Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.
Once again, the Lord graciously granted another clutch of eggs to be hatched out by one of our game hens. Out of 12 eggs, 11 hatched, although 1 died; but the other 10 are going strong. You’ll see from that video our one Australorp rooster has apparently been busy:
We are once again very thankful to God for granting these new chickens that we pray will be productive members of the flock, for His glory and the benefit of His people.
— David
About three weeks ago, the Lord granted another set of goat kids, this time to our full Nubian goat Betsy. She gave birth to two little bucklings, which are also full Nubian; and we decided to call them Stanley and Ollie.
Here they are shortly after being born:
And here they are now (Ollie on the left in the first picture; Stanley on the right; vice-versa in the second picture):
And here’s their moving picture:
We are again very grateful to the Lord for granting these provisions; and we again pray for guidance in raising them and continued provisions for the herd.
— David
Almost a year ago in August, Dave and I were looking to sell our pure Nubian buck, Donny. We said in our ad that we would also consider a trade for another dairy buck. A local man called us and said he had sold all of his bucks; however, we discovered he had a LaMancha-Saanen dairy doe he was willing to trade, which, he said, was pregnant and expected to drop within a few weeks. We were very satisfied with that deal. The name they had given her was Hannah, one of my favorite names; so we decided to trade for her and keep that name.
Well, those few weeks came and went; and it didn’t take long to figure out Hannah was not pregnant, and we think possibly hadn’t been before, based on the size of her “bag” (udder); but we weren’t sure. Anyway, we were disappointed but so pleased with Hannah’s disposition and gentleness. She has been easy maintenance and a joy to have, for a goat. 😉
We put her, along with our other eligible does, in with our buck, Shatner, in early December. About four months later, we noticed Hannah’s little udder starting to puff out a bit, then a bit more, then a bit more, until we were very excited at the prospect that she was pregnant. We narrowed down her potential delivery date to sometime in early May. Her bag had become so large and engorged we knew the time was getting near. One morning, I went out to milk and noticed her bag had gotten bigger overnight; and I was cautiously optimistic that this might be the day! So I decided to prep the sheds with fresh hay for her, just in case, and took our digital camera with me to chronicle the day:
I have been somewhat protective of Hannah since we got her because she is low on the totem pole and her gentle disposition makes her a default bullying target for the stronger does. And assuming this was her first kidding, I asked, if it be His will, that the Lord would allow me to be present for her delivery. Some goats like the moral support of their owner by their side, and it seemed Hannah appreciated me being there. So I was very thankful that He granted my request, and I was excited that some new neighbors came by to visit right when Hannah was going into hard labor, and they had the opportunity to witness it as well.
It is now several days later, and our new “kid” on the block, Wahlberg, is doing just fine. Again, we want to be careful to give God all of the credit and glory for perpetuating our goat herd:
Susan
Once again by His graces, the Lord has granted a new calf to our Longhorn cow Rosa, a little bull calf. He comes from the bull we’re are borrowing we call Toreo (because he’s a bull that looks like an Oreo cookie!). And so, we decided to call this new little bull Rosoreo.
Here he is in the center:
And here is a video:
As always, we are grateful to God for His continued provisions, and for this one, in His graces and mercies.
— David
Well, it’s about that time! Almost 150 days ago, we started putting our older does in with Shatner, our billy goat. Actually, Sue put Winnie in with him a little earlier than the rest because she looked like she was in heat; and apparently she was, because she just “dropped” (slang for giving birth) two new kids — two females.
Sue and I have both sung in barbershop quartets in the past, and so we thought we’d call them Adeline and Nellie. (Can you guess the songs?) And so, here is Adeline on the left and then bottom, and Nellie on the right and then top, in the two pictures, respectively:
And here’s a video of them (they’re about a week and a half here):
Once again, we are grateful to the Lord for granting this provision, and a safe delivery; and we look forward to any goat milk He grants from Winnie once we start milking her.
— David
When we bought some new chickens late last year, two of them were game hens. Well, apparently they’re good setters, because we’ve now had a second one go broody (here was the chick from the first hen); and the Lord graciously granted some new chicks to be hatched!
And here they are:
This is something of a big deal to us, because, in our desire to separate unto God and His direct providence, if we’re to have animals and their products, we need them to perpetuate; and having chickens that do that has been spotty at best, because most of the ones we’ve had don’t sit.
And so, we are thankful to the Lord for His granting of these new chicks and hens that are good setters; and we pray the female chicks pick up the sitting trait so they can continue to propagate here on the farm, according to God’s will.
— David
The Lord granted our first calf this year, a little heifer calf, to our cow Carlita. As you can see, she’s a light tan, and so we’re going to call her Caramela, which is caramel in Spanish:
And here is a little video:
We are grateful once again for God granting continued perpetuation of the cattle here, and for the granting of this new heifer calf. We pray for God’s glory in her, and wisdom in raising her.
— David
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