Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

Well, wonder of wonders I seem to have found the key to getting her to eat! Don't know why I didn't think about it before! I was trying so hard to protect her from the herd that I forgot that the number one thing goats think about is eating more than their neighbor, lol. Competition is the answer! I milked her yesterday and while she did eat a little on the stand she didn't eat a lot. When I went out to feed the rest of the gang she wanted to follow, so I let her. (I've been keeping her in an area around the front barn with the buckling - just the two of 'em.) I've let her out with the herd a couple times and she hangs for a minute then comes back to me and I've NEVER fed them while she was with 'em thinking that they'd beat the snot out of her for trying to eat THEIR feed. Sooooo, I went ahead and fed as usual - and dang it if she didn't find her place at the trough and ate like there was no tomorrow! How crazy is that? Guess she'll be getting twice a day communal meals now along with her milkstand snacks.

Hoping to butcher a few more meaties on Sunday, but not sure it'll get done. I prefer to do it early in the morning before it starts getting warm. Since DH won't get home until Sunday afternoon, I'm just not sure we'll get to it. I guess I could start without him, but don't really want to. Depends on the weather I guess...if it's gonna be fairly cool then we can knock a few out that afternoon.

DH is going to be gone for the weekend... whoop, whoop PARTY TIME. Sigh.. as if! I have to work alllll day tomorrow. It's our big fundraiser so I'll be at work from 7am until probably at least 9pm. It'll be a long day, but it should be fun. We host a men's basketball tournament for a fund raiser and it is well-attended and makes a good bit of cash. But, I will be glad when it's over with!

Great --- left my cell phone at home. Guess I need to waste some gas and go get it. I wouldn't worry about it too much but with my mom's health scare the other day I feel like I should have it with me.

Have a good one, ya'll!

 

[SSDreamin]

Sounds like 'Velcro' will pack on the pounds in no time now!

 

[hqueen13]

Yay eating! The key to getting the old mare that I had here with me for a while to eat was too do what they said not to do.... wet her feed! Oh she'll never eat it wet they said and I'll be darned if that wasn't the key toGetting her to eat!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Isn't it funny how individual each animal can really be? She's such a nervous Nellie I never thought she'd stand up for herself at the feed trough but she does. AND, the lady I bought her from said that she needed to be led to the milk stand, led onto the milk stand and head locked in the milk stand. Tonight, she came into the feed room all by herself... climbed on the stand with only a nudge in that direction...and I milked her without locking her head in! There were a couple of times that I had to put my hand on her neck to steady her - but for the most part I milked her while free and she ate a lot better that way. Methinks perhaps that the person I bought her from was not very patient with Ms. Velcro.... That's all I'm saying about that!

I got to work this morning for our fundraiser at 7am... I left at 8pm. Nothing but drama all day long. We hold a men's basketball tournament as a fundraiser and you'd think these guys were nothing but whining, crying 3 year olds. They whined and cried about every call, every foul, every point the other team scored. We actually had to cut one game short and had to call Campus Police to escort a couple foul mouthed sissy babies off the premises. I finally had to tell a couple of the guys that I was gonna wash their mouths out with soap, in front of EVERYBODY if I heard the f-bomb one more time. They looked at me like..."yeah, old white woman - try it"! Sooooo the next time they dropped that bomb, the game was stopped and a grown man was shamed in front of the entire crowd, lol! He ended up apologizing and the game went on. I don't think we'll be holding another tournament for a few years. It's kinda like childbirth...it's HORRIBLE while it's going on and then you forget the pain. But, somehow I think this one is gonna stick with us for awhile. But, we made about $1200 dollars that will go to benefits to our students that we can't pay for out of grant money. It'll pay for some dual-credit classes and letter jackets for the students that earn 'em. All good stuff!

Hoping tomorrow isn't as rainy as forecast. I need to be out in the garden, and I need to bring in a pregnant doe that's due fairly soon, and I need to mow the yard, and I need to butcher more meaties, and I need to do a whole lotta stuff that I'm not gonna ever be able to do in a few hours on Sunday afternoon. Oh well, that's what I earned all that comp time for!

 

[Denim Deb]

So, what happened to him? Did you actually wash his mouth out w/soap?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Nah, but it was funny nonetheless.... The two ladies and myself who put this fundraiser on were sitting at the scorekeeping and clock table. We had a damp gym towel there that we had used to wipe off the table so we were prepared..... When the same guy did the f-word again, my co-worker stopped the clock, picked up the microphone and stopped the game. The referee called the player over and told him to take his punishment like a man. He comes over to our table where I'm holding the wet rag, gets down on his knees and begs for forgiveness. No, I didn't use the cloth on him. This all happened before the real craziness of the day when we had to "ask" one team to leave. It's unbelievable when grown men get so worked up over winning a $10 dollar trophy and a t-shirt, lol. You know how they are when their testosterone and competitiveness comes out. It's all about strutting and bragging rights for them, lol.

DH is on his way home from the family reunion and he's on his bike. Weather isn't all that great for a morning ride - we've got pretty gusty winds and rain is in the forecast. Rain is supposed to hold off until later this afternoon, so he should make it home before it gets bad. And, just to make me worry even more he's coming straight through Houston instead of some of the back roads that would keep him out of downtown. I'll breathe a lot easier when he's home safely.

Gotta get busy while the weather allows. Have a great day ya'll!

 

[Denim Deb]

I don't like to ride in traffic, so I stick to the back roads when I'm on my bike.

 

[hqueen13]

Glad you were able to make a point!
Hope you get lots done before the rain comes in!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Our threatened/promised rain never really materialized. I was outside the whole time and actually did count about 7 drops that hit me... but that was all. Heard on the news this morning that we're almost 13 inches behind for the year already. No rain in the forecast for at least a week. I know we need rain, but sometimes the lack of rain can do small wonders.

Yesterday I took a fecal to the vet. I have all the stuff to do my own, but getting it out and setting it up and still not being confident in my abilities just doesn't seem worth being wrong at my goats' expense. I need to practice more. All this is my round-a-bout way of saying that sometimes dry weather is good. It keeps the parasite population down.

Lil Bit - my problem goat who has had bottle jaw at least 3 times in the last six months, came up with it again over the weekend. It was her sample that went to the vet. She had absolutely zero parasite eggs. YAY! The good news is that it has been at least a month since I wormed her with Quest (cydectin) horse wormer. Bad news is that she is still anemic. I am really good about giving her iron shots and B vitamins but as soon as she looks better I stop. Guess I need to stop stopping, lol. Gonna have to make myself keep it up for at least two weeks or until her membranes look a whole lot pinker. I will say that she looks better than she has in quite some time. Her coat is smooth, slick and shiny and she's put on some weight. Not sure why she's so stinking anemic...grrrrr. I also started putting Red Cell in her feed. She is gonna get better whether she wants to or not!

I dropped K'ili (the new goat aka "Velcro") back to one milking a day. Might even start her on the B shots too. She's got nice pink membranes but still isn't putting weight back on at the rate I want her to. Stoopid goats!

Garden is progressing. The zucchini! OMG - it's huge and I'll be picking a couple in a day or so...maybe even this evening. I've picked peas a couple times now too. Not a lot at a time and I usually eat 'em before they ever make it into the house.

I'm only working a half day today and then I'll be off until Monday. I am full of big plans. I need, need, need to finish mulching the garden. I'm fighting the weeds every day and losing so it is absolutely imperative that I get this done.

And... absotively, posilutely have to butcher. The meaties are now past due for their butcher date. I'm gonna try to knock out (literally) some more of those while I'm off. Everytime I go out I get mobbed and they are ankle biters! Stoopid birds!

Gotta get a couple things done at work since this is gonna be a short day. Have a good one folks!

 

[SSDreamin]

Is the bottle jaw caused from the lack of vitamins & minerals then?
Our huge amount of snow over this past winter put all our water levels up at melt off - so much so that we had a dam rupture up stream from us, and several miles of river front was evacuated down here. The dam closest to the evac had all it's gates open, and water was still pouring over the spillway - worst it's been in over 50 years. Point being, it seems like it's either feast or famine, huh?!