We're on Baby Watch...

We've acquired several animals on our farm over the past couple of years, and the time has come for the cows and the ewes to have their babies. So far we've had three calves -- two little bulls and a heifer. But today we had a new experience - our first lamb was born.



It's a little female lamb, and the funny thing is that she is black when both her mother and her father are white. She makes the cutest little bleating sounds, and her mother makes these soft, low sounds. Lily named the baby "Fluffball," which doesn't seem all that appropriate right now, but maybe some day!

Now we're just keeping our eyes on the rest of the cows - I certainly hope the rest of the babies arrive with no more trouble than these did.

Apple-head Update

It's been a week since the last update and two weeks since Lily started her apple-head doll. The apple has now developed a personality!



When Lily was cutting the mouth in the apple, I didn't want to say anything to discourage her, but the mouth was obviously off to one side. However, as the apple dried and shriveled, the mouth sort of migrated so that now it looks like a twisted smile. Her apple looks like a kindly little old soul!

If we're going to make a doll out of this, we need to put a body with the head. Anybody have any suggestions as to how to do that?

Fun Both Before and After

As it turned out, we didn't get any ice, after all. We consider ourselves most fortunate when we see the damage that was done in Northwest Arkansas. Many people are still without power.

Although we didn't get the bad stuff, school was still cancelled two days for my husband and kids (this is Arkansas - sometimes the threat of bad weather is enough to call off school!). As usual on a snow day, my daughter got in a "crafty" mood and pulled out the kids' science experiment books. She settled on the experiment to make an apple-head doll. So I went to the crisper and found a Granny Smith apple that was starting to shrivel a little. And we embarked on the project of making the head for a doll like a little girl Lily's age might have had two hundred years ago.

I peeled the apple for her (she's still a little young for something that takes that much control of the knife). But I let her carve out the face by herself. The mouth was a little tilted off to one side, but that's part of the charm, right? The directions in the book said to paint the apple with a mixture of lemon juice (to bleach the apple's skin) and salt (I suppose to help start the drying process). Then we set the apple aside to dry.

Well, it's been a week, and the apple now looks like this: It's definitely smaller, and the features are more exaggerated. It's quite obvious now that the mouth is off-center! But the lemon juice seems to be doing its job; the apple hasn't turned brown, except for the very bottom. She must not have painted that area as thoroughly.

I suppose we just keep watching to see how shriveled it will become. I'll post an updated picture (if it's worth seeing!)