Personalities, more than expected, commitments

Brittany is very good about keeping us up to date on the twins. I am certain Mama receives more videos than I am shown, but I enjoy watching the ones Mama does remember to share with me. The girls have been walking and jabbering for some time now, but they have begun to really attach words to items and actions. One video she sent recently was of the twins counting to ten. They have no idea what that means, but the progression of words was accurate and impressive. A day of so ago she sent a video of the girls in undistracted play – just doing what they wanted to do. That was interesting to me. Zoe, showing her more contemplative nature, was on a mat Brittany has that is clearly large enough for the two of them, coloring shapes. No animation. No dialogue. No excess movement beyond what was required to color the shapes she was concentrating on. Sophia, her more active child, was making circles about the room. Now picking up this baby doll, discarding it and picking up another one. Patting one on the back. Cuddling another one. Now retrieving both. Now discarding both. All the while keeping a constant dialogue. Brittany had to keep the phone in constant motion to follow her for our benefit. One baby mother and one baby professor. She has her hands full. Sophia will be like Cori’s Savana. Her busyness, her imagination, her hilarious dialogue keeps all the rest of the family busy keeping up with her… and picking up after her.

Yesterday evening Mama and I went to Bowie. We visited with Grandma for a short spell after looking at a house that will come up for sale on April 2^nd. Grandma was wanting to know if Mama and I wanted the couch she and Grandpa have in their little house. We did not but we stopped by to make the visit to say so. When we were able to leave Grandma, we picked up the trailer from the farm Norman has been renting then drove next door to Rick’s farm to pick up hay. Once Mama had me safely backed into the barn to load the hay, she traipsed off to find Rick. He had told her about a nanny that had just a few hours ago given birth to triplets. By the time I had loaded the twenty sixty-pound bales into our trailer I was worn out, but I went to find Mama. She and Rick were looking over his newest crop of little ones. Maybe forty in all. Among this newest batch were seven bottle babies. Rick does not enjoy having bottle fed goats, but the birth of triplets to some nannies requires that at least one of the kids be bottle fed.

Among the seven bottle babies was a little buckling that Rick did not like. Something about the ears being non-show quality. Mama and I cannot see those malformities. We just see a very cute buckling. Since this particular little one was not something Rick wanted among his show animals, it was given to Mama. We borrowed a cage, took the tiny thing home and Mama fed him as soon as we were parked at the farm. There is such a dramatic difference in feeding the bucking goat and feeding the little male lamb. The goat is very aggressive with the bottle and never wants to let go once he latched on. If you are not ready for it, he will knock the bottle out of your hands when he butts against it. The lamb is gently, lets go often, then latches on again, several times while taking his eight ounces. The tiny goat cannot seem to get enough fast enough. The lamb is willing to savor the feeding…to the point that Mama has a chair stationed at the gate to the enclosure. He takes so long, she is required to sit down. The good news that we are raising this buckling to eat.

Mama is going back to Bowie this morning to meet with Grandma. Grandma is going to introduce her to the couple she rents from. They have a growing flock of sheep. From that flock we hope to get a ram to breed our ewes. Hopefully, Mama will be able to select one and get a price for that selection. I have convinced Mama that once our ram is through servicing our little flock, he too will be taken to the processor. Since are not raising show quality sheep, we do not need to keep a ram past our need to have our ewes bred. We planned on buying an animal for processing at least once per year, why not get some service out of that animal first and save ourselves the trouble and expense of providing separate food and shelter for a few weeks of service per year?

As long as Mama and Victoria are okay with that when the time comes to process the ram. Otherwise I will be eating a lot of mutton by myself.