Second Half of March 2021

 St. Patrick's Day! We had Lucky Charms and a green smoothie for breakfast, a fruit rainbow for lunch, I whipped out the green kinetic sand, and for dinner we had corned beef and cabbage, roasted potatoes, Irish Soda Bread and pistachio pudding.  The kids asked why leprechauns never visited our house (cause that's a new thing now I guess. Growing up, setting up leprechaun traps and the like were not even an option.) I told her we don't do that kind of stuff at our house, because it's too much work. Well then Gwen took it upon herself to make sure there was a leprechaun treasure hunt in the afternoon and it was a huge hit! 

The most exciting thing that happened on St. Patrick's Day was that Miles got his cow. He has been wanting to buy a cow since we got here and he finally found one he could afford. It's a holstein bull that he named Buddy. It took us a day or two to get the hang of bottle feeding, but Miles is a pro now and takes charge of feeding him twice a day. Its been so fun! 

Homestead scenes. We were on got kid watch for a while, anxiously waiting to see when our goats would give birth. Also I don't think its been documented here that Lindy bought herself 2 rabbits. Link and JuJu. She's doing a great job taking care of them on her own. JuJu is due to have her kit any day now.

We had a pretty epic homesteading day here. It started with Richie butchering and processing a lamb that our neighbor gave us. He helped him slaughter it on Monday, and then he spent most of the day on Saturday grinding it up etc. It was an interesting process to watch, including directing the heart. And then in the middle of that and regular Saturday chores, our neighbor who was over checking her horses, let us know that Gladys was in labor. The girls had been watching her and suspected that it was coming, but we weren't sure. I was relieved to have Audry there to assist in the birth, seeing as I've never done anything like this before, and she's at least helped deliver foals. 

It was a surreal experience. The we were all around watching, and I couldn't help but think, "This is why we moved here." We watched Gladys birth 3 healthy kids, and we helped clean them off and help them nurse. Later that night, we went out to check on her to see if her placenta was completely delivered by now. Richie had to assist her a bit in trying to get the rest out so she wouldn't get sick and die from it. As he was helping her, it became apparent that Daisy was going into labor. I ran to the house to find more clean towels and we sat at watched. It we were in the barn from around 11-12:30. Her first kid was stillborn and that was sad to witness. But afterward, she had 2 healthy kids. Same routine where we helped clean them up and helped them nurse. Richie and Henry helped put together a 2nd stall in their pen with heat lamps. 

I really felt like we earned another homesteader badge that day. What an experience! Turns out, witnessing a birth-even a goat birth-makes me a little weepy and realize over again that it's all such a miracle! They are doing a great job as first time mamas!

All the kids really are so responsible and such troopers. They take on all of their animal jobs with little to no complaint. They are starting to make some pretty good money from their egg business.