Sunday, June 27, 2010

Sunday

Ah nearly July! Busy reveling in summer's passion. Happy Summer!

UUreka's kids are doing great, integrated with the main herd. The girl is absolutely adorable! The little buck looks fine, too. Both are brown with black legs and stripes down their backs. The girl has wattles and upright ears and a little splash of white on her forehead. Very petite looking.

We've moved the bucks out of Jenny Nash and down to Prescott. Now we are pressed with the task of pulling all the fencing out of Jenny Nash and putting up more pasture at Prescott. I have reeled a lot of fence! Luckily what we are working on now is the ribbon or rope with embedded wire, not the high tensile wire. Still, hot in the sun pulling line with one hand and whacking the winder with the other. D and I did 5 strands on the back line of the upper section today in about an hour.

On the home front, I saw a ping pong table at a garage sale and was then told it was FREE! with net and paddles. I tied it to the roof of the car and brought it home last Saturday. It's out on the lawn, and we have had a bunch of fun with it! I kick some serious ping pong butt! We had one in the rec room growing up and my sister and I spent many a hot summer afternoon in the cool basement playing ping pong! We cover it over with plastic and it has some flaws and warpage but it's all good fun anyhow!



Sunday and I Willow went to a Summer Solstice drum circle for peace. I took the djembe, and Willow chose a hand carved polynesian drum I picked up many years ago at an antique shop. What I did not realize it that it was a native american based event, but the djembe worked well with it's deep bass. (it's an African drum) I even had a shot at the big drum, where people sit and use a sort of padded drumstick. Most of the dozen people there had obviously been to many pow wows together and drummed through and sang some lovely Indian songs. I lent the Djembe to a woman to lead us in some African rhythms and had my chance on the big drum.

It was a pleasant time, but I prefer African rhythms overall, having had a chance to jam with some African refugees in Portland Maine a few years ago...

The week flew by. Wednesday I got into a bag of double stuff oreos and awoke at middnight with a blinding toothache, Ibuprofen, saltwater, Listerine, Ambesol, Vicodene...nothing touched it. I made an emergency dental appointment Thursday expecting to have the whole upper left row extracted. I hadn't been to a dentist in a VERY long time. I had extensive orthodontic work as a child; three canines extracted because of my small mouth; one cracked right out of my jaw before it had emerged...yeah, I am scared of dentists. LOL

I watched as the Xray's came up on the computer monitor. Yeah, Xrays are instant now, cool! "Wow, those look like good teeth!" I said as the upper right emerged...and right through, with the exception of the bottom molar I broke on a tongue ring three years ago.

Haven't been to a dentist in twenty years and no cavities!?! The doc tapped on them, blew compressed air between them, wiggled them...for naught. The diagnosis? Not so good. I have extensive bone loss exposing the base of the teeth and the nerves don't like that. The dentist was surprised they weren't loose. Yup, getting long in the tooth...yuck. LOL

And that bottom molar? Well, the doctor of pain was consoled with the fact that he gets to pull that one tomorrow. It was originally filled and now broken..well, three years ago, yup, gotta go. The roots looked good though, so I hope he gets that yanked clean tomorrow...Eek, I am scared...:(

We found this salamander yesterday cleaning up some old wood. We found a nice old rotten stump and he gladly crawled into the dark cavities after his photoshoot.


Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Day Off

Or, a day to spend around here doing a million things or nothing...hehe

Yesterday I worked the farm. Uureka had twins over the weekend, a buck and a doe, both brown and teeny tiny compared to the other raucous babies running around.

I noticed the buckling had a poo stuck on his rear, and I had a pocket full of tissues so I figured I would just flick it off. But it was hard as cement! Uh oh! I told Boss because blocked tushies on babies can be big trouble!

"it needs to be softened," said Boss as she continued cleaning the aisle.

So I grabbed a can of water, ransacked the medical chest for a jar of vaseline and was happy to find a box of blue nitrile gloves! Armed with that and my pocket of tissues, I cornered the little buck and wet the area down with wet tissue and rubbed vaseline around and managed to remove the turd to a gush of foul odor that had me doubled over and gagging in the back stall at 7:50 in the morning.

Now I understand why Boss feigned indifference and let me take the initiative. Ugh.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Crazy week

Ayeh, it's been a crazy week.

Started off with me taking a friend to the ER for an auricular pseudocyst. Then two follow up doc appointments.

Then Willow crashed on her bike and scraped her face, arm and leg.

The four yearling bucklings on the hill escaped into the woods and were on the lam for 24 hours.

Phoenix lost a shoe while riding his bike and caught the bottom of his foot in the gears, crashed and tore open his foot. Six stitches (the second laceration just peeled the skin so there was nothing to stitch)...and the promise of at least a month of his summer vacation with a sore foot.

The warning is up for me-everyone else has been hurt this week. So I drove like a little old lady home from the ER at 1 am..didn't need to hit anything such as the three porcupines, two skunks, three cats and a fox that were running the roads with us last night. (or running across the road, as it were)

Well, we all have a day off today so I think we will try and take it easy!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Fiber Frolic 2010

The Fiber Frolic is this weekend, and today was the goat show. We didn't show any of our own goats, but gave Boss a hand with her two and three year old bucks-the four she selected to bring.

A cashmere goat show is nothing like a dairy goat show! The judge commented that Cashmere type goats are near wild and they are usually half dragged in front of the judge.




Willow called dibs on Homer as soon as she heard he was going. Willow and Homer have a great relationship. I took Bibbles, Boss took Nebeolo, and J. handled Cairn.
Here the judge, Dr. Peter Goth, and I are exhanging the microphone for goat. He takes control of the goat and checks the teeth, feels the chest, barrel and haunches, and then makes sure they have two testicles and two nipples. In retrospect, I wish I had taken advantage of the microphone and done a running commentary on the exam. * evil chuckle*




Nebeolo won first in two year old, and Bibbles second. Homer and Cairn tied for first place for three year old bucks. The judge said Cairn had the best fleece he had ever seen-nevermind for a buck his age, but Homer was the better buck conformation wise. And he gave him a four for personality! LOL! The high score is a three and personality is not one of the traits judged.


The bucks were so fine, the judge didn't bother to call the winners of the doe classes back for the championship. It came down to Nebeolo, Cairn, and Homer for the Champion.

First the judge gave Willow a surprise blue ribbon for showmanship! Then he awarded Homer the Championship Cashmere Goat and Cairn the Reserve Champion.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Snapping Turtle

My oldest took some great pics of this egg laying snapper.




CWR2010