Hen23's Journal~Goodbye

[Henrietta23]

I just remembered something! For about two weeks (it seemed like years) we owned a guinea hen. A guinea hen who flew 30 feet up into our hemlock tree and shrieked for three days straight. Then she flew to a tree at the end of the street and shrieked for another whole day. Finally she decided to hang out with the chickens but would go up into the tree at night and wake up with the sun. We finally caught her and returned her.
Goats will be quiet in comparison. I wonder if the neighbors remember

 

[Farmfresh]

I did come away annoyed that some of the issues raised were things that I brought up mid-year last year! I had asked for help for him in the area of social interactions with peers. At the very end of the year they finally had him working with the SW. It was too late by then. This year I jumped right on it and he was set up with a SW intern whom he sees once a week. He loves going but one on one interaction with an adult has always been easy for him. They do not seem to ever work with other students or do any role modeling of social situations. They do spend some time discussing situations that have already gone wrong. And we have not seen significant changes. Today the team agreed that he should work with the school psych directly on peer social skills.

Since we work with children with Autism in the program where I work, we are constantly working on how to teach proper peer social interaction. One of the tools we use is a program based on the work of Michelle Garcia Winters Superflex and social thinking.

I am sure they would work with any kiddo that needs to learn some additional social skills and best of all you can work on it at home without it being a big deal. The Superflex book is full of cartoon characters that help teach big social skills. You should check it out.

 

[Henrietta23]

I did come away annoyed that some of the issues raised were things that I brought up mid-year last year! I had asked for help for him in the area of social interactions with peers. At the very end of the year they finally had him working with the SW. It was too late by then. This year I jumped right on it and he was set up with a SW intern whom he sees once a week. He loves going but one on one interaction with an adult has always been easy for him. They do not seem to ever work with other students or do any role modeling of social situations. They do spend some time discussing situations that have already gone wrong. And we have not seen significant changes. Today the team agreed that he should work with the school psych directly on peer social skills.

Since we work with children with Autism in the program where I work, we are constantly working on how to teach proper peer social interaction. One of the tools we use is a program based on the work of Michelle Garcia Winters Superflex and social thinking.

I am sure they would work with any kiddo that needs to learn some additional social skills and best of all you can work on it at home without it being a big deal. The Superflex book is full of cartoon characters that help teach big social skills. You should check it out.

Cool! Thanks!! I work with a number of Autistic kids myself (speech therapy assistant) and could justify buying it just for them. Actually my supervisor is a total pack rat. I'll snoop around tomorrow and may just find we already have it!!

 

[Farmfresh]

Sound like just the ticket!

 

[Henrietta23]

No sign of it. I really should take a picture of this office. It is truly frightening. One of the reason I don't care for my days at the high school are the clutter in here. Very stressful.
I have a muscle twitching over my right eye. Could I be this anxious about getting my goats? I'm certainly not patient.
I am listening to a HS English teacher doing a lesson on pronouns. His students are loud and rude and apparently clueless. "I love her." 'Michael, identify a pronoun in that sentence.' HE GOT IT WRONG. He had three words to choose from and a 66% chance of choosing a pronoun and he got it wrong. Sigh......
Back to my search.
Hoping to start fencing tomorrow after work. I'd be thrilled if we were done mid week next week. Sunday is out because it is Little League Opening Day. Starts with a pancake breakfast, then the walk-a-thon, then opening ceremonies and games all afternoon. Saturday should be a good work day though. If we could get all the non electric parts up that would be great. We also have to build a dividing wall in the barn.

 

[Henrietta23]

Busy day. Got a call from my mom who was subbing at DS's school today, that there was a tree branch down over the side road where the buses load and they were having a horrible time with dismissal. She said she'd bring him home for me which was great. Another limb had fallen on the playground, hitting a kindergarten girl. She was okay but her parents picked her up anyway. Everyone was shaken up. The winds we had today were pretty bad. Between the limbs coming down and the pollen they were stirring up it was a rough day.
DS had a follow up with the Naturopath after school. We talked about school and the concerns with his attention. She has some ideas of more supplements and homeopathic remedies. She wanted some bloodwork first. I can't begin to explain what she told us even though it made sense at the time. :/ She is also doing some allergy testing and other more general bloodwork. She gave him somethings to take for his seasonal allergies.
Then we rushed off to baseball practice. We were 9 minutes late and still arrived before the coach. So annoying. They got their uniforms today. Our team is sponsored by Dunkin Donuts and their uniforms are purple with yellow lettering. DS is not thrilled but they actually look very nice. As the coach said, at least they're not pink and orange like the DD colors!
Came home, ate a quick dinner and got DS to bed. DH tucked in the birds and now we're going to crash too.
I'm thinking of grabbing my mom and going to visit goat babies at the vet's house while DH and DS are at gymnastics after school tomorrow. I'm trying to keep Saturday free since we have baseball Opening Day on Sunday and it is literally an all day event. Pancake breakfast at 8 At least we can skip that. Team pictures at 9:30 followed by the walk-a-thon. Opening ceremony is some time after that, 12 or 1 from what I heard. DS's team plays their first game at 3:30. Saturday needs to be devoted to installing goat fence! And planning the interior barn wall.
I really should call Free's contact about the available goats but I'm not coherent enough to ask the right questions.

 

[freemotion]

Just let him know you might be interested and set up a time to go see. Ask him if you can go at milking time and get a little lesson. He uses a machine, though, I think. You want to see and feel teats. All the goats are registered Nubians. Ginger was up to date with vaccinations when I got her, I imagine these does will be, but ask. He had sheep so he gives the goats the sheep vacc, an 8-way, but you don't need all that in the future.

I didn't look at any of these does other than Stella who was a baby at the time. So I don't know how they behave about milking. You probably don't want two first fresheners next year, as newbie + newbie =

I remember I wanted to see Ginger's teats, because she is 25% Boer and they can have funky teats, and he picked her up, flipped her on her back, and showed me her tiny, perfect udder. She didn't resist one little bit. That told me she had been handled extensively, even though there were a number of goats there. And Stella was his favorite, so my guess would be that she is very easy to manage. But who knows.....you just have to go and see!

 

[Henrietta23]

Hoping to soon! I plan on calling him tomorrow after school. DH is freaked out at the price but I told him to calm down. I'm not committing to anything by going to visit. And we might fall in love with one of the other does anyway! DH has started to ask questions about different breeds and milk production etc. so I gave him some information to read. Then I went to the co-op and bought a quart of raw goats' milk from a local farm that has Obers. That was our dessert!

 

[freemotion]

As lovely as Stella is, the second year freshener will likely have more experience. Oh, and you want to ask about the babies...how many, healthy, etc. But not so critical with first timers.

There are a gazillion goats out there, so breathe!!! (HA! Listen to me, telling someone else to take a breath!!! )

 

[Henrietta23]

I have not been breathing much this week. It's good to get a reminder. The worst thing that could happen is that we have a nice drive to meet some goats. Maybe it won't work out. Maybe it will. We can't rush into this without a pen and shelter set up. We also can't become addicted to goats' milk from the co-op at $4.35 a quart!! We will need our own!
DH asked the co-op if they'd be interested in our surplus duck eggs. They told him to call the assistant manager tomorrow. We may be getting some store credit and extra space in the fridge. Now that I'm baking a lot less we aren't using as many and we don't know anyone who wants them. There are no other duck eggs at the co-op currently and apparently they occasionally have someone ask for them.