Category Archives: Outdoors

Paisley’s Birth

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I’m sure you’re all wondering what happened to Paisley. After all, I haven’t posted in ages! Well, she gave birth on the 29th of July, the day before my birthday. But the baby buckling got stuck in the birth canal and despite our efforts, suffocated. :( Naomi and Mom had their hands in there and eventually got him out, but it was too late. :cry:

All the other babies are fine. :) We’re bottle-feeding Daisy’s babies because we don’t think they’re getting enough milk. They looooove it. :lol:

We’re milking Paisley, but only on one teat. Her other teat has a bump in it that prevents milk from squeezing out… She’s had that bump since last winter. It’s really weird…

Gingham is due on September 11. Pray for an easy and successful birth!

On Their Clock, Not Ours

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Daisy’s due date was yesterday so of course on the days leading up to it, we were checking on her practically every five minutes. :D Yesterday, Mom and Mikah left with the truck to get it serviced, leaving Naomi and I home. I’m surprised we didn’t pop, we were so excited. What colors would her babies be? When would she birth? How many kids did she have in that gigantic stomach?

Well, after a whole day of checking on her several times each hour and going away with, “Just ten more minutes. Then she’ll start having contractions,” we were half-way through milking when…

…she started having contractions! For real!

Naomi and I were still home alone but, with my phone, we called up Mom and Baba. Both were super excited (not to mention Mikah, who’s gasp I heard even through the phone!) and anxious to get home. We finished milking in a hurry and tried to make Daisy comfortable. She didn’t lay down once.

Baba arrived home just before the first kid slipped out. He and Naomi (mostly Naomi) cradled the baby in their hands as it (sorry, no hints on its gender yet :P ) slid out. You should have heard Baba’s voice as he said, “It’s a…boy.” He really wants girls. :lol: We clustered around the boy, wiping goop off his mouth and making sure he was okay. All of a sudden, Naomi yelped,

“Another one’s coming!”

Naomi barely got to Daisy in time to catch the second kid. One mistake we’ll never make again.

This kid worried us because it wouldn’t breathe for the longest (not really, but in the rush of the moment, yes) time. And then it took a breath, and another, and another, and lived! Baba carried it over to the straw pile where the boy was and peeked at it.

“It’s a GIRL!”

Very jubilant, indeed. ;)

Both kids are doing great. The boy looks so much like Cosmo, except without the white band around his dad’s belly. The girl looks like a mix between her mother and her grandmother, Belle, who we had to put down.

Binks

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Pegs has a son. Binks, named after Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks. He has flopped over ears just like Jar Jar. :D He was born on Saturday at about 1:00 PM. Congratulations, Pegs!

Facts:

  • Grandma and Grandpa arrived here from their motel just as she was starting her contractions. Pegs chose a cool place in the woods to give birth. We all trekked up there with cameras slung over shoulders to view the kidding. :D
  • She started contractions at 12:10 PM. The whole birth took an hour. Way to go, Pegs!
  • Binks is doing great and has made great friends with Piper’s little girl (yet unnamed).
  • So far, Pegs has only birthed a single kid per year.
  • Pegs gave birth on the 17th, two days before her due date. :)

3 births down, 3 to go!

The Fastest Hour

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The Oceano Sand Dunes.

A HumVee.

A guide dedicated to making his charges scream.

=

The Fastest Hour of my life. Period.

So Auntie decided to make this summer in California different than all the others. Way different. She decided to take us on a ride on the Oceano Sand Dunes. It was really freaky fun in a really not-fun sort of way.

Mikah loved it (and though he would tell you the opposite, we girls definitely heard some yelps from his seat on some of the larger dunes). Naomi, surprising all, enjoyed it so much she would have gone on it again. Auntie loved it (and let everyone know that by screaming the whole hour). Grandpa got a headache but liked it. Grandma had her eyes closed the entire time and her hand clamped around Auntie’s ankle (Auntie was in the jump seat, above everyone else). I…was almost sick and had pretty shaky knees at the end, but loved how my stomach jumped on the almost-vertical slopes and how the HumVee lifted into the air a couple times. :D Thanks, Auntie!

I still can’t believe that ride was a whole hour.

First Kids of the Season

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Piper had kids — a doeling and a buckling! It all started last night, when Piper refused to eat at milking time. Mom stayed outside with her, and Piper went into labor. Unfortunately, Piper kept falling asleep. :roll: Around midnight, Mom decided to go inside and get some rest. When she came outside in the morning, there were two little babies in the birthing stall!

At first Piper didn’t want anything to do with the babies. When they tried to nurse, she bucked and ran away (typical Piper for you). So Mom stepped in. She grabbed Piper, tied her up, velcroed the hobble in place, and let the babies do their thing. They rushed in and started nursing. Piper’s maternal instincts kicked in and within a couple minutes, Mom could let Piper loose and Piper would let her babies nurse.

The little doeling has inherited Pegs’ weird ear! Apparently that trait skipped a generation. :D

Everything’s wonderful on the home front. After all this sadness with the animals, it sure is great to call Mom and have some good news! :D

Pegs is due in less than a week (the 19th) and Daisy is due a couple days after that (the 22nd). Buttercup gave 3 1/2 cups at both milkings a couple days ago. She’s at 3 cups per milking right now.

P.S. To see the pictures in the gallery better, just click on them. Some of the pictures are cut off to keep all the pictures square.

Buttercup

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I got a phone call from Mom last night. Buttercup went into labor yesterday. She was 3 days early. The baby, a little girl with all dark colors and a white patch on her forehead, was stillborn. :( Everything was fast and easy and Buttercup was wonderful, but she was calling for her baby. :cry:

Mom milked Buttercup last night, several hours after she gave birth, and got a couple cups. It was bright yellow with cholostrum for the baby. Buttercup inherited her mom’s long hair, so Mom trimmed it at her back legs to make for easy milking. She got right on the milking stand and Mom milked her with the hobble and everything. This morning, however, Buttercup had to be wrestled on to the stand. I’m thinking she was so tired out last night that she just gave in. Oh, and it probably felt good to be relieved of that milk.

We’re all really sad. :( Please pray that the rest of the goats will give birth to healthy kids! Pegs is due July 19th and Daisy is due July 22nd. Pegs is lagging behind the herd and isn’t very interested in food so Mom is keeping an eye on her. She shouldn’t give birth for a good 1 and a half weeks, so we’re hoping everything’s all right.

Buttercup was butting heads with Daisy last night, so we think she’s recovered.

Thank you for your prayers!

Happy Independence Day!

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Guess what we did for the 4th of July? We went to a water park about 10 minutes away from Grandma’s house!

It was totally awesome. The line to the parking lot started at 8 o’clock. So we tried to go to bed early the night before so we could get up early the following morning. FAIL. So, yeah, we were pretty tired. But Grandpa, Auntie, Naomi, Mikah, and I dragged ourselves to the car and drove out to the water park. Grandma stayed home to pack the food. There were probably around 15 cars in front of us and the time was 8:22 AM. :D

At 9:00 the gates to the parking lot opened. We parked, hopped out of the truck, grabbed our chairs, bags, and cameras and ran up to the park gates. Since we had printed our ticket a couple nights before, we didn’t have to buy our tickets. YAY!

Anyway, moving on, we waited…and waited…in the hot sun…for over an hour. We only had two lawn chairs, so we took turns relaxing (in the hot sun :razz: ). We talked. After about an hour, the group of people behind us was massive. PHEW am I glad we had come that early! After another half hour or so, the gates to the park opened. They checked our ClicknPrint tickets and then sent us on our way. After walking a ways, the park people had set up a little tent and were checking peoples’ bags for alcohol, radios, and “flotation devices.” :D  

And now I’ll fast forward a bit. We kids sampled almost all the rides (all except for the super freaky scary ones!) and my favorites were: Banzai, a tall curvy tunnel that shoots you out into the water at the end. I rode that one 8 times. Vortex Shaft, one of the rides in a mining set-up. It was pitch black in there, except for brief segments of light. I rode that one 3 times — twice by myself in a solo tube and once with Grandpa, in a double tube. Vertigo Tunnel, the second ride in the mining set-up. It was shorter than the Vortex Shaft and less fun. I rode that one twice — once by myself and once with Naomi in a double tube. :) So those were my favorites.

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After a small dinner (we had a big lunch) we made our way over to the stadium and listened to a band until it got dark. Then…the fireworks. :D We haven’t seen fireworks for over 5 years, so this was super cool. :D

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Then we drove home, set off a couple fireworks on our street, and sank into bed, exhausted. :D

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NOTE: If you’re viewing this through my Feedburner feeds, you will need to go here to view the slideshow.

Hello, California!

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We’re in California! Despite the lateness of our arrival time (9:15 PM) we jumped into the pool immediately. :D The result: there are very tired people in the house this morning! We didn’t go to bed until 11:30. ;) But what are vacations for, other than to stay up late?

On the drive, Grandma surprised me with a book to read! Fable Weaver, a newly published book by Carlie Gernhart, one of the writers on OYAN. :D I read her II Draft when she submitted it in the 2008 OYAN contest, but her book has changed due to the arduous process of editing. :razz: So, anyway, that’s what I’m reading at the moment.

We stopped at our Fairy Godparents’ house on the way here. Sandy and Dave are Baba’s godparents, so I dubbed them as our Fairy Godparents when I was little. :D They are awesome! We ate a wonderful dinner at their house — including potato salad made from potatoes out of their own garden. :D Here are some pictures:

Saturday, the day before we left for California, we went up to Eugene to have breakfast with Aunt Billy (Grandma’s sister) and her husband, Uncle John. It was really fun! Aunt Billy is sooo funny! Here are some pictures:

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The ducks and goats are doing great. Or they were, anyway, when we left. Gingham was play-fighting with Cosmo and trying to avoid getting jumped on by Dusty at the same time. :roll: Dusty has SO got a crush on Gingham.

Here are some pictures of the animals:

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And then some pictures of the ducks in the water tub:

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Hiking for Father’s Day

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We went hiking yesterday! :D It was a gorgeous day and Baba needed to use up some of his vacation time from work (he has absolute gobs of vacation time). So we headed out to see some ash mounds/hills/cliffs from the eruption of Mount Mazama (when M.M. erupted, it formed Crater Lake). The ash mounds were awesome. There were trees and bushes growing in them, but then we could stick our hands inside the hill! :)

But anyway, we drove a couple hours, found a trail, and hiked along the North Umpqua (where it is still a stream :shock: ). We ate lunch at around 1 o’clock and then decided to head back. The hike back took a couple hours and by the time we got back to the truck, we were all tired. To end a wonderful day, we stopped by a little deli and got Umpqua ice-cream! (It’s become a bit of a tradition. ;) )

Oh yes, and before we got onto the hiking trail, we were walking along a gravel road when we heard motors in the distance. Just before 3 motorcycles came around the curve, Baba yelled, “Hide!” So we all scrambled off the road into the underbrush. :D That was funny. The cyclists had NO clue that we were watching them. :lol:

And now it’s milking time. Bye!

P.S. There’s a picture of me in the gallery! Mom bought a new camera for GNOWFGLINS stuff so now Mom and I both can take pictures! I can take pictures of her and she can take pictures of me and of course, we’ll take pictures of everyone else. :D

P.P.S. I forgot to mention the gift we gave Baba for Father’s Day! The John Adams soundtrack. :D He loves loves loves the credits music. :D HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, BABA!

Pictures from the Last Week

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So I guess I should give you an update on the ducklings first. Bug and Timmy are recovering from their injuries nicely. Bug started walking around last night so we returned him to the outdoors. Addy seems to be okay, but we’re guessing she’s lonely without Seedy. :( As for me, I’m emotionally drained.

I went out to morning milking today to find a dead Khaki Campbell duckling. :( We’re not sure what the cause was, but the duckling was right by the door of the inner coop — away from the heat lamps. 9 Khaki Campbell ducklings are very tipsy. When walking, they tip over and lay there without moving, legs limp. We’ve got them in Mom and Baba’s unused bathtub right now. And 1 of the ducklings is missing. They were unattended for a minute and when we counted them again, we were 1 short. :(

We’ve been prepping for dirt work over the last week. Baba cut down several trees. That’s him below (or above, in reality! I really had to crane my neck to see him!), posing for the camera! ;)

The guy we hired to move the dirt arrived yesterday. Yesterday he moved some stumps and trees out of the way and then today he moved dirt. He’s been working since 8:15 this morning. :) I’ll get you more pictures later, but here’s one:

That’s in front of the house. :)

We’ve been taking the Khaki Campbell/Indian Runner ducklings swimming every day. They really enjoy it, though at some point a bunch of them head off down the driveway to explore! :)

And here’s Naomi, with Bug the Muscovy duckling. How cute, right? :D

Time to eat dinner! Burritos and cake! Yum. :)

Water Fowl Love Water

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[flickrslideshow acct_name="suchtreasures" id="72157624265808598" width="300" height="300"]

Well, yeah, of course they love water! How much they love water was a surprise. :D The Muscovy ducks *like* water, but they get out of it on their own. The Khakis…well, it’s a different story. ;)

Our weather forecast showed all weekend being around 80°F, so as soon as it warmed up, we brought the ducklings outside for the first time. They were so adorable! And, eep!, they follow us around! They’re like little mice, scampering along in waves. It’s really hard to know if all of them are with you because there’s 33 of them! Thankfully, if one of them is left behind, you’ll hear it looong before you actually see the duckling. :razz:

We took them around the house, to see the compost pile (yes, they liked that :D ), and then decided to show them the water tub.

They climbed up the gravel, caught a glimpse of the water, and *plop!* jumped right in. No hesitation. Within 10 seconds every one was in! :D Pretty soon they were diving and splashing and flapping their tiny wings. I’ll have a movie to share with you as soon as Mom puts it together. :D

After a while, we decided enough was enough and started walking away from the tub. About half of them abandoned their play and followed us. The other half, well they completely ignored us and continued swimming. :roll:

We picked them up out of the water and tried getting them to follow us. They jumped back into the water. ;)

We plucked them out of the water and set them down farther away from the water. Then they followed us. :D

So that was our adventure yesterday! Probably the cutest adventure I ever had. :D

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