It's a Girl...Twice!!

Last night Matthew was taking Brittany to the barn for the evening (In her advanced age, she can't get through the night without a mess waiting for us in the morning. It's much easier to clean up the barn from such an incident!) He heard a strange cry as he opened the door to the barn, turned on the light, and was met by this... Pumpkin had delivered two beautiful little doe kids. Matt came to tell me and we went back to the barn to see them. Pumpkin was taking care of them, but she wouldn't let them nurse. I hesitated to intercede, but I didn't want to wait too long before attending to the cold, wet, and increasingly weak baby. Matt was a huge help by climbing into the stall and doing what he could to encourage Pumpkin to let them nurse. When that didn't work, we did what we could to save the little ones. With a dose of colostrum in each and drying them off with towels, we decided to get them in near the heat of the woodstove.

Matt woke Marc up to milk Pumpkin and we readied the bottles. They perked up and after a bit stopped shivering. Matthew and Marc helped keep the babies warm and dry. About 3 hours after the discovery we put them in their new beds and tried to get some sleep before the next feeding time was due.

'Mavis' is the elder, and larger of the two. She was full of energy and wanted to keep investigating her new surroundings. 'Jessie' was the 2nd born and the one we didn't think would make it. She's doing much better today, though still weaker than her big sister. She doesn't stand or walk around as much...yet! Pumpkin is letting Marc milk her and then we bottle feed the babies their mama's milk. I think with a bit more tlc, both will be fine and we'll have kids running and jumping all over the barn.

Rachael's latest creation

The temperatures rose enough this week to make the snow 'packy'. Our artists in residence took to a new medium and produced some snow sculptures. Rachael, horse lover that she is,
sculpted the front of a horse coming up out of water. This photo was taken before she was able to finish the finer details. The snow has hardened and she'll have to wait for more 'packy' weather to finish her masterpiece.

Marc's Big Day

Marc has been trying to decide what he wants to do when he finishes school. He knows he wants to work with animals. He'd like to be a farmer, but he'd also like to work with other children who have special needs. We were brainstorming one day and the subject of hippotherapy came up. (For those of you who don't know, hippotherapy is horseback riding as a therapy for people with special needs.) Marc started asking a lot of questions and was very interested in learning more.

Several years ago the 2 eldest were taking French lessons from a retired school teacher. Her grandniece (who lived next door) was studying hippotherapy. It was the first time I had heard of it, but over the months, and eventually years, we'd hear about how Anneliese was doing and eventually how she had graduated and was living on a farm just down the road.

Fast forward to now...Marc wanted to learn more about hippotherapy. We remembered Anneliese and started researching. We got her phone # and then looked at the website. We talked to Marc's service coordinator and he arranged funding for Marc to take lessons. Today was Marc's first lesson.

Here Marc is grooming Darcy, a beautiful quarter horse.

And here he is making one of his first trips around the riding area. He did great and is looking forward to next week's lesson.

I didn't get many other pictures of the facility that came out clear because of the lighting, but this will give you an idea of how a young woman's dream of helping people with special needs with her horses has grown into a reality. A beautiful new barn and riding area with equally beautiful and gentle horses. What a blessing!

Messy January Weather

Today started out with snow, then sleet, then rain, and they say it'll be returning to sleet before the night is over.

Wayne had an appointment for a test at the hospital this morning. A friend who has 4-wheel drive took him over so I could do school with the children.

After lessons Jonathan decided that it was a perfect day to make gingerbread cookies. He got out the bread board and some of the equipment to further influence Mom's agreement to the plan. How could I say no with such a willing helper?!

We made a double batch and froze 1/2 the dough for another baking day, but Jon and I had a great time together making snowmen out of the dough. They taste pretty good, too!
Wayne ended up going from the radiology department (where he had a full CT scan) to the ER due to a flare up of the back pain. After about 3 hours in the ER receiving pain meds, he was ready to come home. Our friend had left Wayne at the hospital in order to get to work on time. Thankfully, the temps increased a bit and I got to the hospital without any problem (though I did see an accident on my way there.). Wayne is now home sleeping soundly and I plan on spending the rest of the evening at my spinning wheel.

I did want to share a picture of Wayne's latest glass project. It's a mirror with a spot along the edge to insert a picture. (Jon was happy to pose in front of the mirror for this shot.)It may be messy January weather, but I plan on enjoying a quiet night around the woodstove dreaming of gardens and spring.

Construction Complete!

Yesterday the construction phase of the stairway was completed. We'll get around to painting and staining some day soon, but they are functional and beautiful. We are so very thankful for the hard work and gift from our church family.

Jonathan has been busy constructing fire engines, space ships and fire stations with his new Legos. Here he's proudly displaying a fire station with engine that he built 'all by himself'...

And not to be outdone...our 'new' chickens (the ones we got last spring) are 'constructing' eggs quite regularly these days. The other day Marc discovered a green egg in the nest. The children exclaimed "Now we can have green eggs and ham!"