Online for the moment

Another call to Dell, another temporary reprieve from internet banishment?

"Homer's Last Hurrah" BLF Lois and two of her three, hours-old triplets out of Homer. Two bucks and a doe. Homer never fully recovered from injuries, and although obviously still able to breed, was unable to re-join the buck herd and recently went to slaughter. Willow showed him to Grand Champion last year, and he was sire to my Badgee.



Update on my own goats: Jenny the goat, several minutes after my last update about her weeks ago, hopped her dividing fence and worked it out with everyone and is back with the herd.

Willow showed Uther for BLF in the yearling buck division @ the Fiber Frolic. He won Grand Champion cashmere goat. He is half brother to my Badgee. Willow won Grand Champion in Showmanship.



The Firebird graduated 8th grade fifth in his class, top ranked boy. He received several prestigious awards, even though his mother can't fashion a tie, lol.





Beautiful weather, not getting anything done with lots of things dividing my attention.

Happy Independence Day!

Long weekend in Paradise

I am finally getting around to posting the rest of the pics from a couple weeks ago.
But first a quick update on my own goats:

I thought it was time to put Jenny's Mom in with Jenny. They immediately got into a knock down, drag-out head-banger. Daphne is half Jenny's size, but she has been herd queen for years and she kept taking the high ground. Jenny wouldn't give up even though she fell down. I broke them up and took Daph out where she stood breathing hard for some minutes.

That means I probably will have to put one of the lesser does in with Jenny, but there is only one house and I don't think Jenny ever bunks with either one of the lesser does. And any of the wethers will most likely be able to beat Jenny up.

My other option is to start taking them on walks and letting her mix with everyone and see how that goes. She is not 100 percent yet as I could see in her bout with Daphne, but I don't like having to keep a goat separate.

Here are some more pics of Willow at the farm:

Willow and little Lori, her momma Lois behind, Maya mare in back.


Willow with Lori's "big Legs"


Willow and Jackson, the biggest goat at the farm.

Long week

I combed a lot of goats this week. Bags and bags of cashmere. Some goats are nearly completely shed out: others are loaded and just getting started.

The filly at the farm went for training today. And none too soon. She and the older mare have taken an extreme dislike to Lori's little grey Buckling.

Wednesday I saw Maya lunge at him with her ears back and grab him by the back. "MAYA!!!" I screamed and she dropped him and he went sprawling and I escorted her out of the barn with a shovel threatening her big behind.

Then the filly was caught three days in a row charging through the main herd in the big pasture, singling out the little grey buckling with her head down and teeth bared and feet flying.

Don't know what got into those mares, but I suspect a long standing hatred of Lori and her Mom, Lois, because there are seven babies and 30 adults yet they are picking on him. And there is another grey buckling about the same size, but they can tell them apart, apparently.

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Beautiful weather today, but we still have a bunch of snow on the lawn. The goat pasture has a steadily receding line of snow that I keep chasing back with the twice daily hay feeding. Nice to have clean snow twice a day to put the hay on.

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Radiation fallout from Fukushima is being picked up in the US, and in milk in Vermont. I have a feeling that in order to protect oneself only food harvested before the Fukushima accident should be consumed. Good luck with that.

Goats and a Thunderstorm

Thunderstorm is putting it mildly. I finished the dishes around 10 pm last night just as the Firebird came down for a drink of water and a chat. I saw light flashing in the low cloud cover which has been persisting all week. First I thought it was heat lightning, and then I thought it was reflection from far away fireworks. I could even hear a distant, "Boom, boom."

Around 11 we realized it was an encroaching storm, as I tried in vain to watch the 11 pm news while the digital signal cut out with every flash. Occasionally the anchorwoman's face would freeze and we would laugh at her, then the screen would go blank. Making sense of it was useless, so I decided to go to bed.

The Firebird was directed to stay on the couch, since his second floor bedroom is right inside the drop for the powerline. Well, a few minutes later the house was shaking with the thunder crashes, and then we had a hit. You know, when the lightning and thunder strike at the same time. Crap.

I roused Willow from a deep sleep and put her down on the smaller couch and put my blankets on the floor. No sleeping at that point, though. Finally around 1am I decided it was safe for the kids to go back to bed, with the storm still raging to the east of us. I had farm and friends in mind, as I knew they were getting clobbered.

I looked out and saw the brooder light was off in the chicken coop, even though we (amazingly) still had power. I knew then the electric fence had taken a direct hit. Both extension cords are on the same GFI outlet, so I booted up and went outside and re-set the outlet. The light came on in the coop, but the charger stayed silent. Uh-oh.

Praying it was just the fuses, I tore apart the tool area twice looking for fuses so I wouldn't have to do it in the am. We had farm duty on the morning roster. Finally at 2 am after going over everywhere twice, including under the fridge (can you say, "ewwwww....?") I gave up. I did find 5 packs of sparklers for the fourth of July, though.

I knew the goats would respect the fence-most likely-for at least the morning, so we headed to the farm. I ran some errands afterwards and replaced the fried fuses and did get the charger going without having to replace it, and I did thank God. :)

I took a bunch of pix at the farm. Willow has been heartbroken: her favorite doeling is going to Colorado soon...She has cried several times over it, so I thought I would get their pic today.



Here is Lois, who yells incessantly in the morning until she gets her grain. I asked Boss if hay might help, and the result was Lois yelling with her mouth stuffed full, which did give Boss and I a good laugh.



Here is Emerson, a wether:





Jackson foreground, Jasper to the right, Bonnie behind, and shy Sandhja in the rear.




Here is Francis and Uureka's little first place buckling:




And one more of Willow with her faves: Coretta's little doe on the left, Bonnie's little buck on the right:

Tuesday

We worked at the farm again Saturday. Uureka, daughter of grand old UUD, who recently went to slaughter, delivered her first kid that morning. A single, a beautiful light brown buckling who looks like his father, Monarch. I was happy-the first Monarch kid on the farm in two years. Hope he's a keeper.

At the end of the workday, I got into a heated dispute with Mr. Boss about my pay. Short again. He told me to speak with Boss, but I was too hot (pissed). I left, swearing to myself this time I was really quitting.

The next morning I sent a short email, to which Boss replied that it was an error that would be corrected. Humph. But she also said that Lois had dropped a set of quadruplets. Oh, she knows how to get us. We went back today and said naught about the "misunderstanding". Still, the atmosphere between us felt a little tense. P wasn't in a very friendly mood, either. By the time we headed to the big bucks I was feeling a little out of sorts. Boss had the bucks out for their walk, and R greeted us in a chatty mood, which was quite pleasant.

Willow then discovered the spring pool by the drive was full of tadpoles-she had been checking out the frog eggs late last week. We were thrilled.

Then we combed Homer and Duke in the beating sun-in the 80's (!!!!!!) today. Thankfully, we ran out of time quickly, and we had another day under our belts. As long as we get properly compensated for it...

On the way home, Willow spotted a pair of golden eagles less than a half mile from home. One went directly over the car and we had an excellent view. No doubt, golden eagles. Willow was in awe.

On the home front, I did Cricket's hooves Sunday.