Our litte 8lb mini doxie gave birth to a litter of 6 pups!!  3 girls and 3 boys  

These pic’s were taking a few days before she gave birth.. She was getting so miserable, with her belly dragging on the ground.

Sam made up a chart for the children to guess how many pups she would have.. Everyone was anxiously awaiting to see who guessed right  

The morning she had them - Abby had woke up for work.. and herd the meews of puppies.  Betsy (our dog) got up around 2:30am to potty.. when I let her back in, she ran under Malachi’s bed.  Sometime between 2:30am & 7:30 am.. she birthed them.  And funny thing.. Malachi is the one who guessed 6 pups!  He was thrilled   We all team worked to get her and her pups into the whelping basket we had ready for her. 

She had 5 black and tans and one chocolate.  Unfortunetly, one of our black and tan male pups didn’t make it through the day   I tried and tried to help it.. without success.  Thankfully the rest of them are thriving and growing like weeds!!

I aquired a knew project yesterday…like I needed another project…lol..  ;-)  One of our friends had a sheep, who had a set of triplets.  She said sheep do not have enough milk to support triplets.  She knows that I have goats milk.. and that we have a lot of mouths to feed.  So, we will feed him our good and rich goat milk for a couple months, let him eat the grass in our front yard for another couple months.. and viola!  He will be ready for butchering   Yum… I can already taste the leg of lamb roasting   I keep telling the children, “He’s not our pet.. he’s going to be our dinner”.  They seem to understand at this point..lol…

We brought the lamb home in a box. While we were getting it's pen ready in the barn, we put the box (with the lamb) in the house. I came back in the house to find our mini doxie had jumped in and layed down next to lambchops

I wanted to update everyone on a couple of my recent posts.. Turns out that my kids do have chicken pox – atleast the two youngest.  I am preppeing for the next two to get them in the next week or week in a half.  Thankfully, the youngest two have breezed right through it.  I would consider their cases medium.  They have quite a few spots.. but they are not ‘covered’ head to toe- most of their pox are from head to rump.  I was reading that kids exposed in public places get a milder case than those kids exposed to siblings at home.  I assume its the amount of exposure they get.  I will find out when the next couple come down with them I’m still unsure of where the youngest got them.. maybe at this months homeschool skate?  I haven’t heard of any other cases?? 

This is a pic of Jacob & Eliorah soaking in their oatmeal bath at the very beginning of their chicken pox.. now they have many, many more… Poor little guys

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Also, wanted to follow up on my triplets last week.. Guess what?  I had another set of triplets 2 days ago.  I have never had triplets before this year… now, within 5 days I have 2 sets   Out of two does, I have 2 doelings and 4 bucklings.  I am just amazed!!  And very greatful for them to be all healthy

Here is the first set out exploring.. I can’t think of anything cuter than a handful of baby goats out frolicing!

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  It was very spring like.  My first doe was due Friday.  I felt so bad for her -  she was getting so big and uncomfortable.  She waited to deliver until yesterday afternoon… on one of the most beautiful Sabbath’s this year yet.  She had a little doeling and buckling with ease.. She didn’t even make a noise. 

A little while after delivering, she was kind of making ‘pushy’ noises.  My husband said, “I think she is going to birth another”.  I told him it was probably just the placenta.. afterall, we have never had triplets.  She continued this ‘pushy’ noise for quite sometime.  My son, who was helping me after everyone else went inside, got a look at one of her pushes and thought for sure he saw hair.  I quickly grabbed a glove and felt a knee!  Poor girl, she needed help with a third kid.. and I kept thinking it was her placenta coming   So, I helped her deliver a breech kid (another buckling).

All is great!  They were all up and nursing.  I am always in awe at birth (any birth).  How amazing… and we got our first set of triplets – I am so very Thankful!

Phew.. today was busy.  We headed outside for some much needed fall clean-up… Boy, was this a productive day :-)  The garden desperately needed pulled, and cleaned up.  The plants were all just turning to mush.  I called for all hands on deck… almost everyone joined in to help.  Within a couple hours, we had the garden area whipped into shape.  I already miss the garden.. I look forward to next summer, when we can have the abundance our garden provides. 

The above picture, is the garden after we were finished.  We left the green onions and swiss chard.  After finishing, I headed into the barn and cleaned out all the bedding.  My husband hauled it down to the garden area for composting.  Right before dark, I even had time to give all the goats a much needed hoof trim   I think we will all sleep good tonight!!

O.k.  we don’t have much of a farm.. goats, chickens and 2 barn cats.  These cats are the best mousers.  There isn’t a day that goes by that we aren’t finding the remains of the mice caught the previous evening.  I am so thankful to have them. 

When I went outside, I heard one of the cats meowing.  It was first thing in the morning.  I always let them in the barn to eat at that time.  I figured, it was wanting me to hurry.  So, not thinking too much about the meowing, I went on with my business.  The meowing all of a sudden stepped up a notch.  At first, I thought she was stuck in a vehicle or something??  I started to look around to see where she was.  I realized I needed to look up.  It was a classic, right out of the old cartoons I used to watch.  She was stuck WAY up in the tree.  Back when I watched the cartoons, someone would call the fire department… the red fire engine would come screaching around the corner with the tall ladder…lol.. 

Bella Stuck Way Up A Tree

Thankfully, my husband was home.  He was able to pull his pick-up close to the tree and climb the rest of the way.  I have to admit, it was a bit hairy for him to come back down the tree one handed, holding a cat that had no desire to be in the situation she was in…  nothing like trying to bite the hand that feeds.

My Dear Husband 'Saving' Our Kitty