The Goat says Baaaaaa

 This post is a compilation of my recent journal entries from youngest to oldest. Wallace now says the word “orange” it is his first big word. He also makes the sounds of different barnyard animals like the goat, cow, horse, dog and turkey. He loves to show off. I now only have 4 weeks left of my pregnancy!

Wallace and I met Nicole and Tari at the River Bend Park on Tuesday 2/26. Wallace got to ride on a big kid's razor scooter and he had a great time digging around in the sand box with a stick. He had a Frisbee with him and he would run up to the disc golf baskets and toss in his Frisbee and clap. Nicole and I would cheer for him and I could tell he thought he was pretty cool.

Wallace and Tari

Saturday the 23rd was my baby shower. We had a great time! I saw lots of friends and family and we got a boatload of clothes for Hellena. I haven't had a chance to go through them all yet at home. We need to go to Chico and buy a new barrel for Hellena; she already has enough to fill one up.

Heny and Tom

After we got home from the party our turkey Tom was missing. We looked high and low for him. After a few hours we were sure he was gone for good. In the evening I went outside and there he was dancing around the turkey hut. Dylan ran outside and herded him into the pen. I have never been so relived to see a turkey!

I got a maternity sciatica support belt. It is amazing how much better I am able to get around. I am not in as much pain at night and I'm generally more comfortable.

Our silkeys have begun to lay eggs! Also, our turkeys are mating; our Tom is actually mating chickens as well. He even comes and dances around me. Spring is coming soon. I don't think we will have chicks for Easter but soon after we will. Our turkey hen, "Heny" likes me a lot. She runs to me when I go outside and she preens for me and turns blue when I talk to her. Turkeys turn blue when they are worked up for any reason. I think she is my favorite bird we have.

 On Feb. 19 it snowed, two days before it was in the 70's. I am simply floored by this wacky weather! In the morning there were still piles of snow on the ground. It looked like a winter wonderland all the next day. Ever since it has felt like February again, cold and windy.

On 2/17 Sunday night we all went over to our closest neighbors house for dinner. It was a very fun time. Wallace made a mess with his spaghetti dinner and then he ate part of a fake flour arrangement. He ate a bunch of tiny styrofoam balls out of the center of the flowers. The next day I was changing his diaper and just after I wiped his tush he farted out a styrofoam ball. I am still laughing about that!

 Saturday 2-16 we went to the Chico mall. Dylan got new glasses and Wallace and I played on the indoor playground. He had a blast climbing and sliding on all the toys. They looked like hard ceramic structures but when I touched them they were firm foam covered in high gloss vinyl.

We went into the motherhood maternity store and I found a perfect shirt to wear to the baby shower. It was on a good sale and I will be able to wear it through the summer after the baby comes.

Wallace's clavicle is healing nicely. It has a lump that may not smooth out but according to the orthopedist that is normal. He said that Wallace has made a calcium band-aid over the fracture. Wallace sees the Dr. again in three weeks and his bone should be healed by then. We still give him Tylenol before bed, first thing in the morning and as needed during the day. The Dr. told me that his bone would have healed the same weather or not we brought him in.

Jack, Wallace and I went out to lunch on Valentines Day. It was a nice surprise and we had a lot of fun talking and hanging out together. He works a lot so it has been hard to find time when we are both free to spend together. We have a bird to butcher and I want him to come to the farm for dinner soon.

Dylan has been learning to do fence work. Our landlord has had a crew of people mending and building the fences out here the past few weeks and he has them teaching Dylan as he works with them. He is enjoying the work and he is thankful for the new skill. Dylan worked all day on Valentines Day. When I was in Chico with Jack I picked up pizzas to bake at home. When I got home we made the pizzas and had a family date night. We all had ice cream for dessert, and then watched an episode of Dual Survival, our favorite show.

Wallace normally has a little slice of pickle for desert if he eats enough dinner. He loves it! The promise of pickle dessert encourages him to eat almost anything.

Nicole gave us two roosters to eat, Dylan dressed out one of them and I am going to make rooster soup. I plucked some if the feathers off of the bird and I watched and I kind of helped Dylan clean the bird. I want to learn how to butcher and dress birds and rabbits. I don't plan on using the skill much after I'm confident in it; I have Dylan for that.

It has been unseasonably warm the past week or so. It was 72 degrees on Valentines Day. It is nice to have the warm weather but it feels really hot to us. Wallace got all scratched up playing in a tee shirt. It gives me a little taste of the ouches that are sure to come this spring.

We have been trading our birds lately. We traded Mr. Big Fluff, our white rooster, for 4 mature hens. Three of them are Americanas, blue egg layers. One is a Bardrock hen. She will lay big brown eggs and her babies when she is crossed with an Easter Egger will lay green eggs. The Bardrock hen has taken up with the turkeys and will not come out of their pen.

We went back to the Jess Jones vineyard and traded our Blue Andalugen hen for an Americana hen. The Blue bird was flighty and Willow the dog chased her all the time. Also, she lays medium white eggs, nothing special. Lori at the vineyard loves blue birds and she was happy to make the trade. I was happy to trade for an Easter Egger, and also to see if the dog had it out for just that bird or if she is just a chicken chaser. Sadly, the dog is just a chicken chaser, but at least we got a good hen in trade.

We saw our Midwife this past week. She said that my pregnancy seems to be going along perfectly and she will be happy to catch the baby in water. I have gained about 25 pounds and I have 6 weeks to go. I don't look like I have put on much weight though, which I guess is a good thing. I have developed the "mask of pregnancy." I know it will go away soon after delivery but it makes me feel very self-conscious. It feels like a dirty trick that on top of carting a human around in my belly I also have a pigment moustache. I am really looking forward to delivery. Giving birth to Wallace was the most spiritual experience of my life and I am eager to repeat it. God is in the room when a baby is born!

After the midwife we went to my Mama's for dinner and the next day we drove to Rio Vista to see my Dad. It was great to see everyone even if it was only for a few hours.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Good Morning Sunshine

 Dylan butchered a very mean hen and I made fried chicken.   The hen would fight with the roosters, interrupt mating and she would bar the other hens from the nest boxes. She would harass the other chickens and chase them. She had to go. It was a lot of fun learning to fry chicken and even though the meat was totally over cooked it was delicious. Next time I know I'm going to do it a bit differently, but that's the beauty of learning to cook new things.

We got Wallace a booster seat with a tray. Meals are much more harmonious now that he is strapped into something. He was kicking and trying to sit under us at meal times. His high chair is too big for the new trailer. It is so nice having a kitchen table indoors. We eat as a family a few times a day. And since we got the new trailer we have sit down family dinners every night. It feels wonderful.

 Wallace has started throwing himself completely on the ground and screaming when he doesn’t want to go with me or get in the car. At home he doesn’t get hurt because there is no really hard surfaces, but in town he hits his head on the pavement and cries even harder. It's hard to have sympathy for him when he hurts himself being a brat.

 Nicole and I are making owl toys as decorations and game prizes for the baby shower. We are using some fabrics that I dyed, scrap corduroy, some fashion fabrics and leather. They look very rich and I feel proud of them.

We went Solar. It is nice not having to run the generator at all hours of the day and night! Gas is going up again and we decided this was the time to do it.

 This past weekend we went to the Oroville flea market on Saturday and the Marysville flea market on Sunday. We were looking for chickens. We came home with a Thai chicken hen called a Shamu, they are also known as Godzilla chickens. They are very tall and prehistoric looking. They are good layers and excellent meat birds. On average they hatch 60 birds a year. That will be over one chicken a week for our table. We also came home with a turkey tom. He is a "black turkey" that is a heritage breed.

We had so much fun at the Marysville flea market. There are lots of animals for sale. It costs $20 to have two tables. We are going to take a lot of our household items from storage and my old bike soon and try to sell them. For $4.75 I got a huge amount of baby clothes for Hellena 

Baby Einstein

We also got Dylan a new pair of Levi jeans for work and a nice leather tool belt. On Saturday we also went to a Salvation Army store. They were having a crazy sale and for $2.74 I got a big bag of baby clothes for the girl.

 A few days later we drove to the Jess Jones Winery in Dixon. The vineyard specializes in sweet wines, my favorite! I even bought a bottle to enjoy a little later on in life ;)   We bought a Naragansat turkey hen. Naraganset is a rare slate and buff heritage breed. She is beautiful! Turkeys will lay 100 eggs in their first year but they will only hatch out 15 birds a year. We plan to take her eggs and give them to our Silkeys to hatch. Each Silky can only hatch out 4-5 turkey eggs because they are so small and the eggs are so large. Lucky for us we have a whole bunch of Silkeys. Each turkey will sell for at least $35. At least next year our turkeys will be a good source of income in the spring.

Easter Eggs

 The good people at the vineyard showed us their chickens. They have the same taste in chickens as us and it was a joy to admire their flock. They have Americanas like we do and other Easter Eggers. They sell their Easter Eggs by the dozen. We know it will be a few years before we have enough, but we are planning on building our flock of Easter Eggers so that we can also sell Easter Eggs by the dozen at markets. They have lots of blue chickens, my favorite! They even have a blue Americana rooster. Wallace got beat up by the blue rooster. Wallace charged the bird and it slapped him in the face with it's wing. I ran at the bird and it flew away scared. Wallace had a mark on his face for a few hours. Before we left the vineyard Wallace went after the same rooster again but we stopped him; the boy has zero awareness of his own physical safety.

Wallace loves to stack his books in the window 

 We also bought a mature Easter Egger rooster from the vineyard. He is a Brahma Americana cross. He has a Rose Come; I think he is very handsome. Brahmas are a good meat bird and we plan on crossing him with our Godzilla hen. I'm excited about this rooster "Goliath" because it will be like egg color roulette with the hens he sires. Anywhere from pink to blue to an olive green. I saw a lavender and pink tinted speckled egg at the vineyard!

Goliath the new Rooster

 Being a Farmer means having your hands in so many different income sources. Each goat will bring in this much, chickens that much, turkeys this much, rabbits that much. Successful Farmers just need to plan ahead and have enough avenues of income to make it each year. I am getting used to it even tough it is hard to wait for the paychecks. We are planning now to plant out a field of birdseed so that we won't have to buy any more bags of grain for the birds. We can buy a 50-pound bag of scratch grain and plant it or buy smaller seeds and plant them out in rows. Were not sure what way we are going to go with it yet.
Dylan finished his goat pen and he built a turkey pen as well. Now all of our beasts have their own houses.

We have some bad news about our rabbits: they are both hermaphrodites. This happens sometimes and we can't breed them. We took them out of the warren and put them in a smaller cage having resolved to dress them out and eat them. One of them immediately died and I'm not sure if we should eat the other one. I don't know if Willow the dog scared the rabbit to death or if it was sick. We are going to spend the big bucks on a mature breeding trio from a reputable breeder next month. We know of a rabbit farm in Chico with a good reputation. Speaking of Chico, my baby brother Jack moved to Chico. I feel very blessed that Jack is going to be a figure in Wallace and Hellena's lives. Wallace is old enough to make lasting memories now and I know he will have memories of his Uncle Jack.

happy after dinner

I have an appointment with my Midwife on Tuesday of next week. She is the Midwife I saw with Wallace and I am looking forward to delivering with her group again. She needs to see me three times before she will let me have a water birth a the Sutter Davis Birth Center. I have been getting adequate care here in Oroville but I do not want to deliver the baby in a hospital with a Doctor. I feel like Doctors have no place in the delivery room! My OB is very practical and he supports my decision to deliver in Davis with the Midwives. He agrees with me about Dr's in the delivery room, and he prefers his patients to have Midwives deliver their babies either at a birth center or at home. He thinks it is always safer for the mother and that hospitals rob the mother of her birth experience.

Wallace the carpenter

My OB is still going to see me through the end of my pregnancy and do my post partum care. He said something that rang very true to me at my last appointment. I was signing the consent paperwork to get my tubes tied. I was planning on having the procedure right after the baby is born. He said that it is an emotionally unclean time to do a procedure like that just after the birth and he doesn’t recommend that I have it done then. It would require a 4-day stay in the hospital after the delivery and a woman should always be at home recovering 4 days after delivery. He also said that most women feel robbed or cheated after the procedure if it is done just after the baby is born, because they loose precious time with the new born. He said 6 weeks after the baby is born he will do the procedure and I will only have a 4-hour hospital stay.

 I am beginning to get very uncomfortable with this pregnancy. My sciatica and my pelvic girdle are hurting me a lot. I am caring the baby very high and she is well into my ribs. I have 7 more weeks to go and I don't know where she is going to go as she grows. There can't be any more room in my rib cage!!! I can't lean forward or bend from side to side now. I do a lot of squatting down, and I have to move the car seat really close to the steering wheel other wise my ribs ache when I'm driving. Wallace is well aware that I can't wrangle him as easily and he takes full advantage of it. He runs away and flattens himself on the ground to avoid me making him mind. I'll tell him things like, "if you don't get up and come with me I'm going to get your Papa to take over and you WILL have a bad time if you're naughty with him." Wallace almost always begins to obey me immediately after that.

 Wallace loves to have his picture taken first thing in the morning. He brings me the camera and begins to smile like crazy. I get a lot of great pictures of him in his footie pajamas with wild morning hair.

Action shot of the boy throwing fire wood.

I saw a shooting star on Friday night. I wished for an orgasmic water birth for us.