Salt Dough Ornaments

We have been busy around here, so I haven't been as good about writing every day. Well, that and a certain amount of innate laziness I have to try and overcome. It can be a huge effort to overcome inertia and actually do something more creative some evenings. In a similar fashion, the days are generally filled so I don't get to sit down without interruption very often. Even trying to plan certain activities during the day can take an overwhelming effort to accomplish.

I have been wanting to help the kids make salt dough ornaments for a few months now. I have run across the recipes in too many places to count for the last several years, and always thought it would be an easy and fun project to do with the kids. Things always seemed to get in the way, though. I was finally able to sit down (ha, ha. Actually I didn't get to sit at all for several hours!) with the family and help the kids make ornaments last night. While Greg worked on making the dough, I helped them roll it out, cut, and transfer the ornaments. As usual, my little independent-minded children wanted to do everything themselves so I tried to let them as much as possible. The kids did most of the decorating, and we left a few undecorated so they could be colored or painted after they were dry.

As with any new project we have a few little learning experiences that will hopefully prepare us for the next round of making decorations. We all had a good time, and made quite a few nice ornaments for the tree. I want to send a few to family members too, so I'll let the kids pick those out. I'm looking forward to having these on the tree soon. Growing up, we often made new ornaments every year; I think this was mainly in school, especially when we were little. I have fond memories of so many of these ornaments, and I want my children to have the opportunity to have these same kind of connections as they grow up.

For our dough, we ended up using some whole wheat flour and kosher salt as that is what we had lying around. Normally this wouldn't be a problem in baking, as the salt would be well incorporated. Our ornaments ended up looking more grainy (as Greg jokingly called it, more like some rawhide dog treats), but I like the texture of it. They appear more homey to me, and since it was a craft project for the kids to enjoy I think it is just fine. With this recipe the dough is only slightly cooked at a low temperature to actually dry out the dough. Please remember, this dough is not edible, and quite nasty if you try to eat it. Make sure your animals don't get to it either; I imagine the salt content would not be healthy for pets if ingested.

Before I actually get into the recipe, I want to talk a little about the lessons we learned. Since we used the materials we had on hand, our dough turned out a little different than it might have otherwise. Had we used a generic highly processed white flour and table salt, the dough would have been more paste-like and less grainy. I have also seen recipes with only 1/2 cup of salt, but I think a larger amount might act as a preservative and drying agent for the dough over time. I have read about adding other ingredients to the dough to change its consistency (cooking oil, lemon juice). I have no experience using them so I cannot say how they will truly effect the dough. We may experiment at some point in the future and I will update you later if we do.

For the dough:



1 cup flour

1 cup salt

1/2 cup water

Food coloring

We ended up using one batch of dough per color (4 colors overall), as each batch made a small amount of dough. Dissolve salt in the water first, then stir in the food coloring. More food coloring will create a darker, intense hue while less will create a lighter shade. This will make it easier to incorporate into the flour more evenly. Add the water/salt/color mixture to the flour and mix thoroughly.

If you make several colors at once, I suggest you put the dough into plastic bags or under cling wrap to prevent it from drying out too quickly. If your dough turns too crumbly, add a little water. Sculptural elements can also be added using a little water to bind the pieces.

Roll out the dough and use cookie cutters or a cup to cut out ornaments. Lay on a cookie sheet on top of waxed paper; unless you want to take a chance they will bond quite well to your baking pans, that is. Be sure to poke a hole with a straw or toothpick so you can put a ribbon through the ornament when it is dry.

Bake in an oven at 250 degrees until they are dry. Depending on how humid your area is and the thickness of the ornaments, it can take an hour or several days. Ornaments can also be dried in the air over several days. If you use plastic decorating elements in the oven, check them often to make sure they don't melt.

Ornaments can be decorated while wet or dry. I sprayed the ornaments a little with water before adding the decorations then we used some sequins and small plastic beads while the ornaments were wet, and pressed them into the dough so they would stick better. Once dry, ornaments can be painted with a variety of paints, glitter glue, spray paint, markers, etc. Be creative and play around! Clear spray paint can also be used to seal the ornaments. Be sure to store them in a box wrapped in tissue or paper to protect them when not in use, as they can be fragile.

This dough can be used to make ornaments for any occasion, or just for fun. Here are a few images of ours.

A Better Day

I have been trying to think of something to write about all day, and came up with too many options. We actually had a reasonably productive day, and have a plan to come up with an action plan for dealing with the house, life, and everything else. Well, maybe not everything else, that would take far too long and be rather speculative anyway. We had planned to talk while taking the kids for a drive to another city about an hour away from here. The plan was to warm up some ribs for lunch (leftovers from today), and make S'mores over a fire. Our grand plan has been slightly diverted since we discovered the park we were intending to visit doesn't have camp grills like we thought. Hmm. So much for getting out of town. Maybe we will have Plan B (or C or D) in place by morning.

Speaking of mornings, after breakfast today we took a walk as a family down to the river. We really need the exercise, and since Claire needs a LOT of physical input (or her behavior goes downhill and she acts out more) we figured it would be a good start to the day. It had warmed up to a brisk 21 degrees Fahrenheit, so the little people were bundled up nicely. It was probably a mile or so overall, and we didn't stick around long to throw rocks into the river like we usually do. I snapped a few photos; here is one of some ice along the riverbank.

This afternoon I tried taking a few new pictures of our pigs, since they have been growing up fast. They are now about 9 months old, and definitely of breeding age. We originally planned to use another boar (or try AI) for the girls, but we also didn't plan on having them here this long either. So we have to be flexible. We recently expanded their roaming area, which is bounded on several sides by electric wire fence. It gives a pretty good shock (really, ask me how I know!), yet the pigs seem to test it every single day. I wanted to get a good low angle on them, so I was really close to the ground. My piggies however, being the curious sorts they are, were wondering just *What the Heck* I was doing, and kept coming over to investigate. Forgetting all about the fence in the process. When they accidentally touch the fence, they give out a might squeal and run off about 10-15 feet. I am pretty sure all three of them touched the fence while trying to investigate what I was doing. Sigh. Silly piggies. The light was terrible, but here is one photo I have of our boar, Marley.

We also dealt with a long-awaited "Mothra" project that Claire has been asking us to do for her. She has been asking for us to make her a "Mothra" she can fly. It has been a fun project to figure out, and I know the kids willl love it when they are done. I'll try to put up a post or tutorial on it as soon as we finish one, but I have been taking some photos along the way. Today was cutting them out with the scroll saw, and here are some of the templates before being cut out.

Hopefully we can actually cut some stress soon and get out of town for a few days. I am SO looking forward to it!

My Little Monsters

We are huge sci-fi fans in this house. We enjoy watching a variety of genres from fantasy, action, to space fiction. Granted, we enjoy other styles as well, but science fiction is our greatest joy to watch overall. Even on the day my daughter was born, we watched the SciFi channel for hours while we all recovered. Through the years, my children have discovered their own love for watching monsters, spaceships, and magical creatures. They enjoy everything from Mothra Lives, to Doctor Who, to Star Wars (I, and II - the most recent ones) as a small fraction of what they have seen. We aren't big on the traditional "Disney-style" stories around here, so no princesses or cars or the like if we can help it.

As a consequence of seeing what might be considered advanced viewing for their years (although I know many, many parents who proudly declare their kids are rabid fans of Star Wars, etc.), we have spent a fair amount of time explaining the mysterious world of movie make-up and special effects. I think they enjoy picking apart the effects from the reality, and gaining a greater understanding of how much of what they see on TV (be it movies or the news) is actually faked or not quite accurately portrayed.

One of the ways we have helped to show the kids how fake these shows are is to show them. How, you ask. Well, by making our own fake blood and alien goo, showing them using their own bodies, and letting the kids play with it afterwards. It isn't for the faint of heart, as it is quite messy. But it makes for great photos! Oh no, a dismembered arm!! And so forth.

We had such a night recently, and here are some of the action shots. I can't wait until they get older and we can let them film their own movies complete with effects.

Feeling Good

I am feeling pretty good tonight. When I started writing blog posts for NaBloPoMo at the beginning of this month, I wasn't sure it was a good idea. In the past I have had a hard time finishing projects when I feel overwhelmed or stressed, and this last two years has seen my stress level in the stratosphere on a regular basis. I was honestly not sure I would be able to mentally and emotionally be able to do it and I wanted to avoid the massive guilt trips I would give myself. Somewhere in there, that tenacious part of me decided it would be good for me to at least have a small creative output, even if it was writing rather than art. Unfortunately, I did not do my sketchbook challenge much this month. I am sad about that. I did a sketch, but it never really got off the ground past that.

I DID, however, manage to write every day. Which I am proud of. I even managed to put my introverted self out there a little more and try to promote my blog. At this point I think I am going to continue a daily post. It will keep me going and maybe I can even start fitting a little art in there as well on a more regular basis! So congrats to me and all of you who made their goals come true.

Gimme A Little Skin...

Body art, body modifications, piercing, tattoos, scarification, cutting... What images come to mind when you read or hear those words? Most people I find tend to fall into two camps; those that view the aforementioned words as a means to show their souls on their skins, and those that either don't understand that desire or find it uninteresting or abhorrent. Myself? I most definitely fall into the former camp. I have been decorating my body since I was young and wanting to express myself in a way that I was at a loss to do with words.

Some people wonder how it all begins. I think that motivations vary widely. For some, there is an inherent frustration in being able to express strong emotions verbally. Others may find it a comfort (or a very powerful addiction) to modify their flesh in a variety of ways. There are other reasons, but I'm not going to point them out here as this is not the point of what I am writing about today. It has always interested me how our American society views "acceptable" versus "non-acceptable/weird" changes to our bodies and how these views have evolved over the last 30 years or so. Coloring your hair in "appropriate" shades is OK, but bright hues are strange. A single set of pierced ears was fine for women, but with each additional hole in the earlobe a cultural line was crossed in the sand. Too many, and you approach freakish standards. For men the earlobes with jewelry determined whether he was gay or straight. Tattoos were unusual especially on women, and I had my first at age 18.

When I was a teenager, nose piercings and brightly colored (blue, orange, etc.) hair was generally seen as odd or freaky. Go figure, I had both. I remember vividly walking down the street as a young punk (it was the mid 1980's) toward a mom with her young child. As they grew closer, the mom gave me a shocked look, then pulled her child abruptly close to her and well out of my path. To my own young anti-establishment self, I was both proud and sad of that moment.

It makes me happy to see the greater acceptance of altered bodies today. While I don't care for some of those modifications for my own body, I can certainly understand the desire to stand out in a crowd or to wear my beliefs on my skin. Why does all this come up? Last night I dreamed about tattoos. It was a rather frustrating experience actually, since I kept waiting and waiting for the person to show up. Then they kept putting the wrong artwork on my skin, and I wasn't able to voice to them that I really didn't want these designs on my hands, I wanted something different. I never did get the art done that I wanted, but I am not sure if my dream-self ever would have.

My waking self, on the other hand, I hope will eventually have the artwork on my skin that I want. I have been thinking of tattoo designs for many years, and I have finally come up with a few that I want sooner than later. Two of them I need to refine the drawing to fit me a little better. The others will have to wait until I can find the time (and eventual money) to accomplish them. Maybe I will even splurge on a tattoo machine for myself and eventually make some trades...

So, what are your views on body modifications, and how did you come to them?

Random Number Generators

When you have more than one child, disputes between them are like the ocean tides. They rise and fall according to the arcane pull of the moon, with the random tsunami generated by subterranean forces. Our family seems to be a fairly active planet in that regard. While some of these arguments are fueled by hunger or an inability to express their emotions (or overexcitabilities, or being tired, or too much sugar), some are simply the push and pull of siblings trying to work out their hierarchy and relationships. I say simply not in any demeaning or offhanded fashion. I have a sibling (older, as it happens) so I understand how intense these fights can seem, especially when you are in the middle of one.

Oftentimes, these arguments appear as the most ridiculous and inane issue to argue about (from the perspective of an adult who is often bone tired of listening to bickering for 3 straight hours). Who gets to sit in the favored spot at the table next to the wall where they can see the TV playing in the other room. Who gets to sit at the faucet end of the bathtub. Who is getting the tape off the shelf, or who is going to grab the oatmeal from the pantry first. Tears usually ensue from the loser of the argument. Sometimes from the winner as well as the loser retaliates.

We finally hit upon a couple of pretty fair ways to resolve these disputes, that the kids have accepted as the final decision makers in many of these situations. First we have the old favorite of rock, paper, scissor. After many "rock" ties, somebody usually slips up and does paper or scissors. Usually by this time the frayed nerves have given way to the thrill of the game so the intensity of the argument is dispelled.

Our other tool has become the random number generator. It can be as simple as a roll of the dice to as complicated as a random number generating app. The kiddos seem to prefer the latter option, as Greg now has TWO of them installed on his phone. It is an awesome thing to see the anger and frustration fade into delight and laughter. I really ought to put one onto my phone as well for the inevitable pull of the tides.

Obviously there can be many more creative solutions to the bickering, but these are two that have consistently worked for us lately. What creative solutions have you come up with? I would love to have more ideas for when I am fresh out of them.

Just Mesmerizing

Tonight I think I am going to keep it short. The kids are in bed, and I am tired. I ran across this completely stunning video and wanted to share it here. It is so mesmerizing, and for some reason makes me feel rather sad. Maybe because of its breathtaking beauty despite the not-so-subtle evidence of our planets huge population. Either way, the detail it stunning. It is pretty amazing to watch, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have.

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

If the embedded video doesn't work for you, here is a link to the original video.

Bibliophilia

It is obvious in our household that we love books. Bookshelves line most walls in almost every room of the house. I draw the line at the bathroom, though. Paper and water mix too well to allow their presence in such a moist environment. Family photographs often have our heads cut through by the shelves that border our living spaces. We have several thousand, collected between us through a lifetime, yet it is still not enough. I have a huge "wish list" of books I would love to have someday. Not just books that I want to read, but old books that I grew up with. Like the set of hardbound "OZ" books I used to thumb through to stare at the pictures within. Or that old collection of "A Thousand and One Nights," or or a thousand other wonderful tomes I can think of.

Some of my earliest memories are of books. Our house was a close second to the local branch of our public library. So many books lined the walls that I am fairly certain they are sinking my parents old American Craftsman-style house into the ground. I have fond memories of reading comic books in the bathtub, and science fiction while hanging over the ends of the couch. I don't know if I was an early reader or not (my mother has forgotten my true childhood and replaced it with a more "perfect" one), but even my earliest memories are filled with books. The smell of the old pages fills my blood, and the feel of ancient cracked leather and dusty pages I can sense when I close my eyes. Some of my fondest places to visit have always been used bookstores (and hardware stores and art stores, oh and fabric stores, but those are different stories). I could sit on the floor for hours lost in another world, turning pages and oblivious to the rest of the world going by.

For all my love of books, in the last several years I haven't been able to read a tenth of the books I would like to for research much less for pleasure. It is a sad state of being, but I am slowly trying to remedy that. I have a few eBooks I am slowly reading through, as well as some "real" books and magazines I try to read a little bit of every now and then. I have tried to dutifully catalog all our books at LibraryThing, but I know I have probably missed a hundred or so. Every time we buy new books (or I receive them through PaperbackSwap, another awesome site,) I often forget to log them in. Someday I will get them all listed, and maybe some day I will have more of the books of my hearts desire. And maybe even someday I will have the leisure time to read to my hearts' content. Now, tell me about *your* earliest book memories, I would love to hear them....

Can I Meet A Normal 5-Year Old, Please? Anyone?

One of the problems of having children who might be considered "gifted" (a term I am not terribly comfortable with using, but seems to be an accurate description) is the disparity between a child's physical and intellectual growth and their emotional and social development. Termed "asynchrony" it pretty much sums up what I bang my head against all day long. Kids that are really smart, well beyond their physical years, having massive tantrums that are totally appropriate for a much younger child because they did not get to have something "right now".

I am copying this brief quote from the Hoagies' Gifted Education page, because it is just so...my children. I should note, this description fit myself and my husband as well when we were children. Educators and Parents had other, less pleasant words for it: difficult, anti-social, disruptive, non-conformist, Bah! Too many negative words, that I heard all to often. I don't want to put those words on my children, yet they can both be so frustrating to deal with at times, that I fear I may use them anyways.

"The Gifted Child.  No individual can be more exhilarating, or more frustrating. The parents and teachers who deal with these wonderful children can often be described in a single word: Exhausted. The gifted child can speak as an adult one minute, comparing the emotional relationships in Les Mis with relationships in her own life, or discussing potential conflicts between evolution and the bible, and in the next minute throw an impressive tantrum because she didn't get what she wanted... right now! She can have you in awe of her theories on accelerated space travel, or pulling your hair out in frustration over her argumentative refusal to do her part in everyday chores. "

I have very few "normal" three or five-year olds to compare them to. I suppose if they were in formal public schooling we would be able to see the differences more clearly. However, these are the two best examples that we have! It is also more frustrating remembering my own childhood and where my parents made choices that were not the most helpful for me in the long run. That is one of the reasons we chose to homeschool - I think they will have a better and stronger learning experience with us. I feel that public school would completely kill their natural curiosity and desire to learn like it has with so many other children.

Yet I don't feel I really need the comparison except when I start feeling depressed or stressed about their behavior or what they are learning (or not). I know they are intelligent people, that they have feelings that can easily be trod upon, and that there is a core of determination that I want to encourage even when it is the same quality that drives me mad because she won't go to the bedroom because her behavior is currently unacceptable to be around other feeling, sentient humans.

It is a frustrating world indeed, and I hope I can help them learn to navigate it a little better than I have.

Parachute Cord Bracelet

This was our exciting project for the day: A woven parachute cord bracelet.

A few weeks ago, my husband asked me to look up the knot that makes a particular type of survival belt. It is an easy way of having a sturdy cord with you for times when you may need it. It is often made of parachute cord (also called para cord) which comes in a variety of types. The most commonly used for this application is Type 3 or 550 (it has a 550 lb breaking strength). If you are planning on using it for a life-saving application, be sure to test its strength first, or use something like Spectra cord (often used by climbers and backpackers, it has an 800lb breaking strength) which has greater abrasion resistance.

We decided to start with a bracelet, as a shorter and simpler project to get used to the process. In all, it probably took 20 - 30 minutes to make the first one for my husband. The second one took about 15 minutes or so to make. We used some parachute cord we had lying around from a previous project.

Rather than trying to create my own tutorial, I will point out some of the sources that I used to figure out how to make one.




This one on the lanyard knot, used to make the knot or button that is part of the closure, is excellent:
http://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/lanyard-knot.html

I am pretty happy with how they turned out, and am planning on making some more out of a variety of colors. Then I'm trying the belt, but using the slightly more complicated "Slatt's Rescue Belt Knot" as seen here: http://www.tacticalintelligence.net/blog/slatts-rescue-belt-part-2.htm

and here:

http://www.orionn49.com/slatts_rescue_belt_knot1.htm

Indulge Me A Little

I was sitting here tonight trying to decide what to write about, and feeling frustrated with this stupid cold making me feel slow. I am feeling uninspired right now. My three year old son is asking me several times to read to him, and I am realizing I would rather read to him right now (he LOVES books) than stare at my keyboard trying to figure out which of several topics to talk about tonight. Maybe tomorrow I will be feeling better to discuss any number of topics. So, I leave you tonight with some recent photos instead. These are not my own, but my daughters work. She really has an interesting way of staging photos, and I love to see her interest in the arts. We ended up buying her a digital camera about 18 months ago that she could use without us worrying she would break it. It is an actual digital camera, not a dumbed-down childish camera, and I am sure many adults would question such a young child (now 5 1/2 years old) having an expensive piece of equipment they could possibly break. I feel that I would rather she be given the responsibility as she is able to handle it (and she does very well), as well as encouraging her creativity. So here you go:

I Must Be Crazy

I know, it is a long-standing joke, at least to myself, that I must be crazy already. I haven't blogged (except in my head, and that doesn't really count) for several months. Granted, we have been busy, but I am sure I could have made time somewhere. My creative soul needs to be fed, even if it is through writing instead of my preferred method of the visual arts (or even dance, which I LOVE but just can't manage to do right now). One venue I have been thinking about for a few months is trying NaNoWriMo this year. If you haven't heard of it, look HERE. I don't know that I feel the need to write a novel, per se, but I do feel the need to tell my own story, and the story of my family history in some way.

Being November 1, and the first day of NaNoWriMo, I am still feeling conflicted about it. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Gah! Or maybe I will do THIS instead....

And I really, really, really want to do THIS!! for November too.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to get this nifty little bagde widget to actually appear where I want it to. This platform is really counter-intuitive to me.

Frustration

At any single point in my day, I often have three or four blog posts running through my head. You would think that with all that brain activity going on, I would actually post more often. Yet I don't. Why? I suppose a certain amount of procrastination, combined with bad timing and probably a bit of laziness too. Plus, a certain amount of not wanting to put words out there that I don't want existing on the interwebs for all time.

I think the frustration for me comes from the procrastination and bad timing most of all. I have been trying to figure out for some time now, why exactly I put things off until the last minute. Any number of tasks I could accomplish in the day. However they often escape me, and I am left with the maddening feeling that I COULD have accomplished something today if only I had the time to. Frustrating, isn't it. I know that having two highly active little people in my life means that I actually get far less done than I would have before having children. I am ok with that. I would just like to figure out how to beat this putting off until another day aspect of it all.....

Thoughts

     The ashes of my fire consumed
  Wasting as I wait
          For something I can only smell
   At the back of my throat
                       Like a long lost child
I search with clouds of thread
          Wanting to remember the taste

Never throw anything away

I admit it, I am a pack rat. I come from a long line of pack rats, as does my husband. It is something that often frustrates us, as we have a lot of "stuff" that we are trying to organize without anywhere to put it. We struggle with trying to decide when we should get rid of something, especially since when we do, we often end up needing it for a project weeks or months later on. It is especially difficult because we intend to build our own home, so we need a certain amount of stuff for it. Much is in the nature of building supplies (wood, countertops, metal, etc.) that will be useful when we start building, but can really get in the way when there is no easy place to store it. We also try to repurpose and recycle materials as often as possible, finding creative ways to resolve problems. Like when we needed to build a pen and shelter for our first goats with just what was lying around on the property (we spent about $4 total on clips for the gate. That is it); the Goatagon was the product of our creativity.

Yesterday I was once again thankful that we and my in-laws have this tendency to keep items we may need in the future. Early in the morning during my husbands routine of feeding and watering the goats, one of the little ones (Her name is Rune) got her back leg stuck in the fence of the goat pen and broke it. Hubby was very upset and came to get me inside, where I was working on the goat milk and breakfast preparations. We checked it out, and it was indeed broken cleanly between the hock and the knee along the cannon bone. 

Neither of us had ever dealt with something like this before, but since I remembered reading a few months prior about goats and broken bones (and in light of our recent successful experiences with our goofy dog), I felt confident that we could deal with it ourselves.

We quickly grabbed some thin scrap wood from the garage/shop, and some self-adhesive bandage from my mother-in-laws vast stores of random medical supplies (she was a nurse until she retired) and set about making a splint to keep her leg together while we figured out if there was another way to keep it stable. The way it worked out, Hubby realigned the bones and wrapped the splint while I held the goat and kept her stable and helped keep the wood from moving too much. It seemed pretty easy to wrap, and she didn't complain much while we did it. In fact, she happily munched a little grain we set out without so much as a peep. Of course, it was too easy. After setting her back in the pen with her newly stabilized leg, we set about our own breakfast and research on goats and broken bones.

My father-in-law, in his infinite wisdom (insert heavy sarcasm here) claimed that you couldn't put a cast on a goats leg, and we should just splint it (using the materials we already did, only he treated it as his original idea). During our research we found that you can either cast or splint a broken leg, and it should heal just fine after the 4-6 weeks it takes for a bone to knit. We both thought that a cast would be the way to go, but after spending a few hours calling around the various medical supply places in the nearest town we weren't able to locate any plaster cast material. Weird. The ironic thing is that I have several rolls of the stuff back at our home since that is what I have used to make plaster casts of peoples faces for my artwork.

So after also calling a vet (who was currently being snowed in, in the next state over and couldn't drive the hour here to check on our little doe), we decided that we needed to replace the splint with a studier one. We also realized that she would do better in an "isolation" ward so that Alice wouldn't act like a normal goat and head butt her or push her around while she is healing. So we gathered our supplies again, plus some metal splint material normally used for fingers (and an ideal size for an almost yearling doe) and we set about to re-splint her leg. It wasn't as easy this time around. I think the leg was starting swell more, so she was pretty unhappy with having the bones realigned and splinted again (and was rather vocal about it). We also had our daughter take photos (hence the occasional finger in the way and viewpoint) since I had to pin down the doe so her leg could be worked on by my wonderful husband. I am sure it was quite the scene, with us doing the mending while also having to answer her questions, keep Rune calm, make sure our son was staying out of the way, while handing over the necessary supplies as they were needed. We ended up putting her in a large dog kennel (another very useful item we rescued from a neighbors trash) in the garage where we can keep her warm, dry, and in a small confined area for her recovery. Hopefully we can set her out in a few weeks once it starts healing, but we will have to play it by ear and see how it goes.

I suppose there are several lessons to be found here, if you are the sort to look for them. Always be prepared (luckily my husband is a former Boy Scout, and a creative man to boot) would be an important one. He says this last year has been all about learning patience and a certain amount of veterinary medicine, which I would not argue with at all!! Prepare for the worst but expect the best; I feel is one that is always good to keep in mind. And to bring us back full circle, dear readers: Never throw anything away. You never know when you may need it to fix a goats' broken leg.

Insomnia

When I was growing up, my mother used to have terrible insomnia. She would spend hours in the kindle of he journal awake, but she made good use of her time at least. We would often wake to freshly baked cobblers, cinnamon rolls, or tarts for breakfast, or bread just coming out of Tue oven to be gathered would a thick helping of butter and homemade jam. You could say that baking has pervaded my senses from a very young age, as the scents intertwined their way through my dreams as well as spirit. I have fond memories of waking up to these scents from the oven of my childhood. When she wasn't baking, she painted, drew, or worked metal; whatever medium she happened to be involved in at the moment. I suppose it was how she dealt with being unable to quiet her mind when most others were ensconced in slumber.

I rarely knew what it was like (the inability to sleep when every other signal around me said I should be) until I had children. As is often the case with the young or college bound, I stretched my wakeful hours into those nocturnal times readily; paying for it the following evening when the wall of sleep would hit me head on. Little did I understand the restlessness and frustration I would encounter when I didn't have the goal of a paper to finish or a game among friends to greet the sun with.

I first brushed up against this wakefulness when I was pregnant with my daughter. My belly round, I lay in bed thinking of who she would be, and how to be a good parent to her. The books and websites I read all said to treat insomnia as a sick child: stay in bed at all costs, sleep will come to your tired body eventually if you remain there. So I followed their advice. Tossing and turning as my growing family slumbers blissfully unaware. My mind turning, drawing, writing letters, stretching, baking, balancing. For five years I have lain here randomly awake (as the sleeplessness strikes erratically) and eventually slipping back into sleep with my loved ones surrounding me. Tonight I wonder if I had it all wrong. There is a certain utility to actually getting up and being productive without the inevitable interruptions that small children bring. And the peacefullness of the early morning is soothing. So to still my mind this early day, I instead chose to get up and look out at the falling snow and write out these errant thoughts while they were freshly baking. And now that they are done, I shall go back to bed. You see, I am truly my mothers daughter, but not so entirely that I cannot learn from her mistakes. Goodnight.

Meet Maude

Meet Maude. She is a Nubian Cross Goat. She and her buddy Alice were our first foray into the world of dairy goats. Yet again, something we talked about for years but had no definitive plans for starting into. Yet the opportunity came along to adopt them. So we suddenly have two goats. Now, a brief digression; Alice, Maude's companion, is about the most patient goat on the planet. Especially for a couple of beginners like us. Sweet too. We were lucky, since she was in need of being milked daily when we got her. Maude, however, was in need of being as they say "freshened", or bred so she would produce milk again. Welcome to the world of mammals; you don't get milk without kids. We figured we would keep an eye out for a boyfriend for Miss Maude, which is another story to tell. Anyhow. Maude came to us as a more aloof goat. According to her last owners, she was running loose with a herd (not exactly feral, but certainly not tame or super friendly). She would hang out nearby and maybe sniff your hand, but that was as far as her friendliness went, as opposed to Alice who would happily be a house goat if she could.

Now after being around our crazy family for a few days, Maude decided that hubby gave really good neck rubs (did I mention he is a professional massage therapist? Probably not). So she was much friendlier. Oh, and she has horns. Now, another brief digression here on goats and horns. Goats, both male and female are born with them except for some that are genetically born without, these are called polled. Now Alice was disbudded (this is the term used when a goats horns are removed) as a baby. Most goats, especially those as family pets or as part of a dairy herd have their horns removed. Reasons vary but we felt, as Maudes' previous owners did, that if goats were born with horns, they should keep them and removing the horns at birth was cruel. Well, the ability to grow them at least. Anyways, Alice does not have horns. Maude does.

Eventually (a few weeks later) another pair of goats came our way. Connie, a young female who was never bred and Splint Eastwood, a wether (castrated male). When we introduced them, Alice made it clear in her goatish way that she was the queen bee of this herd by head butting the others until they agreed. Maude backed her up as the brawn beside Alice's brain. All went well for a few days, until Miss Maude realized that if she was going to do all the dirty work of cracking skulls with her horns (what hornless goat in their right mind would argue?), she may as well get the glory of being queen too! Now Alice being the sweet girl she is, seems willing to be some sort of co-monarch with her pal. But in Maude's mind, Maude is queen. Unfortunately for the other goats, she is a really rude and bitchy queen who rules with an iron hoof as it were. Which was not too terrible until we found a young buck and two more little does for our new herd. Problem was, these new animals are still young at 8 months old and small compared to their eventual adult size.

To finally get to the point of this post, people will do all sorts of crazy things to protect their animals. We decided it was in everyone's best interest to find a way to dull Maudes' use of her horns. Why? We really don't want her hurting or killing the little ones as she tries to tell them in her heavy-handed fashion that she is boss. We really didn't want to rehome or sell Maude, as she would most likely become someone's dinner and Alice would lose her lifelong companion. Plus, Maude is generally a really pleasant goat except when she gets a burr up her behind and wants to remind everyone of her status.

Now, most vets won't de-horn an adult animal as it takes specialized knowledge (the horn is living and has its own blood supply after all). Online resources basically say if you are getting a goat, make sure it doesn't have horns (not an option for us at this point). So we had to get creative about her use of those dreaded horns. After some internet research, hubby felt it would be best to cut the tips off where there is no blood supply and epoxy some balls to the remaining horns (still at about 7" long) to help dull the heavy blows she deals. What follows is what we did to help the rest of the herd.... I hope you enjoy he show, and for now the decorations that our much more festive goat is wearing are completely removable (i.e. no epoxy). And while I used to feel that disbudding was cruel, I now realize that in certain situations it can be more cruel to let the horns remain. Especially if it might mean the safety of the rest of your herd...

 Using a coping saw to trim the horn tips.

 Horns trimmed down.

Rounding the edges with a rasp.

Meet Maude, our newly particolor goat.

In the Thick of Things

I admit it. I have a hard time with beginnings. Especially with creative ones, unless they come to me as fully dressed ideas ready to stand on their own. So here I am trying to come up with a grand beginning, a catch that will keep my audience not only interested, but coming back for more. If I were writing for myself (which on some ways I am, obviously), I would appeal to my own curiosity about what was to happen next.

Life in our family is never dull. Which is a blessing for me since I get bored easily unless something interesting is going on. With two young children around, the chances of something interesting occurring increases logarithmically. I suppose that is one of the reasons I decided to try writing this blog, as a way to document the riotous goings-on of our family, and the paths we are following. There is no telling how this story will end, but it sure will be an interesting journey!

Speaking of family, I should introduce us at some point. For the sake of our privacy, I will change our names. We are rather protective of our privacy around here, but I believe it is also important to get acquainted. My creative and strong hubby you can call Greg, and my children will be known as Claire and Jacob. They are 4.5 and 2 years old, respectively. As for me, you can call me Heidi.
It is a pleasure to meet you.

Our journey so far: This last year has been a fairly momentous one. For years we have been your average city dwellers, owning our suburban home, taking things day by day. Tying to make a positive difference in our community and teaching our lids to respect life. We always planned on finding a bit of property in the mountains, building our own home, and raising our children to respect the earth, have a light footprint, and give back to the community. Life often gives you opportunities, and it is up to you to take them even if the possibilities scare the crap out of you! So here we are. Trying to find our place to plant our roots, but at least partly out of suburbia. Want to buy a nice home? We have one for you...
Our path has taken an unexpected yet thoughtfully considered jog this fall to staying at my in-laws home while we try to pack up and sell our own. With our cats, dogs, and kids in tow we are here for the moment. If all goes well, we will find that property soon. Yet as I said before, life around here is always interesting and I am still not sure how we will make that next transition. But that is the topic for another time.
Mysterious enough? Too mysterious? I never claimed to be the best at storytelling, but I hope you are still interested.