Mama’s travels, leaves, puppies, goats

Mama made it to Brittany’s safely Saturday afternoon. Nate, Cori and the kids were already there. The kids have had a fun time visiting with each other. Savanna, who is two years old, has wanted to hold her baby cousins, who are now seven months old. The dilemma is that each of the twins weigh almost as much as she does. Fortunately, Zoe and Sophia do not mind being passed from person to person and the especially seem to love Savanna. Mykenzie has been a help to Brittany in the short time they have been there, but they will be leaving today to head back south for meetings later in the week. Mama is still debating when she should come home. It will either be tomorrow morning or Tuesday morning. Either way, it will be a sad morning – for her and for Brittany.

As Mama was leaving Saturday morning, I was emptying the garage so I could clean it out. The leaves have been accumulating in it for some time and I have not taken the time to blow them out. It is often a losing battle since Mama insists on leaving the garage door partially open so the rabbit, who resides in our garage, can have some fresh air. With the accumulated leaves just outside the garage, it gets littered with the leaves when the wind blows in just the right direction. I have not taken the time to dispose of the piles of leaves because I was not entirely sure how to go about getting rid of them efficiently. Well, that morning, the Lord gave me an idea. I put the bucket on the tractor and filled it over and over with leaves which I dumped in a spot on the property. Even with the multiple loads of leaves I removed from the accumulated piles, I only got a fraction of them moved. The pile at the garage was the first to go. That was five loads. Then I worked on the pile at the fence between the house and the well house. I still have about two loads of leaves left in that pile – for a total of eight loads of leaves from that pile alone. I will finish next Saturday, but I still have the enormous piles of leaves in the garden area and around my fig tree. Maybe twenty more loads will get it.

The seven pups are doing well. With that few, Kira is able to take care of them easily. The only issue Victoria has had is the ambient temperature. It has been warm. I will not say hot. That is coming, but the afternoon temperatures have been warm enough to make Kira very uncomfortable. She has started digging sizable holes on the sides of the birthing building to lay in attempting to cool down. Grandpa built the building facing south. Not necessarily bad, but it allows the force of the afternoon sun to shine directly into the little building, making it too warm for Kira to stay in there with the pups. Victoria is worried she will take the pups out of the building and nest them in the dirt, but she is more afraid of keeping Kira in the building if it is too warm for her. So, for now, the doors are left open, so she can move in and out freely. The pups are too small to go too far – and they like the warmth.

One of our yearling goats, Lilly, will have her kids any day now. Mama is worried about missing the birthing but so far, that has not been an issue. This morning, Lilly was up when Victoria checked on her, but she looks like she is about to burst. All signs are pointing to her having the kids by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest, but Mama and I are new at this, so we are only guessing for now. As we gain more experience, we will have a better idea how to predict the delivery time more accurately.

All the animals are missing Mama, especially Mocha. And, yes. I miss her too.