Wednesday

Monday was hell day at the farm. It was so bad it rolled into Tuesday, and looks to be picking up steam for the rest of the week.

Seven of the baby goats at the farm have been involved in a study. For a couple weeks, at graining time, we have been segregating 7 out of 20+ kids from their mothers and feeding them an herbal supplement with their grain. Starting Monday, we had to segregate three bucklings not in the study elsewhere for weaning. In the midst of all this gathering and separating, the lady with the study showed up for fecal samples. Individualized, personalized samples from each of the kids, who screamed bloody murder for each sample rectally collected. Yeah, you get the picture.

I could not get out of the main barn quick enough. Each doe gets various amounts of grain according to however many kids they have, if they have any. Trying to think and dash from stall to stall with the correct feeders and grain for approximately 6 does in each of three stalls, plus a few in their own stalls, all mixed, dry, singles, twins, triplets, no, weaning...all in the midst of screaming baby goats.

Well, the day didn't end there, six of the older bucklings were getting weaned and had to be carried up the hill while they screamed and their mothers bawled after them at the gate.

The day was starting to heat up too, I was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath after the first buckling. Finally we left to do the bucks, the Boss leading, and all of a sudden...my muffler fell off. Well, the exhaust pipe broke and the muffler was hanging. I quickly pulled over and dashed back to the main barn, about 1/4 of a mile, and grabbed some wire out of the fence bag. I crawled under the car and wired the muffler up to the frame, and roared off after Boss.

Both Prescott and Nash buck pens were a disaster. Imagine sweeping up 3 billion M & Ms that smell like buck piss. Yeah.

And there aren't even any green ones, well that could be a blessing...

Once home I thought I would try and patch the exhaust again, and I did get it wired up and reconnected with a combination of a fruit cocktail can, some aluminum flashing, a sunkist orange soda can, and some electric fence wire, but it was LOUD. No way I could do Willow's b-day run to town with that.

I called my mechanic and explained the problem, and he said to bring it in at 9:30 am. I was totally confident that we would be one our way to lunch and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by noon. Well, we were there five hours. Between waiting for the part, and then having some electrical trouble with the coolant fan not kicking on...overheating this time of year would be a death sentence for that heap.

We finally agreed- after replacing a relay and repairing some chafed through wires that were discovered up by the power steering hose -to wire it so the fan would run all the time.

We had to change plans and catch a late showing and have dinner afterwards. The kids loved the movie, I was really disappointed. I had just re-read the book, and they left a lot out, and put a few scenes in that were totally not in the book, I guess to bridge the gaps in the movie. The movie was still two and a half hours long, so I suppose they had to leave some stuff out but in a couple places they changed stuff that altered the characters by reducing them...

I have to make sure I don't read a book before a movie again.

Today the Boss' left for Sweden, there was a lot of hard work for just P and I. She was a help to have with the bucks, good thing since we were running late and could make up some time. I had to express some milk out of two does that are weaning. I am new to that, and found the goat stepping into the dog dish I was supposed to be putting the milk into, and then I soaked my legs with squirts of milk...(after Monday's heat I was wearing shorts today)

Then when we were at Prescott, we were standing in the high grass with the six young bucks that we had just let out, and I felt something and looked down and one of the bucks was urinating and I was getting sprayed all over my legs. I had to go for moist towelettes after that. I told P I was going to have the nicest legs in Maine between the goat milk and the buck piss...

Willow is still celebrating her birthday, she said Thanks for the birthday wishes!