kittens and goats..

This picture was taken a week ago, they're so much bigger already.

Today has been a trying day for myself and the momma cat, Layla. Overnight she developed mastitis in one of her mammary glands and today she is in much pain. The poor thing can hardly move a muscle, and won't move faster than a sloth. She hasn't eaten since last night, and is avoiding nursing her kittens.

I found a syringe in the barn, and have given the mewing babies a few drops of cows milk each, just to content them. The hubs was at a meeting all day and is picking up the medication for Layla, and the kittens will be getting some milk replacer until their momma can feed them again.

They are so adorable with their big heads and wide blue eyes. They've just begun to wander off their blankets and it looks like they're swimming once they squirm over to the hardwood. Pretty darn cute. If I was a little more insane than I already am, I probably would have decided to keep them all. Then you'd be able to call me the crazy cat lady. (or maybe you already do...)

Yesterday was a fun family outing. (I'd like to say it was a red-necks dream come true...but I recently learned that red-necks aren't really funny slack-jawed yokels, sometimes they're bad people. So...for future reference, my interpretation of 'red-necks' are slack jawed yokels, with a fondness for all things 'down home'...like us farmers, we like to fix everything ourselves, eat our own animals, find fun in the barn, and spread manure like nobody's business...ahhh, jus plain ol' red-necks)

Anywho, back to my story. Yesterday was a family outing that for this family, was almost better than Disney. (...who am I kiddin', there ain't nothin' better than Disney). It was the (dun dun Da....) 'Jersey Barn Tour' Woo-hoo!

It involves touring farms in the area that have a Jersey cow herd, and are willing to have strangers walk through their barn. It was a riot. ...but really, the kids loved it. Wanna know what I loved? the chocolate milk, available at every stop...usually served with fresh cheese, muffins...some had grapes, and others had pepperettes. Mmm mm.

At every stop we would sit upon the straw bale at the door and shove our feet into the large baggie style booties that were provided (to help lessen the potential of cross contaminants between farms) and we'd shuffle our way into the main barn and look at the cows, calves, cats, dogs, bunnies and goats.

Gabe was quite taken by the Australian Shepard with only one eye...he kept telling us that the puppy had an eye infection, and needed to see Diego. I on the other hand was quite taken with the baby pygmy goats ( no bigger than a small cat and so very sweet)...I was even asking the 14 yr old boy who helps his daddy raise them, if they were for sale. I kept poking The Hubs, but to no avail...he was too interested in the levels of fat the fellow farmer was achieving in his cows milk.

It was a beee-autiful day, to boot. The sun was shining and the mud was flowing, I was smart enough to put my children in rubber boots, but the Hubs told me to wear comfy shoes because we'd be doing a lot of walking....why is it that I listened to him? I came home with brown shoes. They were black at the start of the day.