Additions to the Squad

Welcoming our newest little farm members: the Guinea Pig Triplets!

September 10, 2018

Additions to the Squad

If you’ve read my blogs, you know my oldest three girls saved and bought Guinea Pigs.  Each thought she was getting a female, but since Ginger was discovered to be TobyMac, this amazing trio of little animals became a part of our farm.  They appear to have new little ones every six months or so.  They are now called “the squad.”

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Toby and Taylor’s first little angel, whom we called “Sweet Potato,” found a home with some lovely ladies and an animal-loving girl.  (Picture is TobyMac & Sweet Potato)

Sunday, we came home to discover that Taylor had done it again!  She had birthed triplets!

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One is a mottled gray-brown color.  This one looks just like a squirrel (she’s not, I promise, we watched Taylor birth her!)

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One is multicolor (black, brown, orange, and white), this was the youngest.  Jaquline is holding this one.

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One is pure tan just like TobyMac.

These beautiful babies haven’t been named just yet as they are brand new and smaller than Sweet Potato was at birth.  (Guinea Pigs usually have twins, but their offspring are larger if single and smaller if triplets.)  These tiny babies were about 1/10th of mama’s size.  Taylor is a very good mama, and has burrows in the nest for all three of them to hide and snuggle.  Baby Guinea Pigs are super curious as soon as all their adult Guinea Pig elders lick and groom them clean.  (Even Avery, our second adult female, was helping Toby and Taylor groom these three adorable fluffy balls!)

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Now we get the joy and privilege of raising these little animals.  Three little Guinea Pigs.  Kimberly (Avery’s official owner) plans on saving some money to make another Guinea Pig run and if one of these littles are a male, she’ll keep him for Avery to pair up with.  Of course, Jillian has claimed ownership and caretaking of the next one they keep.   Kimberly and Jillian are now mapping out money-saving goals to have $80 for materials in six weeks.  I see lots of lawn-mowing and car-cleaning in their near future.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

Watching Fish

Interesting colorful “feeder” goldfish in the girls’ community tank.

August 17, 2018

Watching Fish

Becky and Kimberly have a little tank in which they keep trying to grow fish.

Once, (after collecting fish slowly over about a year) they had about a dozen Platys (live-bearing freshwater fish) in four different varieties with two plecostomus (bottom-feeding suckermouth catfish) and two Siamese algae-eaters (bottom-dwelling freshwater fish).  It was a very colorful tank.  They had plants in the top and bottom levels for hiding places (needed for baby fish).

Lucas watched them feed the fish about three times a day.  One day, he dumped a mega can of fish food in the water.  Although they tried to save the fish, unfortunately, only a few recovered.  Lucas watched them “Save” the fish with the fishnet and thought he could replicate this with a milk cup.  We found the remaining three Platys floating in the milk cup.

The tank became a water plant tank for a month or so.  (They slowly saved up money for new fish.)

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A few weeks ago, Becky and Jillian bought some colorful feeder goldfish and feeder minnows to join Ooh (the remaining Plecostomus who had hidden in the shark decoration for over a week so they were super surprised when he was seen in the “plant tank!”).

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The tank has Nemo and the big shark in it, along with some other Nemo stuff, a unicorn laying against the wall like she’s sleeping, a snail, and beach shells (I do not know why the unicorn lives underwater).

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The little goldfish have animal names like “Tiger” and “Gazelle.”

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They have beautiful coloring!

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Aren’t animals amazing?  The girls love watching the interaction between the fish (and, they are so funny sometimes!) and play-talking what they are saying.  These conversations go something like this:

“Tiger: Food! Food! That tall giant is feeding us that flat stuff that looks like dead leaves but tastes gourmet!”

“Gazelle: You actually eat that?”

“Tiger: (while chomping away) Yummy yummy yummy!”

“Ooh: Why don’t you hide from the giant things?”

“Gazelle: Only the hyper one.”

“Tiger: The hyper one?  It isn’t as scary as the smudgy black one.”

At this point I laughed at Becky’s monologue.  “Becky, what is the smudgy black one?  I get Lucas is the hyper giant.”

“Mom,” Becky laughs and points at the fishtank.  Prim (Christina’s 4-year-old Aussie Mix) is standing in her new favorite spot between the fishtank and the couch.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

 

Fireworks Over the Matanzas

July 8, 2018

Fireworks Over the Matanzas

Ask any of my kids what their favorite day is one answer will be… “Fourth of July!”

Why?

Because we always go downtown to watch the best fireworks show ever! (Okay, maybe I’m a little prejudiced because I live here, but I get a travel magazine and it listed our “Fireworks Over the Matanzas” as one of the top 5 annual fireworks shows!)

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We make is a production! (Yes, that was not this year, but our longest “train!” because it included me – taking picture – and the buggy!)

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(Jaquline at the Fireworks Over the Matanzas years ago – photo credit, my amazing friend, Stacy Moorehouse)

This was the first year we went without the baby buggy – took a foldable wagon instead. And yes, it doubled as Anastasia’s buggy from the van to downtown and Lucas’ back to the van.

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We bring snacks, water (hydration, as Christina calls it – thank you, Civil Air Patrol), juice (Becky wanted juice to refill the water bottles this year), and lots of energy! The girls always make new friends at the bayfront.

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This year a new friend family from Atlanta, Georgia shared their bag of glowsticks with the girls and Lucas! (This made them very excited! As you can see, Lucas made glasses to “see very far away.”) Even though Christina said she was “too big” for glowsticks, between Becky and Kimberly, they had her wearing one! (Kimberly has “a pirate earring” and Christina is covering her bracelet!)

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Finally, after enjoying awesome music (before the city music came through the speakers, we could hear Evan D’s music from Harry’s! He’s a local artist I like to hear.), playing and talking with new friends, snacking on lots of fruit and sweet potato chips from Currie’s and Aldi’s, and having Aunt Becca join us, we got to the main event

The best fireworks show on the bayfront! (I can’t record more than about 22 seconds at a time on my camera, so we only caught a few snippets of the show, but it was amazing!)

We trudged home, (Lucas slept in the wagon, in a picture back up there^ somewhere) laughing, singing, and enjoying our family time! Oh, and yes, Lucas fell asleep during the fireworks! 🙂 I was so excited and even mentioned “this is the first year everyone is awake to see the fireworks!” haha! Then he was out.

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Will we face huge crowds, packed potties, and no-see-ums again? Oh yes! And look forward to an amazing 6 hours or more next year at our special bayfront spot, making new friends and enjoying each others’ company!

We love the City of Saint Augustine’s Fireworks Over the Matanzas!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Guinea Pig “Toddler”

June 30, 2018

Guinea Pig “Toddler”

Since we had a baby Guinea Pig (Sweet Potato) born on the fourth of June, we’ve been studying Guinea Pig growth.

Oh my, do they grow fast!

Not only do these amazing animal moms deliver live babies with a full coat, open eyes, claws, and teeth, but the baby is about 20% of the mom’s size.  (About 10% to 15% of her weight though.)

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Sweet Potato’s mom is Taylor (Picture is mom & baby)

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Her dad is TobyMac (Picture is dad & baby)

At 22 days old, Sweet Potato learned how to go down the ladder from the hutch where she was born to the ground to graze on grass (Guinea Pigs are better tractors than chickens!  They graze grass down to about ½” tall and then squeal because they want more!).  The girls have now stopped calling her a “baby” and claim she’s a “toddler” Guinea Pig.

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The girls have been loving on Sweet Potato since she was born.  They snuggle with and coddle all three adults, but Sweet Potato is the sweetest.  She knows how to tickle!

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One day soon, Sweet Potato will find a lifetime home, but for now, the girls love “raising” her so she will keep being sweet and friendly!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

Red n Rex Company

June 28, 2018

Red n Rex Company

So I just discovered the name of our chicken flock: Red n Rex Company

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This is Red (Rhode Island Red Rooster)

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This is Rex (Plymouth Barred Rock Rooster)

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And this is Company (all the other hens, but all the colorful ones like our Buff Orpingtons, Pheonix, and an Easter Egger are not in this picture).

Red is a newcomer who has claimed Prissy and the red hens as his.  Rex didn’t like that, but we love it because Red will make full blooded Rhode Island Red babies!

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These are some of Rex’s baby brood, notice the full-blooded Plymouth Barred Rocks.  Next batch will have some of Red’s full-blooded Rhode Island Reds!

A cock-fight (the two roosters stare at each other and fluff up their feathers until one backs down) erupts.

Red is the dark side.  (He’s red)

Rex is the light side. (He’s got some bluish feathers)

I’m listening to the girls narrate Jedi battles as they watch the roosters negotiate over hens.

I am inspired by their vivid imaginations.  And, yes, we are a nerdy family… who else sees lightsaber battles when roosters are doing the wing thing?

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

Welcome Sweet Potato

June 8, 2018

Welcome, Sweet Potato

The girls started a new project: guinea pigs.  Christina saved and bought a female from the pet store.  Rebeccah and Kimberly “rehomed” two females whose family was going overseas.

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We built a big cage for them to graze and roam in.  (Guinea pigs hop like bunnies when they are really happy!) Well, “Ginger” was really “TobyMac.” Since all three of these animals were happily living in one cage together – Taylor surprised us with “Sweet Potato.”

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(Now, the girls know for sure how to sex guinea pigs from birth so they won’t be fooled by a salewoman again.)

Now their guinea pig project has become hand raising babies to sell.  They are gorgeous!  Baby guinea pigs are born with open eyes, full fur, claws, and teeth!  They are about 20% of the adult’s size but 10% of the weight (they are skinny, long things).

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Sweet Potato stretches to look half her mom’s size, but when she curls up in a cute little ball, she’s so tiny – about the size of a ping-pong ball.  By weight, she’s only 10% of mom’s size.  Baby guinea pigs grow super fast.  Between three and six weeks, they are independent.  They actually start trying to graze the first day!  About 3 months, they are adult size!  Males get bigger than females.  However, TobyMac is only 4 months old so he is still smaller than the over 1 year old girls, Taylor and Avery.

The girls are super excited to “spoil” Sweet Potato for a few weeks so another family gets a loving, cuddly, super sweet little pet!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

Cousin Bonds

April 6, 2018

Cousin Bonds

I love watching the awesome relationships between my children and their cousins.  Cousins are something like siblings you don’t live with.  They know you, accept you just as you are, enjoy normal everyday things with you, and share one set of grandparents.  For my children, their cousins are their best friends.  My children are very fortunate to have most of their cousins close by.

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The bond seems instant.  From crib days, they are inseparable!

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They spend long minutes to make bubbles stick to another’s hair as a “crown.”

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They turn part of the back yard in to an aerial picture (after two studying about the Hopewell Indians and mounds).  Their picture was dugout, in the shape of an elephant and a duck head, created to “hold wasted water.” (The photographer, Rebeccah, and Kimberly who had studied the mound builders, explained while building that this wasn’t heaped up dirt, but it  would look good from above.)

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Sometimes fun is just looking through a magazine together.

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Cousins turn long car rides into parties!

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When Grandma joins in, cousin time is even more fun!

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Cousins share passions with each other – like a love for waves, wind, and water! (Yes, the dots in the cool March water are most of the sister-cousins!)

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When cousins move away, the distance doesn’t stop the love that they have for each other.  Even Lucas, who was two when his “baby Isaac” moved to the Midwest, still talks about “when Isaac and Mandy and their baby come play trains with me.”  (He’s never seen his “baby” cousin, JJ, except in pictures, but he loves him anyway!)  The beauty of cousin love is when they reunite, it doesn’t matter time, distance, or changes, each is so excited to see the other and they seem to instantly pick up where they left off; like the best of friends.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

Memory Hop to 2015

March 23, 2018

Memory Hop to 2015

I love the memory thing on facebook that will show posts you’ve made years ago.

This one was from March 21, 2015:

What totally amazes me about babies and pregnancy is that no two are ever exactly alike. This pregnancy has been so “chill” because Baby sits posterior and only really moves when one big sister starts taking “Baby’s space” by snuggling on my lap – then we laugh at the strong kicks, elbows, or whatever that bounce Jillian or Jaquline like a trampoline! But on the first day of spring, this little one decided to surprise Mommy with Braxton-Hicks contractions – you know, the fake ones that are like your body toning up for the big event. So I went checking in my journals and can’t find any of the others who started Braxton-Hicks contractions this early. Just a few “rock tummies” (that’s what Jaquline and Rebeccah call the contractions because my tummy gets hard) but enough to make me decide to increase my calcium, iron, and magnesium intake! (yummy, no wonder I’ve been wanting broccoli and dark greens!)

I feel so blessed and so small when I consider all the amazing things God does within us to craft a beautiful little person! One thing I have discovered to be true: a baby’s personality is already there even as he/she is in the womb. I can “feel” a glimpse of what my child is like before they are even born. It makes me feel so humbled to be entrusted with this little one’s nurturing and protection while he/she is so small and dependant. Oh, well, just some random thoughts.

Return to present thoughts:

That was when I was pregnant with Lucas James. I’m sure now that some of the kicks and elbows were actually headbutts. He was my little “freezer” because with him I was always cold. Even in the Florida summer, my insides would feel cold!

It’s three years from that memory… my little baby is almost three years old! I’m so blessed to be my children’s mother! I love memories about them (why I keep journals). Life is precious and time runs by quickly.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Meet Tawny

The backstory of the little dengee adopted by Alena in A Foundling Furball. Meet Tawny:

January 18, 2018

Meet Tawny

On Devonia, a world far from here, but more deserving of the name Earth’s Twin than Venus, a dengee (a strong, wolf-dog-like creature) female birthed a litter of pups.  One of those tiny, sightless, nearly deaf, fluffy balls was a tan-brown female with black rings on her tail and black markings.  Her first two days of life were normal for any dengee pup.  She shoved her way to her mother’s warm belly and warmed herself inside and out with her mother’s milk and thick soft fur.

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But then something unexpected happened.  She was too young to understand, but the lead pack male was forced out by a trio of incoming younger, stronger males.  In the dengee world, those males would then destroy all of the previous male’s young.  Although some of the mother dengees had been wounded while trying to fight them away alongside the pack male, others resigned themselves to their fate.  The new trio of males, one lead pack male and the other two his cohorts, hunted down and destroyed all the six dens with the old male’s pups.

What the pup knew was that mean teeth snapped at her and a rough angry paw tossed her out of the warm den and into the cold early morning where it was just as dark to those with open eyes as it was to her blind self.  Miraculously, the tiny female pup, now heavily injured, managed to elude her pursuer and slide into the edge of a frigid creek.  She called for her mother.  She cried will all her might.

Her new mother heard her cries.

Alena Summers, a human child fishing on the bank of the Ice Cube Creek that early afternoon, heard the pitiful calls of this lonely baby and followed the sound.  Joseph Taylor, another human child, swam into the cold water to rescue the blob of tangled fur from her prison in the bushes on the edge of the water, and there Tawny became a ward of the humans.

This little three-day-old dengee pup whose eyes had never seen her own kind was rescued from drowning by two children and warmed in her new mother’s soft apron.  Tawny’s life had already been so full of turmoil!  Even on the bank after being rescued, the other children considered tossing her back because dengees were deadly foes to the humans – attacking their livestock and more than once, even the humans themselves.  Thankfully, Alena wouldn’t have that; she took full charge of this tiny creature.

With slow, tender, loving care, Tawny’s wounds will heal.  Four days later, at only a week old, and without yet opening her tiny eyes, little Tawny will face another challenge as the council of elders on Devonia has to decide if Alena can keep this dangerous animal.  Of course, Alena and her friends will swear that this pup is nothing dangerous – but that remains to be seen.

For now, Tawny, the newest member of the Devonian settlement of Covenant, is resting with warm Brown-Sheep milk digesting in her belly laying on a soft rag-blanket-bed on straw in the Summers’ barn listening to the sounds of Alena’s pretty lullabies, Brown-Sheep ewes, and baby lambs and dreaming of new warm sun on her body and the soft, warm love of her human mother.

If you want to read about how Alena, Joseph, and their friends find and rescue Tawny, you can read A Foundling Furball!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

 

Trip Planning

Ever wondered what kind of things Moms think about when they are planning to get in a vehicle? Length of trip doesn’t matter!

December 28, 2017

Trip Planning

We have to be at a distant location at a specific window of time on a specific day.  Easy enough, right?  Wrong!  Everything in our house is a sporadic adventure! 

Mom: It’s only an hour and two minute drive.

Christina: Then we leave at 8am.

(We are not supposed to arrive at said location until after 11am.)

Mom: Oh, no.  If we leave by 10, we go right by Grandma’s, pick her up, get lost, make 5 potty stops, and still have enough time to get you there.

Christina: Ahhhh! *facepalm*

(I think my teenager loves me.)

Seriously, I have learned a few things about planning trips with toddlers, teenagers, and husbands:

  • Plan to leave at least a half hour before you need to go (this allows for shoes tossed into the pond, a preteen sleepwalking back to bed four times, finishing any last-minute chore like making the list, and misplacing your keys which are already in the running vehicle)
  • Always pack like you will be gone for a week (diapers, wipes, four spare shirts, at least as many pants as diapers, spare shirts for anyone who may be carrying said baby, carrots and apples so you don’t get trapped by fast-food hunger, and 2 or 3 cases of bottled water should do it)
  • Whatever you do, plan 10 minutes extra to turn around (you forgot something you can’t leave home without – like baby’s special blanket, your toddler’s choice toy, your preteen’s library card, your sanity, or your husband’s totally non-standard phone charger)
  • Remember your wallet! (and make sure some toddler didn’t remove your license because he loves to play with mommy’s picture – that will be the day you will be pulled over for a faulty brake light or an oddly rocking vehicle)
  • Count heads (the children, toddler in carseat, hubby, take the dogs back inside, catch toddler who turned into carseat Houdini, now missing two! Oh yeah, hubby is unlocking the door for one who forgot to go potty)
  • Enjoy your 5 minute shopping trip! (or your entire day of travel)

Bonus fact: Music calms savage beasts and makes your vehicle a noisy dance-while-in-seatbelts rocking machine. Maybe DC Talk, Skillet, and Capital Kings are a bit rocky, but everyone dances to Deadmau5 and Disney.  As long as you have your license, roll down the windows, crank up the music, put on shades, and enjoy the ride!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

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