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.

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.

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.

Cooter

I have put it off because it was too hard to talk about. A week has now passed and my feelings aren't quite so raw. I first noticed that Cooter was acting a little off on Monday of last week. I couldn't put my finger on it but I knew something was wrong. By Tuesday he was obviously in trouble.

He kept standing in the hot sun panting. I finally had to stake him out in the shade, so that he couldn't get to a sunny area. Then I noticed that when I went out to check on him that his right hind foot was always wrapped up in the rope. This just wasn't like him.

The second time I went to untangle his foot, I was bent over and starting to pick it up when someone hit me hard on the top of the head with a baseball bat. I studied the pretty stars in the darkness of my brain for just a moment, then picked myself up off of the ground.

I was shocked that Cooter would just butt me like that but after we observed him for awhile later we realized that he didn't butt me at all. He was spinning violently to the right at times and that was the reason that the rope kept wrapping around that right hind foot.

Since I wasn't sure what I was dealing with, I started pumping different things into him; Electrolytes, B-Complex, lots of Thiamine and Antibiotics. Then later; Probiotics, Vegetable Oil, Baking Soda, Nutri-Drench and finally two Enemas.

I stayed up with him that night until around 2:00. On Wednesday morning he was still in misery, so I made the decision to put him down. I was not going to put him through another hot day. At this point, I was certain, after talking to several goat people that he had a twisted gut. Something else had started the problem but after his falling and flopping around several times, the result was that he had twisted something.

He drank water all day and was urinating well but his bowels had stopped working. Even with the oil and enemas, he never even passed the enema water that I put into him.

Angel stayed by his side throughout the day and all night. She followed us as we took him to his final resting place and after the grave was covered, she sniffed the dirt and laid down beside it. As we were leaving I was afraid that she might stay there but after we arrived back at the house, I looked back and seen her come up over the hill.

I miss him. Even though I had made up my mind to sell him, it is still hard for me to deal with. I miss the way he cocked his head when he looked at you and the way he always had to rub on me. I even miss the way he smelled. I can still get a whiff of him from time to time when I am close to his favorite places.

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.

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.

Roosters, Angus and a Jailbreak

Meanwhile back at the ranch, life has settled down somewhat and returning to normal. I had been keeping my D'uccles in a large dog taxi for the cold winter months. They don't do cold weather very well.

During those months the mutt red banty rooster continued to harass and otherwise torment Rudy my D'uccle rooster. He was always challenging him at the door of the taxi. There was nothing Rudy could do about it but tell him that though he was caged he still had the prettiest hens caged with him.

The worm has turned, I have finally released Rudy and his two D'uccle hens. I put the mutt and Elvis in cages, so there is no chance of them fertilizing any eggs that any of my hens might go broody over. It is now Rudy's turn to challenge and otherwise torment the mutt and he has been doing just that all morning.

Angus is doing very well and growing, he stays in our foaling stall at night and in the goat lot on sunny days. Sometimes we just turn him loose and he goes where he wants to go, which is usually around Cooter's dog kennel.
Speaking of Cooter's dog kennel, I never knew what a billy goat could do with his bare teeth. For those who don't know, goats only have bottom teeth in the front like cattle, with no teeth in the front top gums. So when they bite you it doesn't hurt that bad unless they are like Calico who has learned to scrape with those bottom teeth. Her mother always did the same thing, if she bit you she meant it to hurt.

Cooter has been planning a jail break for quite a while but he was waiting for just the right time. He wanted us to be away from home when he took off. He got his chance last night, he knew that we would be away for several hours so he put his evil plan into action.

There were signs that something was in the works...But he looked so innocent, like it was all just an accident.
When I caught him in the act, he started chewing on something else to make me think he was only chewing because he was bored.
When the work got hard he thought about trying to jump but his big, muscular body just couldn't get off of the ground. The awful truth was staring me right in the eye but I refused to believe it.
Then when we came home last night something just didn't look right.
You are probably thinking that he got out just to visit his girlfriends but you would be wrong. He was partying with the horses at the hay ring again.

Scurs

For those who do not torture themselves by owning goats; (scurs are caused by a gene and they have nothing to do with bad disbudding! Don't argue with me about this because you will be wrong every time!). They either carry a Scur gene or they don't. Even naturally polled goats can have a scur gene. If you buy a naturally polled goat and he develops a scur don't accuse the previous owner of lying about his horn status. If the goat develops a firmly attached horn that does not wiggle then feel free to accuse.

My own dear Cooter has a really nice scur going on right now. Scurs come and go, they are normally somewhat like a loose tooth, you can jiggle them around a little bit. Cooter doesn't like it but we try to loosen them on occasion, he normally knocks them off himself without too much help from us but the one that he has now is getting quite large. 

They are painful when they are dislodged. They can bleed profusely, leaving him looking pretty mistreated. I always try to put a little blue medicine on the open sore, he doesn't like that either but then the only things that he really does like are Does, food, and a good scratching on his neck and horn area. 

When you mention dehorning or disbudding to goat-minded people, they usually have very strong opinions one way or the other. There are those who would never disbud because they feel that nature intended goats to have horns. They also would never ever put a baby animal through that much pain for 60 seconds. However, these same people do sometimes circumcise their male children. They also feel that horns are there for goats to protect themselves and so on... 

 The other side of this issue, which includes yours truly, believes that horns are dangerous to humans, grandchildren, and even the goats themselves. Goats are experts on sticking their heads in unusual places and mine get their heads stuck even without horns to entangle them. They can also injure their herd mates, human caregivers, and human children by accidentally catching them with a horn. 

 As far as goats protecting themselves with horns go, I believe that a pack of dogs or coyotes don't make the distinction, the horned goats taste just as good. Horned goats also run from danger just the same as unhorned goats do. I strongly believe in disbudding, dehorning an adult goat is another matter. I would not purchase a goat with horns but if the occasion did arise that I came into possession of a horned goat, I would not try to dehorn it. I would however attempt to blunt the sharp ends. 

Even a blunted, loose scur can cause you problems, as demonstrated by Cooter and his human caregiver. I had gone out to feed the rascal and he, being his impatient self was trying to help me pour the feed into the feed pan. I was bent over and he is pretty tall and we somehow got our heads together. His thick, hooked, three-inch scur weaved itself into a portion of the front of my hair that was pulled back in a bun. I also had a hair clasp in the front of my hair and the scur was between my tender scalp and the clasp. I tried to straighten up and was attached to Cooter who was by this time trying to inhale the food in the feed pan. I am not much of one to say that animals are kind, gentle, intelligent, and have human emotions but Cooter did feel the pressure on the scur and instead of jerking away like he normally does when we touch his scurs, he actually moved with me. I just knew that at any moment he would pull away to continue eating but he raised his head and let me untangle us without jerking me bald. It took me several seconds to free myself and I was even to the point of trying to take my hair down but I finally got loose. For once, I was impressed by Cooter's kindness, intelligence, gentleness, and human emotions. But what I really believe is that he was in as much of a predicament as I was in and he knew that if he jerked away it would cause him great pain. So, I still give him points for intelligence.

Bedfast

My flu symptoms have past but now I am totally down in my back from laying in bed all day yesterday. I did manage to hobble outside this evening with a cane to look at Calico. She wasn't milked all day yesterday or today. She isn't at all strutted so I guess that she is drying up on her own. She is looking very pregnant or very fat.

For those who do not have goats or are thinking about getting goats. They can drive you absolutely mad. They do not care about your plans, they just do whatever feels right to them. They can be sweet and affectionate one minute and devious and hateful the next. Bucks are more predictable than does, at least my Buck is, he is just obnoxious all of the time.

So, at this point I am looking at kidding in 5 to 37 days for Calico. Paris was bred on January 1st. We also have two mares due to foal this spring.

That is all for now because I am still using this stupid laptop that cannot think as fast as I can type. I have a whole paragraph done before it shows the first word, which is just annoying.

Recent Events

Where to begin? Yesterday my DH had the day off because it was New Year's Day. He made good use of the day by working outside. I made good use of the day by staying inside. I kept hearing this annoying sound and so I finally gave some thought to what I was hearing, it was Paris outside my door, in the stall, screaming her head off. I asked myself this question, "Why is Paris screaming her head off?" Then I answered myself, "It could be that she is in heat, dummy."

I ran to the calendar and looked at the date that I last suspected that she was in heat, low and behold it was twenty days ago. So, I opened the gate and let her out, she did not pass Go or collect $200. She ran straight as an arrow to Cooter's pen and didn't wait for me to catch up to open the gate, she just squeezed through it.

He was pleased to see her again and they spent the rest of the afternoon together, when she got tired of him, she squeezed back through the gate and came back to the barn and that was that. So now I have a firm date on when Paris was bred, it was on New Year's Day, easy to remember.

Bootstrap seems to be improving everyday and he wants out of his cage but I tried letting him loose again today and I later found him hiding in a corner with a tiny banty rooster, half his size, plucking all of his feathers out. There were feathers everywhere, he just doesn't have any fight in him.

We have had another chicken problem that I hope to have fixed today. The house part of our barn was made with Foam Forms, they are styrofoam forms filled with concrete and in a few places around the outside and the entire interior wall still has some foam forms exposed.

The problem is, chickens love styrofoam. It is like one of their favorite foods in the winter time. During the summer they never touch it but right now, I cannot keep them away from it. They are literally eating us out of house and home. It isn't that they are hungry because they leave their corn, sunflower seeds and chicken feed to feast upon our walls.

We had some cans of red spray paint, so since I can't keep continually chasing them with a broom. I started spraying this evening, they stood back and watched, so far, so good, they looked at the new color and cocked their heads from side to side, but no one tired it. I am anxious for tomorrow to get here, to see if this has solved the problem.

Now on to my New Year's Resolution. I only made one resolution last year and almost kept it, however, I did falter from time to time. That resolution was to blog everyday, well, I never said that I was perfect.

In keeping with the tradition that I set forth last New Year's, I have again resolved only one resolution this year and that is to quit griping at my DH and be kinder and gentler to him. He does not deserve my criticism most of the time. He has looked at me several times today and said something about it not even lasting 24 hours, but these things do take time and patience. Old habits die hard, I can't just flip a switch and be sweet.

Coyote Visit

Early yesterday morning my DH went outside and saw a deer jump over the fence from the wooded side of our property into our pasture. Then he saw a coyote come over the brink of the hill in our pasture, the deer turned around and ran back towards the woods, the coyote pursued her.

I had just been commenting on where the fox had gone. We were seeing the fox just about every day, then all of the sudden he just disappeared. We haven't seen him for several days. I have heard that foxes won't stay were coyotes spend time. I don't know if that is true or not but it seems to always be the case here. This is the first coyote that we have seen in a long time. We haven't even been hearing them at night.

I am happy that I don't have to deal with the fox anymore but I might have a worse problem now. We have never lost any livestock to a coyote but they do make me nervous.

We have been seeing a very large buck in our lower pasture. He doesn't just have a large rack but is just massive all over. He must be older than what we usually see because he has a very large neck and shoulders. He looks like the big bucks that you see on the covers of hunter's magazines. We think that he is probably staying on our island. Indian Creek crosses our property and it splits in one place to form a fairly large island. We have had the bigger and more experienced bucks live on that island before, but not for the last couple of years.

I know that my brother-in-law and my cousin both read my blog, so they will probably want to come down for a visit during deer season after they read this. I also told a couple of deer hunters at Church about him, so his days may be numbered, as long as I get a few good steaks out of the deal, I won't cry over him. They just came out with a new study that meat-eaters don't have the brain shrinkage that vegetarians have. I believe that I could have told you that, but that certainly explains a lot.

Overcast

Our hay is scheduled to be baled at 3:00. It has been so overcast today that I am not sure it will be ready. I keep looking at the weather radar and the forecast, just to keep my heart rate up and my panic attack going. The radar looks bad but the forecast isn't too bad, just a 20% chance of thunderstorms after 2:00 pm.

It is just so much more devastating to get your hay wet now that it cost so much. I won't be able to breathe at a normal rate until it is all in the barn loft.

I was offered the opportunity to buy 100 bales of pure alfalfa for my goats at $4.00 per bale. I am torn with the decision. Should I keep my goats or sell them? I could buy a lot of milk this winter with $400. Plus I wouldn't have to go out in the freezing weather to feed, water and milk. I would have more time to work on websites, rope halters, spinning and crocheting. I might even learn to spin on my old spinning wheel.

The goats are a constant problem. Three of them have learned that if you run real fast you can get under the fence without getting shocked. They normally don't want to get out but when I bring one to the barn/house to be milked the others just follow. I have been having to put halters on the escape artists and tie them up before milking the other two.

Cooter is always a problem too. I have to stake him out all day and move him 3 or 4 times per day. That will stop when cold weather gets here of course, because I will be feeding him hay. But I am going to have to fix a permanent place for him to get out of the weather once it starts getting cold. I kept him in the horse trailer this past spring but that isn't going to work for a long period of time. I don't want to breed Calico and Cinder back, so he can't go back into the goat lot.

I do enjoy my goats, I love taking care of them and milking. The excerise that I get from them is important. The patience, longsuffering and anger management skills that I glean from them is priceless. They certainly do not pay their own way. I love the milk but my Husband doesn't drink very much of it. So I have to decide if they are worth all of the money and the time that I put into them for the few benefits that I get back from them.

I think that I have already decided to let Cinder and Collette go but I don't know about the others yet. My DH keeps telling me that I need to sell Cooter but I really like him and I don't want to have to send my does out to have them bred, you always risk to much doing that and if you just go out and buy a buck when you need one, then you risk bringing in diseases.

So I guess the question is do I sell out completely or just cut back to two does and a buck?

Stake Out

It was hot yesterday. It is going to be hot again today. I have to stake my Buck out to eat now because we don't have any hay. The goat lot where the does stay has plenty of grass, clover and weeds but my buck lot is small with nothing green in it.

I usually stake him out in places with lots weeds that need cleaning up but yesterday was so hot that I just tied him out in the morning shade then put him back in his cool lot during the heat of the day. When I stake him out I have to periodically untie him and lead him to water. The silly thing will hardly ever drink when I take him. He is like a camel, he only wants to drink once a day and when he does drink, he drinks a lot.

Since Cooter spent most of the day in his lot, I had to stake him out in the evening after it cooled down some. I didn't want to leave him staked out over night but he very seldom gets tangled up where I have been putting him, so I left him there. I checked on him a couple of times during the night.

Early this morning when I went out to check on him he was lying flat out on his side, I thought he was dead. I yelled at him and he didn't move. I walked up on him and saw that he was breathing deeply and slowly, but he still didn't respond. I said his name and he fluttered his eyelids but still didn't wake up. I put my hand on his hip and shook him real hard, he finally opened his eyes but still didn't raise his head. I thought something had to be wrong with him. I asked him what was wrong and he lazily raised his head and looked at me, then finally got to his feet and stretched.

I was glad that he was alright, though I couldn't figure out what could be wrong with him. I just couldn't believe that he would sleep that sound. I know it isn't because he has a clear conscious, because as soon as he got done stretching, he peed all over his front legs and chin. He pees all over everything, all of the time, you would think that he would have to drink more water than he does.

Stupid

I couldn't think of a title for this blog because I have so many different thoughts going through my head. I am hoping a title will emerge from the blog all on it's own.

All was peaceful and quiet yesterday evening, my DH had a rare day off and was busy mowing the top pasture. I thought that I would go ahead and get the evening feeding and milking done before it got dark. I was going to take my time and enjoy the process. I started out by trying to get all of the new chicks in cages with their mothers. I soon realized that herding baby chicks is not an easy task and that I was wasting my time.

I went to the goat lot with halter and lead rope in hand, caught Cinder and led her to the barn/house to be milked. She was not as cooperative as she usually is and that task turned out not to be pleasant in the least. She didn't want to get on the milk stand that is still standing in muddy water from the recent rain.

I finally got her in place and sat down to milk and dropped my clean cloth that I had to wash her udder with into the muddy water under the stand. So I had to go back into the house for a new one. On the way back to the milking stand was when I first noticed that the wind had picked up and the sky had grown dark and there was a not too distant sound of thunder. I had a lot to get done before it started to rain, so I picked up my pace.

Cinder had more milk than usual and so it took me longer to milk as the storm crept nearer. When I finally got the milking done and everything cleaned up and turned her loose, she lost all common sense and couldn't remember any of the routine things that she does twice per day everyday. She tried to go out the wrong door, she had to stop and taste everything along the way, whether it was eatable or not. I finally got her put back in the lot by the time it started to rain.

I was moving as quickly as possible because I needed to get into the house to turn off the computer before lightening struck again.

I went to collect Cooter who was tied to a concrete block in a nice patch of weeds. He had wrapped the rope around the block several times and while I tried to untangle him, he was giving me kisses and chewing on my hair. You can't slap him or push him away because then he thinks that you want to play and he plays too rough. I finally got him loose and by this time it had stopped raining but the storm was getting closer. I put Cooter in the horse trailer for the night instead of in his pen which is up the hill and farther away, so I had to get him a bucket of water.

Next I mixed the goat and chicken feed and managed to get them all fed without too many problems. Now it was back to chick herding, that is a skill that it takes years to perfect. You would think that they would go into the cage when their mommy went into the cage but not so. There is always one more thing that they need to do outside the cage before they call it a night.

Some of the chicks who were already safely nesting under their Mommy, would also think of something else that they needed to do and run out of the cage just as I got the last straggler in. I think that I used the word "stupid" a lot last night in dealing with both chickens and goats.

I finally got everything put up, watered and fed. I closed both big sliding doors and the side door, then went into the house to shut off the computer. The storm went east and never got to us. It did rain later in the night but all of my rushing around was wasted.

I think that I have a title now!

Finally Named

In keeping with my precious stones and minerals theme this year, I was having a hard time coming up with names for my two newest kids. My good friend "Punky" finally came up with the names that stuck. So my new babies are Copper and Zinc. Copper is the little copper colored buckling and Zinc is the black buckling.

They are doing great, they have discovered the rock.



When they get tired of the rock they can always play on mommy.



Or chew on ears



Angel loves the new arrivals



So they don't feel left out, here is a picture of Jasper and Onyx enjoying the sunshine.

The Boys

I was standing in the door of the chicken/goat shed the other evening, just watching the goats play and some horse antics, when I realized that all of our intact males are just forces to be reckoned with.

Cooter, my buck, had been pushing his limits with me all evening. He had been cooped up in the horse trailer too long and I had turned him out with Collette and Paris for awhile to get some exercise, since his buck pen wouldn't hold him anymore. He was pushing everyone around and was just generally being King of his domain. We are keeping him separated from Calico and Cinder now because we don't want them bred back.

From my vantage point I watched Cooter strutting his stuff. I could also see Badger, our Grullo AQHA Stallion, who was busy chasing my chickens who had just happened to wonder into his pasture, he was not only chasing them but trying to kill them.

I looked off to my left in time to see Jazz, our Appaloosa Stallion making a dive at the fence that separates him from Shorty, our miniature horse gelding. Shorty has a talent for driving Jazz insane by ignoring his strength and not showing any fear of him. I also personally think that Shorty makes rude remarks to Jazz that send him into a rage. Because one moment Jazz is calm and quiet, then the next moment he totally loses it and tries to crawl over the fence to get at him.

My Roosters like to find a high place to crow, they will also stand up to almost anything that threatens their hens, it's a guy thing. The testosterone driven males on this farm will take on any challenger. They can be quite annoying at times but are to be admired at others.

We did get a hot wire installed on top of our buck pen. So I don't have to deal with Cooter's posturing anymore. When I go into his pen now, he is just glad for some company and I don't have to deal with his buckishness, he is just a friendly puppy dog.

The icing on the cake for me when I was pondering these things, was when my little buckling Jasper got shocked by the electric fence. He yelled and jumped straight in the air but didn't run away like a doeling would do. He pulled himself up to his full height and marched right back over to that fence to let it know that he wasn't afraid of it and would fight it if necessary.

Bottle Babies

Two mostly Nubian bottle babies for sale, 12% Boer. Both from very good milking stock. $25 for the black buck and $45 for the brown spotted buck. Located in Southern Indiana.

I haven't named these kids yet. I need names in keeping with my precious stones, minerals or metals theme. Their Mother is still rejecting them at this point, so it would be good to sell them as bottle babies now.

Goats for Sale

One Black Doeling and one Dun colored Buckling, these twins are from good milking bloodlines, mostly Nubian with a small percentage Boer.

$45 for the doeling and $25 for the buckling (or wether), born April 2nd.

These have been sold!

Shocking

My new handy dandy Hot-Shot Power-Mite arrived from JeffersLivestock.com. It is like a electric cattle prod but it is compact and fits into your pocket. It looks like a stun gun or taser, but of course, only delivers a buzzing sound and a slight shock. It is used for close-up animal work with hogs and cattle. In case you missed my blog about my billy goat getting a little pushy and aggressive, he is the reason that I bought this little device.

I put it in my pocket and went to gather eggs in the goat/chicken shed. As usually, Cooter started his routine of chewing at my sleeves which is fine, then he started lightly pushing on me with his head.

He gradually increased his pushing and I slipped the Hot-Shot out of my pocket and applied it to his neck. He hollered and came back after me, mad as could be. I shocked him again on the neck and he yelled and came back again, this time he reared up and tried to hit me hard. I got him on his shoulder that time and he came back for more.

I was beginning to wonder who was going to win this battle, when I made good contact with the side of his belly and he bleated and ran away. He went on the other side of the building where he had to peek around the side to see me. He never came back and I was relieved because I didn't have much more fight in me.

When I went back out there to check on things after dark that night, he came right up to me to be petted but never once chewed on me or pushed on me. I was so happy that he wasn't afraid of me and that he didn't start his stuff with me again because I had totally forgotten to take the Hot-Shot with me.

I have been in the lot several times since this incident and he is a changed boy. He is not pushing on me at all now. It is amazing to me that he knew exactly what he was doing that he needed to stop doing.