This brat pretended to be fine all day, then hid in the shelter of the rabbit hutches and had her babies all on her own.
I’m so proud of her.
They’re all doing amazingly well, mama is proud as punch and happy to have her kids around her, and I’m over the moon. Two males and a female, all gorgeous colors, all alive, and without a smidge of stress for me!
If a goat ever deserved a medal, it’s Miss Polly. She’s a complete champ.
In a bit we’ll start sorting out a milking schedule. I’m wildly unprepared, but I’ll get myself sorted, and then we’ll have goat yogurt, goat cheese, milk in the mornings, and maybe, if I can swing a cream separator, goat butter too.
This sweet girl is due any day now, and we’re so excited to see the babies she produces. She’s so unbelievably beautiful, and I can’t wait to see what kind of color her babies have.
Look at this. Can you believe how beautiful it is here?
I can’t.
Colorado is getting ALL the rain this spring, and since we have a workday for our house planned tomorrow, my sister and I are tilling the garden today.
It’s a quarter of an acre.
So, so much room.
We are planting all the things—AFTER June first—and that means a LOT of ground needs to be cleared. Since both my sister and I are overachievers, we’re doubling the size of our garden this year. Last year, I was pregnant and exhausted and the year before that, my sister was. This year, we’re both fit and energetic—haha, not really—and we are ready for a serious challenge.
You know, since we both have tiny children, we’re in the middle of building our own house, I’m launching a book in the next six months, and we’re both working.
We had a hundred chicks show up at our door the other afternoon.
I’m wildly excited.
Our flock of hens had dwindled over the last year until we only had eight layers left in our whole coop.
Eight. Eight, y’all.
Eight hens, when eggs are $6.22 a dozen.
We’re doing weird things for breakfast right now. Chicken sandwiches. Rice and beans. Leftovers.
I miss eggs.
It’ll take a while for these tiny peepers to start laying, but once they do, we’re gonna be snowed under y’all. So many eggs they’ll be coming out our ears.
At least, it feels like a miracle, after months of nothing helping and Adam’s skin issues getting worse and worse no matter what.
These pictures are four days apart, y’all. Four. Days.
Look at how beautiful he is. So much less itchiness, so much more sleep. Just a happier baby.
I could cry. I might cry, actually, once I get over this cold and the full impact of this hits me.
It’s been months, y’all. Months of tears and restricted diets and allergic reactions to things I never realized could make a baby react.
Did you know avocados are related to ragweed? Because I didn’t… until my baby’s face started to swell.
That will not be one of my treasured memories, let me tell you.
But, oh, he looks amazing. The solution seems to have been a round of steroids—which I fought with all my might and finally submitted to—hypoallergenic formula, and, of all things, Crisco.
Yup. You read that right.
I’ve been putting vegetable shortening on my baby’s head.
And it’s working.
Might have to write a letter to Crisco corporate and thank them for my baby’s soft skin. No context, no explanation. Just a thank you for being the best skin care product on the planet.
Let them try to figure that one out.
Oddly enough, the Crisco on his skin wasn’t my idea. My pediatrician recommended it. I wish I had a picture of my face when she told me, “You know, why don’t you pick up a can of Crisco on the way home?”
Blink, blink.
She even told me I could go with the generic brand instead of Crisco, but I figured, if we’re putting shortening on my child’s head, it might as well be the best.
Joking aside, it, in combination with the other things, have made my boy very happy. And we’re sleeping more than half an hour at a time at night, so Crisco corporate deserves, like, a bouquet of fried chicken or something.
My child spends a lot of time on construction sites lately.
A lot of time.
Just watch. Because of this, he’ll grow up and go into construction, just like his dad.
Really though, he’s a trooper. I so appreciate that he’ll sit in his stroller and watch mama shovel, or frame up walls, or whatever I happen to be doing at the moment. It must be very boring.
He could help a little bit, though. Not trying to complain, but I wouldn’t mind a hand, even if it is a tiny one.
Joking aside, out house project is coming along. We are moving fill dirt in this week to level off the foundation. Crossing our fingers and hoping we can pour the pad so, so soon.
Lots of shoveling is being done. I think I moved five tons of dirt single-handedly. No, I’m not exaggerating.
Probably going to be a little bit sore tomorrow.
I can’t wait to have this place finished and finally be able to move in and settle. It feels like an impossible task some days, but bit by bit, we are chipping away at our list of tasks, and things are finally moving.
We’re getting the second floor screwed down on our house.
It’s a good thing I’m not scared of heights.
I am. I am actually scared of heights. I’m very much scared of heights.
But we’re making progress, and I’m hopeful that by the end of this weekend, we’ll have the whole second floor done and ready for the next stage of building.
I’m so thankful for a husband who works in construction who can foreman our work days and tell us all what to do.
Even when ‘all of us’ means him, me, and my sixteen year old brother who always seemed to be around to help and deserves a medal.
Neither of us were quite ready for the amount of work and effort actually building our own house would be… especially a house that’s a converted airplane hanger which, when finished, should be around 4000 sq ft.
That’s ten times the size of our house now, guys. Ten times.
Yes, we’re crazy. No, I haven’t processed it fully yet.
Maybe after the second floor is finished?
You know what else I haven’t processed? That this is going to be our view.
I met with the artist who is doing the interior artwork for my book this week.
Spoiler alert, she’s my sister.
Crazy, right? I, who can draw stick figures and the occasional smiley face, have a sister who does artwork like this:
And this:
If you’re interested in her Instagram, btw, you can find her here.
Anyway, she and I had a meeting. She’s been reading my book from the very first day I started writing it, and now I finally get to commission her and her incredible talents for the chapter headings, a full page illustration for the title pages, and a map.
I’m way excited about the map.
Every good book should have a map in it.
That first picture is a draft sketch of the chapter headings we designed together.
It’s a mess now, but I can guarantee it’s going to be gorgeous later.
I am still chipping away at revisions for the book I have coming out at the end of this year. Once I finish with it, it will be sent off to my editor, and she will send it back with a million notes to tell me all the things that are wrong with it.
When you have someone like that, y’all, appreciate them. Not everyone is willing to be so wonderfully honest with you.
While I’m working on that, I’m also checking off the other thousand tiny tasks that go into getting a book published, including this lovely new logo.
I finished it last night. It’s perfect.
My book is being published through my business, Storynook Productions. The regular logo that I have, with my personal and business brand, is too complex for the spine of a book, so I had to come up with a similar, simplified version.
I think I managed it.
I’m excited about this, y’all. Getting a book from manuscript to finished product is an overwhelming amount of details, but I have been planning for this for years, and I am so ready to have it in my hands.
Plus, this is the kind of thing I enjoy. I mean, who doesn’t love seeing a dream come together?
Ramblings of an Obsessive Bookworm 