Well, as everything seems to go in our lives, this wasn't quite planned until about 3 days ago and now here we are as their proud owners. We knew we really wanted some animals but budgeting for them and then finally getting some were going to take time. But with the snake issues being pretty bad we knew we needed some bigger animals and some "mowing" animals to cut down on the snakes. When telling our snake tales to the guys at the station one of them asked if we wanted his donkey. He was getting 2 new horses and needed a good home with kids for it. Since they're great for creating movement and being larger animals snakes tend to keep their distance. That was on Wed......on Sat Fletch arrived. It is so much fun and the children are thrilled!!!! He is sooo sweet and since he is used to children he absolutely loves all of our's. I still haven't' quite gotten past the novelty of listening to him do donkey sounds. That's about the funniest thing ever!!! And he's loud! He's like a dog. We can call him and he just comes right to us. Tigger has amazingly taken up with him for some reason so they are the best of buds. Tigger lays on one side of the fence with Fletch standing on the other. Tigger can get his whole head through the fence and they'll touch noses. We thought we'd have major barking issues to deal with but instead they have become best friends! Athena's so stupid and rowdy she could care less what goes on. She just runs around the backyard non stop anyway. She has always taken the responsibility of guarding me so when I go out to love on Fletch she places herself in between me and him. And if he tries to love then she snaps at him. All I have to do is call her name sharply and she retreats wagging her tail and running around stupidly. Garrison calls him Pletch and Grant calls him Sletch.
(The greeting committee)
And then we have Walker, Texas and Ranger. The arrival of the 3 of them was quite the event and a story in and of itself. I knew they were coming on Sat but Brad said he'd be here to get them all squared away when all of our newly acquired livestock started arriving. As all shifts notoriously tend to go and never knowing just when exactly you'll get a call or when they'll have to call for overtime and leave you stuck until someone replaces you, of course Sat was the day for these things to occur. So, instead of the usual 7 am Brad called at 8:30 and said he was just leaving the station. I was in the midst of getting up anyway. So, I laid in bed talking to him while Garrison and Grant rolled all over me. Once off the phone I made my way into the kitchen in nothing but Brad's t-shirt and my underwear for the morning cup of cappuchino. Garrison and Grant ran around noisily while Aubrey appeared from her bed and sat quietly still waking up. Grayson and Evye continued to sleep. With no bra, no pants, no make-up and hair falling in disarray down my back I went through the morning routine before heading to the shower. Suddenly and horrifically the doorbell rang!!!! I glanced at the clock and it was 8:50. Ok, I guiltily admit I'm not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination but who in the freakin world shows up at the door at 8:50 on a Sat morning???!!!!! In my state of stupor I hoped that it was just a Jehovah's Witness and that they'd go away. Well, that was mere insanity in and of itself since,
#1 - who in the world rides a bike in a suit 30 miles out of town in 90 degree weather and arrives at 8:50 am to spread the gospel???!!!
And then #2 - if it was a Jehovah's Witness whatever was I thinking that they'd go away???!!!!......cause they never go away!!!
In my panic I was stuck. I ran in the children's room and woke Evye up telling her to go to the door and tell him that her mom was still asleep. I know......I already feel guilty enough about telling my children to lie! But, it backfired anyway. In her pink little striped nightgown and messed up hair all over her little head she walks sleepily to the door and opened it. I heard a deep male voice ask if her parents were home. As Garrison and Grant went tearing loudly up and down the hallway and then suddenly to the open door she said her dad was at work and her mom was still asleep. Suddenly I hear Garrison and Grant talking to the dude non stop. And then Aubrey arrives at the scene. I just stood and listened in horror as the event unfolded. No sooner had Evye finished her "my mom's asleep" statement then Aubrey, in all of her truthful, blunt ways that finds it physically impossible to tell a lie says, "No! My moms not asleep. She's awake right there in my room!!!"....in which I could only guess that she would be pointing in the general direction of the bedroom which I hid in at the moment. Then she speaks up, "You want to come see her? She's standing right in there." I then tiptoed as fast as I could and sought shelter in their bedroom closet. In which I then felt totally and utterly stupid as I stood in the darkness of the children's bedroom closet with stinky shoes and squeaky toys that went off everytime I shifted feet. With the doors shut and hiding from the stranger that my 2 small girls were talking with unattended the feelings of complete and total ridiculousness ran deep. I heard Evye trying to corral the boys back inside and they both started screaming. The sheer thought of anyone even remotely thinking I might be sleeping in all of that chaos was a joke. An in-the-shower story would've been a little more believable. So after what seemed like hours Evye comes walking down the hallway still drugged from sleep and said "Um....he said he has some somethings for you and he's just going to wait outside for you." Then I just got plain mad and came to my own conclusion that this was no doubt a JW who was more than happy to wait anything in life out. I asked Evye a minute or 2 later if he mentioned what the "something's" were. She said she couldn't remember but it started with a G. I laughed and said "probably goats". She looked at me in her daze, since she takes forever to wake up and do anything worthwhile in the morning, and said without any emotion, "Oh, I think that was it. There's a big truck with a trailer in our driveway." If ever there was a moment to cuss that was it. And, come to think of it, I probably did somewhere in there. There I was huge and pregnant in my underwear with nothing but a t-shirt on, smeared left over make-up from the day before and little screaming orphan kids running around everywhere in their diapers and pajamas with their messed up hair. I called Brad asking impatiently where he was and telling him to come bail me out of this way-too-early morning event. He just laughed thinking it was all too funny and said he had the goat guy on the phone....yet another fellow firefighter.....and he'd deal with it. So, as I raced around the house trying to pull it together he told him where to put the goats. I woke Grayson and told him to go give the guy what we owed him and I'd be out in a minute. After hurriedly putting on jeans and boots Grayson ran out there to him just in time to say thanks and help him close the gate. And then the dude left! He just drove off. So, that just made the whole thing worse. I'm not sure I really want to meet him at this point after that little scenario.
But, in the end, we had 3 new baby goats. It was a little ignorant of us to only get 3 thinking we did not want to crowd them and limit their food supply. Grayson quickly informed us, after being told that he could not go back there until they ate the grass down a little, that it would take them 80 years to eat that much. Then he said we could have 50 goats and they'd still be eating next spring. Yes, that is probably pretty close to accurate. So, after watching them we have decided to add some more to our goat herd collection we have going. I'm not sure when they're set to arrive. I do know that once we give him the go ahead to deliver I''ll be up at the crack of dawn, dressed and presentable, each morning until they get here. They'll have baby goats in the spring too so we'll also add to the herd that way.
But after checking out goats and talking to many goat ranchers we have decided that we are also going to get some dairy goats in the spring. In the meantime, we are reading and educating ourselves on every aspect of it. Since the children are so allergic to cow's milk and we want to get out of the pasteurization process we have decided that not only would it save us thousands of dollars a year on milk but it would also greatly benefit us in our health. So, we are preparing for the spring and to begin our own milking process. We have lots of knowledgeable people surrounding us to get us through this process and get us on the road. I think that must be why I'm so excited about it all. Otherwise, I think the sheer thought of it would be quite overwhelming and I might turn tail and run. I'm really excited about the health benefits of it too though. I've really been convicted lately about what we eat and what I feed the children. The whole month-at-a-time cooking is going well but it doesn't mean in the least that it's really healthy.
(Some more of the greeting committee)
And so with our new endeavors on the livestock end we also are now adding the chickens that were planned long ago. Brad is getting the materials with this next paycheck and will start in on it promptly. They're inexpensive to build and we found instructions on the internet at....get this....howtobuildachickencoop.com!!! Who would've ever thought? We actually found better ones but I thought it was extremely funny that when I put it in the search engine that came up! So, we will be raising our own chickens to eat and also laying on our own eggs..........well, not literally, I guess. They'll be laying them.....I won't.
I'm getting excited though. Between our own goat's milk, yogurt and cheese, in which I am taking lessons right now on the latter 2 to be good at making our own by the time they arrive, and then our own hormone-less chicken and lower fat/lower cholesterol eggs...not to mention the fun of gathering them.....we'll save a ton of money and I'll feel better about what we ingest. We also are going to get some turkeys so we don't get insanely sick of chicken. Brad had some guys kill some deer during hunting season so between the chickens, turkeys and deer we'll be able to eat much better and much healthier for a fraction of the cost.
And we also finally got the tractor to begin plowing up the middle pasture for the garden. I'm still a little uncertain as to that project but it won't hurt giving it a try. I love to plant but keeping the animals out......we have TONS of wild rabbits....and then keeping it watered are things I haven't actually resolved yet. The rain water system will not happen until next spring. Anyway, I made a list of what we are going to plant and I think we will have most veggies covered. The fruit part will still have to come from the coop since there's no way in the world I'm going to try fruit trees with all of their little fruit flies and rotting fruit falling from the trees. Once my confidence builds a little I may give that a go in a few years. If it doesn't work we can always kill them, I guess.
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