The First Meal

Well, here they are, eating their first meal!  They are still kind of little guinea pigs, not much for personality or anything but ever so cute and very sweet.  I will be able to tell you all more about them in a few weeks. But everyone is fat and happy, walking well, trying to play and wrestle and doing totally normal puppy things.  JJ has managed to get his cornea scratched so he is getting treated for that.  They are all growing like weeds and seem to be very normal and they will be moved to the front room or the kitchen probably this weekend. The floors will be finished tomorrow!  So as soon as the grout is treated, I can have them out with the family, right on schedule.

This Sunset Brought To You By Tonight's Sponsor, God

It was a spectacularly beautiful day today, sunny, about 60 degrees!  And it's JANUARY!  This is pretty unbelievable to us but we enjoyed every moment.  I had to go do some errands and attend a class, but still had my windows cracked on the highway.  On the way home, it was nearing dinnertime and when I unloaded my car, this is what I came out to find:

And then as the sun went down further, it got even more beautiful:

And then there was a jet contrail that appeared:

Looks sort of like a shooting star, doesn't it?
The Eastern sky was nearly as pretty:

It wasn't as easy to capture on the camera.
Thank You, God! :):):)

Learning How To Play

It is so enjoyable to see these little ones learn to walk, staggering about, getting their balance and discovering the world.  On Wednesday, I had to replace the whelping pool with an ex pen and a board so Tabi could get in and out ok and pups could not escape.  This opens up more space for them, I decrease the blankie size and that gives them more room on the papers.  This is good because then they get up, wander to the papers and pee/poop.  It's early paper training at its best and will make it very easy for pups to transition to new homes, if they feel they can't hold it and the humans aren't paying attention, they can have a paper to address if necessary.
This is a little longer video, about two minutes.
And remember that three weeks prior to this, they were safe and warm in Tabi's belly.....
Enjoy!

Kentucky Quilt Trails

This was actually going to be my very first blog entry.  One of the things that I noticed when we moved here was that many barns had a big quilt block painted on them. When I investigated further, I found that it was actually painted on boards and attached to the barn.  Why?  There had to be a story.

And there was, of course, a story.  The Commonwealth of Kentucky (another story!)  has funded the Kentucky Arts Council with a grant to provide this as regional art.  You can read more about it here:

http://artscouncil.ky.gov/QTrails/Links.htm

One woman began the project by painting a quilt block on her barn to honor her Grandmother, who was a quilter.  Friends who helped her decided that if they were going to do one, they might as well do twenty, and create a "driving path" so people could view them. From there, the project spread all over Kentucky.  

I have taken photos of these along Highway 163 and 90, which is a scenic highway.  The two above are not too far from my house.

The day that I took these it was overcast, so the colors are not as bright as I would like them to be.  I did this about a week after Thanksgiving.

I think it is so enjoyable to go down the road and see the different designs that mean something to each person.  Some people have even painted their own on the barns without going officially through the process to have one painted for them.

I love the idea and think it is so neat!

What is it?

OK, I know what it is.  I think it's a Hobbit House.  It looks about the right size and has a front and a back door.  This was created by the goats down the way, they are Boers, quite sturdy and very serious goats.  They have a few new babies in the field, too.  But I was quite impressed with the Goat Art!

Anyone else want to venture a guess on what the goats were making?

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday we had to make a rescue run to Corbin, KY, to drop off Grace, a very sweet middle aged tri color corgi on the run to her new home in TN.  We enjoyed Dairy Queen with some very dear friends and got to visit for about an hour.  But before we left here, we had to tend to chores.  And after those were done, there was one little chore that still needed to be done.  One of the younger goats had not been feeling well so we had brought her up and put her in an ex pen in the breezeway, which is heated.  Gazelle liked this just fine!  She has had a shot of antibiotic, and although it has been reasonably decent out, the nights are pretty cool.  We didn't want to take a chance on her getting sick in a worse fashion.  But she needed to get back down so we could get on the road on our rescue trip.  Fastest way was to take a ride with Jerry:

She really enjoyed her ride to the barn!  This is how we get Jewel back when she comes up to the house and Jerry has actually ridden all over the property with her.  Of course, this is Jewel, and those of you who know her story know she gets anything she wants in life!
Today I came home from work and asked how the pups were doing.  Jerry said fine.  Kathy was over and she said fine.  So I went into the bedroom to get in my jeans and this is what I found:

Well, yeah, I guess she was fine, just not where she needed to be!  This is Diva and she must have had a good latch onto Tabi and when Tabi jumped out of the box, she must have still been attached....Nonetheless, the little darling found a warm and safe place and curled up to take a nap.  This is the second pup out of the box, the first was the small spot boy and I suspect the same thing happened.  That was at 2 weeks and 2 days, a new record for us, here!  Today is 2 weeks and 4 days.
Here's a closeup:

She was warm and happy but missing a feeding!  Now she is back with the others and I can see that in the next day or two, I will have to make a more secure place for the little ones.

Puppy Videos!

This is Tabitha feeding her babies.  They are just over two weeks old now and their eyes are open.  They have achieved Hamster status:

And here are the babies, just starting to get around and look at things and try to figure out the Big World they now live in:

I hope you all enjoy these videos!  More to come in a few days!