Baby Chicks

We bought baby chicks from the feed store. We bought 16 chicks: 9 Araucanas (which lay green-blue eggs), 3 Light Brahmas, 2 Barred Rocks, 1 Golden Comet, and 1 Buff Orpington. We lost one Araucana chick, so we have 15 chicks in a box in the den.

Ground work

On Sunday, April 6th, our dome builder, Marty Heaton, and his crew came down to work on the site. They started by marking the placement of the dome's foundation.


After further discussion, it was decided that the dome needed to be put further back on the rock shelf. So, Marty hired a backhoe to tear into the hill.

The backhoe tore up the dirt parts of the hill, but had no effect on the rock outcropping.

So, Marty rented a jack hammer attachment for his Bobcat. With it, they removed about 4 feet of limestone.

Lexie's stitches

On Tuesday morning, April 8th, we had to go do state testing. After testing, we hung out with some friends. While at their house, the children went to play in their creek. It had rained that morning and Lexie slipped on a rock. She landed on her chin and split it open. I took her to the Urgent Care Clinic for stitches. The doctor gave Lexie shots of painkiller and 7 stitches.

She is recovering quite nicely and the doctor said her scar should be small. Thanks to Levi for watching the boys while I took Lexie to the clinic!

We have 4 new kids!

I was reminded today by my dear friend, Shawna, that I need to post pictures of our new kids. Thank you, Shawna, for nudging me in the right direction!

Michael and Zachary had been camping out in the barn to be close to Mama Goat if she went into labor. On Saturday evening, April 5th, when they went out the barn to go to bed, they found that Mama Goat was giving birth. Zachary ran into house to get the rest of us. We grabbed a bright light and some towels and headed to the barn. When we got to the barn, we found this little guy.

So, I immediately started wiping it off. The kid turned out to be a strong little boy. Mama Goat started pushing again and out came a kid still in the sac. Andrew broke the sac and we starting drying it off. This kid turned out to be a girl. Mama Goat took quite a break at this point, so we just sat there and waited (cuddling the 2 kids). Mama Goat started pushing for the third time and the kid seemed stuck. Andrew realized the kid was breech, so he reached in and helped pull it out. Andrew gave the kid mouth to month resuscitation and we dried it off. Kid number 3 turned out to be a girl, too. Here are both girls (#2 & #3).

Mama Goat seemed to be done having kids, so we waited on the afterbirth. She started the push out afterbirth. It was stuck like kid #3, so Andrew pulled on it and out came kid #4 behind it. We were pretty shocked that she had 4 kids. Last year, she gave birth to triplets. But, wow quadruplets!!! Here is #4, who also turned out to be a girl.

What an awesome and amazing experience witnessing the miracle of birth!

Andrew wasn't feeling well, so I volunteered to stay in the barn with the goats. I stayed with them all night and Mama Goat never finished delivering the afterbirth. At 6:00 am, Lexie relived me and I went to bed. At 10:00 am, I was woke up by the noise of my children. Mama Goat still hadn't delivered the afterbirth. Our friend and goat expert, Kari Ann, arrived and told us that Mama Goat was in trouble and going septic. She jumped right in and doctored Mama Goat. Here is Mama Goat and kids on Sunday morning.

Mama Goat stabilized, but still hadn't delivered all her afterbirth. We called the vet and he told us that we were doing all the right things. He also told us that he would come out if we needed him or we could bring Mama Goat to the vet Monday morning. At the next morning feeding, Mama Goat still wasn't eating or drinking, so Andrew loaded her in the truck and Lexie and I took her to the vet.

The vet, Dr. Toni Brandt, gave Mama Goat a few shots, took blood, and flushed out her uterus. She let me help. It was a learning experience! Mama Goat's sodium count was low, Dr. Brandt decided to give her an IV. So, Mama Goat stayed at the vet for the rest of the day in a large dog kennel. When I picked her up at 5:00 pm, she was eating and drinking.

In the mean time, we started bottle-feeding the quads. Mama Goat is getting better and feeding two kids, while we continue to bottle-feed the other two with milk replacer.

I would like to thank Kari Ann and Dr. Brandt for saving Mama Goat's life. I would also like to thank my daughter, Lexie, for taking all the pictures and videos.

Wonderful Surprises

March was a month of seeing old friends. On March 13th, I was on the phone when a white van, which I had never seen, pulled into the driveway. Out stepped a young man in a cowboy hat. I knew it was our friend, Stephen immediately. We've missed seeing Stephen. When we were stationed in San Angelo, my children and I spent a lot of time at his mom, Nola's farm. She taught me a lot about country life. Stephen, his wife, Becky and their cute baby boy, Ty were up from Texas visiting Becky's family. Becky brought her mom and four of her brothers with them. We had the best time visiting with them and were happy to learn that Becky's family doesn't live too far from us. I really enjoyed meeting Becky's mom, Tammy and I look forward to seeing her soon. It's always nice to meet a new friend. Here is a picture of our families before they left. (Lexie took the picture.)



On March 27th, my dear friend from high school, Beth, came to see me. During our afternoon of catching-up, we realized that it had been 16 years since we had seen each other. Wow! Thankfully, now she lives in Missouri and we will be able to see each other more often. Here is the picture Andrew took of Beth and I.

Hunnicutt

This is a picture of our steer, Hunnicutt. He went the butcher on March 26th. We named him after the gentleman who gave him to us. I am really looking forward to home-grown, grass-fed beef. Only have a couple weeks to wait and he will be in my freezer.

The Airform

We met Marty Heaton, of Domelogistics, at the conference and talked about our project. (At this point we had plans and an idea of what to do, but no one to 'push' the project) Marty listened to what we had done and seemed interested. He thought about what we had told him and decided that if we were ready to take it to the next step, he would help. He called us after the conference and said he'd like to come down and look things over. In the mean time, he was gathering information from the engineers at Monolithic Domes on our building site - just in case. He came down, looked it over, and then started the ball rolling. He delivered equipment to use in prepping the site for the leveling 'stemwall' and 'ringbeam' pours. He also obtained an airform and had it shipped to our site.

This is a picture of Andrew with the airform, when it arrived on March 27th. The airform is the outer layer of dome. It is made of PVC cloth-like polystyrene fibers. (very tough)

Why a dome?

Andrew has wanted to build a monolithic dome for about ten years now. While we were stationed in San Antonio, Andrew took a course called "Drafting with AutoCAD". He decided that he would design his own dome. He designed several hundred dome floor plans, all of which I found something wrong with. I think it was a lesson in patience for him. We finally agreed on the FINAL plans about three weeks ago.

From what I have learned about domes, they are amazing! They are an insulated concrete shell, so they maintain their temperature quite nicely. They are warm in the winter and cool in the summer. They are also fire, earthquake, and tornado proof. Andrew and I went to the annual Monolithic Dome Conference March 6th-8th. We toured many different domes. We looked at domes built as school gyms, and they double as the town's emergency shelter.

Here is a picture of the gym at Avalon I.S.D. in Avalon, Texas. Thank you, Coach Davis, for the wonderful impromptu tour!



Other highlights from the weekend were:

meeting Marty Heaton, our dome builder,
meeting other like-minded people,
being stuck in a blizzard in North Texas,
eating Texas-shaped waffles for breakfast,



and visiting with old friends.



It was great to see you, Dean and Jen! Thanks for dinner!
Your children are wonderful!

We also celebrated our anniversary during the weekend.
Thanks to the best Mother-in-Law in the world for staying with our children!