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Old Fashioned Fun

This past weekend, while also my birthday weekend, was the annual Fall Festival for our school district.  They put on a haunted house and each of the classes and organizations sponsor a booth that either hosts a game or sells items.  There were lots of things up for silent auction, including some bizarre items... which my friend won in the bid :)

 

In case you can't read that, it says 750 square feet of tile.  Custom celing tile. 

 

My two youngest, both in high school, are in 4H and as such worked the 4H booth – for my girl that meant her time was split between being a yearbook photographer and 4H and working her class booth and 4H.  We were so well staffed, in no small way thanks to my son, that she got off the hook and had a whopping 15 minutes to relax between the other two gigs. 

My son, though… he worked the 4H booth almost the entire evening and made it fun!  While there were moments he was selling things left and right, there was still plenty of time to relax and have some giggles.

 

 

He even let a small child “pet the horsey nose!”   What a great kid! 

There is a lot to be said for simple clean fun for any age to enjoy. All you have to do is allow yourself to enjoy it!

An Important Lesson

My middle child, and only daughter at home these days, went out to help me feed and milk last night since my husband was going to be late getting home and in the process she learned something very valuable.  Always Latch the Gate!

I was finishing up with the milking, and she had collected the eggs… what few there were since we have some sort of bandit stealing eggs these days.  The donkeys were waiting for their hay and the kids were finishing their meal in their dining room. (stall)  Balvenie had been moved back to her pen since the not-such-a-good-mama when the girls were babies decided to be a too-good-mama and let them keep nursing though they are now four months old. 

I asked my beautiful daughter to pop into the house and bring back the cordless drill so that we could make a quick repair to the gate while I finished with Gerie.  She is so wonderful and did just that, even taking the eggs with her to go ahead and get them in the house.  When she returned, I was releasing Gerie from the stand and my daughter said “Um, Mom?  We have a problem.” 

I asked her if she had trouble finding the drill.  I could get it if needed.  She said, rather awkwardly “No… that’s not it.  Here’s the drill.  But I … well… the girls are in the back yard.” 

A vision of baby goats cavorting in the back yard filled my mind, as did a hilarious vision of trying to round them up!  So the next question was a giggling “Did the babies escape their stall already?!” 

“No Mom.  Penny and Lulu are in the back yard!  I didn’t latch the gate because I was only gone for less than a minute!”  Poor girl was really a little upset and embarrassed. 

Gerie was done and turned loose, and Melanie picked up a lead rope ready to go bring the miscreants back to the barnyard.  That’s fine for Lulu, since she is one of the sweetest donkeys ever born but Penny is only two years old and leads like pulling a Toyota behind you!  Plus, both girls were so excited at the grass “on the other side of the fence” that they were feeling more than frisky! 

I picked up another lead rope and tucked Gerie into her own stall for a few minutes.  We proceeded to the back yard and opened wide the now repaired gate.  As predicted, the ladies were more than reluctant to return to their own side of the fence and dodged and skipped about like acrobats.  Finally, up by the raised herb bed, Lulu sighed and waited for me to loop the rope around her head like a makeshift halter and lead her back to the barnyard.  I swear, she was pouting!  I was ready to drive Penny back into the barnyard if she wouldn’t  allow herself to be haltered but Melanie kept the gate open.  Lulu laughed out loud and ran back to the greener pasture of the back yard. 
 

Once I stopped laughing I showed Mel how to swing the rope to drive the girls back.  After a protesting kick or two, thankfully not making contact with anyone or anything important, Penny started to move off.  Anywhere except near the gate!  Lulu just ran like she was queen of the world!

We did get them in the corner nearest the gate finally, and Mel took up a steady stance by the entrance while I pushed from behind. 

She swung her rope wide, beating the ground in a steady low thump and at last my lovely long ears were back in the pasture!  Mel looked at me and said “Yeah… I’d rather herd goats!” 
 

She’ll never forget that lesson though!

Insanity... It Runs in Some Families

This weekend was a landmark weekend for our kids… goat kids, that is. Time has passed so quickly that we really didn’t realize how big they were getting until Sunday morning when we decided to put Gerie in the pen with the babies and see if anyone tried to nurse. 

Those little darlings are 4 months old now, and though Tess and Charlotte each gave it a single attempt, Aberfeldy didn’t  even consider trying to latch on and nurse.     A glimmer of hope did arise then that they would be moving in with their mamas and our morning processes would be streamlined. 

Next, in went Balvenie – she of butt biting fame.  Myra tried and Ophelia tried, then both gave it up when she ran off and they ran with her, bouncing off of her back, the ground and everything in the path all the while. 

RELIEF!!  Yes!  So we started with Aberfeldy, carrying him to the barnyard to supervise his first non-fenced interaction with the donkeys.  Lulu was her normal and wonderful self.  My little chunky-monkey was so good and so adventurous!  Lulu barely acknowledged him after a brief sniff.  Penny was intent on her hay, so paid him little heed until he got under her feet in an attempt to snag a wee bite… then she clocked him.  Well, not hard, but enough that he learned to stay out from under her when she’s eating. 

Next up were the girls who had a fairly similar experience.  Sweet little Charlotte (a.k.a., Lotty) even nibbled hay from the corner of Lulu’s mouth.  Penny was having none of that behavior though and became too aggressive.  She and Bill had a meeting of the minds, which he won.  Twice.

Then, Balvenie’s girls.  Keep in mind it was morning and I hadn’t bothered with a bra yet, they did their usual thing and climbed up on me to greet me. Myra likes to nibble on clothes, but she isn’t aggressive about it at all.  Ophelia did something she hadn’t done before.  She flat out BIT ME!  On the breast!  Missed my sensitive parts by less than an inch!  Oh Holy Mackerel that hurt!  Like grandmother and mother, like granddaughter and daughter.  Absolutely Freaking Insane!! 

So I grabbed the miniature nut-brain and Bill got Myra.   Once released to the protection of the donkeys it didn’t take long before all 5 little ones, now only about half the size of their mamas, were all capering about the pasture and running and jumping and in general being hilarious!  They learned that they can jump off of logs and that if Aunt Lulu tells them to head back to the barn, they’d better do it! 

And that insanity?  Balvenie is paying for her raising as much as I am.  Little Ophelia seems to express great glee in jumping on and off of her mothers back, just like Balvenie did on Cindy's back when she was a baby!  

Stress... and A Goat.

I have been more than a tad stressed for some time and this continued state plagued me when I went out to feed and milk last night. 

I knew I needed to go in and do some house cleaning and cook dinner, but the trough and watering buckets needed to be scrubbed.  After everyone had been fed, milked and loved, then the feed pre-set for morning, I began scouring the watering buckets in the kids pen and refilling them, then in turn cleaning the big trough in the barnyard. I finally began to fill the big trough and all the while fretted about all the other things that needed to be done. 

Just as you cannot hurry your coffee pot to brew faster, you cannot make the trough fill faster than the hose will spout that cool elixer of life.  There were no more than a couple of inches of water in the trough when I realized that everything that needed to be done and which seemd "so urgent" could wait a few minutes more.

I stood with the fence at my back and the hose held under one hand, both arms outstretched along the top of the fence in the lengthening shadows as the water streamed into the big trough. The temperature was about 78 degrees, a light breeze blew softly and all of the animals were content finally. 

Jonely the rooster was herding his girls toward their house, the donkeys were munching hay from the pallet manger, the babies which are now more like pre-adolescents were in their pen playing and eating, and Gerie was laying comfortably behind the barn.  Balvenie suddenly felt affectionate and walked up to me to have her cheeks and shoulders scratched, so I happily obliged.  Then true to form, my blue eyed girl rubbed her face against my leg.  She paused and looked up at me, probably asking if I loved her even if she was clown-car crazy, so I offered her more scratchy reassurance.  She moved in again as if to rub her face on my leg... Then she BIT MY BUTT! 

The sheer shock of it made me laugh aloud, which either scared her into skipping off or, more likely, she dashed off laughing to join the donkey-girls at a safe distance! 

PS: I never got around to cooking dinner - it was leftovers or fend for yourself - but my floors did get scrubbed! 

Not Through a Lack of Trying!

The last post I was able to make on her was August 6th, though it wasn't for a lack of trying!  I did try, and blogspot wouldn't accept text for uploading no matter what computer I tried it from.  So much has happened since then, so rather than try to catch up and hit the highlights I'm just going to forge on as if I'd been able to post all along. 

Okay, maybe I will do a little bit of catching up.  The babies are all thriving!  Gerie's kids: Tess is the quietest of all, and a little bit of shy, Aberfeldy (the only boy) has been castrated, and barely seems to notice, Charlotte (Lottee) is such a cry baby, and then there are Balvenie's girls.  Ophelia is quite the little bully, and generally accepted as her grandmother and mother all rolled into one.  She's also the only one that developed scurs after disbudding. Myra is fairly sweet, but is a loud mouthed and needy little girl.  They are separated from their mamas at this point, and thriving.  Once the urge to suckle has passed, they will join their mamas out in the pasture.

Neville, their proud papa is for sale since we will not be breeding him back to his daughters when they are ready next year. If this latest nibble pans out, he'll have a new home before the end of the weekend. 

We have plans for continued development, but will keep the big grand scheme to myself for a while. 

The barn has new stall doors, thanks to our awesome neighbor.  The open house and soap class went well, as did the laundry soap class that took place the next month.  And last... the new-to-us milk machine is absolutely wonderful!

Oh, and it's good to be back!

What a Pace!

This week... no, two weeks are full.  When we scheduled the open house for the 10th, we did not take into account that the week preceeding would be full with registrations for our kids in high school.  We based our timeline on when the babies would be at the right age and stage to have visitors.

Oh... and the kids are now getting to spend the night in their own pen, so we are Back In Milk!  Mama's get milked in the mornings then get to go back in with the babies.  We are trying to do this as naturally as possible while still maintaining our goals! 

Now, back to the regularly scheduled news. :)

We have had a few additional monkey wrenches thrown into the mix.  A flat tire that needed to be repaired.  A gate that needs to be built immediately. Another gate that needs to be repaired.  A fence brace that one of the donkeys broke (today!) to repair.  And a small roof repair to the small outbuilding (which will once again be the chicken coop once the weather cools a bit!) 

With the preparations taking place, we are squeezing this in.  There is still much cooking to do and the floors will need scrubbed and an outdoor table needs to be put up and a dozen or two other major things.  We are working hard at keeping up and seldom stopping before the sun has been long set each night. 

I love the work though.  My arms and shoulders ache, my back hurts, and I wish I had the time to work this hard every single day. 

Now to figure out how to add about 3 hours to each day!

(Chickens at roost well before we came in.)

An Open House

Preparations are under way.  The girls are ready to start being milked.  There are lotions and soaps to be made... and soon... so soon, cheese to be made!

And just as important... we are soon to host our first open house!  Visitors will get to come out and meet the goats, learn to make soap, and learn about what we do and why we do it. 

So pardon for a little while my limited posts of late (and limited posts in the next week and a half!) 

I'll post pictures and updates about the open house just as soon as I can!

Garden Goodies!

 

It was a good garden day... then we found this little skin (about 3.5 feet long)

 

The Single Worst Thing...

With all of the wonderful things about breeding and raising any animal, there will inevitably be one thing that is terrible.  The single worst part of breeding and raising goats has got to be disbudding the babies so they don't grow horns. 

As horrible as this is, it is the kindest way of dealing with horns.  Horned goats can be quite a danger to their handlers, other goats, and other animals.  They are also quite destructive.  Domestic goats aren't living in the environs that their wild cousins are, and their horns can cause far more harm than they would offer in the way of protection. 

When we had Balvenie and Chester, the disbudding iron had not come in yet.  By the time it arrived, their little horn buds had grown too much to be disbudded so they have horns.  That also means that their time with us will be limited because horned goats are dangerous, no matter how well handled and sweet they can be.  (Example 1: Balvenie didn't want to be caught one morning, so when I caught her collar, she dipped her head and caught my arm between her horns - twisted and gave me a couple of special bruises.  Example 2: Chester has walked up to Neville from behind and lifted the buck off the ground with his horns.)

What is disbudding you may ask?  Cauterizing the horn bud so that it deadens the root and horns never develop.  The restraining of the baby goat causes them to cry ... and then the disbudding causes them to cry.... and as soon as you are done, they act like nothing ever happened. 

At least this necessary awfulness is short lived. Each baby is done in less than two minutes, of which maybe 30 seconds is spent actually being disbudded and that's both sides. 

One down and 4 to go, as their horn buds begin to appear. 

And... Done!

Thursday afternoon we got home from work and when hubby and son headed back into town for martial arts, and I changed and went out to feed.  As I walked out to the does birthing pen, I blinked my eyes wondering why I was seeing double.  Why on earth were there two Aberfeldy's?  And two Tess's? 

As I got closer and saw that there were some differences - the second "Tess" wasn't painted - just a pretty champagne color with some grey markings, and the second "Aberfeldy" was not fully painted - only the heads were similarly colored and this little one had just a couple of small white spots. 

My instincts Thursday morning were correct - Balvenie had given birth!!  (She had been off her feed a little bit, and was extremely restless... I just knew she was going to give birth that day!)  She had already cleaned them up, dried them off, and was bleating softly to her little ones!  First time mama had her instincts in the right place!

The heat was bad, and the babies were new born and panting heavily without an interest in nursing.  Called hubby and had him pull our son from the martial arts class to come home and help out with cooling down the babies and get them on mama.  Once again, newborns in the house and mama as well to cool them down so they would nurse.  Once that was finally accomplished, and the temperatures came down they all moved back out to the doe pen. 

Meet Ophelia...

 

And Myra!



So far everyone is doing well, though Balvenie has become a little bit less interested in her daughters.  The babies are still learning that they can go to her and she will let them nurse, but she isn't the best about going to her babies when they begin to call for her. 

All three of Gerie's babies are now thriving!  They are putting on weight and growing every day, and starting to nibble on hay!!



Baby Update!

Everyone is doing well as long as the temperatures stay down to a reasonable level.  The little ones are even starting to emulate mama a bit!

At Long Last!

I've been trying to get this posted since Saturday, but blogspot was having some issues - or it just didn't like me.  (One more reason to move to wordpress, right?!)

At Long Last - We have babies!!  Ms. Gerie had triplets on Friday July 12, 2013. 

11:15 p.m. - Doe (light tan and white paint) -  named Tess

11:20 p.m. - Buck (black and white) - named Aberfeldy (though hubby calls him Lord Aberfeldy)

11:34 p.m. - Doe (Black with sable points)  - named Charlotte

They are a little bit premature, and it certainly shows, but were in overall good condition.  The heat on Saturday though was more than a little bit brutal.  All three were suffering from heat stress, though Tess had the worst case.  The poor babies were limp as dishrags, panting and not wanting to nurse. 

Without delay, we brought them all in the house along with mama (dogs safely shut in the living room). 

Our good friend came over and sat with us and the babies, and gave lots of moral support to us and love to the distressed baby goats.

As they started to cool down, we gave them electrolytes (3 cc each) by syringe.  Then about 30 minutes later, when they were cooler we gave 3 cc of colostrum, milked from Gerie.  Aberfeldy was more than definitely interested, and by the time Charlotte was down to the last cc, she was trying to nurse on the syringe.  Each of them went to mama for nursing after their syringe.  

Little Tess though just didn't want to perk up.  She didn't even want to swallow, so it was quite literally one drop at a time, and massage her throat to make sure it went down.  Then another drop, another massage.  etc.  By the time we were done she still wasn't interested in nursing on her own.  At this point, we really did not think she was going to make it. 

She still had not passed her meconium, though both Aberfeldy and Charlotte had. 

She lay back down on the carpet and rested.  About an hour later, she got a dose of NutriDrench followed by 1.5 cc of colostrum.   Finally, she started to perk up. 



Hubby stayed in the house with them while my son and I went out to feed.  We finished and were working on tipping off the knurled end of Neville's short horn before it could puncture his skull, when he (Nev) went batshit crazy on us.  (Bucking, Twisting, Butting, Full On BatShit Crazy!)  The wire saw flapped from the nearly finished cut, on the thankfully tethered stinky boy!  Hubby and son traded - Hubby came out and helped finish this little rodeo while son went in and sat with mama and the babies.  We finished as my son rushed out onto the deck shouting.  "TESS POOED!!!!  SHE POOED AND IT TURNED YELLOW!!!! And She is NURSING!"  Then he realized what he was so excited about and said "I never thought I would be so excited about crap!"  LOL

That was exciting news though.  We finished up in the barnyard, passed through and went to the garden to take care of that and by the time we came in again she had nursed again, this time for a couple of minutes according to our son!  When the sun started to ease down the western sky, we took everyone back out to the pen and shelter.  In the morning, the rain had begun and with it came much appreciated cooler temperatures - just what our babies needed to feel better! 

There was a great meeting of minds at the fence while Lulu met what will some day be her new herd members to protect.  She was suitably impressed - Penny got bored...  *sigh* 



Zucchini Zucchini Zucchini!

With the bumper crop of zucchini we are having, we are rediscovering that once you reach a certain point and even your friends and coworkers are "zucchini'd out" you have to get creative.

Zucchini isn't something that preserves well, so you have to be inventive.  Zucchini bread, while good, is something we can only eat so much of.  (Or I can only eat so much of!) You only need so much for a batch of stir fry.  There are only so many times you want to eat it sauteed with garlic, or grilled.  There is more than definitely a limit to how often you want to break your diet rules and batter fry it!

Zucchini fritters for breakfast? Sure!  Zucchini layered into pasta bakes? Absolutely.  But wait - there is an idea there.  A Zucchini Casserole - or is it a souffle once you reach a certain egg count?

At any rate, it is amazing so you get to have the recipe too.

5 cups grated zucchini

1 small onion, grated

½ tsp garlic powder

4 eggs

¾ cup flour

1.5 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

½ c melted vegan butter substitute (We use Earth Balance – feel free to use real butter)

½ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs (For each cup of bread crumbs add 1 tsp each: dry Basil, Oregano, and Parsley)

Mix all ingredients except bread crumbs and pour into prepared 9x13 baking dish.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs then bake at 350F until knife inserted in center comes out clean.  Approximately 1 hour ten minutes.  Or more, if needed.

Let it cool for about ten minutes before cutting and serving.  Oh My Goodness!  I have a new love!

Okay, now if you aren't after healthy try this for deep fried zucchini spears.

1 cup self rising flour

1 tsp cayenne powder

1 tsp black pepper

1 cup (or more) beer

Mix the dry ingredients, then whisk in the beer.  (It gets excited, so let it settle back down then finish whisking)  If it's too thick to create a delicate batter, just add a little more of that beer you opened.  It's okay - you can drink the rest now.

Heat your 1.5" deep oil over medium -medium high heat, and then dip your spears and lay them in the hot oil.  It will only take a minute per side - and drain on a paper towel, then salt while still hot. YUM!!!  Light, Crispy and deliciously fattening. 

Catching My Breath

It seems like lately every time I have something I just NEED to get down in writing, something comes up and steals the rest of my time for the day.  (Barn / animal work, laundry, pickling cucumbers, cooking, cleaning the trough, checking the mama goats, taking a daughter to drivers ed, and one day to goof off at the zoo with barn and house work on either end of the trip!) 

So since today is a day off from the university, and hubby and I plus two out of three kids are at home and relaxing, this seems like the right time to catch my breath. 

I have to say this with a bit of a laugh, however, as I feel like too much idle time is time wasted.  Maybe it's my Midwest roots showing, but I like to feel like I have accomplished at least something at the end of each day.  Even when it's not a huge thing, I still like to feel like something got done. 

Our Independence Day plans involve keeping an eye on our pregnant goat and waiting for the babies to be born (she is now on the long side of her due date) and I'm catching up on some baking.  Last night it was pie.  Blueberry and Rhubarb to be exact.  Today, bread. 

 

There will also be gardening, and admiring the gorgeous zucchini blossoms. 

Oh, and probably some mowing as the front lawn looks absolutely frightening right now.  That, at least, will be something I mow the edges of and pass the rest on to my son! 

For now though - another cup of coffee and then another trip to the birthing pen to check on Gerie...  :)  Poor mama is enormous...

 And she has "lost" her ligaments...

Looks like she swallowed a beach ball... or two...

 

 

And she is puffy and flashy, with a full bag underneath... 

But as my friend Lyn likes to say... She is a Drah-Mah-Queen!  She likes to fool us and keep us guessing as to when she will finally deliver.