Criminals
Sunday night, after putting the kids to bed, we became criminals.
To explain further, Alison and Mike heard a strange mewling noise in the backyard. The noise that we now recognize as the cry of a baby goat! Mike went out and found that Clarabelle was caring for one baby and her other baby was hidden in the shadows crying. He brought the second baby inside and he wrapped it in rags and wiped it clean with warm water while Alison searched the house for a flashlight and batteries. Then he took the baby back out with a light, and Clarabelle saw it and started caring for it too. With the light, he also noticed that Olive had one baby goat by her. All three babies were very cute. We were worried about them staying warm, since the temperature was around freezing that night, so Mike took out some rags for the babies to cuddle in and closed up the shed to keep the heat in. All the babies survived just fine until morning. Hooray!
Monday we played outside and looked at the cute goats, which mostly cuddled up in a pile under the manger in the shed and refused to come out. Monday evening as we were planning our family activity, Gideon asked Mike when we were getting chickens. Mike looked on KSL and found five free chickens had just been posted, so he texted and got the address. For our activity, we drove to American Fork, caught chickens, and drove home and put them in the yard.
Tuesday was a beautiful warm day. The chickens got out of both fences (we think gates were left open) and Rea spent hours hunting them down in neighbors' yards and catching them. She managed to round them all up in the end. Yay Rea! Then we did minimal school so that we could go back out and continue enjoying the weather. The baby goats still wanted to stay in the barn all the time, but Alison pulled them out for the kids to see.
Wednesday we had a crazy snowstorm. It snowed all day and we probably got 6 inches. The kids played in the snow a bit, but that's getting old (and they've lost most of their snow gear and there's none for sale this time of year). So we mostly stayed in. So did the goats.
Thursday it was still very snowy. The Dalyais came over to see the baby goats and play for a while. Alison went to the midwife and everything is going well with the baby. She has to do the glucose screening for gestational diabetes next visit. At least that's the last blood draw of the pregnancy.
Friday Alison and the kids went to their nature group, and Mike went to work instead of working from home so that he could play lunch games. Even though there was still snow on the ground, it was warm, and even the boys managed to play outside the whole time (Alison has been keeping them in the car or taking them home more weeks than not this winter).
All three of the baby goats this time were females. Awesome! We decided that the most humane and useful way of dividing the goats was to sell Clarabelle and both her babies as a set and keep Olive and her baby. That way we will only have to milk one goat (Olive gives enough for our whole family) and we won't have to take any babies from their mothers. Mike and Alison thought this was a wonderful plan; we even get a baby goat to play with! But when we announced it, Rea and Sara wept as if their hearts were breaking. It was unsettling. But eventually we convinced them that if they really loved Clarabelle they should let her keep her babies, and they agreed, so we posted the three goats Saturday morning and they sold Saturday evening. We are legal again, which is a great relief. And next week we will separate Olive and her baby (who the kids named Enchanted) at night and milk in the morning, so we will have milk again. We're getting 3-4 eggs a day already. It's nice to have our farm producing again.
In other news, the kids have been really enjoying playing pokemon go a lot, and Mike has made a first crack at another board game in 18 cards. It is supposed to mimic a game by his favorite designer - Carl Chudyk.
The new game isn't any good yet, but perhaps with more work Mike will figure it out.
Finally, today Sara said to me:
"Daddy, this is science: dirt does not have peels."
And then Rea helpfully added:
"Daddy, this is science: monkeys do not wear green velvet Sunday dresses."
Both of these things seemed pretty random to me, but who knows what scientists would research.
To explain further, Alison and Mike heard a strange mewling noise in the backyard. The noise that we now recognize as the cry of a baby goat! Mike went out and found that Clarabelle was caring for one baby and her other baby was hidden in the shadows crying. He brought the second baby inside and he wrapped it in rags and wiped it clean with warm water while Alison searched the house for a flashlight and batteries. Then he took the baby back out with a light, and Clarabelle saw it and started caring for it too. With the light, he also noticed that Olive had one baby goat by her. All three babies were very cute. We were worried about them staying warm, since the temperature was around freezing that night, so Mike took out some rags for the babies to cuddle in and closed up the shed to keep the heat in. All the babies survived just fine until morning. Hooray!
Monday we played outside and looked at the cute goats, which mostly cuddled up in a pile under the manger in the shed and refused to come out. Monday evening as we were planning our family activity, Gideon asked Mike when we were getting chickens. Mike looked on KSL and found five free chickens had just been posted, so he texted and got the address. For our activity, we drove to American Fork, caught chickens, and drove home and put them in the yard.
Tuesday was a beautiful warm day. The chickens got out of both fences (we think gates were left open) and Rea spent hours hunting them down in neighbors' yards and catching them. She managed to round them all up in the end. Yay Rea! Then we did minimal school so that we could go back out and continue enjoying the weather. The baby goats still wanted to stay in the barn all the time, but Alison pulled them out for the kids to see.Wednesday we had a crazy snowstorm. It snowed all day and we probably got 6 inches. The kids played in the snow a bit, but that's getting old (and they've lost most of their snow gear and there's none for sale this time of year). So we mostly stayed in. So did the goats.
Thursday it was still very snowy. The Dalyais came over to see the baby goats and play for a while. Alison went to the midwife and everything is going well with the baby. She has to do the glucose screening for gestational diabetes next visit. At least that's the last blood draw of the pregnancy.
Friday Alison and the kids went to their nature group, and Mike went to work instead of working from home so that he could play lunch games. Even though there was still snow on the ground, it was warm, and even the boys managed to play outside the whole time (Alison has been keeping them in the car or taking them home more weeks than not this winter).
All three of the baby goats this time were females. Awesome! We decided that the most humane and useful way of dividing the goats was to sell Clarabelle and both her babies as a set and keep Olive and her baby. That way we will only have to milk one goat (Olive gives enough for our whole family) and we won't have to take any babies from their mothers. Mike and Alison thought this was a wonderful plan; we even get a baby goat to play with! But when we announced it, Rea and Sara wept as if their hearts were breaking. It was unsettling. But eventually we convinced them that if they really loved Clarabelle they should let her keep her babies, and they agreed, so we posted the three goats Saturday morning and they sold Saturday evening. We are legal again, which is a great relief. And next week we will separate Olive and her baby (who the kids named Enchanted) at night and milk in the morning, so we will have milk again. We're getting 3-4 eggs a day already. It's nice to have our farm producing again.
In other news, the kids have been really enjoying playing pokemon go a lot, and Mike has made a first crack at another board game in 18 cards. It is supposed to mimic a game by his favorite designer - Carl Chudyk.
The new game isn't any good yet, but perhaps with more work Mike will figure it out.
Finally, today Sara said to me:
"Daddy, this is science: dirt does not have peels."
And then Rea helpfully added:
"Daddy, this is science: monkeys do not wear green velvet Sunday dresses."
Both of these things seemed pretty random to me, but who knows what scientists would research.
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