Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Goats In My Dining Room and Other Goings-On

I figured I'd better check in before the busy-ness/business of the day sets in. Not that I've been lumping around this morning, but I'm having my morning yogurt with Vitamin D and drinking my second cup of coffee. After this little interlude, the day will be filled with one thing after another. As of late...this is my life!

Four weeks ago, we were surprised with 7 kids...when I say 'surprised'...I mean it. There was one afternoon...ONE...that Lightening (our Nigerian Dwarf buck...aptly named!) broke through the fence and 'visited' our does. That was all it took...and 5 months later I have 7 kids living in a corner of my dining room, blocked off by lattice. Nice weather has to come soon, they need to get outside! I felt better about having goats living in my dining room after my nephew Jonah informed me that in European countries they still do that. But, I forget the feeling of assurance as soon as the youngest buck (named Sioux-as in 'A Boy Named Sue'-by our daughter Lydia) jumps over the lattice, now blocked by our dining room chairs-which he sails over effortlessly. At any rate, he eats first.

Is spring coming? I await this blessed time of year for several reasons! I'm sure those of you who are looking outside each day at the deep blanket of lingering snow agree that THAT is the NUMBER ONE reason I look forward to the warmer winds of spring blowing in...but I anticipate the balm for another reason too...KIDS MOVE OUTSIDE!!! Yes, I know they are covered with fur, I know they grow and thrive in the wilds all over this world. I know, I know. But, until I can move other goats around and secure bottom fencing...until the snow is melted out of the way, these critters cannot move out.

My husband, while cooking a nice dinner this Sunday past, (yes, Mr. Home-Sweet likes to cook...thanks to his wonderful Mom, the Home-Ec/4H/Boy Scout driven woman who loves to teach)...anyway...while he was cooking a nice Sunday dinner...he says to me, he says, "I cannot believe what I've been reduced to"...which of course made me laugh (him-not so much). Not too many husbands would even tolerate what my husband has, with this livestock adventure we're on. And it's not even incubation season yet for chicks and ducks!

Mr. Home-Sweet tells me he truly believes I've lost my mind.

Maybe. Maybe not. This may just spur him on to realize the necessity of building me a new laundry/mud room...the one that was removed before we put on our roof. That one. I sure miss that room. (*Dream Bubble* I could fit lots of kids in a mud room!) No, just kidding. Well, sort of!

I'd like to get on here soon and relay other things that I've been working on and studying, such as, permaculture (neat...but I've yet to see it from a Creator/creation point of view, and of course there's the whole book of Revelation that we're not going to stop, no matter how 'sustainable' we make things), lots more on wheat free living (collaborating with my Aunty on that one), decluttering (which is never going to end until I just get it done already!), and plans to get handiwork going again.

Time to start seedlings too...oh goodness...so many things to get to, but for now, I am hearing restless 'Natives'...as in 7 hungry kids stirring in my dining room...ready to jump the lattice fence in practice for when they go outside...and then it's out to milk their moms...and then...well, if your day is busy...you know...there's always the 'next thing'!! Perpetual motion! Didn't I post once on the 'rhythm' of the chores? Right now it's an orchestration full of crashing cymbals...and kettledrums! The building of a mighty crescendo, the intensity and duration of which is a mystery! How's that for 'rhythm'? I don't have time to collapse yet, I hope I am learning a wonderful God-given lesson here, I pray I am. Maybe endurance, maybe 'acceptance with joy'. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

God bless you as you work with your hands and go about your day blessing your Home-Sweet family!

P.S. I'll try to add photos of the little darlings later today, just want to get this post up for now.