces of chicken. Can I just go w/ an 8X8?

D3 (giggling now): Yea, that sounds good. So you're cooking dinner?
Me: Well, I'm trying! They don't make it easy for the cooking-challenged. Why all the fancy stuff? Why can't they just say "Bake it in a pan that fits the chicken?"

(hear conversation in the background) D3 (still trying to stifle laughing): Ha, no they don't make it user-friendly do they? Well, I think an 8X8 will work just fine. Should, anyway. Good luck!
(I can hear G-G, D1, and D2 all giggling in the background now.)

Me: I HEAR YOU Aunt Donna and Aunt Di!

A Good Cow

2011-08-29T16:32:00.000-05:00

I hadn't posted on this yet, things are kinda here and there lately. Last week we had to put down one of our beloved cows, Vidalia. Vidalia's mother was Betsy (also Itsy Bity's mom) who is pretty much the reason why FIL got back into milking. I guess the story goes that back when Husband was a freshman in high school, FIL had bought some heifers to help keep down the pastures. Not sure if he knew or not whether they were supposed to be bred, but either way, Betsy surprised them one morning when FIL went out to check on the cows and she'd had herself a bull calf. The next spring, Vidalia was born. (I'm pretty sure she was named after the country song, not the onion.) She was the first cow born here out of this herd (that we kept anyway). Vidalia's always been a good girl, even if she was kinda bossy. She was always a good momma and made lots of milk. After Vi had her calf a few weeks ago, she never came into milk. FIL decided that since she was 14 years old, it was probably a good time to retire her. Since she'd always been a good cow and she threw nice babies, we figured we'd keep her and use her for a brood-cow. We'd just let her raise her calves if she could, but not milk her. Well, she wasn't looking so hot nor was she taking the heat very well either and she finally got to the point where she just couldn't get up anymore. So, FIL and BIL had to put her down.

Vidalia with last year's bull calf.

This is another difference between our farming methods and those of bigger, conventional farms. I know at a much (MUCH) larger dairy north of us, they keep their cows for a maximum of 5 years - and that's only the best cows. I'm sure it has something to do with the business of having over 2,000 cows, you just can't keep them all. Betsy was 15 when she died (just a few weeks after having her last heifer calf, Evelette - who Hubs now calls Little Betsy), and now Vi's gone at 14. I think we still have some of the other heifers that were part of that original herd that Betsy jump-started. We keep our cows for as long as they can produce milk and get around the place. That's not to say that we don't cull cows that don't produce - that's just part of farming - animals that don't produce don't earn their keep. But those that do we don't put on a timeline.

We did get a heifer calf out of Vi this year so we've got one last cow to carry on the Vi legacy. I have yet to come up with a name for her, she's quite a spunky little thing, learning how to eat off the bottle and the blue box well before the heifers calves that were a few days older than her.

This was the best pic I could get of "Baby Vi" (the red one on the right). Her little spotted friend didn't want to leave her!

Choppin' Silage

2011-08-25T10:22:00.001-05:00

In case you haven't picked on up it yet, we're a small-scale farm.
It's come time to start chopping silage, only with Hubs gone for army work, and BIL having a construction job now, and Cousin N being back in school, FIL has to do the work by himself.

Chopping silage with a one-row chopper.

So, he chops silage all by his onesies. He uses a small, one-row chopper. I think we have 80 acres in corn right now? (I'll have to check on that) It's part of our system for re-doing the pastures and also a way to save money on organic feed for the winter b/c that stuff ain't cheap!
Last summer, BIL and Cousin R drove all the way to Texas to get it. On the way back they stopped at a restaurant to grab a bite to eat and an older guy walks by and says, "I didn't know they still had those around! That's one nice antique!" BIL laughs and says, " Yea, only we're going to use it!" The guy laughed for a second and then realized they were serious. "Good luck," he says. Yea, we're that archaic, but it works for our size of farm.

The Silage Pit

This is where the silage will be dumped out - run over and over and over with the four-wheeler to pack it down (my boys LOVE helping Papaw do this part!) and there it'll stay to ferment and be used as feed this winter. It smells lovely, and it's enticing enough that we've seen a raccoon or two stumble out of there drunk before. Once the silage gets mostly used up (it never lasts all winter), we let the cows down in there to clean up the scraps. Boy they hate that. Then sometimes it gets scraped out and used as a maternity ward closer to spring.
I'm still waiting on cooler weather, but seeing as how we're not even out of August yet, I'm going to be waiting for a few weeks. I can't wait for fall! Apple Cider! Sweaters! Hoodies! Bonfires! All those warm, inviting fall colors!
'Course, the only problem with fall is that winter comes afterward. And along with winter comes the Cabin Fever. I suffer of it terribly (ask anyone who read my blog last winter!). This winter will be especially long since I won't have kids to look forward to in February or March, BUT I'll be (impatiently) waiting for this baby to make it's appearance! (which is why the goat kids won't be coming 'till April) Hopefully all the busy-work associated with the "Big Move" next spring will help keep me occupied and busy enough that I'll stay pre-occupied.

Ketchup!

2011-08-19T12:51:00.000-05:00

Ok, not really ketchup, but I thought I'd catch up on some stuff going on lately.

On Wed. we headed up to the Indiana State Fair. FIL was receiving the River Friendly Farmer Award! Thanks to his farming techniques, and being organic helps, our farm has a better impact on the rivers and streams than most modern conventional farming practices.

FIL w/ the Lt. Gov and whoever that guy is.

We had some fun too!

Collecting fake eggs from the fake chickens.

Hey mom, I got this!

Toddler can pretend feed a cow w/o even leaving the stroller!

For one, I think this pregnancy is affecting my brain. Actually, I know it is. I've suddenly been in a baking mood. I dunno if it's my sudden sweet tooth or what.
I made a cobbler using peaches from the tree in our front yard. Que? DFW does not bake, or cook, or really enjoy being near the oven 'cept for making soap. Well, they were ripe and this is the first year that they ripened before the bugs got to them so I thought I'd better do something with them. FIL is a big peach cobbler fan. The peach tree actually came from down the road. Years ago, FIL had helped a neighbor and the neighbor sent him home with a couple of peach trees, this is the one that survived being shaded out by all the poplars. It's a very old variety of white-fleshed peach, but dunno for the life of me what kind they are.
So how did that go? Well, it turned out ok, but let's just say that the dough nearly went out one of my kitchen windows several times and by the end of it I was ready to beat Husband in the head with a rolling pin - he seems to think I need to do this more often. But at least it was edible and didn't look too bad if I do say so myself.
Then, last night I decided to make Cajeta. It's a caramel made with goat milk. That turned out too, but it does have a strong goatie scent to it - despite the milk not really having a goatie smell. . . guess it comes out in the cooking process.

1 qt. of goat milk = 1 cup of yummy caramel!

Along those lines. . . a guy from the farmer's market makes ice cream and has been buying goat milk off of me to make his goat milk ice cream with! I gotta say it's pretty good - doesn't really have a goatie flavor at all. So far he says it's his most popular flavor and last weekend he sold out of it! It really helps that his tent is next to mine so he makes sure to mention that the goat milk came from me and then people come over to check out the soaps! Win-win! Some of his customers like just about everything goat milk so if I can sell him some of this cajeta as an ice cream topper we may be on to something. Now I just need to come up with a soap that smells like his goat ice cream tastes. . . hehe.
Back to this baby affecting my brain. Part of the reason that I haven't kept up with this blog is that I think I've developed pregnancy dyslexia. I have to re-type nearly every sentence 3X because I get all of the words mixed up, even the letters in the words are jumpbled. Yea, just like that. SO, if you see a lot of shorthand popping in, it's because I'm losing the battle between my fingers and the keyboard.
Speaking of baby again. I'm gonna jump off the deep-end here and I think we're going Cloth!
As in Cloth diapering. It weighs heavily on my conscience that we live on an organic farm and we're supposed to be Earth-friendly, but yet we throw away tons of diapers every year. And I seriously mean TONS - with two kids still not potty-trained, we go through a lot of diapers.
The research makes my head hurt tho and I'm getting advice from friends who actually use them to help whittle down the best places to get them. I looked into making them myself, but I really don't have the patience for all the gathering and elastic needed.

These definitely aren't the cloth diapers of our parent's generation! No pins, better fit, and they grow with baby all the way 'till potty training! I think I've got it whittled down to BumGenius, Econobum, and Fuzzibunz. . . I see a theme here.

BumGenius

Econobum - available at the nearby Babies 'R' Us

Or FuzziBunz

The whole "saving money" thing is also a major plus, even if the initial costs is a major shock - around $150 for a 12 pack (!!!). But they'll save about $1,000 a year, and the savings grow if you use them on more than one kid. I was debating how Earth-friendly they could actually be if you're having to do that much more laundry, BUT water is a renewable resource, we have an energy efficient water and dryer, and anything reusable is waay more Earth-friendly than anything you throw away. Plus, we aren't on city water so we don't have a water bill - back to more wallet-friendly. However I do realize that I'm going to be changing a lot more of the diapers because MIL has already made it known that she will not be using them and trying to get Husband to use anything new is difficult - he still won't use the new diaper pail I got and that was over 2 years ago. . .
Whew! Good luck hearing from me for a few more days. ;}

In the Garden . . .

2011-08-09T13:44:00.000-05:00

This morning we put up about 12 pints of sweet corn over at G-G's house. That was after the corn that I pulled out for our side of the farm to eat, and some for Aunt D3 and her bunch, plus some that we eat at lunch. Not too bad! There'll be another round coming about the end of the week too. Plus tons of cherry tomatoes.
I'm just excited that we got enough corn to grow to actually feed people and be able to put up!

About 1/3 of the corn we picked.

If for no other reason - this is why I wanted a garden!

It was interesting to actually get to "cook" some in G-G's kitchen. I kept thinking, "This is going to be me next spring."
There are so many scenarios that are running through my head about this move. I'm excited and anxious/nervous all at the same time.
What am I going to do about the goats when kidding season comes? There's no shelter to put them in over at the other place right now.
What about my chickens? We can move the portable coop over with a tractor, but I was wanting to get new chicks next spring. Will I be able to do it with a newborn and all the house work? The boys were about 4 mos. old when I got them the other times and they didn't need as much attention.
How are we going to get a garden planted in the middle of moving? It will definitely be much easier to tend to once we're moved since it'll be in the yard instead of 1/3 of a mile away.
I discussed some of my concerns with G-G while we were putting up the corn. She said that with 3 kids I'll probably have to cut back on my "extra stuff", but I don't really see these things as extra. They'll require some juggling, but since when did my life not require juggling? Isn't that what farmwives have always done? Take care of the house, the garden, and the chickens (if nothing else)?
I know my brain is overworking things like it always does. I'll just have to play this next year by ear. This outta be fun!

Family Reunion

2011-08-08T10:26:00.001-05:00

Ok, so last time I posted, I had a few details off, but I wasn't THAT far off. The Wegner boy that came to Indiana was Ewald Wegner. The girl was Estelle Lavina Heck. Ewald was smuggled along with his parents into America when he was just two years old. His parents - Paul Leo and Matilda Wegner, are the ones who built the Wegner Grotto near Cataract, WI.

A replica of the popular 1930's cruise ship - Bremen. Also supposedly the name of the ship that Paul and Matilda smuggled themselves and 2 yr old. Ewald to America on.

A reproduction of Paul and Matilda's 50th Anniversary Cake.

The Glass Chapel - has representation of all denominations.

Even their headstones are in broken glass!

Matilda Wegner

There were all sorts of updates at the Family Reunion. Deaths and Births. People from all over the country came, we had some come from Seattle Washington! G-G won a picture frame for being the person with the most children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren present (we had 21, the next closest was 16). I didn't get to win the youngest attendee prize. Apparently they only count babies that are actually born :{. Haha, I'm not that upset, the baby who won it was a close cousin's first great-grandchild. G-G also announced that in the last 5 years we've had our 7th generation born, and it started with another Paul! Preschooler is the oldest of the great-grandchildren and the 3rd (or 4th, I'll have to look it up) Paul born into our branch of the family tree. Also, at the time that he was born, we had 4 living generations that were each 25 years apart. G-Pa was 75, FIL was 50, and Hubs was 25 when Preschooler was born. It all seems like so long ago, but all that happened in just 5 years!

The family tree - we're on the Paul Leo - Ewald leaf.

We did have a vote and the next family reunion in five years is coming to Indiana! It used to be that the reunion was rotated between WI and IN, but that stopped in the last 15 years or so I think. While most of the Wegner family still lives up in Wisconsin, the Indiana branch still plays a large part in the family's history because our branch (Ewald's) has been in IN for over 100 years and most of the generations have carried on the tradition of farming. That's another reason why the reunion is coming to IN, they want to put an emphasis on the tradition of farming in the family and where else to go than the original IN homestead!
WHICH brings me to my big surprise! (drum roll please. . .)
We're going to be moving. But ne're you worry, we're not going far! Just down the road actually. To here:

The original homestead. There used to be several other barns, but you can still see the little white outhouse next to the red shed.

Right now it's G-G's house. But come spring, shortly after the baby is born, we're going to be swapping houses. G-G has decided that she needs a smaller place and ours is small enough that she can easily keep up with the house and yard work, but she'll still have two guest bedrooms for when people do come down to stay. The biggest plus is that she'll be right here on the farm so that she doesn't have to move away. She'll be right here where FIL can help her if she needs it and Aunt Kay (her sister in law) is right across the driveway. Now, while this is a good thing for us and G-G. I'm very nervous. For one, we're going to be moving when the baby is still very small. That, and there's going to be a lot of renovations needed. These are things that we can no longer avoid being done if people are going to continue to be able to live there. I'm sure we'll meet some resistance from the relatives, I remember how it was when we had to sell my Great-Grandma's house so I can relate. This also means that come reunion time - we're going to have people crawling all over the house and the farm. The oldest part of the house was built back in the 1800's. And there aren't too many people that can claim that the "new" part of the house is 100 years old! Well, at least I have 5 years to start cleaning! Haha.
On our way home, we had to stop by one of the Organic Valley offices. They weren't open since it was Sunday, but it was interesting to see that they had a grill outside and basketball goal - dunno too many people in the ag business that ride their bicycles to work and play basketball on their lunch break, haha.

Our Co-Op

In other good news: FIL stopped by this morning and brought me this:

Yup! It's our first ear of corn! He says we've got tons more ready to pick too! Hubs will be really excited when he gets home - homegrown BLT's w/ corn on the cob and homemade pickles! That's all he's talked about in the 3 weeks that he's been down in KY.
* Side-note, about 10 mins. after FIL left, I noticed the corn was gone. Nope, we didn't have coons break in, just a corn-lovin' Preschooler, haha. He ate it uncooked! The whole thing! And then hid it under his bed, haha. That'll be a fun diaper later. . .

Another Trip!

2011-08-04T22:07:00.000-05:00

I swear, I think I travel more than any farmer I know. Well, again it's just part of the farmer's wife's job. The farmer stays home - the wife goes to all the "stuff". Haha.
Actually, this time the farmer gets to go! In fact, pretty much the WHOLE fam damily is goin'! This weekend is the Wegner Family Reunion. It happens once every 5 years. ALL the Wegners make a pilgrimage to the original homeland up in Wisconsin - near La Crosse - dern near to Minnesota.
So how did DH's family wind up in Indiana? Here's how FIL explained it, and I apologize if I don't get the story totally right.
There once was a boy who's last name was Wegner. He really wasn't a boy - more in his 20's. I believe this is one of the Pauls of whom Preschooler is named after, but I could be wrong. Anywho, there was also a girl, again not really a girl. I believe her name was Estella Lavina Heck. Well, her last name was Heck anyway. Heck girl was up in WI visiting friends or relatives and met this Wegner boy. Heck girl eventually had to come back home to Brazil, IN. Wegner boy was totally smitten and followed Heck girl back to IN where he married Heck girl in 1904 (I think all this happened within a year or so), moved in with the family (it's a trend around here) and worked as a coal miner (I hear he wasn't a very big man and he fit in the tunnels very easily) and also farmed on the side. And now you know The Rest of The Story (Paul Harvey anyone?).
However. Up in Wisconsin, there is the Wegner grotto. I will be most sure to get pictures of this grotto as the ones that I've seen from the last time our gang all made it up there it is quite interesting. There are all of these neat little statues and buildings made from glass and shells that documents the trip over from Germany, including a replica of the boat that carried the original Paul Wegner over from Germany called the Bremen. There's also a cute little chapel that has pictures of 7(?) founding churches that members of the family belong to. The church that we go to and that Hubs and I got married in is one of them. This is where Cousin D2 wants to get married next fall, or spring. Apparently Kohler (ya know, the sink faucet people?) took over the grotto and they keep it preserved and none of our close relation has seen it since. We've heard they've spiffed the place up a bit.
Anywho - I'm super excited to go! I'm such a history geek and I want to learn everything that I can about Hubs' family history so I can pass it down to our kids - b/c we all know Hubs won't think to do it, or remember half of the stories.
What I'm a little more nervous about is the 8 hour drive with the boys! We've got it worked out Miss Abbey and Gracie and their dad are going to milk for FIL and Cousin Nick tomorrow night so we can get going as soon as MIL gets off of work. BIL is staying home this weekend to do the rest of the milking. (and to spend some much-needed time with G/F too I'm sure ;} ). Unfortunately, Hubs is still down at Ft. Knox 'till next week so he won't get to go, which is very upsetting for him. As much as I'd like him to be there the first time that our boys see the place, this may be one of the last times that G-G gets up there and she wanted as much of the family to go as possible. We had actually planned on taking G-G and G-Pa up there for one last visit sometime last year, but then G-Pa got so sick.
SO, it's going to be me, FIL, MIL and the boys in my Envoy. The rest of the crew is going up earlier tomorrow morning and meeting up with the Aunts and then they're all heading up together. I guess there's some other stuff they want to see tomorrow night. The last long-distance trip we took was me and Hubs taking Preschooler to Virginia Beach when I was still pregnant with Toddler. That was an even longer trip, but I'm not sure how Toddler will handle this. It's almost a good thing that Hubs isn't going because he doesn't handle kids screaming in cars very well.
In comes the DVD player! I know, I know. But we only use it for long-distance trips and with the amount of energy I have right now - I'm going to need all the help I can get. We actually had a tv in our van for roadtrips when I was a kid. My dad is an electrician and he figured out how to hook up one of those VCR'n'TV sets in the van and we watched movies in the car before they even put TVs in cars! We could even get a few fuzzy local channels if we happened to be driving close enough to a city.
There's also a few other places we have to hit. Gotta fill up on our cheese curds for the year. (I better buy a few bags b/c I may eat an entire one on the way home and Hubs will be very sore with me if he doesn't get any.) CHEESE CURDS? Yup, I said cheese curds. Chill - perfectly safe for pregnant women. It's just cheese before it gets pressed into a mold to make a nice circular or square shape. It's just cheese people! They do squeak when you chew them though. . .
I had to laugh when we went to Va. Beach and took a bag along with us. I came down one night for a snack and my cousin asked what I was munching on. I showed her the bag and just as she was about to grab a few, I made the mistake of saying "Cheese curds." (wasn't my fault, timing was off b/c I was chewing!) Her hand snapped back so fast and she said, "No thanks!" I just laughed and explained what they were but she - nor my Aunt who loves cheese - would have anything to do with it. And these are people who eat caviar and escargot! Sheesh. Or should I say cheeshe? Hehe.

An actual picture of a 12 week old baby in utero. (Sorry it's a little fuzzy)

In other news: I'm finally 12 weeks today! Hurray! For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about - 12 weeks is like the "hump" that you get over where your risk of miscarriage decreases immensely. Looks like this little bean has decided that he/she wants to stick around long enough to see how crazy we really are!
(Sorry if I grossed you out!) Little bean is about 2" long from the top of his/her head to butt (baby is all curled up so they can't measure total length yet). Kinda looks like a little alien in that pic, but baby has all the organs that it needs to survive outside the womb, they're just not all working yet (he doesn't have external ears yet tho). It fascinates me to see the real pictures of babies in utero. We know almost exactly what baby looks like now! I have a whole magazine that goes through their development month-by-month. Yup, starting with a picture of an egg and her new spermie boyfriend. You really wanna skip the next month or so, baby doesn't look like anything human - or anything recognizable for that matter.
Well, I'll see ya when I get back. Virtually speaking, that is. I'm off on another adventure!

Dentists and Barber Shops

2011-07-31T15:52:00.000-05:00

Well, I survived another hot campout, but I feel like it was barely. This pregnancy is really kicking my butt. I swear I wasn't this sluggish with the boys. Of course, then I didn't have the boys to chase around and make me so tired. After a birthday party this afternoon (thankfully it was just down the road), I'm really beat.
Tomorrow The Preschooler has to get two cavities fixed. Oh boy. I feel like a bad mom because he's not even 4 yet and he has two cavities! I was 19 before I got my first one. The cavities are on his two front teeth, weird place - I know, but those teeth died after Preschooler was climbing over a metal gate in the milking parlor and slipped and busted his teeth on it. The dentist said that that probably made them more prone to the cavities because they're in a really weird spot. There's nothing that can be done about the death teeth, they're pretty nasty looking now that they're black, but he needs them to stay in until he loses them otherwise his gums can rot and it'll rot his permanent teeth. So we've got to look at them for a few years. >Sigh< Oh well. When he's 20 I'm sure we'll look back and laugh about it. We'll see how he does with the laughing gas. I've never had any side effects from it, but I've heard of little kids getting sick afterwards.
Then Tuesday is haircuts for the boys and FIL. That's usually something easy. Preschooler sits very well by himself for the haircut, but Toddler still has to sit on FIL's lap and he doesn't like it as much. Afterward we always meet MIL at McDonald's for lunch. That's pretty much the only time we ever go to McDonald's so I don't feel so bad about it.
This week I'm seriously going to nip this potty training thing in the bud. I'm so sick of fighting with Preschooler over it. Seriously, if I were allowed one parenting thing to pay someone else to do - it would be to potty train Preschooler. Toddler I can handle, but Preschooler and I clash like oil and water and that's not very conducive for such a stressful training stage. I don't understand why this is so hard. I've done every other major "stage" by myself. I weaned him off his binky in one weekend - no problem. Bottle? No problem. Sleeping in the toddler bed? No problem. Potty training? This has been going on for a year now. I'm sick of it. He just flat-out refuses to do it. Even if I managed to wrangle him to the potty every 15 minutes, he refuses to sit on it and go. He knows he can do it, he'll do it perfect every time if I let him run around naked, but the second you put anything on his butt he doesn't care anymore. I'd make Husband do it, but he's not home to do it so. . .
I think I'm just going to lock myself in the house with enough provisions for a month until he's potty trained, or I've died from sheer madness.

Ok, so I gave in. . .

2011-07-28T11:55:00.001-05:00

I'm a reluctant kind of person when it comes to new technology. Not that I don't like technology (obviously, I'm on here!), I just keep trying to tell myself that I don't need it. "I don't need a new camera. . . I'll just blindly take pictures with the one I have. . . ok, maybe that Nikon does look really tempting. . . and I'd be able to take the kind of pictures that I've always wanted too. . ."
Well, I gave in to Pinterest.com. You can thank Katie over at On The Banks of Squaw Creek for that. The best way to describe this website is that it's like when you were a teenager and cut out pictures from magazines of things that you liked - only without the scissors and glue! It's a great place to find inspiration for home decor, photography ideas, even fashion. I'm no fashionista, but I've found some looks that I like that will be flattering for this winter's ever-growing waist.
I put together a "board" - which is like your virtual portfolio - of pictures of what my dream house would look like. Here's a few.

For the Nursery (I'm pretty sure our entire house would look like a nursery because I've found so many cute ones!):

I LOVE the wood floors and the bed!

But I really like the barn doors in this one. . .

How cool is this? Talk about farmhouse style!

For the Boy's Room:

Love Pottery Barn's style, not so crazy about their prices!

For Our Bedroom:

I love the open beams and our bed is a wrought-iron canopy like this one.

I LOVE this door! I'd have them at every entrance if I could.

For the Dining Room:

I'd have to do w/o the comfy bench - else I'd never get the guys to leave the table!

I love the rustic look of this cabinet.

AND, in case we ever had an extra barn to turn into a guest house (which is non-existent on a farm - ALL the barns get crammed full of junk):

How neat is this?

Can you tell I'm a rustic romantic? Just getting some ideas put together. . . (again, for my surprise).

In other news. Today I'm 11 weeks pregnant! (If you read the ticker at the top of the page, you prolly already knew that.) While we're not outta the woods yet (most miscarriages occur within the first trimester), I feel very good about this. I lost the baby in-between Preschooler and Toddler at 10 weeks, 6 days so today seems like a milestone for me. The strong heartbeat that I heard on Monday reinforces my good vibes, I don't feel nearly as nervous about this baby as I did with The Toddler.

Oy

2011-07-27T22:02:00.001-05:00

Well, I have good news and I have bad news. Which would you like first? I like to start off w/ the bad because then you forget about it some with the good news.
Bad news is: my camera is pretty much shot. The screen is so cracked and banged up I have to use a wide shot to get pictures and it's really slowing down on me which makes me think it's going to crash worse than a virus-loaded laptop any day. Worse news is: unless I find some totally awesome deal, it'll prolly be Christmas before I get a new one. On the other hand, it could be viewed as good news that it WILL BE no longer than Christmas before I get a new one. ;}
Until then, you're stuck w/ just plain ol' me. I'll try to add some cute pics here and there and occasionally I'll try to get some shots off my phone.
Good news is: well, it's a surprise. Kind of. NO, I'm not having twins! ;} Trust me, if that were the case - there'd be a LOT more posts on here and you'd see a side of Ashley that might be unpleasant to see - the freaking out side. It's not pretty. Amusing maybe, but once you get me to that stage you're just as likely to pull my hair out as I am. Just ask The Husband.
I did have a good baby checkup the other day. They found a little glitch (imagine that) when they did my ultrasound two weeks ago (oOo, there's a pic I could post! Will have to scan later. . .). I guess some blood showed up on the u/s around the baby. The midwife (who's pretty cool by the way) said that it's not uncommon for that to happen and is usually caused by extra bleeding during implantation (TMI - I know). She said she wasn't real worried about it and said that unless she couldn't hear the baby's heartbeat with the doppler, she'd want to do another u/s just to check and make sure everything way ok. Luckily, she found the heartbeat which surprised me because at 10 weeks they couldn't find Toddler's and we did have to do an u/s. (Also because when the doc thought she heard the heartbeat she thought she heard an echo and thought it might be twins!). She said it was a strong heartbeat in the 160's (last time it was 173, it drops a little as early pregnancy goes along, but 160 is still pretty high for my babies - the boys were no higher than 145) so she wasn't concerned and we'd see how baby was doing when I go back in a month. I'm still holding out on the Old Wive's Tale that if the baby's heart rate is over 150, it's a girl. It was true for both my boys so we'll see! I'm also going to be updating my Old Wive's Tale list here soon so we can see which ones are right this time ('course they're all about 50/50 anyway).
And then I have weird news: In our garden over at G-G's house, we planted cucumber seeds. Well, Husband decided that he didn't think that they would grow, so I went and bought 2 cucumber plants. They were cucumbers, I checked the label several times since some of the plants were a little mixed up. Said so on the pot, said so on the little white plastic stick-thingy. They looked like cucumber plants.
Well. . . not only have the plants thrived, but the seeds came up too so we have cucumbers out the whazoo! (don't ask me what that is, it's just a word I use). Anywho, the fruits on the plants don't look like cucumbers. Well, none that I nor Hubs, nor G-G have ever seen. They're shaped like cucmbers and have skin like cucumbers, but they never really get green. They're HUGE too and they turn yellow - like an orangey-yellow. I finally took a few off that were what I could guess as being ripe and cut them open. Yup, looks like a green cucumber on the inside to me. If only I had a pic. . . The neighbor down the road said she's seen yellow ones before, but only in magazines and as far as I know I didn't buy any fancy heirloom variety.
So that's all the excitement around here for now. 'Cept for the surprise part, I know. It's bugging the crap outta me that I can't be public about it yet, but as soon as I have enough details you can bet your biffie (again, don't ask) that I'll be sharing!

Whew! That was a week!

2011-07-22T10:22:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the last night of the fair - the auction. All of the animals were released last night after the Round Robin competition. Jessie got 3rd behind two girls who regularly show just about every critter possible so I say she did pretty darn good! Especially since she's never put hands on three of the kinds of animals that she had to show! The end of the fair is kind of sad, but after the week we've had with the weather - everyone is ready to be done. We're already making future plans for the cows and goats and for next year's fair.
Last night, Coley brought back Baerli and Kit Kat so there was the usually scuffling over the reorder of the hierarchy. Moonpie was not impressed. I could tell by the look on her face she was thinking, "Oh great, more competition." Moonpie is the Queen Doe and she makes that fact well-known, to everyone, even her own kid. Poor Kit Kat is back on the bottom of the totem pole, but surprisingly Baerli sticks up for her and will push her away from the older does as if to say, "C'mon Kit, let's go eat over here." I'm glad they're buddies now. While it was nice to not have as much work to do - especially since I've not been feeling at the top of my game - I missed my girls and it's great to see them all back home and happy. Now I've got to start getting my plans for the breeding season in order. I've got plenty of time as I'm trying to push back breeding as much as possible. I really don't want to be expecting kids when I'm expecting a kid!
Then this morning the other girls brought the cows back home. Itsy Bitsy and Sweetheart went into the milking herd - we'll move them later into the dry herd so that they can hang out with their new boyfriend. This will be Sweetheart's first calf and I know Miss Grace already can't wait 'till she calves. Bitsy so far has only had bull calves, but Abbey and I are hoping she'll throw a heifer for us soon.
Lil' Ash and Scruffy went in with the older calves - they won't be bred for another year or so.
Now to get the house back in order and get ready for the campout this weekend. I won't be surprised if it doesn't happen tho because while the weather is supposed to break on Tues. and get back down to around 82*, it's supposed to get back up to 90* by Friday - not fun for camping out.

The Fair so far . . .

2011-07-19T14:33:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was the Dairy show. We went early to help the girls get the cows ready, which meant that I wound up on my hand and knees in dirty water scrubbing poop off of the cows' hooves. Haha.

Hubs, Abbey, & Coley putting some finishing touches on Scruffy.

We knew would be a lot of competition - despite being such a small show, the entire thing was made up of Jerseys except for one Holstein. The judge even mentioned he was going to tell one of his other judge buddies who raises Holsteins. The girls did great and put their all into the cows and the show, but there was just no beating the kids who brought actual show cows. We're ok with that, and so are the girls - our cows have to work, they can't just look nice. For our system, it's the small cows that can handle a rotational pasture grazing system where they have to walk 3 miles a day in the cold and heat and re-breed, have healthy calves, and still produce milk.

Competition on the left - Abbey & Scruffy on the right.

Grace & Sweetheart, Jess & Lil' Ash

Jessie won her Showmanship class and may be competing in the Round Robin competition if the Champion of Champions winner doesn't want to compete in it. The Round Robin Competition is where all of the Champion of Champions winners from the livestock shows has to show an animal from each livestock barn. The winner is the one who does the best at showing a cow, a pig, a horse, a goat, and a sheep.
After a long day at the Dairy show, the kids had to wash their goats to get ready for the Dairy, Pygmy, and Showmanship Goat Show that was this morning.

All the kids: Jessie, Shelby, Ethan, Grace, Abbey, Jackie, and Coley washing their goats.

My goatie girls and Coley did great! Baerli won Top Jr. Alpine Doe. She even beat a doe that was over a year older than her!

Baerli & Coley on the right.

Kit Kat won Champion Oberhasli doe, but that was really more by default since she was the ONLY Oberhasli in the show, haha.

Kit Kat making her way around the ring.

Oh well, we'll take it! I'm really excited to see how Baerli does next year after she's kidded and has an udder. The judge really liked her and even said he'd like to see her in more outside shows. We did make the competition a little nervous - they asked Nicole if Baerli was going to be back next year and when Coley said, "Oooh yea!" they replied, "Oh, good for you. . . " Haha. That's good. I don't like it when one farm always wins everything - competition is good.
The rest of the kids did great in their classes too. Miss Gracie won her Showmanship class - it was a tough call between her and Ethan (her cousin, and Coley's brother). They both did an awesome job.
Tomorrow is the Pig Show where even more cousins of the kids will be showing. (They have a big family!) Thursday is the Meat Goat Show where Coley and her brother will be showing again and then Friday is the auction and the end of the fair.
And as if all that excitement wasn't enough, next weekend the boys and I are going on the church Youth Group's campout! Yeehaw!

Fair Kickoff!

2011-07-17T07:50:00.000-05:00

Yay! The fair is here! I'm lovin' it, even if the boys did wear me out on the first day ('course that also probably had something to do with the fact that I had Farmer's Market yesterday morning too). That's ok, we're not going to make it there today so I can recoup and rest up for the rest of the week.
Even though it was the first day and we'll be there all week, we still had to check out all the barns. We usually do a quick pass-through the first day and then go back later when things aren't as busy and really look at all the entries. (warning, a lot of rambling about animals - I can't help it, I just love 'em!)
There were baby bunnies to pet:

Toddler, Grace and bunny.

Friends to hang out with:

Preschooler and our animal-lovin' neighbor, Darryl.

And a goat to kiss!

This goat couldn't stop licking Preschooler! 'Course he couldn't stop kissing her either!

Oh yea, UPDATE: Miss Paprika isn't going to the fair anymore. The move over to Coley's house wasn't easy on her. Paprika I'm learning, is a very fickle goat. She doesn't like change at all and she really doesn't like dogs - of which Coley has a lot of. She just quit eating all-together and lost a lot of weight, which she didn't have a lot to lose to begin with (but amazingly enough, her milk production actually went up!), and we didn't want her to get down. If Coley's house stressed her out, we could only imagine what a busy fairgrounds would do to her. She came home so I can get her dried up and fatten her back up for breeding season. Miss Baerli and Kit-Kat took the move just fine - a little too fine really as they've gotten rather spoiled, haha - they're at the fair and loving all the extra attention from the fair-goers. ;} They're going to be worthless when they get home. . . Baerli is looking pretty good, Kit-Kat looks good too, but she's just very small (tho I'm not sure if she just looks that way because she's an Oberhasli which are smaller than the Alpines). I haven't found any other goats that would be in their classes, and no other Oberhaslis at all. So, we'll see how they do.
Tonight the boys are staying w/ Nana and Papa (my mom and step-dad) because Hubs, MIL, MIL's friend, Aunt D and her new beau, Cousin A, and Aunt D1 & Uncle D1 (cousin A's parents) are all going to the Tim McGraw, Luke Bryan, and The Band Perry concert over in Indy - whoo-hoo!

But tomorrow is going to be another long day as it's the day of the Dairy Show.

Shelby (one of Abbey and Grace's older sisters) and the boys hanging out with: (from the left) Lil' Ash, Sweetheart, Itsy Bitsy, and Scruffy.

I'm going to get up and help the girls get the cows bathed and ready - I don't really do a lot of work, because we like for the girls to have the satisfaction of doing the work themselves, but with four cows there'll be an extra hand needed to hold them so they don't go laying down and getting muddy before they can dry off.

Talking to the girls before the big show last year. Abbey with Itsy Bitsy, and Grace with Sweetheart who looks like she has no head. : /

The show doesn't start 'till 3, ugh. It's supposed to be in the 90's and I'm pretty sure everyone, including the animals would rather be doing this in the morning when it's cooler, but there's always scheduling conflicts and since the Dairy show is the smallest, it gets moved around a lot. We've definitely got some competition, but that's ok. We know our girls are working girls - not show girls. But I know Grace and Abbey will give 'em a run for their money in Showmanship. No one cares for their animals like the girls do, and they're competitive. A good judge can tell who spends the most time on their animals and you don't have to get one sentence out of the girls to know how much time and effort they put in.

The cow crew after last year's show.

OH! I almost forgot! My crocheted baby set got a blue ribbon! I got beat out with the purple ribbons by two other knitted sweaters, but I'm guessing that the judge was just more of a knitting fan than a crochet fan because the Grand Champion sweater used two different sized buttons (and you could tell it wasn't on purpose) and it was even noted. I'm really not sure what I did wrong b/c the note on the back of the card was barely legible and of what I could decipher didn't make any sense. Haha, oh well - I got a blue!

Being married to a farmer when you're pregnant is tough.

2011-07-08T12:00:00.001-05:00

I'm in a boat. No matter which way I go, I'm gonna get wet.
See, farmers are funny creatures. Soldiers are even funnier creatures. Actually, I dunno which is worse.

Not me, but I thought this pic was so cute!

Farmers work. It's what they do. And they don't understand people who don't work, for whatever reason. But they're funny about pregnant women.
Normally, I hate being babied. I don't like people jumping out of their way for the pregnant lady like I have the plague or telling me to not lift things, to sit down and get out of the heat. . . Family is the worst at this. I'm not above asking for help when I need it - like unloading feed sacks if someone is there to do it. But honestly, I can handle the groceries! Husband is always questioning, "Should you be doing that?", or "Go sit your pregnant butt down and let the men handle this!" (He uses that one just to irk me b/c he knows sexist comments get me riled up and he says it with that little twinkle in his eye.) He acts like I'm a toddler that can't do anything for myself when I'm pregnant. Drives me up the wall.
But then there's times like right now, I'm not feeling so hot. I'm not nearly as sick as I was with either of the boys - Preschooler having been the worst - but I'm still not 100%. I'll get tired out of the blue. Like exhausted. Even when I do get a nap during the day, I can hardly drag myself out of bed in the morning. Aside from this morning (when I was woken up by the dogs trapping a 'coon in the green barn where the chickens are!), I've been sleeping in 'till nearly 8 the past few days. Husband has been gracious enough to get the boys up for me and let me sleep. But he can not understand why nothing has been getting done around the house. He'll see me up and playing with the boys outside on the swingset one hour, and then I'm conked out on the couch while the boys are watching cartoons and crumbling Frosted Mini Wheats on the carpet the next. I try to get up, go outside to get some fresh air to ease my tummy some, but I just don't have the energy to commit to doing anything for very long. Or the right timing. My backyard garden needs weeded - it looks like a scene from The Jungle Book - but the boys won't stay close enough for me to be able to take them with me in the morning when I'm usually feeling ok. By the time naptime rolls around and I'm kidless for awhile, I don't have the energy.
The one chore that I force myself to get done is to feed the neighbor's dogs while they've been on vacation this week since they asked me to. I'm one of those people who treats other people's property with more respect than I do my own, it's a principles thing. And let me tell you - that chore alone should get me a Bronze Metal! Not that it's difficult work - you feed the fish, get the mail, throw out some food for the geriatric blind/deaf dogs, not hard. It's the smell. And not that they have a smelly/ dirty house, it's a very nice house that smells like apple pie actually. The area where the dogs stay is enclosed with the back door open so they can go out back. Being queasy is not the time to enter a stuffy room that smells of dog food, cat food, animal pee, and to top it off - an air freshener. BLECK! Give me a pig barn over that, please!
That's ok, tomorrow morning is the last time I have to do it. But that doesn't necessarily mean that my house is going to get any cleaner. . . or that dinner is going to be anything fancy (not that it ever is anyway). . . or that the indent in the couch where my butt has been is going to go away either. . .

Should I??

2011-07-07T12:42:00.000-05:00

I decided last winter that this year I was going to enter something in the fair. I never got to participate in 4-H as a kid (even when I turned in a membership form without telling my mom in hopes that if I was signed up, she'd think I had to go - didn't happen), but I always wanted to have something in the fair. I decided on needle crafts because well, that's pretty much all I'm good at, haha.
It just dawned on me the other night that I really hadn't worked on anything that wasn't a washcloth for the farmer's market and I panicked a bit. Then I remembered the baby jacket I made last February. So I whipped up the matching cap (the cap I had made in the same pattern before was green instead of blue to match) and modified a pattern for some baby booties so they had the little boxes crochet pattern in them as well. And Ta-Da!

Christening/Coming Home Set

It's not my fav. pattern, and it actually would have looked better in white I think, but it's one of the first things that I've made that actually came out just like the picture in the pattern. I dunno, I'm kind of nervous about it. I'm just not sure if it's ribbon-worthy, but I think our fair needs something other than afghans in the needlework dept. There are several older women from our church who enter things each year and they encouraged me to enter something because they'd like to see more younger women (or men!) become interested in the traditional arts. I don't know how many times during the market that older people tell me that they'd excited to see younger people getting back into the older arts because they're going extinct (and who's fault is that?). I think it's important for history as well as for carrying on family traditions. Most people from my generation don't know anything about anyone older than their grandparents in their family tree.

Husband also wants to enter one of G-Pa's Hyacinths (I think that's what they are). He always entered one and got a ribbon for it. I dunno, G-G's the one who's been taking care of them and I wouldn't feel right taking credit for years of G-Pa's hard work. If anyone, G-G should enter it, but she's not into that kind of thing and she likes her orchids better anyway.

The fair is just a week-and-a-half away and the kids are starting to get their animals ready too. Husband and I are going over on Monday to help Miss Abbey, Grace, and Jessie with trimming their 4-H cows and calves. There's four of them so this could take awhile. Miss Coley is trying to get Miss Paprika to gain a little weight before the fair. She didn't take the move very well and quit eating so she lost some weight. We're hoping that if she can get her a little "thick" and she pulls this stunt again when she's moved to the fairgrounds, she'll be at the right weight once showtime comes.
Actually, this whole insurance/OB disaster worked out in my favor because originally I was supposed to have a Dr.'s appt. during the Meat Goat and Showmanship show, and I was NOT happy about it! Most of my kids (my church kids, that is) will be showing that day and I didn't want to miss it. But since I had to switch to a midwife, the apt. got cancelled anyway! Whew!

Toddler (then Baby), Itsy Bitsy, Abbey, and Sweetheart hanging out at last year's fair.

There's something that someone we know is showing nearly every day of the fair. Which I don't mind because the boys and I are usually there everyday anyway just to hang out. Even tho Hubs and I just took the trip to TN, Fair Week is my vacation every summer. I get a little break from the everyday hum-drum and be surrounded by people and animals that I love (plus the fair food!) - forget the beach! It doesn't get any better than that! This year will be even better because we have so many of our own animals being shown.

Rewind - Fourth of July

2011-07-06T09:30:00.001-05:00

Aaaaah. I feel better (kind of). Hubs and I took off for Gatlinburg, TN last Fri. to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. I'll tell ya, the weather was MUCH better this year than it was the day we got married (sunny, 95*, yet a chance of rain so it was muggier than all get-out!). We had a great time and even got to sleep in! Well, the first morning anyway. The only issue was that the morning sickness finally hit me. I don't get sick just in the morning, it's all day. Luckily I quickly figured out that as long as I got something to eat without letting myself get too hungry, I was ok. This was fine with the Husband as he likes to eat anyway, haha. I was also downing ginger candies (they're good for tummy troubles) like they were, well, candy.
So, here's a few pictures from our trip:
After driving outside of town and hitting all the craftsman shops - which included a few soapmakers of course, gotta check out the competition! ;} We walked down to the strip and checked out what there was to see down there - mostly tourist-trap kinds of stuff.
We played Hillbilly Golf, you have to ride a tram up to the top of the course (you're playing on the side of a mountain!) and then you play these goofy hillbilly-themed holes. Funny part was, most of the props used as obstacles can also be found in our yard. . .

The tram ride up.

Goofy holes

Then, just because it was there, Husband decided we should go explore this creek that runs along the major road from Pigeon Forge to Gatlinburg (didn't catch the name of it tho).

Husband was DD - designated driver, I was DP - designated photographer.

The next day we went to the Smokey Mountain National Park. We were in search of a black bear that had triplets this winter. We didn't get to see her or the cubs, but we did take a horseback ride that went right by her den. The guide was telling us about how just the day before they'd run into a bobcat in the middle of the day and had to call the rangers. She also pointed out to us where a few weeks before a momma deer had had twin fawns right next to the trail. They were still wet and couldn't get up when momma bear found them. Luckily the doe was able to get one of the fawns away. I can't even imagine stumbling upon a bear with cubs while on horseback. I think even ol' dead-head Sandy might not take that too well!

The only shot of a black bear I could get (and yes, I was stupid enough to get that close!)

After having no luck in finding the momma bear, Husband wanted to get to Clingman's Dome. Good lord that was a trip! It took over an hour just to get up the mountain! Most of it had to do with people stopping and blocking the road to look at wildlife (which of course was gone by the time we got there!). Once you get to the top of the mountain, you have to climb on foot to the very tippy-top (I think about 1/2 a mile) and then walk up this needlepoint structure. The view was great, but the whole time there was thunder and lighting rolling in. So of course, we're standing on a metal structure on top of a mountain - great. This was also too much of a workout for a pregnant DFW. I told Husband he was not getting the Father-of-the-Year award. Note to self - never go to a National Park that has mountains with an Infantry Officer while you're pregnant.

A thunderstorm rolling in, while we're standing on a metal structure on top of a mountain. Genius.

We made it back on Monday in time to enjoy 4th of July Fireworks and check on our garden.

There's a tiny hummingbird just to the left of the feeder.

Just after I took that shot, he nearly flew into my hair! Guess he doesn't like getting his picture taken. . .

Found a ripe cucumber already.

And our little cherry tomatoes coming along. . .

As exciting as that all was, it was relaxing to get away for a little bit. It may be awhile before we get to get away again, and it will most likely be with all three kids.

Here's a Thought Thursday

2011-07-06T07:19:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a representative of USDA Loans about allowing him to make a guest post on my blog. After reading over the information that he wanted to present, I thought it was a good idea. I have several readers who (like me) are just getting started in the rural life whether they're new to farming, trying their hand at homesteading, or just moving out to the country for the first time after a lifetime in the city. Like myself, they don't always know where to start or what their options are. I'm lucky enough to have married into a farming family who's been doing this long enough to know the ropes, but not everyone has that luxury. I figure if this info could help someone who doesn't even know where to get started, then it's worth taking the 12 seconds to ctrl-V the info here. ;}

Acquiring the Rural Life – The Easy Way
            Having a home matters, especially for farmers who live on the land on which they depend. Of course, farmers live in less populated areas, and at one time it was difficult to finance a home in a rural area. But in 1987, the federal government introduced the Rural Home Loan program. The program, which lends what are called USDA loans, fits the needs of farmers and other prospective homebuyers looking for a home in a rural area.
            Akin to other federal home loan programs, USDA loans come with zero percent down payments. Immediately this accounts for large savings. A traditional loan for a starter home valued at $150,000 and 20 percent down equates to a $30,000 down payment. That’s no small sum. Even with this no-money-down feature, USDA loans have no maximum on the purchase price of the property.
            USDA loans may finance 102 percent of the appraised value of the property. The reason for the extra 2 percent is the 2-percent funding fee that comes with USDA loans. Without this fee, the Rural Home Loan program likely wouldn’t be able to stay afloat, so the federal government requires this small additional cost. When lumped into the loan value though, the fee is paid off in time instead of all at once.
            Purchasing a home is not the only thing a USDA loan can do. Building, repairing, renovating or refinancing property may be financed with a USDA loan. It’s even possible to purchase a plot of land and build on it with USDA loan financing. Other perks to the Rural Home Loan program include:
            -No private mortgage insurance
            -Fixed rates with loan lives as long as 38 years
            -Lower closing costs than traditional loans
            -Sellers paying for some closing costs
            Only farmers were eligible for USDA loans when they first entered the market. That is no longer the case as homebuyers who do not farm may be eligible. Most importantly those seeking a USDA loan must be in an eligible area. Generally, properties in or near cities, towns or villages with fewer than 25,000 people may be eligible for the program. Also, the area must be without credit, due to a lack of banks or lenders. It’s also required that the current housing is inadequate for the size of the family, and the property to be purchased is not oversized. The USDA makes these decisions.
            Financial eligibility requirements apply, too. USDA loan applicants will not be accepted if their income exceeds 115 percent of the area’s median income. USDA-approved lenders prefer credit scores of at least 620 and debt-to-income ratios of no more than 41 percent. The USDA will also make sure that homebuyers can afford to repay the loan.

There ya go!

We interrupt this Broadcast. . .

2011-06-30T09:44:00.001-05:00

. . . to bring you an important announcement. The previously raging hormonal pregnant lady (a.k.a. Me) will return to her normal self following a long weekend getaway with The Husband for their anniversary. Please resume your normal activities and you may release yourself from the fetal position in the corner.
That is all.

Better News. . .

2011-06-29T07:35:00.000-05:00

After spending ALL DAY on the phone yesterday (seriously, I didn't get a thing done!), and after dealing with one, uh "brilliant", lady (You can repeat it all you want, lady - you're not telling me anything no one else has!). And some research done by BIL's girlfriend (she's an OB ICU nurse at the best hospital in the state), I've come up with two main options:
A: I can "decrease" my insurance coverage by going to Tricare Standard and then I can go to the doctor that I want.

This will mean that I'll have to pay the deductible (a whopping $50) and then $16.58 (isn't that a random number?) a day for my hospital stay when I'm in the hospital (with a $25 minimum). There's also some other fees that I have to research some more and I think part of the deal is that I have to submit all my own claims - which I'm not good with medical forms!
OR
B: I found a midwife that my insurance covers (who'd have thought!?) who totally supports VBAC, and she's even had two of her own.

I talked to her on the phone and she seems really nice and supportive. I explained to her what happened with Preschooler and Toddler and she had the same laid-back attitude about it like my last OB did - which was what I really liked about her. The one and only downside to her (besides NOT being my beloved OB) is that she works under a Dr. that my mom tells me has a bad reputation. Granted, my mom didn't like any of the Drs. that are in my insurance network, so it's not like she's helping come up with options. This Dr. is a high-risk pregnancy specialist and he's delivered two of my friends babies. He's VBAC supportive and other than meeting him at the first appointment I really won't see him unless the midwife needs him. I have no reason to think that he'll be needed, and the doctor only comes in for the pushing part anyway - right? It's just that "what if" thought in my head (because we've had "what if" actually happen before) that makes me wonder if I really trust this guy so save me and my baby if something (knock on wood!) should go wrong.
But enough about that, I have to get my rear-in-gear as we're having friends over this evening. They've just (ok, she's like 2 mos. old now!) had their third little girl and we finally get to meet the Lil' Miss! I can always count on them to have a kid before us so I can get all the advice from them! Haha. As much as I'd like to have a little girl, it would ruin our plans of arranged marriages for all our kids, tehehe.

Bad News. . . and more Bad News. . .

2011-06-28T15:11:00.000-05:00

WARNING: More TMI. . .

So today, I finally got the word that my beloved OB who delivered The Toddler doesn't accept our new Tricare insurance. The call came while I was in line to checkout at the grocery store this morning, and despite the adorable baby girl who kept smiling at me, I about broke down and cried right there. Why? It's not like she's the only OB in the world, right? Well, for me - she pretty much is. She's the only Dr. who will allow VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) at the hospital that I go to.
I sucked it up and started the search for another. Basically, the only Dr.s who will allow VBAC and are within my insurance's network either deliver at the other hospital in town (which is actually in a different county because our local hospital doesn't deliver babies anymore) or have really bad reputations - which normally doesn't bother me, but this is my baby we're talking about here! I did find a midwife who will deliver at my hospital and is within my insurance network, but she has yet to get back to me. One Dr. that was at my hospital and covered under insurance wouldn't do VBAC with me because I wasn't a patient already, even tho I've already had a successful VBAC (and your chances of success jump from 63% to 84% after 1 VBAC!). It's all so incredibly frustrating. My other options are switching insurance plans, that we'll have to pay for out of pocket, or (and this would actually be my preference) finding a midwife that would do a homebirth. But Hubs is staunchly against this, and so is the rest of the family - I hate to tell them (no I don't) but people have been having babies at home a LOT longer than they have been having them in hospitals. It was 100's of years from the advent of physicians before Dr.s were even allowed to attend births!
I did get someone from my insurance to put in a request for a special exception so I could go to my regular OB, but it could take up to three days to make a decision and we could still wind up paying out of pocket. I want to have a backup ready so that if I'm disappointed I can immediately switch gears and get over it.
I'm really praying that they give me this exception since I've already delivered with this woman before - under different Tricare insurance - and since we're in the special circumstance of wanting a VBAC doctor at that specific hospital.
Boo.

What to Expect when you're Expecting on a Farm. . .

2011-06-27T09:42:00.001-05:00

Look! Two bloated cows!

Funny thing. There are practically NO books about what Pregnancy on a Farm is like. Or How to Raise Kids on a Farm for that matter either.
All an expectant mother can do is take the "conventional" baby books and try to apply them to the farm life. Easier said than done. You read about all the don'ts, what to avoid, how the entire world is a dangerous place for pregnant women and then you set the book down and look out your window at the death trap that is: your farm. What was just a few weeks ago a peaceful life in the country now looks like a greenhouse full of giant venus fly-traps around every corner, lurking, waiting to harm you and baby.
Ok, so it's not THAT scary, but no one tells you how to handle doing chores and getting work done on a farm when you're playing the part of the cabbage patch. You know you're not supposed to handle the kitty-litter, but what about cleaning out stalls? Or the chicken coop? You're not supposed to lift heavy furniture, but what about feed buckets and newborn calves? This gets even more complicated if you're in my position where your husband isn't always around to take over choretime - work's gotta get done!
But surely there's someone who knows how to handle all this? I mean, women have been having babies on the farm for centuries, right? That's what I thought too, but there were different stigmas about women and farm work, and pregnancy even 25 years ago. We now know that you won't wrap the umbilical cord around baby's neck if you lift your arms over your head, and there's a lot of labor-saving (albeit sometimes dangerous) farm equipment out there now. We know that exercise is good for mom and the baby, but how much is too much? Someone needs to be writing a book about this, especially with the recent sudden interest in farming by the baby-bearing generation. Many of these young people come from non-agriculture backgrounds and don't have previous generations to go to for advice and knowledge.

So, here's a few of The DFW's hints about The Baby Bump on the Farm:

1.) Chores are going to be done differently. You really shouldn't lift or carry around 50 lb. sacks of feed, or 80 lb. bales of hay. Most Dr.'s will tell you your max. carrying capacity should be about 20-30 lbs, but that depends on your personal situation. I'm stubborn and don't like to have a weight restriction put on me - esp. when my young boys weigh more than that, but I do try to lighten my load wherever I can so that I don't strain myself (labor with a hernia is no fun, ask me how I know). In case your hubby isn't always around to help out, you can still get things accomplished on your own.
Like unloading feed sacks - Try to park as close to your drop-off destination as possible. Then you can slide the sacks out of the back of your vehicle. Or, if you can't get close to the feed storage area (like me), use a wheelbarrow to transport your heavy loads - and remember to try not to lift the sacks into the bucket, slide or push them out.
Carrying buckets - You can still help feed/water the animals, but you may just have to make more trips with smaller loads.

2.) Watch the chemicals - just stay away from them. We don't have as big of a problem with this in our farm since we're organic, and actually I'm quite thankful for that because the organic fly spray for the cows works better than the people bug spray with the DEET in it. Also, you need to look out for certain animal medications like DMSO, frequently used on horses. I learned about this one in college - women shouldn't handle it as it can cause ovarian cysts (which I have anyway), but since it was an all-women's college, we just made sure to wear gloves and tried not to get it on our skin. Don't even mess with it if you're pregnant. Read the labels on any fertilizers, pesticides, or medications - even organic stuff.

3.) The bump eventually gets in the way. While normally you can squeeze between that gate and the barn wall, you won't be able to for long. I like to chase the cows out of the barn when we're done milking the row, but in order to get them going sometimes you have to get behind them and push on their rump to make them want to go forward. Trust me, being squished between two stubborn cows or between a cow and metal rail is not comfortable. And baby will make you pay for it for the next 15 minutes while he/she's tries to kick their way out of your cramped womb. It also gets difficult to bend over to pick up buckets without feeling like you're going to fall over on your head. (bend at the knees!) And if you're bottle-feeding a calf or kid, don't hold the bottle straight out in front of you - it hurts when they bump the bottle which in then turn bumps your bump!

4.) For those of you that drive a tractor - this is for the most part safe. Tractors these days are much more comfortable than past models. However, if you're using tractors from the 70's or earlier (like our old John Deeres and Model M), you make want to take it a little slower in really bumpy areas. Bouncing around on a tractor seat is reeeaaallly uncomfortable when you're pregnant, and can harm the baby if you're bouncing too hard. And as always, avoid driving on uneven ground that could result in a roll-over.

5.) Like any expectant momma - stay hydrated. Especially in the summer. Take water with you wherever you go - even if you're just running something out to the field, you never know when something will break down or you're waiting on the guys to make another pass and could be sitting in a hot truck for an hour. We always keep ice-pops in the freezer and I stuff a few in my back pocket to suck on while I'm milking.

6.) Don't be afraid to just go inside. You wear out easily when you're pregnant. Don't think you're too strong to tap out. I personally have a hard time with this one. I find myself constantly yelling, "I'm pregnant, not handicapped!" at the guys, but there comes a time when Husband will kick my butt out of the barn for my own good - like when it's 98* in the shade and I've decided that I'm going to help milk, despite already dripping with sweat.

7.) Whether you like 'em or not - overalls help. Maternity jeans are a joke, especially when you're sweating. I can't ever keep my britches up and I don't care to moon everyone when I'm bent over bottle-feeding calves or picking up buckets. I personally wear them all the time because I hate plumber-butt and I think they're cute.

8.) If you already have older children - take a nap when they do! If there are any outside chores you need to do while they're down - do them first, and then lay down! Or at least put your feet up. Anything that isn't life-or-death can wait. You gotta rest so you can keep up with the growing baby in your belly, the work on the farm, and chasing another kid (or 2) around.

9.) If you're an avid hunter, just be warned that baby may not like the blast from a shotgun. My boys would jump whenever I'd take a shot, and push really hard on the front of my stomach like they were stomping on the brakes (like "quit mom!").

10.) Watch the electric fence! No, you won't fry baby, but he definitely won't like it! I accidentally hit our fence with the inside of my leg (whoo-ha!) while trying to climb over it once. I jumped, baby jumped, and we both landed on my butt a little bewildered.

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting, but I figure 10 is a good start. I'll probably be adding more later as I finagle my way through being pregnant with two little kids and during the winter as this will be a first for me (Preschooler and Toddler were born in late Summer/early Fall). Watch my clumsy butt try to navigate an ice-covered farm in January!

Drop Dead Fred & Shank 'Em Frank

2011-06-24T12:39:00.001-05:00

WARNING:
If you do not like the sight of dead animals - clean or otherwise; are an animal right's activist; or just don't like hunting in general DO NOT read this post!

Hunting is a part of our everyday life. Most farmers around here are hunters either because they enjoy the sport or to protect their crops/livestock. Here in IN, we have an over abundance of whitetail deer - as does much of the Midwest. So much so that some of the state parks have an Open Day where hunters can come in and shoot as many deer as they can and the meat is donated to local food banks and shelters.
We hunt not only to keep the deer population in control, but to stock our freezer as well. The first three years that The Husband and I were married - we didn't eat beef in our house. Now, we will occasionally keep a few steers to raise for beef, but most of our burger and steaks come from the deer that the guys shoot in the fall.
The Fall of 2009 was a bad Fall for Husband. He was gone a lot for pre-deployment training and didn't get to spend as much time as he usually does in the woods. He didn't get a single deer which was disheartening on top of his impending 10 month deployment.
Last Fall was MUCH better! He bagged a nice buck and quite the adventure it was! He shot the buck (he was bow hunting) at about 8:30 a.m. About 9:00 he called me and asked me to go find FIL so he could help him track the sucker down as he ran off after being shot. oOo! An Adventure! So I threw warm clothes on the boys (tho neglected to do so for myself) and we all jumped in FIL's truck and headed down to the South 80 to track down this buck. This is one thing I don't care for in bow-hunting, the deer don't usually just drop like they tend to do when being hit by an actual bullet. We walked around in the woods for an hour, I was bleeding all over from pushing through thorn (and only having sweatpants on instead of my coveralls) and I was getting cold because it was only 40-some degrees out. We figured we were only chasing him further so we gave up and went in hoping that the thing would lay down and bleed out. Nope. This made Husband itchy all day. He knew he got a big one and after the last season - he was gonna find that buck!
So he went back out about 2 in the afternoon. He followed the trail of blood across the road and behind the neighbor's house. Just as he lost all sign and was about to give up again as it was getting on milkin' time, he sucker jumped up! He called FIL to come help him - he didn't have his gun. FIL was driving over to the neighbor's when the deer ran across the yard. SO FIL jumped the ditch in the truck and headed him off (making ruts in the yard - Sorry Mary Ann!). He got him stopped and the thing was pretty well bled out, but still had a lot of fight in him. A thing about deer is - they won't go down until they're dead.
The next part gets a little gruesome and descriptive, so to make a long story short - FIL grabbed the deer by the antlers, shoved his head into the ground and Husband had to take him out with a knife. The same knife that went all through Afghanistan and didn't see any action other than picking mud out of the tread of a boot, yet came home to IN to kill a deer.

Well after all that I had no choice but to let Husband get him mounted. And Hubs was right, he was a big, old deer for a 10 pointer! Today was like Christmas for Hubs - he and FIL got their deer back from the taxidermist.
So, without further adieu, here's the deer who caused all the problems: Shank 'em Frank!

Of course, this is what I get to stare at when I watch TV now. . .

He'll have company as we already have Drop Dead Fred, the first buck that Hubs shot with a bow - also a big buck (he doesn't shoot any other kind, they have to be at least an 8 pointer before he'll even take aim).

Shank 'em Frank & Drop Dead Fred enjoying some outdoor air.

Now there's different kinds of mounting positions and I've about heard them all. Since we have low ceilings, we have to use either a Full or Half Sneak (named so because it looks like they're sneaking through the woods) - these can also be turned to the left or right. Frank is a Full Sneak with a slight turn to the left. Fred is a Half Sneak to the right (from the deer's pt. of view). FIL's below is a half sneak to the left. His don't get named. Our do because they tend to scare small children (and my mom ;}) and it makes them seem more like pets if you give them a name and let the kids pet them. Hey, how many people pay money to feed deer in a petting zoo? You can pet our deer for free!
FIL's deer was a good size too and depending on how you count the tines (which his is considered Non-typical because it has some tines in funny places) - it's up to a 13 pointer!

Hubs and FIL with their bucks.

As I'm writing this, Hubs and FIL are scoring their deer. I think Hubs will make at least 150 - which is really good. IN has pretty big deer, seeing as how we're next to IL - the whitetail hunting capital of the world. It was kind of funny when we went to AZ and the wranglers at the guest ranch about fell over when Hubs told them how big his buck was - the biggest they get is about 6-8 pts. A neighbor down the road had to ship her dad all his old racks he had laying in the barn when he moved to a guest ranch in AZ so they could sell them in the gift shop!
So that's our big buck story for the year. I'm bound and determined to get out of the house and get me a deer one of these years. I'm usually stuck in the house for weeks on end with the boys. . .

I got to sleep in!!!

2011-06-23T07:09:00.005-05:00

Ok, so any of you that live on a farm, specifically with dairy animals, know how rare it is to get to sleep in. Ok, so it really wasn't sleeping in if you're comparing it to those that sleep in on a regular basis, but I'll take 7:30 over 6:45 anytime! Wow, I feel like it's my birthday!
And the reason for this sudden allowance of extra ZzZzZz's?
You may have heard me mention my good buddy Coley (Nicole) who lives down the road (read about her here). She's going to show Miss Paprika, Baerli, and Kit Kat in the fair this summer. She just got back from vacation in FL on Tues. and came to get the goats last night. I showed her how to milk - which she's had a little experience in before - and sent the goaties off with her. (I later got a text that Baerli peed on her brother while they were carrying the kids into the barn, haha!) While I'm very attached to my goats (especially my milk goat!), I feel very good about sending my girls with Coley. She's very meticulous about her animals - her dad even teases her that there is such a thing as too much time spent in the barn! Coley and I disagree. The same goes for her cousins, Abbey and Gracie who also live down the road and are showing Miss Itsy Bitsy, Sweetheart, and some other calves. These kids are great, especially with animals and I'm always so proud of them and their accomplishments at the fair (and the basketball and tennis courts!).
While these kids aren't really any relation of mine, I feel like they're my own. I think of them as little cousins as most of my cousins are at least 8 years older than me and we didn't see each other much growing up. Well, this is Brazil, I'm sure they're related to the family somewhere down the line, haha. I love all the kids that go to our church. They really are great kids, each in their own way, and I love that they love to hang around my boys (lots of babysitters!) because they're the mentors that my kids are going to look up to. Ben and I try to set the best example for our boys, but like the saying goes, "It takes a village to raise a child," and it's great that my boys can look outside our immediate family and still be surrounded by great influences. Abbey and Gracie's dad was The Husband's Sunday School teacher when he was a kid and he looks up to Kevin. Their mom is one of the most patient women I've ever met in my life (you'd have to be with 5 girls!) and she always has something nice to say to make you feel awesome inside. Coley's Mom is a great confidant of mine because her family mirrors my crazy one very much and her Dad is our Sunday School teacher whom I look up to a great deal. On top of all that, her sister is a great photographer and my boys' Sunday School teacher. Her brother is one of the bravest boys I know - he ran into a burning barn last year to save his goats when a heat lamp fell and caught the hay on fire. I could go on and on all day about the awesome people in our church family.
I'd always heard the term 'church family', but never fully understood it 'till I came to this church and I truly love these people and I finally feel like I'm truly loved as well.

The First Day of Summer!

2011-06-21T09:17:00.000-05:00

Doesn't that look delish on a hot summer day??

Could it possibly be here already? Sheesh, where did Spring go? We're hitting Summer running, it's supposed to get up into the 90's today. Yay. There's a 60% chance of rain, but not a cloud in the sky (weathermen are about worthless in the Midwest). Tonight is the second night of VBS and I'm the games leader. Last night wasn't exactly comfortable outside, it was rather muggy but not nearly as hot. I can only imagine what tonight is going to be like.

I'm going out to try to find the early ripening black raspberries once Toddler goes down for his morning nap.

Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Hopefully Preschooler is in a cooperative mood because he does not share my enthusiasm for being poked and pricked by thorns in search of those juicy, tart berries! What he does share is my enthusiasm for eating the berries - which he does quite fast, by the handful, faster than I can pick.

Oops. . .

2011-06-20T12:18:00.001-05:00

What the???

So, funny story:

(WARNING: A little TMI. . . Not that TMI, you dirty bird. . . ;} )

Husband and I went out last Tuesday for dinner. My mom had taken the boys down to Freelandville (think Mayberry only w/o a gas station or stop lights - ok, so they have a flasher) to see my Mamaw. Hubs had been on this kick that I was pregnant.

Pssshaw! Husband, you're silly, shutup.

But he wouldn't. Technically, I was late, but this had been nothing new for the past few months so I wasn't worried about it. My face had broken out like I was in high school again (ack!) and I'd been super moody so I figured Aunt Flo would pay her monthly visit any day. We talked through dinner and planned on hitting up Wal-Mart afterwards seeing as how my vacuum crapped out on me so we decided it was time for a new one. Just to humor Husband, I picked up a box of the pee-on-a-stick pregnancy tests, thinking I'd have some fun and scare him a little for pestering me about it.

You probably see where this is going . . .

Oops. . .

Imagine me staring at a white stick and swearing in French. And then laughing hysterically.

The ironic part about all this was that we were prepping to start trying for another baby next month! I swore up and down after I had Preschooler that never-again would I have a Fall baby. Then Toddler came along. Third time's a charm, right? Wrong.

I did go get an official blood test because my OB won't see you until you do (guess she just can't take my word for it).They like to see you around 10 weeks, and I tried to explain to the receptionist that I have no idea when I'm due because Aunt Flo has been quite irregular in her visits, but she wouldn't listen so I don't see the doc 'til the end of July. I'm guessing either mid-Jan or mid-Feb. Both are not convenient (haha, since when have babies ever come when it's convenient??). Mid Jan. is my Mom's birthday, and I'll never hear the end of it if I have a baby on her birthday. "Oooh, little so-and-so just wanted to make Nana the happiest person on Earth. . ." Oh brother. Mid Feb. is Valentine's Day, BIL's girlfriend's birthday (on Valentine's Day), and Sister #1's birthday (the day after). Knowing my history, I'll hit one. Preschooler was born on a holiday (Labor Day), and Toddler was born on Nephew's birthday.

And another thing. I'm not gonna lie, I want a girl. I'm also not naive enough to think that it really is a 50/50 chance that it is. Bull-butter. I know too many families with all boys or all girls. Take the neighbors down the road with 5 girls (and the last one after a vasectomy - you'd have thought surely that one would have been a boy)!

So here's my plan. We're not going to find out what it is. No, really. Stop laughing. I'm going to hold out this time if it kills me! I failed and gave into temptation with the last two, but this time I WILL stand strong! It's part of my plan to get a girl you see. We're just going to assume it's a boy (because you know what happens when you assume), then we won't have anything for a girl and we'll be totally unprepared and therefore will jinx ourselves into having a girl. Once again, this whole surprise thing threw a wrench in my plan. I was going to try to drink Apple Cider Vinegar to conceive a girl (hey, I've heard it works on livestock!). Bleck, right? But I'm willing to try anything at this point.

But in all seriousness, I wouldn't mind another boy either. I kind of like being the only girl. All my friends were boys growing up and it's kind of a natural state for me.

However, The Needle Test (a.k.a. The Ring Test) said it was a girl. What's the needle test? - You ask.

Welll . . . It's an Old Wive's Tale (or voodoo if you ask CousinS) that FIL's cousin does on all the pregnant women in the family. Actually, you can do it on any female, pregnant or not, and it'll tell you how many kids you'll have and their genders (it even gets them in the right order). SO FAR, it's been right on everyone, even G-G - who had only 4 kids of her own, but adopted FIL's cousins and it counted all 6!

Sometimes the needle is finicky tho. We did the needle test on CousinS, when she was pg w/ her oldest. The needle danced all over the place and wouldn't make up it's mind. Well, she'd just had a sonogram and found out she was having a girl (even has the picture saying "it's a girl!"), but she was due to have another the next week - where they found out she was a HE. We did the needle test again after the second sonogram and it behaved, saying she'd have a boy, then a girl. Correct.

When we did the needle test on me after I had Preschooler (this was when we first found out about the voodoo), it said Boy, then Girl. Then when I was pg with Toddler, we did it again to see if it changed so we could check for accuracy. Boy, Boy, Girl. So far it was correct - even if it did change it's mind. I did it again on myself the other day and again it said: Boy, Boy, Girl. Sooo, we'll see.

I've also tried the Cabbage Test. Cabbage is a natural pH indicator. You boil red cabbage to get the water, then you pee on it. If it turns purple, it's a girl, if it turns red, it's a boy. This was not accurate with Toddler, it said he was a girl.

How does it work? You ask. Well, you take a needle (or your wedding ring) and thread it on some string. You rub the needle back and forth on your arm, specifically (tho I'm not sure if this is really necessary) on the underside of your wrist, 12X. Then hold the thread and let the needle dangle over your wrist. It'll sway side-side (or back-forth depending on how your standing, haha) if it's a Boy. If the needle swings around and around in circles, it's a Girl. Once the needle does it's thing, you stop it, rub it on your arm 12X more again and then dangle it over your wrist again. Keep repeating the procedure until the needle stops when you dangle it over your wrist, that's how many girls/boys you'll have and should be in order. And the needle will stop - it'll jiggle a little, but it won't make any kind of major swinging motions.

I just love Old Wive's Tales, I think they're fun.

Let me know of any Old Wive's Tales that you know of and I'll try them, we'll see which ones turn out to be correct and which don't! oOo, This is gonna be fun!

P.S. The Name That Soap contest is still on! I'm going to give it about a week to get a good selection of names to pick from so keep 'em coming!

Pesky Lil' Boogers. . .

2011-06-17T09:50:00.000-05:00

Last night, after the boys were asleep (of course!), Husband had just gotten back from retrieving some wayward calves. This was the 3rd time in 24 hrs. that they'd gotten out - gonna have to find that hole in the fence. . .
Hubs had just sat down and then the dogs start up. But we could tell that they were in the green barn which sits a whopping 30 ft. from my house and my sleeping boys. Normally we ignore them, they've been getting wound up of a night (of a night?? I have been converted to the dark side, haha!), barking at coyotes or what-not. But since they weren't yapping out in the front yard or out back behind the house and lately we've been noticing an influx of 'coons (and my hen house is in the green barn), we thought we'd investigate. Husband grabbed a gun out of the cabinet (I think it was one of the rifles) and I went around to the front of the barn to turn the lights on.
Sure enough, the dogs had something pinned in a corner, right up next to the hen house wall, but I couldn't actually see it. I heard something beating against the wooden wall, but there was nothing in the corner and nothing squeezed under the screen door that was propped up against the same wall.
And then I looked up. There he was, sitting on top of the outer wall of my chicken coop. He couldn't get in from there, but I knew he was really after my critter feed.

Those cute little faces won't work on me!

Dangit, why do 'coons have to be so cute? But this was no cutie I wanted to keep for one of my own, not when he was after my (expensive!) layer crumbles! So, Husband did his duty and shot the thing while I hid behind the tractor's tire and Husband used the fender as a steady - shooting into a corner with a metal roof for a back splash isn't the safest place to be shooting into.

So that was last night's little adventure.
Today is going to be a long one. Er, rather tonight anyway. MIL, G-G, the little boys and I are headed up to Fountain Central High School (about an hour or so North of here) to walk in the Relay for Life.

Me too, it's called a newborn!

We're the Wegner Walkers and we're walking in memory of G-Pa and of G-G, both of whom battled cancer - G-Pa twice, first with leukemia and then with the pancreatic and liver cancer that took him from us this Spring. While up there, two of the Aunt D's (three of FIL's sisters have names that start with D), a couple of the cousins and I are going to sell some wares to help raise money. I'm taking my soaps, Cousin D1 is taking crocheted totes made from recycled grocery sacks and dish scrubbies, Cousin S is taking bracelets that she makes, Aunt D1 is taking cookies and Aunt D2 is taking her homemade dog biscuits.
It's sure to be a fun time. Our little caravan is taking the first couple of hours since we can't stay for the whole night. G-G doesn't like to stay away overnight, the boys have to get to bed at a decent time because their spending the night with MIL so she can watch them tomorrow while Husband and I head off to the Farmer's Market again bright and early. Aunt's D1,D2,D3 and Cousins D1, A, and S are going to cover the rest of the night. The guys aren't coming as they have the farm to look after, those pesky farms chores are always in the way! ;}

I'm also in need of some assistance. I found a recipe for a soap while trying to use up some essential oils. I really like the scent of it already and I think it looks neat too despite not turning out like I'd imagined. I used cucumber peel for the green coloring and the yellowy part is actually the outer layer of radish peel (I was trying to get a purple color, the soap just bleached the color out of it, oh well - lesson learned!). But I just can't put my finger on what to call it!


Minty???

The oils used are:
Peppermint
Lavendar
Tea Tree
Cedarwood
It smells minty, but not in a candy-mint way like peppermint tends to. The other oils give it a more "natural" mint smell, like the wild mint you might come across in the woods. It has a lemony-fresh kind of hint to it too. Descriptive enough for ya? Haha.
So hit me with your suggestions. The name I pick will receive a free bar of your choice of soap! The "new" soap still has to cure for a few weeks so it'll be awhile if that's the soap you'd like to pick.

Summer's Kickin' In

2011-06-09T11:11:00.000-05:00

If any of you are from the Midwest, you know the heat spell we've been sittin' in for the past week. We went from wet to hot.
FIL finally got some planting done. We're always behind the "big farmers", but I think our corn'll be ok. It'll prolly wind up as silage anyway.

Toddler and FIL goint out to plant a few rows.

Yup, you're seein' right, that's a four row planter. If that's not small enough for you, our chopper is a one row.

Guess what FIL found yesterday???

Not sure why this is sideways. . . it's not correcting. . .

Yup, you're seeing right again. Black raspberries! Ripe black raspberries! They're along our pit where we store manure 'till it gets spread on the fields, I'm guessing that's why they're ripe already. All the other raspberries around here still look like this:

Still green.

There's other berries coming along too. . .

Ripe Mulberries. . .

Blackberries just starting. . .

The garden is coming along too.

Tomatoes

Green Beans coming up.

Cucumbers, aren't they cute?!

I'm also trying a little experiment, Buah-ha-ha! I found a way to make essential oils at home. In an effort to cut-down on costs and to come up with some unique soaps, I'm trying out a method on honeysuckle essential oil.
This,
This is what Heaven in a bag looks (and smells) like! (sorry you can't smell it, honestly!)

Honeysuckle blooms.

Sittin' in the sun.

We'll see how it goes.

It's Soapbox Time Again. . .

2011-06-07T14:05:00.001-05:00

Alright, I'm climbing back up on the ol' soapbox people. . .

First off, let me say that I don't have a problem with vegetarians, vegans, or however one wants to label oneself. I personally could be labeled as a carnivore, and would like to think that people would be as accepting of me as they are of other people with different cuisine lifestyles.

What I do have a problem with are hypocrites. I came across a post on Facebook from a group that I "Liked". I'll not name the group as I'm not here to condemn them, just to rant about my frustrations with the post.
It went something along the lines of: all pet breeders should be stopped and everyone should only adopt animals instead.
Let me also say that I don't have a problem with adopting animals. The best dog I ever had my dad found at the pound (back in the 80's the common term was "the pound", remember Pound Puppies?). My sister's beloved cat, Mr. Whiskers The One-Eyed Gangsta Cat (don't ask) also came from the Humane Society.
BUT I do believe that there are responsible, ethical pet breeders who provide quality working animals and pets. My own Cali (Brittany Spaniel) came from a local, ethical, breeder who breeds dogs for hunting, showing, and as pets. Short of just dumb luck, you're not going to find an exceptional herding dog in a mutt found down at the kennel.

I'm going to make a few points here:
1.) WHY is it ok for a vegetarian who doesn't believe in eating meat to then find it ok to make a profit off of selling unwanted kids to people who DO eat meat?
What really irks me is that very breeder had the gall to state that all pet breeders should be shut down and people should only adopt pets.

2.) I have several vegetarian friends and relatives. Most adopt their lifestyle because they find eating animals morally wrong. I find it morally wrong not to eat meat because I feel like animals are provided for our nourishment and it would be a slap in the face to not take them for the use of our bodies. Think of how many times you've slaved over dinner only to have a picky toddler refuse to even take one bite. I can't help but think, "How can this not be good enough for you? Look at all I've provided and you want a hot dog???"

I'm not going to argue their personal beliefs, I have mine and they have theirs and that's what makes America great. Some vegetarians I know breed animals as pets, some as livestock. Some breed pygmy goats as fair projects and pets for kids. Some breed dairy goats for their homestead.

3.) The folks at Fias Co. Farm are vegetarians and breed dairy goats. They're quite open about the fact that they breed their does in a manner that keeps up with demand without too many surplus kids and they wether (castrate) all bucks that are not suitable for breeding and sell them as pets only. They interview their buyers, they keep in touch with them, and they know that their boys are going to good homes. That to me is an ethical compromise to the issue of how to get rid of unwanted kids if you're a vegetarian.

There are several realities here: there aren't enough people to buy all the surplus livestock as pets - luckily we have meat-eaters for that. I may seem like a hypocrite because I make vegetarian-friendly soaps, despite not being a vegetarian . That has much less to do with making a profit off of people who are vegetarians than it does using what supplies are economical and readily available to me. Basically - aside from the goat milk in them, I use plant-based ingredients because they're cheaper. There's no real solution as to how to make meat-eating and vegetarianism completely go hand-in-hand.
But I will most definitely NOT do business (knowingly) with someone who makes a profit off of something that they themselves don't believe in. It's like saying, "I believe smoking is wrong, but I have all this tobacco laying around so I guess I'll sell it to Camel."

Just sayin'.

Funky Eatin'

2011-06-06T20:41:00.000-05:00

For those of you who follow me regularly, you know I'm no cook. I don't think I've posted a single recipe on here. Ever. 'Cept maybe for the time I did the post about churning butter. . .
Anywho, since I finally have edibles coming up in the garden - lettuce and radishes, Yay me! - Husband has started making requests. His first: Wilted Lettuce.
Que?
This does not sound appetizing to me at all. But the Wegner men go CRAZY over it, and when I mentioned it at my mom's house the other day, my step-dad, uncle, and several of the other men all lit up too. Ok, I'll try it.
G-G gave me her recipe - the one in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook (the one cookbook I do use, and so far only for the zucchini bread recipe, which I use for my pumpkin bread, and for the lasagna recipe) is for spinach and has a gajillion other ingredients in it.
Success!

Yes, I used tongs as salad spoons. . . they were dirty!

Husband said I was "Right On". This is a first. I've never been able to make something that tasted just like G-G's! SCORE!
Tonight while watering the Big Garden, we noticed right away that most of our seed is coming up! Corn, green beans, cucumbers, and some of the kale (dunno if it'll make it in this heat). Husband had thrown out some tomato and cherry tomato seeds, just to humor me. I doubt they do anything and if they do we won't get tomatoes 'till near Fall, but hey - we'll have tomatoes 'till Fall! So, I broke down the other day and bought some cucumber and tomato plants. I bought two heirloom variety tomatoes - German Queen (also called German Pink) and Husky Cherry Tomatoes. I wanted to try heirlooms since they're becoming more widely available now and the German Queen sounded good since my family's heritage is 1/2 German (but since my maiden name is French, I tend to claim that heritage a little more) and Husband's is about as German as you can get w/o actually being from there.
Good reasoning, no?
The Huskies were the only heritage cherry tomato variety I could find.
Also good reasoning.

Farmer's Market

2011-06-05T14:43:00.000-05:00

I'm calling it a success!

For those of you who've followed my blog, you'll know about my little fear of only selling 6 bars all season. . .

Well I sold 6 bars alright - times 6! Sold a few washcloths and soap savers too.

The Farmer's Market is an interesting place. To be honest, I'd never actually been to one before. At least not an American one. When I went to France in high school, we went to the market a few times. It's pretty much like an American market only the stands tend to be pretty big because they do it year-round. The French shop for their groceries nearly daily instead of weekly. They love their food and they want it at it's freshest. Bread isn't bought in sliced loaves that lasts for a week, theirs hardly lasts 'till the next day. Then it's so hard it can be used as a lethal weapon.
Our market has a little bit of everything. There's a wood-carver, a dog-biscuit baker, a couple of apiaries (bee farms - like an aviary is for birds), some herb farms, some crafters, and every week there's musical entertainment - this week was a harp player! It was pretty cool to hear "Stairway to Heaven" on a harp played by a high school-age girl.
I was next to an Amish farmer and his family who was the only vendor with any selection of produce available yet. SCORE! There was a line forming at his stand and what did people do while they were waiting? Looked at my soaps! He cleaned house too. The only thing left of his stand was a few heads of lettuce, which he gave me one (double score!) since I gave his son a sample bar of my Bug-off soap. The little guy had heard me telling customers that it had citronella in it and that it helped ward off bugs. I noticed he kept hanging around my sample crate and he finally asked me which one "gets rid of the bugs", so I just gave him one.
His brother and sister were just as curious. I'm amazed that they were all barefoot. Not that I've never seen barefoot Amish before, but because it got up to 97* that day and we were on hot pavement. Hot enough that the tar in the cracks was melting and peoples shoes were getting stuck in it, as well as my chair.
The people who come to markets to shop are interesting too.
My favorite question was, "So, do you have goats?" Uuuuh, yea? Husband asked me why people kept asking that. I had a photo album laid out and a little sign explaining all about how the milk in the soaps comes from my own goats that I milk by hand. . .blah, blah. Guess some people aren't readers.
The other thing I found funny was that people would come up and talk and ask questions and smell every bar that I had there (literally) and go, "Wow, that's really interesting!" and then walk away without buying any. Hmm. . . so I pulled a trick out of my old Marketing 101 bag. Pick up a bar and hand it to them to feel/smell. If people have a product in their hand as you're talking to them about it, they're more likely to buy it.
Some people want to come up and tell you about how laying a bar of soap under their sheets cured their Restless Legs Syndrome, arthritis, or whatever - still not buy any. I had women tell me how addicted they were to making soap (their husband testified), how their method is better than mine, what ingredients I should use. . . so on and so on. Which, it's nice to talk to people about a hobby we have in common, but I'm very much attached to my own recipe.
I also found it interesting that despite the economy, people will commit to buying before they know how much something is. Now me, I'm the cheapest person you've ever met. I have a hard time with feeling guilty about pricing my products so that I actually make money (ask Husband). I want to sell things for the price that I would pay, which isn't much. When I'm shopping the price tag is the first thing I look at, before I even take the item off the shelf/rack to see if it's something I really want.
Not these customers, they grab a few bars and go, "Ok, how much?" w/o even looking at my price list. Whatever, good for me I guess, right?
My absolute favorite tho was the two older guys checking out my soaps.

First guy:
Goat milk soap, eh?
Me:
Yup, it's really good stuff!
Older guy:
Well yea! Look what it did to her!
Me:

Older guy:
Oh, I hope I didn't embarrass yyou.
Me:
No sir, I grew up with 6 boys - you can't make me blush.
Older guy:
Gets a dirty look from wife.

Haha, reminds me of Uncle Mike.

All-in-all it was a great day despite the heat. I even made one of the local news channels for a split second! We had a really good turnout I thought, but one of the drivers for the Amish family was telling me how the first day is always slow since there isn't a lot of produce out yet, but it'll pick up and be so packed that you can't see your feet. Well that'd be nice, but really I was pretty impressed with yesterday. If I do this well all summer, I'll be happy, even taking into account slow days.

Movin' Cows

2011-06-03T15:05:00.000-05:00

Today is a busy one, and tomorrow is going to get even busier.
The guys started baling hay last night. We're lucky that Husband's Cousin's Husband works nights and is home during the day to help bale since The BIL got a new job last week and isn't around now.
Then this morning we had to move some cows around. There's a group of yearling heifers over at G-G's place that needed to be brought back to the farm to be put in with the bull.
Now, bigger operations have all sorts of lovely chutes and gates to get cows into a trailer. We're not one of those farms.

We back the trailer into a corner.

Preschooler giving the thumbs-up.

Lure the girls over with a bucket of grain and then trap them in with a gate.

Trapped like rats.

Some aren't very cooperative and Husband has to "help" them in.

Puuuuush!

After "helping" the girls into the trailer, Husband was so covered in poop that he wasn't going to be allowed back in the truck. FIL wasn't much better. They both turned and looked at me. Uh-oh.
I've never driven a trailer before. I have a little experience towing things from when I worked at a stable in college and used to drive a small (automatic, girl-friendly) tractor with a manure spreader on back.
But it had to be done. I swallowed hard and jumped in the truck.

Trailer and Husband in the rear-view.

I didn't do too bad. Luckily FIL did the backing-up when we got back to the farm. And I did it twice because we had to leave three calves behind since they wouldn't fit.

THEN, we had to load up miss Itsy Bitsy to take her over to Miss Abbey's house. Itsy-Bitsy was her 4-H cow last year. Miss Abbey is the most animal-lovin'-est kid you've ever met. She put a TON of hard work into Bitsy (especially considering that she was 2 yrs old last year and had never been touched!) and Bitsy was the perfect lady during the show.
So. . .during all the loading and un-loading of the calves, Miss Bits had been waiting patiently.

Isn't she cute in her halter and leadrope?

Miss Abbey is such a fan of Bitsy that she asked her parents for a pretty new halter and lead just for Bitsy for her birthday!
We also took over a bull calf that Abbey's dad is gonna feed out (and eat, yum!). He's not Bitsy's calf as she calved last Fall (he belongs to the Holstein cross we have), but he's only a few weeks old and not weaned yet so we're going to try to get him to nurse off of Bitsy so they don't have to fuss with the bottle.
Miss Bitsy is such a good girl. She's a very protective Momma so she's a good candidate for adopting another calf. She let the little guy nurse with no problems, now we just have to wait to see if she'll let him do it out in the pasture.

This picture doesn't even begin to show how cute he is (or how pretty Bits is!).

The little guy is really super cute, here's what he looks like from the front:

Ok, maybe not the bug-eyed look. . . but he has a Nike Swoosh on his forehead!

He's a really deep pretty red color, which will most-likely turn black as all but one of her calves have eventually turned black.
Between the four calves that Miss Abbey, Miss Gracie, and Miss Jessie are going to show in the fair; and the three goats that Miss Coley (their cousin) is going to show - we'll have 7 animals in the fair and not one of our kids is in it yet! Haha. Watch out Clay County! After a long time of being dominated by meat critters, The Wegners are bringin' back the dairy animals!

On top of all that, I sold Mr. Schwanli. I was contacted by the lady who I bought him from, wanting to know if she could buy him back. See, she mentors three girls in 4-H and she usually gives them their pick of the wethers to show and then auction off in the fair (the county North of us). Well, she'd bought a wether from someplace else and it had wicked-bad scurs - like 2" long - and goats have to be disbudded/dehorned to be shown in the fair. They were going to have to do surgery on him to have the scurs removed and so they figured it'd be cheaper to buy a new wether instead of paying for the surgery, plus the added stress on the goat, just to send him to auction. It doesn't hurt that three of Schwanli's half brothers won Grand Champion, Reserve, and 3rd place at the fair last year!

Toddler with his serious face giving one last brush-down.

Since Schwanli left, Miss Baerli was lonely so I brought Kit-Kat up to be her buddy. Neither one is impressed.

I'm off to the Farmer's Market tomorrow! Wish me luck!

I'm alive!

2011-06-01T08:01:00.000-05:00

Wowee, it's been a crazy few weeks. I won't go into all the details over the past few weeks because we'd be here forever. So instead I'll just give you the run-down of the past few days and you can multiply that by a few weeks. . .
Sunday started off with a ride in memory of Uncle Mike. I normally don't skip church to go riding, but seeing as it was the exact day that Uncle Mike died last year (which you can read about him here), and it was supposed to get up to 90*, it was smarter all around to get going in the morning.

Aunt Deb on Toby- Uncle Mike's black Tennessee Walker/QH, then Cousin Nick on his App mare Mary Rose

Me on the ride, because no one was in a position to get a shot, haha.

It was a great ride and we had fun, which is exactly what Mike would have wanted. I miss that ol' coot.

Then as soon as I got home from riding, I had to start getting ready for camping that night. YESSS!!! I didn't get to go camping AT ALL last year since hubs was gone. I didn't even get to go on our yearly C.I.A. (the Church's Youth group - Christians In Action) campout because I was blind-sided yet again by the death of my Papaw. This summer is going to be rough for memories as there will be a lot of one-year anniversaries of the deaths of people who were very near and dear to my heart, but at least The Husband is here this year to help me through it.
But back to camping. . . I LOVE camping. If you didn't already know, that's how Hubs and I met, but that's a story for another time. We go camping down in the South 80 (the southern 80 acres for you city-slickers) which is mostly woods and where the guys usually go hunting. It's quite the trip and you can't get there by automobile because you have to cross the creek. So we load up a wagon and head down on the four-wheeler. The boys started out riding in the back by themselves, but the wheels on the wagon are taller than the four-wheeler so it tilts forward bad and it bounces something wicked. Preschooler can handle it, but Toddler doesn't know how to balance himself yet so I wound up sitting back there with them. Lemme tell ya, I now know how the people on the Oregon Trail felt and I'm astonished that so many women made the trip pregnant!

Loaded up and headed down the road.

The arrow at the top is our house, the arrow towards the bottom is about where we camped.

Once we got to our camping spot and got things set up, it didn't take the boys long to make themselves at home.

Testing the sleeping bags

Helping Daddy build the fire

Hangin' out

Now, we're not Camper campers, or Cabin campers. We're tent campers. And that's really only to keep the bugs off and the boys corralled during the night. This was Toddler's first camping trip, and just like I expected - he didn't see why everyone was sleeping in the same bed. So he crawled all over the tent - and us - until he finally passed out in front of the door and Husband covered him with a blanket. Luckily it only got down to 70* so I wasn't worried about him getting too cold.
Shortly after we got set up, the boys got hot - it was nearly 90* out. So we took them down to the creek to cool off. Luckily we're upstream from the cows, and the other farms on the creek with cows no longer have them (at one point, the runoff pollution got so bad that it killed off all the fish).

Toddler was unsure of the running water.

Pile of clothes on the four-wheeler

Nekkid man in a tent!

FIL overseeing the roasting of the hotdogs

One of the reasons why we camp on the farm is because, well it's a farm - chores still have to get done. Cows and goats still have to be milked and fed and all that good stuff. So I got up and helped FIL feed calves and take care of my critters while Husband and BIL stayed with the boys (who actually slept in!) and started the fire for breakfast - breakfast sausages and eggs, YUM!

Then we had to pack up and get back to the house and cleaned up for a family lunch at G-G's. Which of course included a few games of Cornhole! Now I know people from up North call it "Bags" and it goes by any number of other names, but it is cornhole. My cousins from WI said that "Cornhole" sounds too hick. Uh! Well I hated to tell them (no I didn't), but it was a bunch of hicks that came up with the game so therefore we call it by it's original name!

Husband and Cousin Nick

And as if all that wasn't enough, we still hadn't gotten the garden planted. So after Hubs was gone for a looong day of work, he came home and decided we were going to get it done before it was too late. So, we were out planting the big garden at G-G's 'till 9:00 last night.

Hubs re-tilling.

Typical boys - find the rustiest, sharpest object to play on. . .

Doesn't look like much, but it's planted

Dirty farmboy - "I'm a farmer like Papaw!"

So it's my first real garden! We'll see if anything actually grows. . .