A new year, a new blog post I guess.... Facebook kind of took over and destroyed my blogging but perhaps I'll try to make time for this blog this new year? Or perhaps not - we'll see ;)
I think I'll start out the year by giving you "all" (like, maybe Mom?) an update on the current family in residence. I'll start out with
US of course, the people, and then move on to the dogs and other critters, saving the most surprising for last.
I know I say this every time I blog, but... Ella and Frankie are GROWING!!! Rapidly. At an alarming rate of speed!! It's what happens when you only blog two times a year I guess ;) Ella is almost ten (in two weeks!) and Frankie is seven. They will be starting 4th and 2nd grade next month.
These two are best buds and SO funny. The things they say just crack me up without them even trying :) I enjoyed my little kids but I must say, they are becoming even more enjoyable as they get older! Their teenage years should be hilarious - I can't wait! But the niggling question remains - how will I keep them fed? These two eat an alarmingly large amount of food ALREADY!!
Not sure why this picture is sideways, but this was them on our most recent trip to Timu to see our friends, in December. 14 hours ONE WAY, people. Needless to say, they didn't remain this close and smiling the whole way and had to be separated by the cooler before they A. Killed each other or B. I went insane over their fighting and strangled them!
Here is our most recent picture of all of our dogs. Yes, they are a rather jumbled up Pack but our New Years Resolution is to get them ALL to be able to SIT and STAY on command and maybe get a decent picture!! I like in this picture how Bridger and Bonnie are both on the same leash - although on opposite sides of the picture - with their leash wrapped around a smiling Hazel :). That's how we roll folks, that's how we roll...
Their are nine of the smiling creatures - L to R back row: Rusty, Olaf, Hazel, Malaika. L to R front row: Bonnie, Bessie Rudy Granny and Bridger. We are still keeping two of our friends dogs, Kovu and Keenai, who are not pictured. Mine were all we could handle!!
Yes there are a lot, no I don't have a hoarding problem, and yes, we love them all! These pups bring a lot of joy to our family and I firmly believe in the value of raising kids with dogs! Obviously ;)
I also believe in the value of raising kids with GUINEA PIGS!!! (It's all about what's best for the kids, folks! ;)). Our two year old guinea pig, Pilot, was joined the beginning of this year by to little females, Isabella and Esther. Hopes are that some day in the near future we will have baby guinea pigs! Plus, Pilot was lonely and just needed some friends.
These pics are from when we first got them, and they've grown a lot since then. Guinea pigs eat CONSTANTLY!! We feed them mainly elephant grass and carrots and tomatoes, with some cabbage thrown in once in a while, with some maize meal now that it's dry season and the vegetation is getting sparse. I mostly just like to feed the guinea pigs and watch them eat (I'm a simple person you know!), while the kids enjoy taking them out and brushing them or having them beat up their stuffed animals. To each their own I guess!
Motomoto (buck), Blaze and Gloria (does)
Because of the large Pack of carnivores that we keep, I had been thinking for a while that we needed to find them a better and cheaper source of meat - which kicked off our RABBIT PROJECT!!! Now, I LOVE rabbits. Love em'! So I needed very little excuse to start raising them.
We got a shed built in October and then made a couple of secure pens so the Pack wouldn't eat the rabbits prematurely, before we'd actually started to raise them. Rather than wire cages, we are keeping the breeders "colony style", together on the ground in kennels. Our "eaters" we will keep together in a wire cage, trying to maximize the use of a small amount of space.
Tom and Peace
Although we raised LOTS of rabbits as kids, I never realized how friendly and companionable they are with one another! These are FRIENDLY rabbits and will follow you around their pen hoping for a pet or treat. They love to lay together and lick each other and are just down right affectionate with one another. Our rabbits in the past would fight, but not these!
We finally got our first litter of babies - five of them!! I had forgotten just how adorable baby bunnies were and just how much ten year old girls love baby bunnies :) Ever since they turned two weeks old and we were able to touch them, Ella will spend hours out with the babies holding them and playing with their parents. She's a perfect age to start enjoying our rodents!
Last but not least in our pet department is our cat, Lucy. She is three years old now and is one of the kittens we found and bottle fed. She is Frankie's buddy and enjoys sleeping on his bed. She was banished for a while because of her habit of hauling her dead treasures into the house and leaving them in the kids beds (often hidden!). She's recently been given a second chance however, as there was a population boom of mice inside the house. When the cats away the mice will play, and play they did indeed!!!
Now you might be wondering who this MAN PERSON is and why he's in our pictures. Good question - we are in fact planning on
adding this man person to our family soon, believe it or not. I know this is a little out of our territory as we usually only add toddlers or four legged creatures, but we thought we'd make an exception just this once!
David is our research scientist/veterinary surgeon who we've all grown quite attached to over the years, as he's taken care of the medical needs of our Pack, often letting the kids "help" perform intricate surgeries on his K9 patients. Thankfully he's never started any research on them - maybe that's next, who knows! So yeah, we kind of like him and will be adding him to the family in the near future :)
This was us in Timu, before we realized that family pictures with us in a row was NOT a very good idea, as the differences in heights renders us all rather comical (and David a GIANT!). Plus the fact that Ella is ALMOST AS TALL AS I AM!!! And she' not even ten! So yeah, never again will we take a family picture like this but it IS nice for a good laugh!
So...there's a bit of a catch up on us! 2015 is going to be a good year, I can just tell, and I'll try to update more frequently! Next post will be about the improvements in our house that we've made over the last year. Amazing, people! We've come a LONG ways construction wise!
We'll wrap this post up with a picture of Bessie and Hazel having a snooze together on their bed :)
