End of an Era

 After 17 years of taking care of goats twice daily, beloved pets Obi and Moonie have crossed the rainbow bridge. Moonie, a 17 year old moonspotted Nigerian/Pygmy cross wether, died Sept 4th. Obi, an Angora/Alpine cross 16 year old wether, died Sept 6th.  I wonder how long it will take before I stop looking for them out the back window.

Goats

 Obi on the left is 15. Moonie (Moonshadow) on the right is 16.

I bought these boys as babies at a livestock auction. They most likely would have ended up as meat. I have taken care of them twice a day since then.  Well, sometimes I would get the kids to do night chores. 

If I care this much about animals, you can imagine the grief I am feeling over the situation in the eastern part of the planet. IMO every democratic country in the world should have placed troops along the border at the first hint of buildup, and said, "Bring it on, bitch"

Indian Summer

 

This is Obi. He is about 12 years old.

We have been having a stretch of Indian summer, although the local weathermen are astounded that we could have temps like these in November, September  was unseasonably cold and we deserved a break.

We had a saturating fog yesterday morning, but as it burned off the air was full of the smell of freshly fallen leaves and other smells of the woods-Pleasant ones.  Yup, we deserved some some pleasures after the chaos and commotion of 2020.

 

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.

BLF's first baby of 2010

Congratulations to Nive for her lovely little doeling out of Duke.



Nive didn't care for either me taking pictures or the location of the baby; I caught her hoof descending from above to tap her baby and make her get up.





Maya, Norwegian Fjord. P was trimming her mane today.

Putting in a lot of time at the farm-chores at my own place are piling up! Combing still going strong all week at both places. Mine are winding down. Obiwan, the angora cross, really should have been sheared. His combing is so long and drawn out.

Of course the excitement at the farm this am was the first goatling of 2010! Sugreca is due today so hopefully by the next time I work there will be a few more babies!

Bonnie is due soon, too. She always has singles, but I swear this year she is carrying twins. I combed her today. And also Emerson, the cashgora white wether. I tied him outside; the sky was a brilliant blue, and a light breeze about 45F. The fiber was pouring off him- floating away like dandelion fluff.

The red maples are still in bloom, now highlighted by the bright lime green of poplar's early foliage. I saw frog eggs in the marsh.

Here is Moo on the metal roofed house, with Obiwan behind him. Moo's name is originally Moonshadow, but he is also known as Moonie. He is our only goat sans horns; a Nigerian/Pygmy cross. He likes to stand here by the gate on the roof and rip out chucks of hair from anyone passing by. Obi is a good goat.






Here are Cricket and Anna, mother and daughter. Yep, an all white goat had an all black one. The father is Derek, a brown with black point pygmy cross. Anna just turned two.

Everyone was enjoying the sunshine and record breaking warm temps in the upper sixties!

Picking Fiber-Cashmere

I spent several hours today picking though Obiwan's fleece from the last two years. The pic doesn't do it justice-the table is about 3 foot diameter, and I filled three gallon ziplocs at the end, stuffed full.

Technically Obiwan is most likely an Angora cross goat-his fleece has a buttery feel, long staple, and not a lot of crimp. I can't tell you the diameter-the crucial test of true cashmere, but Daphne's is a lot finer fiber than Obi's, but hers is very short. I will most likely have them blended together at the mill.

Most goats that have cashmere have it as an undercoat, with coarse guard hair covering it. Obi wears his angora style-on the outside. He does have course guard hairs mixed in, which true Angoras don't have.

His type of fleece is a chaff magnet-shavings, hay, even the outside of beech buds were all through it. So I worked through a handful at a time with a pair of long tweezers, trying to get at least the shavings out. Tough stuff like that can bind up the processing machines and a heavily contaminated fleece might be refused. I thought it looked pretty good at the end-the pile on the left in the pic.

Then I did Daphne's, and hers was almost totally clean. She is a pygmy goat who happens to put off some nice cashmere, although short staple. I picked out a few shavings and some hay and crammed it in the bag and ran out of good light to go on. I can't wait to see how much fiber we have in the end!

Thursday

Finally begged a day off from the farm to do some things around here.

Set a date for the saplings to have their year end testing to meet homeschooling requirements.

Trimmed some goat hooves-Anna, Moonshadow, Obiwan. Nothing too serious.

Obiwan is still shedding. I was looking up pygora goats and decided he is definitely an Angora cross with type B fiber. I think he has some dairy goat instead of pygmy, because he has adorable floppy ears. Anyhow, he took a quick slick and earned us several more handfuls of his long silky fiber.

Nicholas is still hanging onto the last of his cashmere. He hates to be combed and promptly butted me. Out of the eighty plus goats I work with he is right up there on the jerk list.

Did the laundry. Ugh. At least it is clean, dry, folded, and upstairs.

Went to the farm to talk to Boss about the Farmer's Market details. That took quite awhile, and was pretty much common sense. I think if she just left the stuff and a price list I would have been fine, except for the freezer tour where she told me what meat to take. Actually she had already told me that earlier in the week, this time I got to see it. Having been a cook for years it was self explanatory, really, but I didn't let on.

I think it was more to reassure herself she had told me everything, and I had Willow along who was listening to it all as well, so she could probably handle it herself. She might, if I need to slip off for a cig, and I will since it will be over four hours. LOL.

I did take some notes on people's names. although one was just referred to as "the bread Lady".

Mr Boss was obsessing over the extension cord still at Prescott. Mr. Boss' contribution is going to be a pot of meatballs for free samples that will go on a pot warmer, which needs to plug in. I guess I should have offerred to run to Prescott and get the cord, but I figured it is on the way to the market if I need it on Saturday.

I am actually looking forward to the meatballs...I figure I will put them front and center on the EIGHT FOOT table!!! I am obsessing about having enough stuff for the table-a few skeins of yarn, some roving-the meat cooler will be in the shade-some knitting directions and recipe pamphlets..

I insisted on taking some pelts- we get two, although at $100 each we probably won't sell any.

Still, there is that GIGANTIC garage/book/perennial plant sale going on across the street, so who knows? I hope we sell out of everything! You'd think it was my farm products...lol.

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

Just a quick note on Hooves

Obiwan front and back-long toes high arches

Anaken front back one spot hoof and heel

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

Anaken

Tree1108

Another grey 50F day, with the sun struggling to come through the overcast, and intermittent drizzle.

The animal day started off with cat puke. Oh, that is always a bad sign. The bright cheery Willow (the only morning person in the family) pointed out that at least it was just at the edge of the step, not catapulted (excuse the pun) off the edge onto my robe and half-filled box of Hallowe'en decorations. Yes, sure, a bright side to puke. :P

The Firebird slept in and said he wasn't feeling up to chores, so Willow and I tackled them late. I opted to do some hooves while I was out.

Caesar front and back.

Obiwan finished him off with his back feet.

Anaken front feet done, with back still on the to-do list. Above is a pic of Ani (his nickname). He was the runt out of twenty alpine bucklings at an auction last year. He was very wild. He was the last goat auctioned, and I succumbed to the saplings pleas, but then tried to trade him before I even paid for him. I had tried to handle him in the pen and knew he was very shy. Well, no one wanted to trade for the runt, so we ended up with him. It took me a couple weeks of goat whispering to tame him, and now he is the sweetest thing. He still startles easily, though. He did not produce much cashmere last year-not suprising for the breed-maybe a sandwich bag of very short short fine fiber, with mostly guard hair.

We grained the wethers first. Willow insisted on feeding Caesar and he knocked the dish out of her hand causing half of it to hit the ground. She headed back for more grain to replace it while I did his feet.

Then we moved on to the little goats. I opted to hop the electric wire with the grain bucket, instead of battling the whole herd. Usually the saplings have most of the goats tied by the time I am through with the wethers, and I use the gate. I caught my shoelace on some goatwood just as I stepped over, and was sent sprawling. The lid burst off the grain bucket, and the can of chicken goodies went flying into the woods.

I left it to one of the roosters who was following me, and set the bucket down outside the gate. I told Willow to get more grain while I started tying little goats. I opened the gate and had a massive crush of goats. I was holding the gate with one hand, and grabbing horns and shoving goats with the other.

Anna, with her short horns, ducked by and made it through the gate, but not before I could grab one of her back legs. I dragged her back through while two or three more were making the push. Finally Derek burst by me and I let him go and secured the gate. No way could I get him back in with all the other ones there trying to escape. Willow secured the lid on the grain bucket and went for more chicken grain.

I started tying goats, and then Willow was mobbed by Derek when she came back with the grain, so I told her to stash it on the rabbit hutch. Phew!

After all that, the rest of it went pretty well, except I realized I was needing hay for tomorrow. After goat chores we jumped in the car to go on a quick PO-meat for dinner-hay run. That turned into a three hour long trip, as I had a check arrive early and decided to take it down to the bank, since tomorrow is a holiday. The bank is about a forty minute round trip.

The sun is going down as I type-the day surely went by fast.

First Post

Photo Tree1108
I am creating this blog as an offshoot of http://treeocean.blogspot.com . This blog will function as more of a personal diary in day to day life. Weather, animal notes, personal notes. Anything worldly or earth-shattering will go on the other blog.

I have cycled back into goat hooves.

Julius was trimmed front and back Friday.

Obiwan had his front feet done Friday-need to do his back in the next day or two.

Anna,9 months,daughter of Cricket and Derek, had her first trim-she was very passive. Her feet were fine.

Sir Nicholas had his feet done yesterday. He had two problems. One back clew looked like it had a puncture awhile ago-trimmed the sole back flush and washed with H &H. A front clew's outer hoof wall was separated on the outside nearly up to the coronet. I trimmed it off and washed thoroughly with H&H. Hopefully it was torn by a stump and not hoof rot.

Cricket is in heat and Derek has claimed her. No more babies for those two-he's a wether now.

Started my period on Friday without any premenstrual symptoms. Yesterday I wandered around wondering how I could combine chocolate and chicken for dinner. I gave up and had a handful of chocolate chips as an appetizer. This morning I woke up feeling emotional and had tears in my eyes before coffee. Damn hormones.

It rained hard during the night. The ground is saturated. This morning I watched a black squall come tearing down out of the west-which just gave us a brief shower. The lower clouds were tearing by the upper clouds, which appeared to be at a standstill.

Tonight the clouds had bright spots that kept reappearing in the same location despite the cloud movement. Weird. Caught one on a pic I will be posting over at the home blog. (see above link).

Went to town for a few staples to last through the week. The temp was 50 there at noon.

The above pic is Obiwan. He is probably about 1 1/2 years old. I bought him at auction last summer as a weanling. He is most likely a dairy goat angora cross. His fiber does not have a lot of crimp, but he is very friendly and huggably soft.