Kids, kids, kids

Cookie Dough

Bella

Well.....only a kid and a kid.  But that is enough for me!  Proud first time mama gave birth to buckling, Cookie Dough Saturday morning.  She went into labor at 7:30 am and little Cookie Dough was born a little before 8:00 am.  Third time mama, Leslie, gave birth to doeling Bella at 3:50 am Sunday morning.
All are doing very, very well!

It is so nice having these babies around - especially after losing Dolly Llama last month.  There is nothing like a bouncing baby goat!  It is amazing how they are on their feet so soon after being born and hopping and jumping around within two days!  I'm so looking forward to goat milk in a few weeks!  Life is good at One Old Goat farm!

Casper

Tucker

Bummer.....

Maybe fluffy chicken bottoms too!

Bunnie bums are the only ones I want to see!

 Fashion-minded, I am not. In fact, I would even say that my style has not changed too much for the past 50 years and I certainly don't foresee any likelihood of changing in the future.  That said, I am aware of some of the style changes from year to year.  I remember eons ago that bellbottoms and hiphuggers were in style - for a while. I remember when gauchos and leg-warmers were in style - for a while. I remember parachute pants, mile-high bangs, hightop sneakers.....all of these things were in style. For a short while. 

So......if generally speaking, clothing fashions are 'in' for approximately a season, maybe two by the time fashions filter down to those of us in the more rural areas, why, oh why oh why, are low hanging pants still in???!!!!  They have been around forever! The bare-butt, underpants-hanging out style have been around longer than my teens have been alive!  It is the style without end! I saw a student today whose entire (and I mean entire) rearend was exposed to the elements with only the sheerest of his wellworn underpants covering him.  How do the pants stay, ah, up? Or at least not fall to the ground? It defies gravity, I tell you! I can't wait until this particular fashion meets its end. Which I am assuming it will one day.  Until then, the only rears I better see in this family are animals bums!

Where I have been

Clover photobombing me as I try to take a picture of the hayfeeder!

Trying to figure out why exactly I haven't written anything since the first of February.  I've been busy. I haven't been feeling well and because of that, have been falling asleep in the evening. I've been trying to get my mom's quilt done. I've been working alot outside - this past weekend I made a hayfeeder for my goats and Clover. I love to build things.....next up, a really great chicken coop that will eliminate the need for me to climb into their house on my knees to collect their eggs. As usual, building the hayfeeder lead to me breaking something. When I build things, I either break something or make something horribly wrong.  With only about 6 more things to attach, I dropped my husband's Dewalt power drill and it smashed to smithereens!!! I thought for sure my husband was going to kill me! But he didn't, didn't even get mad......I guess after all these years he expected it. He even trusted me enough to let me use the good one he uses at work and I got the job done.  I'm happy to say that everyone enjoys having the hayfeeder and hopefully it will eliminate alot of the waste although I did see Hansel standing up and trying to eat from the top of the feeder instead of the sides. I guess I'll be making a top for it today. I did take some pictures - my cord for my good camera has been chewed through so I can only upload the pics that are on my little camera.

And the winner is......

After several failed attempts to snap a really cute picture of one of my dogs holding a sign with the winner's name on it, I've decided just to post the winner (by using random.org) and then posting a picture of one of my pups on a day that they felt like holding still.

If Tucker would have cooperated, he would have said that comment #12 was chosen - Shanda!

  Shanda said...

Oh I can already see you are going to be fun to follow :) I have 5 doggies also :) 2 kitties add to the mix...all inside :)
http://stitchcrazy1.blogspot.com/

Skanky kitty  would have said it too!

Leslie wouldn't have said anything.

Nor would the rooster, even though he is the most photogenic of the farm animals!

Shanda,  Please email me your address so that I can send you out some of my soap!

A most wonderful day.

 What a great morning it was!  12 miles of mountain climbing, descending, trail running, road walking. . . it was great!  My brother and I participated in the Frozen Snot trail run near McElhattan PA.  Time-wise, he was faster.....because he ran the course.  I hiked it and ended up with some beautiful pictures and having met some great people.  I learned never to underestimate the steepness and height of Pennsylvania mountains. Wow!  Such gorgeous territory and so close to home!

Goodbye Dolly Llama

 Goodbye Dolly Llama.  I love you still. Please give my dad a hug from me.

Next up.

 This is a quilt that I made for one of my daughters years and years ago.  It is not finished.  It needs faces embroidered onto the frogs, it needs some fish and other waterlife appliqued onto the borders.  After my mom's quilt is done, this is my next project to finish.  Unfortunately.....I found this pattern at Crabapple Hill Studio online shop.I'm sure that after I've saved up the money, I will buy this pattern.

Dolly Llama is about the same but she is warm and comfortable.  I have been giving her warm water and molasses along with her meds with a turkey baster.  Honestly, I think she is going pull out of this. I sure hope so.

When I went outside tonight, NO chickens were on the goat fence.  Which means they noticed that it was a million degrees below zero and went inside to roost.

The other dogs want nothing to do with the cold.  Even Casper has been content to just sleep on his rocking chair.

One heartbreak too many.....

There comes a point when an old goat's heart has dealt with one too many losses.  I believe that I'm nearing that point. It seems as if Dolly Llama has come to the end of her life.  On the coldest day of the year but yet lying out in the field with her, it didn't feel cold at all.  I'm hoping and praying that tomorrow she will be up on her feet again, glaring at me the way she does......I would give anything to have that again.  I want to see her crooked little mouth, her gnarly teeth........ I love Dolly Llama - beyond comprehension.  I know that when you have a farm, you always deal with losing animals.  I know that. Unfortunately that is my weak spot as farmer.  But seriously? I thought that I would be passing Dolly down to my great-great-grandkids.  I never thought I would outlive Dolly Llama.

I don't want her to die.  I've given her warm molasses water in a turkey baster, I've scratched her back, given her medicine.  At one point, she was so ticked off at me that she tried to jump up.  I couldn't get her mad again.

I really don't want her to die.  Aside from my goats, Dolly was my first farm animal.  She's Clover's buddy.  What will Clover do without Dolly?  Everyone knows that a pony needs a pal.  The goats don't count because they are squirrely, will sneak away, and will not make good pony friends.

I really, really want to walk out tomorrow morning and see my Dolly Llama....my good girl.  I want to know that animals go to heaven too.

How lucky are we?

 ....to have two beautiful winter days in a row!  It has been grand....hiking solo yesterday and then today with my daughter!  The roads to where we were originally going to hike were way too icy to drive on in my little car but I'm so glad we ended up where we did!  It was a gorgeous hike....not one other soul around. Well, there was a couple signed in this morning on the trail registry but we saw no signs of anyone.  There is just something about traipsing up the rocky hills/mountains of Pennsylvania with no other sounds than the snow runoff splashing over the rocks, the birds and the occasional crashing of deer through the woods.  My daughter and I just really enjoy each other's company and hiking in the woods just makes us closer.  We talk about everything...today the focus was mainly on our upcoming weeklong hiking trip.  We talk about school, we talk about God, we talk about every little thing that is important to us.
It was truly a grand day.

Whadda day!

Today was spent scoping out next weekend's trailrun.  It was an absolutely glorious day!I only hiked about a third of it~about the last three miles so I was hiking up part of the run that we will be running down.  I got to the top of the first ascent - full prepared to climb down when.....yowie!!!  It was straight down!  Now this is a trail run.....not a hike.  But you can bet that I won't be running straight up the side of the mountain!    But next Saturday is going to a blast!  There is nothing wrong with a day spent in the forest whether you are running or walking, whether it is snowing or raining....something about the trees calms my soul and makes me  happy.  

This is the top of the last mountain/hill. We will be running up this. And this is the smallest of the elevations.

Get to know me at the Grow Your Blog party!

My latest handquilting project approved by Mr. Wienie

I'm participating in a great Grow Your Blog event by Vicki at 2 Bags Full. I really appreciate that she has done this and hope you will take a look at her blog (she has some beautiful photos)!

Hi -- my name is Beth and I am an old goat :)  Other than being old as dirt, I'm also kind of a farmer....of goats (I have six of them, all with names), umpteen chickens, 1 pony named Clover, and a cantankerous llama named Dolly (Dolly Llama).  That is outside.....I share my home with my 3 youngest children  - 15 year old twin daughters and a 13 year old son.  I have two older children - a 26 year old son who lives in Colorado and a 30 year old daughter who lives in NW PA. I have the most gorgeous 6 year old grandson and will have a brand new grandchild in July/August!  I also have 5 dogs who live in the house with me and many of my blog posts relate to my adventures with them.....particularly my deaf boxer Casper.

I started sewing very young....my grandmother taught me in her little sewing room. I can still remember sitting beside her at her sewing machine in between lunch and the start of her soap opera.  For many years afterward, I sewed lots of clothing and things and when I was 25, I decided to actually make a quilt.  I've always, always loved quilts and fabrics.  But like many things, I never brought myself to actually take the next step and make one.  My first quilt was the world's heaviest quilt.  I made it from a kit from Hearthside Quilts. It was a tumbling blocks quilt sewed to a foundation and then quilted.  I hand quilted it in the ditch and it took forever to get it done.  It really was a bear to handquilt through all of that fabric and batting!  But the work was worth it because my mom still loves it! And uses it!  Right now, I'm finishing up a quilt for her - a very, very happy quilt - one that hopefully will make her smile whenever she uses it.  I still handquilt - partly because I could never get the hang of machine quilting and partly because handquilting is very relaxing for me.

And now for my first giveaway ever.......a name will be randomly chosen on February 1st for a package of 3 OneOldGoat soaps. Included will be a coffee soap, a shampoo bar, and a marigold bar. To enter leave a comment, for a second entry follow me and leave me a comment telling me so.