Two Year Anniversary

Today marks two years in blogging, and my 50th post. I have to say I haven't posted nearly as much as I would like or planned, but that's life. I have made so many lovely blog friends over these past two years that I tend to spend most of my "online time" reading their posts : ) Yet I can't believe it has been two years! The older I get, the faster time flies. If this is how fast time rolls by at 28, what is it going to be like at 40? Yikes!

I started out my blog with a post about our Tufted Buff Geese. We no longer have any geese. I think it was last Fall that my Mom sold them. After they multiplied and had two Father geeses to rule the roost, they started to become a rather pain in the rear when it was breeding time. We know how to avoid getting attacked, but it got really annoying that every time we walked out back (multiple times a day) we had to keep any eye on them. Plus they constantly had the dirt stirred up in the air, with their running and flapping back and forth down the pathway. So it was time they went to live on a bigger farm, where they had lots of room to flap about, and that's exactly where they went. The people that bought them had a 1 1/2 acre pond on their place. I'm sure they thought they went to goosy heaven, compared to their little plastic blue kiddie pool they had here. 

With so many things around here keeping me busy, my small garden has really gotten away from me. For those of you that think that you are the only one with weeds in your garden, take a look at mine!

I've got a lot of work ahead of me to get that mess cleaned up. I need to get my seed tomatoes planted in there soon.

Some random pictures.

Taken through a window.

This blue jay was stealing the lining from my Moms hanging basket for its nest.

Finally we have a horse trailer! Miley's not very pretty, but she will do for now.

I got to meet two book authors in a week!

Our bee guy had to take away his last hive here for almond pollination. So we finally got our own. Yay!

 I think they are happy here.

After I spent the day tending the burn pile, my Dad brought Lula Belle out to scrap the remaining embers into a pile. She's so pretty. Then we all took turns taking her for a ride around the pasture. It was very bumpy even in low gear, with all that clumpy grass.

I love the gauges. 

My Dad through the smoke.

I can't explain what he's doing, but he looks at these things like this every time he goes out into the pasture.

Kimberly

Why I Had A Goat In My Bed

A couple days ago we worked out in the pasture all day, burning our yearly burn pile. When we were getting ready to head up to the house, Joy walked off towards the shed, and we knew she was getting ready to have her babies.

Her udder looked like it was ready to pop. Poor girl. If your offended by the back end of a goat. Sorry. It's a pretty normal normal thing around here right now.

We checked on her later that evening and still no babies. So that night I headed out before bed to check on her. I carried the big spotlight, so I could shine it around the pasture. When I took a look around I could see she was licking a baby on the ground, and I saw a back leg kick. So I thought things were OK. I tried to walk out to where she was but the whole herd wanted to follow. So I threw out some hay, and then grabbed a couple paper towels out of the shed, before trying to head back over to her. When I looked at the baby it wasn't moving. I put my hand under its head to lift it up expecting a reaction, and there was none! It wasn't moving, breathing, NOTHING! It was limp, and it's abdomen was sloshing with fluid. I felt terrible. If only I had headed out immediately. I decided that I should at least try to revive it, but didn't really think it had a chance. I picked the baby up by its back legs and swung it around, to drain the fluid out. I set it down, and started pressing on its ribs. I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I just pressed a bunch, and pretty fast. Then took a break to take a look at Joy who was on my other side. Then do it again. Joy started delivering her second baby, and it was in the sack. I had to stop to ripe the sack open and off its face, and wipe its nose. Then left it to Joy to continue cleaning, while I pressed some more. I stopped and the second baby started crying to Momma, then I heard a light noise come from the first baby. I put my hand back on it, and could feel its heart beating! Thank you Lord! I began rubbing it vigorously to stimulate it, and help get the fluid out. I picked it up, and swung it around again. That got the majority of the rest of the fluid out. I set it down and rubbed it more with the couple paper towels I had. Once it seemed to be doing OK, I checked to see what it was. A girl! A pretty pure white girl. Then I checked the second baby, a GIRL. Yay! She is white with black markings. 

I ran to the house, grabbed animal towels (We keep a stash of old bath towels designated for animal use), and got my Mom who carried out a baby bottle. We headed back out. My Dad followed all the commotion.  The little girl #1 was freezing cold, and was to weak to nurse. Joys milk was flowing heavily, so it only took me a minute to fill the 8 oz. bottle. We dried her off the best we could, but she couldn't get warmed up. I have had to bring in babies and warm them up before, and give them a bottle, but I was tired and sore. I carried her up to the house (leaving my Parents to situate Joy and her second baby in a pen for the night), grabbed my heating pad, set it on high, and placed it on my bed. Set her on top wrapped in her towel, and curled up next to her. As soon as she got warmed up, she guzzled down the whole bottle. As much as she tried she couldn't stand up. My Mom gave her a Bo-Se injection. About 30 minutes later she was walking around. I took her back out to Joy, who was very happy to have her back. I made sure she nursed, so she would know were things were, and not think all her meals were coming from a bottle. When I headed back up to the house after FINALLY getting her to nurse, my Mom was coming back out to find out what happened to me : ) I got to crawl into bed somewhere between 1-2 AM. But was it worth it. Totally. I love raising goats.

 Girl #1 I wanted to name her Miracle, but some people around here (I'm not naming names) don't like it.

Girl # 2

The next morning I got up, headed out to check on everybody and Daisy was standing in the front of the pasture with this little pure white girl!

She looked at me with a look that said "Isn't she beautiful!"

In the late morning today, when I took my second walk out to check on Hyacinth, she was cleaning off this pretty little girl!

She is banded light tan and white.

And here is Onslow. The proud Father of all these beautiful little girls. He's half LaMancha, and half Saanen. He is still in the process of shedding his winter coat. Please forgive him of his ugly horns. He had been given a horrid dehorning job. I was never able to get a baby picture of him, because his poor head was so messed up.

He is such a sweet boy. We love him so much.

Kimberly