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This month we got some new animals. This
is Daisy, a Nigerian dwarf dairy goat. Daisy was very mellow, which
was unusual from what we were reading about how crazy goats are. She
just hung out. And then got diarrhea and we couldn't seem to fix it.
We thought at first it was because the girls fed Daisy some rice
cakes, but we thought, aren't goats supposed to be able to eat
anything? So we called up the
lady we bought the goat from and she said, all my goats are sick
too. It turns out Daisy was sick from the get-go, so we returned her
to the lady, but we're not giving up on goats
just yet. We're still looking for a couple more goats that are happy
and healthy.
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We also bought some baby Delaware chicks.
Delawares are supposed to be friendly and they don't get too big,
4-5 pounds. We bought six, but only three have survived so far. |
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I'm currently building a chicken-coop for
them, it turns out chicks grow pretty fast and have out-grown their
box, so I'm under the gun to finish it. It's not too hard to build a
chicken-coop, in case you're wondering, but the material costs do
add up. |
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We went with my sister Sue to
ZooMar's Petting Zoo in San Juan
Capistrano. Naomi's been there before but I haven't, and it was
pretty cool (if not expensive). Amelie is showing Sam one of their guinea
pigs. |
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All the kids did the pony ride, even
Desmond. The handlers there are pretty cool, they walk the ponies
around and pose the ponies for us to take pictures. That's Sue's
other boy Henry on the big pony. |
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Desmond got this Chinese hat from a friend
of ours that had just returned from China, and he hung onto it for the
entire ride. |
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It's nice having a bunch of pets of our
own so the girls know how to handle them. We also go to the 4-H
bunny meeting and they teach the kids all about bunnies. |
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We loaned out my new Canon 5D Mark II to
the lady who went to China, so I was shooting with my old Digital
Rebel, and it turns out that the stock camera is actually pretty
light. So when I got my honking big 4-pound 5D back, we gave the
Digital Rebel to the kids to use. Desmond was having fun with it and taking some outstanding
pictures (not really). I have to say, though, this is such a Lorenzini
photo. Everybody on my side of the family is a photographer, it's in
the blood. Every one of my siblings has a DSLR, and my brother Joe
is an actual professional
photographer (not really). In Naomi's family, it's just the
opposite, nobody has the slightest interest in it. |
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ZooMar's added a mining station where kids
can pan for fossils or shiny rocks. They sell you a bag of dirt with
different kinds of things in them and you dump it into your tray and
then wash away the dirt to see what you get. It was pretty cool and
I wanted to set something like this up in our front yard (once I
finish building a chicken-coop). |
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The goat hay box I built for the bale of
alfalfa hay we got for the goat ended up going unused by the goat,
but Amelie and Mia decided to turn the hay into a bed, complete with
hay pillow. We're
feeding the rabbits the hay so it's not going to waste. |
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With the hot weather, the kids have turned
the rabbit burrow we dug out into an impromptu swimming pool.
Desmond, though, won't wear his swim trunks, he insists on wearing
one of the girl's bathing suits. This one is Mia's, but he also
wears Amelie's. |
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He also likes copying the girls, so he's
wearing their hair band as well. He certainly has the long hair for
it. |
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We bought a DVD on how to cut hair, since
Amelie and Mia have been cutting my hair for a while now. Amelie
really enjoys cutting hair, so we're going to buy her wigs to
practice on. Amelie is
trimming just a bit of Mia's hair, but notice Amelie has given
herself bangs. |
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Naomi recently learned how to French
braid, so she braided Mia's hair (since Amelie won't let us braid
her hair). I love the lighting in this picture, it was taken using a
flash but you can't really tell. The Canon 5D Mark II is
honestly the most amazing camera I've ever used, I have to say. |
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We celebrated summer solstice at a friends
house, and one of the rituals is to jump over a fire. The fire pit
was a bit too big for Desmond, so on his own he lit the candle and
jumped over that. I thought that was pretty creative of him. |
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We celebrated the 4th of July at a friends
neighborhood block party, just like the ones I grew up with. It was
a lot of fun, and since last year the professional fireworks show we
went to kinda sucked, I wasn't missing out on a whole lot. I do like
the big boom, though. This is a 1-second exposure where the flash
fires right away to light up Mia, then the long exposure kicks in to
capture the fireworks sparks. |
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This is a Morning Glory that Mia is using
to write on the ground with. |
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I swear, both of these guys grow up too
fast. |
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Until next time, when we have even more
goat! |
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