renovation project

                                      

This week my focus was mostly on ME !!! and MY new bedroom. Since Emmie came to us, almost three years ago I have been sharing a bedroom with her. She was always a bad sleeper, woke up often during the night and just to make it easier and to make sure noone else would wake up, I had her crib in my room ... we were roomies for the last three years. Now that little fire cracker is almost three and things are getting a little easier. She sleeps through the night, most of the times and she knows I am just in the next room if she needs me. G and I have never shared a bedroom. We both have trouble sleeping and we discovered quick that if we share a bedroom we will keep each other awake even more. Sp after three years I am back to having my own space. yay :) The two girls are now sharing a big bedroom and they love it. I took one of the smaller rooms ... and started renovations last weekend. The room had been green since we moved in here and even though I didn't like the colour much, I never changed it because it looked like it had just been painted.
But now the green had to go. I wanted a room that is me !!!

After I applied a primer to all walls, I panted three in a very light sand colour. The fourth wall was gonna be my colour wall. I picked orange, my favourite colour. The small window in the picture will be replaced by a patio door, I can't wait for that !!!!

My orange wall and my little helper. 

Emmie is one of those kids that sneaks off and gets into everything...whenever she gets the chance. Every time it seems to quiet in the house u can be sure Emmie is up to something.

She covered the whole bathroom in diaper cream one time, the other time she painted her feed with nail polish, she got into face paint and painted her whole body, she found a marker and drew on our couch, she emptied all toothpaste bottles all over the bathroom .... and she loved my orange wall !!!

So much that she snuck into my room when we were having summer, only to paint some scribbles onto the white wall with the orange paint. Now I can laugh about all those things but that moment ... I thought I was gonna lose it ... haha I had some left over paint and was able to cover it up quickly...phew

Next was the ugly carpets turn. IT was all glued down and a pain in the butt, literally, my back is still hurting, to get out.

I put playwood down for flooring. It was the quickest and cheapest fix. There is no budget for fancy flooring right now...and I like it actually, with a coat of paint, it turned out nice

Here we go !!! My new bedroom. The other side of the room has a little area for my desk, where I am sitting right now. I love it. I don't need to sneal around anymore, I can turn the light on, listen to music, read ... noone here I could wake up ;) There is a picture missing above the bed. I have one picked out, I just need to find a frame for it

I thinned out my beets the other day and we had beet greens for supper...I love them. Beets and their greens are my garden favourites every year

WE had a huge storm on Monday night. We had several big trees down, one hydro line broke, one hydro line was lose, trees fell on our fences and broke them. It was a mess and quite scary to be honest. We have lots of huge trees around the house and I am always worried that one will fall onto the house. No buildings were damaged but the hydro disaster was bad enough. 

And here my favourite picture of last week. A nest of little barn swallows. Aren't they just adorable how they sit there waiting for momma. They are nesting in the goats barn. I love the swallows. I love to watch them zoom through the air and I love the fact that they eat all the mosquitos in the goat barn. Lots of people complain about them, they build nests everywhere and of course they poop everywhere...but hey...I take some bird poop any time if that means I have a mosquito free zone.

WE got a brake from the heat today. Only 19c and it was cloudy and some rain all day. It was actually nice, it seemed like everyone including the critters was taking a deep breath. We will be back to sweltering heat by the weekend. 

Hope everyone stays cool and hydrated. 

til next time, take it easy 🐐 

Garden and other updates

It was another hot week. I don't think that the AC was turned off at all all week. We spent lots of time in the shade with the mosquitos ... thank goodness we have a screened in porch. The kids spent heat brakes in the house which seems like such a BAD thing to do in the summer, when u only have SO MUCH TIME to soak up all the sun you can get. BUT ... we all needed it !!! That and...

LOTS and lots of time in the pool. We decided in the spring to buy a big pool this year, knowing that we will probably not be going anywhere this summer. It was such a good investment. Such a nice way to cool off. Of course the kids have a pool every summer but not one that us adults could use as well. This one is comfortable for a nice dip to cool off ...

We are fencing in another piece of pasture, the cows will be coming back this week, the goats want to go out more and the ponies are running out of grass...fencing is no fun with all the bugs but it has to be done ... almost done !!!

The turkeys are free ranging now. They love to be out of the coop and are getting braver every day. They stuck around the coop for a couple of days but now we find them everywhere around the farm. In the chicken coop, the goat pen, just wandering around. They are fun to have around. At nighttime they get their food and go back into the pen.

Of course we spend lots of time in the goat pen every day. The mommas go out for some grass in the morning while the kids play with the kids ;) They are growing like weeds. Such cuties. All healthy, big and strong, which makes me very happy.
Tomorrow we will be starting to milk the ladies once a day. We moved our milk stand into the goat barn. Sky and Lily want to learn how to milk and I am all up for that. My hands don't like the milking much ... so I let the younger generation take over :)

Garden Update :

My flower boxes around the house are blooming beautifully. I didn't spend as much money as usual on annuals this year. Dont even know why. I wanted to focus on my garden, which then didn't even happen ... oh well...it's all good. I love what I have .

My perennials are also growing and blooming nicely. We are still working on the siding of the house so the flower beds around the house are a little neglected. It should be all done by next spring and then things will be prettied up again :)

The two garden boxes we did build this year, turned out to be awesome. I have one full of carrots and one full of beets. both are easy to weed and the veggies look very good.
This is the kind of box I want for the whole garden next year. Up high, I fill the box half with brush and leaves and the topsoil and compost. It works pretty good and is easy to work in. With my sciatica, it is a pain in the butt...literally, to garden in the ground or low boxes. Old lady issues...lol

The rest of the garden was planted in the backyard. We had a big spot picked out for our big veggy garden but then it was just too handy to throw the ponies into it, since it was all nicely fenced in.
Its all good tho. Grass for the critters is always a priority. I will start planting and moving bushes , berries , in the fall ... and next year I will have my big garden :)

We worked with what we have and everything is growing and thriving ... we had a slow start with cold nights into late june. After that ... no water, only from the hose and heat heat heat ...
I have no potatoes ... that kills me.

WE've been eating lettuce, kale and radishes from the garden for a couple weeks. The next things that will be ready to be picked will be the zuccini. Tomatoes are lots on the vine but nothing is turning colour yet. Carrots and beets are still too small. Peas and Beans are starting to bloom. Little cuces are starting to grow ... yum.
Every year the thing I look forward to the most is the greens of the beets. They are my favourite !!!

What is your favourite from the garden ??? And ... are you enjoying it yet ??

Til next week, stay cool and take it easy 🍹

another week of kidding

Sunday , the last day of an unbearable hot and humid week. Our temperatures was pretty much steady in the high 30th all week. I don't want to complain. I know, it is summer and soon enough it will be cold and white fluffy stuff will be falling from the sky. I don't actually mind the heat. If it was just heat, I could deal with it but the amount of mosquitos we have this year, makes the whole situation nerve wrecking. BUT ... we finally got some rain tonight and the air is a little cooler. I have the window open with a fan in front of it and the cool breeze that is coming in feels really nice.

I don't know but when I think back 20 years ... 40c didn't feel this hot, did it ???

I was born and raised in Germany and air conditioning is not as common over there as it is here. We never had AC in the house or in the car. The summers used to be hot and we often had temperatures around 40c ... is it just my age ? is it the humidity or is the sun really hotter ? I don't know...

I am glad anyway, that we spoiled the kids with a big pool this year...one that an adult can comfortable cool off in and even swim around in circles ;)

And in all this heat my poor ladies were still waddling around with their big bellies. But not for long. Darla started labour Monday afternoon. She is a first time momma and she was quite nervous during her pregnancy. When the two first kids were born she seemed curious but also not sure about those little things. I had a first time momma before that didn't want anything to do with her little one. I had to tie her up to make her stand for the baby to drink. It took a good week before she accepted her baby and took care of it. But it turned out, I dind't need to worry about Darla at all ....

Sky came running to the house in the afternoon, again we checked every two hours. During the day the kids like to take over the job. He was hollering down the driveway to the house...MOM, Darla is having her baby. We all went to the barn. The kids are always in awe when they get to watch a baby being born. It didn't take to long until we saw two little feet and a little head ...

Seeing that baby I so hoped for a little girl ... but, we got a healthy little buck, which of course is wonderful. I am not planning on keeping the babies but of course there is always the option to keep the little girls ... and of course we are all talking about it ... haha. Keeping one of the boys, would mean, we would have to get him castrated ... he would still be handsome but " useless" a terrible thing to say but it is reality. feeding goats is expensive and feeding a " useless" goat .... nah. I love my girls ... I was just always hoping for a black one. We will find him a good home where he can get his own little herd of ladies. 

Anyway ... a big, healthy, beautiful boy. 

Everybody was curious about the new little guy

And Darla turned out to be such a good momma. Even a week later, she doens't take her eyes off of him. Always makes sure he is close ... I call her the helicopter mom ;)

Here he is ... still wet. We called him Bandit. 

He looks like a little cow ... I love his markings

Handsome little Bandit and his proud human :)

The last one was Mable. Mable is the only one if the 4 that had a baby before. Darla, Bandits mom is Mable's first born. It was the same scenario. The kids came running down the driveway ... and we all went to the barn. It was a long long birth, very exhausting for the poor mom. It was so hot and she was so big. She was panting so bad ... I tried to keep her cool with cold water on her back and forehead. She was in pain ... and when she finally started pushing we quickly realised that something wasn't right. She did not want to lay down ... she pushed and we saw the feed and then they disappeared again ... again and again. When the water broke, we knew we couldn't wait too much longer or baby would suffocate in the birth canal. When she pushed the next time I held her and G. carefully checked the position of the baby. The feet came out again but the head was tilted upwards. 

He was able to position it properly and finally we had a baby .... and it was breathing ... and it got up and drank after momma had cleaned it off. A little girl !!!

Soon after number one was born Mable started contractions again ... Same scenario ... same problem. This time we didn't wait too long to help her. She was exhausted, in pain and had no more strength left. Again G. was able to get the head into the right position and a little buck was born 

And he was alive. It took him a while to get up onto his feed. But after he had a wabbly first drink, he got stronger and finally stood up by himself. Two beautiful little babies.

Mable was exhausted, she needed a good drink and some goat ration to get some strength back. She cleaned both babies off and made sure they both got a good drink. 

We were all exhausted as well, hot, thirsty but very happy that this all ended so well. 

This is little Gus, born second 

And little Rose, she was the first born of the two. Both smaller than all the other babies but healthy and happily jumping around like their, few days older cousins. 

The night we finally had all our babies in the barn we were spoiled with a beautiful sunset. This was the view from my kitchen window. 

Not much else has happened here this week. It was all about goat babies. All about staying cool and hydrated ... not just for us but also for all our furry friends. We brought some of the older horses into the barn during the day, away from the heat and the bugs. They get a rest and go out at night when it is cooler and the bugs are not so bad. 

We spoiled the chickens with frozen berry treats and they loved it. The geese get fresh cold water to splash around in several times a day and they love it. The dogs and cats lay, either in the cool house or somewhere in the shade. The cats prefer to be outside, while the dogs prefer the cool house. 

Our cows are not back yet ... They must be having too much fun with Mr Bull. 

I need to weed my garden badly and I am hoping that I will get to that now that we are suppose to get a little cooler temperatures for the next week. 

We will see and I will tell you next Sunday what we came up with to keep ourselves busy :)

I leave you with a picture of all the baby goats ... tamed by my 4 little wildies ;)

til next time, stay cool and take it easy !!!

We're kidding

Happy Sunday all !! We are melting away in the middle of a long duration heatwave...like the weather network calls it. I am a fan of summer and everything that comes with it but temperatures above 30 C are not my favourites. It makes everything just so icky, everyone is exhausted and annoyed, the kids are whiny and only happy when they are on the pool. We have a little window air conditioner and some fans, so really, it is bearable in the house but I feel so sorry for all the critters in their barns and in the pasture. I know they are as cool as possible ... but in a heat wave like this ... they are also not happy. 

The worst part of this ... I could deal with the heat when I have to but ... since yesterday we have has bazillions of mosquitos ... I don't think we've ever had them this bad. There is no getting away from them ...This particular week is not my favourite time of summer. 

Before the heat started and the mosquitos got bad, I spent one morning in my rose bed. Everything was overgrown with grass. I remember last year, I didn't even get to do it once. My wild toddler was almost 2 back then and there was just no getting away from the scenery to do any kind of un essential job. This year things are looking up. My wild toddler is almost three and she knows now that she can not just take off and explore the world by herself. She knows she has to stick around me or with her brother and sister, who explore just as much as her but with a little more common sense and understanding for safe and unsafe. Yes, things are getting a little easier and once in a while I can even find half an hour to do jobs like, weeding my rose bed. 

And so we started kidding :) Two of my four does gave birth to two little girls on Friday morning. We missed the birth but maybe only by an hour. The two does are Ruby and Pear, who are twins from two years ago. I thought it was so neat that they had their babes at the same time. 

This first picture is of Pearl and her baby Lacy. 

The second picture is Ruby and baby Trudy. Ruby and Perls mom was Gertrud. She died last summer. We were all very sad about her sudden death. To remember her, we decided to call Ruby's baby Trudy. 

Pearl and Ruby both are first time mommas and they are so good at it. It's always a little tricky with first timers. Will the accept the baby, will they know what to do, will they have enough milk, will they left them drink ?? Those two ... perfect. Both have lots of milk. So much that I might have to milk them a little just to keep the udder at a comfortable level for the mommas. I am planning on milking all four but not until the kids are a couple weeks old. Then I can give the moms some alone time to go grazing while the kids play together and before they go back to their babes I will milk them. I can't wait to have goats milk again and to make cheese ... yummm. 

Sky loves to drink the milk and I hope that my wild toddler will also enjoy it. She is lactose intolerant and I am hoping she will do good on the goats milk. 

This is Trudy again , maybe a couple hours old in this picture. Isn't she just too cute. I am already thinking ... maybe I will have to expand my little herd a little ;)

Here is little Lacy. She has tony ears like her momma. Pearls dad was a La mancha goat who have tiny little ears. Only Pearl inherited his ears tho ... and she passed them on to little Lacy. 

My big kids with their baby kids.  Baby goats are the most fun and most loved animal on the farm 

My little wildie loves the baby goats. She gets right into the job of feeding and watering and lots of playing and cuddling of course. 

while we mostly cuddling baby goats right now, the Turkeys continue to grow !!! 

I love them, they are such smart and beautiful birds 

The geese are more like the chaotic neighbours ... but they are cute as heck and I love them as well. 

Here is the meat chicken. They will be ready in only four more weeks. So far this meat chicken experience is a good one but I will tell you again 4 weeks down the road if this is something I will be doing again next year. 

So two does done and two more to go. I am on barn duty tonight. I check every two hours until midnight, G. does his rounds around 3am and then me again at 5am. Mable the doe in the picture is so big and is having such a hard time in this heat. I hope she will kid soon. Darla is the one that looks like she migh have her baby in the next 24 hours. So, fingers crosses for two more easy deliveries. 

Next week, for sure I will have more pictures of more baby goats :)

until then, take it easy and stay cool !!!