We have seen a LOT of pronghorn antelope in the back pasture this year. They won’t let me get close enough to get a picture I am satisfied with but I wanted to share these anyway.

They say the antelope is one the fastest mammals alive. I am pretty certain the Bearded Collie dog is right behind them because Wally can go from the back door to the back 40 in about five seconds. I couldn’t tell you how what that translates into in per hour speeds but in practical terms it means now you see antelope, now you don’t. Or, if Wally sees the antelope before you do, don’t bother looking for the camera. ; ) The first pics are taken out back. The bottom pic is from a nature site so you can see what they look like close up.

We had a surprise visit from Allen’s aunt and uncle last night.  Since they live in WI, and we don’t, it made for a real SURPRISE – a good one. I am getting better about impromptu visits but it is always unnerving looking at your house and barn through the eyes of a stranger.  I get to wondering if the goat smell comes off as ‘earthy’ or nauseating?  Or if anyone else notices my baseboards need attention? Wait, don’t tell me. I am sort of an ignorance is bliss kinda gal, at least when it comes to things over which I have little control.

This post had the tears about rolling down my cheeks this morning. It’s just so like that around here.

(*This pic was taken before milking one morning here lately as I walked out to the barn.)

"By having plenty of time in nature, by being raised in a peaceful and nurturing environment, in which there are plenty of opportunities to explore mud, water, sand, and sound, children will begin to form meaningful experiences upon which later scientific experiments and learning will be based. 

In contrast an early childhood experience which is overstimulating, full of noise, hustle and bustle, and the barrage of tv, videos, and computers dulls the senses and is antithetical to a development of qualities of awe and reverence."  – Donna Simmons

While riding her horse the other day Moira found a tiny meadowlark bouncing around in the pasture. She didn’t realize til she brought it to me that they nest on the ground so he was likely not far from home, nor in the danger he appeared to be.  She returned it to the general area she found it, but not before Mom got a picture. : )  And yes, she has gloriously dirty fingers from her morning tramping about on horseback and digging through our fields. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Awe and Reverence. Check!

The girls are in heaven these days with brand new kittens opening their eyes and beginning to walk. Anybody want a kitten….or three? ; ) 

Puzzled as to what came first?  Ponder no more. Careful observations made right here under the Starry Sky have answered the question once and for all!

It

is

the

CAT!

No really! I can prove it…….

There you have it. ; )   Courtesy of my favorite rural scientists. Data collected during a recent barn paving project. No animals were harmed during the production of this post. 

(in fact no animals were moved! Oddly enough, the cat WAS sitting on this egg.  We are renaming the cat Horton….)

…"The One in Which the Power Lines Snap, the Goat Has Triplets in the Dark and I Turn 40."

It has been an eventful week in these parts. I think it was my fault. I did say our "last storm of the season" not too long ago didn’t I?  Jinx.  This one really kicked us in the shorts as my friend Barb would say. After a long rain the sky turned to snow piling up on top of the mud. Wind sheers toppled and snapped power line poles and left them strewn along roadsides like a giant game of pick up sticks. The power went out Tuesday afternoon and Allen was sent home. Too late as it turned out. It was like working his way through a demo derby trying to navigate the highway home. He arrived just as it was getting nippy in here and we fired up the generator and hunkered down in the RV.

I started dinner in there and Allen and the girls went to do barn chores.  I was summoned right away. Sapphire (the goat ; )) was already delivering her first kid. We caught that one and started to stimulate and warm it up while Allen rigged up a spotlight plugged into the generator. It was a smallish buck and looked good. We got his cord dipped and blew him dry. Before too long the second kid was presenting. She seemed to be working harder with that one. After waiting and watching Allen gloved up to assist. Fortunately just a wee bit of a pull and the kid birthed. Another buckling, this time breech, but with both feet in position.

The doe was a trooper and the kids had the neonatal care routine down pat though we would have given alot for warm water. The buck was pretty ‘gunky’ and needed more help getting his lungs cleared and up and moving. We tried the swinging thing on him – hold him by the feet and gently swing in a rocking fashion per the 4H ladies’ advice. At least I am pretty sure that was the advice. If not he was no worse for wear. <g> He came around just as we looked at Sapphire and said hmmmmm, you don’t think…….?  Sure enough, she was laboring again.

The next kid was a doe! Woo hoo! My farmer was pleased we got a keeper out of the bunch. She was vigorous and breathing well so we repeated the neonatal care steps and started to clean up the mess.  That last part was a challenge. We looked like we had been to the butcher shop by then and nothing but cold bottled water to clean up with . Suffice it to say – ewww. We waddled back to the camper and went through what sounded like Armageddon from the inside of that oversized tin box. We woke up to a foot of new snow.

Our neighbors called on the cell and told us not to go down our road since a line had gone down across it but it was buried in the snow and not readily visible. Allen walked down the other way to assess. He found a truck passing that gave him the best way out. It was warming and melting so we decided to try to get to town to get more gas and water and a generator for our friends who were told to expect a week without power. We literally passed 37 ditched cars between us and the next town ten miles away. 37 cars and two broken down snow plows! The poles lay mangled beside the roads. Ironically when we went over the hill into the city there was nothing! No snow at all. Like night and day.

About that time I remembered – Oh yeah. It’s the big day. I am officially OLD lol! My 40th was Wednesday. I have to admit this was the birthday I had been fully planning to ignore altogether. I have never been a ninny about birthdays and generally really looked forward to them. This one just seemed so significant. Whatever the coming years bring it is not likely to be the beautiful sweet babies on a regular basis that the last couple decades have blessed me with. Us ‘self-indulgent overbreeders’ find that a little depressing. (thank you Katie,whoever you are, it was a lovely birthday wish ; p )

Fortunately for me I have the best friends and family I girl could hope for. My mom had sent me a hand embroidered apron and little teapot cookie cutters from Victorian Trading Co, a must have catalog ladies! 

Rebecca must be psychic because her tea, tea towel, and tiny sugars had arrived almost right after that. Jen’s card had me rolling. She and I rang in 30 together . This years card has one chick pushing the other up the big hill saying "You First!" (I am telling ya girlfriend you’re right behind me!) And just as the snow began to fall the UPS man slid in the drive with the most stunning stone beaded rosary I think I have ever seen. Elizabeth had commissioned it from beadsofmercy.com. It is a one of kind, as are all of Kimberlee’s incredible pieces. Allen surprised me with a copy of Maryjane Farmgirl. The man knows me. ; ) I think Moira may possibly have won the prize however – her card says "Happy 40th Mom! and in parentheses she wrote (but you look like 20!) Bless the child. <g>  SO, the birthday that wasn’t supposed to happen happened and happened big enough to be etched in my memory for good. God does have a sense of humor. I am taking this as a sign that He has wonderfully exciting things planned for my middle years. (middle, did I say that??)

We huddled in the camper for a second night on Wed and then got the great good news that our power was restored Thurs afternoon. By the weekend the snow was gone and the kids were in shorts. Unbelievable. Many of our neighbors are still without power however so please say a prayer for them. We welcomed the change of both weather and fortune because our yearling doe went into labor yesterday morning. This turned out to be our initiation into assisted kidding. : o  She is a small doe and was working darned hard. We waited and waited and just nothin’ was presenting.

She was getting visibly tired and uncomfortable and we had that talk with the kids – the one about God giving and God taking away. Finally Allen did the authentic farmer thing and took action. Someone had to go in after it and I had tagged him <g>. After the initial grossing out passed the fear kinda sank in. He found the hooves and nose presenting correctly but it was a giant buckling and he could not get it budged. We worked and worked with her and the doe just howled. It made us sick at heart but being that far from a vet it was one of those do or die situations with nowhere to go but ahead. Allen about gave up hope when finally we got the head and shoulders out and could deliver the kid. Man oh man. What an ordeal. And let me say the kid looks like he was on steroids! Huge!

We went with a cheese theme this year so the caprine roll call now includes Colby, Jack, Brie and Parmesan. I snapped pics throughout the birth of the triplets so if you homeschoolers want to see an actual kidding drop me a line and I will send them. I just don’t want to offend any urban sensibilities by blogging them. They are very, um, natural loL!

The other excitement from last week was that we had a meeting at the capital with our representative about the power line project. We are encouraged by our visit there and praying that everything is coming along just as God wills it to.

Well, by now I have no doubt taxed your attention spans. I imagine farm tales are a good deal less enthralling when it isn’t your farm. Still, it’s been a full week and I couldn’t be happier both to be living it and to have dear friends to share it with here. Life is good. : )

Another day, another adventure for the Starry Sky folks. Outside my window this week I have seen this scene more than once:

That would be ours!  The cow I mean.  (Actually the boy is ours too ; )) This one falls under the general category of "Kim’s great ideas".  We have been toying around with the idea of starting some beef cattle for quite some time but Allen has this maddening habit of waiting til we are prepared before jumping into a new project. Practical as that may be, we rarely ever feel truly prepared so things get put off til the inevitable happens.  It usually shakes down like this: phone rings, friend says "Hey, we have a (fill in the blank). Do you want it?" I usually say "Ooooh Yes!!"  then figure out a reeeeeally nice dinner to break it to Allen.  I owe him a reeeeeeally nice dinner this week. <g> 

Some friends of ours are moving unexpectedly and offered us a heifer they had just picked up at the sale barn. We brought her home Tuesday despite our current cow-smarts deficit. Her homecoming was followed promptly by a flurry of phone calls to rancher friends and a trip to the library. She seems no worse for wear in spite of our ignorance. I like to think what we lack in experience we make up for in enthusiasm. (hey, it worked for parenthood!)

Aidan seems to be a natural born cow-boy.  He is trying his darndest to make friends with the wary calf. His dad is equally pleased. Apparently a cow ranks somewhat higher than dairy goat on the macho ranch animal charts. Hmmmph. I say you never saw any self respecting goat stick her tongue in her nose. To each his own. The men folk are happy as can be and I am willing to put money on them getting her a friend before long. After all it sounds way better to be a cattle rancher than a ‘cow’ rancher lol!

Her name? Merry Moo Cow. I didn’t make that news I just report it. <g>

"Opal meet Tess.  Tess, Opal."   It is hard to beleive it as we sit blanketed in late spring snow but yesterday at this time we were out in the barnyard in shirtsleeves. Such is springtime in the Rockies! Tess was intrigued by the goats who were equally interested in her.

  The girls got a ride in before the snow fortunately. Looks like it will be several days before that happens again by the way the sky looks.

To answer the question Barb posed, no, this is not the toll road that has been tossed around for some time. This is a multi-state ultility project and as such they do not need permission to exercise eminent domain like a private company does. Apparently the government has right to choose their route and take it forcefully.  From what we hear they only need to compensate us for the actual square feet of dirt they are using so they aren’t required to buy us out. This leaves us with the likely dilemma of not being able to stay and not being able to go, hence the prayer request.

I am behind on my personal correspondence and wanted to share one of the main reasons. We discovered over the weekend that a huge multi-state utility project is in the works. As it turns out, it is projected to roll right dead center through Starry Sky. I am not sure what the odds are with the thousand miles involved they end up RIGHT here? But as of now we are facing the very real possibility of our ranch being de-faced and everything we have been building for the past 4 yrs devastated. If we cannot stop nor re-route this project we will be forced to pack up the children and livestock and try to start over – likely minus the money that goes to the mortgage here.

Let me tell you, that prospect is a lot more romantic within the covers of the Little House books than it is in real life. In real life you think of things like life savings, the logistics of moving ten people, and assuring handicapped accessibility.  Your algebra lessons are punctuated by phone calls to lawyers. You try to get up to speed on eminent domain while nursing a sleepless baby.  You may even wonder what terrible thing you did to make God so darn angry with you.  Then you remember.

You remember that every time a new baby has come so has a raise. You remember that every closed door has come with an open window. You remember that God has lots of promises about things like His children never begging bread and His plans to bless and not to curse you. You remember that ‘faith is evidence of things unseen’.  And, even though you CAN’T see a good way out of this one, you just know, somehow, it’s gonna be all right.

We are holding on to that thought right now and we welcome your prayers as we face the upcoming battle.