Hope, Susie, and Gizmo wish you

a very Merry Christmas!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/AFHUBcIO1b2nzAKi

Wedding Bells

Houston....we have lift off!.....oh! the places we could go with today's events ;-)

Seems I was WAY off in my estimation of Hope's next season, from the way she acted last month. She no sooner arrived up North, fell in love with Huck, and wham, bam, thank you mam!

Way to go handsome Huck! I knew you could deal with HER ;-) And thank you Patty....especially going that extra mile with the camera ;-) I loved it!!

A little foreplay visual for those unfamiliar with a goat's mating rituals (including myself ;-)

There was plenty more action from where it went from here, but I don't have time right now to READ this blog's Terms of Service. "WHAT!!?? You mean goat porn isn't allowed?" ;-)

I've read and been told a good way to see if the wedding was legal, (minus ultrasound) is to take her back to him again around her next scheduled cycle (21 days). If he's not interested, then she can come back home with buns in the oven.

I'm excited! Estimated due date: April 2, 2010.

Next on the agenda, the building of a whelping pen before the snow flies!

The Goober Goat

I've never owned a creature that I've come up with so many alias's - ever. Everything from "Resident Character" to "Houdini" to "YOUSONOFA!"...not one dull moment since she stepped first hoove on the property.

Not that we don't ADORE her... but "AlphaB" will be departing the farm this week on a journey Northeast, to hitch up with her new friend "Huckleberry" aka "Huck" for a month or so. We are hopeful Huck can convince her she really is NOT a "Dog Goat" or a "Kangaroo" or an "Alien Being" and get his job done. I can only imagine what pregnancy and the change in hormone's will bring us in the form of alias's! "Grouchy Goat" or "Goiter Gut" or "Munchy Mouth"?? Hopefully... we'll find out!!

Goat Hoove's & Cat Claw's

Never a dull moment home on the farm. Upon arriving home Saturday afternoon I hop out of the passenger side of the truck to see one of our cat's hanging by his claws, on the three birdhouses affixed 8 foot up the side of the chicken coop. I nonchalantly ask..."Whatcha doin Itty Bit??" I knew that all the birds were done nesting for the season, so I didn't give his antic's much thought, other than amusing one's.

Remembered I happened to have my camera right there in my purse. Snap.

Looked to me that he had been at it for awhile as one house dangled damaged away from the wall. I watched as he finally managed to make his way to the top house and perched on it. He then clawed upside down into the hole from the top a couple violent times, and then I saw a bird try to fly out. Ah ha! I should have known..this is the best hunting cat we've ever had. Not a mouse as far as the eye can see around here ;-)

Titled: I Taut I Taw a Putty Cat.

Before we got back to putting the garden to bed and before we pluck the last batch of chicken's for the season, I decided we needed to try and trim the goat's hooves for our first time. I knew resident Alpha Girl Hope would probably give us the most grief, and she didn't let us down! Up on the milking stand with grain she did fine. But as soon as the grain was gone (30 seconds) we had the buckin bronco from hell on our hands again!

Randy and I had never done a goat before and had read up on it in several venue's and had SEEN it done at the farm we visited previously. sigh...yeah.... that goat actually stood still ;-) We both have always hated doing dog nails and we were just as apprehensive about a goat. We wrestled (and bucked ourselves) for a good 15-20 minutes, including me just lifting her ass end up, with her back legs clear off the stand (no footing, not as much movement ;-) and managed to trim a little off all four. (and without blood from all involved, phew!)

Susie (aka Milkyway) was a complete jewel, but was still small enough to be held sitting in my lap. Gizmo being such a baby, just shivered for a couple minutes and gave out a couple baby baaa's before he fell asleep in the crook of my arm. I was wiped out by the time we got done. Jeez. Fun....we get to try it all again in 6-8 weeks!

Goat Rodeo

All my goat sources cite that you should not chase a goat to contain it, to gain it's trust with a treat and then corral it. Yeah okay. They don't tell you what to do IF the goat won't come close enough to you to TAKE a treat day after day after day. Said goat being baby Gizmo. So I finally decide that this isn't going to work in my situation. We are all in the inside pen and I decide that after all, it's not a WHOLE lotta space to chase after a little goat, right? I sort of corner him in one corner and baby talk him with it's okay, it's okay. Get about 12 inches from grabbing him and he jack-asses up in the air and takes off to the other corner. Well.... Hope is in the other corner and she butt's him up in the air and off he goes into ANOTHER corner. He's totally freaked now. Coax Hope out to the outside pen and tell her THANKS for her help (not) and shut the door. She's not happy now and while being VERY vocal, she's butting the door from the outside. More chaos. I sit in the middle of the pen with some grain. Come here baby. Come here baby. No way, no how. Get back on my feet and decide this is it! I'm catching THIS goat! Probably 3 miles of chasing and 10 minutes later he goes to one corner and I finally manage to grab a leg while in mid-air. Gotcha! I gingerly hold him for the longest time, petting him and talking to him. He at one point buries his head into my flannel. I think he almost went to sleep. Poor baby. I try offering him some of the grain he so dearly loves, to no avail. Manage to put a collar on him one handed and a lead. Place him back on the ground with about six inches of lead... just a little pressure on the lead...so he knows its there in hopes that he can't jack-ass back off from me and strangle himself. He stands there for awhile and listens to me baby talk him some more. I decide I'm worn out now and unleash him. He gave me a few choice words and then acted like nothing happened.
Next day I go out to the barn with some treats in hand and while Hope and Susie are mauling me for them, I guess Gizmo decides I'm not so bad after all. He actually TAKES the treat from my hand! Next day, he takes the treat from my hand and actually lets me touch him without retreat! We may be getting somewhere. We'll see ;-)

Goat Paperwork

Wow. Quite the ordeal with the paperwork for a goat. First you have to figure out just WHICH registry/association you wish to belong, as there are more than a few choices. Then after that choice is made you join said association and when THAT is confirmed, you can apply/seek approval and register for a herd name (you have option of three choices) and then a herd tattoo sequence. Check, check, check ;-) Next on the agenda is having the existing ownership papers transferred to our name with the association on the girls we purchased earlier.
Got the new hoof trimmers in the mail today and Randy is going to try his hand at it later this week on our with "resident Roo" Hope, before she leaves on her journey North at the end of the month. Should prove to be interesting ;-) I guess next on the goat online shopping hotline will be a tattoo gizmo to identify our new babies when they come next spring. Lighting candles already for strength and cajone's when that time comes! (not for the birthing...but the tattoo/debudding/neutering part) We also need to build a kidding pen inside the existing pen, hopefully before the snow flies. And that won't be long as the woolly worms are crossing the road already!
The work is never done and I still love the challenge. *watch this attitude change as the temp drops*

Staying Grounded

Sometimes I need to step back and regroup or revisit why I do what I do in life, as I have a tendency to get a little over passionate about things. (sounds so much nicer than OCD ;-)

Several years ago my husband was fighting his third bout of the year with an ugly upper respiratory infection. As an ex-smoker and carpenter that constantly is subjected to numerous toxic dusts, fumes, etc., it was not uncommon for him to have these yearly bouts. However they had become more frequent and more severe. As I sat in the doctor's office with him awaiting the results of the numerous tests, we joked around about see what happens when you stop smoking? The doctor came in and told us the tests concluded that he had late stages of Emphysema and severe bronchitis or COPD, if you like. He was breathing at like 25 percent of capacity at that time. He prescribed a barrage of medications and more inhalers. We went home numb. He took his med's as prescribed for many months and continued to struggle at work, especially if it was cold or wet outside.

As time went on he got considerably worse. The steroids in the med's caused him to gain weight and his blood pressure was through the roof. He could barely make it up the stairs to bed at night and it took ten minutes when he finally did, to be able to have enough breath to disrobe. More trips to the doctor, more med's, talk of putting him on oxygen to help him possibly keep working and comfortable, handicap tags, etc. We visited the option of going on disability (as he was definitely eligible) as he struggled to work. We were told by an attorney we would have to go at least nine months without any income through this process, before our wonderful system would allow him the benefits he had paid into most of his life. The thought of losing his house did not appeal to him at that time, so he kept on pushing himself. At one point we began visiting the costs of funeral arrangements.

Over the years (in my venture with our dogs) we had dabbled in alternative or holistic type medicine on several occasions with good results. While discussing our situation one morning I asked him if he would be open to possibly trying some alternative method's in his quest of trying to breath and stay alive. His reply was what do I have to lose??? Good point!

I spent the next month on the internet searching every possible avenue. I posted questions to everyone from here to the UK on diet, supplements, homeopathic remedies, herbal, Reiki, detox....you name it. Came up with a regime that I thought made sense and we got busy. Within two months he dumped 45 pounds, within three months he lost one of his inhalers, within four months his blood pressure returned to normal, within six months he lost the second inhaler, within a year he could go up the stairs and actually undress by the time he got to the bed! We had HOPE again!

Of course upon his next visit to refill the one and ONLY prescription that he was on, the doctor had a full fledged tantrum when he heard what we were doing. I swear he then rigged his spirometry testing machine to show worse results to prove his point! But the PROOF was in the pudding to us and we forged ahead.

PART of the success of the venture I attribute to the DRASTIC change in our diets. That included (as much as it hurt) eliminating all processed food. (ahh chips & Burger King!) All refined sugar. All white flour. Going organic on everything we could find. More fruit, more vegtables. Different oils. Less cooking, more raw. If God didn't make it, we don't eat it theory ;-)

Well that's all fine and good if you want to spend your life 24/7 on a big scavenger hunt for that type of diet or you really WANT to take out a second mortgage to pay for it! So we shifted gears to make our goal to be more self sustained on our 3 acres. We already had a good start on our garden and had canning down pretty good. In the last couple years we have increased the garden three fold and the menu continues to expand as we try to grow new things. We had our laying hens putting out just enough eggs for us and we ventured into meat chickens and have that down pretty good now. The freezer will be full again shortly to get us through the winter.

We struggled with a good milk supplier in town, as we both could not seem to give up THAT addiction. We love our milk with supper and in our coffee ;-) If and when we could find a supplier we could live with, it cost an arm, an ear, and a couple legs. So that became our next venture! Upon research, we decided that the Nigerian Dwarf goat was just the ticket for our needs. As we wait anxiously for that to come into fruitation, I need to keep reminding myself WHY I worry and wear myself to the bone daily, while fretting over my children thinking me a nutcase, with taking on all this work so late in our lives.

Okay...I am grounded again ;-)

New Addition

What's a herd without a hay burner? ;-) Or in this case a dual purpose hay burner. When the time comes our whether "Gizmo" is going to be our working goat. I'm going to attempt to train him to pull a cart and eventually give "goat rides" around the farm with the smaller bunch of grandkids. As strong as Hope appears, maybe even take a ride MYSELF when Gizmo grows up ;-) He's only two months old so it will be awhile. He's slowly starting to come around but our resident character Hope isn't making it easy. Susie however has manners ;-) We are currently working on putting some weight on him.

September's End

I can't believe we are already to the end of September! Time flies when you're working yourself to the bone I guess. With the jumping "beasts" finally contained we set off on the next venture. Not a really tasteful venture, but needed none the less. Worming. We try and practice more natural or holistic ways of living around here and have found much success with this way of living. We try and concentrate on building a stronger immune system first to hopefully overcome any obstacle thrown our way rather than just treat a symptom with conventional medicine. I've learned that goats are no different than people in that they become resistant to chemical wormers after a time just like people with antibiotic's. So we opted for an Herbal wormer to start our herd on. Within 24 hours of the first dose I found remnants of the worm load withOUT oopy poopies or the other nasties animals get when being dosed with poison. We'll see if this keeps them at bay with time. I did notice some detoxing in the baby with some runny eyes but those have since cleared up with Probiotic's added to her grain on a daily basis.
Hope continue's to be the "boss" and we have butted heads on a couple occassions. I can't say I care much for how goats treat each other when establishing the goat ladder ;-) They are so mean to each other!
The corn is starting to turn in the field finally and they should start taking that out soon around here. I have YET to get my own garden put to bed yet and will make that priority next week. I don't garden well with icicles dangling from my nose for some reason. Still need to split wood for at least another week to be ready for this winter and the meat chickens are still about three weeks out before they hit the freezer. And on and on it goes!

After we figured out Plan B (electric) wasn't going to work as installed, we went to work on Plan C. We screwed what we had cut off the 8 ft. wooden posts previously back ON to the existing posts. We then took what we had left over of the fencing and cut a section in half. Giving us another 20 or so inches of fence up top. Now it looks OFFICIALLY built by Jed Clampett ;-) By the time we got done the sun was starting to go down and it dawned on me Houdini hadn't been milked. So to change it up a bit, we take her inside our new "milk room" and put her up on the new handy dandy milk stand husband had built me. Put a little grain in the bin and she jumped right up! Washed her up and started to milk her and got about four squirts out when she finished her grain. She decided that just sticking her foot in the milk bucket wasn't enough, she kicked it clean off the handy dandy milk stand and half way into the next county. Not once, but about four times. Now keep in mind... I am normally a very stubborn determined woman who has broke about twice in the last ten years, however I have been burning the candle at both ends for two weeks and am coming off this awful flu. I just put my head in my lap and start bawling. Hope just stands there, head cocked, looking at me as husband comes over and consoles me and talks me into calling it a night. We agree that it would be best to test our fence adjustments the next day.
The next morning he reluctantly leaves for work (probably thinking he should be reserving ME a rubber room somewhere instead) and after about an hour of coughin, hackin, and spittin I gather my strength to give it another shot. As I enter the Morton building, Houdini meets me at the door. She spent the night outside the pen and bedded down, I'm assuming, in husband's woodworking shop. Get her back in, feed her and Susie and go outside for some bonding time on the wooden spools. After about a half an hour I decide to give it a try. Go up towards the house and watch her. She paces and is her very vocal self. From the house I see her back up about ten steps and go charging towards the fence. BAM! Face first into the fence. Try's again. BAM! Face first into the fence. One last run...and BAM... face first into the fence! She then trots over and lays down with Susie, who is basking in the sun contently. She didn't try it again the rest of the day. She did however figure out that we had NOT extended the inside pen yet and I found her back in the woodworking shop about dinner time. So last night we finished up extending THAT pen as well. I'm on my way out now to see IF that worked ;-)

Oh Oh!

We had about an hour or better bonding with our new arrivals and decided to go up to the house and get some dinner. I told the girls we would be back to tuck them in before sunset. We got about 15 steps from the pen when Hope started being very vocal. I turned and took a pic of her standing up on the fence appearing to be giving us the what for! "Where you goin guys?"

Took about five more steps towards the house and turned around to this! "Doesn't matter, I'm goin with ya!"

Oh crap!!! Wasn't this fence specifically designed for GOATS? I'm thinking full size goats, not dwarf goats?? What on earth??

I led her back to the pen and explained to her that she couldn't go up to the house with us. Her domain was designed specifically for her and Susie's needs and mine was not. I got ten steps back up to the house and she catapolted over again! Took her back and coaxed her back into the inside pen. Shut up all the gates and doors and got on the phone to previous owner and told her what had happened. She said Hope LOVES her people. That she as a youngster had jumped the 4 foot fence and they had to go with 5 1/2 and some electric but that after she got pregnant she never jumped the fence again. Well...she wasnt pregnant now and we had just put up a 4 foot fence! Crap...crap...crap! She suggested maybe running some electric fencing about 2/3 of the way up the existing fence. I really didn't want to do that, but I couldn't have Hope running the farm ;-) Next morning we ran out to the farm store again and purchased the transformer and needed equipment to add a "zapper" to the fencing. Took the better part of the day to put up and two more trips to the store. We finally got it done and it was time to test it. I held my breath as the thought of 4000 volts running through my new babies did NOT appeal to me at all! As we walked away she immediately went to the gate, stood up on it, and got bit! Very apparent it shocked the poop out of her. She backed off and jumped on one of the spools. Very vocal. Very angry I'm assuming. I'm thinking....this might just work!! We go on up to the house and I watch from there. Took her about 10 minutes and I see her pacing the fencing to the side of the gate. I see her take about 10 steps back and come charging up and over the fence! Went outside and retrieved her and put her back in the pen. We noticed the wire was bent as if she had touched it. I had seen her jump and she gave NO indication that she had got bit. I insist that the wire wasn't working on that side of the fence. It was obvious she touched it! It was bent! Husband goes and gets his meter and we check it out. YES, there is 4000 volts running through this part of the fence. Okay....lets try it again. Go up to house and this time I actually see her USE the wire as the push off she needs to get over! This obviously isn't Hope's first rodeo!! It then dawns on husband that she is in mid flight or airborne when she's touching this hot wire and that she is NOT grounded and therefore NOT getting bit. Crap, crap, crap! Back to the drawing board we go and back to the inside pen Hope and Susie go until we figure it out.

We're Home!

When we arrived home we decided to introduce Hope and Susie to the indoor pen first. We brought down the dog crates out of the back end of the pickup and opened them up. Guided them to the pen and all was good. Hope checked the new digs out and Susie followed. We sat down in the fresh bedding and bonded with them for about half an hour. The cat's were fasinated with our new arrivals ;-) Then we decided it was time to show them their outside pen. I crawled through the new goat door (Randy chose to walk around) and they soon followed. Didn't take Hope long to try out the new spools! I got a kiss from Hope at one point. Little did I know what was going to happen next!

The Fair & The Goats

Even though I am still running at about 50 percent and Randy still at about 75, we decide to forge on to the fair some 2 hours north of us. What a delightful fair it was! Beautiful setting, great smells, nice people. A fair from the old days for me. A corndog and lemon shake up for husband. We found the Goat Barn and came in while they were showing the Nubian's. The 4-Her's were so cute showing their treasures. I was also fasinated with the difference in a dogshow and a goat show. The judge actually had to critique the goats over the microphone as to why he put up one over the other! Unlike the dogshow arena where the judges don't have to do diddly as to their choices. We watched for awhile and finally met up with our Nigerian gal from IN. We met almost three year old Hope and fell in love instantly. She just reeked character. We felt confident in her lines and that she would be a great foundation doe to start us out. We then met five month old Susie and her sister Sarah, year old Callie and a few assorted others. We decided that Susie would also make a good fit here on the farm. She was a little timid but we felt she would come out of it with some good ole one on one and love. We had a lovely, very well informed visit with our gal from IN and pulled the truck around to the right side of the fairgrounds. We were on our "wheezing" way with our first goats!!!

Milk Stands/Doors/Gates/Spools

The husband is finally on the mend at about 75 percent. He constructs the gate for the outside fence and cut's me in a goat door in the front of the building. I am still somewhat apprehensive that the door is wide enough when we have a pregnant doe. Guess we will find that out down the road. He also whips out our first milk stand and it turned out great! Son In Law picked up a few playground spools for the goats and delivered them as well!

I purchased Goat "kibble", goat minerals, probiotic's, baking soda and the rest of the feeders today. We will pick up the rest of the Alfalfa/Hay tomorrow. We are scheduled to visit a fair up north of us this Saturday to meet with a gal from IN that has a doe in milk for sale and possibly a 5 month old we might be interested in from some good lines. Holding my breath as husband has shared his flu bug with me now. Not feeling well at all!

The Beginning-Part Two

The next day the husband woke with a 102 temp and could hardly breath. Flu! I set him up in his LazyBoy with a bowl of homemade chicken soup with a ton of garlic and some green tea and got on the phone. Son in law graciously agreed to come back and help me keep on schedule. We started on the outside pen with tamping down the posts. After all the rain the day before, the soil was much too soggy for tamping. Insisting a little rain wasn't going to pee on my parade AGAIN today I consulted construction husband and he told me to go purchase 12 sacks of Sakrete at the local lumber yard. As son in law set up to continue, I jumped in the pick up and headed into town. It had been MANY years since I had even seen a bag of Sakrete, let alone remembered they weighed 60 lbs a bag. Let it be known that a 120 lb OLE lady CAN load 12 bags onto a utility cart and push the 700 lbs plus from one side of the lumber yard to the other by herself! It may take 14 stops to catch your breath, but you CAN do it! We started setting posts and by noon we got er done...the posts anyway!










With the posts going no-where now, we started on the fencing and got some momentum going. Measure, layout, cut, wrestle to the posts, stretch, and staple. Next section...measure, layout, cut, wrestle to the posts, stretch and staple. Add a few nailers here and there and in no time we had a good bit of it done. We finished it all that day except the gate, which carpenter husband would finish when he felt better. I thought we did really good for two people that had never set livestock fence before!!

The Beginning

With the kids all gone and as our Afghan Hounds start to round the turn into their senior years, with the cat's all fixed, the chicken's all laying eggs, and the garden's all under control, we decided it was time to start our next farm adventure. At over $7.00 a gallon for organic cow milk we decided it was time to find another source for that addiction. After researching the many options, we opted for the Nigerian Dwarf Goat. We took Goat Class 101 at a farm not too terribly far from ours that also had Nigerian's and after much thought decided that we could adequately care for them.

We started with fencing. After talking to the two places in town that carried fence for livestock we opted for the Red Brand Goat fence. 4 foot tall with good sturdy galvanized steel. Instead of the metal t-posts we opted for wooden landscape timbers to afix the fence to. We were fortunate to have a son in law that had access to an auger on the front of Bobcat's version of a Gator. Really slick gismo to have when you're needing to dig fence post holes! We had them done in no time. We had no sooner got all the hole's dug when the skies opened up and fell a flood. At the time I was 3 miles down the road picking up my treasure find of organic Alfalfa/hay combo from another farmer. I got five bails in the back of the truck when the monsoon hit.

Not to fall too far behind schedule I kept the whip cracking and we decided to set the inside fencing first. The noise in the metal Morton building was deafening as the rain fell for hours. Tamping down the dirt wasnt too bad on the back, however it wasn't MY back ;-) I didn't even attempt the fence "stretch" but I kept those that were attempting the "stretch" in sandwiches and drink the rest of the day.