Goats! We have goats! Actually, most of you already know this. Now you can see pictures. :) These are in no special (or chronological) order. From the upper left, moving in a serpentine trail:
1. Barli, my favorite. He was super weak when he was born (his mom, Jewel, had a very difficult labor), and we didn't think he would be able to walk because his rear legs seemed malformed. He also wouldn't nurse or take a bottle for the first 12 hours of life; not a good thing! He finally got hungry, and he hasn't stopped eating since. His legs strengthened, and now he's extremely active. I don't actually know why he's on the fence here. Ask Joel.

2. The girls with the kids. Joel set up a pen for them with the trailer for shelter. This way they're separate from their moms. We have fed them from a nanny bucket or bottles since birth.

3. Sam tidying Schneehopli's bottom. They might be separated from their kids, but our does are great moms!

4. Sam, our Sanan, and her kiddos: Schneehopli, Turk, and Waterfall. (Dana named her; seriously hippy-sounding, right? But you can't take your word back when you tell a four-year-old that she can name the next one. Mommy knows better next time!)

5. Turk doing a dance. The kids are hilarious to watch! They bust some crazy moves.

6. Jewel, our Nubian, and mom of Barli and Schwanli. (If you're wondering about the ones Dana didn't name, they come from the book Heidi by Johanna Spyri. We read it last summer and decided to name our herd after the goats in the book.)

7. Schwanli and Barli at 2 days old. It was cold and Nubians don't have thick coats, so we put them in shirts the girls had outgrown. Barli's naked in this pic, but Schwanli is sporting a darling lavender tee. :)

8. Sam, chillin' in the goat pen. She will often hang out right next to the hay so that Jewel can't get at it. Sam is our alpha-female, and she's something of a butt. Jewel is high-strung and in dire need of a sedative, and I think Sam likes to capitalize on her delicate nerves.

9. Schwanli doing a jig. These kids CRACK ME UP.

10. Sam cleaning Schneehopli just after birth. When Turk and Waterfall were born, she hardly looked at them; she only had eyes for Schneehopli. Sad, but true.

11. Schneehopli and Turk, cleaned and waiting for sissy to be born.

12. Jewel cleaning Schwanli and Barli. They had an older brother, but he was back-presenting (and humongous), and by the time Joel was able to get him out, he had died. So sad! We were really grateful these two lived.

So, that's our goat family. :)

Hogsback, April 2010

In my quest to update our Blog, I've decided that brevity is best. Also, thanks to my pal Taryn, I've discovered the glories of photo collages, compliments of Picasa, which make putting pics in a breeze! Here we are hiking Hogsback. Having lived 25 years of life in Klamath Falls, it's somewhat criminal that this was my first time ascending the majestic heights of this landmark mountain. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, after the first 45 minutes. During that time, we weren't sure if we would make it or not! We haven't hiked much in the last eight years. We met a lovely marmot on the way (see top row, second from right). He looked so peaceful! I considered resting by him, maybe never moving again, but there are diseases to consider when resting with rotting rodents. We persevered, making it not only to Lone Pine (see bottom right photos), but to the very apex of Hogsback! What a view! The trip down was a little less spectacular, as we were fairly certain that, in our descent, we were surely endangering the precious cartilage in our knees. But we did make it, and I even made a return voyage four days later with my Essentials class (the writing/grammar/math-drill class I tutor for Classical Conversations). Seven 8-12 year-olds made it up with much less ado than I did (either time), and I only got us "lost" once! (Well, twice.) Joel and I plan to make this hike a tradition, but first we'll buy some of those hiking poles that look like ski poles. We aren't laughing at the people who use them anymore!!!

From the front. . .

We had a request for a picture from the front of the house to see how the addition is tied in. Here ya'r!

House Update

Here's Joel working on the roof. I hope ya'll haven't been losing sleep over our roofless state, because he did finish it. Actually, he finished it the night that it began to rain! God is good. It seemed to take FOREVER (especially for Joel), but it's done and it looks awesome!



Here's our house, complete with roof, windows, and Tyvek! Isn't it beautiful?!? Now comes the fun part: wiring and plumbing. This part isn't so easy as it sounds, and it seems to be a long process. Joel keeps telling me we'll be done by the end of March. I think I believe him. But in the meantime, it sure is nice to not have leaves and wind rolling through the house, willy-nilly.



The current job: wiring and plumbing. Crazy how much wire it takes. Seriously. It makes me think that candles are very practical. :) After this step (and the inspection) comes insulation (yay!), and then drywall. This is a very happy part for Joel, since he isn't doing it! (drywall, that is.) I guess that leaves time for siding. Alas.

Here's Joel's little workshop. It was supposed to be a garage, but our house is too close to the property line to have a real garage. At least he'll have a home for all of his tools (and my freezer). :) Aren't the stairs awesome? Much better than the paint bucket we had been using to get to the main level! Joel learned his lesson with those, though: never ask your wife what she wants when you could just google the correct dimensions. Apparently I want the railing 6 inches higher than what is considered "normal." Poor guy!!

(Now, I'm sure ya'll are going to be wondering why there are pictures on this post but not on the previous posts. Joel is now sitting by me and has instructed me in the blogger method of picture placement. Way to go, coach!)

Just the Girls

While Joel was enjoying himself down under, the girls and I headed to Portland for a week of friends, family, and FUN! We were thankful to stay with Bob and Karen Callison who graciously opened their house and hearts to us. The girls asked for some time afterwards when we were going back!

Our week in a nutshell: a visit to the Ramona Quimby Park at Grant Park, my friend Heather's baby shower with the college gang (Carrie and Mer), a fun night out on the town (no kiddos) with Mer (Flying Pie Pizza and Pied Cow), lunch and a visit with Grandma Mouser, and LOTS of Mommy/daughter time. :)

Meghan came down a week after we left (she just can't get enough of her wonderful family!), and we went to the TuleLake Fair. SO much fun! The girls went on rides, we ate dough boys (elephant ears to the rest of the world), and we even ran into family. What are the chances that Uncle Mike and Aunt Tami would be there when we were? So they invited us over for dinner and we got to catch up with everyone.

Joel didn't get to come. Poor guy, stuck in Australia with tons of wind and rain. :)

We'll put pics on Picasa. :)

So Joel wrote that he'd write more. That was two months ago. So now I've been assigned the illustrious task of updating ya'll on a good deal of things. First, we'll cover Australia. I didn't go. There really are no bitter feelings (aside from the fact that I've never left North America and I've never been to Hawaii). :) But Joel had a good time. He's pictured here with a beautiful Land Cruiser. Most of the pictures he took were of Land Cruisers. Go figure! But he also had the opportunity to spend two nights in Hawaii, see Pago Pago (or at least the airstrip), go to an awesome petting zoo (a favorite with many of those who went), and see some of the Australian coast. I'd post more pictures, but this blog thing is evil and won't put the pictures in the order I want them or where I want them. Therefore, please visit our Picasa webpage to see more of the sights. Unfortunately, it was monsoon season so he was unable to go deep-sea fishing. He did, however, make time to visit a wrecking yard where he picked up side-view mirrors, rear sliding windows, a dash grab handle, and a few other cool Land Cruiser items not available on American models. Go figure. :)

too long

Well gee, I guess it's been a little too long since I've posted. I've just been extremely busy for the last 2 months. Fall weather has begun to set in and today happens to be extremely rainy and working on the house just isn't feasible. Work on the roof is just too dangerous under the present conditions. As it sits right now, the sheeting on the roof is nearly done, I have a bit of over-framing left to do on the new bath and workshop, a few large pieces of fascia, and the eave sheeting, nail it all off and begin shingling. After that I've got to finish the shear nailing, get it inspected and start on the windows and siding.

Why am I so far behind? I contribute it to my taking three weeks off from building to work long hours away from my family in a horrible place where water spins backwards in the toilet. They made me drive on the wrong side of the road, forced me to envy Land Cruisers wherever I looked, and subjected me to blokes with unintelligible accents. I have some pictures of the place that I'll post up later. In all reality Australia was a great place with great people and I had a wonderful time. While I wish I could be further along on this project I would really be kicking myself if I had turned down the opportunity to travel abroad -even if it was without my family.