Farmer Kate, Coach Eric

Today has been a very productive day. Eric had his first scrimmage with his baseball kids, and so Case and I went to watch this morning. Case LOVES baseball. He plays with the balls, pays attention to the batters and of course loves to roll around in the grass. He is soooooo close to walking by himself, but he still has to hold onto each of my pinkies, and then he takes off across the grass.... reminds me of the cartoon characters speedy gonzalez and sonic the hedgehog. its pretty funny I feel sure to watch Case taking off with me following swiftly behind him.

After we got home from that, Case took a snooze and Eric and I went outside to do some milking of goats. I have decided it is alot harder to milk a goat than a cow. The reasons are below:

1. size. a goats udder is about 6 inches from the ground. give or take a few inches.

2. horns. a goats horns are also alot closer to your face than a cows horns.

3. husbands. husbands have nothing to do with goats, but I have decided that next time I milk a goat, I will take full advantage of my husbands strength. Eric holds onto those goats ooh so well.

Now, I am sure you are thinking, why doesn't she just get a goat stand, well, I MADE one, with my very own welding skills... and it is very nice, the welds are consistent with excellent penetration (thank you dad, for these nice skills you taught me) except I didn't take into consideration that I had plans for an average sized dairy goat, without remembering that all of my nanny goats have some pygmy in them, therefore anre at least 6 inches shorter than the head area of my goat stand. I was so mad. Now I will be moderating my goat stand and it will by far be the best one ever.

And lastly, even though this actually should be first, we lost another goat this morning. I am not sure why, or what happened, but she was born on Thursday night, I had to pull her and she was really weak. To be honest, I am surprised she made it this long, but she was the only kid born to Abby, Erics favorite goat, and now Abby is lost and lonesome. I even tried to save her, but she was already limp with her head flopped over when I brought her in the house, so it was a lost cause.

Currently, we have 3 surviving baby goats, with a total loss of 2 this week. Gladys is due to kid anyday, and there is a theory she is pregnant with triplets, this will be her 3rd kidding.

So far, theese are the exciting stories of the day, even though not all are positively exciting. More to come from Farmer Kate later.... that is my new name from my dad.

new baby

tonite was a tough one. I had to pull Lucy's babies and we lost one. Sad yes, but the second baby I pulled survived and was super cute! Look for pictures tomorroW!

we have babies!!!!

Case really loves playing in the water! he is totally fine that this is the goats water trough!

little boy goat is trying to figure out if Pancho is okay to go near or not. He finally decided it was a bad idea when Tulip (mama goat) head butted the fence.

floppy ears are signature for the Nubian breed! Im thinking of calling him Airplane, for airplane ears!

Me, holding little girl goat, I have started calling her Sunday, original I know, being how she was born on Sunday.

Case making friends with Airplane and Sunday this morning!

We have been waiting for weeks for this day. Our goats are all still pregnant, except for Tulip, one of our first time momma goats. She gave birth this morning about 10 am to twin kids, a little boy and a little girl. The boy is fulll of energy and very friendly (he and Case are already buddies) and then the girl is more docile and timid. Names are still in the air as we will be selling the babies.

Tulip wasn't wanting to let the babies suck this morning, so I had to hold her head under my arm and rub her teats so that she would get used to having something sucking on her bag. Finally, this afternoon she let the babies suck without any hastle and started acting like a good mama.

We really enjoy having baby goats around!

SAE visits with mom

Case goes with me when I go on SAE visits or Supervised Agriculture Experience project visits. These are the projects that are a requirement for my students to have year round. Today we went all over Gods creation to visit my students who work at the dairy, who have chickens, steers, gardens, ect. Today I decided to take some pictures of Case too, not just my students. So, feast your eyes on the handsome little fellow!

The girl holding Case is one of my greenhand officers and she raises and shows steers. This steer is her most gentle one, and he loved having Case pound on his back!!!

fun times with Ila

Favorite picture of all time, above!

sharing George with Case

Ila came over this weekend so she and Case could get to know each other and play at Grammas house. She is truly so funny. The funny remarks from Ila this weekend:

Me: How old are you Ila?

I: two birthdays!

Me: what is your name Ila?

I: two birthdays!

Me: Ila, what is your name?

I: ILA JAAYYYYMMMES MOSS!!

Me: can you give Case a kiss?

I: Yes... (kisses Case on the cheek) Thank you!!!

We had a blast this weekend, and Case adores Ila as much as she adores him! I can't wait for him to meet his other cousins!!!

snow in February

I love the way snow looks on a fence and a plow.

Oh and our tractor looks great with snow on it too.

Here is my turck, this was right about 6:45 am, before I left for work.

Case and I are driving past the field, I couldn't resist a picture!

the news has said for the past week that it was going to snow on Tuesday, February 10th. No way I thought. Last week temperatures were hitting the low 80's and I thought.. yay.. spring is finally here!

That is, until I woke up yesterday morning and we had snow everywhere. Ther was about an inch on the ground at our house, and the further I drove into Duncan on my way to school, there was way more. Outside of my classroom, there was 3 inches of snow! I kept thinking, why not have a snow day??!!

Since Eric is the new baseball coach, of course practice was "Cancelled" outside because the field was soaked in snowy mushy-mess, but they still had practice in the weights room.

Anyhow, I took some pictures to show you all how beautiful Arizona is when its 19 degrees and snowing. Oh and Ron, this is for you.. the high was 40 degrees yesterday!!!

Clyde is back!

two weeks ago, when Pam and Pat were here, my beloved Jack russell, Clyde - he disappeared. It was very alarming because he doesn't ever wander from the house, and so we figured someone stole him.

Turns out, we might have been right because he showed back up Thursday afterschool without his collar, and Wood, our neighbor down the road said some mexican came by earlier in the day with a dog that looked like Clyde... and then he came home!!!

Case's birthday party

Make sure you come!

If you would like to come for the weekend there are a few hotels on Grant Road which is about 10 miles from my parents home. Case will be getting dedicated at my parents church on March 15th, which is the day after his birthday!