Hey all!

Trust you all had a great weekend & for those of you in the USA I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Knowing that more children were planned for the Pomeroy household we have kept all the much needed supplies for babies! This past summer I had gone through all the clothes we had & boxed it into ages & boy/girl. What I didn’t want I donated to the Salvation Army. SO when we got the call last Saturday about Caleb I was able to pull the right box out pretty quickly & take stuff with us. We bought two new strollers (we call them pushchairs) when Daniel was born. One is a big jogging stroller that we use to walk in the field etc but Caleb needs to be a little older before we can put him in that - it is not designed for newborns. The other one is a regular stroller. When I took that out on Wednesday morning it was FILTHY! Hannah had pretty much “greased” it - YUK! Thankfully I found the instructions & so Richard & I figured out how to take all the covers off & they headed into the wash. It took two washings to get it clean but now Caleb has a “new” pushchair to go in when needed.

Thanksgiving Day was good for us. Michael came late morning & we had a big Thanksgiving lunch. Then in the afternoon we headed to friends for a couple hours.
The weather has been very mild here so on Friday we were able to go into Chinook for the Parade of Lights & photos with Santa etc. Here’s a pic of Daniel & Caleb with Santa. Hannah would not go anywhere near him!

Saturday Michelle & I went to see New Moon - a very good movie. Yesterday we headed up north to friends for more food & cards so we have been quite the socialites these last few days.
Today Caleb went for his first doctor’s visit. He now weighs 8lb 2ozs. He has been off of his oxygen ALL day & is doing well. We will put it back on tonight when we go to bed as Richard & I would never sleep.  Caleb is feeding every 4 hours & is now drinking about 3 ozs so that is good.

I did it again with the Azure order! I have been ordering cabbages for several months & I NEVER get them, which is really annoying so this month I decided to order two boxes - one green, one red thinking that I may at least get one. BUT I also said that probably now I would get both. Well you guessed it, it all arrived this morning & we now have 80lbs of cabbages in the hallway I took 6 up to the neighbor this afternoon. We do like to eat cabbage but I think I will have to dehydrate some also as I don’t think we will manage to eat that many in a month. They are VERY good though & the kids eat them like candy, picking off a leaf at a time.
Now some farm news - I didn’t milk Tulip on Thursday morning as she had disappeared when Richard went to feed her on Wednesday evening so he couldn’t separate her from the calves. Kinda hard to see a black cow in the dark! LOL! When we went down on Friday morning she was in a foul mood. Got her into the barn & cleaned up but she was dancing & going. Guess what?! Yep the first squirt from one of her teats showed me she had mastitis! Darn it! Thankfully it was only in one quarter & we had obviously caught it early as she did not have it on Wednesday. She is better now & I will start milking again on Wednesday. We’re very blessed to have friends who milk their cow & they get WAY more milk than we do so always have plenty to spare.

Hope you have a fabulous week,

Liz

Hey folks!

We got home this afternoon, 72 hours after leaving here Saturday afternoon. Daniel & Hannah were VERY pleased to see us as was Michelle. All are very impressed with their new brother.

It’s been a long 3 days. We arrived in Billings Saturday evening & then Sunday morning met the social worker, Linda, and the birthmum for the first time. Both are very sweet people. After talking for sometime in the lobby of the hospital, which I have to tell you is a very well run & nice hospital, we went upstairs to meet Caleb in the NICU.

Caleb was born on Monday, November 16th at 36 weeks. He was doing fine for the first day but then his BM noticed that something was wrong. She immediately called the nurses who whisked him off to check. They thought he might have a heart murmur but everything came back clear there. He was put on oxygen & started to thrive. By the time we had got there the nurses had been trying him at several hours at a time without oxygen to see how he progressed but he would do well for a while then really need it again. Once we had talked with the doctor yesterday morning Richard & I really felt he should come home with the oxygen so that his lungs could heal in their own time so the staff started making all the arrangements. Here is a pic of Caleb taken yesterday morning without his oxygen but of course he still has the tabs on the side of his face.

Here he is after his bath last night:

Backtracking just a little, the BM is incredible. She loves Caleb VERY much but knew that due to the situation with the birthfather, which obviously I am not free to talk about, Caleb would be much better placed in a loving family. We really did “gel” together & so today was extremely tough for all involved. Richard & I had to spend the night in a hospital room last night with Caleb on his “going home” source of oxygen just to make sure everything was working & we were OK with all that this entails. This morning, we had the Entrustment Ceremony in the room, which is what the adoption agency provides for all it’s birthparents & adoptive families. Linda read a book by which time the three of us were in tears - Caleb was just wide eyed taking it all in, then Richard said a few things. Following that the BM officially handed Caleb over to us & Richard finished with a prayer.

From there we had to go back to the NICU to get Caleb his last few checks & official discharge. He is on a very tiny amount of oxygen (1/32) so we are not anticipating him being on it for a long time. We go to see our pediatrician on Monday. One more pic of him not liking the camera:

SO we now have five very precious children.

Talking of which, Michael called yesterday to say that his court date for yesterday had been postponed again as the judge’s nephew had died. Obviously not very nice for the judge but we were glad for the resceduling as we felt really bad that we were not going to be able to be there.

Thank you for all your lovely comments. Now just trying to catch up on all that’s got to be done tomorrow before the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Have a very blessed Thanksgiving,

Liz

We received a call from the social worker earlier this morning to ask if we would be willing to take a “legal risk” baby that was born last Monday - Nov 16th. The legal risk is that the birthfather does not want to sign over his rights but the lawyer is confident that the court will terminate his rights due to the circumstances. Of course our answer was YES!
The social worker was going to the hospital to meet the birthmum & so we awaited the decision. The baby was born at 36 weeks & needed some oxygen, hence he is still in the hospital. He is due to be released on Monday. We just got the call saying we have been chosen so Richard & I are out the door! The baby is in Billings which is 200 miles away. Michelle is staying here with Daniel & Hannah as that will make things much easier for us.

The baby’s name is Caleb Alexander - the birthmum named him & although we had a different name planned we like this so are going to keep it. He weighed 7lb 13 ozs & was 21″ long. I know no other details but we are taking our laptop so will update you later this weekend with a picture etc.

Smiling,

Liz

With the river freezing over the question was raised as to whether to bring Heidi & Charlie up from the pasture or go down & break the ice everyday. Being a little on the busy side we decided to bring them up. Richard opened the gate & they came up on Tuesday night. I’m like, “I bet they start drinking off of Tulip again.” “No”, says Michelle, “they’re too old now.” Well guess what?! After I had milked Tulip yesterday morning she walked out the door & immediately all four calves got on! Poor cow! Here you can see Dolly (hidden), Charlie & Heidi:

Barbecue is on the other side & here is Daffodil looking on, thankfully!

Obviously we couldn’t leave things that way so yesterday afternoon we took/dragged Heidi & Charlie back down the field. I took the axe down to break the ice but due to the temps reaching 70 here on Tuesday the ice has melted - for now.

Yes it was a glorious day here on Tuesday - don’t get many of those in November. We had to go get some papers signed in town so decided to ride our bikes. Hah! It was SO windy - we really got our workout for the day.

Suffered from a severe case of lack of sleep yesterday. Michael came in for a few minutes on Tuesday evening. As he was playing with Daniel on the floor I noticed a tub of chewing tobacco in his pocket! When I challenged him he went red in the face & looked me straight in the eye & said, “It’s been there a while!” meaning that he wasn’t using it now. Yeah right! I could have shaken him SO hard. No offense to anyone reading this, but chewing tobacco is an AWFUL habit & extremely bad for you. The thing that really smacks here is not only the lying but the fact that Michael watched my Dad, his grandfather to whom he was extremely close to, die of mouth & jaw cancer 4 1/2 years ago. It was a hideous death - the disfigurement was hideous & my dad had never smoked or chewed tobacco in his life! (Doctors were mystified.) Michael seems to be doing everything he can to destroy his life or to try and prove himself invincible.

Well anyways Hannah got up in the night on Tuesday & when Hannah gets up she is not quiet - the adrenaline starts pumping & so my brain started working. Ever get that?! It is SO annoying. I was totally stressed. By the time she got up the second time I was really wound. THEN finally exhausted enough to sleep, Richard’s pager went off for the ambulance so he had to get up at 3:20 am & transport someone to the hospital! SO as you can imagine, yesterday was not the day for the kids to be naughty for either of us! LOL!

Richard & I are really struggling over Michael - you can cut the tension here with a knife when he is here. We are obviously very concerned for him but realize there is nothing more we can do. He is making his own decisions, sadly not very wise ones. Our main concern is protecting our little ones. Michelle is old enough & stable enough to not be affected by Michael’s actions - she just shakes her head like the rest of us BUT Daniel is of a very impressionable age and picks up on stuff very quickly & sometimes way too easily.
This is tough! Richard and I need a lot of grace & wisdom. Michael’s court dates are fixed now - Monday Nov 23rd is the one in Chinook and Thursday, Dec 10th is the one in Havre plus I think he still has one on the 3rd too.

Take care,

Liz

How many of you have already done your Christmas shopping? I know some of you will have it all wrapped up & finished. I think I am doing pretty good as I have spent all night shopping & although not finished am well on my way I made a promise to myself this year that I would only buy gifts made in the USA. I am a true believer in supporting the local economy but that does not always mean buying imports. I was in a local toy store the other day & was very disappointed to find very few things made in the USA (What I found I bought, if suitable) Now some of you are probably saying, there’s nothing left made in the USA! Wrong! Of course we here at Cornish Heritage Farms manufacture right here in Chinook, MT but there are many, many more. I came across this Blog the other day & what a wealth of information I found - http://americanmade1.blogspot.com/ Yes some things may be a little more expensive BUT we need to support the hard working folks in this country if we want this country to survive & thrive and let’s face it, all our kids & us have way more stuff than we need so maybe this Christmas buy a couple less and spend your money supporting USA manufacturers. (Of course if you are reading this & residing in another country then support the one you are living in.)

More stories to share but they’ll have to wait for another day as I need to go get some sleep. Hope your week is going well,

Liz

Hey folks!

How was your weekend? We headed out to friends on Friday night to celebrate their daughter’s 16th birthday & actually saw folks that we hadn’t seen in over 2 years! Isn’t that awful! It was a nice evening & the kids enjoyed playing with the other kids. Michael came just as we were leaving & the last words Daniel said to him were, “Don’t break the rules Michael!”

Saturday we had friends down to lunch. Want to know what I cooked? Well I’m going to tell you anyway! LOL! I made two beef pies (scrumptious), roast potatoes, carrots & cauliflower. For dessert I made 2 strawberry crumbles & a gallon of custard! Michelle helped with all the preparation so that was great. After lunch we had two games of Dutch Blitz going on one table so that was fun. I was the champion

Sunday we did very little. I got my head into a puzzle book & stretched those little gray cells. We did watch some Poirot last night - y’know the Belgian detective.

Today has been the usual busy Monday. The weather over the weekend was pretty cool but today we got to 59! The little ones were delighted & spent most of the day outside. This afternoon we took a walk to the river & I was very surprised to see it frozen over. It is not safe for us to walk on yet but the dogs ran across to the other side - all accept Roxy (St. Bernard) who I think realized she was a little too big to risk it! Tonight we took the blankets out onto the trampoline & lay watching the stars. I know, crazy but it is so rare to be this warm at this time of year & of course we can’t do it in the summer due to the “lovely” mosquitoes! Due to there not being much light pollution here, not to mention very little clouds, we do have an incredible view of God’s night creation - the stars are so clear & bright.

Penny has decided that she needs to live up here in the big barn so we have given her her way. We think she will farrow mid December or at least we are hoping so as we put her & Roscoe together for several days before he left for his new home in Oregon. Here’s a pic of her with the three piglets that we kept from the last litter. They are gradually getting friendlier & will let us rub their backs each morning.

Hope you all enjoy your week.

Liz

Just popping into say that there were no court appearance today. The lawyer’s office are all down with the Swine Flu. I do not have the new dates yet so will let you know when I find out. Did talk with Michael earlier & he is looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow. He’s trying to figure out what career he can now do with felonies on his record. Richard is going to call the National Registry tomorrow for the ambulance to see if they would still accept Michael if he passes his exams. Like Michael says by the time this mess is all cleared up he will be at least 25, depending on the sentencing passed out & needs to have a career. He can’t just drift. At least he is thinking

Hope your week is going well,

Liz

So much for a night off last night BUT I guess it was worth it LOL! We got a one minute call from Michael at 7:15pm to say that the district court had released him BUT he was still being held on bond by the city court for when he got caught 6 weeks ago & that court date wasn’t until Dec 3rd so could we come sort it out? We got cut off & so called the jail back to find out all the details & what we had to do.

Richard was on call so couldn’t go which meant Michelle needed to stay here also in case he called out so off I went. Stopped at the grocery store first as I figured Michael would probably want some “real” food to eat. Aren’t I thoughtful Headed up to the Police Department to pay his bond (Michael paid us back later) & then took the receipt up to the jail so that they would release him.

We thought he had called from the jail office but no. Apparently what had happened was his lawyer had called earlier, after we had talked to her, to say that he was all set to go, papers had been signed but obviously didn’t know about the other bond so she went home & then Michael discovered the problem. Thankfully an inmate had a minute left on his phone card & so gave it to Michael. Otherwise he would have been stuck in there until Monday. He served one day short of 6 weeks.
When we got to his apartment he told me he had no keys to get in! Didn’t have them on him when he was arrested & Shane is away hunting this weekend. Oh no! No worries says Michael, I’ll just break in the kitchen window! Thankfully as he went around the back he discovered that Shane’s mum was there so she let us in. (Shane’s family use the apartment when in Havre as a place to study, hang out etc) Michael was glad to be home & within 10 minutes there were 6 girls there! Had to smile. No he didn’t invite them, they had been there, gone ice skating & come back to watch a movie. Like he said, it made a change from being around just guys for the last few weeks.

Richard & Michael are headed to the lawyers on Monday as this whole thing is still a mess & has to be played right to work right. Still not sure if there will be any sentencing on Tuesday so Michael is starting back at work on Wednesday. He came to lunch today - Daniel was very excited to see him. We played a game of Spades & the girls won! Good job he wasn’t gambling for his dinner today!

Enjoy your Sunday,

Liz

Amazingly there was NO wind last night so at the last minute Richard went & got a Burns permit & him and the little ones built a bonfire. Once Michelle was home we all went out & stood beside the bonfire whilst Richard lit off some fireworks. The temps were in the 40’s - really incredible for this time of year & so it was a nice break.

Daniel loved the fireworks & sparklers:

Hannah wasn’t too impressed with the fireworks but did enjoy the sparklers:

I am trying to get all my work done so I can take tonight off - exhausted. The time change has really screwed up the little ones time clocks this year so they are getting up extra early, been working on art deadlines & of course trying to sort all this stuff with Michael out is very emotionally draining.  I had hoped to give you some good news today about his sentencing but don’t really have it. I did go see Michael on Tuesday. Got there at 2:30 thinking that I would be early enough to be in the first group but alas no. Didn’t get in to see him until 4:45! They were really slow on Tuesday - Michael said it’s because there’s been a lot of drug activity. Michael is doing OK - said he was in another fight - some guys come up behind him & thumped him in the face. Of course the hardest part to the visits is saying “Goodbye.”

I did have a really good talk with his lawyer’s office before I went to see Michael & they were hopeful that things were going to work out but today we have just learned that none of that is going to work. We have NO idea if there will be court next week - won’t know until Monday. BUT the one bit of really good news is that Michael should get out next week Both prosecutors agree that he has spent the time they wanted - 6 weeks so he can now get out. We are just waiting for the judge to sign the release papers. At least he will be able to get back to work & some kind of normal living.

No plans for the weekend. The wind is blowing SO hard here today again that when we came back from lunch I couldn’t even get the truck door to open properly. Looking forward to some R&R.

Have a great weekend,

Liz

I have to share this funny story with you. Tonight Richard was on the floor playing with the two little ones. Don’t remember what he said but Daniel runs off to his bedroom for a ticket (extra labels left over from a job we were doing today) & comes back, slaps it on Richard’s hand, charges him with asking a stupid question & gives him a felony! We just roared with laughter.

Hope you all had a good Monday. The Azure order came in today. It took me 1 1/2 hours to put everything away! Over the last couple months we have been building up our nut & herb selection so that all has to go in jars & be labeled. I now think we have every kind of nut you could want bar peanuts. Nuts are extremely healthy for you - raw and organic is best. As for herbs & spices we have never had such a selection so the food should now get even tastier in this house Sadly we are now having to buy eggs in Razz is being very naughty & killing the chickens. He goes for several days being a good boy then he gets the “bug” again. What a pain! He leaps every fence so fences don’t work. We’ll have to figure something new out for next year - too late in the year now. At least he leaves the turkeys alone. Well he does chase them but of course they just fly away out of his reach.
OH & yes I decided that I was going to dehydrate some chili peppers so ordered 10lbs! That is quite a LOT of peppers! LOL! So I guess I’m going to have some fun. Going up to see Michael tomorrow again so they’ll have to wait until Wednesday.

Liz