Sgt. Pepper and Tree

Tree 608

Willie and Monarch

Tree

I have to add this pic I took yesterday of Willie and Monarch. They are so handsome!

I look rather handsome too in my boyish clothes...lol. I was thinking later I wonder what R, who was cleaning while I was walking, would have thought seeing me slip on some little sundress or other for the pic! hehehe.

I know Chris and Leif would have loved it-they are the two black bucks making a beeline for me in the lower pic. I spent several shots having them chase me from the camera to the prearranged spot while the camera was on timer. The first three they are rubbing all over me getting scratches, and in this last one, I managed to circle around before they reached me.

Silly boys.

I finally had my muffler and tire fixed this morning. My trusty mechanic chased me down, returning my calls, and had me fixed up and on the road in a few hours.

I tapped on a friend for a lift and we hit the enormous garden center in the meantime.

Yeah, I should be starting my own tomato and pepper seedlings, but this year I just bought seedlings of several tomatoes, peppers, brocc and going to try brussel sprouts, as they did well for a friend last year.

They will have to wait until tomorrow to go in-I discovered a moose has taken down several sections of electric fence in the night, and left fresh tracks, which will take most of the rest of the afternoon to repair. So once again, the garden waits on the livestock.

But, hey, at least it's a long weekend!

Walking the Bucks

Tree

Too thin

I have pain in the ass syndrome. At least that is what I like to call it. "Piriformis syndrome" is the medical term for it.

The piriformis is a muscle in the gluteal, or arse. The piriformis runs diagonally from the lowerlumbar to the hip. Mine has been in permanent seizure for over a month, and I finally decided to hassle setting up a doctor's appointment.

The same thing happened a year or two ago, and two manipulations from the doc and I was right as rain.

After three phone calls and two days the nurse finally called me back and said, "He can see you at 11:15 Monday." She is a large, grumpy woman, and her tone brooks no finangling the day or time.

I paused, took a breath, and (tried to) said brightly, "Ok, see you at 11:15"

This created a bit of a problem, since I am already obligated to make sure the bucks are doing ok in Boss' absense, esp since there has been trouble and I had the weekend off.

I called P and we agreed I would just go straight to the bucks with R this am so I could finish early. Things were much improved-Will's nose had drained and was scabbing over, Grey's eye was clearing, and Leif was up and about. The new buck, Chris, tried to rub and then horn R when R wouldn't give him his scratches. Chris finally came up to me and delighted in rubbing his itching face all over my legs while I dug my fingers deep into his mane and back giving him his scratches.

The day finished early, I headed off to my appointment. I was driving down the road and saw an oncoming car pass over what I thought was a dead bird on the road, which began flopping and fluttering, obviously still alive but injured.

I stopped the car and backed up and reached out the door with both hands and scooped the poor creature up and placed it on my work clothes in the passenger seat. I cupped my hand over it to keep it from crashing around in the car.

I learned that trick after picking up a dazed robin once with the dog in the car, and a couple of miles down the road, the robin came to and started bashing around the car with the dog flipping out and me trying to find a safe place to pull over. I opened the door and the bird flew out, and I always wondered what it thought to find itself a few miles from home? Hehe.

Anyhow, this bird today, which appeared to be a catbird, stayed under my hand while I gave it Reiki and drove with the other hand. I have a vibration in the car, and the poor bird was jiggling away under my hand. It's eyes were half closed, and it's head tipped back against my hand. I thought it had died by the time I pulled into the docs.

I parked the car and moved my hand to check the bird, and it flew to the floor of the passenger side and climbed the rug and clung just under the dashboard. Not want to frighten it further, I left it there while I went in for my appointment.

I expected to have someone come in and ask who had a bird flying around in the car, but no one did.

Finally, it was my turn to see the doc.

My doc is an interesting person. He is not a large man, about my height and very slightly built. He is probably in his forties. He cuts his hair very short to allow for the fact he doesn't have much, and looks like a newly hatched baby bird in appearance, with short fine hair sticking up and a bird-like appearance. He is a bright wit and we have knocked heads on several occasions in good humour. I find myself slightly attracted to him.

I had left my work boots encased in a plastic shopping bag in the waiting room, because,although I remembered a change of clothes, I had forgotton shoes, and mine were encased in buck poop. I was half way through putting a clean pair of socks on when he entered, and he got right to business, expecting me to put the sock on and describe my pain at the same time. LOL.

Then the process began:

First I stand and then he pokes and prods me, then I stand back-to and he pokes some more (checking spinal alignment, I presume). He plucks my dangling car keys out of my back pocket and swings them around and tosses them into the chair on my magazine, and they stay.

"Nice throw," I say

"Thanks," he returns.

The poking and prodding progresses to getting on the table, where he starts pushing and pulling and twisting my legs around, which is really hitting the spot. He is good.

After a few minutes of this, I have entered into a state of Nirvana. LOL. Then he is undoing my belt. The belt is enormous-might be a 38" belt that I have had to poke holes into to fit. I am wearing it because I chose to wear my largest pair of light jeans, knowing what a manipulation entails. He pulls the belt through the loops in one big yank and tosses that aside.

"it's getting in the way," he says.

The he opens my jeans up a little so he can reach the hips and keeps pulling and twisting.

"Flip over"

I roll onto my stomach and he tears a hole in the paper, exposing those handy openings you put your face over, so you don't suffocate while being worked on.

My sunglasses are perched on top of my head. He plucks those and they join the keys on the chair.

Then he twists me around some more, and has me lay on my side. Oh boy, the highlight. I can never remember exactly what he does, but it involves being twisted into a pretzel while he tells me things like, "push your thigh up and out towards the wall" while he is applying opposing pressure to three parts of my body at once.

He gets very short if I don't do exactly what he tells me.

"NO! Towards the wall!"

Finally our full body embrace ends and I stand to leave.

"You are too skinny," he says.

I protest.

He (once again) goes back through my chart (we have been through this before) and gloatinglypoints out that several years ago, before the end of my last relationship, I was 150. No matter I have been 130 for several years before and after.

"Well, he was a good cook!" I offer in my own defense.

Doc rolls his eyes at me.

I think back on it, and I bet I outweigh the little guy. Maybe he just likes chubby women.

Still, I have a lingering pall that the sexy doc who has just practically ravished me on his table is telling me I am too thin. I try to brandish a bicep at him as he leaves and I follow.

"WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES?!?!" he enquires as I walk away.

I explain my buck feces encrusted boots are waiting in a sack in the waiting room, and he walks away nodding and shaking his head.

I schedule another appointment and pad out to collect my boots and check on the bird. The bird is still in the same place, so my decsion was to return to where I found it and then check it to see if it can fly. I drive several miles back to where I found the bird, and find a likely place to pull over safely while I check the bird out.

The bird has now crawled up behind the dashboard, and the onlything visible is the tip of it's tail feathers. I wonder for a minute if I am going to have to have someone tear the car apart to get it out, and decided to just reach up and grab what I can.

A tug, three tail feathers, and a cheep, and the bird is free flying around in the car. I opened the side door and popped the back, and the bird flew out the car and over a field towards some trees, a bit wobbly perhaps, but on the wing andheaded home.

The three tail feathers lie on the passenger side floor.

Canadian Geese 508 Tree

Taking the long way around to the farm paid off again this am. I have to admit, this is one of my favorite stretches of local road most times of the year. (In snowstorms and foul weather the snow drifts at the top and the backside is steep and curvy and prone to ice sheets.)

I had to turn around and go back to get this pic-the geese were quite cooperative, since they were so far away.

While downlaoding the pics, I had to reflect how lucky I am. Between the tornados in the midwest, monsoon in former Burma, and the massive earthquake in China, so many folks are spending the night with everything they have known gone...my compassion goes out to those folks in need.

Just to put it in perspective, one of the cities in China that was hard hit has a population like New York City, and 99% of those folks are camping out in the streets.

Farmtalk:

P was off at the farm again today, and I finished collaring the main barn while R grained. Then R, Boss and I herded the two little wethers, Pablo and Carmells' brown, into the stall with the three remaining 07 doelings. Well, we got Pablo in, but not the brown. He will tame up soon enough.

I then started combing. I finished off two ancient wethers who stared up at me with their teeth jutting out in goaty grins while I made them handsome.

Boss asked me to comb Bonnie, and while she was a pleasant comb while pregnant a few weeks ago, today she was glare eyed and jumpy, protective over her shy homely little single black buckling. I made a comment to Boss about his funky head, and had to restate it more gently when she replied sharply. Hehehe. Boss said he had been very large and Bonnie had a tough time. I didn't spend too much time on Bonnie today. :P

An exciting turn of events, Boss was purchasing another buck, and told me he was a mess and would need combing. As is usual at the farm, the folks didn't show on time, so R and I went ahead to the bucks , now at Jenny Nash.

R let them out for their walk while I cleaned. Boss showed up a bit later and said the folks had not arrived yet, and to go ahead and grain the boys, and gave me the names of two who needed their feet washed.

I had R hold up each foot for washing, since I tore my hand on a goat horn yesterday at my own place, and did NOT want to get the hoof wash on the cut, since it burns like FIRE on a wound. Works great on goat feet, though.

Next I singled Leif out for another comb, since he had streamers of cashmere hanging off his flanks. Usually that is a jumpy place for a goat to have brushed, but Leif and I are old hands now, and between the itchy shedding and the blackflies, he was more than willing to let me vigorously brush him.

Finally Boss arrived, followed by a pickup. The new buck, Chris, was tied in the back of the truck. Need a combing?!?!?!? He looked like one of those caribou or yaks or wild bison with the blankets of fiber hanging off them. It was unbelievable!!!!

R and I immediately took him over and chained him to the fence. I gave the new goat lots of scratches and small talk and a few corn treats and started trying to clean him up. It was sort of a nightmare! I think if it had been up to me I would have done some heavy scissor work, The cashmere had started to felt and was cemented into the tips of all the guard hair. I didn't want to just rip him, so I was tediously teasing individual guard hairs out trying to loosen the gobs of cashmere.

Boss started working on the back of the same side as myself-I was up at the neck and shoulder. Boss put R to work on the other side. We took three big bags off him in an hour and haven't begun to clean him up.

His former owners stood and watched and at first said that they had been told not to brush him as it wrecks the fiber. Then they said that the goat wouldn't let them brush him-but they never tried to tie him to brush him!

I put the exclamation point there, because I had to learn the hard way that if you need to do something to a goat, you need to collar and tie them. Sometimes I can check a foot quickly, but they know they are not tied and will not stand. Even goats that don't mind combing will generally run if I give them a swipe or two with the brush if they are crowding me while I am working on a tied goat.

Certainly the handsome boy had not been neglected-he is quite chubby and was very easy to handle, it was just a matter of them only having the one goat and not a lot of experience. Also in the folks defense, bucks smell. Not many people would want to start digging their fingers into buck hair. The woman even made a point to tell me that the goat's nickname was "stinky".

He will be "handsome"by the time we get him cleaned up. :)

Happy May

Well, April sure did fly by, didn't it?

Happy May. :)

I have had a busy week! Jen of all trades this week at the farm-combing cashmere, hooves,
cleaning, fence repair.

This morning we capped the week off by picking burdocks out of the bucks! Boss let them out into an adjacent field while R and I were preparing the Nash pasture for relocating. Apparently this field the bucks were in today is full of burdocks!

R gathered them in to grain once we were done cleaning, and our jaws dropped as the bucks filed in...many, many burdocks!

Some of them are old hands at burdock picking and seem to sense the picker is trying to help. Gingerman, for example, tilted his great white face up at me while I teased a handful of burrs out of his beard.

Some of them hate to be picked at. Monarch cried like a baby and I ended up holding him with a horn jammed in the fence so boss could get the burrs out. I found it too difficult to hold one horn in a hand and pick with the other hand.

Hopefully we will finish the other fence early next week and move the bucks to greener pastures!

The water levels are finally going down after our deluge. Part of the road to work is still barricaded, so I have been taking the long way around .

I saw the golden eagle today, and then immediately afterwards a Kingfisher on the power lines. Both would have been great photo ops had I managed to find the camera in the pile of stuff in the car. My groceries took a beating as I started flinging bags to get to my backpack, only to find the camera wasn't there...I assumed I had left it at home, and then recalled after I couldn't find it at home that I had packed another bag-buried in the groceries, grain, hay, etc at the time of the sightings.

*puts "clean out the car" on the weekend to-do list* :P

Zuess, Lord of the Bucks 4/08 Tree

seven bucks

Seven bucks Tree

left front to back, right back to front:

Leif (broken horn), Lars, Sgt. Pepper, Will, Monarch (back, center), Gingerman, Shiraz, Prince Edward

Common Crow

Corus brachyhynchos

Tree

Catch up, home, thoughts,

Farmtalk:

First the farm. I am back at the farm alternating schedules of two days, three days. This week is a three day work week.

I have combed a bunch of goats! Today was Nasrim, a very pleasant grey doe with nicewhite fluffy fiber and short guard hair.

Then on to the bucklings on the hill. Two were scheduled for wethering via elastrator. I grabbed and collared Nix's small star for combing, but found myself drawn into the wethering, this time as a needed helper. R took the back position, which left P and a needed I on a leg. Last time R could handle both hind legs, but I had to remind P twice to pin the leg to the ground and not just hold it in the air where they can get some yanking behind them.

Boss was running the tool, and with a hand on a leg and one on the sternum to calm the goat, and also help press the body against R who was standing behind, I was in perfect coach position for Boss.

Although I have only wethered one of my own, I am not too squeamish and have a fair memory enough to coach boss which way to position the tool, watch for the nipples, etc...

While it might seem audacious to be coaching boss, she is, as much as I hate to admit it, showing the symptoms and is aware of them, of Alzheimers, or memory loss in the aged.

After wethering Pablo and Carmella's brown, I combed Nix's small star. Then I helped R in spring cleaning chores and went on to the big bucks over at Prescott. Today I landed Nishak and Shiraz, the latter of whom is a reknown vicious little bastard. Boss took a fiber sample looking for a reason to cull him. I did voice comments on how nice his fiber is-his personality is really the bad case, as he hurt boss on Tues while she was doing his hooves.

I am not sure what happened, but she gave several exclamations (rare for boss) and then nearly threw the hoof clippers before scraping hay until we were finished graining, when she had R hold Shiraz to finish.

The other buck that gives Boss a hard time is Prince Edward ("he is NOT a sweetie"-old blog).

I landed him for combing on Tuesday and we manage fairly well. He has beautiful bright blue eyes and likes cheek scratches and organic crunchy peanut and blackberry jelly on whole wheat-or course we get along! hehehe.

Prince Edward was the only comb for me on Tues, as the day started off damp, so I had opted to do buckling hooves. I went through the whole of six of them, not an easy task, as they can be difficult to catch and I was on my own on the hill. I did four sets of hooves in an hour and a half. ONe was so bad I had to call Boss back, because one clew had a puncture and the other was a mess.

Boss was cleaning it up(she is the BEST on hooves-I call her the "Mac Ridley"-a reknown farrier in these parts-of goat's feet)and I was leaning over the goat observing (I love to watch a good hoof trim!) when I felt a cool mist-I thought it was misting-and Boss let out an exclamation!!!

Homer, the grey buckling, was standing nearby giving us a goatie bucky golden shower with his urine!!! Yes, I still think it is funny! hehehe

Hometalk:

Moonie spent one whole day over the weekend jumping the fence-and finally I could stand now more and put him in with the bucklings. I thought they would kick his ass, but since little homeboy Derek, who grew up respecting Uncle Moonie, is lord of my bucklings, they all now bow to Mr. Moonshadow. Well, I plan to wether the lot of them soon.

Scrounging for hay-bought five bales for 4.25 each-ouch since I was paying 3 for organic!

Cleaned the chimney yesterday in high winds, but the stove was out cold and the stove had been smuttering for days it was so plugged.

That was quite a project-the lat time, in January, was a quick job. This time, I had re-arranged my bedroom in the interim, so I had to move the mattress and box spring to position the ladder for the hatch in the ceiling. I felt like comedy central trying to move the queesnsized mattress, sans handles, by myself, but managed to do it with out breaking anything.

Once on the roof, it was bloody gorgeous out-I was tempted to haul up a lawn chair and soak up a few strong spring rays, the hell with the wind...However, I bent to task and ran up and down twice yanking the chimney brush and enormous clouds of creosote despite the plastic shield I put around the bottom-can you say, "black snot"?

Then it was time to tap out the elbow. WTF?!?!? The thing fell apart. Good thing it was off the stove, and it was a decade old now...

That left the whole project in limbo while I ran off on errands, now including an elbow and reducer...think it ends there? Wrongo bongo...Then I had to bring it home and sheet metal screw the damn thing together...now, don't get me wrong here, any regular reader will know that I am pretty independent (can you spell feminist..lol)..but I did, at this point, wish for THE GUY. Yes, sheet metal screwing stovepipe is a man's job, goddammit...

Well, it was down to me, if I didn't get it all re-connected, it was going to be a chilly night, but somehow I half-assed it and yes, managed to get a fire going before nightfall. And, I think it is safe, so that is cool.

Politics: Al Gore has been a busy topic for me this week, with a CBS 60 minutes interview that showed me exactly WHY he did not run for president this time around. The last fiasco crushed him, and he found a cause in Climate Change to bring him out of the bottom of the pit.

Now Obama is claiming that he is willing to give Gore a high level cabinet post..(please don't presume that Al will go for another VP ).

I have seen that Obama will be our next president, and while his declaration of direct Al Gore involvement is encourging,Obama also indicated that Global warming should be addressed now, not in ten years. Still sound good? Well, the favored position of attack would be to trade carbon credits, and reduce consumption .

Since this leads to higher energy costs via carbon taxes, the spiel is to reduce and with possible intial tax recovery going to compensate poor folk that cannot afford the higher prices...while they are learning to reduce consumption...(obviously Barack has never been poor enough to know how to reduce consumption-which the poor already do....)

Guess that's all for now, folks...