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.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Back To Normal
We are back to almost normal, the girl's Mother picked them up, then brought them back today for me to watch while she took the oldest one back to the Doctor. After several tests they proclaimed that she has a severe UTI with none of the usual symptoms, she is still running a high fever after six days. I am already missing the constant chatter of little girls, and how they can always find something for you to do when you sit down or are on the phone.
We are currently house-sitting for our neighbors which means, for the most part, my DH is at home and I am at the neighbors. I haven't milked but once in the last six days. But I am confident that he is doing a good job. He hand milks much better than I do, but my doe does prefer the spray nozzle milker, the bad part is that the dogs and cat are getting all of the milk.
Those who have followed my blog for a long time will know who Lolita is, she is a Yellow Naped Amazon Parrot who belongs to my neighbors. You can read how she sliced and diced my hand in this post: Back Home.
After she shredded my hand, I did gain some courage back and handled her several times afterward but then on New Year's day while we were at her house for dinner, she got agitated and grabbed her owner's cheek while sitting on her shoulder. She nearly took a chunk of meat out of my friend's face. I lost a ton of courage by witnessing this. After all, this is the lady who handles this bird daily.
So here I am, back to being her caretaker for a few days. She is cooing and flirting with me constantly. It is so hard for me to ignore her advances. She just keeps begging me to take her out of her cage and play with her. I did finally give in while my Husband was here last evening. She sat upon my shoulder and preened my hair, she kissed my face and rubbed her head on me, a perfectly well behaved, affectionate parrot. Who can turn into a man-eating dragon in a flash.
She sounds and acts so sweet with the girls, that I have to constantly warn them of the dangers of sticking their tiny fingers in the cage to pet her. The two year old was nearly beguiled by her sweet cunning ways.
We are currently house-sitting for our neighbors which means, for the most part, my DH is at home and I am at the neighbors. I haven't milked but once in the last six days. But I am confident that he is doing a good job. He hand milks much better than I do, but my doe does prefer the spray nozzle milker, the bad part is that the dogs and cat are getting all of the milk.
Those who have followed my blog for a long time will know who Lolita is, she is a Yellow Naped Amazon Parrot who belongs to my neighbors. You can read how she sliced and diced my hand in this post: Back Home.
After she shredded my hand, I did gain some courage back and handled her several times afterward but then on New Year's day while we were at her house for dinner, she got agitated and grabbed her owner's cheek while sitting on her shoulder. She nearly took a chunk of meat out of my friend's face. I lost a ton of courage by witnessing this. After all, this is the lady who handles this bird daily.
So here I am, back to being her caretaker for a few days. She is cooing and flirting with me constantly. It is so hard for me to ignore her advances. She just keeps begging me to take her out of her cage and play with her. I did finally give in while my Husband was here last evening. She sat upon my shoulder and preened my hair, she kissed my face and rubbed her head on me, a perfectly well behaved, affectionate parrot. Who can turn into a man-eating dragon in a flash.
She sounds and acts so sweet with the girls, that I have to constantly warn them of the dangers of sticking their tiny fingers in the cage to pet her. The two year old was nearly beguiled by her sweet cunning ways.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The Flu Bug
We have taken on a few extra responsibilities over the last several days and that has kept us almost totally offline. We had a terrible windstorm that forced me to keep the computer shut down because of the instability of the electricity, it kept flickering but never went completely out.
Then what was suppose to be a sleep-over for our three Granddaughters turned into a round the clock vigil, when two of them came down with the flu. My DH was puked upon twice and I would not even venture to guess how many times we held a bucket for our oldest Granddaughter.
The first night I slept on the floor beside our oldest Granddaughter's bed and tried my best to keep her fever down and the mess to a minimum. My poor Husband slept with the youngest one, and the bed was nearly a total loss. I have done more laundry over the last few days than I even care to think about, even the dog has thrown-up.
Since the girls have a new infant brother we chose to keep them here for a few days away from him, but the oldest girl just was not getting any better so her parents came after her today. The other two are still with us and fully recovered.
I think that I might even be able to sleep in an actual bed tonight for the first time in two days. I was a little surprised at myself because I actually slept well on the floor and woke up when I needed to throughout the night. I was not even that sore the next day.
Angus is doing very well for those who have asked, he is actually outgrowing the calf who his mother tried to steal, and that calf is nursing both Angus' mother and his own mother.
Thank you so much, Rachel, for getting back to me, but his scours had stopped before I received your message and I didn't receive your message until several days after you had left it.
I am hoping that things might return to somewhat normal soon, but cannot guarantee that for a couple of weeks, I will post when I can.
Then what was suppose to be a sleep-over for our three Granddaughters turned into a round the clock vigil, when two of them came down with the flu. My DH was puked upon twice and I would not even venture to guess how many times we held a bucket for our oldest Granddaughter.
The first night I slept on the floor beside our oldest Granddaughter's bed and tried my best to keep her fever down and the mess to a minimum. My poor Husband slept with the youngest one, and the bed was nearly a total loss. I have done more laundry over the last few days than I even care to think about, even the dog has thrown-up.
Since the girls have a new infant brother we chose to keep them here for a few days away from him, but the oldest girl just was not getting any better so her parents came after her today. The other two are still with us and fully recovered.
I think that I might even be able to sleep in an actual bed tonight for the first time in two days. I was a little surprised at myself because I actually slept well on the floor and woke up when I needed to throughout the night. I was not even that sore the next day.
Angus is doing very well for those who have asked, he is actually outgrowing the calf who his mother tried to steal, and that calf is nursing both Angus' mother and his own mother.
Thank you so much, Rachel, for getting back to me, but his scours had stopped before I received your message and I didn't receive your message until several days after you had left it.
I am hoping that things might return to somewhat normal soon, but cannot guarantee that for a couple of weeks, I will post when I can.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Firming up
Not me of course, I am not firming up. Angus' stools are firming up. He is actually making piles now, a nice change. I do admit that you can still slip in a pile, I have tested this personally. So we took your advice, you voted and we listened. Not really, I don't care about approval ratings and I wasn't elected to this office (The Poll has been removed). We just put him back in with the does. They have adjusted to him now. When he gets bigger, I don't know what we will do with him.
The weather is warm and the ground is soggy and muddy. We are under a flood warning for the next few days, the first one this year. It is suppose to be close to 70 degrees tomorrow, unreal!
The weather is warm and the ground is soggy and muddy. We are under a flood warning for the next few days, the first one this year. It is suppose to be close to 70 degrees tomorrow, unreal!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Just When I Needed You!
Rachel at Welcome To Wilmoth Farms was hit very hard in Kentucky by the ice storm that passed through on Tuesday, January 27th.
If you follow my blog you know that during that storm our little Angus was born. My first thought while he was thawing out in our living room was, I knew Rachel will have some advice for me since it has been many, many years since we raised any calves on bottles.
I had many questions, like how long he should have colostrum, since his Mother never let him nurse? If the goat colostrum that I had on hand would work since the roads were so bad that we couldn't get out to get anything else? How much should he be drinking and how often?
Then the really, really big question, how do you stop these scours????
But alas, Rachel is still without power and Angus may be half grown before she is back among the enlightened. She did read my post about Angus and left a comment but she is only checking in when she can. Since for some reason I am not able to post comments on her blog, I will just have to communicate with her here.
Hello, Rachel, hope you are doing well and I hope that your place is thawed out by now and clean-up is nearly done. I really hope that you get your electricity back soon. But I must say that these on again, off again scours are driving me mad!
Angus is healthy and strong, has bonded with my DH and follows him everywhere he goes. He always runs in a gallop with a few twists and bucks. When he is hungry, he comes to the door and rattles the doorknob, this gave me quite a fright the first time that he did it and I was here all alone.
Since he is staying in the barn right outside my living room door, I am seeing most of his bowel movements and smelling them. Some are firm but some like the one that I slid in the other night and almost fell are very runny.
I would appreciate your home remedy for scours very much. He is currently getting 6 quarts of medicated replacer per day with some yogurt and an egg in each bottle. He is also getting mushed up Calf Manna and we are putting a couple of tablespoons of Pepto-Bismol in each bottle if he appears to need it.
If you follow my blog you know that during that storm our little Angus was born. My first thought while he was thawing out in our living room was, I knew Rachel will have some advice for me since it has been many, many years since we raised any calves on bottles.
I had many questions, like how long he should have colostrum, since his Mother never let him nurse? If the goat colostrum that I had on hand would work since the roads were so bad that we couldn't get out to get anything else? How much should he be drinking and how often?
Then the really, really big question, how do you stop these scours????
But alas, Rachel is still without power and Angus may be half grown before she is back among the enlightened. She did read my post about Angus and left a comment but she is only checking in when she can. Since for some reason I am not able to post comments on her blog, I will just have to communicate with her here.
Hello, Rachel, hope you are doing well and I hope that your place is thawed out by now and clean-up is nearly done. I really hope that you get your electricity back soon. But I must say that these on again, off again scours are driving me mad!
Angus is healthy and strong, has bonded with my DH and follows him everywhere he goes. He always runs in a gallop with a few twists and bucks. When he is hungry, he comes to the door and rattles the doorknob, this gave me quite a fright the first time that he did it and I was here all alone.
Since he is staying in the barn right outside my living room door, I am seeing most of his bowel movements and smelling them. Some are firm but some like the one that I slid in the other night and almost fell are very runny.
I would appreciate your home remedy for scours very much. He is currently getting 6 quarts of medicated replacer per day with some yogurt and an egg in each bottle. He is also getting mushed up Calf Manna and we are putting a couple of tablespoons of Pepto-Bismol in each bottle if he appears to need it.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Too Cold
I know that I said that I love snow and cold weather but I don't like this bone-chilling cold. The wind chill today could be -10 and my old bones are screaming for warmer weather. It is suppose to get warmer, even up in the 50's, then all of this snow will melt and we will have mud and flooding but I have already got my snow fix for this year. I am ready for Spring.
Angus is doing well, he is following my DH around while he feeds in the evenings. I got a video of him out in the snow last night. I will try to post it here when I get some more time.
I really love feeding and milking but it is all that I can do to make it outside when it is this cold. I don't remember worrying about the chickens this much, it is so hard to make sure everything has fresh water all of the time. They don't seem to want to drink until the water freezes solid and that happens about 10 minutes after you carry hot water to them.
Enough whining, I just want to thank you all for doing your part to combat Global Warming, your efforts are working and I think those in Kentucky would agree with me.
Angus is doing well, he is following my DH around while he feeds in the evenings. I got a video of him out in the snow last night. I will try to post it here when I get some more time.
I really love feeding and milking but it is all that I can do to make it outside when it is this cold. I don't remember worrying about the chickens this much, it is so hard to make sure everything has fresh water all of the time. They don't seem to want to drink until the water freezes solid and that happens about 10 minutes after you carry hot water to them.
Enough whining, I just want to thank you all for doing your part to combat Global Warming, your efforts are working and I think those in Kentucky would agree with me.
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