The hens have earnestly begged me to post a story about them....oh, and the rooster doesn't want to be left out either. :-) Our family has a tradition of letting one or more hens sit on eggs each spring. This year was no different. Kayla who was in charge of gathering the eggs, left certain ones under the broody hens. I forgot to warn her that we shouldn't switch the eggs around, so some of the eggs got started a couple days later then the first ones. Three weeks later, Midnight hatched an egg. That evening, Mercy, the other hen, got off with one chick and left her other eggs to get cold. I took Mercy's remaining eggs and placed then under Midnight. Midnight sat on them for another day, then got off the nest with her three chicks. I took the remaining eggs and put them in the incubater. One chick began to hatch, but then died that night, because there wasn't enough humidity, so when I heard another chick begin to hatch, I went ahead and opened it. We have had to open eggs in the past before, so I wasn't too nervous about doing it, except that this one didn't have any hole yet. I carefully opened it and pulled the shell, then the membranes off all the while talking to it. I read on the Internet that it is best to pull some shell off then put the chick back in the incubater for 20+ minutes, then pull some more off. It was already 9:30 pm and I was tired, so I did it all in one sitting. The umbilical cord started to bleed, so I applied some Quick Stop, which helped. This chick was weak and didn't move much and breathed hard, so I thought that it was going to die. The next morning, Mom came into my room. I heard some peeping coming from her hand and sure enough, the chick was wobbily sitting on Mom's hand!!! I spent some time praising God for his blessing and mercy in letting us raise this chick. I named her ( I hope it's a her) Patience. Patience follows me around the yard, flies onto my lap, and chases bugs that I point out to her!!!! She is so special I hope she lives for many many years and gives me lots of eggs in the meantime! Mercy and Midnight took turns caring for the chicks, until one day, when Mercy got selfish and beat up Midnight, we had to put her back in with all the other adult chickens. So, I think that I have fulfilled the wish of the hens and rooster to post their story on here! The eggs came from these hens.

When my Great-grandpa died, my brother, Corbin and Mom flew down to Denver, Colorado, for the funeral. Corbin took his 100 year old banjo that Great-grandpa had given him to play at the funeral. I stayed home to watch my two younger siblings, Kayla and Calvin, tend to the animals and the house. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work as well! One day, I looked out the window and much to my dismay, saw a coyote very near to us. It was in our neighbor's field, but was as close as it could get to my goats as it could. I went outside after telling Kayla and Calvin to stay in the house, took our two bigger dogs and a tool that is like a hoe and headed out after it. The coyote ran to the back of the neighbor's field when he saw us, then started to run towards our field, despite the dogs barking at him. I then opened the gate between our field and the neighbors and let the dogs go. They chased after him hard, but as soon as they smelled him, they quit and just watched the coyote run around them! So, I started out after them. The coyote finally jumped the fence, then began running down the road one way, then the other way, then into a driveway and back into a field. After a while he left, for which I was glad!! The evening before Mom and Corbin were supposed to fly back, Valentines was showing signs of an approaching birth. So much so, that I didn't think that Mom was going to be able to get back in time to see it. The next morning, which was Saturday, Mom and Corbin made it on the flight (they fly as standbys) which was going to get them home at 1:00. I stayed home when Dad went to go pick them up at the airport. Valentines was moving along very slowly according to what most of my goats do. Some of the signs that Valentines was showing, if they had been on almost any other goat of mine, would have meant that the babies would have born early that morning. At 2:00 pm, Dad arrived home with Mom and Corbin. Mom came out to see me and Valentines. Another while went by, then I finally went into the house to eat lunch. I changed out of my 'barn' clothes and into a beautiful dress that I had sewed. I had just barely sat down to enjoy a relaxing lunch when Kayla came running in shouting "Valentines is laying down and baaing and I think that she is having a baby!" I quickly got up and not bothering to change again, hurried outside. There was Valentines with her baby's head out. Corbin called some friends that wanted to see this birth. They didn't quite make it, but they loved seeing the babies take their first wobbly steps. Then the Hahners came over and watched me milk the goats and feed the babies. They bought their first 'milk' goats from me and so wanted to learn how to milk and take care of newborn babies. Val's baby boy was born with a couple of issues. First, he walked on the heels of his back legs. Second, he had an overbite. Thirdly, he had an eye problem. The eye went through several changes. First, it had a milky blueish/whitish over 3/4 of it. Then it had a red rim around the border of the eye. Then, it looked normal, but when I looked closly at it, it had a marbly look. Then, lastly, it went normal. So, we thought that it would be approriate to name him, 'Miracle'. These changes took a couple of weeks to complete. The little girl was born with no problems. I named her, Unity.

Unity is the brown one. Miracle is the black one.