You might be a goat farmer ...if rain sends you hurrying from a restaurant in the middle of a meal.
You might be a goat farmer ...if your idea of a pedicure involves snips and a headlock.
You might be a goat farmer ...if your idea of recycling means sending your castoff furniture to the pasture.
You might be a goat farmer ...if you think any woman wearing clothes smaller than a size 10 needs a good dewormer.
You might be a goat farmer ...if your idea of romance involves a lot of huhuuing and lip curling.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
older picture of Violet with a bottle baby
We have had 22 babies in June! Still have 2 or 3 does left to go and then no more babies till the end of Nov!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
I've decided insanity might be a requirement for goat farming...
Being farming folk 10:00 p.m. is bedtime almost any night and especially during kidding season when getting up a few times during the night is just a fact of life. As we were settling down to sleep we heard a light rain begin to fall and since we have 7 babies less than a week old...we hopped out of bed, donned shoes and went out in our jammies to locate babies and make sure they were tucked in the barn. Congratulating ourselves on a job well done we were once more almost settled in bed in clean nightclothes when the rain began blowing in the window I keep cracked during kidding season to hear the calls for help more easily. Richard had gone back to the living room to turn out the light we had left on when the wind started whipping, lightening flashing, and thunder booming!!! It was a fireworks display to rival any 4th of July display at the Wright City Rodeo!
"Are we under a tornado alert?" he called from the front room. That seemed to be the sign the heavens were waiting for! The rain sarted coming down in a driving sheet to add to the fireworks display which was the only thing still visible more than 6 inches in front of your face. We both grabbed shoes and off we went again. Any 6 year old knows one doesn't go out into that kind of lightening but I kept trying to reassure myself that at least I was wearing rubber shoes!
Richard ran to the truck to make a circle and check the outbuilding and make sure no goats were out in the rain. He came back and shouted to ask me if that was goat in the middle of the pasture. I couldn't even see what he was talking about but I could see a cluster of white bodies, our prize year old doelings, complete with one of my last year bottle babies huddled under a TREE of all things. What I couldn't see was the shelter they were supposed to be under!!! I kept pointing my flashlight in that direction trying to make it magically appear. I still can't believe how long it took me to realize that it wasn't there. But realizing that seemed to unfreeze my legs and they took me in a direction I couldn't even believe I was going! I grabbed the closest bucket as a bribe and started off at as much of run as I could go with the wind and rain pushing me along TOWARD the goats huddled under the tree. Richard went to open the gates that would allow them to get to the big barn and then came to assist me in my stupidity!
neither of us could get those goats that will normally do anything for a morsel of food to budge from the perilous shelter of that tree!
Realizing that lightening strikes all around should probably tell us something along with the body of the one poor doeling lying in the middle of the pasture stone cold dead, we eventually gave up but not before our clothes were so wet and heavy my pants were sliding off from the weight! Richard had the flashlight so I grabbed up my bottle baby on the way back to the house!!!!! Yep, it is true that when you are frightened you can do strange things!! That girl weighs really close to a 100 pounds if not over and I picked her up and carried her at least 50 feet! Fifty feet INTO the wind and rain that had helped my journey out to the tree. Blinded by the rain because this was the one night that I had actually taken my contacts out and my glasses were useless! Richard was trying to get me to give the goat to him but it finally dawned on me that I was bonkers so I put her down and dragged her another 50 feet, by that time the poor girl had decided we were crazy and it was closer to the house than back to the tree, so she happily ran with us the rest of the way.
Yep you got it. We really did bring a year old goat right into the house with us. And yes I dried her off before I dried myself!
For a horror story this one does have a somewhat happy ending. As soon as the lightening stopped and the rain let up to just a steady downpour the other girls made their way to the main barn without any assistance except for needing to be led the last part of the way and helped with the barn door and yes I did take the bottle baby to join them in the barn and Richard and I are back in the house making the attempt to get to sleep one more time! And me, well I know that once more we are blessed...
The barn that blew away...it is a mangled mess in my neighbors pasture, although I really don't know how bad it actually is but I suspect that Portahut is a goner ..but who cares...at least all the goats but one made it!
Just another day in the life of the crazy goat woman and her husband.
"Are we under a tornado alert?" he called from the front room. That seemed to be the sign the heavens were waiting for! The rain sarted coming down in a driving sheet to add to the fireworks display which was the only thing still visible more than 6 inches in front of your face. We both grabbed shoes and off we went again. Any 6 year old knows one doesn't go out into that kind of lightening but I kept trying to reassure myself that at least I was wearing rubber shoes!
Richard ran to the truck to make a circle and check the outbuilding and make sure no goats were out in the rain. He came back and shouted to ask me if that was goat in the middle of the pasture. I couldn't even see what he was talking about but I could see a cluster of white bodies, our prize year old doelings, complete with one of my last year bottle babies huddled under a TREE of all things. What I couldn't see was the shelter they were supposed to be under!!! I kept pointing my flashlight in that direction trying to make it magically appear. I still can't believe how long it took me to realize that it wasn't there. But realizing that seemed to unfreeze my legs and they took me in a direction I couldn't even believe I was going! I grabbed the closest bucket as a bribe and started off at as much of run as I could go with the wind and rain pushing me along TOWARD the goats huddled under the tree. Richard went to open the gates that would allow them to get to the big barn and then came to assist me in my stupidity!
neither of us could get those goats that will normally do anything for a morsel of food to budge from the perilous shelter of that tree!
Realizing that lightening strikes all around should probably tell us something along with the body of the one poor doeling lying in the middle of the pasture stone cold dead, we eventually gave up but not before our clothes were so wet and heavy my pants were sliding off from the weight! Richard had the flashlight so I grabbed up my bottle baby on the way back to the house!!!!! Yep, it is true that when you are frightened you can do strange things!! That girl weighs really close to a 100 pounds if not over and I picked her up and carried her at least 50 feet! Fifty feet INTO the wind and rain that had helped my journey out to the tree. Blinded by the rain because this was the one night that I had actually taken my contacts out and my glasses were useless! Richard was trying to get me to give the goat to him but it finally dawned on me that I was bonkers so I put her down and dragged her another 50 feet, by that time the poor girl had decided we were crazy and it was closer to the house than back to the tree, so she happily ran with us the rest of the way.
Yep you got it. We really did bring a year old goat right into the house with us. And yes I dried her off before I dried myself!
For a horror story this one does have a somewhat happy ending. As soon as the lightening stopped and the rain let up to just a steady downpour the other girls made their way to the main barn without any assistance except for needing to be led the last part of the way and helped with the barn door and yes I did take the bottle baby to join them in the barn and Richard and I are back in the house making the attempt to get to sleep one more time! And me, well I know that once more we are blessed...
The barn that blew away...it is a mangled mess in my neighbors pasture, although I really don't know how bad it actually is but I suspect that Portahut is a goner ..but who cares...at least all the goats but one made it!
Just another day in the life of the crazy goat woman and her husband.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Dylan drives the tractor
Richard and Dylan went for a tractor drive to check the fencelines and so Dylan could learn how to drive. Tamara says he always wants to drive the truck and they ask him if he has his driver's license?They had a blast but since Dylan was really doing the steering we had to patch a small hole in the fence afterwards. They were happy to report that the fence was in really good shape all the way around...before they passed by!
It was a small hole though and when Dylan gets his real driver's license we'll have something to tease him about and the patch in the fence to prove it!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Kidding thrills and chills...
My last year's bottle baby is going to kid...just any time.
Yesterday her udder was strutted and she was calling her kid. That should have meant she would kid within 24 hours but I guess her mother didn't tell her how this business was supposed to work....oh wait, that would be me!!!
So knowing that she might be a bit under prepared since she was a bottle baby and spent the first month of her life in my living room and all the other rooms once she learned to escape her crate...I've been checking on her regularly, at least once an hour.
I've decided the old adage about a "watched pot never boils" is true. However, there are still benefits to my attention to her needs.
This just happens to be the day we decided to clean the main barn for the first time since Winter has passed. Now our barn is 40X80 and while much of it can be cleaned by tractor there are the kidding pens, all the edges and small areas that have to be cleaned the old-fashioned way...with a pitchfork, barn shovel, and 2 foot metal rake and since I have chosen not to learn to drive the tractor guess who gets the privilege of manning the pitchfork!
But since I "had" to go spend a few minutes watching Isis, the mother-to-be, each hour to make sure she wasn't showing any signs of labor, I managed to sneak in a short break that my loving husband missed. I think that is only fair since I'm older than he is! :)
Amazing that even with all those breaks my poor old body feels like someone beat me up when I wasn't looking. And tomorrow will probably be even worse! Gotta learn to drive that tractor or potty train these goats!! :)
Yesterday her udder was strutted and she was calling her kid. That should have meant she would kid within 24 hours but I guess her mother didn't tell her how this business was supposed to work....oh wait, that would be me!!!
So knowing that she might be a bit under prepared since she was a bottle baby and spent the first month of her life in my living room and all the other rooms once she learned to escape her crate...I've been checking on her regularly, at least once an hour.
I've decided the old adage about a "watched pot never boils" is true. However, there are still benefits to my attention to her needs.
This just happens to be the day we decided to clean the main barn for the first time since Winter has passed. Now our barn is 40X80 and while much of it can be cleaned by tractor there are the kidding pens, all the edges and small areas that have to be cleaned the old-fashioned way...with a pitchfork, barn shovel, and 2 foot metal rake and since I have chosen not to learn to drive the tractor guess who gets the privilege of manning the pitchfork!
But since I "had" to go spend a few minutes watching Isis, the mother-to-be, each hour to make sure she wasn't showing any signs of labor, I managed to sneak in a short break that my loving husband missed. I think that is only fair since I'm older than he is! :)
Amazing that even with all those breaks my poor old body feels like someone beat me up when I wasn't looking. And tomorrow will probably be even worse! Gotta learn to drive that tractor or potty train these goats!! :)
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Heifer International
Okay, I know my posts are usually much more lighthearted but I wanted to share this. Richard and I have actually officially decided to give to Heifer International and made our first donation. This program has always appealed to me much more than more conventional charities because they are not...Instead of sending money each month to "support a child" they advocate teaching the people to support themselves. I find that exciting. Giving people a chance at a better life and at the same time allowing them to pass that chance on to others.
I missed the April Pass it on month but since everybody knows I'm a bit behind...I'll just "pass it on" in May!
I missed the April Pass it on month but since everybody knows I'm a bit behind...I'll just "pass it on" in May!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Cat Scratch Fever...
If you have 140 goats on 20 acres you are going to have to supplement them with feed. And if you have feed sitting around then you are going to have mice...
So we weren't too concerned when a neighbor moved off a year ago and left us with a mama cat and her little white kitten. It was even cute when she had more kittens a few months later, six this time. After all, the first white kitten had gone the way of any pet you actually WANT to keep--Cat heaven.
We were so proud of her mice-catching ability and glad to see that her kittens were gaining the same prowess until my daughter who is much more knowledgeable about animals than I am, announced that Mama Cat was going to have more kittens, prefaced by, "I thought you were going to have Mama Cat fixed."
"I am," I said, "I've just been busy". Well needless to say she was right and I had waited too long and so Mama Cat greeted us the other day with 5 new baby kittens.
This blessed event happened a couple of days after somebody had dumped three dogs at our driveway so I was feeling a little overwhelmed. This put me over 150 months to feed when you counted the goats, dogs, cats and us.
We decided we would ask everybody we knew if they wanted a dog. Instead one lady said she would like to have a couple of mousers. Well, we could sure fix her up.
I smiled at Richard's need for my superior cat-catching skills when he said he tried to catch one and it scratched him and got away. The secret, I told him, was about feeding them in the big cage we have for transporting a single goat and then we would move the ones we wanted into the small dog crate to deliver.
Food got all the cats in the cage and I smugly opened the door and removed the ones that weren't taking a trip; one at a time. While some of them tried to run away from me since there was still food in the cage, I didn't get a single scratch.
My loving husband asked if we should go ahead and move the two destined for a new home to the smaller crate but they were munching away on the remaining food so I decided, in my great wisdom, that we would leave them in the larger cage overnight.
That was where my plan took a wicked turn. Those cats plotted all night about how to get back at us for leaving them trapped in the cage. I caught the first cat by surprise and popped him in the crate with hardly a hiss and scratch. The next one was a different story...you've heard about a tiger by the tail...well trust me, I think a cat might be just as bad. Not only was it clawing my arms and biting me...I couldn't get it OFF! A leech doesn't have anything on that cat!!!
Needless to say the lady had to settle for one mouser and I had to go to work and confess I had been attacked by my cat!
My friends were quick to point out that cat scratches were very dangerous and could result in cat scratch fever and I should hurry to the Dr. for a tetanus shot which I did, only to hear from the Dr. after she gave me the shot, that tetanus was less of a problem than cat scratch fever...which the shot didn't protect me from!
So now my scratches and bite marks are starting to fade away but at least for the next couple of days I won't be able to forget my less than noble experience because of the sore shoulder I'm still sporting from my tetanus booster!
To add insult to injury instead of getting proper sympathy from my daughter---she asked in true wonder---"didn't you use a towel to grab it?"
...Now why didn't I think of that!!!
So we weren't too concerned when a neighbor moved off a year ago and left us with a mama cat and her little white kitten. It was even cute when she had more kittens a few months later, six this time. After all, the first white kitten had gone the way of any pet you actually WANT to keep--Cat heaven.
We were so proud of her mice-catching ability and glad to see that her kittens were gaining the same prowess until my daughter who is much more knowledgeable about animals than I am, announced that Mama Cat was going to have more kittens, prefaced by, "I thought you were going to have Mama Cat fixed."
"I am," I said, "I've just been busy". Well needless to say she was right and I had waited too long and so Mama Cat greeted us the other day with 5 new baby kittens.
This blessed event happened a couple of days after somebody had dumped three dogs at our driveway so I was feeling a little overwhelmed. This put me over 150 months to feed when you counted the goats, dogs, cats and us.
We decided we would ask everybody we knew if they wanted a dog. Instead one lady said she would like to have a couple of mousers. Well, we could sure fix her up.
I smiled at Richard's need for my superior cat-catching skills when he said he tried to catch one and it scratched him and got away. The secret, I told him, was about feeding them in the big cage we have for transporting a single goat and then we would move the ones we wanted into the small dog crate to deliver.
Food got all the cats in the cage and I smugly opened the door and removed the ones that weren't taking a trip; one at a time. While some of them tried to run away from me since there was still food in the cage, I didn't get a single scratch.
My loving husband asked if we should go ahead and move the two destined for a new home to the smaller crate but they were munching away on the remaining food so I decided, in my great wisdom, that we would leave them in the larger cage overnight.
That was where my plan took a wicked turn. Those cats plotted all night about how to get back at us for leaving them trapped in the cage. I caught the first cat by surprise and popped him in the crate with hardly a hiss and scratch. The next one was a different story...you've heard about a tiger by the tail...well trust me, I think a cat might be just as bad. Not only was it clawing my arms and biting me...I couldn't get it OFF! A leech doesn't have anything on that cat!!!
Needless to say the lady had to settle for one mouser and I had to go to work and confess I had been attacked by my cat!
My friends were quick to point out that cat scratches were very dangerous and could result in cat scratch fever and I should hurry to the Dr. for a tetanus shot which I did, only to hear from the Dr. after she gave me the shot, that tetanus was less of a problem than cat scratch fever...which the shot didn't protect me from!
So now my scratches and bite marks are starting to fade away but at least for the next couple of days I won't be able to forget my less than noble experience because of the sore shoulder I'm still sporting from my tetanus booster!
To add insult to injury instead of getting proper sympathy from my daughter---she asked in true wonder---"didn't you use a towel to grab it?"
...Now why didn't I think of that!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
