“But Jesus said, ‘No, go home to your friends, and tell them what wonderful things the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.’ “
-Mark 5:19
During the beginning it sometimes felt like this day would never come, but during the past 6 weeks God’s faithfulness has never failed. Today I am happy to announce that Evie is finally home!
Just wanted to let you all know that Evie is doing really good today. She definitely is a strong fighter! My dad says she has “Evie-tude”! 🙂 Last night she was a naughty girl and pulled her feeding tube out. As long as she keeps eating this can actually be a good thing because that means she’s eating totally from a bottle or Mom! Here’s a couple pictures of Evie, completely “tube free” (no ventilator, cannula, IVs or feeding tube!!), and a picture collage that my aunt put together. If you would like to visit Evie’s Facebook page, just click on the link here.
Hello dear readers! Most of you know about the crazy journey my family has been on since February 25th. The last time I posted here feels like a lifetime ago! Since things are finally slowing down a little, I finally have some time to write about what’s going on.
For those of you who don’t know, my sweet sister Evangelene is a very special baby. She was born with a right sided Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. CDH is a birth defect that occurs in about 1 in every 2,500 babies. It pretty much means the baby has a hole in its diaphragm. Your diaphragm is a special membrane that separates your organs and chest cavity. Since Evie was born with a hole in her diaphragm some of her organs  were up pressing on her lungs.
When she was first born the doctors realized something was wrong when she wouldn’t start breathing. She had to be intubated (put on a ventilator) and rushed to Children’s Hospital in Buffalo. What followed was a very scary time to say the least!
On Friday, March 1st Evie had surgery to try and correct the CDH. The doctors hoped to put her intestines back down where they belonged and sew up the hole in her diaphragm. What they discovered was that Evie was more unique then they thought. Not only did she have CDH, but she also had Hepatic Pulmonary Fusion, making her  1 of only 8 babies in the world! Hepatic Pulmonary Fusion means that Evie’s liver was also up in her chest cavity and was joined to her lung.
Although Evie may be classified as having a “defect” it is obvious that she is a perfect baby girl and God is holding her right in the palm of His hand. It’s weird, even though I would never wish for the road my family has been on, I am also grateful for the many blessings God has given us in this hard time. The love and prayers of our family, church and friends has been incredible! The flow of meals and offers of service has been amazing. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for and been there for us!
Through this difficult time God has been so good! Evie’s liver is still joined to her lung, but it was discovered that each organ has its own separate blood vessels. This means they may be able to be separated at some point. Evie is no longer getting help from the ventilator or nasal canula, and is completely breathing on her own. Her feeding tube is only being used at night, during the day my mom is able to feed her. She no longer has any needles, IV’s or PICC lines poking her! All my family can say is glory and thanks be to God for His faithfulness and protection!
Evie continues to wow everyone who comes in contact with her. Thank you for your continued support and prayers! If you would like more timely updates about her progress you can check out her Facebook page: For the Love of Evie.Â
OK guys, I’m no longer referring to calves. She, as in MY NEW BABY SISTER, has just arrived! Evangelene Lorraine Richmond weighs 7 pounds 6 ounces and is 20 Â inches long.
I’ll post some pictures once Dad has a chance to send me some. Just wanted to let you all know!
For those of you whose heart just skipped a beat, thinking I was talking about my mom, I do apologize. Just so we’re clear, I DON’T mean my dear mother. Nope, I’m talking about my Jersey cow Ruby who just gave birth to twin heifers (girls)! Although my mom hasn’t delivered yet, she is in the hospital right now and we’re expecting a phone call soon!
Since Dad and Granny are with Mom, I’m holding the fort today. While I was making lunch my uncle sent me a text and told me that Ruby had calved (given birth). I asked if the baby was a boy or a girl and he said girls. I simply assumed that the plural girls was a typo, since it is very rare for cows to have more than one calf at a time. According to the University of Tennessee, there is a less than 1.3% chance a Jersey will give birth to twins. When Uncle Chuck texted me again, he asked if I wanted him to feed them. My heart raced a little at the word “them”, but I shrugged it off as meaning feed the  calf colostrum and Ruby some post-calving electrolytes (which is something we sometimes do if we think the cow needs it). When I asked him to clarify he said Ruby had given birth to twin girls!Â
I am so excited about this double blessing! Here are some pictures of the little sweet hearts! I wonder what I should name them? Any suggestions?
I promise to post pictures of Mom’s new baby as soon as she arrives!
Bury me in my boots, yeah that’s the way it’s gonna be,
Cuz’ nothing on earth can take this farm girl life from me.
The days when life is boring are far between and few,
Nowhere else in the world is the sky so big and blue.
We are the land’s caretaker, with planting and harvesting sense,
That’s why the grass is always greener on our side of the fence.
The air is always sweeter with the wind blowing in my hair,
If there’s a more perfect place you’ll have to take me there.
Out here the trucks are bigger, the tractors always red,
No abode was ever dearer than the good old homestead.
We work out in the field putting dried hay into bales,
But employee of the month is the creature with the tail.
Whether climbing in the mow or playing in the mud,
No one ever understands how farming gets in your blood.
The eggs are always warm; the milk is always fresh,
A little piece of heaven if I had to guess.
Sure the days are long and the work and toil is rough,
But we’re farm born and raised and built of sterner stuff.
We can brave the ice and cold and take the heat and sun,
We do our labor of love until the job is done.
We aren’t afraid of slivers or measly paper cuts,
We can carry calves on our shoulders and pull tractors out of ruts.
But even when it’s hard and the push comes to the shove,
This is the life I choose, it is the one I love.
So bury me in my boots under a canopy of sky,
Because I will be a farm girl until the day I die.
-Michaela
September 5, 2012
By the way, not only was this post inspired by my love of farming, but also because my favorite pair of rubber boots that were actually cute blew a hole and started to leak. If anyone knows of cute rubber boots that are built for actual farm work (as apposed to just being a fashion statement) please let me know!
“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.”
-L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”
-C.S. Lewis
You heard me mention in this post, that I met a new friend named Emily at the Mumford Civil War reenactment. Well after I had recovered sufficently from the fair I had her over for a visit. I had a wonderful time showing her the farm, teaching her how to sew Civil War undergarments, getting to know each other better and discovering all the things we had in common. We even got to go flying in my neighbor’s Cessna 150 air plane!! (I had never been flying before) and I got my miniature horse Lucky!
Emily is a wonderful photographer and was constantly snapping shots at my house. She kindly gave me a disc of the pics she took. Here are some of my favorites and a couple that aren’t on her blog. You should totally check out her blog here to see some more, plus other awesome photos she’s taken!
(note: these photos are all Emily’s awesomeness. I didn’t take any of them.)
We’ve been exhibiting animals at the Erie County Fair my entire life. In fact, Dad has shown cows there every year since 1975! Since I bring my goats, pigs and cows I literally live at the fair for the entire 10 days. It’s a lot of fun, but also a lot of hard work. At 5am I have to get up and milk the cows, then clean out their beds, give each one of them a bath, feed them and sweep up. Then I have to head over to the goat and pig barn and do all the same things for them, and that’s just the morning chores! Thankfully my dad, Addie and Marcus all show animals as well. We all work together to get the jobs done. By the end of the fair you’re definitely tired! (that’s the understatement of the century 🙂 ) Here are some pictures we took during the fair!
Here’s a pic of our “show string” as it’s called. In other words, our cows relaxing on their specially tended beds. My dad may never make his own bed, but he takes very particular care that the cow beds are made perfect.
My favorite part of the whole fair was definitely winning Jersey Grand Champion with my cow Annabelle!! I never in a million years thought I would! For those of you who don’t know much about showing cows, Grand Champion means your cow was the best one at the fair out of their breed (in my case the Jersey breed).
Here are the pictures of our windmill raising! The turbine went up on June 29th and we pretty much turned the entire day into a big barbeque/party. All our neighbors came to watch it go up!
I went out in the pasture to get some clear pictures of the tower being raised. The crane operator from Benchley Cranes was seriously awesome, my dad says the operator could have buttered toast with the end of his hook.
Well I’m finally posting about an important event here at the farm. We built a wind turbine! Since we live on such a high hill and are in direct line with Lake Erie we always have lots of wind. After doing research, wind power seemed like a great option to utilize all the wind we have, save money on our electricity bill, and be green at the same time!
The 50 kw turbine we put up is our own personal windmill (not like the humongous ones owned by power companies). It should offset about 80% of the electricity we use.
The actual building process took 6 months, but we’ve been planning the project for over 2 years. The ground breaking took place in December, when the footer that anchors the windmill to the ground had to be put in. An excavator dug the pit to hold the 3 legs of the windmill. A tractor trailor load of rebar and 8 cement trucks of cement were used for the footer!
The Farming Daughter 