My New Goats

After waiting on Collette to kid in January and nothing happening, we decided to give up on her. We sold Pascal after I was certain that Collette was bred. You can read about them here: In One Year.

We sold Collette this spring and I was totally goatless for quite awhile. Then I bought Hazel who had just had a wether weaned off of her and was ready to milk. She was born in 2011 and had been raised on a bottle. She was bred in the fall and had twins in the early spring. The owners took the doeling off of her and bottle fed it because Hazel didn't have a lot of milk. But she raised the buckling twin on her own.

We brought Hazel home and she drove us crazy. She was a lonely goat and she was not happy. She cried constantly and a goat crying constantly will wear you out pretty quickly. She was fine if I went out and sat with her but the minute I left, she was howling again.

We thought about buying another doe but in the end, we went back and bought the little wether that she had just weaned. She was happy, he was happy and we were happy. Having him here meant that I could be lazy about milking her. When I want milk, I just lock him up away from her for a few hours and milk her. He is getting pretty big now and I know that I will have to really wean him sometime soon.

Hazel

Gimli

In One Year

I just read one of my posts from one year ago and things have certainly changed. The post is 48 Degrees, it talks about mastitis and Calico’s milk supply. It is also about Collette being pregnant with multiples and being due Sept. 8th.

Well, I lost Calico not too long after this post. She was fine one day then sick the next morning. She was dead within hours. I did all I could to save her but it was too little too late. I still do not know what happened.

As for Collette, I am still waiting on those multiple babies. She wasn’t even pregnant. Don’t laugh, some of my very knowledgeable older goat friends said that she would kid within a couple of days after seeing her. They thought that she would have at least triplets too.

These two photos were taken on Sept. 5th of last year, I had her due date down as Sept. 8th. Would you have thought she was bred? I was all concerned because she wasn’t making much of an udder.

I was so sure that she was bred that I sold my Buck, Rancid. When September was over, I realized that she had fooled me again.

On January 9th my Dear Husband braved the cold temperatures and bought me a full-blooded Saanen Billy Goat, who my youngest Granddaughter named, “Pascal”.

I put the two of them together and waited five months for babies to be born. Again nothing happened. I never noticed any affection between the two of them, but I figured they were just shy. Pascal didn’t yet have his luscious Buck odor, but he was only ten months old when he came to live with us.

Then about three weeks ago, Pascal started getting very rank. On Saturday night the 27th of August, I unsnapped Pascal’s lead strap after he was done eating and low and behold if he didn’t breed her with me standing right there watching. I think that it was the first time she had stood for him. I am thinking that she only comes into season in the fall. So far, I haven’t had a Buck with her at just the right time.

I am very happy to have a good solid due date even though it is January 23rd. I wouldn’t have wanted her to kid in the coldest part of winter, but at this point I will take what I can get.

Here are some pictures of Pascal, Collette, Angel and Abby that I took this morning.

I know she still looks pregnant in this picture, but I can assure you that she is not. Everyone who comes to our house asks when she is due.

Pascal is a real stinker, he takes my breath away! He doesn’t understand why I won’t pet him anymore.

48 Degrees

Cool enough for a sweatshirt this morning while I milk. Now if I can just find those sweatshirts.

Calico has fallen into a great milking routine. She is giving more milk now than she has in past years. She has fully recovered after having mastitis in late June. It was my first experience with mastitis. It was my first experience with a single kid, she had always had twins before. He was getting enough milk from just one side and was not nursing the other side. I was milking her once per day but I guess I should have been milking her twice per day. 

Collette is due to kid on September 8th, so we are getting close. I don’t think that I have to worry about a single with her unless something goes wrong. She is surely carrying multiples, not sure how many. She had Triplets her first kidding but I didn’t see her before she kidded so I don’t know how big she got. I need to get some pictures of her now for future reference.

The Answer Has Come...

For those who read my blog regularly, you know that Collette has been driving me crazy. I have posted about her several times. I finally asked for opinions on March 18th. You can see the pictures of her in that post: Doe Opinions Please.

The answer came last night. She hadn't been eating well for the last couple of days. When I started to bring her to the barn for the night, I noticed that she looked like someone had deflated her somewhat. I thought at first maybe she had just dropped but on closer inspection, she just looked a little thinner.

I tied Calico at her feeding station and put Collette in the stall with her grain and she wouldn't touch it. She just stood there and cried. I waited for awhile and kept an eye on her. She doesn't like to be separated from Calico but she is used to it at feeding time.

I commented to my DH that she just might be in heat. I finally went out and put a lead rope on her and opened the gate to see where she wanted to go. She drug me towards Rancid instead of going the opposite direction towards Calico. When we arrived at Rancid's pen, he didn't act that interested at first because she has put him in his place too many times. I decided after watching and waiting for awhile that she would stand for him.

I took her back to her stall and asked my Husband to bring Rancid to the barn. We put them together in the stall and we discovered that she will kid on September 9th, 2010.

Zircon Memories

It was a lovely day today, warm, sunny, a nice breeze. The horses and goats are all shedding, so there was hair in the air. I let my two does out in the yard for some green, tender munching and some exercise this evening. They kept their noses to the ground, so I worried that they would get too much of a good thing.

When my DH got home from his job, he worked with a new 2 year old filly that we just got in, she really needs some work! The only lesson she has been getting so far is how to be caught without tearing down fences.

Then he brought Zircon to the barn to trim his feet. With 30-something horses, hoof trimming is going to go on and on for awhile. He managed to get Zircon, a 2 year old and Sky, our only yearling done this evening.

I took some new pictures of Zircon, he is such a good boy. I remembered back two years ago this June when I helped bring him into the world. You can read that story here.

Zircon has gone from being an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan. I knew he would!

When the horses were trimmed, I casually said something about trimming Rancid's feet. My wonderful husband whose back and legs were already hurting from the work involved in trimming two horses, one of which was an inexperienced yearling, told me to go get him. Well, I jumped at the chance to get my doe's hooves trimmed and brought out Collette instead. When he finished with Collette, I put her up and brought out Calico. He is an absolute perfect Husband. Rancid will have to wait, I didn't want to push my luck too far.

The last few days have been such perfect weather that I hate for it to end but from the look of the weather map and the forecasts, we are in for some stormy weather. There may be some severe storms tomorrow. I haven't had to shut my computer down because of lightening for months, unfortunately with the Spring weather comes the Spring thunderstorms.

More Eggs, No Milk

It is Spring Break for some of our Grand-kids, so they have been taking turns staying overnight at Papaw and Mamaw's house. I have walked several miles with them around the farm and Papaw has walked several miles with them on Mr. Shorty. Poor Mr. Shorty has earned his keep this week.

Our hens are finally laying a decent amount of eggs. We are getting anywhere from 4 to 9 eggs a day. Then occasionally my DH goes into the loft and finds a nest, that makes our egg production number jump.

We haven't milked Calico for a week or so and she is about all dried up. Collette is still being Collette and I am still unsure of what is going on with her. Our neighbor and fellow goat herder said that she had a goat deliver a kid the other day without any signs at all. She thought that she was a long way from kidding. She had no udder, no puffiness or swelling. Goats are all different and they are always planning new ways of fooling you.

I was planning on selling my Buck as soon as both does kidded this Spring but now I will probably have to keep him until fall. Once I get both does in milk, I am going to keep milking them as long as they will produce milk or until I get tired of milking. No more breeding and kidding unless I get lonely for some new kids.

Doe Opinions Please

The picture below was taken September 24, 2009, nearly 6 months ago.


These two pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago.



This picture was taken a couple of days ago.


Is she bred or just fat? I thought she was bred 6 months ago and stopped milking her, so I have lost confidence in myself. I thought I felt movement months ago, her ligs feel loose but she has no udder or changes in her udder, no swelling or puffiness on her tail end. If she is bred, it was an oops breeding because the Buck got in with her. I know he was with her in December but I thought she was already bred at that time.

Running Low On Milk

Calico's milk production has fallen 50% in the last six or seven days. She is just drying up on her own like she did last year. My plan was to dry her off in a couple of weeks but she got the jump on me.

I thought that I would look back through my blog to find out when she started weaning me last year because I remembered blogging about it. The date of that blog was March 2nd. She is very consistent, isn't she?

She was due on May 10th last year and she kidded on May 11th. She is due on May 15th this year, so she is on schedule. I am just not ready to give up the milk right now. This is going to mean having to drink store bought, watered down cow's milk.

I was hoping that Collette would have already kidded by now and I would be getting close to being able to steal a little milk from her babies but I am about to give up on her.

I have no idea when she is due and the experts who have looked at her have been wrong too. Maybe she is just really fat. She keeps getting bigger and is starting to lay around more. I need to turn both of them outside for some sun and exercise as soon as possible. Saturday is suppose to be sunny and 52 degrees.

Collette 2010

Yes, I have accepted the fact that Collette is indeed expecting kids who were fathered by Rancid. Let me be perfectly clear on this matter, it was neither planned or authorized by me. I have no idea when the blessed event will take place and she is not being very forthcoming about it. But here for the perfecting of your prognosticating talent, are her official portraits.

The Sun Has Arrived

The Snow has stopped and the Winds have ceased. The Sun is shining at our house and all is well. Our driveway only has one serious drift and it is only a couple of feed deep. We plowed through it with no problems yesterday going in and out of our drive.

My DH on his mail route enjoyed busting through deep snow drifts to deliver the mail yesterday. Unfortunately, the drifts ended up in the back seat. He learned his lesson, you don't plow through drifts at high speeds with your window down.

Collette looks so close to kidding but still no changes in her udder. It is suppose to get down to 6 degrees tonight, so that means 0 or -1 for us. I hope she holds off until much warmer weather.

On the lighter side; I wore some new cologne to Church last night and when my DH got in the Truck with me he asked, "Do you smell Diesel?".

How about some pictures?

Our new $300 hay feeder.

Going to Roost!

The beginnings of a storm.

Winter Storm Watch

Thanks to those who were concerned about me. December and January were not great months. December was lean in the pocketbook for us, plus I had the flu during the first part of the month then my DH got pretty sick towards the last part. I spent a couple of weeks on the couch with a pinched nerve in my back around the first of January. I think that I have had a little of the winter blues. Nothing much to write about and I just haven't been inspired.

However, I feel a little inspired today. As I sit here waiting on the big winter storm that is about to engulf Indiana tonight and tomorrow, I was thinking of Spring. Our groundhogs did not see their shadows and Spring is only a few snowstorms away. I know this because my hens have gotten back on their nests and gone to work this week. After months of one egg per day. We got two eggs, then six eggs, then zero eggs, then four eggs, then one egg. I can't wait to see how many eggs we get this evening.

The actual truth is that I had read somewhere that giving your hens Cayenne Pepper would make them start laying. I tried it and about three days later got six eggs. So, yesterday I fixed them up with some leftovers drowning in Cayenne Pepper. I will let you know how it goes.

Collette is huge but I don't think that she will have triplet doelings again this year. I think that she will probably have twin spotted doelings. I still have no idea when she will kid, but I do know now that the father is my black spotted young buck, Rancid. I didn't think he was tall enough or even knew what he was doing but where there is a will there is a way. He doesn't even stink yet!

I check Collette everyday when I milk Calico. She is getting ready to kid, losing her ligaments and has that dropped look, hollowing out in the flanks, carrying low. Still no udder to speak of though. She is waiting for just the right snow or ice storm or just the right sub-zero temperature.

My plans for the rest of today are to get prepared for a winter storm. I need to find a way to store some water. If our electricity goes out we have no water because we have a well with a pump. We do have a nice spring in case of emergencies but it is easier to store some from the well than hauling it to the house from the spring.

We do have heat from a ventless gas heater that provides our heat during the cold months. We do not have lights or a way to cook unless we run our generator. I miss having a woodstove because you always have heat and a way to cook. I suppose we could always build a campfire outside to cook on, I am a pretty good campfire cook.

Sold 5 Goats Today

What a day! I was told that I probably wouldn't be able to sell any goats until this fall. Then I got several calls yesterday and someone showed up to look at Paris and her twins last night. He told me he was going to take them and sure enough he showed up today with a trailer. I think that they got a real good home.

Then a lady came who was interested in the other spotted buckling that is the twin brother to the one that I am keeping as a buck. She had told me over the phone that she wanted him and was coming after him today. Then when he started crying for his brother after she loaded him, I talked her into buying Calico's last buckling as a companion for him.

That takes care of all of the goats that I have for sale except for Cooter. But I believe someone will come along who has a hankering for a big, lovable, stink pot like him.

My new little lonely buckling has officially been named Rancid, even though he doesn't have any odor yet, I am confident his time will come.

This also means that I have two does who will have to be milked twice daily without any breaks for me. Calico's big buckling was not only keeping her drained but was nursing Collette as well. I have been having to put him in the dog kennel with the other two bucklings at night so that I could get some milk in the mornings.

Angel, my Great Pyrenees, is not a happy camper. When the man drove off with Paris in a crate on a small trailer, she was in hot pursuit. I had just come back into the house without even thinking about her. Then I got a call from Paris' new owner that Angel was still following them and that he was going to have to turn around and come back.

I went to the top of the hill to meet them and when Angel thought that he was bringing her goats home, she took the short cut across the field and went down over the hill. He turned back around and took off again and I came back down too.

Angel was waiting on me and wagging her tail, all happy that she had saved the day but kept looking up the hill, after awhile she went back up the hill to see what was keeping them. She went back up to check around three times. Even now, after several hours have passed she is still acting defeated.

A Little Better

I am somewhat better, I was much better yesterday but went back to somewhat better today. I got outside and did a few things yesterday. I milked all three goats. Cleaned out the buckling's doghouse, gave the bucklings their bottles and then we had to reburn one of Calico's buckling's horns that we didn't do a great job on the first time around.

We also had to reburn both of the horns on the spotted buckling that I am keeping and one of the horns on his twin brother. Those horns were not our fault, they were done by someone else.

I milked Paris for the first time last night. She wasn't fond of the idea but I got through it. Her milk is like Collette's it is naturally homogenized, it had hardly any cream on it at all after sitting untouched in the refrigerator over night. But her milk is also like Collette's in the fact that it isn't as sweet tasting as Calico's.

I have decided to sell Paris and keep Collette, mainly because Paris' teats are just a little too small to hang onto when hand milking. My little milking gadget works great on her but when it comes time to strip her out, it isn't quite as easy.

Worming

This morning was worming day for the goats. I milked Collette early this morning then wormed her, her milk tonight went to the dogs. I will go back to using her milk tomorrow evening. I don't worry much about getting the wormer in the milk that I drink since the wormer that I use is used to worm people in third world countries.

The wormer that I use is Jeffers Ivermectin 1.87% Paste Wormer for Horses it is currently only $2.59 per tube and made in the USA. You also can get free shipping if you order $60 worth of Vet supplies from them, which is easy to do because they have so much really neat stuff at reasonable prices (I love Jeffers!). I use this wormer for the horses, the goats and the dogs.

I dose it at three times the horse dosage for my goats, so if the goat weighs 100 lbs. then I treat it like a 300 lb. horse. I hit them again in two weeks with a second dose for any worms that have hatched out since the first worming and this seems to take care of all of my worm problems. It also takes care of lice and mites if they are a problem.

I have been hurrying to get this post done because I wanted to get it in before tomorrow, in trying to blog everyday. However it is time to say "Good-bye" because the thunder is rolling outside and it is getting louder which means it is getting closer. We are under a Tornado Watch for tonight, so I hope to post again tomorrow, Lord willing!

Bucks

First, I must confess that I have already messed up on my statement that I was going to blog everyday. I will try to do better but I am not promising anything.

Second, I must get this out of the way for those who thought that I would be talking about deer in this post. We did see two monster bucks with huge velvety antlers on our way home last night. They where standing picturesquely in a lush field of clover not far from our place as the crow flies. They were lovely. I longed for a camera.

Now, back to the subject of Bucks, as in Billy Goats. I still have not sold Collette but did trade her triplet doelings for three full blooded Nubian bucklings. I know that it doesn't make sense to trade doelings for bucklings but I just could not sell the doelings. Their color just was not right and they had not been disbudded (dehorned).

The bucklings that I traded for were all spotted and disbudded. Two of them are black and white spotted twins. The other was a roan, spotted and painted buckskin, I say "was" because I have already sold him.

It has been a tough decision and one that has broken my heart but I have decided to sell Cooter. He is just to big and strong for me to handle anymore. He isn't mean but because he is kept in a small area or tied up. He likes to kick up his heels when he gets a chance and when he gets a chance is when I lead him from one place to another.

When he walks on his hind feet he towers over me and that is fine. But when he hits the end of the rope at a dead run, I just can't get him stopped and he ends up dragging me until I yell at him.

So I thought that it might be nice to have a buck with no boer in him, Cooter is a Boer and Nubian cross. He is big and very muscled. One of these little Nubian bucks would fill the bill for me. They are full Nubian which would make them a little lighter framed.

I listed all of the bucks for sale but started leaning towards keeping the Buckskin and had pretty much made up my mind about him, he was the friendliest of the three. Well wouldn't you know, the first person to call and come to look wanted him. So now I have chosen the less wildly colored of the two left. I am not taking a chance this time and have removed the ads for him from the classified sites.

So without further ado, here is my new buck whom I have not named yet.

Too Much Milk

I was not expecting to have to be milking right now. But here I am having to milk two to three times a day. I am putting Collette's doelings in a separate pen at night then milking her in the morning before turning them back in with her during the day. Calico is producing way too much milk for her twin bucklings and I am having to relieve some of the pressure, they are also only nursing on one side.

Collette did really well with her first milking. I put the hobbles on her with no problem. When I put the syringe barrel on the first teat and she tried to kick, it lifted her whole back side up off of the milking stand and dropped her off of the table.

This was something that has always scared me because I was afraid that it might break a goat's neck if they were latched into the neck stantion or stanchion (however you spell it).

She fell off the milk stand on the opposite side of the table from where I was sitting. I jumped up and ran around the milking stand to find that she had already recovered herself and was eating her grain. She had her hobbled hind feet on the ground, her front feet up on the stand, her neck fastened in the stantion with her nose buried in the grain, typical goat.

I had to unhobble her, release her from the stantion, tug and pull until I got her nose out of the grain and then reload her onto the stand. From there the milking went very smoothly, she decided that kicking with a set of hobbles on was not a good idea. She learns very quickly.

Right now while I am typing this I am tasting Collette's milk for the first time. Her milk does not have nearly as much cream in it, as Calico's does. It is more homogenized and it tastes totally different. It is very good just tastes different. All goat's milk tastes different from goat to goat. You should always taste the milk of a freshened milk goat that you are thinking about buying.

I have been letting Calico run loose in the yard with her babies. She comes to the door and cries until I come out. She then runs and loads herself onto the milking stand and makes me milk her when her udder gets tight and heavy. She is producing enough milk for us, the dogs, the cat and her babies. I have been having to milk her twice a day but as the bucklings are getting bigger they are taking more and I am only having to milk her once per day, whether she likes it on not.

Classified Ads

I know that I said that I would update you on my milking experience with Collette this morning but it was storming last night and I had to put Cooter in one of the horse trailers. So I didn't have any place to separate Collette from her kids. I may have to wait until Monday to do it now.

I really need to sell Kia, Collette and the doelings. I don't need the extra work or the extra expense. I have posted them on a few classified sites and these free sites are getting ridiculous. Craigslist is just so sleazy and you get so many fraudulent inquiries plus your ad gets nuked as soon as you post it for no good reason other than there are people on there who feel powerful when they delete your ad.

I listed Kia as a farm animal because that is what she is, she isn't a pet. She loves her job and while someone could make her a pet, I am sure she would miss her role as protector. Anyway Craigslist has some kind of rules against selling pets on their site. I don't understand their rules because there are all kinds of pets being sold on there. They just whitewash it by calling it rehoming fees. Oh, the power of words...one must always use the correct terms.

Then again, if you try to give an animal away free on Craigslist then you get a lecture about your animal falling into the wrong hands by giving it away or selling it too cheap. What a perfect world that we live in. Someone is always trying to tell you how to live your life. Craigslist has become a place to avoid. It strikes me kind of funny that such a sleazy place tries to preach to others.

I did list Kia and the goats for sale on Kijiji, it just seems all together cleaner. It is also a little easier to use, a much better setup, they allow 8 pictures.

See myClassified Ads

**Kia has found a great new home with lots of animals, human kids and room to roam, she is loving all of the attention.

General Update

Spring is a busy time for us even when we aren't having any foals. It seems like I don't have much time to blog anymore. I have taken on the new responsibility of Collette and her three doelings. I separated them for the first time last night. My plan was to try to milk her this morning but since the milk stand wasn't ready, I decided to work on that today and try to milk her in the morning.

I fed and watered the doelings and then took some pictures of Collette's strutted udder in case anyone who might be interested in her wants to see it. It is a little lob-sided with the left side being larger than the right but she has a lot of milk. With the three kids nursing her I had no idea what her udder looked like when it was full.

I put her back in with her babies after I took the pictures and they were happy to see her. This is the first step in the weaning process, spending the night apart. Hopefully she won't give me too much trouble in the morning when I try to milk her. I will post the results tomorrow.

Angus is doing great and eating us out of house and home. He is dying for a playmate and tries to play with the doelings, that doesn't work very well, when Collette tries to fend him off they get into a head pushing competition that he always wins. We have to keep a close eye on them.

I still do not have any broody hens and I don't understand it. Last year they all wanted to go broody and this year no one does.

Calico is due on Sunday, Mother's Day. I have her and Paris in the foaling stall right outside our door, I put them in there for the first time last night. She is getting very close by the looks of her. Her udder isn't strutted tight yet but is getting very full, she is very indignant when I touch it. She thinks that I am going to milk her and she knows that just wouldn't be right. I have to touch it quickly to check it because she anticipates my move and out maneuvers me.

Paris is definitely bred also. I don't think that I have posted that my doubts about her have been erased. She isn't as big as Calico but she is big and is in the process of making an udder. She is due on the May 31st.

I have a ton of work that is going to have to be done. Cooter destroyed my dog kennel, that is where I usually separate the kids at weaning time. I have repaired it before and it is a big job. We need to get a bottom strand of wire put up around the goat lot so that the babies don't just walk under it like Angel does.

Sky, our new filly is growing more beautiful everyday. It has been raining so much that I haven't been able to get out there and play with her and take pictures.

I am not complaining about the rain because rain brings grass and our pastures need grass right now for the amount of horses that we have. Of course, the yard looks awful and since our miniature horse, Mr. Shorty has already foundered once this Spring, he has lost his job as our official lawn mower.

Trouble, our Cushings Disease mare, hasn't shown any signs of improvement. I started her on the Chaste Tree Berry Powder on April 24th, so it has been two weeks today. Maybe I am being too impatient. The article said that we should start seeing results in three weeks, so I'll try not to be discouraged yet. The first result is that you will notice they are drinking less water, but she is sharing a big water tank with our large herd, so there is no way for us to notice a difference. Her long curly hair is still hanging on for dear life. We plan to shave her as soon as we get a decent day.

Kids For Sale

Collette is the doe that I sold, at my DH's urging, last fall. She was bred to my buck, Cooter. On or around March 15th she had triplet doelings. The lady who purchased her from me has decided to sell Collette and all three kids because she doesn't have the time to take care of them.

I told her that I would take her and the kids to try to sell them and teach Collette how to be a milk goat.

She had originally bought Collette for milking purposes but with the three hungry mouths to feed poor Collette didn't have much milk to offer for anyone else. She has done a great job and continues to put everything that she has into producing milk for these three growing doelings.

Some goats have to have at least one kid pulled off and bottle fed when they have triplets. But Collette has been a great producer. However, she has not been hand milked at this point but I plan to start milking her as soon as they all get settled in here.

The three kids are currently for sale and should be good milk producers like their Mommy. They will have to stay with their Mommy for a little longer but if you are interested, you need to purchase them now. I will be selling Collette sometime in the near future after the kids are weaned and she is used to being milked.

You have already met the littlest of the three doelings if you have read my previous post "When Goats Fly". Her name is Francine and she is mostly white with a Champagne colored head and neck. She is very feisty.
Renee is the biggest of the three girls. She is mostly white with a medium brown head and neck.
Nicole is mostly white with a multi-colored head and neck that is black, tan and white. She is colored like her mother.The girls are priced at $75 each or all three for $200. They should make good milk goats.

Bone Chillin'

The weather forecast is nice for the next few days. These recent cold nights have been hard to adjust to. I am normally a polar bear. I really like cold weather, it may have something to do with hot flashes. Last winter we really saved on heating expenses but my poor DH nearly froze to death.

I got all of my green tomatoes picked before the freeze and I had to rush around to get my pool filter unhooked and drained. The wind was so strong and cold one day that my hot cup of coffee was just lukewarm by the time I got to the fire that my Husband had built to burn some stumps.

There I sat on a chunk of wood by the fire drinking a slightly warm cup of coffee. It just kind of ruined the whole affect. That wind not only ruined my coffee but it kept changing the direction of the sparks and smoke. My DH ended up having to set up two chunks of wood, one on each side of the fire for me to sit on and I kept having to get up and run to the other side. A very relaxing evening.

Some of my hens have stopped laying, I am only getting five eggs a day now. I also lost one of my Rhode Island Reds, we found her dead on the nest.

We sold Collette to a friend with good fence, so I will get to see her babies and still get to see her occasionally. My DH and I both sighed a big sigh of relief after we delivered her to her new home. Paris is still getting out once in awhile out of habit but I think that she will eventually stop.

Calico is still not liking her new living quarters inside the barn, she cries day and night. Her cries are sorrowful, mournful and loud, they are actually more of a wail than a cry. I thought that she would get over it eventually but I don't think she is going to. I tie Cooter up outside the goat lot and put her in with Paris when the weather is nice during the day, so it isn't like she is totally without companionship.

Naylor's eye still looks bad, the cloudiness is still there and he is still keeping it slightly closed but it isn't watering anymore. We have tapered off putting the medicines in it to once a day. He is still being such a good boy, most horses wouldn't let you get near them after what we have put him through. He always comes right to us and sometimes we don't even have to halter him.