Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[2dream]

Is this her first litter? Did you say that and I missed it? I am still a little crazy. She will be fine so just relax. I can't wait to see the pics. But sure glad its you and not me. LOL

BTW - you children are beautiful. Love the pic of your little boy at the barber shop. And your little girl will get hair. I had a cousin that was almost completely bald until she was 5. We still laugh at all our baby pics. of us together. She looks just like a little boy with a shaved head dressed up in a frilly dress. Now she has the most beautiful hair and all the rest of us cousins have horrible hair. We are all in our 50's and her hair still looks like a teenage girls.

 

[lorihadams]

It's Maggie's 3rd pregnancy but second litter. She reabsorbed the first litter...we had an ultrasound but there was only 2 or 3 puppies and lots of fluid so the vet told us that she would probably not have any. She said that that sometimes happens with the first pregnancy. Her last litter she had 8 and we lost the runt. So 7 beautiful, healthy puppies.
I actually have pics from her first litter on BYC. I'll have to put a pic on here too. She is still laying around a lot and is sticking pretty close to me. She is laying all over me which is a little unusual. I'm hoping that she'll have them by the end of the weekend. My husband is taking the kids out of town to my grandmother's house for the weekend and I am staying here with her to get a much needed break from my kids...love em but I need some time to myself. I'm hoping to finish Brisingr, the 3rd book in the Eragon series, this weekend.
I'll definitely post pics when she delivers...she had a pretty easy time last time and she's a really good mama and Tonka is a really good daddy too....lets the puppies bite him and play all over him.

I had a funny experience with the chickens the other day too, I went out my front door and heard clucking (this is odd because the chickens are in the back yard). I didn't see them at all but i could hear them. Well, I looked under the front porch and lo and behold all 8 of my chickens had squeezed under the front deck and were pecking at the cat food that had fallen through the cracks! Then today, I went out to put the recycling in the bins on the back porch and 3 of my hens were coming up the back steps for a treat. They're getting pretty bold these days. Pretty soon they're gonna be pecking on my back door for food!!!

 

[2dream]

Don't think they won't peck on that back door. My hubby says mine have ESP. I can start to the backdoor with treats and they come running when I walk across the floor. (To be honest they come running even if I don't have treats). I guess because we are on a pier and beam construction they hear me walking to the back door and they automaticlly assume "TREAT". By the time I get to the backdoor they are all crowded around waiting. I can't walk thru them - If I don't have treats they follow me around like little puppies - clucking and begging.

Can't wait to see pics of your babies.

 

[FarmerChick]

Do you sell them? I know she will probably have alot of pups huh?

My friend Barb had dobermans. She would have 1 litter a year and sell the pups and made great money! Always kept that money under her mattress and saved for something great she wanted to buy, like a new saddle, bridle and other tack and such. just wondering....

 

[lorihadams]

Yes, we are hoping to sell the pups and pay off part of our credit card. I hate debt....Everytime I turn around I keep hearing myself say "I guess we'll have to put it on the credit card".

We owe about 4500 and I can't wait to get rid of it. We also have a 1972 Volkswagen superbeetle that I am thinking of selling. I want to get at least $3500 out of it because we have that much in it but it needs a little tweaking. My hubby hit a deer and did some body damage to the front end that we got repaired but we haven't painted it yet and I don't want to put the money into it if we're just going to sell it anyway. Otherwise it is in great shape. Hubby drove it to work when his truck started acting up. Now we have a new SUV so he is driving my old car to work and we still need to get rid of his old truck, 93 ford ranger that needs some engine work. At this point I am willing to donate the truck just to get it out of my yard. I was hoping I could sell it for parts but I have to look into it.

Our last litter we sold 6 of the 7 pups...gave the last one to our neighbor down the road. We pretty much did the same thing with the money from that litter too, come to think of it. Just paid bills...boring huh? I'd love to go buy a new sewing machine but it's just not in the cards right now.

I have to HAVE the puppies before I can SELL the puppies!

Still waiting on Maggie! She's been licking some today so maybe we're getting closer!!! Cross your fingers!

Lori

 

[2dream]

Fingers crossed and hoping for a big litter that sells for top dollar. Enough to pay off that credit card and maybe some left for saving for the sewing machine.

I know thats a lot of puppies but hey, who knows. A girl can wish the best for friends can't she.

 

[FarmerChick]

good deal having the dog help the household...LOL...Barb, being a farmer, always lives by the rule that if you live here, you contribute...HA HA...so the dogs had to produce a litter to help..HA HA

plus she enjoyed having those pups for a bit!


yea I hear ya on credit cards...I had over $30K on them for the farm. Drove me insane. Now I am down to the last $6K I own and will never use them again after I pay off that last $6K...ugh...been paying for over 6 years now...UGH....I know big time what you mean!
LOL

hope the pups and momma do well!

 

[lorihadams]

PUPPY WATCH 2008

Okay so her temp dropped to 99.5 this morning and she has been peeing a lot but also drinking a lot of water and cannot get comfortable for more than 20-30 minutes on the couch...keeps switching positions. I'm gonna take her temp again later and hopefully she'll progress tonight and tomorrow we'll have puppies!!!

On a lighter note, I am finally at home BY MYSELF for a weekend for the first time in YEARS. This is the first time I have ever been away from both of my children overnight, ever. My youngest is almost 2.

Also, it is starting to snow!!! I am so excited...my kids are 2 1/2 hrs west of me and it is already snowing like crazy there so it is due to really hit us later tonight. I can't wait to see what my chickens do when they come out of the coop tomorrow and see snow for the first time!

OOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhh I just looked out of the window and it is really starting to come down now!!!!

We don't get snow that often anymore here in Va...if we do it only lasts a little while and melts. We haven't had a good hard snow in a while.

Can you tell I'm a little excited???

 

[lorihadams]

I had chimed in on FarmerChick's journal and told her that I was jealous...My great grandmother's farm is up for sale but there is no way in h*** that I could buy it....$15 MILLION. No, I'm not kidding. She had 97 acres and 3 miles of waterfront on Smith Mountain Lake, here in Va. If I ever won the lottery my dream would be to turn it back into a working farm. We have a deal in the works so we took lots of pics of all the old barns and outbuildings and of all my Papa's tractors and such and I thought it might be interesting to share some of the pics so you guys can see where I spent all my weekends and summers growing up. I still have some of my great grandfather's handmade tobacco sticks! I use them to hang my quilts on, very country looking.

Here's the old chicken coop

here's one of the pack houses

This is the meat house where we would hang meat to cure

Here's my great grandmother's house and my Papa's 4 antique John Deere tractors

This is what's left of the milk house and two story barn behind it. Hurricane hugo took out the barn...some of the old milking equipment is still in the milk house (rusty looking building)

We had 3 tobacco barns...the first was "the pit" where we dried the tobacco and the second was where we continued to cure it and the third was for storage

So, you can see why I have a dream. I can remember playing in the barn as a child and going hunting for eggs and chasing the cows and chickens. Great grandaddy used to milk by hand twice a day. We raised tobacco, corn and cows for meat and milk. Later, once the lake was put in by Appalachian Power, we started a trailer park and rented out waterfront lots on a yearly basis while continuing to farm. Eventually, it was more profitable to rent out the land and my cousins used the land primarily for hay and the outbuildings started to really go downhill. When the property is sold it will be divided between my grandmother and her 3 sisters and 1 brother. I will miss it, my children love it there and we go every chance we get. Granny lives on one of the waterfront lots in a very nice doublewide and we go to see her a lot.

Someday, I hope to have a place like this of my own...my little piece of heaven. Thanks for looking and sharing my memories with me!

Lori

 

[FarmerChick]

WOW I had no idea....almost 100 acres for that much money...LOL

Tony's dad is selling 19 acres for $2 million something. Yup, walmart wants it on the corner and bought up all the surrounding lands to build it. Ralph is getting $30,000 per year to contract and within 2 years they figure water and sewer will come down the road and finalize the deal for walmart. Fuinny thing is the money don't faze him one bit. Old timers, they just don't think of money like my age does..HA HA HA

great pics. I enjoyed seeing them!!!!!


once sold and divided, that old time history is gone. seems so sad yet progress must continue...everything changes, what else can we do right?
your memories are precious! you are lucky to have them!