Adorable Development

When you're a stay-at-home mommy and with your kiddos 24/7, it's tough to see the strides your babies actually make. People say "it goes soooo fast". Well, they probably work outside of the home. Because when you stay home, honestly, it mostly feels slow. Which I don't mind anymore...

Anyway, Stella is really starting to say lots of words and less sounds (although she's still a total sound-maker/animal noise/beatbox kid). I've really been doing a little more gentle "pushing"  in asking Stells to talk and to put more effort into daily activities. She seems proud and it's certainly building confidence.

Here she is giving the alphabet a try:

Meanwhile, Simon is a bouncing, bright-eyed, delicious baby boy. He rolls over, both ways and is VERY vocal. Stella and I heard him say "mama" the other day. I know you don't believe me, but he did.

Here he is just being Simon:

Yes, they are growing up. Knowing this is our last baby, I take several opportunities to really snuggle this boy and just breathe him in. I've been taking several moments with both of my babies knowing it really won't be long before I ache to hold and cuddle my active school-aged kids or independent teenagers. Just enjoying and loving them so very much.

Random

Some random pics of stuff we've been up to....

Bathing dogs.

Smiling...lots.

Exploring.

Riding mommy to the barn.

Hanging with friends at the zoo splash pad.

Cuddling.

It's hectic but it's love.

Tandem Nursing

Now that my raging hormones are in check and I'm learning to manage TWO babies I have a second to reflect. Actually it was terrible at first because of huge toddler emotions but now I can honestly say - gulp - I'm enjoying tender moments of tandem nursing my two month old and two year old. 

Right Breast

Left Breast

As I watched my nurslings drift off a memory of our family cat kneading and "nursing" on my childhood blankie 30 years ago popped up - we always said she was weaned too soon...

Simon Anthony's Birth-Day

On the day you were born, Simon, I was both busy here at the farm and determined to meet you. Saturday morning, May 11th, 2013, I woke up with some anxiety about the fact that you still weren't here...at that point you were nine days past your estimated due date and I had less than a week to give birth to you at home (at 42 weeks, we would have to go to the hospital according to Natalie, our midwife). Your grandma had been staying at our house for two weeks by then and we were all so excited for you to come. I told your dad that morning that I was going to get serious about going into labor...and I did. I used castor oil and your grandma and I made some delicious Eggplant Parmesan the night before which I ate and ate. After breakfast, Grammie, Stella and and I, enormously pregnant, went to the Serenbe Farmer's Market for some walking (good for going into labor) and some tasty baked goods (just good). Later, after we got home, we all went on a pasture walk. Stella and Daddy went out into the woods a bit while I walked the pasture with ant killer. While we were out there I noticed Sue had a weird bug bite reaction. After a chat with the vet, I headed to CVS for some Benadryl which I promptly administered upon my return. While walking up from the barn (now it was about 6:00pm) I was thinking laborious thoughts...asking for those contractions to kick in, and feeling a bit crampy. By the time I got up to the house, I had a feeling and I told Grammie with a lot of trepidation "don't get too excited but I think I'm in labor." Grammie was really excited but tried to be cool. I sat on my birthing ball and promptly sprung a leak. In the bathroom I called to Grammie to get me a pad because my water had broken. "REALLY?" she asked with sincere excitement. "Yes!" Then Daddy came up from the basement and I told him I was in labor. He looked at me skeptically and asked "how do you know, sweetie?" Pretty shortly after that strong contractions kicked in lasting 30 seconds and 2 1/2 minutes apart. Your sister acted as my doula, never showing any fear during contractions but sitting quietly next to me during most of them. During the breaks I talked to her about what was happening and told her soon she would be a big sister. Somehow, she seemed to understand although she was only two! After one hour of the same contractions I texted Natalie to give her a head's up. She thought they might just be cramps and so asked me to call her back in an hour. At 8:00pm Grammie was getting worried. She said the sounds I was making were intense. I took a shower then, got out and called Natalie. She said she was on her way but still sounded like she didn't really expect I was giving birth anytime soon. It was just still so early compared to labor with your sister...I felt like maybe I was being too wimpy and that I still had a ways to go. At that point, I felt so bad for Stella because of how tired she was so I took her to her room and tried to nurse her down; I had a HUGE contraction and yelled to your dad that I might poop your sissy's bed. In a panic he got me up and to the potty where I declared "I don't think I can do this again!!!" That is the transition phrase and it signaled to your dad that I was about to have a toilet baby. "Get up sweetie! Get to the bed!!" he pulled me up and helped me to the bed where he said he could almost see your head. At that point my body was pushing, Natalie came in through the door and about ten minutes later, at 8:54pm, I pushed you out in about four pushes. It was incredible and so, so fast. I was really happy you were here. You came out "roaring" as your Grammie says. You had all this thick, black hair and a huge cry. You were as perfect and gorgeous as a baby could be. Your sister, dad, grandmother and midwife were all in attendance. Your dad cut your cord after all the blood went to your tiny body. It was tied as the happiest day of my life (with your sister's birth). We named you the very next day. I love you, Simon!

Chicken Valley.

Anthony built this in two (half) days! Our chicks are becoming so cramped, large and active that we've kicked furnishing "Chicken Valley" with a coop into high gear. Oh yeah, plus we're about to have a new baby.

Sue.

    My hopes and dreams for our humble farm included a horse. Through fate we were delivered Sue: a nine year old registered paint mare who was given to us by a wonderful and kind owner who thoughtfully decided she was "too much horse" for her eleven year old daughter. Sue is very well bred. She also has exquisite ground manners. When haltered (especially with a rope halter) she is watchful, careful of your space and basically on alert for any command. She is trustworthy around Stella and the dogs and now in love with Bacchus. We couldn't ask for a more perfect little mare. Nobody has been on her in our family and we know very little about her history. 

    Yesterday, I broke out my brand-new bargain English bridle and loose ring snaffle bit (basically a training bit). She was hesitant, but accepted the bit. I fastened a lunge line around her head attached to the bit and headed out to pasture for a little "training". She was practically running over me on the way out. She was tense and unhappy. Out in the field, she definitely did her best with the uneven and unpredictable footing but wasn't at her best. Not ideal. What happened to the responsive and light mare in the rope halter? On line, she stopped several times at the trot and just faced me. When I asked her to move on at one point, she flew backwards about twenty feet resulting in a nasty rope burn (I didn't let go). She nostrils flaring, eyes wild and mouth open. Sucky :( 

   So I've re-evaluated my goals and hung up the English bridle and bit for now. Today I used the rope halter and took my time with a long grooming session having no expectations. My goals are for every interaction to build a trusting relationship working toward some light dressage and trail riding. But mostly just to go slowly and to be consistent. And of course to have fun with and enjoy her. I'm really after an arena where we can work on ground work off line. I'm ordering a rope hackamore and finishing watching this cool documentary. 

Stella's World

   At the center of our world is Stella. Though we have a lot of things going on at home, this little girl is with us and experiencing all kinds of new things. She is, for the most part, a happy, sweet and laid-back little girl. She is a very fearless and independent young lady which can be challenging as a parent, but ultimately, is something I'm very proud of. This is a strong, funny and loving person in the making. We absolutely adore her. To be honest, she makes life worth living.

Here she is hamming it up with her dog, Bossy.

River-Stomping!

Besties.

Caught red-handed....finger painting.

With Bacchus.

Watching the sun set and ice-eating.

Cousin Nic painting her nails.

With Grammie.

Nic is her special buddy.

Trying to be gentle with a tiny chick.

Bacchus loses his manhood; I try not to lose my mind.

It was a big day here at Honeysuckle for our little rescued donkey, Bacchus. He was gelded. This simple operation entitles him to a better life, not lived in sexual angst, and able to cavort with his best friend, our mare, Sue. When his recovery is complete (about a week or so), he will be free to spend the summer out in our beautiful pasture with her. But it was my first gelding and Anthony's first large animal vet visit. And we had to assist. 

Bacchus gets a little relaxer drug.

Aaaand he's down.

Post-surgery. Poor lil guy.

So what ticks me off beyond anything these days? TICKS. Being from the NW, I've never dealt with the utter nightmare of tropical insects. Ticks, you may or may not know, are arachnids with a beetle-like shell that is virtually impenetrable. They have extremely powerful jaws that they use to clamp onto the unsuspecting victim's skin and slowly burrow their heads into said skin where they (like a vampire) suck the blood right outta ya. They will feed for a couple days then drop off the host. They also carry diseases. I've just picked one out of my precious two-year old Stella's hair - with tweezers as it was embedded in her scalp. Oh yeah, they're awful.

But you know what? It's in the 80's this week. And the trees look like this:

Anthony says if you want to enjoy tropical-like living conditions, you gotta take the good with the bad. He's right.

Cleared pastures; tractor fever.

After obsessing over the ticks I was finding on the dogs (I had run out of Advantix) and doing some research on these nightmarish pests (totally new to this native North-westerner), I advised Anthony that we needed to bush-hog the pastures to help control the little buggers.





 The next day Mr. Ray from Craigslist came out with heavy equipment and spent half a day with Anthony clearing and cutting while Stella and I went to a birthday party in the city.

Ps. This may be TMI but the dude had camouflage  underwear. Now THAT'S a country boy.

               


 

                              How cute is Anthony on heavy equipment?

Here's the beautiful result! Sue especially seems pleased.

Now I have tractor fever and can't get this country song out of my head.

Meanwhile...I'm growing another human.

Yeah, I'm all that. Amid a remodel, move, animal aquisition and hense-forth care-taking, I've been growing another baby. I've also recently begun asking for people to take some pictures of me in this most beautiful state - the third trimester (no, I'm not being sarcastic). It's definitely the best trimester, in my opinion. You get a lot of attention and help (nice), you have a beautiful round belly with daily movement, and you also know you're almost done. I'm feeling especially nostalgic about this one as it's our last. Today, I'm 36 weeks and 4 days. Here are some recent pics:

 Easter at Myrna's.

                                             Me on the farm today!

A quiet moment nursing Stella on the couch in the sun last week....we are getting excited for our home birth and to meet and welcome our new addition. OUR BOY.

Bacchus' Story: Win, Win.

It's no secret that my husband, Anthony, has been a long term admirer of the donkey. His grandfather in Lebanon had a donkey when Anthony was a boy and it made a big impression on him; he's wanted one for the longest. So naturally, when we moved to Honeysuckle, talk of the donkey became more frequent. What kind did we want? A spotted? A mini? A mammoth? What about a mule?

Our farrier, Mr. Pete, was out trimming up Sue last week when I casually mentioned we would eventually be getting a donkey and so he's have another four hooves to trim...as soon as the words came out of my mouth, his son was running to get the cell phone from the truck to give me the contact info for a friend and local cattle rancher, Mike S. "This donkey's been runnin' his cattle. He'd probably give him to you." After a call to Mike - who (with a chuckle) advised that if he had his rifle with him yesterday, he wouldn't have a donkey to give me - Anthony and Stella and I headed out to his cattle farm in Newnan. You see, I believed him. This old-timer was pissed off about the little donkey.

A few miles south of beautiful historic Newnan (totally fell in love with this town ), Mike's farm is hundreds of acres of rolling green hills dotted with short, stocky, red Angus cattle. TRUE farming country and a scrappy old farmer to boot.

After standing around several cattle and Mike's two jenny's and our little Bacchus, Mike was suddenly on his I-Phone to Pete, making arrangements to haul him to our farm in Palmetto. It was clear that Mike was over the little jack. "He'd knocked over several heifers last week so I put him in with the bulls to teach him a lesson. The bulls came back to the fence huffin' and puffin'. He's just too aggressive". I gazed at the little yearling donk standing next to the jennies looking fairly benign and innocent.

He also advised us that the donkeys didn't get any feed all winter (and had no shelter). Clearly, their hooves have not been trimmed in ages as well. Do I think Mike's a bad guy? No, he's a cattle farmer with a very different view of animals than I have. During our visit, he was warm and funny. Downright hospitable. He invited Stella and I to go up to the house, told us stories of his triplet grand-daughters and his rescued border collie dogs. He also humanely raises grass-fed beef and sells it (and donates some) locally. People are complicated and I understand that. However, we needed to get this little jack out of the situation promptly.





We raced back up to our place, with a stop at Tractor Supply for a solar-powered electric fence unit (a must-have to keep our mare and jack from making mule-babies) and prepared for his arrival.


















Tonight, he's sleeping in a cozy stall with adjoining paddock (first time he's had shelter) and will be fully vetted and gelded next week. He's absolutely ADORABLE. And almost feral. But I'm sure he'll make a wonderful companion to Sue (who is going bonkers with excitement at his arrival) and a great family pet with time and love. Mike is relieved of his ass problem and we have an adorable new family member.








WIN-WIN.

Chicks Are Here!

The feed store, the Tractor Supply (an incredible country supply store) and the Farm & Garden section on Craigslist are all advertising "Chicks Are Here". Anthony's been chomping at the bit to get more chickens since we got our first small city flock over three years ago (of which we have four remaining survivors who barely lay these days). Chickens are great pets, easy keepers and lay beautiful, delicious, glorious eggs. 

So this morning after a little looking online, we settled on heading up to Villa Rica, GA in response to a craigslist ad. 

Me:  "Stella, want to go to another farm and get baby chicks?"

Stella: "Yay, yay, yay!"

After dressing warmly and with boots and a twinkle in our eyes, we headed out...on a really long 45 minute drive to the garage of a guy with a blue tooth on in a subdivision. *Sigh*. Whatever...he had chicks! We came away with 25 assorted standard breed chicks including Partridge Rocks, Barred Rocks, Comets, Rhode Island Reds, Araucanas and two, two-month old Silkies.  With our car full of peeping, panicked chicks and a whining/crying toddler (and two adults who really needed to pee) the car ride home was sorta ugly. Buuuuuut now we have these gals (hopefully gals):

Though the Silkies were chosen by me as special pets, they're acting as the little Standard's mamas. Darling!

Hello Honeysuckle.

Magical Beginnings.

This post is really overdue. We found it (and already moved to it). After years of talking, window shopping and long, long country drives, we found it, renovated it and moved into it. Thirteen acres in downtown Palmetto with a two level ranch that needed some (major) TLC. You can read about Palmetto here: http://www.citypalmetto.com/index.aspx?NID=865. The house sits near a quiet neighborhood street with the bulk of the property to the south and west (behind the house). It is really the best of all worlds. We are in a proper neighborhood, albeit country-style with VERY little traffic, blocks from downtown Palmetto and about 3 miles from Serenbe. (www.serenbe.com) and Chattahoochee Hills. Oh, and about 20 minutes to Atlanta. Better known as unincorporated south Fulton county. This is about as rural as you can get this close to the city. It is a very beautiful part of Georgia; rolling green hills with still-active cattle farms (the old school way with land passed down from generation to generation) perppered with newer, younger farms as well (www.manyfoldfarm.com). We aspire to become a working farm as well (more on that later).

The Property: 

There are two streams...one in the fenced pasture (about eight acres or so) and one behind the back fence line, in the forest.

This photo is the one in the pasture, just behind the house.

How cute is this foot-bridge?

There is a beautiful cypress barn. It is very rustic andneeds a little work to make cozy for critters but it's roomy (four stalls) and features a hay loft.

This photo is a "before" picture. All of these pics were taken late summer/early fall when we were falling in love with Honeysuckle.








The House:

We closed in September and started a major remodel. The house was a foreclosure and it complete neglect and disrepair. There was some extensive water damage but good bones. The floor plan was traditional ranch-style with smaller rooms chopping it up. The above picture is of roofers taking off the metal roof and re-installing it (it was on wrong!). 

I shot this video when I first went through the house; there was a lot of water damage and mold. Poor, sad house. It appeared as though there was some effort and attempt at a remodel but it was just done wrong. But we saw so much potential. A large ranch built on a daylight basement...if we could only knock down some walls, open and brighten it up...we were excited.