Does anyone remember my ICQ number? I can't retrieve it.... :p

I went out to check on a friend who wasn't feeling well tonight. When I got back, it sounded like there was a cat in with my does due to kid (and doe who did kid). So I went to go check on them, and I was shocked to see another baby!!! My yearling, Diana, had a baby girl!!

I really wasn't sure when she was due because I ran my buck with my does during the summer semester. So one day she had an utter the size of a softball and shortly after, I moved her to the birthing pen. I'm soooo glad I did O.O;;

( Picture behind the cutCollapse )because there's placenta in the background. What? It was dark >_< And anyway, you've been warned o.o;;

It's been a while, so why not? Just born yesterday morning, the white buckling at approximately 9:45am and the frosty doeling about 15min later.




 

I forgot how hard it was to pound T-posts in the hot sun in the dry season. At one point in the field, it was all rock. We were able to pound between rocks or break rocks.

And all I'll say is: I wish they had Frontline for People 0:)

Anyway, all the posts and insulators are up. We did about 80 posts on Saturday (got help from Geoff and his son-in-law), and dragged through the next 20 (only Geoff and me on Sunday). It was funny because my arms felt like pudding and it took three times as long (not exaggerating) to pound those posts on Sunday, even though I did a lot less work. Even milking the cow was painful :P  But at least the hard part is done. All that's left is to run the hot wire, which I'll do tomorrow. I was hoping all this would have been finished by Sunday, but we really did accomplish a lot. So I'll try to finish it tommorrow or by the latest  Wednesday.   Classes start next Wednesday, and I want to try to tweak the fencing and make sure my goats stay in and my neighbor's nasty ass dogs stay out. 

There is a broody hen setting on eggs in my milkshed, right below the hay rack.  I didn't realize how stubborn broody hens are until I went out on Friday morning and found a small skunk snuggling next to her. Can you imagine how stubborn a broody hen can be to not even move off those eggs for a skunk??   But she was still there on Saturday when I went out there and found a big snake slithering down the wall of my milk shed. I don't know what it was, I only know it wasn't a rattlesnake. Thanks to Geoff who removed it.  The hen is still there...

Someone is interested in one of my does.  She's coming by tomorrow afternoon....maybe she'll take a buck too, she seemed interested in that ^.^  I really don't want to sell a doe, but if that's what it takes to sell a buck then so be it.

The summer semester of nursing school really kicked my butt.  I decided (with sound judgement) to not have a vegetable garden this summer because I was taking 12 credit hours with two clinicals in a condensed semester.

So my garden is overgrown and weedy and out of control :/  Oh well, at least I survived another semster of nursing school ^_^ I'll probably throw in a few goats to clean up the overgrown foliage....or wait until it gets cold and everything dies so it will be easier to pull out   -.-;;  Leaning towards the goat-thing ...  I'll have to check out the list of poisonous-to-goats plants list first though.

I have 12 days of "summer vacation" before I return to school with a 15-credit hour load. I'll be taking Women's Health, Adult Health II, Research in Nursing and Nursing Informatics. That should keep me sufficiently busy. Again, two clinicals, but not a condensed semester.

In the meantime, my goat herd grew a bit, and since I think everyone is pregnant, it will grow again. So I'll be spending the next few days fencing in another field. All of my "supplies" were delivered today. Joey bushhogged the paremeter of the field (for easy access) Tuesday, and my friend/neighbor Geoff will be cleaning some existing fenceing of foliage in the morning. I'll be thumping T-posts and putting up seven strands of hotwire. My goal is to get done and move my herd by Sunday, but at least I know I have a bit more time.

Thanks to only_seimei, who designed my new website, I finally have a new home: Dammi Dolci! There is no anime or manga there anymore. But some of the images aren't working correctly. Will fix that in-between pounding T-posts :P

My garden is an absolute mess. I haven't been able to work on it, and so with all the rain, I lost control of it :/  I have to cover the aisles with weed cloth, followed by wood chips, to keep the grass down. I stuck my cows in it one by one to eat up the grass, and they did a good job, but poof, there grew grass really tall after a hard rain while I was in the middle of doing the weed cloth :/   I will try again after exams :/

This year we'll be growing tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, brussel sprouts, spinach, broccoli raab, radishes, carrots, red cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, zucchini, round 8-ball zucchini, yellow squash, edamame beans, and I haven't decided what all else. I really don't need to finish the aisles to plant in my boxes, and I probably won't wait....the asparagus, strawberries and cold weather vegetables are already planted and growing.... We just had our (hopefully) last freeze last week, so I think I'm about on time.

One of my milk goats had babies: 2 boys, see the pics behind the cut. And I have a new yearling. Her name is Princess Diana...no I didn't name her and yes, she is all about being a princess. The bucks love her...they have bulging heart eyes whenever she comes near the fence that separates them.  I tried to breed her with Vinnie when she arrived, but she beat the shit out of him. I guess she wasn't interested :P

I shaved Dakota and made him look like a lion yesterday. He's so cute...and much more little now. I have no pictures of our little lion.


The rest of the news can be done in pictures.

Both good and bad news :(

First the good news: I got to see cd1 . Chris came out to Tennessee on business and stopped by the farm. It was a lot of fun Chris!. I hope you visit for a whole weekend or even longer ^.^

Joey graduated and passed his boards. He's now an LPN and has a job interview on Tuesday :) I, on the other hand, am in my second semester of nursing school.

Yesterday I picked up Hailey, a Nubian/Alpine goat mix. She's 100% milk goat and she's due to kid on March 18th. And I do plan on milking her :) She's actually Shelley and CiCi's mother. I can't wait to see her new babies.

Roger's bottlefed Beefmaster calf, Scarlett, decided she didn't want to be a cow anymore, refused to integrate with the rest of the herd, and learned how to jump the cattle gap just so she could get some human companionship. Well, she wound up sleeping in the flower beds and leaving mud pies in the garden and patio, and even walking on the front porch - plus she got real skinny (we think the other cows wouldn't let her eat). So Roger decided that since we get along so well he brought  her over to me to keep Anita (my Jersey heifer) company. Anita and she got along very well most of the time, but when it came to food, Anita bullied Scarlet around a bit. But lately Scarlet turned the tables on her :P But I think Scarlet has food issues now. She no longer likes to be handled while she's eating...which is unfortunate because we kinda do stuff (like milking) while they're eating. I hope that changes soon. Plus, though she's very sweet, she unintentionally is rough. If I can't get her to stop, I'll have to send her back to Roger.

Ok, now the bad news, and it's kinda really bad. At least for me:  I found out that Anita is a Freemartin. Her previous owner had told me that Anita has a twin brother, but didn't explain the ramifications other than to say that she couldn't be registered until after she calved. And the registration part she told me after I brought Anita home. However, I found by accident while browsing the US Jersey website for registration information, that when a heifer is born twin to a bull, there is a 90% chance she will be sterile. They share the same blood supply and the testosterone from the bull gets absorbed by the heifer, and results in her having missing, underdeveloped, or not working female reproductive parts. The bull usually is less fertile, but is still fertile. So I went ahead and had the vet come out, draw the blood and send it to the lab. And yep, she's positive for Freemartinism. I told the previous owners I wanted to return her and they agreed (though, of course) they weren't too happy about it.  The lady insisted that she told me that Anita "wasn't a sure thing" and thought I understood, however, she also sold me a pasteurizer and was helping me look for milking machines, etc. She knew very well that I wanted Anita to be our family cow. But because she tested positive, they agreed t take her back and refundme.  Whether it was intentional or not, partial disclosure doesn't absolve one of their responsibilities when they sell these guys. I'm not quite sure if the previous owners knew as much as I found out, or realized the severity, but I do appreciate that they took her back. So I brought Anita back Friday and it sucked really bad. While prepping her for more regular and routine handling, I had gotten attached to her. And I'm not ashamed to say I was crushed.

On the upside, I have an appointment to meet another Jersey next Saturday. I hope that will work out. I'm having the vet examine her before I commit.... She already has calves (and in fact, is bred to an Angus bull right now), so I know she's not a freemartin ¬.¬;; She's four years old, and while "coopertive" wasn't regularly milked. Soooo, we'll see how that turns out....

In the meantime, despite all the commotion, I've gotten in a lot of study time, and I'm off for another round again...

I haven't disappeared in the woods. I just got lost...

Really, I've been insanely busy trying to finish up the semester. Thankfully, my finals (and this semester) end on NEXT Friday, Dec 14th. So, I'm taking a break from studying for Pharmacology, I have an exam thursday. I'll be studying all day tomorrow and some of tonight too :(....

It's been a while since I've updated and believe it or not, there's news :)

There's no better explaining, than with pictures.

I'm starting to get worried ¬.¬;; I really must must must study for my pharm exam, which is on Thursday. But my goat pen isn't finished yet. Most of it is done. All the T Posts and panels are in, all my supplies are bought and in a shed. But I have to put in hinges for a gate, and the gate itself, and the lock for the gate (a chain lock attached to an outbuilding), run at least two strands of electric wire and connect the electric.  Joey has to finish making basically a three-sided covered shelter that is between two outbuildings that border the goat yard.  His only day off from classes is Thursday. I have to skirt the two outbuildings because there is enough room within that shelter to cause a draft, and enough room facing into the goat yard to let in small predators that would love eating my babies. That doesn't sound like a lot of work, but the problem is, we are now (after a long and bad drought) getting tons of rain (which is awesome, just ill timed). It's supposed to rain all day and night until at least Friday. I have that exam on Thursday and classes all day. Then I have an all day clinical at a grammar school doing vision testing on Friday, and then I won't be home until at least 530pm, with only an hour of daylight left.  We're picking up the goats on Saturday early morning. So that's my problem ;_;  If there's a break in the rain, I'll probably take a break from studying to do *somthing*.

The part about the buckling isn't critical, because I can put the buckling in with the doelings for a few days. What buckling? Why the buckling I couldn't resist of course :P   In fact, I might get two O.O;;;;;  For him, for now, I just need to add a few more panels (and a few more T Posts) because I need to keep him separate from the doelings.  I bought an XL dogloo for his shelter. But it's okay if I finish up his yard on Saturday or Sunday, that's not a problem. 

The kewl thing is, after I pick up the goats, I get to chill with family and friends over at Roger's farm. They're making molasses all day  with a horse-driven churner, out of sugar cane they grow. Isn't that kewl??? ^.^ maybe I'll bring a goat with me :P

And so back to my study marathon. And there's been a cow in my field for two days o.0;

On tuesday night, Roger, Becky and I (and two others) went to the Sale Barn, where they have animal auctions. They sell fruit and vegetables there too, and supplies like saddles, leads, tractors, whatever. Roger wanted me to experience this weekly event (kinda like how he wanted Joey to experience running cows :P). They have them in every city surrounding ours, on different days. 

I didn't tell this to Roger, because I didn't want to upset him, but it was the worse experience I've had since moving here... it was horrible. 

I was all excited to be there, and went to look at the section with horses and donkeys. They sometimes have llama and alpaca and the occasional zebra. So I wanted to check it out.  Well, I was bombarded by  a lot of sick, old, injured or emaciated horses (or a combination). I made the mistake of bonding with one of the horses and he let me stroke his face for a while. He was so sad. I was never so up-close to a horse before and I was surprised how expressive he was...which had me running out of the place in tears, out into the rain. Basically, I had a meltdown.  I swear if I had a pen put up already I would have rescued one of those horses...

Before I go further, I have to add that there *were* some people who actually gave a shit about their animals, but because of the bad drought, weren't able to afford them anymore, and this was their last option. I don't think they were any happier than I was to be there.  Horses just aren't selling here right now, and the cost of hay has tripled.  One registered purebred gelding, about 3 years old, with medical history including shot records, went for a suprisingly low $185. That must have really hurt ...

Anyhow, when I composed myself (I think sufficiently masked by being rained on), I went back inside and hung out with Becky, who said that she felt the same way the first time she ever went to a sale barn.  It wasn't any better, but the auction activity was distracting anyways.

The guys running the auction were bastards. They were very rough on the animals. They grabbed fowl by their legs, their wings, their necks. They piled cages on top of cages, so that birds were covered in feces from the cage above them. They injured the birds' feet by dragging the cages across the ground.  It smelled horrible.  Though I was fascinated by the fact that roosters went for like $18 each O.O;; Most of them were table birds. Some guy bought up all the pretty birds... Rabbits were grabbed by their ears, by their legs, and even grabbed and dangled by one leg.

The goats were mostly older, which I expected. A few were pretty emaciated, some coughing and snotty. There was one nanny with two little babies too. For the most part, aside from the billies, they were pretty clean and in relatively good condition. However, again, the guys running it were horrible. I can understand them dragging goats in by their horns (sometimes you can't get them any other way), but they grabbed them with both hands around their necks, by the tail, by the ear, by fist-fulls of skin...they were a bunch of asses. This couple that was standing next to us was waiting for the goats to get a notch in (along with Becky and me), so that we could all applaud in favor of the goats ¬.¬;; What was worse was that there was a (so-called) man in the ring, slapping the goats with a lasso, and chasing them around, tripping them with the lasso. He lassoed a pregnant nanny, and near whethered (gelded) a buck with that damned lasso...He was SUCH a jerk, and teaching a little boy of about 4 to do the same. Ignorance breeds ignorance I guess.  Then there was an older guy standing near the exit of the pen...so that he could kick each and every goat as they ran out after being sold.  The tip of the iceberg was when they literally threw a buckling into the pen by the scruff of his neck, which made him sumersault over, land on his head and fall on his back.  He was about 4-5 months old. It was sickening.

Becky and I were there that long because we were interested in the nanny with two babies. But as they were brought out into the ring, the buckling was coughing and snotty, so we didn't bid on them afterall, and left after that.

Oh yeah, Becky bought a gorgeous white rabbit buck for $2...

Roger and Becky tried to console me by saying that even though the people who run the place are jerk offs, and some of the sellers are jerk-offs, that a lot of these animals find good homes, and for the majority of them, it's their last hope to find homes....And some of the older horses get bounced from sale barn to sale barn.  I never want to go to a sale barn again, unless I rescue a horse...

Anyway, they said the one in our hometown is worse: There's a guy there who uses a cattle-prod on everything they sell, whether they "need it" or not. I won't be visiting that one anytime soon ...