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.

Saturday Morning

My oldest Granddaughter spent the night with me last night. Unlike her sister who likes to sleep late, this one is an early riser. When she was younger she used to wake me up by lightly tapping me and sweetly saying, "It's wake-up time." Now she just bounds out of bed, gets dressed and tells me she is going outside. Of course, I try to reason with her about the earliness of the hour and the coldness of the early morning air. To which she responds that she will wear a sweatshirt.

I drag myself out of bed when she comes running back inside to tell me that there is something weird out there. I ask her what it looks like and she says that it looks like a dead Elvis but it isn't Elvis. She is talking about my Polish rooster and not the singer. She has seen Elvis and he is still alive, so now she is among the many who can attest to the fact that Elvis lives.

I put my coat on upside down and go out there to see what this is. I should have known what it was when she said that it looks like a dead Elvis, because Elvis is black and white. It was indeed a dead skunk that either Angel had killed some time ago or had found somewhere. Either way it didn't smell like skunk anymore.

My Granddaughter is truly a farm girl. After my DIL (Daughter-in-law) had told me that Elvis had tried to chase and flog her, I was standing talking to my three Granddaughters. Elvis came slipping up behind the oldest one. Like any good Grandmother would do, I waited to see what would happen.

Elvis did indeed flog my oldest Granddaughter, she turned around to see what the problem was and I told her to kick him like a football. She then spent the next 30 minutes chasing him and trying to use him for a football. Elvis has learned a valuable lesson, don't mess with the little people.

Later, Elvis tried to get her Mother again to which her mother responded by asking her daughter to protect her. So my Granddaughter got between Elvis and her mother and Elvis was subdued.

Skunked

I went home late last night to send someone an email and to visit with Angus. Angus has been moved out of the goat stall because Calico and Paris were being too mean to him. They were butting him and pushing him around too much. So he has the free run of the barn again.

While I was there, Angel came into the barn to say, "Hi!" or to say "Help!", I am not sure which. I grabbed her by the collar before the smell got to me. I was escorting her out of the barn when I realized what I had a hold of. Being the brilliant person that I am, I put my hand to my nose and not only sniffed it but also touched my nose with it.

A few days ago, Abby had been sprayed by a skunk and since Abby never leaves the goat lot we knew that the skunk had probably tried to get into the goat/chicken shed. This is a very bad situation for the dogs, they are doing their jobs very well but are really suffering for it.

I used the goat milk soap that I ordered from Hidden Brook Farm and it actually removed the skunk smell from my hand, however I didn't realize that I had touched my nose until the smell kept following me around. After I washed my nose all was well again. By the way, Hidden Brook Farm included a large bar of "Pumpkin Spice Goat Milk Soap" as a bonus with my order that smells just wonderful.

Milk Soak

My DH has had a problem with his hands for quite some time now. He is a part time mailman and handling paper all day is very drying to his hands. They started itching, peeling, cracking and even bleeding. He was having a real hard time sleeping and nothing that he was doing as far as creams and lotions was helping him.

I decided to take the bull by the horn and try to do a few things to help him out. I made him start using used coffee grounds when washing his hands at the end of the day. I started using the coffee grounds with soap to get the billy goat smell off of my hands, it works and after a few times of using it, your hands get soft and smooth.

I told him to avoid washing his hands during the rest of the day. This is hard for him because his hands get so dirty. I found him a bar of Ivory soap and that is all I am letting him use. No more anti-bacterial stuff.

After he washes his hands at night, I make him soak his hands in goat's milk for 10 minutes. I told him to use bag balm on his hands after that but he only did that one night. It made his hands too messy. So far so good, he is really noticing a difference. He thinks that the goat's milk is the key. So chalk up another good use for goat's milk.

Ladybugs

Today is the day! Usually the day comes around the 12th of October but since our weather has been so quirky lately they didn't come back until today on the 1st day of November. I am talking about the return of the Asian Ladybugs. Someone should make a horror film about this phenomenon. But if they did no one would come to see it because it is just too tragic.

This is a plague of Biblical proportions. The problem is that these sweet little creatures like our house because others of their species have liked our house in the past. They are just looking for a nice place to camp for the winter. So they come by the thousands to use our campground.

Ladybugs bleed a little bit to ward off predators, their blood is yellow and stinks. If you have ever smashed one of them you know what I am talking about. But you don't have to smash them to smell their blood, they can release it at will to make you leave them alone. I hate that smell, it is worse than my billy goat.

The real problem with Ladybugs is that they swarm in on you and you are completely outnumbered. They are all over our barn/house right now, looking for cracks that they can crawl in through. The sad part is that our house will be full of them tonight, I will have them crawling on me in my bed. I know this because it happens every year.

I have closed the barn up, so that they can't get in as easily, but resistance is futile. Every time I have gone outside today, I have had to go stand in front of a mirror to pick all of them off of my clothes. I have not come in with less than eight all day. They always find their way under my clothes and crawl around on my skin, that is the part that I really hate, bugs crawling up my back.

This day brings me closer to insanity than any other day that I know of. I actually did grab one with my hand while I was outside today and it released it's stench on me. They are the skunk of the insect world. I went over and rubbed my stinky hand on Cooter, he was repulsed. But the billy goat smell did get the Ladybug smell off of my hand.