Thank heaven for 2011!

Man, are we happy to see 2010 go on it's way! In typical family fashion, we rang in 2011 while sleeping snug in our beds. After having friends over for a wonderful New Year's Eve dinner our bellies, full of wine and tri tip (and sparkling cider), didn't allow for wild partying. We decided to call it and celebrate in the morning with something just as awesome as expensive champagne... blueberry crumb breakfast cake with a lemon glaze. Now that's a happy new year!

The rest of the New Year's weekend was spent reading, avoiding the rain, going to the movies, getting over colds, avoiding the rain, and preparing for our return back to school. Boooooooooooo. That's from me not the kids...

But, upon returning from school tonight and sitting down to our nightly family dinner, it was interesting to hear our kids talk about what all their buddies got for Christmas. Seems to have been the season for electronics and $100 VISA gift cards. Seriously? $100 VISA gift cards? Two little friends from different families received them. Now, I pride myself on painstakingly selecting meaningful presents for our kids. Things that they will love and be tickled by. But, let me guess... next year they would be extremely tickled by matching $100 VISA gift cards...

yeah, me too. Yo, Santa...

Katy's Big Day

Katy kitty got the green light today from Dr. Strasser. She was released from spending 6 weeks in an extra large dog crate in the kitchen...

At the beginning of October Katy and two siblings were trapped under the girls bathroom at RT and Bee's elementary school. The janitor set a humane trap and pulled the little family out revealing that Katy had a very injured left hind leg. Of course, families took the other two kittens leaving "injured kitty" in the trap in the janitor's room.

As soon as I arrived at school to pick up the kids, Bee begged me to go see the kitties... I was sunk right off the bat. Greg was also at school with me. You can probably guess the rest... We told the janitor that we would take the injured Kitty to our friend Dr. Strasser and see if he would "help" us out with this poor little thing. And help he did.

Katy had a displaced femur fracture that had probably happened a week previous. Her leg muscles were severely contracted as her body attempted to stabilize the broken bones. We went to see Strasser and he gave us two options: 1. amputation 2. put a pin in that will be wired to her femur. We opted for option 2. The surgery went beautifully and after two weeks of "healing" in the crate and escaping from the crate, she had rebroken the bone, and she was off to another surgery. This time a plate with 8 pins was put in that spanned almost the entire length of her little leg bone.

Four more weeks in the crate in the kitchen and this morning, with our fingers and toes crossed, we headed back to the hospital for an x-ray that would hopefully show she was good to go and get the green light for a new life on the outside.

I took 54 pictures of her this afternoon enjoying her first moments of freedom. Nearly all of the pictures were blurry and crazy due to the nature of my subject... I opted to post a resting photo of the new and hopefully improved Katy Kitty.

Note: Katy was named after the Dr. that did her initial intake appointment and assisted on her first surgery. We just couldn't bring ourselves to name this beautiful little girl Richard...

Merry Christmas to All

Yesterday afternoon we set out on our yearly holiday journey to Fresno - one of our favorite traditions. Yes, really. We loaded into the truck at 11:00 a.m. for a two and a half hour trip. We were loaded with the usual bikes, dog crate, duffle bags, etc. But, this trip we had a small borrowed trailer in tow. We needed to bring it to " transport furniture back home." Little did RT know that that little trailer was actually carrying his new/used Christmas quad, against my protests... My husband very patiently explained to me that ponies are dangerous too, and we had already taken that plunge...

We arrived five hours later after first dropping Katy Kitty at the kennel, stopping by the grocery store, making an additional stop at the tack shop, then one last teensy stop at McDonald's. Oh, and an additional stop at the Costco in Fresno... not busy at all... hahaha.

Three dvds later we pulled up to the ranch and unfolded out of the truck., Violet the dog, was thrilled to be back in her home town. And, of course, the kids were even more thrilled as they view the ranch as their favorite place on earth. In fact, when they were quite a bit younger we actually left our first family trip to Disneyland a day early - at their request - to return to the ranch and stop over for our extra days... crazy children... i-yi-yi...

Christmas eve was spent eating mexican food with family, playing with dogs, wrapping presents, and enjoying ourselves. Christmas eve night was spent tossing, turning, fighting for covers, then fighting a dog and two children for room in the bed. Threatening Ri if he didn't settle down and quiet down. Then finally giving up as I was so disoriented from lack of sleep and the fact that my watch battery died, so all night long I thought is was 1:48 a.m. Weird.

Once everyone awoke this Christmas morning, we drank coffee while threatening RT to settle down and quiet down while we waited for the rest of the family to gather. No present shall be opened without all members in attendance... So, the wait from 6:15 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. lasted about 9 hours. But, soon enough, the kids received their Santa presents: 1. split-ear headstall and bareback pad and 2. a quad... And no, that doesn't seem a little unfair, as we reminded Iz about the pony waiting in her stall back home... oh, yeah...

We ate a delicious breakfast for lunch, then set out on our annual dog walk around the alfalfa fields. It was our worst showing to date with only 6 dogs and 5 humans. One year we had 23 dogs at Christmas with 16 dogs on the walk. That's a lot of dogs.

The rest of the day has been spent eating yule log, playing with toys, looking at cows, trying to tie a ribbon on the pot-bellied pig's tail - a dare by Cousin Amy, and watching movies. Oh, and of course, wrangling dogs, calling dogs, stopping dog fights, talking about dogs, picking up dog dirt, and photographing dogs. All in all, another excellent day!

As I I type I can hear talk of the next meal. I better get up and walk around. I have more eating to do...

The Christmas card...

Well, I'm back and I'm just going to pretend that time hasn't passed. There has been no gap in my attempt at blogging and no important events have transpired since I last posted...

O.K.

So, this morning there was finally a break in the rain, so I decided it was time to shoot the family Christmas card. December 20th... five days to spare - perfect. I wanted to shoot the kids with our precious and recuperating new kitty, Katy. But then Miley walked by so we snagged her up, too. This yearly event is always a challenge, which baffles me, as it is one of the easiest things for the participants to do.

1. stand still
2. smile

Yet it never fails that the kids are lame, I yell, the poor animals that were selected for that year's card fight to get away, and the end result is a mediocre shot of naughty kids with frightened animals. By the way, Bee and Danger Boy, Santa was watching...

And, as you can see from the evidence posted, that this year's session was no different. Except it was the animals that were fighting, not the children. They were laughing like goons - equally frustrating. Overall, a pretty accurate portrayal of our peaceful and loving family...

Not.

the wonderful world of chickens

Since I last wrote a lot has happened in the chicken world on our farm... First and foremost, our two bantams made the trek to the County Fair. And what an eventful trip that was. The festivities started before we even loaded the car. Adding to my list of first time things I've done this year is bathing a chicken... wait - bathing and blow drying a chicken. How, you might ask. Why, is also a common question...

Well, before the ladies could go to the fair they had to have their nails trimmed, their beaks trimmed - awkward, and they had to have a bath. Amelia was my first victim. I systematically quicked all eight of her toe nails. The poor girl left little tiny bloody nail prints all over the towels. The beak trimming went flawlessly. And the bathing was a hilarious event. Two salad bowls were filled with warm water and placed in the sink - one with mild soap and the other with clear rinse water. Then splash, in she went. I have to say, after a few initial flaps and flutters, she seemed to settle and actually enjoy it. Wash, wash, wash. Rinse, rinse, rinse. And off to the blow-dry station. Now this Amelia loved! She cleaned and preened and relaxed under the warmth of the dryer. Beautiful Golden Seabright ready for Fair.

Repeat with Annabell, BB Red Old English Game bantam. Also a lovely outcome. I will write later about our complete 2010 County Fair experience.

just like I thought

Well, I was right... it did slip my mind to faithfully add to our blog. It's not for lack of cool things happening around the farm - it's just the pace of impending springtime that hurries life right along... soccer, lacrosse, school, 4-H, gardening, mowing, baby goats, birthdays, eggs, eggs, eggs, and so on.

So, let's back track and welcome Jane and Derby to the farm and family. Jane, Castle Rock Lady Jane Grey was purchased in March for Bee to use as her 4-H goat. Stella, the three-teated-death-warrior has spent the last three weeks trying to kill baby Jane. Stella used to be a sweet, docile Nigerian Dwarf goat until we brought Jane home... Jane's job is to be a super star in the show ring! Stella's new job is to be Tessa's little sister and BFF.

The first night that we brought Jane home was so awful. The goats were so mean to her, and she was so lonely that I promptly called the breeder the next morning to arrange for a "loaner" wether to keep her company. Turns out wethers are throw-away goats since there is no breeding/money making use for them. So, back in the car to Vacaville I go to pick up Jane's brother, Derby. On loan for a month.

Now, let me explain the weird names... the breeder we purchased Jane from only names her goats after flowering or native plants. The parents of Jane were named after a lupine and a rose... so that's the flower varieties that we got to choose names from. Lady Jane Grey is a rose. And after seeing the "loaner" wether - who also happens to be Jane's brother - I knew I wanted to keep him, even though that decision hasn't been made official yet. Anyway, we needed to call the little guy something and since he looks like he is wearing blinkers like a racehorse and runs everywhere, we quickly googled the name of a rose... Kentucky Derby. So, welcome Derby!

So, we have been bottle feeding these two baby goats for about three weeks now. It has been a super cool experience for our family and the goats are just lap dogs because of it. We slowly transitioned them from goat's milk to vitamin D cow's milk right from the store - how easy is that? And I have to say that sitting out in the goat stall at 6:30 a.m. in my pajamas and jacket feeding babies and drinking coffee have been some of my best mornings on the farm. Not many people can say that they start their day like that - and I feel very lucky that I get to!

rain

rain.
rain.
rain.
rain.
more rain.