Asa Lost a Tooth

Asa lost his fourth tooth today.


He plans to leave the tooth fairy this note.

Not sure how that will work out...

24/7 badness

Three Nigerian Dwarfs

Last Saturday three new arrivals joined our farm family. Apple, Acorn, and Turnip; two month-old Nigerian Pygmy goats. Unfortunately, they are not friendly right now. They are very scared of us and won't come near unless there is food involved. I am hoping that with time, patience, and food treats they will learn to accept us as part of their family.

These goats will just be pets - at this point. They are a miniature breed, so will always be small. This is part of the reason I wanted them. They should be much easier to handle. However they do have horns; we'll see how that goes. People that have goats with horns swear that they'd have it no other way; people who have goats without horns say they'd have it no other way. Supposedly the horns make great handles if needed.

The bucklings (Acorn and Turnip) will be castrated later this month. Castrated males are referred to as wethers. They are more gentle and don't have that strong smell like unaltered males do.
They are very healthy and happy so far. The thing I will concentrate on the most is spending plenty of time in their yard and letting them get used to me. They love Fritos, so I'm hoping that the best way to a goat's heart is through it's stomach. We'll keep you posted.

A Warm Day in February

The boys have the day off for Presidents Day. It is a really nice day (for February) being partly sunny and in the upper 50's. We spent some time outside to enjoy this short-lived weather. We had a picinic lunch in the backyard, the boys rode their bikes and we took a walk on the trail. We found some of our favorite signs that winter is on it's way out the door: Snowdrops - our first flowering bulb of the year.

The winter-ravaged gourd from our summer garden.

Even this way, it is beautiful.

Boys' Art

Asa's masterpiece. He really enjoyed this project.

Jake's valentine

Jake's first experimental collage

Jake's second work

Jake's magazine collage

Ice Storm

Ew! The weather here in the valley is awful. Today is the second day that school has been cancelled. Yesterday because of snow; today because of ice. Our power went out for a short moment this morning, but went right back on. I am worried that it will go out again for a longer period of time. John is staying home from work for the second day in a row too. The boys are playing games and doing artwork and watching movies with popcorn. They are glad to be missing school, although at first Jake was upset because he was going to miss a Valentines Day party in his classroom, but he got over that pretty quickly. I think it's a baking day. Cookies? Lasagna? Hmmmm.

Some recent family pictures

brothers

The first snowman of 2008 made with the neighbor kids and Dad.

Asa in his classroom on the 100th day of school. The kids in his class dressed up like 100-year olds.

A nice day outside.

First Snow Day of December '07

Yeah! School was let out at 1:30 today so the kids could come home and play in the snow. We were only supposed to get about an inch at the most, but I'd say we have between two and three inches, and it's supposed to snow into the night. I love snow days. So do the boys.

Snowball fight!

I am the target of Jake's snowball fury.

I love the bike path in the snow.