Changing goals and speed

[AClark]

I didn't breed Dahlia or Buttercup, they came already bred. I would not have chosen January kidding. It's too cold at night here and they have a heat lamp on them. Once Buttercup has hers, I don't have any planned until April, and that's just Ruby who was already bred, and the rest will kid in June. Next year, I'm planning all April/May kidding. It's reasonable weather right now, but we do risk cold snaps and freezing temps all the way until April.

We had a hassle last night. My kids managed to break my heat lamp bulb off in the balast. We got it out, but then I had to dig through the house for "cheap" light bulbs that put off heat, instead of these CFL crap or LED's. I finally found one 100 watt tucked away in my closet after digging through all of our storage cabinets - I have 5, with livestock stuff, cleaners, paper towels and TP (DH says I hoard paper towels I have at least 12 rolls at any given time) egg cartons - it was a digging adventure. My closet is small so it's pretty packed, I'm surprised we even found one. I was ready to take them out of light fixtures for a quick fix, but all my fixtures have LED's or CFL's in them - and I mean all of them, I checked, lol.

Buttercup will probably be sold after she kids, the kids too. Pygmy's are cute, but they don't fit our farm plan since they don't get enough weight on them. She's not very friendly either, whereas Dahlia (Dolly for short and because my younger kids can't say Dahlia) is pretty friendly, and will probably milk well.

ETA, I made a kidding thread so nobody has to dig through this mess to just see babies. I'll post more pics of them over there.

 

[Hens and Roos]

very neat colors!

 

[Latestarter]

Congrats! So cute!

 

[Bruce]

Clearly stealth mama didn't want you to have extra activities and worries on your birthday.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Glad it all went well and they are really Cute...Love the markings!!.....

 

[Baymule]

What a great birthday present! What are their names?

 

[AClark]

I don't want to name them, for obvious reasons on the boys, and the girl is being picked up on Saturday as a bottle baby pet. I may wether and keep one of the boys, but I'm not sure. I've been selling out of the little goats, but decided I'll probably keep their mama since she's a good mom and did well as a FF.

 

[AClark]

Frustration for the day - so here I am gathering milking supplies to sanitize in the dishwasher in the house, I haven't set up my barn dishwasher yet (hose conversion issue) and I open it up to find that my son packed the dishes in so tight that nothing was actually clean. He doesn't rinse dishes or scrape them before they go in the dishwasher - why I don't know, we have a pig bucket in the kitchen you can scrape right into!
So, here I am, washing dishes so I can run the stuff I need through, and hand-washing breakfast dishes.
We split the kitchen up into sections and all the kids help. Every week it switches, so this week, my oldest has to load the dishwasher, my younger son has to unload it and put dishes up, and my older girl has to wipe the counters, stove, and table off, while the youngest sweeps. The youngest always sweeps since she's 6 and not tall enough to do the other jobs, especially not unloading and putting dishes away, and needs a step-stool to reach the counters. Lena tries to help by standing on the dishwasher door and unloading the silverware onto the floor.
I do the pots and pans by hand myself, or anything that really gets stuck like the crockpot.
Second frustration - I finished my daughters laundry this morning - they'll put it up when they get home. I thought I'd be nice and do the boys, as they are responsible for doing their own, but I'm not really doing anything else. So I go in their rooms to get it and NOPE, it's thrown all over both the closets, and I'm Mom, not maid, and I'm not picking it up. They know I'll do it if it's in a laundry hamper and I don't have to scrounge for it, same goes for their rooms, I'll vacuum and tidy up if it isn't a disaster. I won't pick up stuff off their floors to vacuum, so they have to vacuum themselves if they leave it a mess.

Mother Clucker is still in the house recovering, but it's looking really good. No infection set in at all, it's healing up fast, and she's spry and perky. She clucks at me when I walk by and enjoys being pet. She is still purple from the blu-kote, but it's all filling in. She's a pretty hardy little chicken to have survived that kind of dog attack. Her wing seems functional, there weren't broken bones, so while I'm not sure it will ever feather back out, (not that it matters, she's a Cornish X and couldn't fly due to her weight anyway) it's not completely crippled.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Sorry about the frustration, but glad to hear about the hen recovering. I don't blame ya for making the boys accountable....I was raised that way and it pays dividends in the future....our daughters have had to correct bad behavior of their husbands for the lack of it in their upbringing....tho, my Mom wouldn't have allowed me to use the dishwasher until I proved I knew how to clean them by hand....

 

[AClark]

That's what I usually do, if they half-@ss it with the dishwasher, they get to handwash them. Unfortunately, everyone is at school and I need to use the dishwasher for my stuff, so I washed the over packed stuff and ran it back through. I hate doing dishes.

That's my thing with the laundry is that they are accountable. My ex husband wouldn't do his own laundry, despite being in the Army and having to do his own when he was single. No way are my boys dumping that chore off on future girlfriends/wives. Especially throwing clothes on the floor when they have hampers in their closets that were empty, with a pile of clothes next to them. I don't mind doing their laundry if I can just go pick up the hamper and do it, but they are old enough to do it themselves and it's a courtesy if I do.