Friday, November 1, 2024

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Mother and Baby

 

This is Little Shy, named after her mother Shy, and her first baby.  Though she's older now and no longer giving us kids (baby goats), she still nurtures every baby as if they are her own.

Monday, October 28, 2024

Allergy Heartbreak

 


We'd been waiting for this moment.  Now, our daughter was old enough and we were finally ready to get a dog.  I grew up with a family dog.  You can see a picture of her on my Diabolical Baby Brigade blog as the infamous Puppy.  My husband also grew up with a dog, so we thought nothing of it when we started searching for available dogs.  

The local humane shelter recently took in some puppies.  They knew from the mother that the puppies were part Husky, which meant I was instantly sold.  I love Huskies.  LOVE!

With a prayer beforehand that it be obvious which dog we should bring home, we set off to try our luck at picking out a family dog.  We'd narrowed it down to two options.  The Husky, Julia, and a Great Dane mix.

We met the Great Dane first.  Danedy was sweet, but had absolutely no interest in us.  For someone who has always viewed herself as an animal person, it was interesting watching a dog running away from us like we had the plague.  

Then, came Julia.  To say she showed interest in us would be a major understatement.  This girl, at ten weeks old, was jumping on us, giving us kisses, was wagging her tail like she was going to turn into a helicopter and take off.  

Needless to say, we adopted her.

From the moment we brought her home, we were ecstatic.  This is a farm, we have chickens and goats.  Julia, even though she would perk her ears and raise her head like she wanted to play with them, sat down as soon as I gave the command and touched the tips of my fingers to her back.  (This without any prior training)  And there she stayed!  Patiently sitting and watching the chickens cluck like a bunch of ninnies gossiping about the new member of the family.

House training was something we had to keep on top of, but guess what!  

She was so wonderful that she was house trained within twenty-four hours.  24!  That's unheard of for a puppy.

Julia was perfect!

Then, it happened...

The first night I felt like I was struggling to breathe, but that had happened to me before.  I was nervous, we hadn't taken care of a puppy before.  Nothing but nerves.  Right?

RIGHT?

The second day my eyes itched, then they burned.  By that evening, I was having trouble swallowing and my tongue had swollen so much so that I couldn't even talk properly.

Somehow, between when I was growing up and now, I developed dog allergies.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Nothing helped and, finally, we decided we had to bring her back to the shelter.  They were so understanding and were able to find Julia another home quickly, where she is still happy and enjoying herself.  

I've only ever made my husband cry twice in all of our marriage.  The first time he saw our daughter on the ultrasound and now.  Our daughter cried until she ran out of tears.  We all cried.  

How did this happen?  How did I develop dog allergies?

Sunday, October 27, 2024

Diabolical Baby Brigade

  The Mission Log of the Diabolical Baby Brigade has a new post:

 

A Diabolical Trick or Treat

As Logged by Agent West:


 

Mommy’s dressed me as a bunny

And I don’t find it all funny.

Sure, the legend sounds really cool,

But did she have to go so old school?


Cousin JimJim thinks he can laugh

Even though he’s dressed as a giraffe.

How would he like some worms in his bag?

Watch out! He’s starting to gag.

 

How does Agent West pull it off?

Find out in:

A Diabolical Trick or Treat

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Snuggly Baby Goats

There's nothing more adorable than newborn babies snuggling!


 

Here is a newborn snuggling with her mom and grandmother:



Monday, October 21, 2024

Temporary Barn Idea

 

When we first moved to the farm, there was only a small pole barn.  At 30 foot by 40 foot and with a cement floor, we decided to use half of it for hay storage and placed large, rubber mats on the other end for the horse stalls to go on.  That meant, there was no room for cattle to lodge.  

Because we mainly had Highlands at the time, their heavy, long coats did mean they were more comfortable outdoors during the winter.  However, heavy, long coats don't keep cattle out of the mud and Ohio winters are often a spectacle of mud.

To spare our cattle's hooves, we found this used wedding tent online at less than half the price of a new one.  That was a nice deal, but then we needed to find a way to make sure the cattle didn't rub up against the metal posts or rope ties.  A string of electric wire (which you can see in the photo above) just inside of the metal posts fixed that.  

What was really nice was the continual addition of bedding (old hay or straw) eventually elevated the area underneath the tent so that it was never muddy and, as an added bonus, the deep bedding created a warmth that kept the cattle comfortable even on the cold nights.

A great perk was that that spring was a very wet one.  However, as you can see in the picture below, the cattle never had to worry about the mud then either.