More new babies!

Jesse and I took a mini vacation to Missouri last weekend and came home with these little sweethearts.

Shygal and Tasha are Great Pyrenees pups. These are a livestock guardian breed and are working dogs. We got them from a lady who raises her dogs right with her goats, so they are used to them right from the start. Cute as they are, they are not our pets, but a working part of this farm. When they are full grown they will patrol and protect our goats. They are both very quiet, I haven't heard a bark yet and we never heard a peep out of them all the way home. They are very smart and figured out the bathroom breaks on the way home by the third stop. Actually Tasha figured it out right away, Shygal was, well...shy:)

I first learned of this breed when we had one as a visitor late one night. When full grown, these dogs are huge. The night of our visitor, I opened the door and saw this giant white beast standing there watching me and froze in terror. I quickly figured out she was not going to harm me and I invited her in. She walked right in and rested for a bit, took some food and water, then quietly left. I never saw such and intelligent, calm animal. Ever since then I have wanted one, but being a working dog, it would just be cruel to keep one in the house with no purpose.

Now that we have a purpose for them, I look forward to watching them grow and do the job they were born to do.

He just keeps growing and growing....

Xavier is doing fantastic, crawling all over and cruising along the furniture. He has been practicing standing balanced without holding on and tried to take a step yesterday. I don't think it will be long before he figures it out. I never had a baby trying to walk this early, so there is no delays with him:)


Who me?

New Camera & New Babies

I finally got a new camera! Yay! It's been rather frustrating not being able to snap pics of all the new animals and things going on around here.

So to start........Say hello to our newest addition to the goat barn.




This sweet little Saanen doeling was born around 5pm yesterday afternoon. She weighed 8lbs and is just the prettiest little thing. I'll try for better pictures later, I didn't get out there with the camera until after midnight. No name yet, I'm trying to avoid the obvious ones like snowflake and snow-cone. She is pure white, not yellow tinged, mama has her cleaned up a bit better today. lol
Name suggestions welcome:)

Temper, Temper

Stand back, I'm about to blow!

I've had a busy morning, preceded by a busy week, month, etc. What sets this morning apart is the annual urge to smash my computer to tiny bits and go hide in a hole the rest of the season.

You see, every couple of years I have to replace my tax computer with a newer model. Why? Good question. Every time I purchase a new one, I am careful to remove extraneous programs, install the best virus protection I can, and ban all non-tax professional persons from coming anywhere near it.

I will spend the next year hovering over it like a dog with a smelly prize, growling at all who dare glance at it. Then I slowly become complacent, forgetting to watch, letting the teen use it for one school report, not noticing when the hubby is surfing the no-no sites, and lets not forget the terrible toddler who has a stunning knack for reprogramming it to gibberish. I still haven't figured out how to fix her last bit of work and have been staring at colorful lines where a picture used to be for several weeks now.

Then, I get on it one random morning to start work and bam! Error: your screwed; Fatal Error: too bad, sorry Charley, etc.

What follows is not pretty. I forget to watch my colorful language, my voice takes on a new fever pitch and volume, I rant, rage, blame the weather and everyone who is in hearing distance. After much swearing and trying in vain to fix the problem, I admit defeat and delete the program, re-install and start over. Three hours later I'm still steaming. I will need a new computer again, I've known for awhile. This one has been having nothing but problems and the blasted my-space pop-ups my teen has downloaded sets my blood boiling every morning when I have to close them. Why did she think that was cool to do? How I wish I could use my Mac's. Alas, there are no companies that write accounting software for Apple, at least last I checked, and believe me I called all of them.

So once again I will be computer shopping, yippee. Not my favorite pastime. Any recommendations will be appreciated.

I really need to work on my temper. Deep breaths.........

A Sunnier Climate

We are putting GM on a plane this Sunday for a sojourn in sunny Florida. After much begging and pleading we have relented and decided to allow my oldest son to accompany her. He is very excited, I'm very cautious. I have a feeling his stay in a retirement community is going to get boring rather quickly. Maybe I'm not giving the older generation enough credit though, perhaps they will welcome the opportunity to entertain a young and eager new Floridian. In any case, he will surely enjoy the sun and sand, and we will surely return to the frigid February weather of norm, envious that we could not all go.

I will of course be demanding a full report of his adventure, complete with illustrations:)

Camera Woes

I like to take pictures, lots and lots of pictures. I hardly ever develop them, but I do put them online in my photo account and post some on here. I am terrible about updating photo albums, but this blog has become a sort of album of its own. My family and friends can stop by and see pictures of the kids and read a little about our life and I don't feel so guilty for letting those albums collect dust in a neglected corner.

Alas, the camera is no more. It has been protesting and blanking out for quite some time and now has decided to be done altogether. I'm lost. I need to take pictures of this beautiful weather, the new goats, Xavier crawling and standing, the boys new haircuts, etc. What's a girl to do? A new one is just not in the budget. I guess I'll have to suck it up and write some pictures:)