Sunday Fun

Things are definitely looking up. Its really hard to deal with rapid-fire tragic events, but we have good news to share today.

Friday, I took the liberty to post Annabelle (our Granny Annie, goat matriarch) on Craig's List to hopefully trade her for an intact male to begin our next round of pregnancies and lactations. Saturday I got a response from a woman with a fabulous 3 year old blue-eyed, wonderfully tame, registered buck. I responded making sure she knew what she was getting... as clearly she was getting the short end of the deal. Annabelle is probably 10 or 11, gives very little milk, and what she does give tastes awful. She could be bred a few more times and kids her twins easily every time... but still... this was hardly and even swap. She said it was worth it to her to have the buck gone as she was constantly having to fix the fencing between him and another buck. She even delivered him! So Sunday, right after church, Copper was here to greet us. She took Annabelle away to have a nice retirement with lots of other goldie oldies. She'll probably breed her, but bottle feed her kids. She's really into breeding for coloring and has quite the little business selling the offspring. I know Annie's in good hands... and the morning chore load is a little lighter for me.

While the goat swap was still going on, my snake hunter lady called. She said without the expected rain, the afternoon would be too hot to hunt down snakes. She also said she spoke to several others who all agreed that it must be a rattler and not a water moccasin as a water moccasin would not have struck twice. The question just becomes was it a big diamond back who thought it could handle a little goat for a meal or was it a little pygmy rattler who was sitting in the tall grass (that was due to get mowed that day) and became startled by a couple goats and snapped twice. She's coming for a better hunt on Thursday instead. She also said that the old wives tale about black snakes keeping away rattlers is completely false. She said there is NOTHING that keeps away venomous snakes. We have prime property for snakes, I know, but I'd rather they get all their sustenance in the woods and not come out and about where we are. I've learned that from mid August to mid September is snake breeding season so they are particularly active. And for whatever reason, this year has been especially favorable for snakes. She's hoping to get snakes out of our woods before they breed and hatch little ones to contend with as well.

I no sooner got off the phone with her than our birthday guests arrived! We're a bit delinquent in celebrating Randy's mom's birthday, but were glad they could come and spend the afternoon with us. Its a tradition to make homemade ice cream for her birthday and so we did... vanilla cherry with fresh cherries from http://www.allrecipes.com/. It was YUMMY! Gloria helped Daddy crank (until she made her brother kiss the concrete and was sent to her room), the birthday girl provided all the expertise, Papa played with a happy little boy (before the concrete incident) and I sat on my duff taking pictures. It was great.

This morning, Gloria and I were outside finishing up some chores. We had some seeds yet to plant, but we were both ready for a cold water break. She went in ahead of me and I soon found her munching on cherries. I gently chided her for helping herself to such a messy snack (she was in pre-stained play clothes so I really didn't mind). She said, "My five babies really like cherries, Mama!" One day, a few months ago, I was telling her about someone who had twins... where we have one baby in the tummy, this lady had TWO babies in her tummy. Well, Gloria then decided she had FIVE babies in her tummy. I asked if they were invitro and she very seriously answered no. Ever since she'll have us feel her tummy when her "five babies" are moving. And now she needs lots of cherries to feed her five babies because they really like them.