may is here!

ahhh another may! The weather is warming up, the grass is getting green and most importantly...we are almost done with babies!!! I am so SICK of babies!! Baby ducks, baby goslings, baby chicks, baby turkeys, baby rabbits, baby goats, baby.....ugggg enough cuteness already! LOL okay so it really isn't that bad, I love the babies! Just not taking care of them. We're almost done incubating this year though. We have some chickens and a ton of turkeys left in the incubator and that's it! All of the baby rabbits went fast and we have one left that was born just a few days ago. All the ducklings are "sold" and just have to go home. There are but 4 goslings left.

The goat kids are settling into the feeding routine nicely. Get let out, run to the barn, run into the pen, devour grain, get milk, run back to pasture, get treats, try to maul lady giving us food, settle happily into sleep or play. Do this twice a day.

Josh is home now and has a new companion. Her name is Dolly and she's a mini-donkey. It gives him someone to hang out with but he is not "into" her like he is another horse and consequently pays great attention to us when we want to work with him. He went to the horse expo here and got a touch up on his training and doesn't seem to be as spooky anymore, but then things are always spookier in the winter :) We found a cheap round pen at a neighbors and will be working on some groundwork and on cart training this year.

I have an extra child I am "babysitting" this summer. She gets dropped off at random times and the mother doesn't bother to get me a schedule. If I point blank ask I will get told that she works 6-6 but she wont pick up the kid until 9:30 or 10! Also, there are lots of issues in the home and I never know what to expect. I can have her for a week solid and by the 3rd day she will be using the potty regularily without being told (she's 4) and will have great manners, but if she goes home for a few days in between my days the first day she's back with me she whines, cries, throws tantrums, wets her pants, etc...It's frusterating to say the least. Her mother seems to point fingers at everyone else and says her kids are the way they are because of their dad, her boyfriend, her sister, grandma, etc...but then when she's home with her kids she sticks a movie in and "hides" in her bedroom and the kids run wild. There's 3 kids total. The youngest and the one I tackle daily is a 4 year old girl. The others are boys, one is 7 and one is 10. I refuse to watch them. The eldest is out of control, destructive, a bully, and a troublemaker. The younger boy is still correctable and given the proper environment he settles down but greatly seems to resent it. The girls (hers and mine) were having breakfast this morning and S (her daughter) says something that I couldn't understand about a shotgun to L (my 3 year old daughter). L looks at me and asks if we have a shotgun. I flat out lied and told me child no, that we didn't have any guns. S then looks at me and says "I'm gonna shoot my mom". What the HECK!! A 4 year old!!! There's so many problems with that family and it seems like no one cares and no one will do anything. They talk to the other kids that live with them that are older (8,12,16) and "hear" from them that everythings "alright" and take it as such and no one investigates. Even when R (her 10 year old boy) got shot in the eye by the 8 year old with the air soft. Everyone took it as playing and no one did anything.

Grandma and grandpa are trying but there's only so much they can do. Grandma has called all the schools and told them what's going on but they talk to the kids and decide that there's nothing that needs to be done. *sigh* welcome to my life.

More another time, hopefully about improvements around our place not about the emotional problems that everyone on the ranch now has lol