Goats and Snow

This is Moonshadow,aka Moo, Moonie a disbudded 5 year old Nigerian/Pygmy cross wether.



This is Obi-Wan, my 4 year old Angora cross wether.



In the next photo:In the front left is Daphne, aka "Fat Daphne", Daffy, age unknown; To her right,er son, Oberhasli brown wether Derek, one of Daphne's twins(Daphne had twins, his sister not pictured, but easy to see why I had to pull the first during birth. First born was his sister, and she was bigger than Derek!) In the background is Piper, one year old cashmere wether.


Piper, Obi, and Moonie had their hooves done today. I have not been keeping up with hooves;I noticed Moo had a bulge on one of his front clews, and it turned out to be a nasty case of hoof rot. The wall was separated from the sole quite aways up. I trimmed it way up and doused it with Hoof and heel. I'll have to keep after it. The snow should help keep it clean. Piper has good feet, they were just long. Obi had some rot in his curly tippy toes, and needed a big trim.

uummm Tuesday?

The time change was sucked up into this house like no tomorrow. I am still calling to rouse the house at 7am. My days are all backwards! I went into a time warp the last couple of days.

I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in thirty years on Facebook. This is such a small state, I saw a comment from a co-worker on his page. She had friended him because his cousin, who also happens to be my neighbor (!), thought she might want to know an Alaskan commercial fisherman, since she is a fan of the show, "The Most Dangerous Catch". He is a native Mainer.

I have never seen the show.

But I did know the Captain and his family from years ago, and it so happened the fisheries in AK are in the off season. I was lucky to catch him on the last days of his two week vacation.

I had a terrific visit with him. Poor guy, I peppered him with questions about what kind of catch and how do you catch it, since I really know very little about commercial fishing.

I think you've done pretty well for yourself, Captain!

I was in a time zone today, and received a call verifying an appointment for tomorrow that I thought was the 11th! I have to take a radioactive iodine pill and go back the next day for more imaging. The previous sonogram revealed a couple nodules so they want to check it out in more detail.

Still waiting to see an endocrinologist

***

I discovered Derek, one of my wethers, with a 6 foot stretch of four foot high welded 2X4 wire stuck in his horns this afternoon. I desperately tried to stretch it off him-wishing that the strong Captain was still around! I had to run for the fence tool.

Dumb goats! (maybe he'll stop bashing the fence now?)
***

The Firebird just found out he made the varsity basketball team! Stay tuned for pix! :D

Running behind

We went to the beach couple of days ago. There wasn't any surf to speak of, so the kids each dug a big hole til they hit water. Then the tide came in and in a few surges the holes were gone. There's a lot of energy in tides!

The fog was almost right up to the waterline, and a couple times I looked up the beach and saw the fog blowing in. The water was freezing!






Worked the farm all week while the bosses were out of state at a funeral. Poor old Balloo, one of the farmdogs, died before they left and we buried him Saturday.

R and young D helped me run some fence to keep the bucks out of the new upper pasture. The neighbors across the street, although they own a couple of Belgian horses, don't like the smell of bucks. Running that upper pasture may have been for naught. The bucks love the new big south pasture, and I just learned that the owner of the property wants it extended even more down through the woods!

A couple of goat injuries this week. My little brown Derek is favoring a front leg. The hoof seems fine, so I think he twisted the knee. Champion Homer at the farm suffered a major rear injury, unknown, up the length of the inside of his back thigh, and a spot on the top of the back- same hip. Willow and I love Homer and wish him a speedy recovery!

So a tumultuous week, looking forward to a great weekend and wishing the same for everybody!

Hooves

Anaken, Obiwan, and Derek had their hooves trimmed yesterday. Obiwan is having some trouble with his toe tips.

Still combing, but everyone appears to be about finished except for Obiwan. Nic might have some more fiber on his body, but it is not releasing.

Feet and Fiber

Nicolas: trimmed hooves today-then he puncture one on a stick.

Gen, Daph, Obiwan, Derek, and Moonie were combed.

Hooves

I have finally been able to make it outside to the goats. I still can't get a boot on, but I have a rig with an old suede shoe that I sliced across the top. Then I slip that into an old jean pantsleg to keep the snow out. LOL. I am a bit uneven with the boot on the good foot, but it's better than crutches!

Been combing the cashmere off Nic's neck. Looks good this year. Have quite a lot already.

I wasn't getting much off him today, but I noticed some of the hooves looked in need of a trim, so I switched out the combing rake for the hoof clippers and did:

Cricket: she shivered and shook. Her feet looked pretty good.

Derek: He was a little brat and kept standing on his back legs when I was trying to do his front feet. I did get him finished in the long haul.

Anna: Phoenix managed to get a collar on her and tied her. Then she laid down when I went to do her feet. Awww. I think that is only the second time I have done her feet. Maybe the third. She was the best behaved today, and has nice feet.

Genevieve: her back ones were a mess and I used hoof and heel and took quite a lot off. Her front ones were pretty good.

Willow combed Obiwan. He is such a sweet guy.

I did all of those goats front and back hooves and then collapsed exhausted after lunch. A month of laying about and crutching it has ruined my condition. Hopefully I will build back up a bit before it is time to dig the garden! :P

Wednesday.

used up two kinds of wormer on a few of the goats.

Caesar got the last of the SafeGuard.

Moonshadow, Cricket, and Derek got the last of the Morantel Tartrate pellets. I drizzled some molasses over it. Cricket ate it right up, Moonie and Derek needed to be convinced with a little grain thrown in. Will buy more and dose everyone in a couple weeks.

more stuff

Still working on multitudes of things.

Finished Anaken's hooves, and did Derek's. Cricket is up next.

Had beastly high winds out of the south and driving rain night before last. In fact, it rained for three days prior.

Once the weather broke yesterday I was back at it-started winterizing goat housing (replacing stuff they destroyed this summer). Stacked some of the cord of wood which managed to get wet through two tarps. Worked on the V-match wall in the living room.

Focused on trying to finish up the Vmatch today. Managed to get a three bay windowsill installed as dark fell last night-put up the last of the stuff on hand today after some really finicky nit picky stuff above the windows. It would have come out better with the skilsaw for ripping boards-I was lazy and used the jigsaw, which cut the line a little wobbly. Like my car, it kept wanting to pull to the right. I suppose they are working in cahoots to bring me back from the far left. LOL.


I am short exactly 44 linear feet of boards-which is the amount the lumber company shorted me. So, that is another stop on the long road trip of things to do for tomorrow. I am sooo looking forward to putting the living room back together! I should go through the stacks and donate three or five boxes of books to the library and toss a few dozen video tapes-*puts boxes on the list for tomorrow*

We had a brief snow squall pass through this afternoon-tonight it is supposed to be around 20 F-with highs in the thirties all week. Brrrr.