Support needed

Please go to my Facebook page (link to the right on home page) and send your positive thoughts, energies and prayers. We are not in the habit of shouting out to the world to help us help ourselves but we need all the help we can get on this! Thanks.

We aren't in June anymore Toto!

Time just keeps on keeping on. We had our last doe of the year kid on Saturday last with two does Liberty and Justice. They are most certainly lovely but then I am barn blind .Liberty is on the bottom with the white belly band. Topside is Justice a bit dirty white but as she grows will have more of her sisters caramel coloring I think. They are both quite spoiled (that is their job) and adored!

 

We had a bit of an interesting time span with Tawny who freshened in mid June with twin bucks not a week after kidding had a infection of some sort. We treated her with herbals and some traditional and she finally came round. Two weeks after recovering from that she decided to give her best impression of the HMS Titanic and had a whooping case of bloat. Crusty old girl she is recovered and has gone on to be fine. The one draw back is the back to back events left her milk poor so I am supplementing them several times a day. That is just fine as it gives me a break and some fun watching them be boy goat kids doing boy goat things.

The days are getting cooler after a week plus of high 90's to l00 degree weather. It does cool off at night nicely. Which never happened in Fresno so when it was hot it was hot. In fact we are to be in the 80's in the next few days . Which will be a treat for us and our three oldest granddaughters who are coming up to visit next Wednesday for a week.

I am so looking forward to it. They are growing up so fast with Aubrey being 13 now , Emily 12 and Claire 9. I don't know where the time has gone. But it went! We will have a trip to the coast and entertain ourselves with small things. Like swimming at the river, trips to local parks , making ice cream, eating ice cream and feeding baby goats! The girls can work on their knitting skills and I have dusted off the board games.

I will leave you with the photo above of Helen. Doing what cats do best. She fell asleep on the mantel right under the sky light. Looking quite angelic but she is a calico so don't let that fool you. 

Soggy Sunday This was 6/5 post got lost until now.

Someone , somewhere has my Spring. Could I have it back please? In the big picture weather wise I should be grateful that all I have is endless rain. But I am having a minor pity party over my goats ready to revolt due to "barn fever" from not being able to leave the barn for days. You may not know this but goats don't care much for water that isn't in a bucket. So the inside of the barn is beginning to look, despite our best efforts, almost the same as outside-wet and mucky.

Then there is the baby goat factor. 20 baby goats times 4 the number of hooves they have equal 80. That would be 80 little hoof prints on me at least twice daily. I didn't know designer clothing was a beni   of raising goats in a wet climate. Now I do and probably should be grateful I own a unique wardrobe.

Now the goat below is not only lovely to look at but also an easy keeper!

And I love the mini roses that live not too far from the goat and cart.

Now you why it is called a "cat tree". Top to bottom Chole, Boot Scootin Boogie, PT (patient termination - wait not a grim nasty name- I saved her from exactly that when I worked at the Central Cal. SPCA as a tech.) Helen who also came to us from CCSPCA. Missing are Monkey and Molly who are otherwise occupied.

We are suddenly having a break in the rain so I am dashing out to the barn to see if I can talk the a fore mentioned goats into stepping outside so I can put down more straw.

Have a wonderful Sunday and HAPPY 34TH BIRTHDAY to our baby girl Annie.

Mid week check in.

Busy week beginning on Monday with late night kidding. Then a wonderful thing happened - Spring returned! So we got busy outside again with this , that and the next thing. But the first thing was the oak tree that came down Monday night in one of the goat pens. We are thankful for it having been dark so all goats were tucked inside the barn, no fences or shelters were harmed either.

 As you can see the pruning crew arrived spot on Tuesday morning! Followed by the playground testing technicians below.

 

Followed by back up. And dear Raz-a-ma-taz our Nubian princess who took her work most seriously. You know Nubians all business when it comes to  good, fresh browse.

Journey beginning or ending

When one sets off in life it is always difficult to know if one is actually going or coming. When we left the central valley in 2006 for Mendocino County it was an adventure. Geoffrey and I always said that we would "run away". Well perhaps the running away time is for youth or not.

This county is lovely and has much to offer. But alas it was not long before we figured out it was not where we were to be planted. So long story short we are in year three of having our house on the market. We are having an open house tomorrow so we have both spent three long days tending house and yard to make the place shine like a new penny.

It is time and then some for us to leave. Time for this house to have those who are intended, not just place keepers, living in it. So this is a request from anyone who reads this post. Prayers, energy, begging whatever works for you will work for us. It is time to move on. Not back to the central valley but to the north valley where friends and our forever home on this earth await us. Your thoughts are appreciated to bring us a buyer and a swift start to our new journey.

And yes, the goats are going too.

Happy Mother's Day!

May all of you have a wonderful Mother's Day. 

Keeping good company

The company one keeps should be good. Good for you, for them and for whatever the cause is. Today I joined what I consider to be some very good company. I got this in the mail.

I see this certificate as a recognition of love. Love for not only the two breeds I have Nubian and LaMancha but for the species altogether. Love for the individuals , those does and bucks that steal our hearts and give us so much. Love of those long days of kidding, incredible long hours of milking. The delight in falling in love every year over and over.

It is also a recognition of small farms. Those who love what they do and cannot imagine doing anything else , no matter how long the hours, how heartbreaking the losses. The work is hard, never boring, never tedious. As with all farming there are periods of intense activity. With goats it begins in the Spring with kidding and that brings twice daily milking and up keep. Everything from feeding kids (if one is bottle raising) to pen cleaning, hoof trimming, vaccines (if one is giving them) and/or herbal support.

There are rewards the smell of a new born kid , the joy of an udder on a first freshening doe, a grand champion ribbon at a show, fresh cheese that is to die for. There are heartbreaks a kid too long in a poor position that came into the world without breath, a favored doe as she struggles to take her last breaths while resting her head in your lap while her yearling doe kid lies beside her mourning.

But in farming, that mostly dealing with livestock, we deal in two worlds life and death and with one you get the other. Would I change it for a moment? Would I even know what to do with my days if it were taken from me forever gone? NO. And that is a big no.

So I am thankful. Thankful that the passion has gone on for 25 years. That even tho I know realistically that the chances of another 25 years at my age are slim. I intend to press on and the worst that can happen is I die doing what I love. Thank you ADGA for the recognition. Thank you to all those bucks and does who for 25 years have made my life what it is. A bit of Heaven on earth.