farmtalk

Headed Home the long way Tree 608

Farmtalk

Yesterday I was horned, rammed, doused in hot water, and sunburnt. Today went better.

I had agreed with Boss at the Fiber Frolic that I would fill in for P yesterday and today, and woke up yesterday knowing exactly what the day would bring.

I helped R finish graining, then did Moonbeam's hooves. She is a two year old doe that thinks she is better than people. Such as, she has no problem cramming you one with her horns if she feels like it. So, I picked her to start. She was fairly reasonable, only gouging me once in the kidney while I was working on her-when I released her, she turned around and butted me in the leg for good measure and trotted off.

Then I was sent up on the hill to comb Duke, formerly Nix's small star. He is very easy to catch, but jumps around like hell when being combed. Homer took the opportunity to show me how much he loves me by rubbing his head all over me as I kept shifting position to comb his jumping buddy. Finally I had most of the visible cashmere cleaned off, and fearing we were both going to suffer heatstroke, I decided to finish him off the next day (today) as long as R could hold him for me.

R has weedwhacked the fenceline the last two days at Jenny Nash while Boss walked the bucks and I did all the cleaning, collaring, and most of the graining, before taking up Grey (Hippolytus) for combing-a nightmare. All his cashmere was matted up close to the skin and his long silky guard hair-7 inches or so, needed to be teased out to free the cashmere. We mostly finished him off today.

While I was combing him yesterday, he started jumping and all of a sudden, the water pipe the tenant had run from the house down to the cottage started spewing water all over us. I quickly undid his chain and moved him, exclaiming, "We have a problem!!!!"

Yes we did have a problem-turned out there was a board hidden in the grass right there with two 16D nails sticking up, and he had tromped the pipe onto them, piercing it in TWO places-which we found out much later after shutting power, water, and then trying to empty 1000 feet of 1/2 pipe of water for taping, with no success. I mean, the tape didn't work.

The tenant was a bit peeved, so I stayed on did it the right way, and cut out the bad part and spliced it back together with a coupling and a couple of ring clamps...A trip to the hardware store, many trips up to the house to turn the water on and off and finally just cutting the hose full of solar heated water, having lost patience with draining. Yeah, she has good pressure there, as my wet clothes would have testified.

On the way home, my neck and shoulders started burning. OH, what a sunburn! Of course I had chosen to wear a tank top and found myself in direct sun at Nash's from 10:30-1:30. Still hurts today.

I stayed late again today helping boss finish Grey(Hippolytus), and told her if she gets in a jam to call me.

Really, I like a good challenge. :D

Don't read superstitions before bedtime

TGIF! (Thank God it's Friday)
Right beforeI left home this morning I kicked the cat. Well, not exactly, more of a shove with the side of my foot. He was trying to make a mad escape out the door while I was calling goodbye to the Firebird and little Tree. The cat came here declawed-so he must be an indoor cat for his own safety.

After I gave him the shove I felt horrible and picked him up and had him purring in no time. Then I remembered it is bad luck to kick a cat, so I apologized to him. I should have knocked on wood.

I was halfway to the farm when I realized I had left my coffee. I had nothing else to drink in the car. I figured that was my bad luck-instant Karma. But, there was some good luck, because I realized in time to take the long way, which goes by a little market that sells coffee to go amoung other things. The coffee was awful, but at least I had a bevarage for the long hot morning.

Farmtalk:
Yesterday R and I finished hanging the gate , replaced a corner post, and finished the pasture division for the bucks. No combing, but I did help clean and grain the bucks.

Today I started off combing fat Clarke. He is so cute, with silky long white guard hair, but not much cashmere to speak of. I was mostly just prettying him up. He enjoyed it.

Then I saw AliGote had gobs hanging on him. He has a skin issue, so there was a ton of dandruff and places where it had matted. He had one big mat on the back of his neck, and he was so good I took off his collar and scissored through the mat in enough places to brush it out, and he was much relieved. I also gave him some Reiki, poor old guy.

One of the pushy wethers came over and Aligote walked off, leaving me empty handed. Boss put me on hooves. :(

I did Emerson's hooves; not too bad. Boss touched up at the end giving me a few suggestions since there were a few places I was unsure how to proceed.

Then we went to Jenny Nash, where Boss wanted me, apparently, since R was weedwhacking the fenceline, to wrap an apple tree with wire so the buck's wouldn't destroy it by stripping the bark. Sound easy?

Ha! That old tree was buried in the puckerbrush, with many old limbs laying everywhich way, and an enormous deadfall hung up right in the middle. Not only that, but the trunk was actually several, and leaning, and we had only brought a scrap of fence. What an awful job!

I dragged Boss over and she did help a bit and offer some suggestions, and I had more wire on the property from installing the gate this week. Boss told me to have R help me . Once I had enough wire and a helping hand, we were done in a flash.

After that, graining, cleaning, etc, I gave Zuess a quick slick to get the last bit of cashmere off him, and spent some time on Hjalmar, who STILL has a bunch of cashmere. So funny how they shed out at different rates.

Work for me at the farm is winding down-some busywork projects that need to be addressed, including more fencing at Prescott for the buck's winter quarters. That may not be finished by summer vacation; if not, it will be something to do in the autumn.

Now I have had a nice fattening lunch I think I will go feed the mosquitoes and water the garden. I hope we get rain tomorrow-it is VERY dry!

Crap I lost two pounds

First I want to edit in a congrats to Scott McClellan, former Whitehouse press secretary, who has released a book detailing the Bush administration's decision to design facts around supporting a war with Iraq.

The White House is already scrambling damage control, no surprise. Surely this book is guaranteed to bring a few more heads around to the truth- the catch is how many? Enough?

I had a follow up appointment with the Doc today for another manipulation.

His nurse weighed me and took my vitals, and I whispered to her to make sure she wrote 130 down for weight and she chuckled.

The first thing Doc said when he walked in and looked at my chart, "What, you've lost weight?"

I had no clue-"What did I weigh?"
"128," he replied.

"Well, I took a big dump before I left for the appointment," I responded.

He's not buying it.

"Are you TRYING to lose weight?" he asked several times in succession.

I protested vehemently. "Hey, I eat good food-chicken alfredo for lunch-I like beer. I say this dead serious. "I like GOOD beer. Not lite beer even. "

I ask him what he weighs. 149. Damn, there goes that theory. We go around a bit about the weight issue-I tell him to tell me to go on a diet and I will gain 20 pounds. LOL.
(Ooh Golden eagle did a fly by as I type this-cool)

I tell him I blogged about it and the comment I received..
"What was that?"he asked.

"You can't be too rich or too thin and you're halfway there ."

This was greeted with a blank stare. Wish I had the cam. The baby bird did not like THAT worm. hehehe.

One thing I did find out sort of in my favor is that I am shorter than I thought-5'7-3/4" not 8 or 9 as I had supposed. (sure I am not a guy? hehehe*snickers) That makes the lower weight spread a little easier.

Finally we moved onto the alignment. This time I was prepared. When faced with the choice between a VERY loose pair of jeans that demanded a belt, or the tight Italian ones, I put on the tight ones. I had my manure free shoes tucked under the chair with my keys and sunglasses. I was no fun today. :P

A few different techniques today, and a good crack to the lower thoracic vertebrae and one to the cervical, some manipulation of the right shoulder that I broke years ago...
One thing I definitely recall as the most painful was, when lying on my stomach, he bent each leg to make my heel touch my buttock. The right quad was screaming! Then I started to get a cramp in a back muscle...I am sure I will be paying for that stretch for two days!

Farmtalk:
Boss is back from Sweden and P has had two days off. I helped R catch babies and grain the does and the bucklings today-yesterday I combed Sheba and Bonnie. Bonnie was a bit better about letting a human so close to her little bucky boy.

I combed Chris yesterday-the last little bit of cashmere that was hanging on his back legs which you can see as he is rump-to in the lower pic. Yes, my male readers will cross their legs to hear that I had to take scissors to the last few mats dangling very near "his boys"-

"No more dingleberries" I said as I snipped. heheh

Today R and I each dug a fence post for a gate to divide the buck pasture. I didn't tell the doc how I spent that part of my morning. :D

Thursday feels like Friday. I wish!

I changed my first flat tire yesterday morning. Lucky for me I had the opportunity a few weeks ago when I was mired to familiarize myself with the jack and how to get it out of the car.

Unlucky me, I didn't know how to get the spoke hubcaps off the tire to get at the lugs.

I popped the center cover, and tried to prise the cover off, but it was obviously not going to come off. So I called a friend and ask him if he knew how to get them off. LOL.

He offerred to come by since he was on the road in a nearby town, but I said I would look for further instructions with the vehicle.

ONe the jack and spare(donut) cover, it said, "if car has spoke wheels refer to special instructions," with no indication as to where to find those instructions.

I finally looked in the manual in the glovebox, and it directed me to find a special key to unluck the hubs, which was in the glovebox. NOT in the glovebox!

I decided to search the boot, and did find the key, as well as my portable air compressor, which I thought I had thrown away, because I thought it was broken. I decided to try the compessor, and had to jack the tire up because it was so flat.

The compressor DOES still work, but air was pouring out, so I figured I had no choice but to put the donut on.

I took the key and tried to fit it in the hub, and it kept being uncooperative. Finally I had it lined up and engaged and cranked on it with a lot of torque, and when it let go, I sprung my wrist.

This was more than I could bear, and I threw myself on the dirt on my back, clutching my wrist and burst out sobbing with a verbal query to God as to feeling pretty sorry for myself.

A sudden light spatter of raindrops, a few hit me, and a breath of compassion, and suddenly I am filled with the fact that I can do it, and I do, I change the tire and put the donut on, and manage to only be an hour late at the farm.

Farmtalk:

It's been hide hair, and eyeballs at the farm the last two days, and oh, yes, Monarch came up terribly lame, so we did not walk the boys yesterday, and I irrigated his foot with hoof and heel solution.

First thing this am, I tackled one of the wethers, whose hooves were incredibly overgrown, and one had torn and separated from the hoof wall. What a mess, the poor gigantor (he's the biggest goat on the farm)shivered and kept putting all his weight on me, causing me to drop the foot, and him crash to his knee on the barn floor.

I was puffing and panting and cursing myself for taking on the job, green fresh goat manure from his feet....hooves are a gross job, no doubt about it.

Didn't help that I came out of the doctor's appointment lame as hell...Once those muscles that have been contracted are stretched out, they get sore afterward. I would have thought by today I would have been feeling grand, but an erratic sleep and active dream state weren't conducive to healing, apparently.

The good news is that Monarch was much improved on the sore foot today-the hooves looked fine, I think he took a stab in between the clews. I washed him thoroughly again and brushed Hjalmar, who is still releasing cashmere .

My own gang of goats need feet trimmed and the garden needs more work...there is the afternoon list. ;)

hometalk Farmtalk

Farmtalk:

Another hard week at the farm. Thursday the fellow showed up with the tractor to clean uner the barn. Lucky us, we get to hand dig what he can't get. Fortuneately, it's not like the cow swers you see...not much worse than turning a manure pile.

Boss left for a trip to Sweden! I am in charge of the bucks during the weekday mornings, and there is already trouble. Willy looks like he was stung by a wasp on his nose, Zuess is limping, Hippolyta's grey is getting eye meds for a scratch, and now P tells me something is wrong with Leif.

The last pregnant doe delivered triplets yesterday. Boss was going to postpone her trip i ncase there was trouble, but went anyhow. Everything went fine, although P called in a bit of a panic yesterday. Placenta covered triplets can be quite a sight. LOL.

Hometalk:
Cricket the goat woke me up at an unearthly hour, and I decided I was moving the girls RIGHT THEN! I tossed the boys hay in the woods and led the does with a can of grain, still in my pj's, into the other pen. They ran all around, then the boys came back, and there was some butting and Cricket still wouldn't shut up!!! Maaa-maaa-MAAAAA-aaaaAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

Finally I went in and grubbed out the big house down to the bottom, and moved two little houses, and finished another shelter. That gave them plenty to think about and the night feeding went fairly well considering we were juggling a large group at once.

Cricket hadn't been in that pen in a year, and still went to her old spot for grain. One of the boys gets fed there now, so there was a bit of shuffling as we straightened everyone out.

I did ZIP in the garden all weekend! The goats took up too much time, but they should be set for a while now, and no more Cricket screaming under my bedroom window!

farmtalk, hometalk

Farmtalk

P took the day off the farm , so when I arrived I went to work helping R catch baby goats and team them up with mothers, and grained the rest of the main herd. Then we pulled the task of relocating two of the newly wethered bucklings off the hill and bringing them into the main herd.

R took Pablo and I took Carmella's brown. I had him on long rope lead, and the few times I got him moving forward, he would bolt to the end of the rope and then pivot around to the right, so I was once again in the position of being ahead of him and trying not to drag him.

R wasn't messing around and had Pablo in the lead, both front legs locked forward leaving drag marks as they went down the hill. I should have had it easier in the rear postion, but the little guys were certain they were headed towards doom and refused to lead.

We dragged them over the foot bridge and across the road.

Once onto the front lawn, I tried looping the lead around his butt and pulling and both ends at the same time with no better luck. R shoved Pablo through the gate, and we each took one of Carmella's brown's horns and dragged him in the rest of the way, with me cajoling, "Don't you want to see your Mommy?", and Boss observing from the house sunporch.

Once through the gate, trailing little pathetic bleats, I watched as Carmella's brown singled his mom out of 50 goats, and went directly to her where she was lyng down, and touched noses. She stood up and he turned and trotted off. I felt very emotional. LOL.

These boys had been up on the hill for nearly a year after weaning late last spring.

Later I was describing the scene to Boss, and she interjected, "did she butt him? They often do...."

I replied, "Maybe that is why she stood and he trotted off..."

Ah well....

The next task was securing the goose house door , while Boss held the two more vicious ganders at bay with her broom and pan.

Then I built a new gate-the one that busted in the Pollux incident-guess I finally cooled down after a couple months...lol... and had the gate built and installed in an hour or so, with shiplap scrap and some screws, recycling the old hardware.

Homefront:

At the home front, the russet potatoes went in, the little lettuce, spinach, cosmos, and cleome seedlings were watered, and a few red pototoe sets went in as well.

I prepped another bed for probably tomatoes next week.

Missing the dog. Stayed up late viewing all the humane societies in the state last night. I think a mixed breed rescue sounds like a good plan. Seeing their pictures, makes me want to take ten!

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

rainy day

I expected to have today off from the farm, with torrential rains forecast. Yesterday I combed one of the wild doelings-a 15 minutes clean up, and then moved on to the new goat, Emerson, a white fluff bomb; a huge wether.

Boss said she had done his neck and shoulders the day before so I started on his haunches, as she said to put that fiber separate. After evaluating it, she said to put it all together but save the britches separate. LOL. So I started combing in earnest.

Within minutes I had clouds of white fluffy cashmere in great gobs all over the place-me, my coat, the goat, and the fence as he was leaning against it on the off side. I quickly shed the fleece hoodie I was wearing down to cotton flannel ,and rolled up my sleeves so I didn't take half the goat home with me.

I spent over an hour on him and he looked like a different goat afterwards. Then Boss went to let the bucks out at Prescott while R and I went down to Jenny Nash to fix the shingles on one of the little houses. That went quickly, and we stopped to check out the upper section of fence. We have to put a couple fence posts in there, as the temporary ones snapped at ground level from the snow this winter.

Once back to Prescott, we found Boss down by the highway with two bucks near the road-armed with her broom and pan. Those two and the rest of the bucks recognized my car pull in and came running back to the barn when we arrived.

At the end of the morning, I left it with Boss that I would call her in the am regarding work, as rain was forecast. When I heard about the heavy rains, I figured I would be having the day off and contemplated crating the roosters and hauling them up to the livestock auction. Waking to torrential rain, staying in bed late sounded like a better plan.

However, when I called Boss to check in , she gave me the offer of hooves for the morning. Hooves are not fun, but I knew it would be a chance to get some tips and good experience at the hands of an expert, so I agreed.

I did four sets of hooves and did I leave there looking and smelling quite a mess!

I prefer to do the front feet by facing toward the rear of the goat, half kneeling, with the goat ankle resting above my kneecap. It's the way I was taught to pick out horse's feet, except standing in that case.

That position leaves my shoulder free against the goat to help steady them or hold them against the wall. Because of the rain, most of the goats were wet, so I quickly became covered in wet stinky goat. The free side the Great Pyrannees thought would make a great place to dry his face, when he wasn't trying to use my hair as a towel.

The goat hooves were tough as nails after the long dry spell we have been having, and I realized on the way home that I had earned a good sized blister on the ring fnger of my right hand from the clippers.

And the smell of a good old dirty hoof...goat or horse, those smell pretty much the same...

The deluge of rain continued all day-I can't tell you how much rain we have received but I bet at least 5 inches by now. The fields leapt to life today; driving to the store this afternoon my eyes ached from the emerald green where just days ago was plain dry brown.

The maples are in full bloom with a blush of red, so delicate.

Aprils showers bring May flowers. :)

Farmtalk

Bucklings lining up for combing
Tree

I combed goats at the farm today. I started off with two of the doelings. The first was not shedding much, so I moved onto a second, very wild doeling. Boss was doing hooves in the same stall, so she helped me collar the goat and got some special grain for her as a treat to help gentle her.

I moved very slowly and combed softly and got some very nice cashmere fiber off of her.

The bucklings were the priority, and I was just killing time until P and R were ready to go on the hill. P promised to lock all the bucklings in after graining, and Boss directed me to the one in the forefront of the buckling pic I posted a few days ago. The one I was combing is second in the photo-follow the chain, lol.

The little guy I was working on is adorable-he kept looking at me with that quizzical expression and tasting any part he could reach. Another buckling, little silver grey Homer, found my body to be the perfect place to scratch his face, and worked on my shoulders and elbows while I was squatting, and my legs and butt while I was standing.

He was obviously the next one in the combing line! (paybacks...hehe) The friendly ones, they change their tune a bit when you collar and chain them. HOmer's response was to keep the chain pulled taut , but he was not jumpy at all.

I worked him over with the slicker. He had a ton of hay chaff that had worked down through his hair and must have been a great source of discomfort for him! I was more focused on getting him brushed clean then I was for the cashmere.

His cashmere is very short, as is the case with most of the white goats, and he was losing the longer guard hair as well. I nearly filled his small bag by the time I was finished with him. He looked so much better all brushed!

As I was signing out with Boss for the week, she mentioned that the Prescott fence needed attention as one of the smaller bucks was getting out. I had disconnected one of the lower wires earlier in the season so the fence wouldn't short out in the snow, and I figured enough snow had melted the goat was getting out at the lower wires.

I didn't have any tools with me, so I was going to fix it tomorrow, but as I started to leave I decided I would just worry about it, and asked the boss to borrow some of her husband's tools to fix now. I drove over to Prescott and went into the ell to unplug the charger to reconnect the fencewires, and discovered that someone had stolen the extension cord!!!!

I just cannot believe people!!! To unplug the cord to the charger and steal it...grrr...In retrospect, I am suprised they didn't steal the charger as well, since that is more valuable
than the cord.

At any rate, I called Boss on the cell and told her what was up, and drove back over to the farm for another, her last, extension cord. I ran the cord and secured the doors to the place.

I was thinking on the way home that we should get a small padlock for the cord. That way if anyone wanted to steal it they would have to cut the plug to take it!