“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.” Peace Pilgrim

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” Buddha

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it”

“If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.” Mahatma Gandhi

“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.” John Lennon

Sometime around 7AM we are guessing, these two little guys came into our world! Yes, I did say guys, both boys. We are going to be trading one in a couple weeks for a brand new girl who Lola will be bottle feeding. The smallest we have decided to keep, and his name is Mongo. June looks like she did great! I followed her around until about 1AM and then went in to lie down as she wasn’t doing much of anything. Around 3 I went back to check and she was sleeping, so I figured it would be later today. To my surprise when I went back out this morning, there were these 2 little boys fighting over who was going to nurse on one side. haha! We are very excited and the kids are in heaven. So in about 2 weeks we’ll have a baby girl in place of the bigger boy, but for now we are going to enjoy these two little guys!! 🙂

Toddlers meeting the newest babies.

Here are some of the things I’ve been working on for the holidays..:)

My nephew LOVES Spiderman…so I painted this shirt and made this snowglobe for him.

My little Lola has been dying for a hat and scarf set..so I did this one up for her.

Xiola loves shoes!

Pajama set for my niece, with a washcloth to match!

And for her brother…

A Tibetan calligraphy peace shirt for another nephew.

A purse for one of the girls I take care of.

And a hat for her sister…

A hat for my son.

and a scarf for his girlfriend.

There are a few more things that aren’t quite finished yet; a tea set and a couple more washcloths and kitchen cloths..but they will be ready in time! 🙂

No baby goats yet..poor girl! And if you can believe it, she’s even bigger than before! Things look like they are starting to happen though, her utters are swelling and her back is changing, plus the position of the babies is obviously adjusted..:) Maybe this weekend?! hahah At this point we can only cross our fingers and wait.

On another topic, doing the homemade thing this holiday. I will take pics and get them up of the things I’ve made for my nieces and nephews, as well as my own girls. 🙂 We had this tradition with my son when he was little and decided to do the same with the girls…a little out of necessity and alot out of our “anti-commercialism” beliefs..:)

What are you all doing for the holidays? 😀

Our fluffball is sleeping so peacefully….I’m jealous! Haha

Still, no babies yet…she is officially 3 days overdue..yikes! She waddling around the yard, trying to run and play but just can’t do it anymore. Poor thing. We are on goat watch and I’m looking forward to hopefully playing the role of Goat Midwife!

In one of the pics you can see her new house we built last month. It’s been a crazy month with work, kids, etc.. I promise I’ll be back to update more regularly from here on out!

Peace!

“While being young is an accident of time, youth is a permanent state of mind.”

Frank Lloyd Wright

Slowly getting ready for winter, however today is a reminder that we are running out of time. It is a whopping 51 degrees on our front porch and a cold rain is falling. June is in her doghouse looking dejected and the chickens are bummed that they can’t get outside. 😉 June gets a new goat shed next weekend though, so should be all good after that. We need to get canvas covers for the 2 open sides of the chicken coop as well. We are getting 3 eggs a day now and they are quite good! Nice, dark orange yolks…very rich!

Here are some pictures from this weekend. Lola is spending a few days with Jason’s folks, so it was just Xi and us yesterday. We let June out of her half of the yard and she loved exploring the rest. Even wanted to check out our bedroom porch…haha. Enjoy!

Jason’s work station while out in the barn…HAHA!

Hey! Don’t take my carrot!

Thanks for looking! MAA MAA!

I couldn’t get these to upload properly, so I’ll try in a new post! Enjoy!

Here she is! Such a beauty too! We had a wild time with her though. After Cyndi brought her, we were getting her pen set up with food, water, etc.. Jason was at the back fence talking to our neighbor and I was putting a bucket of water into her pen. As I reached over and unlatched the gate to come out, I heard a noice and turned just in time to see June bolt towards the gate. Before I could even take a breath, she hit that gate with her horns and was gone! We hadn’t closed the front gates yet, so she just shot out into the neighborhood. She’d been there for maybe 30 minutes and already was on the loose. I raced to the front, my runner husband past me up very quickly and hopped in the van. He went off down the street to see if he could see her. It was just about dusk, so we didn’t have alot of time before the sun would be all the way down. Our neighbors ran off towards the woods and soon I heard Brent yelling that he’d found her. Jason came back up the street and I pointed him in the right direction. After that the girls and I waited.

I felt really badly for the girls. They were so scared that she’d be gone forever. Alot of tears and poor little Xiola, who claimed June as her own, kept hanging on the fence sobbing, “Come home June..” If you’ve ever seen a 2 year old truly sad, it is heart-breaking. So I had the girls come in and started their shower. I told them that Jason would be back with June before they could even get done bathing. Lola was really sad, she thought it was her fault because she was trying to put the lock back on the gate when it all happened. I explained that she was no way to blame, that there was nothing anyone could have done to stop June. About that time I thought I heard our car so went out to check. It was almost dark and I just kept hoping that Jason would be back soon. It was him! He had her safely in the van. Whew! We got her back in the pen, after closing ALL the gates before getting her out of the van. Then Jason went in and told the girls the good news. Xiola leaped out of the shower and wanted to go see June right then and there! So we did..:)

Jason said that Brent had corralled her in a neighbor’s yard and kept up with her when she got out and ran further down the road. He, his friends and Jason all ended up running her into the slough where she couldn’t get out. Jason put the leash on her and lifted her carefully out and into the van. She was pretty tired when she got back, the whole adventure was about 40 minutes so could have been worse. It really taught the girls about keeping the gates closed at all times though! Jason said that when he was talking to our neighbor, another friend showed up at Brent’s with a dog and the dog spooked June. That’s when she bolted. I couldn’t have stopped her. All was well and we really did learn about what great neighbors we have! Jason took a bunch of beer down there for them and I’m baking some fresh bread today to give them. We are also going to give a couple jars of pickles to the neighbor’s whose yards the guys just ran straight through. I guess they took a few of them by surprise! HAHA But we don’t have to announce to the neighbor’s that we have a goat now! HAHA

Certainly learned a valuable lesson last night. Today June is fine. Let the kids pet her through the fence and seems fairly content in her new surroundings. Once she’s used to it and happy here, we can let her out into the general yard while we are out there. We’ll give her a couple weeks though!

Her babies are due in about 6-8 weeks. She’s slightly taller than the average Nigerian Dwarf Goat. I guess her brother is pretty tall as well. Cyndi told us if she gets too lonely before the babies arrive, then she’ll let us hold onto June’s bro for company. So far she seems fine. Is really interested in the kids actually. Also, another fact we learned but didn’t know: Cyndi explained to us that these goats are strict vegetarians. Will not eat anything that is a meat product, including eggs! She said if we run out of feed, she will not eat cat food but will eat chicken food. HA! I’m sure we’ll be learning even more as time goes on! Oh the adventures we are going to have!