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.

A Kindle Named Violet

For some unknown reason I happened to log in to my blogger account tonight. I was surprised to see that my last blog post was on 08/28/2010. So, it has been exactly one year since I have posted. It is strange that I would check in here tonight after being away for so long.

The reason that I have quit posting and writing altogether is because I have started some serious reading. You see, I bought myself a Kindle 3G and for the past year, she and I have been inseparable. I love her, her name is Violet and she is the Graphite model.

I currently have nearly 850 books on her and I get more free books almost every day. I have read or have had Violet read me around 80 books since last October. I get my free books by subscribing to Free Kindle Books Plus a Few Other Tips right on my Kindle. I let Michael Gallagher sort through the free books and suggest only the best. You can also access his blog for free on your PC here: http://fkbt.wordpress.com. You can spend money and buy eBooks too, if that is what you want to do.


Violet's face is so lovely and easy to read without a back-lit screen. I can read her anywhere without any glare or eyestrain (back-lit screens make my eyes tired). You do have to have a light in order to read in the dark or low light situations. I have a Kandle for my Kindle. But many other Clip-On Lights are available.

There are games and apps available for the Kindle. I have a Calendar and Sticky Notes on Violet. My favorite game is Monopoly, but there are lots of free games and apps.

The thing that I really love about Violet is that she fits in the pocket of a vest that I have and she reads to me through headphones while I am working around the house. She can read nearly all books. I can even put Audio Books and Music on her if I want to. She can read in a woman's or man's voice at slow, medium or fast speeds. I prefer the woman's voice at medium speed.

There are many ways to dress up your Kindle. Skins and Covers of every design, material and color. I no longer have a skin on Violet, but she is decked out in a JAVOedge Heritage Flip Case. This case protects, looks pretty and also stands Violet up like a picture frame, so I can read while having breakfast or lunch.

Violet will also check my email, Twitter, Facebook, weather, etc...for free using 3G. What more could you ask for?

Summer Returns

The cooler weather didn’t last long, the heat has returned today with a vengeance. I remember a few years ago when I first got my first swimming pool that the water was cold all summer. I had to get a solar blanket for it, I didn’t think that having a pool was worth the cost of the chemicals because it wasn’t used that much. Some friends that I know got rid of their pools after that season because it was never warm enough to swim comfortably.

I got the pool for my Grandkids because I wanted them to learn to swim. It worked well, my oldest Grandson can swim well and my two oldest Granddaughters are floating, dog paddling, and swimming expertly underwater.

This year has been the best year ever for owning a swimming pool in southern Indiana. The girls have lived in the water this Summer. They are dark brown from the sun and their hair is a couple of shades lighter. But today the water was cold after a couple of cool nights. They were shocked in more ways than one when they jumped in because they are used to nice warm water. They keep getting out to warm up in the sun.

It’s hard to believe that it is almost September, this Summer has been just one long, super hot, steamy blur. It started out stormy with lots of rain and is ending up dry and dusty. We have gone from grass that wouldn’t quit growing to grass that is drying up and not growing at all. I wonder what this Winter will be like.

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.

Windows Live Writer

Finally got a new computer and am in the process of setting it up. It had this blogging program on it, so I thought that I would give it a try. Since I am still on a dial-up out here in the wilderness of southern Indiana, I thought it would be a great idea to be able to blog when I am offline. It seems to have lots of bells and whistles, so far I am impressed.

The unrelenting Summer heat has relented today and it was just in time for us to get our first load of hay in the loft. I didn’t think that we would be putting any square bales in the loft this year because reasonably priced, good quality square baled hay is a thing of the past. I thought that we were going to try to get by with just big round bales but we fell for it again and this hay is another disappointment. These bales are half the size of the hay that we got a few years ago for half the price. It is so light and loose that it won’t stay on the elevator.

In this tough economy everyone is trying to get rich by ripping off their neighbor. Small farmers or hobby farmers have to have their own hay equipment and their own hayfield in order to survive anymore. We can sit and reminisce with the Grandkids this winter about how you used to be able to buy good clean hay without weeds in heavy, long, tight bales for $2.00 per bale.

Now let’s see how Windows Live Writer publishes to blogger.