Lancelot Acres

An overall update on us...3 more mouths to feed?

First of all, I am going to ask to be removed from Haflinger's contest.  I just haven't had the time to add nominations to my blog :(  Thank you for my nomination and for thinking of me, I hope things settle down soon and I can catch up on reading blogs again. 

Everybody's thoughts and prayers have meant so much to me in the last few weeks, I can't even begin to express my gratitude.  Thank-you for that.  I love homesteadblogger and everybody here :)

My dad is home and doing quite well since having his surgery on Thursday.  He is very sore and has to lay down 24/7, with short, 20-minute intervals of sitting-up, only a couple of times per day. 

We had a great visit over there today.  I know dad wasn't much up for the company but we all enjoyed seeing him and spending time with him and mom and each other. 

My sister just moved back to the area so we were able to have a nice visit with her and her family.  My brother and his family came, and Lance grilled cheeseburgers, brats, and hot dogs.  It was a great meal and great company.  Really a great day spent with family.

Life on the farm is keeping us busy lately. 

Pigs.  We thought some of our 15 pigs might be ready for the processor this week but we think they need another couple weeks before they are prime size.  All of them are doing well, though the ones in the upper pen are coughing a bit.  They are the larger of the bunch and they don't cough all the time, mostly just when stirring up dust, so maybe that's the cause.  I'm just not sure.

Steers.  We had planned on taking our heifer to the auction before now but we just haven't had a chance to take her yet.  We still have 7 steers (counting heifer as steer) out there.  They are doing well.  We have them separated now, 4 in the lower, bigger pasture, and 3 in the upper two pastures (we leave the gate open occasionally).  We also have my milk goat in the upper pasture with the calm steers, she seems content there but does give Lance a hard time when he passes through with the pig feed.  She is just completely sure that it should be for her.  LOL

Fowl.  Chickens, turkeys, guineas.  They are all doing ok but have been contained to their coop and attached covered pen in the last couple weeks.  I hate containing them.  We have a predator that really lowered our numbers in the days before we contained them.  We still aren't sure what it was, but it was very adamant about taking one or two of our chickens per day.  It usually struck just before roost time, when the chickens were milling around the yard by the coop in the late evening.  I do not think it was a raccoon(s) as whatever this is, it's striking my biggest hens and only leaving a pile of feathers.  No body, body parts, not even blood.  Just gone.  This makes me think it's a fox.  Something hungry and determined.  We've just left the fowl in their coop and we just feed and water them in there.  They are safe in there but not very happy. 

The meat chickens and turkeys are due at the processors on Thursday evening.  We drop them off between 6-8PM on Thursday and pick them up between 6-8PM on Friday.  They are ready for the freezer at that time.  The amish place does pack them 5-7 to a bag, so we separate them into individual freezer bags when we get home.  We plan to take 25 chickens and 5 turkeys to the processor.  There are a few chickens that are not up to their prime size but we are going to take them anyway.  It's not worth the drive back down there for those few that are a bit small. 

Goats.  We still have 2 goats around our place.  My milk goat is out with the steers and we have another alpine doe out in the front wooded pasture with our two big dogs (great pyrenese).  The three of them have the entire wooded pasture to themselves and they seem to all get along great.  LOL.  The alpine doe is going to the auction at some point as well.  She just isn't nice to my milk goat so I want to get a better companion goat for her.

Dogs.  We still have the two great pyr dogs, but we plan to find them a new home as well.  We just don't have a goat herd for them anymore and they need goats to protect.  Feeding two large dogs is getting pretty expensive these days.

We also have our Jack Russel, RC, in the house with us. 

Biscuit is still here, but it looks like he will be going to a new home as well.  We just can't keep him from jumping.  He's such a nice dog, but I can't have him jumping on Lauren, she's just too little...he knocks her right to the ground and then licks her hair and won't leave her alone.  He also jumps on Lilli to the point of Lilli being in tears because she can't get him to stop.  She finally decided we should probably find him a new home. 

We had my parent's dog, Taz, here while they were at the hospital and we just took him home today.  I must say that I miss the little guy.  He's such a nice dog.  True, he would run away if left out unattended too long, and he does give the kittens a hard time (barking, not biting), but he is great with the kids and just a fun dog.  LOL

Cats.  Sigh.  I'm not sure where to start on cats.  LOL. 

Socks, our barn cat has been missing for about a week.

Bandit, our new black kitten from my parent's, is doing great.  He's very friendly, great with the girls, and seems to be a great mouser.  I saw him stalking our little banty rooster the other day.  LOL  Boy is he in for a surprise if he tries pouncing on him.  Ha.

Then for our surprise.  We have kittens.  Yes, kittens.  Three of them.  Where, how, why?  I have no idea.  I am going to assume that Socks, our barn cat that we THOUGHT was a boy, actually was not. 

We are very far from the road which makes a 'drop-off' unlikely, and the kittens really recognize their area, making us believe they've been there all along.

Anytime we were out by the swingset, Socks would always come from the weeds behind the swingset.  There are various farm implements in those weeds.  Anyway, we never thought much about that, thinking he (she) was out mousing and heard us out playing.

The other day, Lilli had caught a frog and we were making it a home in our kiddy pool when she turns around and says, 'mom, look'!  There, under our play turtle (a cement turtle to climb on)' were three little kittens (who lost their mittens?). 

They are so cute.  They were very hungry but I could not believe how friendly they were.  They had never been handled or even seen people before, how were they so nice? 

Anyway, Lilli was thrilled.  We have one that is black and white (oreo), one that is black and orange (pretty), and one that is black/brown striped (blackie).  Oreo took right to Lilli and considers her it's mom.  I cannot believe that kitten will follow her around the yard like a puppy.  It's the craziest thing I've ever seen.

Anyway, our theory is that something happen to Socks and that the kittens stayed and waited until they were starving.  Then when they heard people out in the yard they came out to see if there was any food available.  Their eyes are open and they get around well on their own, so I think they'll be ok.  They are very young yet though and didn't have a clue what to do with dry cat food.  We fed them milk for a couple days and then mixed the food with the milk to help them adjust.  They are doing great and have stayed right in that same vicinity where we found them.  They venture out to the turtle but head back into the weeds at night, or when they are frightened (RC and Taz like to bark at them).

I'm not sure what to do with them while we are at Disney. 

We are on the countdown to our Disney trip.  We leave next Sunday.  We are very excited and cannot wait :)

DH's brother/SIL are going to feed our critters while we are gone.  We are very grateful to them.  We are hoping to make it as easy as possible, but it is still a chore and has to be done. 

Lilli is doing great and is getting excited/nervous about school starting.  She wants to go to a local petting zoo and the real zoo before school starts again, so we'll have to work those in sometime in the next week or the week after Disney.  It's hard to believe we are down to 3 weeks left of summer.

She has signed up for her dance classes.  She decided on Ballet and Jazz.  I think those were good choices for her.  She really enjoyed ballet when she took it the year before last.  She hasn't taken Jazz yet but she really seemed to like the faster dances during the recital.  Luckily, they are back-to-back classes this year.  She will have ballet from 6-6:45 and then jazz from 6:45-7:30PM on Thursday evenings.  Assuming that they don't change our classes around on us. 

We also plan to have her start horse riding lessons sometime this fall.  I hope to talk to the girl about that soon.  She is our hair stylist and I hope to get Lilli in for a haircut sometime this week, so I'll try to set it up then.

Lilli is spending the night with my parents tonight.  She is thrilled about that, as they've been in the hospital for quite some time and she is used to spending one night per week (sometimes two) at their house.  That usually slows down to once or twice per month when school starts, so she is trying to get all her days in now.

Lauren is doing great and is such a little character.  She is scheduled for another kidney scan on the 28th of this month but the dye they need to use is on backorder so that may get backed up a bit.  She is scheduled for her tonsilectomy on September 4th, so if they cancel her scan, then they can't do the scan until after she recovers from her tonsilectomy, which is at least 4 weeks (they said).  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

She follows Lilli around everywhere and wants to do whatever her sissy is doing.  Lilli is usually pretty good about it, but she does lose her patience when Lauren keeps taking everything she tries to play with. 

Right now they really love playing dolls and pushing the strollers and grocery cart.  They do this for most of the day when we are home.

Lauren is really talking a lot and putting things together.  She got on the phone with my dad tonight and was just so excited about dad talking to her.  She kept looking back and forth from the phone to me and laughing and giggling, like she was wondering how in the world grandpa got in that phone.  She kept saying, 'hello, hello, grandpa?'.  LOL.  Then she said, "sissy?  sissy?",  she said that because she knew we were calling to check on Lilli. 

Tonight when we prayed, we prayed for Grandpa and his back.  After we named all of our names of family, and said 'amen', she said, 'grandpa, back?  grandpa, back?, pray, amen'.  She remembered that from the beginning of our prayer.  It was so sweet.  Then she prayed for sissy, as we had said a special prayer for sissy since she wasn't home with us.

Our current sleeping arrangements are pretty interesting.  I sleep in Lauren's room, on a full size bed with both girls.  Lance and I are getting along fine, it's just easier this way.  Lauren still wakes a time or two (or three) for a drink at night, so I would be running back and forth from our room to her room anyway and then Lance would be woke up and he has to get up at 4:15AM every morning.  It's just easier to keep it like this for now.  Lilli sleeps in there with us as well.  Sometimes she sleeps with Lance, but she says he keeps it too dark in there and she's very afraid of the dark, so she prefers to sleep with Lauren and I.

We are hoping to move our King size bed into Lauren's room so that we have more room for the three of us.  The king size bed has been causing Lance some back pain anyway, so he's going to try the full-size bed for awhile and see if that helps.  We'll replace the King size bed when we find the type of mattress we want, but that could take some time.  I'm not sure how you find the mattress that is best for you.  I seem to sleep the best on the cheapy ones.  The pillowtop king we have has always made my back hurt. 

Yard sales!  Oh, I have hit some great yard sales lately.  I posted about the one for Lilli last week, but I didn't post that I returned to that same one two days later and bought another 31 items!  LOL  I just can't pass up good deals! 

This is what we found for Lilli the second time (everything was 50 cents each):

4 pair of capris
7 pair of pants
4 pair of shorts
1 pair of jammies (2 piece)
1 pair of insulated rain boots
1 sweatshirt
8 shirts
4 dance leotards (that we didn't need, but for 50 cents couldn't pass up)

This weekend it was Lauren's turn.  They were a bit more pricey, but the clothes were all matching outfits in size 24 month, 2T and 3T.  She is currently in 18-24 month, so these were the sizes I was looking for.  I have a 3T tote that I add those sizes to.  (I also have totes for 4, 5, and 6s.  LOL.  I like to save money.

This is what she got ( $1 per piece except the snowsuit and costume):

1 Chicken costume (extremely cute, I can't wait for Halloween) $8

1 Snowsuit/mittens $8

20 matching outfits (some summer, some winter, some w/ hat or socks)

4 swimsuits (varying sizes...24 months, 2t, 3t)

4 pairs of 2T jammies (varying seasons, but no fleece...we get too hot in those)

I love yard sales and that is always in my plan on Fridays.  I have been trying to read the Reminder and Flashes to catch the 'good sales' with the sizes we need, but I have just 'happened' upon these last two while following signs off of main roads.  I've just gotten lucky.

We are pretty well set for clothes right now.  I would like to get Lilli some socks and a pair of gym shoes before school starts, but otherwise we are all set on school necessities.  I will need to pick up some white tights as well, as she needs those for dance class.  Lauren should be all set, depending on when she hits a growth spurt.  She is still in mostly 18 month items so I'll have to check for winter clothes in that size, but I think we'll be fine if she's in 18 or 24 month. 

Lance is doing good and I think he's even getting excited about our Disney trip (though don't tell him I said that). 

He's been working 4-ten hour days per week, and then usually another day or two on the weekends. 

He really works too much but we haven't been able to convince him of that.  I hope Disney is a nice, relaxing trip for him, he needs a nice break.  I know Disney is NOT his idea of a relaxing trip, but maybe we'll all be surprised.

I'm off to bed...I really didn't mean to write so much, I just haven't posted in awhile and once I started, I couldn't seem to stop.  LOL.

Hugs,
Lisa