Harsh reality of winter

Before bed last night, I told our 12yob to check the animals outside just as soon as he got up. (He's usually the first riser)
This morning, he went out and brought in two little goats that were perishing from cold. He thought they were the pair that were born last week, but I took a look at them and said "These are new ones!"
I quickly put them into warm water, but he female died while the water was running. Thankfully, at least we were able to save the buck. He shivered for a while in the warm water, and then we let 4yog hold him while he finished getting warm. It was very satisfying when I put my finger into his mouth, and he eagerly started sucking. Even though he was still cold, he was still in good enough shape for his sucking instinct to take over!
Still, it was sad to see such a perfectly good kid die just because we weren't aware she was born soon enough.
Yet that's how it is in the middle of winter and a wet newborn animal is born. The mother had tried to dry her off, but she couldn't do it quick enough in the single digit temperatures.
Good thing 12yob went out when he did! We would have lost both if not.

Probiotics for fungal infection

I thought I'd mention that we've learned that not all sickness is bacterial or viral. In the past couple of years, we've tried using herbs/remedies/supplements that would take care of bacterial or viral infections, without relief of symptoms. My husband figured out that those kinds of infections are more likely fungal. When we get to that point, we have gone to using a probiotic. Almost always, it has helped within a day of starting them.
We've decided that this is what we have right now! Ugh. We started some yesterday, in the form of 3 large cartons of plain yogurt and 1 small portion of Dannon's "Activia". It already seems to have helped some, but we need more. Unfortunately, this time of year, many of husband's patients are in need of them, so his inventory is out. The kind he sells has the probiotics with the added benefit of cellulase, which is an enzyme that actually cuts the cell wall of the fungus (or yeast, which is a fungus too).
I think I'm going to start feeding everyone some kefir grains. Though this won't have the cellulase, at least we'll be keeping up on the probiotics.
Last night, we learned what prebiotics are. They are food for the probiotics! My husband brought some home, and we mixed them with the milk. The company we got them from is Standard Process, and the name of the prebiotics is "Prebiotic Inulin". It's got chicory root fiber, and it's meant to be digested in the intestinal tract instead of in the stomach.
Garlic is one thing that is antifungal, antibiotic, and antiviral. So even if probiotics aren't readily available, at least garlic is!
It does seem that we fact this kind of thing every year, when milk supply is lower and we have so few fresh veggies.
I guess it's just a part of mid-winter, but at least this knowledge has helped us. Maybe it will help someone else out there.

Our week

There are nine (visible) people in this family, and right now, eight of them are sick! Man, if you've got a handful of children, the germs just have a heyday all at once.
This has been a hard week, especially making sure the chores get done. I feel awful that I'm not any help to my guys. But what can I really do, when I'm only 6 weeks away from having the baby?
(Imagining myself toppling over under a cow, trying to milk! Can't feed the pigs, sloshing around in the mud might be hazardous to my already iffy center-of-gravity!
Can't haul water. Can't haul grain. The only thing I could do is gather the eggs, but the chickens aren't even laying.)
So what can I do to help them except cook and do laundry??? I will be SO READY to have the baby, and be the only one in my own skin.
On a brighter note, our first set of goat kids was born on Thursday. A buck and a doe, black, with white spots, brown eyebrows, and brown stripes on the legs. They are adorable.
Today, 9 and 12yob's think that another goat and the ewe are in labor. Their reasoning? "Well, you know, their hole got bigger!" LOL (Oh, dear, perhaps that's not fittin' for publishing? -But they're FARM kids, it's necessary to pay attention, even if the vocabulary isn't quite scientific!)
We've finished reading Huck Finn, and now we're half-way through Tom Sawyer. I feel like my children have lost all grammatical propriety. Even my 4yog has been caught saying things like "NO, that AINT how it happened!"
--groan in the heart of a 'sivilized mother!
Ah, we've just got a triple dose of cabin fever:
-winter keeps us in
-sickness keeps us in
-for me, pregnancy keeps me in
I'm looking forward to spring...even though it's so much work to get things planted. Green grass, sunshine, open windows, children playing and shouting outside (instead of inside in my ears).
It will be nice to see the seasons change

Necessary Yucky mud boots

I had a quiet day at home with my two littlest children Sunday due to illness, while everyone else went to church. It has been such an incredibly long time since I had such a nice length of peace and quiet!
Though it maybe wasn't spent as a day of rest, it was restful to me to put in some time doing some detailed cleaning. Appliances were cleaned out and wiped down, etc. etc.
One of the jobs that was accomplished was a simple mopping. Boy, what a difference a mopping can make! I had to ask myself, "Why am I doing this?!" The mud and the snow being tracked in by 9 people will only reappear in a few hours!
But for the afternoon...I had the peaceful joy of looking at that cleaned wood floor with the afternoon sun shining on it! I could walk in my kitchen in my socks and not be perturbed with little things sticking to them. Of course, once everyone came home, the cleanliness was all gone. But I had it for a couple of hours!
We have so many dirty mud boots. They are a necessity, and there is no place to keep them in the winter than right at the front entrance to our home, which is 2 feet from the entrance to the kitchen. Those dirty mud boots have been a grating nuisance to me for so many years! But, you just have to accept some bad things, when they are just a by-product of the good things, right? If we didn't have all these nice children, there wouldn't be the boots.
Today, I read this poem, and it said just how I feel about our boots:

What a sorry sight of boots I see!
Boots, boots, boots strewn all about,
Dry boots, wet boots, with liners out.
Barn boots, school boots,
Mud puddle-cool-boots,
All these boots for my big family!
Big boots, little boots, boots in-between,
Black boots, dirty boots, boots that are clean.
Rubber boots, snow boots,
Everywhere-you-go-boots,
Little-people-boots tell a story to me.
The old and worn, and the nearly new,
So many boots, what shall we do?
Work boots, fun boots.
Lost-the-other-one-boots--
What a happy, healthy clan are we!
Let's make a row of boots real neat,
Thanking the Lord for all these feet!
Now they are fine boots,
All-in-a-line-boots--
What a pleasing picture those boots can be!
-MJZ

The poem was found in the February edition of Young Companion, and I'm just guessing that MJZ is a mother of many, like myself, who has struggled to find joy in yet another of a mother's life of messes!

We made some tasty bacon

Last night we were able to taste our first batch of successful bacon.
16yob had watched the Mennonites during their butchering, and learned how to cut it, so he's basically been in charge of the whole thing.
When I was reading about how to soak the bacon in a brine, I learned that the main reason nitrates are used is to preserve the red/pink color of the meat. Otherwise, salt does just fine. Kind of makes me mad to think that we'd be eating a possible carcinogen, just so our meat is pink instead of brown!
So, after 16yob cut the slabs of bacon we soaked them in this solution for 2 weeks:
4 lbs salt and 1 lb brown sugar in 2 gallons of water, with about a whole head of garlic chopped up, floating on the top.
Our attempt at bacon last year was unsuccessful, because there was a moldy taste to the meat. We had only soaked it in a salt/sugar brine. 16yob suggested back then that we put garlic in the brine to prevent the mold. This time we tried that, since garlic does retard mold, and it worked very well!
So, we had the cured bacon with dinner last night, and it was very good. I can't imagine what it would be like if we had smoked it too.
If you've ever noticed the difference between homemade bread and storebought, or homemade jams vs. storebought, I think the difference in the bacon is comparable.
It had a rich, satisfying taste that was new to me. Similar to what we've had before, but more substantial.
We're still just amazed at how far a hog will go. Maybe that sounds silly, but it's interesting how much more use you can get from a hog, than from any other animal.
For instance, the part of the bacon that was cured but had only fat...well, the old timers would use that to flavor their baked beans! Not much goes to waste.