Today was a good day!!

Today was so nice because we were able to spend so much time outdoors. It has been really cold and we have all been cooped up in the house. The boys are so wound up that they can't keep from wrestling, which we all know turns ugly really quick.

Cole is so in love with these goats (we all are, really). Shadow was giving him a kiss.
Cole would just love to spend all day out with the animals. He would love it if I could follow him around reading to him while he goes about his business. Outside school is his favorite.
Cole wears Dans' boats around outside and they are rather large.
We are trying to get Moses to stop chasing the goats and stay still long enough for Cookie & Shadow to come up to them.
Here they come!!
Cookie and Shadow love to play ring around the tree. They jump out at each other and it is so fun to watch. Rezin was cracking up when they started to play with him.
One of my favorite things about winter is that you truly appreciate a warm sunny day!!! When the warmth of spring approaches you can feel, see, hear, and smell everything outside is out and about, excited to enjoy that warmth. I find that there is a renewed sense of awareness when everything begins to come to life. I am getting way to excited, winter is not over and we will surely have plenty of really cold days to come. But hey, that is what makes the warm ones so fun!!!

Dan is ready to milk a goat!!!!!

Well the lastest excitement at the Samstag Farm started when I got back from California. I really wanted Sasha (our goat) to wait to have her babies until I got home. She honored that requested.
Here is what happened...
We got home Monday night around 10pm and after laying the kids in bed Dan and I went out to the barn to check on the animals. Sasha had 2 babies !!! One didn't make it (so sad). They were/are both boys because that is how we roll!!!! The problem is that Sasha is so timid that she does not want to be around us humans. This makes it really hard to help her out and tend to her and the baby. Anyway Dan had to take the baby and help dry him off because it was below freezing. Of course Sasha didn't want anything to do with us but Cupcake (the other momma goat) came with her babies to check out the new baby. Then the drama began......and didn't get us in bed until 2 am.
Our super sweet, really good momma Cupcake went in to see Sasha and they started fighting, it was not pretty. The really sucky thing is that Cupcake went on to headbutt Sasha's baby
so hard that the baby flew a few feet. Oh my goodness, I freaked!!!! So we had to separate everyone, it was freezing, late, and a crazy welcome home to the farm. I like it though!!!!
So back to the milking. Sasha doesn't seem to be as good of a mother as Cupcake and every time I went out to check on her and her baby the baby was under the heatlamp and Sasha was on the other side of the stall.
After dinner Dan went out found the same scenerio and we were concerned. The feed stores were all closed but they answered the phone. The ending consenes was that if we don't get colostrum in the baby he won't make it through the night. So remember that Sasha doesn't like to be around us humans and she has horns. So Dan dressed up in his dirt bike helmet and chest protector and told me to get it together and come help him catch the goat and milk her!!!!! So off we went to the barn with the children.
Dan caught her after some effort and it went surprisingly well. At one point Dan had straddled the goat and he had two horns resting on his butt as he was trying to readjust. Talk about sweating bullets. If she freaked out she could have been the one to decide if we have another baby or Dan would have had to go to the ER with some puncture wounds to the butt!!!!
We got 8 ounces of colostrum out of momma and then little bugger wouldn't take the bottle. He fits right in here. He is a boy and he is a stubborn fighter. I will let you know how it turns out. It is 10 pm and we are waiting for the kids to fall asleep so we can go back out to try again.
We are learning so, so much!!!!

New additions!!!!

We are so excited to have new babies at our house. We woke up to these two new additions!!!
The black baby looks just like his daddy and the tan, white, and black baby looks just like momma. As you can see Cole is so very proud of his kids. Dan and I are so blessed to watch him nurture these new babies. He is glowing with excitement and pride. He is content to just lay in the barn with them.

I tried uploading the pictures on flickr.com to see if it is any faster. I am just trying it out. Next time I will add the details with the pictures. Slowly but surely I will get it. But anyway, enjoy the pictures. We are having so much fun with all the animals that we have now. We are also learning so much from them.

New life is so amazing not only in us humans but also with animals. Dan and I are so stoked that our kids are experiencing all of this first hand. Just another reason we chose to leave Southern California and move to Georgia.

Love you guys,
Janell