….. to give you an update on Michael’s first court case. As we thought this first one was just a formality. His lawyer advised him to plead “Not Guilty” so that the prosecution would then have to provide all the evidence they have. Apparently this is common practice & what the judge expects. The lawyer will now review all the evidence & Michael will then change his plea accordingly.

His next court appearance is July 1st.

Thanks,

Liz

I know you’ve all been waiting to see these so enjoy

Here is the first turkey that hatched still in the incubator:

Here is a shot of their “cage” - actually a water tank. Daniel can reach in but Hannah can’t

As you can see they have newspaper on most of the container but a fleece on the top end under the lamp for them to sleep on. Why newspaper & not wood shavings? Turkeys are not the brightest birds on the planet so they will eat the wood shavings! Newspaper is therefore safer. Here’s a close up of them - they are softer than a chicken.

Aren’t they cute?!

Now for some gosling pics. The gosling needed help getting out of its shell & as I was doing that I suddenly thought “CAMERA!” Here it is with the top half of the shell picked away - still not able to squeeze out though.

Now it is almost all the ways out:

Here it is with Michelle a few hours later - still very weak & not fluffed up yet. Poor thing couldn’t even hold its head up.

Today with Daniel. This gosling is getting a LOT of attention. It is such a bright yellow. Very sweet. Geese are different than other birds - they will imprint on you. (The imprinting has to be done within the first 13 hours so it would not work if purchased from a hatchery or feed store. By that time it will have imprinted on the other geese.) SO that means that this gosling will always be friendly & probably a total pain in the butt when it is older following us everywhere! It now has control of its neck but still can’t walk very well. It will get there though.

Sleep well,

Liz

We are VERY pleased with the hatch rate - quite incredible. 16 out of 21 is very good. I will post pics tomorrow sometime when I can take a decent picture in the daylight. The gosling only just joined the turkeys - it only hatched this morning & was very weak so has taken all day to fluff up. Now it is talking to us!

So who is the winner? Well that was hard as some of you split your guessing up & others gave an overall total. There were five of you that guessed 16 SO I’m going to send you all some stamps The lucky recipients are:

#14 Aaron

#17 Jeannette

#21 Irma

#34 Joyce

#39 Cherie

Thanks for joining in the fun. We’re putting in Chicken eggs tomorrow!

Liz

Do you realize how many times in a day I think about you all & say to myself, “I must tell them this or that” but then my day just disappears & I never get to ‘talking” to you SO now I am going to do my best to catch you up on all that has been going on.

The last couple days Hazel has been in heat so Cinco has not left her side. Who needs TV?! We did shut Hazel in last night & so Cinco was not successful this time round BUT that is fine as next month will be better timing anyway.

We awoke last Wednesday (May 13th) to snow!

Yes, snow!

Remember the three chicks that hatched 4 weeks ago? Well Mrs Bantie would not take them so we ended up bringing the two surviving ones up to the house. They have been quite comical to watch so enjoy these few pics of them in the house! They have now moved out to the aviary where they are safe from the dogs’ mouths!

This image is just classic as the chicks fly & Daniel closes his eyes!

What a grin

On Daniel’s back:

Checking things out!

On my head!

Under the coffee table:

Talking of dogs, we have some addicts here! Razz & Maddie are addicted to eggs! Razz is getting quite the paunch belly They eat ALL the duck eggs & then squeeze under the fence into the turkey pen & find all the turkey eggs. The turkeys lay everywhere so hard to find unless we go out several times a day.

The turkey eggs in the incubator are due to hatch this weekend. There are 19 turkey eggs &  2 goose eggs. Hopefully this batch will be more successful than the last. SO want some stamps in the mail? Just leave a comment, between now & Sunday May 25th 2009, guessing what will hatch & I will pick a random winner of the correct entries on Monday.

Michael meets with his lawyer for the first time tomorrow. He was not able to get a Public Defender so has now hired the lawyer that was recommended to him. He has his first court appearance tomorrow afternoon.

Richard, I & the little ones took the dogs & ourselves for a walk this morning. Alas I didn’t have the camera but it was quite hilarious to look behind & also see 6 pigs following us.  They didn’t walk the whole way.

Tulip & Chuck are now out to pasture. That was the only way we could wean Daffodil & Rosie Lee. They were NOT happy. For the first few days Daffodil was very vocal & Rosie sounded like a donkey braying! LOL! Tulip was quite happy to be rid of them & eating luscious grass. Pigs are also enjoying the pasture.

This afternoon we looked out the window to see RibEye trying to drink from Daffodil! Hazel was very close by but that calf is not too bothered about his mum:

Daffodil was not at all bothered which is a good sign.It was my birthday this week, yep I was 41! Michael & Michelle bought me a new instrument! A Banjo! I LOVE the Banjo but have never played one so I guess I have a new challenge ahead of me.

Have a great rest of the week,

Liz

Howdy folks!

Glorious weather here. Kids are spending lots of time outside. One day last week Cinco & Chuck, who are the naughty twosome, broke into the cow barn & stole hay. The only trouble was Cinco got his head stuck & obviously couldn’t get it out!

Later that night Richard & I had to go out with a screwdriver to unscrew one of the pieces of wood so that we could get it off.

Here are the babies sleeping:

Rosie obviously needed a cuddle here:

Hope you Mum’s had a great Mother’s Day. It was beautiful here. We took a walk in the morning & found he first asparagus of the season. Yum! Yum! Due to it only just warming up we only found a few stalks but that was enough to start munching on. Later that evening the cow/calf pairs came in for the season. Nice to see them down there again. It was so funny to see how our cows reacted. As soon as our cows heard the other cows they all came running. It was quite a noisy affair & everyone was restless for a while. So far Cinco has stayed on his side of the fence but time will tell if he stays there. Daffodil was in heat so he was closely following her but was not too happy when we put her in he barn. She is not old enough to breed yet. Her & Rosie Lee are still drinking from Tulip which is not good as Tulip is due in a couple months so should have weaned them. We put the two of them in one of the small front pastures today but that didn’t work, they broke out so tomorrow we will put them in the corrall where they cannot get out. (Or at least shouldn’t be able to get out!)
This morning we moved Penny & Rosco down into the pasture & led them to the river so they could drink. They then disappeared for the rest of the day but came back tonight. There is plenty of grass out there so much better for them.

Michael got officially charged this evening by one of the local sheriffs so we now have all the details. (Last week we had just received some paperwork from the Public Defender’s Office.) Michael was feeling pretty “sick” about it all when he came in. He is now on a curfew from the court from 10pm to 6am. Sorry I still can’t tell you all the details but your thoughts & prayers mean SO much to us. Once the trial is over we will be able to tell you more.

Hope you are having a great week,

Liz

Hi folks,

Well we finally have a court date & some charges. Michael has to be in court on May 22nd, 2009 which just happens to be Richard’s birthday! What a birthday present! Michael has been charged with three misdemeanors & two felonies! Yes, you could say he is in a bit of trouble. We’re still pretty much in the dark as to what charge is for what offense - the summons just lists violation codes. As we are not Pros on this part of life (thankfully), we’re pretty much feeling our way along.

How do I feel?  Right now, good BUT I know that will all change come May 22nd. Are Richard & I feeling guilty? No, definitely not. We know we have not been & are still not perfect parents. (Fancy that ) BUT we do know that we have brought all our kids up to know the difference between right & wrong. Michael knows that what he did was wrong & he made an active choice to do that wrong. Now he is going to have to pay the consequences which hopefully will be a reminder for the rest of his life to think before he acts. Richard & I are still SO grateful that he got caught as we all know, including Michael, how his bad behavior could have escalated.

So for now we are all still here as a family, helping Michael fill out Public Defender forms etc & waiting to see what another day brings.

Thanks so much for caring - we really appreciate that,

Liz

Hi folks!

Where has this week gone?! We finally got our first gallon of drinkable milk from Hazel yesterday. See all that cream?

It’s been quite the long haul with Hazel. She had to have injections every day for 10 days plus I had to cold & hot compress her bag. Of course she hated the shots, in fact loathed would be a more appropriate word! As to what was wrong with her - she had a form of caked udder. That one quarter is not perfect now but the swelling has gone down & milk is coming out. Now if she would just let Heidi drink without us having to tie her up all would be well. Heidi is a sweetheart. If cows could purr she would be doing it. She loves to be scratched under her chin. Ribeye, on the other hand, is HORRID! He will not come in at night - we have to chase him & then he pulls all the way. If Lilly’s calf disobeyed her, he would get a right telling off but Hazel doesn’t seem to care.
I milked Hazel this morning & got a nice gallon & a half out of her. We always use a lid on the milk bucket for sanitary reasons. Well I put the bucket down outside the barn, got distracted for a few seconds in which time the piglets had come running & yes you’ve guessed it, they had the bucket over in no time at all. AAGH!

The weather has been a little crazy here. Large snowflakes fell on Tuesday & we had a couple days of rain which we do need but it sure creates a lot of mud. Yesterday & today were nice but cool. We are still getting frost at night - ice forming on the water buckets.

It looks like judgment day is fast approaching for Michael! We had not heard anything but today he got a letter today from a Public Defender so we are presuming the charges must be on their way in the mail somewhere. I have to admit I am feeling a little sick to my stomach. We all want this over & done with but the unknown is a little daunting. Obviously life has gone on these last few weeks, almost lulled us into a false sense of security, but it is always in the back of our minds & I know Michael is feeling it too. He just wants to get this section of his life over with & move on. I will keep you posted once we hear more.

Planning a huge yard sale here sometime so I have been busy cleaning out. Boy does it take time. Someone & I won’t mention who as she reads this ( ) called me a Pack Rat! Those be fighting words! Richard just laughed as he knows that if anyone is a pack rat, it’s him. LOL! Anyways I have been through a lot of kids clothes etc this week & bagged up loads of it. I’ve started working on the books but that is a longer process. I am being ruthless. I have a few things that we have trailed everywhere including from England & it is pretty obvious that they are never going to get used so it is time to let someone else enjoy them. I love to clean out, despite my good friend thinking otherwise, & today I went to “work” on the store. SO if you want some stamp bargains now is the time.

Hope you have a great weekend. I’m headed outside to clean tomorrow. Need to pick up old fencing, trash cans that have blown etc. And the pigs had better leave the milk well alone in the morning. Tee Hee.

Liz