Will Work For Food

So, this week, we added a new puppy to the premises. This is the fluffiest puppy I have ever seen. He sure is a wild one. You know, puppies sure can run and bite/chew and squeal and so on... just all the normal puppy stuff.

We knew for a couple days we would be bringing him home, so we talked about a name. After deliberation, and Aaron and I spouting out semi-normal names and Ella insisting we name him something that starts with an "L", for example; Lizzy, Lilly, Lucy etc., she names everything an "L" name, even the boys. We decided the only appropriate name for this boy would be, Willie the Giant, you know, from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. After all, he is 10 months old and already weighs 125 pounds.....

YES, your eyes do not deceive you, one hundred twenty-five pounds. It is hard for me to take in every time.

His size really resembles the miniture pony a few doors down.

And that is just a rough estimate. I hear he will be huge when full-grown. I think I will look up the word 'huge' in the dictionary, because I thought he was already HUGE.

This picture does this puppy's size no justice. I think I will have "Will Work For Food" put on the name plate on his collar. I wonder if this will convince the neighbors to feed him too. He sure does eat a lot.

By the way, Willie is a full-blooded Pyrenees, Great Pyrenees to be correct. He will handle our light-work and keep the goats safe and sound so we can sleep at night.

I could not convince Lizzy to get close enough to compare the two.

I am pretty sure she was giving me the silent treatment. She has not been thrilled with Willie the Giant intruding on her territory. I tried explaning that with Willie here, she can focus on her beauty sleep.

I felt like I was being looked at through the eyes of a teenager. I could almost hear her mumble, "Mom, come on. All that monster is good for is barking and eating."

I just love this face.

Blue Kot, Bandaids & Barns

We are all a little tired today. Last night was basically and all-nighter on the farm. Sometimes, not very often for us thankfully, things happen and you have no choice but to stay up and alert.

Yesterday we started on the new barn. It is going to be about 16' by 20' or so when complete. Just something small that we can control easily and keep all the animals in cozy at night. Also, we will have a loft in it for Ella to play in. This will keep her occupied when we have to be the ones chasing goats, doing the not-so-fun parts of dealing with animals.

Today, I wish we would have started the barn earlier, like about a week ago, because an unexpected visitor, or visitors, changed our lives at about 2:00 a.m.

Lizzy woke me up barking and I woke Aaron up quickly telling him to go check on her. She doesn't bark unless there is something to be telling mommy and daddy about. In this case, she was a good little alert doggie.

As Aaron was running out the back door, down to the goats, my farmer instinct kicked in. I grabbed my weapon of choice(which will remain untold) and took off outside too. Thankfully my baby girl is a professional sleeper, I did not hesitate to leave Chochy in charge as I was running to assist Aaron. After a considerable amount of fighting off dogs and searching for all 14 goats, we were only able to round up 12 of them. Aaron did find the other 2 but they went to goat heaven. Only 2 others had injuries and so far, we are able to say they will heal just fine.



We did have to use some at-home farm medication called Blu-Kot. This is powerful and staining to anything and everything in it's path. Needless to say, Aaron and I have blue hands and thanks to my trusty flip flops, my feet are blue too. I asked him what to do to get it off, his reply, "It has to wear off." Oh well.

I will leave you in peace knowing the goats will be making a short ride later this evening back to my parents' house to the other fenced in area where they will be protected by 10,000 volts.

All I have to say is, 'Take that you crazy dogs, I hope you are introduced to those 10,000 volts. I can only handle so many band-aids on this heart at one time'.



Thing 1 & Thing 2

I would like to take a moment to introduce to you...

Thing 1 and Thing 2. But in about 5 months, you can refer to them as bacon and pork chops.

Yum, yum.

Catch me if you can

Chasing goats is a daily activity at our place.

Even in a nightgown.

 And pulling them in wagons is too.

 

And I forgot about 'goat jail'... The purpose of this kennel is a little confusing to some. But at least once that baby is caught, we won't have to chase him down again... at least until tomorrow. 

Mother Nature

We love new additions to the farm. Especially when the little ones come unexpected... well, most of the time. We do not appreciate a mother nanny or hen dropping out a newborn during a storm like a couple weeks ago.
I know a hen does not "drop out" a newborn, but hatching out babies can come at bad times too.
This is not the case.
We, meaning Aaron, fed the feathery livestock today and discovered some new babies. This is exciting for us all.
We, again meaning Aaron, took the new one's away from their mother to put them in a nice, cozy, safe place. Now the little dudes and dudettes can grow big and serve a purpose instead of just being cute.

For now, we will just enjoy the cuteness.

The little girl is a big fan of fresh babies, especially the tiny, fuzzy ones.

Isn't this just too cute?

This too? My vote is yes. So, so cute. I can't resist this face.

Good night baby birds. I hope you grow big and strong and are egg-providing hens. Except for the one on the far left, I know you're a duckling(of which we can only see the south end), and I know you did not come 100% from mother nature. We will say a special 'thank you' prayer for whomever invented the incubator later.

continued from VBS...

The last two nights of Ella's first week of VBS.

Night 4

Night 5. The final night.

Showing off the park in New York City. This was the pre-K through K classroom that Ella was in. She loved it.

Showing off her cuteness with Daddy

and with Mommy

and with Aunt Haley.

What a wonderful week. There will never be a first week of VBS again. Bittersweet memories.

Two weeks later, Ella attended her second week of VBS. However, Mommy did not take a single picture all week long.

Green Grass

I am really behind on posting to the blog. Sorry to those couple of you that come here to read about us.

A few changes around the Hosler farm include:
1. We moved. Maybe that will be my excuse for not blogging. 

2. Ella is growing(not a shocker). And most importantly, she is an artist and has an incredible sense of fashion. I know it comes totally natural, well, maybe the artist part, but seriously, my baby is a genius.



3. The goats are happier than ever

With the exception of this crazy goat, we refer to her as 'whitey' or 'white goat' or 'never satisfied'. All the goats are loving the new junk to eat. White goat believes the grass is always greener on the other side.

Oh, I almost forgot about someone. We adopted Clyde. He is currently the outsider. He can only stay with the others for a short amount of time. When he goes from boy to possible father candidate, he will move down to my parents. He will be excited to have girlfriends. He is a Boar, where all the others are Pygmy's, except for Goofy. We will save Goofy for another day. You will love her.



Hope everyone has a good 4th,

Kellie