Ohiofarmgirl'sAdventuresinTheGoodLand-where ya been? whatcha been doin

[murphysranch]

Its 9:15 a.m. and according to my outdoor thermometer, its 42. Beautiful clear blue sky with a few contrails from the jets. We too are in the traffic pattern, west to east, SFO & San Jose.

Gonna go dig in the dirt again ALL day. Tomorrow and then on will be cloudy and rainey.

btw: finished planting all the divided iris, and totaled 215 plants. Giving away the rest in groups on Freecycle.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Ground hog day - No kidding.

No seriously - thats my update so far so good, no kidding!

So I went out this morning, all happy and.... that stupid goat..I mean, that lovely creature, is TOTALLY bagging up. Oh. My. Gosh.

I thought that I'd have until the end of February... but if its true like someone over on the Herds site said, that La Manchas kid a week early, and if we were all wrong about when the neighbor's buck gave her the business.... and if there is any chance that her hanging from the feeder may have moved things along.....

Gulp.

She might be havin' them babies sooner than we expected.

And here's the kicker. Tomorrow morning I'm going 'off farm' for a couple days!!

I've well advised The Big Man to keep checking on her and to call the neighbors if anything 'funny' happens. Mercifully, in our district, "farm emergencies" are a perfectly legitimate excuse to yank 4H kids out of school -- so we have our neighbor gal on high alert. And on speed dial.

I may have been accused of a nefarious plot to plan my outing whilst the goat babies arrive. Which is not true. Entirely. Lets just say we'll see how it rolls. The Big Man is perfectly capable and is good in a crisis.

You see, its a well know not-so-far-from-the-truth-joke among the neighbors that the only medical attention that will be required during this joyous kidding season will be for me - when I pass out.

Butchering sure. Livestock birth? Not so much....

To quote Butterfly McQueen in her immortal role as Prissy.... I dont know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies.

I'm not sure what I was thinking.. but honestly I had hoped to avoid all of this and magically little goat babies would just show up one morning in the barn. Leastwise, that was my plan.

But now, golly, I think I'd better get my ducks in a row. See? Ducks are EASY, they hatch. No problems!

But I guess, I didn't know I could build a duck garage, butcher a pig, give a chicken a foot surgery, or help pip a turkey poult out of an egg.. so I guess I can do this. Hopefully. I'll just... I"ll just.....

*passes out*

I think I'm going to need a lot of tequila for this joyous season..... yikes!!

 

[dragonlaurel]

" I'm not sure what I was thinking.. but honestly I had hoped to avoid all of this and magically little goat babies would just show up one morning in the barn. Leastwise, that was my plan.
But now, golly, I think I'd better get my ducks in a row. See? Ducks are EASY, they hatch. No problems!
But I guess, I didn't know I could build a duck garage, butcher a pig, give a chicken a foot surgery, or help pip a turkey poult out of an egg.. so I guess I can do this. Hopefully. I'll just... I"ll just.....
*passes out*
I think I'm going to need a lot of tequila for this joyous season..... yikes!!

You will be fine.
She is still the one that will be doing the work. I hope you just come out one morning and see a couple full term kids nursing.

 

[big brown horse]

Who said tequila?

 

[Dace]

Sally, you smelled that word from pretty far away.......

The smell of that word makes me gag.

 

[big brown horse]

You're not doing it right Dace, you are NOT supposed to smell it...besides, a squeeze of lime can mask any odor.

 

[freemotion]

Our Tractor Supply also allows animals inside. Just another option.

But if I go in there I MUST bring money. It just happens.

I used to bring Gunnar into TSC. Then we processed turkeys, and I gave him a couple of feet.

I always walk him along the edge of the parking lot before bringing him in any store, just in case.

He pooped turkey toes near the feed aisle.....twice! Ten perfectly sharp turkey claws.....ouch!

 

[Farmfresh]

I never though about the "indigestible parts!

At least most of the employees of a Tractor Supply are used to scooping poo ... at least the employees of our TSC are!

 

[Dace]

Our Tractor Supply also allows animals inside. Just another option.

But if I go in there I MUST bring money. It just happens.

I used to bring Gunnar into TSC. Then we processed turkeys, and I gave him a couple of feet.

I always walk him along the edge of the parking lot before bringing him in any store, just in case.

He pooped turkey toes near the feed aisle.....twice! Ten perfectly sharp turkey claws.....ouch!

Ew eww ewwwwwwwwwwww!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

WOW what a week - I can't believe its been so long.

So, here's what happened in bullet points:

1. went to civilization, drank an inhuman amount of coffee, always had a french pastry in my hand
2. decided civilization wasnt too bad - until i realized i was paying $13 for a cup of coffee and a roll. so i mocked them openly for their ridiculous ways. then got another coffee to go. dont get me started on the $17 plate of eggs.
3. so i came home. to about 97 inches of The White Death. this was vexing. i was very vexed.
4. spent the next day supplying the homestead for Snow-pocalypse 2010.
5. it came. The White Death was relentless... so was the virus i got from being around all those stupid people. or maybe i just had food poisoning from getting fast food for the first time in 6 months... which was the last time i had food poisoning.
6. spent the next several days holding down the couch
7. woke up today out of the fever to realize hey... the olympics start today. so now, after watching the opening videos on the wonders of canada, i want to move there and become newfoundlandfarmgirl

but The Big Man did a great job of managing everyone while i was gone and while i was too sick to help. the good news is that the goat did NOT have her goat baby while i was gone.

the bad news is.... Fred the Rooster died.

how sad is that? actually i'm so mad that he left me i can barely talk about it. he never really recovered from his injuries from the brawl... altho we thought he was on the mend. we put him to bed the other nite with a snugly hen and the next morning we found his sad remains.

the worst part is with this stupid snow we cant even give him a decent burial...or to best suit him... we cant even give him the big funeral pyre to send him off to Valhalla. he was a worthy adversary, an able foe, and he will be sorely missed. i'm still too mad to properly eulogize him..more on that later.

as for now...off to learn the words to "O Canada..." the Olympics have begun!