It’s been a LONG day here. Penny gave birth to piglet #1 - a boy, at 10 am this morning. We had been warned that the birthing process could take 24 hours but of course didn’t really register what that meant. Now we know. 3 hours later she gave birth to piglet #2 - a girl. The timetable so far is as follows:

• #1 - Boy - 10 am
• #2 - Girl - 1 pm
• #3 - Boy - 2:30 pm
• #4 - Girl - 3:30 pm
• #5 - 6:45 pm

As you can see the births are spread far apart. Penny is an excellent mom - I know now why pigs are called pigs & why the piglets grow so fast. They do not stop eating. It’s incredible how she knew to lie on her side & scoot her belly up so that they can get to all the teats. Did you know that a female pig has 16 teats! YEP! That’s a lot - sure glad I’m not a pig

And talk about squeal - good grief it you pick one up it just starts yelling. AND they have very sharp teeth as I found out when I was trying to get one to suck! We’ve all taken turns in the barn today. When #4 was born I was down there. I wasn’t sure she was going to live. It was pating but I could hear it’s lungs crackling. I worked with her for a while but not much success so I decided to run her up to the house. As soon as I went out the barn she started screaming. That cleared her lungs out & now she is doing fine.

I’m headed to bed here now for a few hours sleep. Richard has just taken over down there. Enjoy the pics.

Piglet #1 Drinking:

Piglet #1 cuddling beside mama - so cute:

Then there were 2 piglets:

Then there were 4:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Liz

Hi all,

Just to let you know there are no piglets yet! Penny was due yesterday. The weather was hideous - high winds & a blizzard. When Richard & I headed out to the barn last night the wind was blowing really hard from the west but the snow had stopped. When we came out of the barn all was peaceful. 10 mins later the wind was blowing from the east along with fresh snow.

We have now separated Penny & Rosco - they are not too happy but Rosco can’t be present at the birth - he would do some damage. So just like the olden days he has to wait outside! LOL! Penny has a heat lamp & a clean bed of straw. Her teats are very full but they are not hard yet nor has she stopped eating which is supposed to happen a few hours before the birth.

Woke to glorious sunshine this morning but cold temps. Tonight we are back in the minuses. We were going to go to friends for New Year’s Eve but that’s not going to happen now as we daren’t leave Penny for a long period of time.

Happy New Year!

Liz

….. Richard asked me out. I was 15 & he was 16! We’ve been together ever since. Has it all been a honeymoon?! NOPE but it has definitely been worth it. We feel so blessed to have made it through the hard & the good times and to still be in love. We are each other’s best friends & without that friendship, God’s help & encouragement we would not be where we are today.

Christmas was very relaxing. I read two great books in two days. I do read fiction but once in a while I like to read about someone’s life. The first book I read was “Multiple Blessings” by Jon & Kate Gosselin. This couple had twins & then 6 years later they had sextuplets! What a story! They have a program on TLC but of course we don’t have TV per se so can’t watch it.

The second book was totally different - “Murder by Family” by Kent Whitaker. This guy’s eldest son planned the murders of his mom, dad & younger brother. His mom & brother were killed but Kent survived. As soon as Kent was shot he was determined to forgive the killer. Of course he had no idea at that time that it was his own son who was guilty. BUT he continued to forgive. Bart, his son, is now on death row in Texas. Another incredible story.

When I read “real life” books I don’t want to read how everything was fine & that folks got through their challenges with no problems, anger or other emotions etc. That is NOT real life. These two books are very well written - very open and honest.

The temps got to 48 here today. We took a LONG walk this afternoon. The dogs & us came home pretty pooped but it was lovely out there. Of course there is still alot of snow on the ground which makes for extra effort walking along. Michelle dragged Duke along & once he got the hang of it he was happy to be running & playing.

No piglets yet.
Enjoy your weekend,

Liz

Yippee! It got to 3F here yesterday with bright blue sunshine & no wind so it was time for a walk. After lunch we put Hannah down for a nap (there were people in the house to listen for her) & Daniel, Richard & I headed out with 6 dogs. (Duke is too small & lazy to get through all the snow.) This was Razz’s first walk & he had a blast. He is high energy so kept up with Bella, who rarely stops, at all times. The snow was beautiful although hard to walk through. We went down to the river & walked along there. SO pretty! I spent nearly 2 hours outside. To some of you that would be crazy in those temps but I was dressed up. The only thing exposed was my face. Alas the temps this morning had taken a dive & it was -27 when I went out to the cows. Supposed to warm up to above zero though. Here are some pics for you to enjoy. Check out this blue sky.
Posing for the camera:

 I love this Snowy Action pic with Razz, Bella & Maddie:

Snowy Razz:

Going down to the river the snow had really drifted so here is Andrex trying to follow us all. He is getting old & so every time we walked across an irrigation ditch yesterday he looked so forlorn as he tried to come through the snow. Of course once he was through his tail was wagging again. Duchess (black lab) is actually his twin sister & although she is slowing down she is far fitter than him. Andrex has alway been mellow & plodding, now he is paying for it

The River:

The sky was SO gorgeous yesterday.

Here’s a snowy Bella:

The birds were happy to see some warmer temps also. The turkey pen outer door is snowed open a few inches so they all came running out to greet me today when I brought their food. We did have our first turkey casualty two days ago - one of our Bourbon Reds & we seem to be losing a chicken every other day so that is not good. The cows & lambs are doing fine. We are feeding about 300 - 400lbs of hay a day to them. That is a lot for us but nothing compared to what some of the big ranches must be feeding around here. Tulip started fidgeting before I had even started milking today. I always have to wash her udder & I always use nice, warm water but she does not appreciate it. So this morning I tied her up & milked two quarters out (1 gallon) & then left the two calves to drain the other two quarters. They are stronger & more determined than me. Thank goodness for the calves - they save me a lot of work.
We did get the pigs moved on Saturday. They happily followed the bucket of food. Michael went & picked up a large round bale of straw so they are nice & warm. We are checking Penny each day for changes. They are living where the goats used to be. Don’t think I ever told you that we gave Michelle’s goats away. They were becoming a real nuisance - stripping the bark off of our fruit trees etc. They have gone to a good home & I am thankful they went before this bad weather came. Feeding them would have really added to the workload right now. The pigs can’t go outside yet as Richard has to finish putting up the gate on the corral. He started on Saturday in the biting cold but then a piece of wood went in his eye. I couldn’t see anything so we thought maybe it had come out & was just scratched really bad. However on Sunday when he got up it was no better so Michael drove him to the eye doctor & the tiny piece of wood was still in there. His eye has totally healed now. The gate will get finished off today along with the last piece of fencing on the corral. Then the cows will not be able to get in & the pigs won’t get out.
Maddie had her first bath on Monday & then we took her stitches out from where she got spayed. Or I should say I held her whilst Richard took out her stitches! She is such a sweet girl. She smells so much better! It is hilarious to see her & Duke playing of an evening. Maddie contorts her body into all sorts of shapes & “talks” to him all the time - not barking, just making noises. This must be a German Shepherd trait as our other GS, Lady. used to do that. Of course Razz & Maddie are good friends. Razz can’t come in the house to play as he is not house trained so not putting my furniture at risk! LOL! We are crating him at night & taking him out to the toilet several times through the day when he is in the utility room so he will soon learn.

Jackson continues to be quite the character. He HATES the new dogs but has now allowed himself to go back into Richard’s office. For a while he gave Richard the cold shoulder. Richard said that last night he was in there but no relaxed so fell asleep standing up! Y’all know  how fussy cats are about their water & since the new dogs have arried there is no way Jackson is going to drink out of the water bowl so he now has to drink from the sink - fresh running water. (We do provide them a separate water bow but he still turns his nose up!) He ran in here Sunday night & headed straight for the bathroom. We just put the tap on to a tricke & here he is:

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas - I have to go make some Christmas yummies to take to the neighbors now. We normally all go out as a family to wish folks a Merry Christmas but too cold for the little ones this year so one of us will just drop the goodies off.

Liz

Last night we heard a meowing at the back door & who should be there but Puss ‘N Boots! Everyone was very excited to see him. He was starving so wherever he had been he had not eaten. Needless to say he has not looked to go out at all day.

Our high today was -20F but there was a nasty wind so with the wind chill it was nearer -40F! Ouch! It was pretty nasty out there.

Tulip has been acting like a 2 year old the last three days - stomping her feet, kicking the bucket etc. Now dealing with a 2 year old in the warm house is one thing but when I am trying to get the chores done & her milked in -20, fighting her is not making me too happy. I had a nice bucket of milk this morning when she started playing up again & kicked the whole lot over. I was SO mad! I left her tied up, marched up to the house, sterilized the bucket again & went back down & milked her dry. Hopefully she’ll be good tomorrow. In fact I am going to tie her up from the start so she can’t turn around on me. Not sure why she is being so ornery but I think some of it has to do with the fact that she thinks she is missing out on good hay outside with all her “friends.”

Razz came home from the vets yesterday. (Sorry, no photos of him yet - the ones I took were not in good light so didn’t come out very well.) He is a sweet, but hyper dog. Someone paid good money for him originally as he has great conformation & looks like he comes from some good hunting lines of Labradors. Sadly, whoever had him, gave him no training. He doesn’t even know the word “Sit!” We found out early on that alas he likes to chase the chickens so we are going to have to do some serious training. Right now we have him in the utility room with Maddie & Duke because else he would run off. We only let him out when we are with him. Razz longs to please & just wants some love. This afternoon when I was out feeding the animals he got into the duck pen. Of course the duck house is very low to the ground so I had to take the lid off & try & get him out. It was very interesting. He knew he had been bad so didn’t want to come out. Of course the ducks had all come out & wanted to go back in.

After that we had a spare 5 mins so I took him down the field. The field gate has been open since the snow storm so now we cannot close it. It was hilarious. There I thought I was going to take the dog for a short walk when in fact I ended up walking the cows & the lambs Yes they followed us! That was good training for Razz though as I won’t let him chase them. He was very good & in fact ran from them. Great improvement upon yesterday when he did chase them.

Tomorrow we have to move the pigs into the big barn. Penny’s teats are filling up with milk & we do not want to stress her out closer to the birth.

Hope you all have a great weekend,

Liz

Howdy folks!

We are still fighting very cold temperatures & thick snow. The ducks didn’t even poke their heads out of their home for 3 days! We have lost several of our new Bantam chickens & an older one. In these temps it really is survival of the fittest. We are giving all the animals, except the cows & sheep who have hay, a warm mash twice a day. Because it so cold the animals are not out drinking as they would normally so feeding dry food would be dangerous. SO we have three large buckets that we fill with grain, molasses, peas & boiling water. Yes we are still using up the 100 lb of peas - what a blessing they have been. We normally feed barley but the guy we get it from has run out & due to the bad weather couldn’t get more so we had to buy some feed from the store. Michael bought the wrong type as we don’t normally feed the animals molasses but it has turned out well as it is giving the animals some much needed energy to survive. We fill the buckets each evening so by morning all the feed is nice & soggy & then we refill after breakfast & leave soak all day for the the afternoon feed.

Daniel & I wanted to go for a walk today. He got all dressed up ready to come out with me as the temps had got to about 8F - still cold but so much warmer than they had been. Well the wind picked up & so he was out with me for about 5 mins before coming back inside. It was pretty nasty out there so I just fed & watered everyone & forgot about the walk.

Maddie is doing great. She is such a sweet dog. She spends alot of time with Richard in his office. The nice thing is that she is house trained so that is a real blessing. Richard & Michelle picked up Razz yesterday & took him straight to the vet. The vet had an emergency this morning so was going to neuter him this afternoon. We’ll be able to pick him up tomorrow.

I was feeling sorry for Hazel a couple nights ago & so shut her in the barn overnight with Tulip. Never again. Darn cow decided not to stay in there so when I went down the next morning the door was wide open & all the cows had been in there making a hideous mess - frozen poop everywhere including right in the doorway so Richard had to come chip it away so we could get the door closed again. I didn’t milk Tulip over the weekend whilst everyone was in the barn but now we are back to our routine.

Penny is due to have her piglets on the 29th so getting a little concerned about her. We will have to move her before she has them but don’t want to do it too soon as that barn is dark and animals like the sunshine. Sure hopes it warms up a little too, otherwise we are going to have to invest in a space heater or something. Heat lamps won’t be enough to keep the piglets from freezing in this weather not to mention us. The experts tell us that we have to be there at the birth otherwise the piglets will die. Mama is too busy concentrating on pushing them out to be concerned on whether they are breathing & cleaned off. Should be very interesting. A first here for us here at CHF.

Hope your week is going well,

Liz

Well it definitely snowed and not only did it do that it brought frigid temperatures. We are at minus, yes minus 30! Let me tell you, it is no fun going out there feeding animals in this weather. I also feel really sorry for them. Saturday morning when the temps weren’t quite as cold but the snow was falling I got the lambs shut in the cow barn where I normally keep the calves over night. The calves are now with Tulip which means that there is no milk.  They are doing OK but desperately want to come out. They are not used to being shut in. I brought the field cows up to the old pig barn so that they have shelter.

The chickens & turkeys etc are staying hunkered down in their houses. We did lose a Bantam Rooster yesterday - think he got stepped on. Rosco & Penny are only coming out when they hear us but we are feeding them in their shed too. Puss ‘N Boots, the only house cat that comes & goes as he pleases disappeared the night of the storm. We think he may be sheltering somewhere as the snow is deep so he wouldn’t want to be in it.

Haven’t been out this morning yet - waiting for the sun to rise. The temps are supposed to warm up a little but we are going to be in the minuses all week. Ouch!

Even the wood stove had trouble keeping the whole house warm yesterday but then it is not surprising as when you think about it we are trying to keep the house 100 degrees warmer than outside. That’s quite an accomplishment.

So wherever you are hope you have a great Monday,

Liz

It’s been quite the busy week here. On Wednesday morning the wood stove came. Are we enjoying that, or are we enjoying that?! I LOVE fresh air so now we can have the fire on & the windows open and still be warm. PLUS it is not costing us anything. This wood stove made by Blaze King is so efficient we only have to put wood in it 2-3 times a day. Quite incredible. Richard built all the tile etc. Didn’t he do a good job?

Wednesday afternoon the local newspaper came. In it was a page full of dogs from the local shelter needing a home. We had no idea that the Chinook PAWS shelter had so many dogs - turns out they don’t but let me continue. Anyway we talked about these dogs & were like, “We have 5, we really do not need any more.” On Thursday lunchtime Richard says to me, “I can’t stop thinking about those dogs.” Among the crowd there were 2 Chocolate labs & a German Shepherd. So I said, “Why don’t you just call & find out?” So he did & that is when we discovered that PAWS does not have all these dogs but helps out a shelter in Dodson, about 40 miles away, that has mostly dogs from death row. Right now they are completely swamped. We headed out there yesterday afternoon - snow on the ground & temps just around freezing. First we met Razz, a 9 mth old chocolate lab who can jump higher then any lab we have ever had! Thankfully he just jumps up in the air & not at you. We then met Maddie, the most adorable German Shepherd - what a sweetheart. Last but not least was Mac, an older, much calmer chocolate lab who was really nice but showed a little bit of aggression towards the other dogs & so not suitable for us. When you have as many dogs as we do aggression can be a big problem as they tend to work in a pack.
Maddie was able to come home with us & she has fitted right in:

It is obvious that there has been some abuse at some time as she is very timid. Hannah loves her to bits & climbs all over her. They think Maddie is 2-3 years old & we think she has had puppies at some point. She was spayed on Tuesday so that is good.

Razz on the other hand is still intact so we were not prepared to bring him home. He is going to need a LOT of work to get him to calm down but we have decided to give it a go as the chances of him getting a home otherwise is very slim. He is just too hyper. He needs plenty of room to run which he has here.  He is booked in to get neutered on Wednesday so we will pick him up on Tuesday night & drop him off at the vets over night & then bring him home on Wednesday.

I can’t quite believe that we are going to have 7 dogs! When we were in WV we had 9 & that was a lot.

Today was like a Saturday here on the farm. There is a big snow storm supposed to hit tomorrow followed by an arctic blast. By Monday we are supposed to be down to -30! That meant that we had to get some stuff done today. Michael & his friends got the new hay put away in the barn so that was really helpful. The little ones & I took the dogs & went to break the ice. (Richard was out with the ambulance seeing to a wreck.) The river was beautiful today so we had fun walking on it. Then we came back up & picked up some old wood etc that was full of nails so needed to go to the dump. Tonight Richard put the lawn mower & log splitter away so we’re all tidied up ready to hunker down when that bad weather gets here.

Here are the little kids sitting on a log in the middle of the river:

I wish you could see Jackson. He has had us laughing several times today. He is SO mad at Maddie. He looks like a miniature black panther - big wide eyes & he slinks along stalking the poor dog. When he gets close enough he starts growling & then he pounces at her. She is scared stiff of him which is so hilarious because she could eat him in one mouthful nearly if she decided to! Hope you enjoy your weekend,

Liz

So sorry folks!

I came down with flu symptoms on Saturday so that was the end of my brain functioning properly not to mention my body! Of course yesterday was Monday which is always crazy here.

You folks had a lot of fun guessing what the correct answer was & I hadn’t made it easy with no real clues to help you out. The answer was PIGSKIN.

So there were of 6 you who guessed correctly (not counting those who put two answers in) by Friday night. The random winner is:

Linda D.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Liz

HAH! So what do you think this is?

I guess it could be described as edible but I would not be your first volunteer - too bland for me. Let me explain. On Monday some friends of ours blessed us with about 120 lbs of dried peas. They had bought them for Y2K & no matter how Jane had cooked them they just weren’t right so she asked if we would like them for the chickens. Of course we said “Yes.”

What to do with them though? They are pretty hard so knew that wouldn’t be the best way to feed them. Out comes the trusty milk pail again. It so happened that the Azure order had arrived earlier that day with new noodles, amongst many other things. I had some old noodles in the cupboard that nobody was keen on so decided to feed them to the animals. So in this mix is ground barley, peas & noodles along with boiling water. We leave it soak overnight or through the day & then the pigs & chickens get a warm meal. They are LOVING it. And with these temps I don’t blame them.

It was 60 here on Monday with a stiff wind. Yesterday we saw some snow so have a thin covering on the ground. Today our high was a ‘balmy’ 15! I was ready to put my bathing suit on & go for a swim! Yeah right! Please note the sarcasm.

I haven’t given any freebies away on here for a while so when Michelle & I came across a crossword clue this evening that we had no idea on the answer (being British was the problem) I thought of you guys & figured you would be up to the challenge.

What’s the prize you ask? Well, how about one of the Deluxe Chalk Kits ($29.99) that we are giving away with purchases of $150 or more on the store?

Here’s the crossword clue:

Gridiron spheroid (7 letters)

Post a comment here with the answer before midnight on Friday Dec 5th, 2008 & on Saturday I’ll pick a random winner from all the correct entries.

Have fun!

Liz