sometime in the middle of summer

I know the middle of summer is upon me here in Maine when the goldenrod starts to bloom. I mark that as my half point, and I was rather aghast this morning to see the heavy, ripe heads ready to burst into bloom roadside.

Because I have thoroughly blown half the summer away with none of my summer projects even past the concept stage.

But< I have been putting extra days in at the farm; the bosses having gone to Europe for ten days, and one of my co-workers who was covering nights is taking two weeks on the heels of that. And my other co-worker took time off over the holiday.

So I am enjoying spoiling the crap out of the animals under my care. :)

The day begins at the main barn, with all the does and wethers and kids not weaned or sold. And those does are on a time frame! I walk into the barn and they hustle into their places eyes watching me. Except little Lori, who I have alway obliged and spoiled rotten and fed first since the birth of her first born. The only trouble is, her buckling went away for weaning hot on the heels of her mother having triplets, so her Momma became the priority.

Tuesday Little Lori had enough, and inserted herself between me and her mother's pen, which I was trying to clean around her yelling Momma and three tiny siblings. Lori wanted her grain, across the aisle, first. I scooted her over and locked her up and fed her after her Momma.

Today I had a co-worker, and I was running a bit late. He chuckled later as he confided that Lori ran into her pen as soon as I entered the barn. Goats are too darn smart. She knew I would get to her and she was to wait in her pen. LOL.

ok, that's my cute goat story for tonight.

Guess you had to be there to see little Lori trying to shoulder me away from her mother's pen and look me in the eye and say, "you're late! feed me first!"

***


Summer soccer is really something else. At least we had two refs tonight, but that didn't prevent at least three of our guys getting hurt. Our goalie lunged for a ball and took a knee to the back as an opposing team member somersaulted over him, and our goalie ended up limping off the field clutching his lower back. I later learned he has a history of back trouble.

Our number one player ended up flat on the back after being kicked in the stomach and the other team snickered in their huddle while he recovered and hobbled off the field. The refs called a face off on that one, and our team urged the sub coach to get the hurt player back in so he could get revenge.

Another player took a face plant on the turf and took a moment to recover and no one even looked twice. He should have been pulled and checked for concussion.

Plus many trips, kicks, slams, etc, dirty playing after middle school...

Our regular coach has been on vacation; the sub coaches are recently graduated seniors who are heavily playing the older players. Now I am one of the parents that gets to watch their kid in for 10 minutes the whole game.

The Firebird is learning a lot by observing, however, and considering how balls-to-the-walls rough those teenage American boys get on the soccer field with minimum supervision, that may be a good thing.

Spring is finally here!

All our snow is finally gone. The last little bit of ice just vanished without fanfare. The pond was melted by the full moon, because I walked a friend over to the pond that evening and the water was still as glass.

Eleven baby goats at the farm, all sooo sweet! Silver babies: Little Lori had a single big buck, Sugreca a buck and a doe, Dancer two does. Five brown babies: a big single doe out of Buffy, twin bucks out of Carmela, and twin does out of Bonnie. One black doe out of Coretta.

Sugreca's little buck has one wattle and loves to chew on hair. Bonnie's girls from Prince are so beautiful, and Bonnie is starting to accept me catching them every morning so she can have her grain.

Actually, most of the mothers are relieved when I go after their kids since the does stand in the stalls calling their babies, who are having too much fun playing big goat on the rock wall to be interested in grain.

Combing cashmere is almost over.

Had a bunch of blood drawn last week, called the doc and found out I am still hyperthyroid, although the levels dropped since before treatment. So I have more bloodwork in a month and have to watch for signs of hypothyroid in the meantime. Certainly the swelling at the base of my throat has gone down. I have put on a few pounds, I'm up to 118 now, but still battling the forgetting-to-eat and running typically on 5 hours of sleep.

I get nightowlish this time of year, but having to be to the farm at the crack of dawn is putting a crimp in my sleeping! lol.

Yay Saturday

Happy April!

Mother Nature had such an Aprils Fool's joke in store for us that we didn't pull any tricks this year. No one I knew did, and that is the first year ever.

We had a blizzard. At least a foot of wet snow in six hours. Last Friday I was in a t-shirt. This Friday I took a ride to the bucks with a co-worker since he had a truck with four wheel-ed drive.The roads were scary. White Out conditions. I wished I hadn't made it to work, because now I had to get home.

The kids were sending reports via cell phone:

"A big tree fell and almost hit the house"

When you're my age you don't get too worked up about almos;, there's a lot of almost in your life...

Then, "The power went out."

Yes, the power was out 24 hours, and when I called the power company an hour later, and they started with Augusta (the state capital) and finished with Yarmouth (a southern town) and listed every town-but mine-alphabetically in between, I knew we would be out three days. So a nice surprise to be 26 hours.

However, when I tried to pull out the end of the driveway in the morning, the car kept spinning sideways, the big ditch and culvert inching closer. The snow was so wet and saturated the car just wanted to slide sideways.

Finally my prayers were answered, as a 4WD came down the road and I walked around pathetically clutching the snow shovel.

A neighbor I didn't know, he hooked on with a chain and yanked me out, and yes, the rear end did jump the ditch and clipped the mailbox-in-a-bucket-full-of-rocks (because this time last year someone broke my post, lol) but that was an easy -just tip the bucket back up, although mail didn't come today, lol.

***.Lots of baby goats at the farm, Lori delivered yesterday and went into labor in collar and chain in a blizzard. I kicked Lillemore out of her pen and set Lori up with the best leafy second cut hay in the loft and she _yumm-yumm-yummed mouthfuls of hay in between contractions, stretched out on her side and straining with no visible result.

All of us, except Boss, kept checking her, and her mother, Lois, tried to climb over the bars of the pen to get closer to little Lori during her labor. That was really impressive to see.

I was worried about complications the way she was straining,and being her first kidding, but we moved off to the Hill with Boss's encouragement not to stand over her (although I think Lori liked me and her Mom being there for her, lol) and when we came off the Hill, there was beautiful white Lori spattered with birth gore ,(chewing a mouthful of hay) and the biggest single grey buckling I have ever seen. He's as big as the two week old single doelings. He's a monster and he's beautiful and clever and of course he will be a great Champion! :)

The kids and I rented the Grown ups, I would talk about goats all night otherwise. I will have to get some pix up soon.

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.

What Day is it Anyhow?

LOL! I'm a little froggy this am! HOT! and tired. Working and playing to the max!

Boss came to the decision to move the bucks out of Jenny Nash. We were already semi-established at Prescott, but not enough pasture for the boys. The job was moving the fencing out of Nash and establishing a new pasture at Prescott.

P, R, D and I spent a day winding electric rope and ribbon:D pulling the white step in stakes, and then D and I rocking and pulling out the green metal stakes. R told me his planned layout, drove in three green stakes, and then has been out of work since.

D drove the rest of the green stakes with me steadying them. We use a big rectangular metal driver which is more than I can handle on my own. I ran the top ribbon to mark the fenceline for clearing and was then told the loppers had disappeared, the weedwhacker was out of line, and I could use a pair of hoof shears for trimming.

Ha. I spent an hour crawling along the roadside ditch head high with wild roses and other shrubs, blistering my hand on the shears and was about ready to abandon the task.(um...the title of a song came to mind, "take this job and...." lol) Luckily, I found out that my sweets, Ten, had the next day off and convinced him to bring his landscaping tools and give me a hand. He cleared the whole fenceline and then pulled five runs of wire-embedded rope off the winder. Yeah! End in sight!

D and I ran the last ground line, put in all the white step in stakes, and wrapped an apple tree with wire to try and protect it. Saturday it was ready for the bucks.

Still more work ahead there with dividing it and pulling the rest of the Nash fence.

Last night we headed off to Bath for Bath Heritage Days. A terrific Reggae Band, Mystic Bowie, played on the main stage before and after the fireworks. Bath was jamming! Lots of food vendors, roadside carnival, live music...



We watched the fireworks go off on the other side of the river, nice but not as intense as our regular fourth of July spot where they go off right in front of you and ash frequently drifts into the crowd. This year luck was on our favor with the wind blowing it back into the cove. Here's a shot of last night's fireworks in Bath.




Back to last night, after the fireworks we went back to the band and Willow got her nerve up to join the rest of the kids invited on stage to jam with the band. I abandoned my flip flops and danced in the crowd cheering her on. The Firebird even loosened up at the end and started moving.




Lots more summer fun and work in the days ahead! Hope everyone else is having a dancing summer!

If you don't like the weather in Maine, wait a minute...

Earlier in the week, temps soared and it was time to break out the summer clothes. Then this a.m. I went out to feed my goats in shorts and a t-shirt and it started pouring. I was drenched; changed my shirt and added two more layers and headed to the farm, where it kept raining. I was soaked through and half frozen by the time I came home, so I started a fire and took a nap on the couch.

I woke up an hour later roasting, and changed back into shorts and a t-shirt. Then a cold front came through and I am freezing again.

These pics are from two days ago when a storm system moved through. We didn't get any rain from it. Go figure. :)

Bonnie, the last doe to deliver this year at the farm, fulfilled my prediction and had her first set of twins. She is so protective Boss had to chain her to dip the cords in iodine, and didn't have a chance to check the sex. Yesterday morning I gave Bonnie her grain and very carefully woke up her kids and peered under their tails. Both bucks! Which isn't too bad since they were fathered by Zeus who is now in goat heaven, so maybe one will fill his hooves...

The final total, three does and six bucks for BLF. A buck year, apparently.

Babies!

Ursula's twin bucks


Ursula's buckling ("I'm NOT an Alpaca!")


Ursula. I love her long fringes! She is Badger's Mom. Notice her broken horn that grows around against her head. Poor thing loves it when I comb under that horn!



Here's Nive's little doeling (left) and Lillemore's blue eyed buck on the right.


And lastly, here is Lillemore's doeling.

Sugreca twins

Boss does very well with her due dates...Sugreca greeted us with twins this am.

Willow and C went to the farm with me this am. Of course Willow immediately bonded with Nive's doeling, who promptly curled up in Willow's lap for an hour nap!

Wet snow off and on all day.

Wednesday

Yesterday I arrived home and thought, "where are my little goats?" Then I thought, "where are the big goats?"

I had a moment of panic thinking they were gone. The guy who bought my other goats had stopped in a couple of weeks ago out of the blue asking if I had more goats for sale. He had also knocked down my mailbox and not said anything until I walked him down the drive (after telling him I had no goats for sale) and found the mailbox standing in a snowbank.

"I wasn't going to leave without telling you."

Hmmm...

Well, I let him off the hook, even though I should have made a claim on his insurance. Now my mailbox is sitting in an ugly 5 gallon bucket filled with rock and braced with two by fours. Winter in Maine...

Anyhow, my goats were all down back and came running and leaping in a herd. The little ones decided it was time to join the big goats, I guess. Of course they went right through the electric fence several times, so I locked them back in their pen and they cried so loudly I put them back with the rest.

Badger was butted through the electric today by Jenny, but it was off. I didn't want to leave it on while I was gone and I had just stopped home briefly and saw it happen. Badger is a bit of a clutz and gets tangled in it (Piper leaps between the strands) so I didn't want to leave it on and have him get electrocuted if he got stuck in it.

I guess it's not putting off much of a zap. I tried to walk part of it and Badger got through it since they follow me everywhere. I walked the lower half today while they were getting their grain and removed a few small sticks. I'll try to get the upper half tomorrow.

The big goats have apparently all been zapped in the past, since they respect it even when off. I have been unplugging it in the mornings so I can hop it with their hay and leaving it off until evening. There's no snow to short it out, but there may be a problem in the upper section.

In the meantime, the little goats mostly follow the big goats and stay in. I swear Jenny was trying to shock Badger this afternoon when she pushed him through it, but it was off. He stretched the line and pulled it off an insulator, which I fixed this afternoon.

Oh, I just don't get enough of goats at my day job! LOL. Worked again today, combed a bunch of does and bucklings and wethers. Still working with my oldest, and a new lady came in today to help. She was good with the goats and at combing and seemed to have a bit of joie de vivre; so welcome to the farm, J!

Newcomers

Well, I worked hard at the farm this am. A visitor is coming to stay over and claim back two of her bucklings, now wethers. So just Boss and I, and we wanted things to look nice so we did some extra cleaning. Plus the Hill and Prescott were a mess and I took out two big wheelbarrows out of both. After all the carpentry work yesterday, I am feeling a bit sore!

But....the two boys came home! I am a little worried since Piper, for all his scrawniness, has turned into the dominant one, and claimed the house! Everytime Badger goes in, Piper kicks him out! That is why I have so many shelters for the big goats! I am hoping once night falls (and it is a red afterglow as I type this) Piper will lie down and not object to Badger joining him.

The rest of the herd was pretty funny-they share a fence, and the "big" goats were all stalking around with their hair sticking up. But the newcomers were relieved to see other goats! Hopefully their banded parts will fall off soon and they can join the rest...although Badger is a wimp so I hope he makes out ok.

Ok, the good part-PIX! Here are Badger and Willow. The light color on his back is his cashmere fiber-he has a lot, but it's not good quality, which is why he most likely would have gone for meat-but he is so sweet-tempered! Maybe Boss would have kept him...but I couldn't chance it! The long dark hair is his guard hair-both his mother and grandmother have very long guard hair ( his grandmother went to slaughter last year-Uud)



Here is a close up of Piper-I took like ten picks he kept sticking his face at the cam it was so funny!



And here are the two-Piper standing guard in the house and sweet Badger.

Willow and the bucks

I worked the farm today, mostly taking care of the bucks with Willow's help.

Here she is with Virginia cashmere buck Champion Chris:




and with Hjalmar:



and a nice view of the munching bucks with my daughter and the fall foliage:

Friday

Well I am tired!

Here is a pic of some of the bucklings on the hill this week. There are 13 but not that many in the pic!



I have been going up ahead by myself to grain them and they keep a close eye on me- for when I try to sneak off to put the feeders down.

Only a few of them have names or nicknames from when my daughter, Willow, was helping out. The rest are known by their lineage, generally through the mother. The black in the front is Mary's Boy, who after an intense bout of nursing through a bad patch after weaning was named by P as "Joseph".

I can't tell which grey is in the front in the pic, we have "Alpaca head" (Nive's grey), "Tack Room baby" (Lilymore's grey) "Chubs" (Lois's grey) and lastly, "Sugreca's", who has no nickname yet.

Bonnie's boy, fluffy grey coat, blue eyes and white points, has been named, "Beau", by P.

My favorite is "Badger Boy" the black and white next to the building, out of Ursula.

The two browns, the far one, is Carmella's, the youngest of the bunch, not born until June. The one in the middle of the group is "Uureka's Boy" (I aggravate Boss when I call his Mom "Eureka" like the vaccuum-it is pronounced with the Scandinavian "UU". Well, maybe not Scandinavian, but we used to have a slew of "hj's..." pronounced "Yuh". Back to the buckling, I call him "Monarch Baby", after his sire, not after the dam so I don't have to sweat the "UU". :)

Besides, his father has always been the handsomest buck to me. I remember when I first met him, I thought he was so handsome, but he does not like to be touched. I have been working on him for four years now, soft and slow. We get along pretty well. I don't pet him and he doesn't horn me.

Boss is away right now, and I have taken the job of walking the bucks. Yesterday they hit the third field and the snowmobile trail and kept going and going and going. I couldn't cut them off and had no idea where we would end up. I have heard stories of them ending up the next town over once....and I thought it was to be repeated yesterday.

Desperate, I pulled my Pb&j out of my bag and started waving it. No stopping them. I did have a couple of apples in there, I should have tossed one into the group but didn't think of it.

Finally they stopped and I stopped so not to spook them and rolled a smoke. Then I discovered I didn't have a light and that did it-I snuck by them and chased them back up the trail.

When we finally reached the third field, R was there and I was surprised he had followed us that far, since he had never been back that far. Most of the bucks followed him, but poor old Monarch couldn't keep up so I stayed with him. I had heard coyotes yipping on the way in-and Monarch has a pathetic little cry when he gets left behind so I didn't want to leave him for coyote fodder.

Crossing the first field just the two of us, I imagined him as a little buckling racing and leaping along, now a senior hobbling along way behind. It nearly brought tears to my eyes. I reached into my bag and hauled out one of the wild apples and gave it to him.

Then I discovered he can't walk and eat an apple. So I took a couple of pics.

BLF Rayvon's Monarch

Bucks full of it

The bucks were full of it today. I went ahead to let them out, and they immediately took off towards the back garden. The owner was going to the Post Office, and met me there after a little while.

I went back and set up the grain, poured the fresh water, readied the collars and chains, raked the houses, and put fresh straw down. Then I went to collect the bucks.

The mature buck herd is up to 19, and that makes them tough to handle, especially with rut coming on. They had split into two groups-one with the owner up by the garden, the other group way in the woods. I was directed to head back with the first group and grain them, and Y would go searching for the rest.

Well, that first group did NOT want to go back! They had been out on their walk quite awhile, so I assume they knew that some of their friends were still off. I brrrr'd and clapped and shooshed and swished a frond of goldenrod to no avail. They kept splitting up and turning back.

Finally I decided to act like a border collie and barked and woofed and madly dashed from one side of the group to the other rounding up scragglers and got them on the woods road. Phew.

I collared and grained that group, and decided I better head back and help Boss with the rest. I got into the lower field, and there was the rest of the buck herd pushing right along the garden fence and no sign of Y.

I hooted and hollared and whistled to let her know I had the rest, and then drove them back. I was hoping she wasn't lost in the woods. I figured I would grain the rest and then go look for her, but she reappeared after a bit. What an adventure!

Here are BLF Monarch and Jacolby.




Here are Bibbles and Rue feeling their oats.




Here is a close up of BLF Hippolytus, who was stripping beech bark. Another use for those horns-to strip the bark from young trees.




Here is BLF Prince Edward enjoying some alder leaves. I love his blue eyes! He loves my raisin toast!

Cashmere Goats

Here's one of the main herd. There are 37 in the main herd and 26 in this pic. Out for their morning stroll.



Bucks single file. I guess there are 13-15 in this pic, since some of the yearlings are still out of sight.First three: Lars, Prince Edward, Zuess.





The line spreads out: Monarch has the biggest horns-he's back in the pack.



I call this one, "Wait for us!" As the yearling bucks race to catch up to the big boys.