Jumping Back In

Well, the best way for me to re-start blogging is probably to just Jump right back in and start writing!

Beth turned 3 in September. About three weeks later, she had surgery. It was a planned surgery. She had her tonsils and adenoids removed. Her tonsils were quite enlarged! She also had tubes put in her ears. The ENT told us that her one of her ears was so full of fluid that he had to get a second something-or-other to suck out the gunk that the first sucker-thingy couldn't remove. That news made me feel great. I had really been debating whether or not to go through with the surgery for a couple of months. I knew that she needed it, but at the same time...She is Just a BABY! Every time I looked at her and thought about her having general anesthesia so the ENT could do his work, I would feel awful. And it didn't help that the hospital has to go over all the bad things that could happen. At the end, I just had to grit my teeth and keep saying: This is what her body needs to function properly!

I am glad to report that she had a quick and full recovery.

Tomorrow, Nonny is having her turn with the ENT. She will have her adenoids removed, a deviated septum straightened out, and something done with the turbinates(?) in her nose. I am not a medical person, so I am not getting terms correct. Sorry about any confusion that creates.

To prepare for tomorrow's surgery, we have smoothie ingredients and popsicles in the freezer. I have ingredients for chicken veggie soup. We have lots of kleenex ready for her drippy nose. AND she has movies picked out for watching tomorrow afternoon. I don't think she'll feel good enough to actually watch the movies tomorrow, but she feels good that they are prepped and ready. :)

In other news, Joe turned twelve in October. He graduated from Primary and received the Aaronic Priesthood. It is a bit weird to think of him as a Priesthood holder, since he's still my squishy little baby boy. Whenever I tell him that he is still my little boy, he is quick to point out that he is almost as tall as me. I'm 5' 8". He is about 5' 5". I told him even if he does manage to outgrow me, I'm also going to call him my short, little boy.

Bucks Beware!

I was born and raised in a city. Not a metropolitan city like New York. My city wasn't sprawling or congested. It was just a bunch of housing developments carved out of farmland. And the city slowly grew until it reached the borders of other cities. My city grew out, not up. 

In each of my family's houses, my parents made sure we had a garden and fruit trees growing. I enjoyed working in the garden, for the most part. My problem with gardening as a child was my health. I had severe asthma and allergies. Being outside digging around with dirt and blossoms and grass could easily trigger an attack that would put me in bed for weeks. So I was typically relegated to inside tasks while the rest of my family was pulling weeds.

As an adult, with my asthma and allergies under much better control, Hubby and I have had a garden at each house we've lived in and as many fruit trees as we could fit in the yard. But we've always lived in the city. Our biggest property was a fifth of an acre, with our house sitting on a 1/3 to 1/2 of that land. And we managed the yard nicely and dreamed of living on a bigger parcel.

And now we are living the dream.

We started two years ago with three acres. Now we own FIVE! We purchased the two acre parcel that butts up next to ours. 

We are doing lots of things with the land. We are growing in our skills as homesteaders, trying to live off the land and be self-sufficient.

This post is to document one of the Skills that I have recently acquired.

Through a mutual friend, we have met an expert on the care, keeping, and judging of goats. She and our mutual friend, who we discovered is also quite proficient in the care and keeping of goats, graciously came to my house to help me improve the care of our five goats. Those two sweet gals were not thrilled with what she found when they came to visit...

Most of the advice I've been getting from other people regarding the care of goats is WRONG! The good thing, they told me, is that I have Nubian goats and Nubians are hardy creatures. The gist of the conversation basically down to: "Sarah, if you had any other breed you would have killed them off months ago. Fortunately, you have Nubians."

I felt really bad about that, but they were kind and reassuring with me. I've since put a lot of what they told me into practice and am working on incorporating the rest of it over the next couple of months. 

Then we talked about the quality of my goats. I know that two of my does are absolute mutts (I don't know the correct goat term for this, so am using the dog term) so I wasn't concerned about them. And I knew that our milking doe had some problems, after all--she came to us with mastitis and we'd battled that for months. So I knew she wasn't the best quality.

What surprised me was her assessment of my bucks. Fred, the bigger buck, has more meat goat traits than dairy. His bone structure is also off. But the big surprise was that they said Fred is super aggressive! 

All of the behaviors that I had translated as Fred being a shy goat are actually signs of aggression. Yowsers!! We watched Fred and George, the younger and smaller goat, for about half an hour, with the expert gal pointing out all of the aggressive behaviors and the bad body structure. Choosing a buck to breed with your does is a HUGE decision. You need to be sure that the buck has good diary characteristics or you can end up with a doe who is not a good milker. Of course, the gals said this in Goat Terminology. They also pointed out the wonderful qualities in George. That goat truly is a sweet goat. He likes people, he likes my children. And his body structure is dairy and healthier long term.

And so we had a decision to make: Sale Fred to someone else for either meat or the breeding of meat. OR Weather Fred.

After talking to Hubby, we decided to Weather Fred.

And that, dear friends, is the new skill that I have acquired: I know how to Weather a buck/buckling. 

The gal did the actual banding while I held Fred still. That goat has GROWN since we got him in March. I straddled Fred at the shoulders and held on to his collar. He is a tall buck! Luckily, I have long legs. The gal was behind him with a banding tool. I have to tell you, although Fred is not yet full grown...his testicles are the size of a full grown buck. They were huge. It took some effort and finagling for the gal to get the band around his testicles. Fred was not happy with her messing with his boy bits. He tried jump and "buck" about, but I held that big goat firmly in place. I am super impressed with myself and my buff thigh muscles. Haha! 

Anyways, that was a few weeks ago. Fred's testicles have shrunk and now look like a hairy pancake. Seriously. That is what they look like.

We're going to add a second band this week to finish the weathering process. They'll continue to wither and eventually fall off.

And so...

Bucks Beware! 

I know how to Weather!  ;)

Patience

Hubby has wanted chickens ever since we moved to our country home. For Father's Day we surprised him with six chickens and a rooster. They're already a family, so we don't have to worry about too much infighting...the pecking order is already decided.

 

Jim, our four-year old son, has been waiting for the chickens to lay some eggs. Chickens tend not to lay for a while when they're moved to a new home. They have to get used to the new environment. After a week of waiting, today the chickens laid some eggs. This morning Jim collected two eggs. He was so excited! He showed them to every member of the family twice then went out to show the goats that the chickens had laid some eggs. After that he carefully placed them in the fridge, where he faithfully checked on them about every ten minutes.

 

This evening when I went out to milk our goat, Jim checked the hen house. There were four more eggs! He could hardly believe his luck. He ran inside, grabbed a basket, and carefully placed each egg in the basket. Then he went to the fridge, took the two eggs from this morning out and placed them into the basket. He sat down on our front stoop and gently placed the basket beside himself. I was sitting on the stoop too, cleaning mud off shoes.

 

After a few minutes sitting there with Jim and the eggs, Jim lets out a big sigh and says: "I just waiting and being patient, but these eggs not hatch yet."

 

I tried to explain to him that the chickens need to keep the eggs if he wants them to hatch into chicks in a month or so. He told me no, he would be patient and they would hatch today.

 

I love that he thinks if he is patient enough those eggs will hatch. I love the faith and logic of my sweet four-year boy! And I love that he is already developing patience at this age. Hopefully, he won't be too put off when those little eggs don't hatch. :)

Working Mom

I just noticed that my user profile is outdated. I'm going to update that.

Currently it reads:
"I am a Wife, Mother, Sister, and Daughter. I enjoy quilting, cooking, eating, service, gardening, and quality time with family & friends. :)"

My occupation is listed at "Mom & Quilter". That has changed a bit.

My location is "Vaudeville, Southwest, United States." I put that location in an attempt to maintain anonymity.

As I was reading my profile I thought, Sheesh! What is with the random ampersand usage?

I am changing my occupation to "Mother, Homesteader, and Legal Assistant"

I seriously want to change to location. Vaudeville sounded cute and fun a few years ago. Now, it sounds lame. Haha! It's interesting how a person's tastes can change. Hubby's new job doesn't require me to be secretive online. So I might put on actual location in my profile. But I might not. I haven't decided yet.

As for the intro paragraph, I have no idea what to write. But I don't want to keep what I've got. It sounds too cheesy to me now.

Decisions, decisions.

It's hard to write a concise paragraph that conveys to readers an accurate glimpse into my life. I guess if you really want to get to know me, you need to read through some of my old posts.

Hello Again

It has been a year and a half since I last posted. That is pathetic. The problem is I keep going back and forth on whether to post or not. Whether anyone really wants to read about my goings on. And then I start to feel really vain for wanting to post. But it truly is not vanity that brings me here. It is the thought that some of my family and friends from lands far away want to stay connected. And the way we connect is through blogs. So here I am again. Giving blogging another shot.

 

If you know me at all, you know that I like lists. I think a list is a good way to catch you up to speed.

 

1. Many of the trees I planted last year died! It was very sad for me. I lost some citrus to frost. I lost my peaches to a bacteria. I lost my plums and apricots to the heat. I lost a couple apples to a Haboob.

 

2. I have since replaced the dead trees. The new trees are doing much better.

 

3. Today, I planted two almond trees. One is a Ne Plus Ultra and the other is a Nonpareil. They look pretty cute.

 

4. We got goats. I have three Nubian goats. Desi is a 2 year old female. She is in milk currently. The kids and I have enjoyed milking her and using the milk in various ways. Fred is a 3 month old buckling. George is a 2 month old buckling. Those two boys are gorgeous! I am completely loving those goats. Some people warned that they smelled bad. But I have discovered that I like their smell. It reminds me of elementary field trips to the Phoenix Zoo and taking my own kids to that Zoo.

 

5. Hubby started his own law practice. He has been busy getting things set up. The business is really rolling along.

 

6. Rose will soon be graduating 8th grade and moving on to high school. Nonny will soon graduate 6th grade and move on to middle school. I am excited for them to enter this new phase of life. They are having mixed emotions: happy, scared, nervous, excited, overwhelmed, anxious, and so forth. It is kind of funny to watch them cycle through the emotions. I am SO glad that I am finished with that phase of life. It was a stressful time being a teenager!

 

7. Jim has been attending speech therapy preschool. His poor little ears were having some issues. We got those issues fixed, but he's got to go to speech therapy to correct some things.

 

Well, that is a good start.

Beth's Arrival

Here is the first installment of my "Catch-Up" blogging. While I am sure you would all like to see detailed posts on the progress of our house renovations, yard improvement, etc., I assume that the first thing you'll want to hear about is the New Baby.

 

 

 

This is a picture of me at 38 weeks. To preserve the memory, I want to note a few things.

 

 

1. I am normally 5' 7 3/4" tall. During pregnancy I tend to shrink an inch or two. It is pretty weird! The height loss returns by the time my baby is 3 months old.

 

2. All of the baby books, pregnancy websites, and doctors' offices recommend that a woman gain between 25 and 35 pounds during pregnancy. With all six of my pregnancies, I have put on between 50 and 65 pounds. My final weight during this pregnancy was 208 lbs.

 

3. My hair was driving me nuts by the seventh month. The front parts kept getting in my eyes. When the back touched my neck, I got so hot and had problems breathing. I kept it in a ponytail most of the time, just so I could breathe properly. One day was particularly hard. I was ready to just get rid of it all! I was planning on a haircut like this...

The only reason that it didn't happen is that during pregnancy I get motion sick easily. And that bad day with my hair was also a bad day for me motion-wise. I was getting nauseous from walking. There was no way that I would survive a car ride. And so my long hair stayed.

 

And yes, I do see that my hair is down in the first picture of this post. And yes, having my hair down in that picture does look contradictory. What you need to know is that I took my hair out of its ponytail so that Hubby could take a picture to document my big, preggo belly and the length my hair had grown. As soon the picture was taken, I threw my hair back up into a ponytail so that I could breathe.

 

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Since I have a history of having big babies, my doctor suggested that I be induced a week early to keep this baby's size down a bit. I do not like inductions. I much prefer to go into labor on my own and told my OB as much. Hubby agreed with my assessment with one caveat. He asked that if I didn't have the baby by Week 39 that I be induced. The reason? He was going to be out of town on business for most of Week 39. He didn't want to miss the birth. I didn't want him to miss the birth either. Hubby has the important task of distracting me from the pain of contractions by telling me stories. Lots of stories.

So we set up a tentative induction appointment. 

After Weeks 37 and 38 passed with no baby the tentative appointment became a for-sure appointment.

It worked out fine. The appointment was on a Sunday afternoon. The same Sunday as our Ward's Primary Program. I was happy that to attend the program. I love watching the children sing and bear their sweet testimonies. This year Anne, Joe, and Cakes participated. They all did a great job!

My parents came out to see the Primary Program then watch the Grands while Hubby and I went for the induction. My Mom snapped this picture just before we left for Church.  It's the last picture of our family with five kids. The next family picture will have SIX Children!!!

 

 

Birth stories are quite personal, so I'm not going to share many details here. The details I am willing to share are:

 

1. Miss Beth was born in her amniotic sack. The nurse said it is very rare and considered lucky.

 

2. She was born at exactly 11:00 am.

 

3. She weighed 8 lbs, 12.1 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. She has lots of dark brown hair and gray-blue eyes.

 

4. Hubby didn't cut her umbilical cord. He cut every other child's umbilical cord. The reason he didn't get to do it this time was that a nurse delivered our sweet baby girl and kind of freaked out. And the other nurses were kind of freaking out about how fast Miss Beth came and had to hurry to get stuff ready and in all their rushing about, they bypassed Hubby and me completely. They didn't even hold her up so I could see her! They just whisked her away!

 

I didn't even know if the babe was for sure a girl. I had to ask. My doctors and midwives in the past make a big deal about holding the baby up so the Momma can see the babe and announcing "You have a BOY!" or "You have a GIRL!" And nobody did that. They were to busy trying to get the medical trays ready.

 

All I can say to that is, I told you all that I go fast! I told you to get ready. I told you the baby was coming. You chose to ignore me. You implied I was being melodramatic.  You kept telling me that it didn't matter if this was my sixth child because every labor & delivery is different so I really didn't know what was going to happen and that you knew how labor really progresses since you'd been a nurse for so many years. Give me a break!!

 

There were many other problems, but I don't want to get into those. Enough ranting and complaining. Let's move on to happy things. :)

 

 

Hubby took this picture shortly after birth.

This picture was taken later that day. Miss Beth is BEAUTIFUL! She has dimples in both cheeks. We know this because she started smiling on her first day of life. :)

 

 

In the evening, Hubby brought the kids to see their new little Sister. Cakes and Joe got to hold her first. They were quite enamored with her. :)

 

 

Anne held her next.

 

Then Rose's turn.

 

 

Jim came in the room and headed straight for me. He looked at his new Sister, but didn't want to hold her. He just wanted to snuggle up next to me. That dear boy missed his Momma and was so happy to see me. :)

 

 

(I don't like pictures taken of me in the days after I give birth because I look so haggard and drawn. I don't usually let Hubby take any of me. But I had to have one of Jim all snuggled up next to me. I adore that sweet little boy.)

We are thrilled to have this newest addition to our family! Welcome, Welcome Miss Beth! We love you dearly!

 

One last note, Beth and I were discharged from the hospital the day after her birth. Hubby took us home, spent about an hour getting us settled in, then left for his business trip. He was gone for the next three days. Yowsers, that was tough. My parents stayed long enough to get all the kids tucked into bed, but then they had to leave too. Fortunately for me I have two fantastic daughters! Anne and Rose took turns staying home from school to help take care of Jim and Cakes while I recovered from labor & delivery. Those two girls are turning into lovely Young Women.

Oh My...

It has been three months since I have posted any updates. Three Months!

 

While I am planning on doing a complete update covering those months, an update that will span several blog posts and include lots of photos, for now I only have time to type up a quick and brief update.

 

The events and activities of the last three months mostly fall under one of the following categories...

 

1. Four children in school, which means: three different school schedules to work around, three different bus schedules, 1 orchestra member, 2 band members, extracurricular activities, fundraisers, and more.

 

2. Fixing up our new house which is falling apart. This poor little house has not been cared for in several, several years. There are so many things wrong with it. We keep thinking we've got things fixed and done, then something else breaks. It has been quite overwhelming at times. The only thing that got us through was my parents. I am so fortunate to have a Dad who knows how to fix just about anything! My Mom is his trusty helper/planner. The two of them are a great home improvement team and they have graciously come to our little town several times over the past few months. FYI: the drive is 3 1/2 hours one way. They have been absolute life-savers for my sanity!

 

3. A new baby. Our sweet baby girl Beth arrived in mid-September. My life has since been filled with trying to figure out a new baby (each one is different and each one likes to be held certain ways or to sleep in certain positions, etc. It takes lots of trial and error to figure out the preferences of a new baby) and trying to get enough sleep to properly recover from labor and delivery.

 

 

I will be posting more detailed updates in the following weeks.

 

Until then,  Happy Thanksgiving!!