Today

Today I can complain because
the weather is rainy or...
I can be thankful the grass is
getting watered for free.

Today I can feel sad that I don't
have more money or....
I can be glad my finances en-
courage me to plan my
purchases wisely and guide me
away from waste.

Today I can grumble about my
health or....
I can rejoice that I am alive.

Today I can cry because roses
have thorns or....
I can celebrate that thorns have roses.

Today I can mourn my lack of
friends or....
I can excitedly embark upon a quest
to discover new relationships.

Today I can whine because I
have to go to work or....
I can shout for joy because I
have a job to do.

Today I can complain because I
have to go to school or....
I can eagerly open my mind and
fill it with rich new
tidbits of knowledge.

Today I can murmer dejectedly
because I have to do
housework or....
I can feel honored because God
has provided shelter
for my mind, body and soul.

Today stretches ahead of me,
waiting to be shaped.
And... here I am, the sculptor, who
gets to do the shaping.
What today will be like is up to me.....

~author unknown

She stretches out her hands to the distaff

Remember my post about the alfalfa hay for the rabbits? (see "even the little things", 2008 post) Well, once again I got to see the Lord in action and this time he provided a beautiful spinning wheel and all the accesories.....for free.

An older friend of ours encouraged me to put an ad up on Craigslist asking for a free spinning wheel. I wasn't really sure it would work, after all, who on earth would want to give away a good sellable wheel? Nevertheless, I tried it and the first two times I did it I got a flood of e-mails.....all saying they wished they had a wheel to give and then wished me good luck. Hmm.

I tried one more time (three times a charm, right?) and this time I only got one response. It was a short e-mail; simply asking how old I was, if I did 4-H or anything like that and what I had tried spinning before. The lady and I corresponded back and forth, then in one e-mail she said she had a spinning wheel + accesories that she would give me! What's more, the wheel was, of all things, and Ashford Traditional, which is what I am used to. The only downside was that she lived in Scappoose, which is a two hour drive from us. Despite the looong drive, dear mom drove me up there today. The drive was entirely worth it!!! The "accesories" included hand carders (not cheap), a niddy noddy, a lazy Kate, four bobbins, three drop spindles, three books and some fiber (sorry, no partridge in a pear tree :D).

The wheel is in pretty good condition. The only repairs it needs are a new drive band and a new scotch brake, I can get both of these for under $10 at Woodland Woolworks.

I am so glad to have a spinning wheel again. I can't think of a more relaxing sound than the purring of a wheel.

She seeks wool and flax,

And willingly works with her hands....

She stretches out her hands to the distaff,

And her hand holds the spindle.

Proverbs 31: 13, 19

~Caitlyn

The First...

See that little tiny egg in the picture? That is the very first egg from one of our Cuckoo Maran hens!! Isn't it cute? Emily and I were closing the chickens up on Saturday night, when she found this itty bitty, teeny weeny egg, in a nestbox. :D

Marans actually are supposed to lay dark chocolate brown eggs, but this one was only slightly darker than our normal brown eggs. Maybe they will darken as the hens get older? Below is a picture of the egg right next to my thumb. :)

I just thought that it was so cute that I had to share it with you.

~Caitlyn

More of the bunnies

~Caitlyn

getting big

Our little bunnies are now six weeks old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by, it seems like just yesterday that they were born. :)

They are all continuing to stay in good health, even though they were not able to benefit from their mother's milk for as long as they should have. We did lose one little bunny though. :( It was the runt and it just wasn't able to cope with being weaned so early.

It's been hard for Emily to try and choose one bunny to keep. She asked once if she could keep all of them to make things easier. ;D I think I might keep one as well just because they are soooo cute! I've got my eye on one bunny in particular; it's got the most blue on it and is the most feisty of the bunch.

Isn't this shot funny? I threw a small handful of hay into the cage and they all did a mad charge to get to it. LOL :)

I love rabbits..... :D

~Caitlyn

Sisters....

Mystery solved

After the whole trap incident, we have been busy trying to track down who the trapper was. First we called the land owner, but he said that he had no idea and that he didn't want any trapping going on, on his land. We knew that the trapper drove a green Toyota truck that had a black camper shell on it, but that was about all. So we pondered what our next move should be when Miss Jennifer, Peaches' owner, called to tell us that she had just been talking to a man who had been setting traps in the 98 acres! After a bit more talking we found out that it was indeed the same guy. Miss Jennifer had come by our house yesterday to take Peaches to the county fairgrounds so she could do some riding. As she was leaving, a man driving a green Toyota truck stopped and asked her if she knew who lived at our house. He told her that he had been hired to set traps for bobcats and coyotes and he found that one of the traps had been sprung but the catch was stolen; so he thought that we must have taken his prize (it was the trap that Copper was in).

She told him that she didn't know anything about it so he left.

This morning, after the phone call from Miss Jennifer, we started looking through the phone book and asking the neighbors to see if they knew who he might be. No luck.

So dad, Emily and I went back to the area with the trap to look for clues. When we got there, we first noticed that the trap was gone, along with the bait. However there was what looked like a receipt that was torn into shreds and sprinkled around the trap area. a few feet away we also found a piece of black mesh that must have been used for the trap. We were heading down back towards home when we saw a green Toyota come up into the 98 acres, heading right towards us.

Believe it or not it was the trapper. Dad struck a conversation up with him and the answers we got were suprising. As it turns out, he was on the wrong land, he thought the 98 acres still belonged to somebody else and thought that he had permission to trap here. He's a liscensed trapper and frequently traps bobcats for scientists to study. He was trying to get a bobcat that had been livestock worrying and he was also on the look out for coyotes. He was extremely sorry for everything and kept on asking if there was anything he could do to make up for the trouble he had caused. He was on his way up to take down the other traps that he had set and then moving them to the correct property. We told him that he didn't have to do anything for us. We were just relieved that he was moving the traps and would then be on his way.

When we got home, Emily and I put the pieces of paper together to see what it said. It was merely a receipt from the Sheridan farm store for some plant mix; but still, it was fun playing Nancy Drew. ;D

A day turned upside down

What a day....I'm still trembling as I write this.....

I woke up this morning to a beautiful blue sky and a day that promised to be warm. Sure enough, by lunch time we didn't even need jackets. After our chores were done we all had to go chop and stack wood outside because we were beginning to get low on our already chopped stuff. I had fun doing the work, it was a lovely day, I was with my family and I was able to use my left hand. when we finished that, our goofy dog tried to catch a stick that somebody threw him but instead ended up biting his tongue really hard. Emily grossed out when she saw blood spurt wildly out of Copper's mouth and then grossed out even more when she saw what I did. :) I'm hoping to be a vet someday so things like this don't make me queasy; I scooped up a small bit of dirt, then put it over the bleeding area while firmly holding onto his tongue. Copper was not at all pleased with this and tried to wiggle away but I made sure I held on. After a couple minutes the bleeding had slowed, so I then took him down to our creek where the ice cold water finished the staunching. "Well, I thought, That's enough excitement for one day." Oh if only I had known what was going to happen next.....

After the bleeding tongue episode my sisters and I decided to relax a little by taking a hike up in the 98 acres. At first we were having a perfectly glorious time, and who wouldn't on a day like today? when we reached a certain spot we stopped for a while to let Emily play around with her camera. Copper ran ahead a few feet of us and promptly began digging; He always digs when we come up here so I didn't pay any attention to him.....

A few minutes later we heard the most hideous, blood-curdling, noise. Sounding like something between a rabid dog and.....??? I looked over to where copper was and could see him madly thrashing around and the noise we heard was him. I rushed over to where he was but couldn't quite tell what was wrong. I thought perhaps he finally got a rodent or something so I raised my hiking stick and hit the "thing". Copper yelped again but stopped moving for a second. When I saw what the "thing" was I dropped my stick in utter horror. A trap. Yes, my poor lovable dog had his paw stuck in a hunters trap. Copper began his unearthly shrieking again right as I began screaming to the girls. "It's a trap! It's a trap! Go get Chris! Run!" Emily ran as fast as she could down the hill while Megan stayed with me. Blood was dripping from Copper's mouth because he kept on biting the trap and his paw was bleeding profusely as well. I tried to calm him but in his pain he was untouchable. So I prayed with all my might while waiting for Chris to come. Since we were on a high hill, his haunting cries echoed over, and over throughout the valley.

Megan ran down the hill a few minutes later because we could hear mom calling us. I stayed behind with Copper. A few more minutes later Chris arrived.....and slung over his shoulder was a gun..... I stood up slowly, every inch of me was trembling. "You're going to shoot him?" I asked, my voice barely audible. I had been crying throughout all of this and seeing my brother with a gun was just too much for me. " You're not going to shoot my dog!" I cried. I wasn't going to let my dog have an ending like this. Chris looked at me with that look that clearly said: Calm down would ya!?" He looked at Copper and then kneeled down, did something and the next thing I knew, my dear dog was free and was limping over to me. I began running down the hill, with Copper right in front of me and half way down I met mom on the way.

We got Copper home and then I set about to work. While I didn't have the foggiest as to what to do when Copper was stuck, I knew exactly what to do to help him now. I put him in the bathtub and filled it with a couple of inches of lukewarm water. Added to the water was a handful of Epsom salts and some Tea Tree oil. When the blood was gone I gave a thorough check. No bones were broken but he had a really bad bruise and a lot of skin was badly broken. I rubbed some more Tea Tree oil onto his paw while Emily began preparing a chamomile infusion to help Copper with shock. After his bath, I made a Comfrey poultice and then bound it on his paw. Copper is now resting quietly in our bedroom.

While I was making the poultice Emily and I were talking. As it turns out, Emily couldn't hear what I was screaming in the beginning. She thought for some reason that I was saying "Get the truck! get the truck!" :) So she ran down and told Chris that something had Copper and to get his gun.

We are all forbidden to set foot into the 98 acres now, because that was a recently set trap and most likely there's more. None of us mind, and hopefully Copper will stay out as well. It's going to take a long time before I forget the sound of those terrifying cries of his... the sight of him with blood all over him... and the stench of the hot blood that hung in the air....

But, it's over now and I just need to keep telling myself to not look back.
Sorry this post is sooooo long. I didn't know how to shorten it. :)
What an upside down day.

~Caitlyn

So cute

Dear little Carver was so tired this afternoon.... But he didn't want to go to bed, so the basket had to suffice. :) Isn't he adorable?

~Caitlyn

An end to every beginning

Isn't it sad how sooner or later things have to die? For example, yesterday afternoon, our dear sweet Izzy died. Yes, she was the mama rabbit, and she has left behind eight fuzzy bunnies in her memory.

It all happened so fast. On Saturday she was fine, hopping around, nuzzling us to be petted and being her normal sweet self. But on Sunday morning Emily came careening into the house, frantically telling me to hurry and come outside because for some reason Izzy couldn't breath. I dashed outside, not caring that I was in my church clothes and that I was getting them dirty. Izzy was indeed in a pitiful state. She had her nose pointed in the air and every breath she took was labored and rattle-y. After a more thorough examination I concluded that she had a bad case of pneumonia. Emily brought her (Izzy) inside while I began getting things ready in the kitchen. Obviously I couldn't go to church now, so Emily and I stayed to try and save Izzy. First, to make breathing easier for her I made a Chamomile steam. she was so miserable that she didn't care what I did to her. An hour and a half later she was breathing better but each breath still rattled a lot. Next I mixed up three small garlic cloves with half a cup of a Mullein infusion and gave her a dropper full every hour. The garlic heads straight for the lungs and helps fight bacteria, while the mullein helps bring mucus up and soothes the pain. Both herbs are frequently used when battling pneumonia.
After three doses she had perked up enough to start fighting the dropper rather than taking it and she was breathing quitely now. I took this as a good sign.....

When it was time for her next dose, I went to her cage and looked in, only to find that our dear sweet Izzy was no more. (excuse me while I wipe my tears)

Emily was terribly upset and now all the rest of our rabbits are in danger of contracting the illness as well. We are working on isolating them all and then thoroughly cleaning everything.

I think she was probably our sweetest doe we ever had; and to make things worse, we never got a picture of her. She was a beautiful little thing, her coat was snowy white with a satiny black blanket draped over her. Her face was petite and her eyes were always inquisitive.
To make Emily feel a little bit better, I am giving up the baby bunny that I was going to keep and am letting her choose one.

I think the bunnies will be okay without their mama. They are almost five weeks old and are eating grain on their own now.

~Caitlyn

The ever pressing goal

Could it really have been a week since I last blogged? Bad me. ;)

I got my cast off on Monday as was planned. That was an interesting affair.... For the most part it went as it was supposed to, but after the cast had come off, the doctor began flexing (or rather, trying to flex) each of my fingers. I kept on trying to tell him that it hurt and that my fingers wouldn't bend but he didn't really listen to me. Then he put a lot of pressure on my index finger, still trying to bend it. All at once the room seemed to begin spinning violently and things started to fade from sight. Yep, I fainted. Or rather, I almost fainted. The doctor must have noticed that I suddenly stopped talking, because he looked at me and asked if I was all right. Hmmm....Let's see here, I've already told you that I'm in pain, I'm visibly swaying and you want to know if I'm all right. Anybody else see something wrong here?
I tried to tell him that the room was spinning but I think my speech was a little unintelligible at the moment. He and dad helped me lie down just as I started to black out. After a little while I was feeling better though.

Before I left, the doctor gave me a velcro-on splint to wear at night so I don't accidentally hurt myself. I must admit that it looks pretty funny; resembling Buzz Lightyear's laser thing-a-ma-bob. :D

So my challenge right now is trying to make a fist with my left hand. If I try hard I can juuust curl my fingers enough to touch the top of my hand. I can hold a few things with it but it really depends on what it is. I can hold a pencil because I only need my thumb and index finger for that, but a lot of other things are still beyond me yet. To help me stretch my hand muscles, my parents bought me a little green ball that feels almost like putty, to squeeze. After a couple of stretching rounds I decided to dub it G.L.O.P Green, Lump, Of, Putty. :)

The fracture in my wrist is almost completely gone now. Every evening since I got the cast off I have been putting a comfrey poultice over where the fracture is and then leaving it on for an hour. Comfrey is a very useful herb and is also known as knit-bone for it's miraculous power in mending broken bones. I can personally vouch for it as a wonderful herb,

Am I talking too much? I have a tendency to write overly long blogs. I guess it's my gift...Or curse? Well, that's off the subject so we won't debate on that right now. ;)

So, I continue on, towards the ever pressing goal of restoring my hand to it's normal function. The road ahead is long, and bumpy, and who knows what the outcome will look like. Like a marathon runner, I just have to keep running...keep fighting....keep looking for those milestones at the side of the road....

~Caitlyn

A visit to the nursery

We finally did it...Emily and I finally remembered to get some pictures of the baby bunnies for y'all. I know I've been saying that I was going to do it for ages, but for some reason it never happened.

They are around three weeks old now and are almost always madly hopping around the pen, usually chasing after their annoyed mother. :D So far it's been a very healthy litter with no problems whatsoever. Oh, and apparently Emily and I mis-counted, there are actually only eight bunnies; we thought there were nine.

I know, I know, another lousy picture. Sorry! These little guys are hard to get pictures of because they move so quickly.

So, if anybody out there wants a good sized meat rabbit, ours will be ready to go in roughly five more weeks. :D

Happy New Year!

I wonder just how many people around the world have used that same title...Well I won't think too hard on that right now. :D

Happy New Year to all of you who visit here! I can't help but wonder what 2009 will bring us. Will it be like 2008? Most likely not. But, one thing is for sure, no matter what happens in '09, the Lord will still be with us, watching over us, weeping with us when we hurt, rejoicing with us when we rejoice, and changing not.

I can't believe 2008 is over forever; it's been a good year, filled with ups and downs and moments when we felt that we were upside down. Through this year we have had dairy goats and alpacas for a time, but decided that they were not for us; we have increased our flock of chickens to somewhere around twenty birds (give or take a few), our rabbit herd is at a managable twelve, we still have our not-so-smart Golden Retriever, and we are down to six cats.

The Lord has blessed us throughout the year, while we didn't always understand why certain things were happening, the Lord always showed himself strong.

I am excited about this new year, for what it brings in our family. We have the new baby due in April, Chris is graduating and will be starting college, I will be seventeen in the summer, I'm getting geese and hopefully honey bees in the spring, I might get to volunteer at the local veterinarian clinic, and once I get some use restored to my left hand (I'll get to my wrist in a minute) I get to begin taking some herbal college courses (maybe).

Okay, update about the wrist, I went to the Portland hospital yesterday and the doctor thought my wrist looked really good, the fracture is almost completely healed and I get my cast off on monday the 5th. He also said that my wrist will be slightly crooked beacause of the way my wrist joint was broken and I will have to have a year's worth of therapy before my hand is back to normal.

I can't wait till I can once more hold a pencil and write again! I have missed writing, and doing school.

Here are some pictures that give a tiny glimpse of what our year was like....

Have a happy new year and God bless!!