Last Thursday, April 26, was the birthdate of our newest little Pygmy goat - we'll call him Leonard for now. I went out to the barn to do chores early Thursday morning and found that Ginger had drastically changed from just being pudgy pregnant with a big, growing udder, to a more streamlined goat with the kid visibly not on her side anymore. It was obvious that the kid had moved up into the birth canal. There was definitely shape in that direction. She also wasn't interested in eating anything, which is completely unlike Ginger. She might be our smallest goat, but she is a voracious eater. It came time for me to get on my way to work; Chris had already left for his job. There would be no one home to help Ginger if she had trouble with the birthing. I worried and prayed all day. On the way home, God provided a verse for me to stop worrying - you know, the one about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, admonishing us not to worry. My first stop when I pulled into my property was to go out to the barn. William, our Nubian wether, is in the same pen with Ginger. We have a nesting pair of large hawks near our property. I thought that if Ginger kidded that he would help protect the youngster if those hawks got close. Well, William came walking into the barn when I did. Then Ginger stuck her head in her door. I couldn't tell if she was still big, and I didn't see a kid. I put some hay in their manger, and she walked all the way in and this little fella came in a moment after her. He was plump and dry and very healthy. She had to have had him within hours of me leaving for work. The front half of him looks like daddy Freddie. The back end of him doesn't look like either parent. Already, he's bouncing around and getting into mischief. Yesterday he was trying grass for the first time! At age 4 days!

Saturday we had three turkey chicks hatch. Sunday it looked like we were going to get a fourth and a fifth, but the fourth one died mid-hatch and the fifth has made his hole in the wrong place. He's still chipping away at it. Another egg was making pecking sounds last night. It would be a little early for that one to hatch, but I've learned that our turkeys, anyway, seem to hatch at around day 25 or 26 rather than 28. Also, turkeys have to be warm for their first week. I've found that the chicks I get from the auction, or even those that I've hatched, don't need to start their first couple days as warm as turkey chicks do. Turkey chicks also start to feather out much faster than chicken chicks. It is interesting. Right now, I have 29 pheasant eggs and 4 turkey eggs in the incubator. I have about 6 more turkey eggs in the hatching incubator which is in the bathroom. Also in the bathroom is a bin with a heat lamp for the young turkey chicks. We tried just a regular lightbulb overnight, and I'm amazed that didn't do the trick. They did need a heat lamp.

Also, we bought a kiddie pool for the ducks. They don't worship the washtub as much, now, but they have started to worship the pool! It's awful funny seeing four ducks laying around it with their bills hanging over the edge and three ducks swimming around in it, with one of the three being the Indian runner.

I'm looking forward to getting home and seeing my farm and spending time with my critters. I can't wait until I can tell if my 2-month-old turkeys are hens or toms. You'd think I'd be able to by now, but I can't. I did just think about checking for spurs, so I'll be doing that this evening.

The calves are sort of doing better. Two have been sickly with pneumonia and diarhea, but we might be getting over that. We're trying to feed them more, but we'll see. In a few weeks they'll have hit the 2-month mark, and we should be over these troubles. It will be a relief.

Book Review - Called to Controversy

I read Called to Controversy by Ruth Rosen, the daughter of the founder of Jews for Jesus, Moishe Rosen, courtesy of BookSneeze. I really enjoyed it. The book inspiried me, and it also brought home the mysterious workings of God in our lives. It’s funny when you read about how something happens to someone else in their life that is dedicated to what God has in store for them, and you see parallels in your own life and the lives of others around you. My family has opportunities to serve God and often we follow right on through like Moishe and his wife did when they learned that Jesus really was the Messiah. It’s inspiring to see the entire plan of God laid out (this is something always clear after it all when you look back on things). Moishe Rosen and his family are amazing people. They are outspoken, firm believers in Jesus and willing to do anything to reach others so that they, too, know the love of Jesus. The networking involved in this entire journey is just amazing to see laid out before you, as is the entire learning process as far as what worked and what didn’t work so well. Moishe Rosen did a great job in his life learning through trial and error what worked and what didn’t. There are great evangelism examples in this book. I do highly recommend this read for someone who enjoys reading about the life journey of a person, for someone who would be interested in evangelism, for someone who just enjoys a good historical read or for someone looking to be inspired. It’s called "The Unlikely Story of Moishe Rosen and the Founding of Jews for Jesus." It is a very unlikely story indeed.

ok, better now!

Amazing the changes this past week. Luke, our German Shepherd, is feeling much better. It was very strange. Last Thursday, he didn't get up all day, didn't drink anything, didn't eat anything, didn't even go to the bathroom. Friday morning, he was up and at 'em, drinking water, going to the bathroom, and for the first time last week wanting to eat something. He ate again later. Now, his only problem is that he can't bark and his back legs are too weak to get him up onto the bed. I still have to be careful about not leaving anything out on the counters because you just never know. It was a tough week last week. I do believe that Luke was the worst of it all.

The calves are all doing fine. Their poos are a little runny, but they are alert, playful and constantly hungry. This morning I realized that I left their bottles in the barn last night so I had to clean them out in the house before I could refill them. I went about and did all the regular chores first. They were not happy with their milk replacer mamma going around them and doing everything else without giving them a bottle first. They mooed and kept their eyes on me as I did everything.

Finally, Kellie is in a blue cast. Many of her friends have signed it already. She's happy to have it, but really annoyed that she still has to put bags on it before she can shower. It just can't get wet or by the end of four weeks it will be smelly and moldy. Ew!

What a Killer Week!

This past week has been just plain awful. It did start with a wonderfully pleasant Sunday. I had let the goats out of their pens, first the 3 boys and Jade on long ropes so they could munch to their hearts content, but I could still keep track of them and keep them contained. Then I let the 3 girls out and I just watched them as I did the evening chores. During the midst of all this, Luke started to get sick. Luke is our German shepherd. He's eleven years old, skinny as a rail and his hips have been disintegrating for some time now. He started vomiting foamy water, so I put him out in the backyard for awhile. As I monitered the goats, he remained in the backyard and the vomiting continued. Chris came home and we fed the dogs, but Luke wouldn't eat. He couldn't even keep water down. We started to wonder if this was the beginning of the end.

Wednesday brought more trouble as one of our calves came down with scours and stopped drinking anything. We were afraid we would have to force fluid down him with a tube. Chris was home from work that day, and I was at work and called the vet who told us to tube him. I was so worried. I had so much work to do, and I was freaking out just a little. It wasn't pretty. Finally, Chris called me around 3pm and said he went into the pen to work on some of the wiring by the light fixture that's overhead and Chuck (the sick one) came up to him and starting to suck on his jeans. Chris tried the bottle and Chuck drank it right down. That made my day. I had been planning on stopping by TSC, purchasing the appropriate tubing kit and some medicated powder to ease the calf from scours, but Kellie and I were able to continue to church instead.

Kellie went to youth and had dinner, and I went to the sanctuary to practice the piano. I was going to play for the prayer meeting later on, and I wanted to be able to play and sing at the same time so I really needed to practice. We also have our Art Night happening on Saturday so I needed to go over the classical music I was going to start the night with. Around 7pm, Chris comes into the sanctuary with Kellie balling her eyes out following behind him. She had tripped backward over her own feet and landed full force on her left hand. We were afraid of a fracture so I took her to the hospital. Sure enough. After two hours, we found out that she did fracture her wrist in two places. After another half hour, she was fitted with a splint, and another half hour we left with instructions to see a specialist. Oh, what a fun week this has been.

Now that it is Friday, I'm happy to report that Chuck, the calf, is doing much better. He's not scouring and tonight he'll have his milk replacer. I have started all three calves on calf starter pellets as well. They LOVE the bottle, but they have to actually start eating solid food. I can't help but think of how we can be as new Christians, or young Christians. It's nice to get caught up with being fed a sermon and lessons (the calves' milk in a bottle), but we have to grow up and start making decisions about our lives and doing to help others as well. We have to learn to teach others. We have to latch on to the new, solid food and start eating that. It might not be as nice or as easy as the bottle that we eagerly suck down. It might be a little difficult to swallow, but we need to grow and move on to better food. The sweet alfafa and clover is next, and we don't want to miss out, but we will if we only have our eyes on that bottle.

Luke, also is rallying. I thought for sure he wouldn't make it through last night. I'm not saying he'll recover, but he was looking better. I'd really prefer he just die at peace at home rather than bring him to the vet to be put down. As long as he wants to live, I will not have him euthanized.

I'm still waiting for the scheduler to make the appointment for Kellie's wrist, but that, too will come.

Art Night is going to be a BLAST!!!

The Farm Grows

We have added 3 new additions to Decker's Acres! Meet Chuck, T-Bone and Sirloin! We had decided to purchase a couple of Jersey bull calves (they were only $25 apiece), but then a friend of ours decided he wanted a whole cow, so we purchased 3. Half a cow will remain ours while the other 3 halves will go to others who have joined our little cow-op.

The baby turkeys are growing fast and fine! I did try to put Miracle Max and the 2nd oldest in with the big birds, but Georgie and Lucy just chased them around pecking at them. I'll have to reintroduce again soon. They are getting big so fast. This behavior is very much not like those two big hens. I really don't know what has gotten into them.

On a sad note, our beloved German shepherd, Luke, is in his final stages of life. He started vomitting up saliva and foam yesterday and can't keep anything down today. He's 11 years old. He was a rescue. We took him when no one else wanted him and after he'd been wandering around for 3 months in Cascade. I can't say that he's been the best behaved dog I've ever had. He probably was the worst, but he loved big, too. When my Sam died, he took over and tried to fill my Sam's shoes. When Luke dies, there will be a big hole there. The silence of saying "Luke, quit!", "Luke, get out of the kitchen!", "Luke, lay down!", "Luke, get back here!", "Luke, stop itching!", "Luke, stop scratching!", "Luke, why do you have to poop all over!", "Luke, get that out of your mouth!" (get the idea?) will be deafening. When he was younger, he was always on patrol. As an older dog, he was always on patrol for something to eat. He ALWAYS just wanted love. So, when you are home, hug your dog. Give him/her a petting and let them sleep in your bed.

Little Ginger

We weren't sure if any of our goats were pregnant, but it looks like little Ginger, our smallest goat that still looks like a kid herself, will kid sometime in the next couple of weeks. Her udder is just barely starting to swell, and her back end is swollen as well. She'll probably just have one. I do pray that all goes well!

Oh, and the early spring is fantastic! So much for that groundhog's predictions!

Calves?

Yes, we're expecting again ... We're on a list to purchase 2 Jersey bull calves from a farm around here as soon as they are born. I'm a little trepiditious about this whole experience, even though I grew up on a dairy farm. I'm terrified, actually, of losing one right off the bat. I watch our critters for signs of illness all the time. We'll have to bottle feed these calves colustrum for the first few days and then bottle feed them milk replacer after that. I know that all the calves born to my grandpa's farm were bottle and then pail fed milk replacer. He did not leave calves with their mommas at all. A few of them didn't make it including my beloved Albert. I'm also afraid of my husband becoming too attached to these bundles of beef. I'm just going to have to remind him that they are cute now, but they will be tasty later. Any advice on what I should do to keep them healthy the first few weeks? I do work full time so I can't stick around the farm every day, but I will be stepping up the doing of the chores, especially now that it's warming up - over 40 degrees F today!! In Michigan!!!!