Crazy Weekend!!!!

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I only feel like it. :) Okay, so it's just been really busy lately with everything going on. Here's just an idea to what we've been doing here.

Saturday: We had a very nice family out to talk about goats and see our set up. They are getting into goats and just wanted some advice. Right as they were about ready to leave, a lady came to pick up Rosemerry's doe kid. She was so excited! I think they will really enjoy her. Now, we had planned on having a public farm tour that day, but it had been canceled so thankfully we hadn't put it in the local paper like we were planning to. However, we had put it on the info papers we sell our wethers with so several families showed up during the day and thankfully our barns were in decent condition. It was a long, tiring day.

Sunday: Ahhh! Sunday is here. I will make it after all. I can take a nice long nap and catch up on some sleep....right????? WRONG! That morning one of the bull calves was not looking good at all. We had been treating it for phomonia but it was still getting worse (I personally believe that bull calves have no will to live and are looking for a chance to die) but we went to church anyway getting there the usual 5 or so minutes late. :) Dad told us on the way there that the calf wasn't going to make it and just to think of it as dead so no on really even went to check on him when we got home. I headed straight for the couch. ;) I hadn't been asleep for half an hour when Dad shook me awake. "The calf is still alive, hypothermic, and dehydrated. So.....yep! You guessed it! We hauled that 100 pound bull calf that had scours into our house and put him in the bathtub. It didn't take too long before we had him nice and warm and sucking a bottle. Mom had run to the vet (on a Sunday afternoon! Our vet is awesome, have I said that before?) and bought some medicine for him. Within a few hours though, he was starting to cool down again. I went out to do chores and let the rest of the family deal with him. :) I was exhausted but finally made it into the house. I started taking care of the milk when Mom came in and told me that I had to do our neighbor's chores. AARRRGGGG!!!! I had totally forgotten about them and I was so tired! The calf was cooling down again so Mom and Abigail took care of him and Dad was picking up our new trailer!!!!! So....I was on my own for their chores. I only had to milk one cow and throw some hay to the horses and calves. I mean, how hard is that? I soon found out. I got the milker ready, the feed in the trough and the water for washing her udder ready. Then I trudged out into the cold (it was cold, windy and snowy) to get the cow. Now, they are drying off one of their cows but she doesn't realize that. She came up with the heifer I was supposed to milk. She wanted to go through the gate first and the heifer wasn't going to let me grab her collar. I worked on getting her for a few minutes before grabbing some grain out of the barn but that only attracted all the other cows out in that pasture along with the yearling Ayrshire bull w/ horns. He was a bottle baby and very friendly, but I just don't trust a bull. :) I finally gave up and went to feed the hay. The calves were easy, through the hay over the fence. Then I went to through the horses some hay and even that was an adventure with two mares and a yearling stallion all trying to get to it at once. Got through all that though and headed back to attempt catching the heifer again. This time after a few failed attempts at wooing her with grain I just let the cow out as well. She quickly headed up but the heifer decided to stay behind! I finally shooed her out of the pen and she skittishly walked up to the barn. I had worked at least a half and hour just getting her our of the pasture! Now, the cow had gotten into the heifer's stanchion with grain in it so I had to move her (not even sure how I did it now) but with the wait the heifer about ran out of the barn. Thankfully I convinced her to stay where she was and go into her stanchion. Whew. I got her all washed up and hooked her up to the milker. Everything was going great......until the cow decided to fight for the heifer's grain. The heifer jerked back on the stanchion and broke the stanchion. The milker falls off, the milk all spills on the floor and the heifer is freaking out. Thankfully she was done so I pulled the milker out from underneath her and let her out....forgetting to take off the belt that keeps the milker on. So she starts "trotting" out the barn with the belt still on her and I took a desperate lounge to pull it off. It fell and she walked out of it. I got her put back out in the pasture and sighed a deep sigh of relief. I brought the cow out (she had eaten all the heifer's grain by now) and right then, Abigail came up with news that the calf had died. :( She asked if I wanted to dissect it and I said "I don't want to do ANYTHING with cows right now!". Thankfully she saw the need and offered to help and I handed over the milk equipment while I cleaned up the stanchions. I fixed the stanchion the heifer had broke and started spraying off the slab of concrete the cows stand on. It is all supposed to drain out.....but of course it was plugged so I had to manually scoop out all of the water with 5 gallon buckets which only pulled out about 1 cup at a time. I got it all scooped out though and Abigail got done with the milk equipment at the same time. We were walking home and the same time Dad got home with the new trailer. It looks awesome! I got inside, had something to eat and then plopped in bed (at 8:30) and slept straight through 'till 4:30!

Monday: I took classes. Class 1: Agriculture. I had noticed Alithia looking pretty close when I did chores and at 9:00 when I went to check on her she had already delivered! I grabbed them w/o checking what they were and ran into the house (we had run out of rags in the barn). I started drying them off and then finally checked (I think I just really didn't want to know what they were). Surprise, Surprise!!!! Twin does!!!! Yeah!!!! I got them all dried off and put them in Dad and Mom's room while I did my second class. Class #2. History. I watched some AWESOME documentaries on the Civil War with lots of reenacting. These were made by the History Channel and they have some really good information. Class #3. Health. This is also known as taking a nap, resting or relaxing. Unfortunately, I woke up with a headache. :( Class #4. Piano. I still hadn't practiced all week (the whole week had been hectic) and I had a lot to catch up on. Bad girl. :( Class #5. Reading/ Science. I had to read a nice long chapter on Science Natural Laws for the Driver's Ed. Then I had chores to do and hurry and get ready for Driver's Ed. Got home around 7:45, fed kids and calves and went to bed.

What a crazy weekend. I just hope this week can kinda be a little calmer, but I don't have high hopes. :) We are almost done with kidding, just have our accidentals to go. Mindie has accidentally gotten bred with Presto :( and Katrina may have been. I'm not sure when either of them will go. Probably relatively soon though.

Hope you are enjoying your week!

~Bethany~

P.S. We still are having our same septic issues (still are without a toilet, showers that work properly or a dishwasher) so please continue to pray for no rain! I really appreciate it!

P.S.S. I will be posting pictures soon of the newest kids we've had around here, the dissecting calf process (it was a cool science lesson!) and the calf in the tub.