Twin goats, Hannah Montana and Thomas continue to thrive and have been going to schools, preschools and today Hannah went to Crossroads Fellowship church for Easter service.
Girl twins came to the farm recently and their mom sent me photos. I am really enjoying every individual visit by families and playgroups and homeschool groups here at the farm.
Hey-just found this on YouTube-also watched chickens in incubators, an ostrich laying an egg etc…amazing what you can find on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz0zM7uXskw&feature=related
Yesterday two little girls spent the day here while they were “tracked out” of school. Wake County changed our neighborhood school to a year-round schedule last year and we are living with the results. The neighborhood has broken apart. My own family has two on traditional calender and two on year-round meaning they are very rarely all on vacation from school at the same time. Luckily I hopefully only have to endure one more year after this unless the middle school turns year-round. My two fourth graders track out in early April for three weeks.
Savannah and Ally and I planted bulbs and made fingerprint Easter cards of little chicks and bunnies. I was testing the paint and the whole concept while getting that particular craft ready for a large playgroup which is coming on Monday; the results were darling. As we gardened, planting bulbs along the front walkway to the house, I was amazed to find the dirt not as hard as I expected with the drought lasting so long. We ended up later that afternoon at Tractor Supply buying day old chicks…My own chickens haven’t ‘set on eggs this Spring and I need chicks for the playgroup on Monday and to take to the middle school’s handicapped classroom next week when I provide an on-site field trip for the children.
When we arrived at Tractor Supply the chicks were all together in a galvanized tub-black, gold, yellow, striped with no way to determine sex or breed. Ally and Savannah each picked ten and when we got to the check out we found out what breeds they MIGHT be. We know for sure the gold are “naked neck chickens” and the black ones are probably Black Broilers (I guess a serious meat eater did the chick ordering this year!) . The yellow might be Sicilian Buttercups which will have a crown rather than crest on their heads. One mahogany brown one is my favorite. The girls had them each individually named by the time we got back to the farm and we set them up in an old aquarium with lights and food and water.
Savannah’s mom agreed to take the whole setup home for a few days, much to the amazed delight of her daughter. I usually name all my chickens, male or female, “Bob” in an effort to not get too attached since I have occasional raids by opossums and racoons which can leave chickens either missing heads (opossums) or missing entirely.
The girls and I counted emu eggs (20) and looked for another nest. We surprisingly found a chicken nest of 24 eggs, mostly white and brown, but two green. I had been wondering why I didn’t have many eggs in the barn and had been looking around in the woods and in other odd places thinking I’d find a hidden nest. I saw my one Gold Laced Wyandotte run from this nest as we approached and assume she’s setting. I hadn’t noticed the nest at all nestled by the side of the driveway by some old gates and a skateboard ramp which we got for free last Summer and haven’t started re-constructing yet. I increased privacy around the nest in hopes a chicken will set and have more chicks. I enjoy nothing more than watching a hen and her chicks run around the farm.
It was a beautiful day to spend mostly outdoors: sunny and clear and warm. I only hope this good weather keeps up for a long-awaited visitor from the U.K. we will be hosting here in April.
BRING YOUR KIDS AND MEET BABY GOATS “HANNAH MONTANA” AND “THOMAS”, OTHER GOATS, EMU, LLAMAS, SHEEP, CHICKENS, DOGS…ALL AT A FAMILY FARM IN WAKE FOREST. FARMER MARY WILL TAKE YOU TO LOOK FOR EGGS IN THE BARN, SHOW YOU THE EMU EGG NEST (GUESS WHAT COLOR THE HUGE EGGS ARE??), HELP YOU HOLD A BABY GOAT, PET A LLAMA, SEE THE TREE THAT WAS HIT BY LIGHTNING AND LIVED…COME ANY NICE DAY. CALL TO SCHEDULE A VISIT SOON. EMAIL FOR MORE INFORMATION AND PHONE NUMBER.
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On Alex’s 11th birthday I surprised him with his own You Tube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=871sWs0QYiI
On the advice of a good friend I met several years ago in a pottery class at NCSU Craft Center I am no longer waiting for my 13 year old son to make a website for my farm…I will do it myself (as a blog). I think my days are ordinary, but I know most friends would disagree…
YESTERDAY I took two goats to a pre-school and met with children on the playground. “Gabrielle” is a one year old Alpine goat who is pregnant with her first baby and “Hannah Montana” is an all-white baby (4 weeks old) Alpine. Both did great traveling in the car and at the school and the children had fun feeding them and walking and running with them. At one point I had a bunch of kids following me and we’d do whatever Hannah Montana did-jump, stop, shake, turn…
“Maddie”, our favorite huge St. Bernard arrived in the evening for a week stay. Little one-eyed “Bandit” the Tibetan Spanial, “Duffy” the Shitzu and “Tank”(who we call Pierre) and “Minnie:(who we call Sophia) the Bouviers are here as well.
TODAY I heard from Angel Hess (purple53.com)-he’s been on CNN. http://www.cnn.com/exchange/blogs/notebook/2008/03/i-reporter-hits-and-lives-road.htmlI met this morning with a man who may store a trailer filled with furniture here for a while til he moves to a condo and I walked around the farm with a woman who counsels people when their pet dies. She and I had an interesting conversation about my dream of pet cremation in my outdoor wood furnace. I would make pottery urns or pottery name plaques to post around the farm wherever pet ashes were spread.
I then spent time with a Mother, Grandmother and little boy who enjoyed meeting the animals, especially the baby goats and seeing the farm. I had him try to guess the color of emu eggs but he was very surprised by finding out they are bright green! I have many extra dogs boarding here and most of them accompanied us on our walk. We ended up sitting with dogs on the back deck talking about my experience with adopting from Russia while the little boy, Garrett, raked leaves from my patio and put them on my garden. He enjoyed his first ever trampoline jumping and I’m hoping they’ll be back again.
When I spoke with Kim, my NCSU Craft Center friend, we were catching up on ages of talk…she has a friend who may want to make crafts with my different colored eggs-both emu and chicken.
Danal, an old friend from Middle School who now lives in Thailand popped back into my life the other day via. Facebook.
My link is: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=544168032
I have been surprised to have complete strangers request to “be my friend” and have so far just ignored their requests. I was probably way too happy when my 13 year old son invited me to be one of his Facebook “friends”.
The internet is an amazing place and I love being able to communicate so easily and quickly. Just this past weekend I used the internet to send condolences to someone who’s husband died. It was incredibly easy to write a long detailed note about what I especially remembered about him and then just hit “send” without searching for an envelope and nice stationery and a stamp (or going out to buy a condolence card which never seems to say exactly the right thing).
We’ve been busy rearranging the house here to make room for Dot, our Grandmother type friend, to move in. Elizabeth volunteered to move from her room so now Dot has a suite with a bath. Elizabeth picked the paint colors for her new room-bright orange and yellow. It ‘s a sunny room now and she’ll never suffer from seasonal depression! I feel like I’m in a tanning booth if I’m in the room on a sunny day! Alex decided to move his bedroom furniture around and make room for a skateboard ramp in his room. Ben took the larger, queen sized bed, that had been in the guest room and changed out his twin. His room seems very empty since he spends more time at his father’s house lately.
I am reading multiple books about Mt. Everest and I enjoy all the different perspectives of those who were on the mountain during the tragic May 1996 pre-monsoon period. The latest book I just finished is THE OTHER SIDE OF EVEREST by Matt Dickinson. I enjoy some adventure and did some sky diving when I was younger but I know I don’t aspire to climb mountains. I enjoy reading about Tibet, esp. in my very favorite book LOST HORIZON by James Hilton.
I am reading a stack of books about explaining physical body changes and life choices to my children. Purity is my goal for them and my personal example to them while single. During a recent weekend conference on Purity for middle schoolers at my church, Crossroads Fellowship, I felt a very strong call to eventually make my farm a place of education along these lines for children and parents and am considering a title like “Birds and Bees”…this will take some research and perhaps start with educational programs for parents and small children, then move toward educating and informing older children including teens…I am thinking the new 5th and 6th grade combined “pre-teen” ministry at my church might be a possibility.
