Cows are out, must be summer!

It's true, the cows are out. Last night was the first night they were out overnight as well. Hooray!! This means slightly less work for C in the barn, which is always a good thing, since he's out plowing and planting and raking and disc-ing and harrowing and spreading, and whatever else it is he does this time of year. Really, my understanding of the process is fairly basic. I'm lucky if I can assign the right verb to the right piece of equipment. To be fair, there is a lot of equipment around this farm. And in the hedges. And in the field where it probably stopped working and it just got hauled to the side. On tv last night, there were some scholars reenacting a Victorian era farm and using a beautifully and lovingly restored horse drawn seed drill, which I could spot some similarities between the modern one C uses now, but obviously they've come a long way. Then C pipes in with the offhand remark of; "Oh yeah, we've got one of those out in back of the pasture field. Well, the metal for it anyway." Wow. You just never know what's going to turn up on a farm when the farmers (going back generations) have a strong philosophy of never getting rid of anything. Oh, small child, the things you will inherit from your father.

What's that? I'm the cutest cow ever? Why yes, I did know that.

Oh yes, him. That noisy non-sleeping creature that takes up all my time and likes to slap me around when he's excited. Yep, he's still around. Well, rolling around anyway. He's gained like 5 pounds this past week or so, with the pinched nerve in my back attesting to this glorious growth spurt. While he had reverse gear firmly conquered with crawling, he's now starting to make inroads on his forward mobility as well, meaning he's able to move towards his goal object with slightly fewer u-turns and just rolling around till he gets there. He's an old pro at getting from sitting to all fours, on his back, front and lounging, the only position he gets stuck in now is when he's wedged himself under a piece of furniture and gets frustrated because the giant couch doesn't move backwards when he wants it to. Of course, this means life for the animals is starting to get a little more like a black ops mission when they want to get from one side of the room to the other without being mauled or shrieked at. The dog just takes it, she's so glad someone wants to pay attention to her, she doesn't mind that his sticky little fingers dig into her until I can get them un-wedged. She's quite happy to sit and lick him while he chews on her ears. This is discouraged however, because by the time his next two teeth pop in, I really don't want to deal with extra vet bills for itty bitty punctures all over my dog. The cat is slightly more crafty, and often takes the high road or sneaks behind furniture in order to get past him. Her favorite thing is to perch up high and look down at him with disdain. I see the little gleam in his eye as he looks at her though - it won't be long before he starts to scale things to get to her. God help us.

Where'd that damn cat go? He was right here a second ago....

The return of summer has meant that we get to go outside more to play, with less clothes. Yesterday he sat in the grass by himself for the first time. He like it at first, then I think he decided he was lonely down there with the green pokey bits, so we'll do some more later. We're going to have to, if we're ever going to get this chicken coop finished......

And this is why we have chickens!

Been a while, been a little sick, been a little tired, but all in all, still here!

And this is why we have chickens.

And now for something completely unrelated to baby: About those chicks...

I can't remember if I wrote about them or not, but way back when, like maybe early October, I ended up with this:

 Which unfortunately broke my iron clad agreement with my husband about no more animals for a while. This may have been before or after I went out and brought home a new cat. (I must stress, Tooleo is a barn cat like 75% of the time, and he only gets to come into the mud porch, so he's not technically a pet but a hard working farm animal - he even caught a field mouse tonight). It didn't help that the only place for them to live was in an aquarium. On my kitchen table. Cause that's the most sensible place to keep live poultry. Especially with a baby in the house. Then the noisy little buggers moved upstairs. And they were noisy.

You may or may not be able to tell, but that's Binx in the lower left hand corner, having a nervous break down about the chicks in her house. Did I mention this dog is slightly neurotic? Then they outgrew that container, and graduated to full on rubbermaid container, filled with  paper pellets from the dear departed rabbit:

 Birds of a feather

Flock together.

So yes. Nugget and Frenchy were very cute. They're slightly less cute now that they're not so fuzzy, but they're both still very sweet chickens. They actually enjoy being picked up and petted, and seem to have slightly more sense in them than the others. Way more personality. They now live with the other chickens, in their temporary coop. Which may or may not be located in the garage for the winter. Just this winter though. Swears.

Now! What did we learn?

• Clear out the eggs from under your broody hens. Yes they peck you when you do it, but you'll regret it if you don't. You don't have to do it every day, but you probably should do it more often than once a month. Just a suggestion.
• Two chicks can be raised from eggs. It's a lot of work and possibly not worth it for just two, but at least you'll find out that it can indeed be done. 
• Everyone will think you're crazy. This will not come as a surprise to anyone, just a confirmation of the fact. It does however, get annoying when they keep repeating it out loud.
• If the eggs under the broody hens just disappear all on their own, don't kid yourself. They hatched and something got them. That's life, deal with it.
• When introducing new chickens to an existing flock, the roosters will definitely pick on the most different looking young chicken. Probably pull all her tail feathers out. It's very mean and bloody and horrible, and you really will need to protect her and keep her away from the rest. 
• Chickens can survive having their tail feathers pulled out. They need a lot of cuddles and tlc to get over it. It's sad, but made much more doable if the chicken likes cuddles.
• Don't keep two roosters just because you're attached to them. You're an idiot. They'll take turns picking on the runty chicken to show off to one another. Also, they're noisy.
• Roosters should be stewed and not heard. If not, you end up with chicks living in an aquarium in your kitchen. This is not an advisable situation.

In closing: I have now successfully hand raised chicks that were incubated by a broody hen. Kids, don't try this at home unless you have a lot of time on your hands, or a commercial poultry operation. Who am I kidding, those people don't even do it themselves, they outsource their chicks till they get their feathers.

So my baby is growing up. He no longer needs me to come downstairs when he's crying to turn on his crib music. He does it all for himself:

No mom, I'm not sitting too close to the tv, it's too close to me!

So how did this happen? My little squirmy puddle bottom of a baby has figured out how to do something, which to me, seems fairly complex a train of thought for one so little. He has to decide: Hey, I'm bored, I'd like to listen to my music and watch my fish swim! Then he has to maneuver his little body into a position close to the apparatus, that, though inside his crib, isn't really positioned in a way that would invite random turning on, it actually takes elevation and aim. In the semi dark. While still not possessing the motor skills of someone able to, shall we say, motor. Then he rolls back to where he can see it, and happily watches it play.

Beware, world. The thought processes have become more complex. This could mean doom to my sanity. Could.

Peek a Boo!!

So, Christmas is over, the New Year has been rung in, and we survived. Which is to say I didn't kill anyone or anything, which is apt to happen this time of year. Every year. Things went smoothly, gifts were given, and gratefully received, and my darling hubby got me a fantastic surprise of a new lens for my canon. Yay for portrait lenses. And also, this happened:

Yeah, we're there already.

So how ya been?

Ok. Here it is. The big wrap up of the past couple of months. As you know, we had a baby. Alex. Hi Alex! Alex has Spina Bifida. Oh well, not much can be done about that, and that's a reality that we've become comfortable with. This fact is made much more digestible by how absolutely amazing Alex is. Legs kick. Feet flex. Toes wiggle. His brain and spinal cord is healthy, developing normally at this point, and will hopefully continue to do so. He's awesome. Yes, spending two and a half months in the hospital with two spinal surgeries, plenty of IV's and antibiotics, feeling unbelievably lonely and just alone (these are two very separate things I've learned), worried over C driving back and forth and not falling asleep and dying, etc: SUCKED. At the same time, I'm so very aware of how lucky we were to be able to have the IWK to go to, the amazing people who work there, and the support of my family and all back home who made it possible for us to actually survive this intact.


Really, truly, we're pretty damn lucky all around.

We had our first Spina Bifida Clinic in early October: what a loooong day. I'm glad I was able to convince those involved to go over the night before and spend the night at a hotel in order to make it for the next day. Plus I got to shop. Cause that's important. MRI, Ultrasound, X-ray, Uro-dynamics, Orthopedics, Neurosurgery...the list went on. Lots of consults, lots of tests. Lots of positives from the doctors reading the reports, one or two things to keep an eye on, and overall not too much to worry about. Still on the bright side, they don't want to see us for 6 months!! Usually I'm pretty sure it's an every 3 months for the first year +, then they slow down a bit. Yay for us!

So; while a little bit of reflux to his left kidney is something we'll need to take a low dose antibiotics for, we're doing very well.



We laugh
We smile
We sing
We get licked by the dog
We wail
We scream
We get woken up by the chicks that ridiculous me decided to try and save so they live in the house.




I realize that's something I have to work on. I'm working on it, really!

Not forgotten, just really really busy...

Apparently having a three month old will do that to you.

Seriously though, would you rather be looking at that face, or sitting in front of a computer. Even if he's kicking you in the arm so hard he leaves bruises...