Cheaper by the Dozen... Almost

The day we had been holding our breath and waiting for arrived.  On Thursday afternoon Sadie Rose had her puppies.  

The first little girl arrived at 4:30pm, and after that boy after boy after boy popped out.  By 7:00 we had 6 puppies, 4 boys and 2 girls.  

 {Tux, the second puppy and biggest boy!}

She took a bit of a break after that, but an hour and a half later she started again.  At 9:30pm the 9th puppy entered the world, the 3rd beautiful girl.  

We all kind of hoped that, that was that!  Sadie had been 1 of 9 and she only had 9 nipples so 9 was a good number we thought.  Sadie had other ideas and an hour later made it an even 10.  For sure that would be it! I mean that's quite a large litter!!  Nope.  11:30pm found us welcoming Mo (short for "the last of the Mohicans") who as his name implies was indeed the last puppy.  She almost made it to a dozen... just not quite. :)   

They all have temporary identification names.  Just to be able to tell them apart. :)

This is Major.  Handsome little guy!

:P

Sleepy Stubby.

Little Dash didn't want to show his adorable peanut butter eyebrows. :)

Some of the puppies got "re-named".  This one is now called Skunk.

Sleepy girls, Fan and Solo.

Of course they are growing up SO fast, changing each day (these pictures are a few days old...) Their eyes should open any day now!!  

Puppy visits are open by appointment only.  Comment for reserving your time slot. :)

~Chs

Farm-sitting and a Sunday Walk

This past weekend we have been farm sitting for a family, and one of the animals we have to take care of is this darling little calf!

Hungry little fellow!

The "big-bad bull" Maverick.  He is a short legged Dexter bull. Emphasis on the "short legged".

Goofy little Kittens.

A week or so ago Josiah, Faith and I took our Sunday evening walk at Algoe lake.

There were pretty dragonflies everywhere....

And lots of snakes too.  Can you spot him?

I have some big blog posts coming up; we have lots of new arrivals around here!!!

~Chs

A Party Down by the River

Tuesday afternoon found our family joining Aunt Carmen and Uncle Tim, and Aunt Myrt down by the river for a party....

Celebrating the birthday's of these two beautiful Ladies who we are SO blessed to have in our lives.

Mom and Aunt Carmen, though they are twins, are so very different from each other, uniquely wonderful, irreplaceable, with their own extremely special places in our hearts!

The cake was made in the shape of the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse, partly in memory of Grandma who loved lighthouses.

The other reason is that we had plans for going to the Fort Gratiot lighthouse that afternoon and climb all 100 and some steps!  But unfortunately a storm blew up and we had postpone our visit for a later date.

"Happy Birthday to YOU!!" {Something only a twin can do}

Aunt Carmen's gift to Mumsie was a beautiful, super soft, blanket with Africa on it!  Stunning!

Of course a birthday wouldn't be complete without having a ship go by.  We actually had two go by!

It was an absolutely lovely day by the water, (even if we didn't make it to the lighthouse).   We thank God so much for a Godly family, especially our Mumsie and Aunt Carmen!

~Chs

The Last Hurrah

So this actually happened a little while ago, but it was simply scrumptious and rather pretty too.

The very last of the Strawberries were picked, and we just couldn't do something boring, like freezing them, so in celebration we made a strawberry cream trifle. 

It was delicious, a good choice for the last hurrah of the strawberries.  The official count was 185 quarts of strawberries.  We of course are very very grateful for so many berries, but our aching backs are just as thankful that they are finished! 

We were going to just eat half of the bowl (it was rather large) but.... cream and strawberries never hurt anybody right?, and it would have been a shame to take up room in the fridge, so it was all finished in one night! 

So there's the story of the last of the strawberries!

~Chs

Are You My Mother?

 As I have mentioned before, we are overrun with Broody Hens around the farm.  So when yet another hen got the urge to hatch out, we, not wanting anymore chicks, decided to try something different.

A chicken raising ducklings??  Well why not! :)  

The babies are so adorable, "squishy little marshmallows" as Charity calls them. 

Hey, they're the same color as their foster mom. That counts right?! 

They are currently infatuated with all the red parts on her face, and will poke and peck at her.  A little different from them. :) 

{Ducklings in the sunshine} 

 "Whatcha doin Mom?"

It will be rather fun to watch what their temporary Mother will do once they grow up and take an interest in swimming and the like. Hopefully it won't stress her out too much. :) Always something to watch around here!

"Are you my Mother?"

~Chs

Joy in Beauty

"You can complain because the Rose has thorns, or rejoice because the thorn has Roses."

Coming Soon #2

Josh and Theresa aren't the only ones expecting...   Our sweet Sadie Rose is due with puppies just one week after Theresa is due with the baby! :) 

(the monkey in the photo is Sadie's current "baby".  She tends to fixate all her love on certain stuffed animals, and the new one is "Baby Chee-Chee")

Sadie is 1/2 Australian Shepherd, 1/2 Labrador Retriever, and we have bred her to a very beautiful laid back Australian Shepherd named Wagner.  

So the puppies will be 75% Aussie, and we are planning on selling all of them.  Though it is kind of hard to tell in the photos, Sadie is quite.. well "large".  She is normally a very trim dog, and she has a big belly now. :)  

She is officially due on July 19th, so we made a welping box inside on our landing for her to sleep in and get comfortable with before the puppies come. (she is a mainly outdoor dog)

Sadie wasn't so sure about her box.  She kept running down-stairs, up-stairs, and we kept on returning her. :)

Finally we found a compromise.  She has decided to lay down "next" to her box... :D

Silly Girl.

So if anyone is interested in puppies... we will have some available in a couple months, and they'll be pretty cute!

~Chs