It's Spring, Down on the Farm!!!

I am soooo happy to be living here in Idaho,where I can actually enjoy a "REAL" spring.Last year we had a longer than normal winter and when spring weather finally came,well,we drove to Illinois for my son John's graduation.I should say that we drove right into HOT,HUMID,SUMMERTIME WEATHER!!!! YUCK! We did,however,come home to some nice warm weather but that lasted only a couple of weeks before the summer heat kicked in.Still not as bad as the Midwest.We have had some beautiful weather for the past month,minus the couple of weird snow days,but overall we have had temperatures between 60 and 75 degrees every day and it looks like we will continue to do so for some time.Yippee!! We have been pleasantly surprised at all of the perennials in the yard.Just beautiful.We have trees in front and in back that have flowered.We also found some Rhubarb growing.I have never used Rhubarb and was planning on growing some this year.So,this should be exciting.



Our "chicks",who are no longer considered chicks but Pullets,have grown tremendously.They look like miniature chickens now. I went out to check on them and they seemed sooo excited to see me.They ran after me and followed me and then started to peck at my feet.It then dawned on me that one of the children must have forgot to feed them this morning.I checked their feeder and,of course, it was empty.So, it wasn't me that they were excited to see,it was me hopefully bringing them some food.When I re-filled their feeder they quickly went away from me and straight to the food.

We just added 2 Llamas and 3 goats to our barnyard critters. The Llamas are a mother and daughter team.Bess is the mother who is 6 years old and her daughter Noel who is 16 months old.They are our guard animals for our goats.Our goats are- 1 year old Jane Doe a Boer/Spanish goat cross, 1 year old Surprise a Boer/Angora cross and 2 year old Zipporah full blooded La Mancha dairy goat.Zipporah just lost a baby recently due to eating a poisonous weed and it caused her to abort the kid.But she is in milk and providing just a little.Not enough for our family.But, it is enough for all of us to practice our milking skills.
Our neighbors dogs got into the corral on Tuesday and one dog kept the Llamas away from the goats while the other one attacked them.The injuries were minor,only because the kids and I were at home.I was napping when I heard the goats and jumped up,yelled for Sebastian(of all times he was in the bathroom),I grabbed the shotgun(that we borrowed from a friend),ran outside barefoot and pregnant and holding this gun!!! I have shot guns before in my lifetime.But I had not shot this one nor did I get myself acquainted with it.So, there I am trying to figure out how to cock the darn gun and thought I did and aimed and "shot",nothing.I looked at the gun again and again.Tried to shoot and shoot and nothing.The dog had a good 2-4 minutes to run around the corral to try to figure out how to get back out while I stood there like an idiot trying to work this gun!!! I was mad!!!The dog got out and went on his way back home.UGHHH!!!
When Sebastian finally made his appearance we decided to have him staked out near the corral with the gun,because he has shot this thing with his dad for just this reason.So, the dogs were watching me,they didn't see Sebastian where I had put him.I went inside and stood at the window.Within 40 minutes the dogs were running at high speed towards our corral and I went outside.They got into the corral and Sebastian shot at them,he missed and the dogs got away again.The neighbor,after all of this ended up getting a ticket.Both times that his dogs attacked he sat there and watched.The law here allows for dogs to be loose,but,they cannot harass through the fence or come onto the property and attack the animals.This man's dogs have been a problem to other neighbors as well. Craig came home from work early that day because of the attacks.He and Sebastian went to work to secure our fencing even more so.Now the next thing on our list is target practice and we should have some bad dogs dead soon.Hopefully.















The children have their seed starter trays going and they have sprouts.They should be going into the garden in a week or so.We still have some cooler nights so we can't do it just yet.

and an update on Oliver's eczema...We got the hair analysis back and there are some things that are alarming to me on there.Actually his hair test was worse than all of ours that we had done a few years ago.The three top things that were of concern were toxic levels of Cadmium,Arsenic and Lead.We just got these back and now we have to schedule a consultation with the Chiropractor who ordered it in Illinois.We consulted with our current Chiropractor and also his former Pediatrician.Our Chiropractor here is going to work with us with whatever the test results are as well as with what our other Chiropractor in Illinois suggests.They both use the same methods of treatment. However, his pediatrician dismissed the whole thing and blamed it on the dry climate and told us to put some more moisturizer on him.We told her that we had taken him off of dairy and put him on goats milk and withing that week his eczema cleared up.She says that she doesn't believe in foods causing eczema.She doesn't really believe in any of the things we believe in and we have been butting heads with her from day one.So...we fired her.....with much relief. Once we finish with our consultation for Oliver and have a game plan on how to detox his body I will publish more then.
Matthea will be the next one in to see the Chiropractor.She has been bothered by one of her legs for the past month and it isn't getting any better.One leg is definitely longer than the other and it is making it difficult to stand or walk.She had to have injured herself during her jumping and climbing escapades and not realized it.That girl has way too much energy.She goes in on Tuesday.After the appointment the girls and I are off to Boise to have our hair cut.It's a two hour drive from here.But the stylist is well worth it.
The whole family will be in Boise on May 30th for the Treasure Valley Heart Walk fundraiser.It's a 5k walk with a 1 mile option.We will be doing the 1 mile walk for many reasons;that's what the group is signed up for,the kids may not want to walk any further,and I will be 36 weeks pregnant. Let's hope that I can walk the full mile without putting myself into labor and that I make it full term this time.
I just had an appointment with my midwife and everything looks good so far.I'm measuring at a little over 31 weeks and I've gained 19 pounds!I've also have been continuing to see the Chiropractor and he is doing wonders. I wish I had seen one with my other babies.I see him every two weeks and just in time for an adjustment.I am able to walk without pain the moment I leave his office and that will last right up to within a day or two of my next appointment.Amazing.
We are still unsure of any baby names at this point.It is driving us crazy.I don't think that I have ever had a problem with this.I usually know a boy and a girl name by my fifth month at least.And we still have not found our hardware to our crib!!! I'm starting to panic.It's in one of our many boxes....but which one.Every time we go through one it seems as if more appear.We are still looking for the hardware for the girls beds!!! and they were not even in storage! The beds and hardware moved from Jackpot to Twin Falls and now the hardware is missing....somewhere in the midst of our "stuff".Thankfully the girls are not complaining about their mattresses being on the floor for now. My nesting instinct seems to be setting in so maybe I can get more done around here and hopefully "feel" ready enough before this baby decides to show up.