Baby Wearing

How do I get so much done in a day? Baby wearing. I have three types of carriers that I alternate wearing depending what I'm doing or hoping to achieve. 

This is the Boba wrap. I used this the second day we got home from the hospital. J fell right asleep! 

This is the Ergo carrier. Very sturdy, has pockets, good for out and about. It takes two people (one to hook the back), so I don't use it at home a lot. Instead I use the Baby Bjorn (second picture). Either way, J still conks out! 

Last style is the ring sling. It's super quick to get J in and out of and I love the color. Very portable. This one will be better once J has more head support. He likes to look around and this one doesn't have much behind the head.

Potatoes

Five months is a long time to be gone. Slowly but surely G and I are getting our house and homestead back in order. 

The potatoes we harvested back in November (or I should say my father-in-law harvested) are sprouting...

Did you notice a few have grown through my harvesting basket? 

Interestingly the variety of potatoes affected whether they sprouted or not. I think we had planted four varieties of potatoes. Of course they're all jumbled together in the bin, but from what I could see, the tallest sprouts are from the red potatoes. One variety didn't sprout at all! That might be Kennebec or Yukon Gold. I definitely want to plant more of those this year! 

Incubation

We have 41 eggs "cooking" in our incubator. Not all will be for us... my dad wants some and G's cousin wants some. Also, not every egg will hatch; a 75% hatch rate is typical. One website says it can be as low as 30% for beginners, 50% for intermediate experience, and 80% for experts. Not sure where I fall. 🤔 I incubated eggs with my dad as a kid (don't recall the hatch rate) and did it once with my class (0% hatch rate 😅 due to faulty temperature gauges), so I have some experience. Will it be enough for 75%??

We borrowed two incubators from my dad and plugged them in a day before setting the eggs. This was to make sure they could hold the steady temperature chicks need to grow.

Unfortunately, both did not meet the requirements. One looked like it would be okay but then it spiked a temperature way too hot; the other held a temperature lower than necessary. So we bought a new one. We went to three different stores before we found an incubator. I guess with the price of chicken eggs these days, everyone is hatching their own chicks! 

We didn't have room in our house for the incubator, and our garage is not insulated, so we set the incubator up in my in-law's heated garage so that it would be in a location with a constant temperature (their cars aren't going in and out much these days).

Next came choosing the eggs to incubate. My dad sent three dozen which meant that seven wouldn't go in. A chicken care book I read said to pick eggs that are less porous and round not pointy for best success. 

We candled the eggs to check for porosity and removed the most porous. Those eggs will loose moisture more rapidly. You want eggs to loose moisture, but at the same rate. 

After that we selected for roundness (makes it easier for the chick to hatch and something about the air pocket too). Our third selection was shell color. We want a variety of breeds, so we need a variety of shell colors. 

Finally, we put the eggs in, pointy side down. Our incubator has an egg rotator, so we don't need to do that by hand. 

It also has a slot to insert water to increase humidity. We want 30-40% in the beginning and will increase/decrease as we candle and check the air pocket size. At the end, it will be much higher, in the 60-80% range.

Gorgeous

The weather is glorious, so we brought Mama and babies outside to soak up the sun. 

G made a pen for them so they can be together and not bothered by the rest of our managerie. 

These two are still doing great. Girl on the left, boy on the right. 

The dark one (female) has stood up for short periods, but she's not in the clear yet. We keep helping her to nurse. 

Jip loves coming over to check them out. They are so tiny and wobbly! Tails wagging non-stop as they totter around. Their bleats sound like squeaky toys. 😆

We haven't named them yet. Each is a slightly different shade of brown. I joked about calling them dark roast, medium roast, and light roast. 

Triplets!

We had a big surprise last night after our post supper walk. We were about to go inside when we last minute decided to check on the animals in the shed. We walked inside and saw a few extra fluffy creatures in the center of the shed. It took me a couple seconds to figure out what they were. 

Svetlana had triplets! Which means that the dead kid a few weeks ago must've been from Gerda. It's funny because this whole time we've thought Svetlana still looked pregnant plus her udder was huge (i.e. waddling around the yard), but we were so set on the idea that Gerda never was bred (she never had a big udder). 

The kids were still wet from being born. Two were up on their feet and seemed sturdy. The driest one was on the ground and her back legs didn't seem to work. She couldn't stand up. They needed to nurse right away to get that calorie dense colostrum. All hands on deck! Except....

Because we had come straight from our walk J was with us. 

We called our neighbors who had done chores for us and asked if they'd lend a hand. She quickly volunteered to hold J while I got the babies to latch. G got to work hooking up a heat lamp and building them a 'jug', a separate area for just mom/babies for them to bond for a few days before going back with the herd. 

We put a board over the corner to give the kids a place to be protected and also to keep Svetlana away from the heat lamp. 

Jip fell in love at first sight with the babies. He didn't want to leave them and settled in for the night as close as he could get. 

G went out overnight every two hours or so to try to get the dark one up to nurse. The other two are perfectly fine and good at eating, but the dark one still has trouble standing. We used a small syringe to get some milk in her belly when she didn't want to suck. 

We'll see how she does! 

Jip the Homestead Dog

We got a new puppy! He was born December 20th, 2024, and is a Great Pyrenees crossed with a Norwegian Elkhound.

I love his little curly tail. So far he's been a very good dog and likes to sit when he comes over to us. 

He didn't love the car ride home... threw up in his carrier. So we gave him a bath in the garage. 

The goats were leery at first, but they acclimated quickly. 

Jip is smaller than them, which makes him less threatening than our previous dog. Plus he ignores them for the most part. His old home was full of cows and sheep and poultry, so our animals are old news to him. 

He and the cats don't get along super well. 

We'll see if that changes in time. G has begun training him already. We take a morning "walkabout" with Jip around the pasture fence/property so he knows what area is his to protect and watch over. He's already pretty good about coming when he's called. 

In other news, another one of our cats might be pregnant...

PS- If you're wondering what happened to our old dog Misty, we had to rehome her when we were in the NICU with Jaron. She got too lonely without much human interaction. She went to her a family with a bunch of kids who dote on her, on Christmas Day! From what we hear, all of them are having a great time together. ☺️

Heading North/New Orleans Highlights

We're officially on our way back to Minnesota! While we enjoyed our time in warmer weather, we are very happy to be headed home. 

The people down here are so friendly. We often had wonderful conversations with complete strangers lured in by our tiny baby. "Ohhh, sha-baby! How old?" started many of those. According to Google, "Sha" is a term of endearment in Louisiana Cajun and Creole slang that means "darling," "dear," or "sweetheart". 

In our month-long stay in New Orleans, we were able to do a little sightseeing. Here are some highlights:

We saw the ocean multiple times, often from various parts of the end of the Mississippi River.

Venice, LA

Pass Christian, MS

One of my favorite drives ended here. But the journey took us past a number of alligators sunning themselves on reeds in the waterway next to the road.

Beautiful open water channels surrounded by swamp.

On our drives around the state we saw tons of beautiful houses along with these interesting ones on stilts near the coast/flood prone areas.

Swamp tour of the bayou. Such striking landscapes.

Oak Alley Plantation

Below is the alley of oaks viewed from the house. This would've been the driveway to the plantation back in the day.

Watching ships moving up and down the river. Marinetraffic.com became a frequently viewed site to see where the ships came from and were going.

Spanish moss and resurrection ferns on the trees. 

I fell in love with living oaks. Too bad they don't survive in Minnesota.

Audubon Zoo, Aquarium, and Insectarium 

We ate at many restaurants with delicious food and wonderful outdoor spaces.

In addition to these, we sampled many King Cakes (a Mardis Gras specialty dessert similar to a sweet roll) and attended a few Mardis Gras parades. The parades were often chaos; we stayed just long enough to get a taste before we retreated to quieter, less crowded parts of the city. 

One event we didn't get any pictures of was a rabbit cookoff at an RV campsite. They had three categories: domestic rabbit, wild rabbit, and venison. No rules on how to cook it. Most of the dishes we tasted involved a bed of rice topped with rabbit stew or jambalaya. One group did rabbit tacos. We didn't stay for the venison group. One competitor we chatted with (lured in by the baby again 😄) said he goes boar hunting in Texas and shoots rabbits there when he sees them. He actually provided the wild rabbit for two other competitors that day. 

We'll stretch out the 17h journey back to Minnesota over three days. It'll be so good to be home!

Kittens!

Mopsy had four kittens up in our hayloft! They are super cute. More tabbies, but this time there is black mixed in. All are well. ☺️

With the news that one of this summer's litter is a boy, we were all worried about inbreeding. I did some quick research on cat genetics/coloring, and we can safely assume that the dad of the kittens is not one of our cats. 

Here's a bit from the website where I got my info: 

"Red (or orange) and black are both dominant colors. Dominant traits don’t skip a generation so one of the parents must exhibit a dominant colour for the kitten to get it. Because colour is carried on the X chromosome, male kittens can only get their colouring from their mother while girls can get their colouring from both mom or dad (pattern depends on which parent’s X chromosome is activated in the cells in any given patch of fur). So if you have a ginger mom and a black dad, boy kittens will be ginger (with or without tabby markings) and girl kittens will be some form of tortie or calico (with or without tabby markings)."

In a nutshell (in case you don't want to weed through the above), black is a dominant color, and since Mopsy is gray, the dad would have to be black for there to be black kittens. 

If I had to guess, I'd say the dad is a cat we call Oreo, a black and white cat I've seen down at the pond a handful of times.

Homemade Wipes (and Liquid Castille Soap)

One of the things we plan to do in childrearing is cloth diapers. In our month of treatment in New Orleans, we're using disposable for simplicity, but once we're home we plan to start using cloth. 

A friend of mine who also uses cloth diapers gave us the idea of using reusable wipes. It sounds a little strange at first, but with cloth diapers you have to do dirty laundry anyway so why not throw wipes into the mix too? Little J's diapers aren't too yucky yet, and the concept is simple enough, we decided to try them right away. (For the record, we do use disposable wipes when we're out and about, but the reusable wipes have been very helpful in our home diaper changes!)

First, I cut up a bunch of old t-shirts to be wipes. We have three sizes: small, medium, and large, for all our wiping needs. 😅 They work great as spit up rags too!

The recipe I found online for wipes suggested soaking the cloths in the cleaning solution so they are ready to go anytime. However, the wipes can smell a little musty if not used quickly enough. My friend suggested putting wipe solution in a spray bottle and wetting wipes as needed. In the end I did both- the majority are dry and we keep a spray bottle next to our diaper changing station, but a few soaked wipes are in a traveling case in the event I do want to use them out and about (with a wet bag in the diaper bag to hold the used ones for eventual washing).

To make the wipe solution you need liquid Castile soap, aloe vera gel, witch hazel, distilled water, and essential oils. Pour them into a spray bottle, shake, and you're good to go!

I decided to make my own liquid Castile soap from a solid bar. This brand is made with olive oil instead of coconut oil. Step one- chop up the soap.

Step two - melt the soap shavings in hot water. Step three- cool, then whisk/blend together for consistency in further uses. I had to skip that step because we don't have the proper tools in our temporary kitchen in New Orleans. The liquid soap was mixed enough to use in the wipes now, but for future uses of the castile soap I'll need to blend it more. 

Here's a picture of our reusable wipe set-up: 

Cat Update

There is a worn down pathway between our house and my in-laws' from the frequent back and forth trips we made this summer. The cats, too, make frequent trips back and forth. Do they use the path?

This photo was taken after one of the few snowfalls this winter. 

 

One of the cats is pregnant. The suspicion is that it's Mopsy, our original cat, but the people caring for our animals while we're away don't have all our cats' names/faces memorized, so we can only guess. 😅

Another surprise is that one of the kittens from this summer's litter is actually male. We had thought they were all girls, checked multiple times even! but somehow missed one boy. 🤦‍♀️ 

We're working on rehoming him now. And it's a mystery when this next batch of kittens will arrive. Hopefully after we're back home again!

Goat Update

What have our goats been up to since November? 

It's been a hot debate among our animal caregivers (and us on our short visits home) if either Gerda or Svetlana are bred. I took these pictures Dec. 8th. Are those the beginning bellies of babies?

In this picture, Svetlana does look pretty big... 

No udders or kids appeared in December, January, or February. It's typical for first time moms (like Gerda) to not show as much and for udders to not be noticeable until close to giving birth. Svetlana doesn't have that excuse; she's two years old. We decided Fritz was a dud and discussed what to do with him. So disappointing. No babies = no milk, our main reason for the goats. Where could we get another billy? 

This past Sunday, our neighbor texted that when checking the animals, she found a baby goat dead in the shed. The back legs had been chewed on by something; we assume that's courtesy of the cats. Svetlana was very anxious and wouldn't settle or let anyone close to her. My guess is because she couldn't find her baby.

Lots of things we don't know: When was the kid born? Is Svetlana a bad mom who didn't get the baby up and moving and eating? Or was it too cold? Or was the baby premature? Does this mean Gerda is bred too? Why did it take so long for them to get pregnant?

That last question we might have an answer for: 

Based on goats' 150 day gestational period, Svetlana got bred in early October. Gerda's belly has always looked smaller than Svetlana's, which means that she's a little further behind. Guess we need to keep our eyes open for more babies... Hopefully Gerda will hold off for another week or two until we can be home and checking regularly.