Too Much Milk

Since I sold Copper, I am milking two goats each day, that results in a lot of milk. It also results in a lot of dirty dishes and no refrigerator space. My sink is piled high right now but I did give my Son one and a half gallons of milk last night, so that freed up some space in the fridge.

I need to find someone to buy part interest in one of my goats, so that I don't drown here. I am already feeding milk to my chickens, dogs and cat. My Schnauzer looks like she could pop at any given moment and my cat is too fat as well. Angel usually gets milk once per day but she must still be growing because she isn't bloated like the other two.

Here are a couple of pictures of our fat cat, Garfield. He loves being packed around by our Granddaughters. You would think that he would run when he sees them coming but he just loves the attention.

No Loses

I didn't lose any chickens yesterday, this is an improvement. We are making progress. I did sell Copper yesterday evening, he went to a good home. He will be used as a buck. Angel didn't like it, she is still looking for him this morning. That is the sad part of selling my kids, it upsets Angel but his mother didn't seem to mind at all. I think she was ready to let him go.

We had storms all through the night and I have water in my living room this morning. I don't understand why sometimes the rain comes in and sometimes it doesn't. I wish some philanthropist would give me about $100,000, I could really put it to good use. I need a house.

Or better yet, it would be nice if a couple of people would retire from the Post Office and my Husband would get a regular postal route and become a full time employee instead of a substitute or RCA, no one wants to retire anymore. Another possibility is that we could sell all of our 30+ horses at reasonable prices. That would really help out, think of the money that we would save on feed alone.

We did sell a yearling filly, Biscuit is moving to Texas on Monday to become a broodmare. She will be raising spotted mule foals. We will really miss her, she has the sweetest disposition. You can sweet talk her into anything and once she learns something she retains it.

My orphan chicks are all doing well so far. The two barred rock chicks have taken up with another barred rock hen and they are roosting in the goat/chicken shed at night on the highest perch, next to the biggest rooster.

My three little banty chicks have tried to join the other banty chicks but the hen won't allow it. So they are on their own, they roost in the same nest that their mother always took them to at night, they have no protection at all. At least one of them is a rooster and he is trying to protect his little family but it is a big responsibility for such a young chick.

I was tempted to put them in a cage but the barred rock chicks were so unhappy in the cage that I hate to do it to the banties after they have been free all of their lives.

Well, that is the news for now, nothing very exciting, which is a good thing. If you are a philanthropist and have some money that you would like to put to good use contact me but please not from Nigeria.

Wasps

Monday was weaning day because we always try to wean in the sign. The goat kids were permanently separated from Calico on Monday. This meant that I had to start milking her twice per day just like Cinder, her Mother.

We also weaned Garnet, our Walkaloosa colt. The way we weaned him was to load his mother up and take her to a friend's place. That left him with the other foals and their mothers. He hardly even missed her until this morning.

My poor Husband had gotten stung by a bumble bee the other day while pulling up a fence post that had a nest in it. He was fortunate that he was only stung once. He had a reaction to a red wasp sting many years ago after getting stung several times by bumble bees, so I am always a little nervous when he gets stung by anything.

On Monday while we were hooking up the horse trailer to take Garnet's mother away, I cranked the trailer up and gave direction, while he backed the truck up. As soon as he was in position, I left to do something else and he hooked the trailer up.

He soon found out that there was a wasp nest in the trailer hitch and barely escaped an attack. I gave him some wasp spray and went into the trailer to make sure that there were no nests inside. I looked very carefully and cautiously. I then proclaimed it to be safe and again walked away to do something else.

The next thing I know, he is unlatching the slant gate inside the trailer and he comes dancing out, complaining about getting stung. I believe he also mentioned something about making me an appointment with the eye doctor, he has brought this up several times lately. He thinks that I need new glasses.

I went inside, grabbed a penny and slapped it on the sting site on his arm. I had gained this priceless piece of first-aid information from a forwarded e-mail, so it had to work, right? He kept the penny in place for awhile then we put a baking soda and water paste on it and wrapped it up, so that he could keep working. I took that extra precaution of making him take an antihistamine.

While loading the two horses that we were taking to the friend's house, he discovered yet another large wasp nest inside the trailer that had to be dealt with. Somehow no one got stung that time. I don't think that he will ever trust me again.

This morning I went out to bring the goats up to the barn/house to be milked. I was trying to open the gates without all of the goats escaping, which is no small task, when I noticed that Calico's kids who were in a large dog kennel right behind me were trying their level best to escape too.

They were crying and jumping against the gate of the kennel and all of the sudden there was just this swarm of red wasps that came out of the kennel framework. They were stinging those poor kids and they were everywhere. The kids were running all around trying to get away from them but there was no place to go.

I dropped what I was doing and dove for the gate. Somehow I got it open and was out of there and back to the barn/house in a flash. I only looked back long enough to see the kids tear out of that gate and though the other gates, back to their mother. So, now they are unweaned.

We did get Zinc delivered to his new home today. We had promised to deliver him as soon as he was weaned. So he got to spend most of his last day here with his mother and got his belly full of milk for the road trip.

Angry Rant

Thieves struck once more, we woke up Saturday morning with no phone service and thus no dial-up internet service. They have stolen our phone lines again. I am getting a little put out about it. I can understand it happening a few times but this is getting ridiculous. Like I have said before, they only strike after midnight on the weekends and they are always in the same area, our side of town. Why can't they be caught?

Where is the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department? They must be busy like the Indiana State Police, pulling over dangerous criminals like my Stepdad who is in his late 70's and has never had a ticket before in his life. You would think that with his record they would have just given him a warning for driving a little over the speed limit, but no, they gave him a ticket. They have to get that quota, you know.

I have always been a supporter of Law Enforcement but I think all of the good men must be in Iraq or Afghanistan. What we are left with here at home are just power hungry wantabees, who don't want to take any risks with dangerous law breakers. They just want to collect fines from safe, mostly law abiding citizens who's only sin is traffic violations.

I am sorry but in this day and age, with drunk drivers, dope addicts and peddlers, thieves, murderers, child molesters and abusers. Why are we so worried about an elderly man with a clean record going 5 or 10 miles an hour over the speed limit?

I want to respect Law Enforcement Officers and I know that there are some good ones out there, but it is getting easier to see them all as abusing their power and taking the easiest path. It kind of reminds me of today's cowboys who don't want to ride bucking horses, they just want to stick with the bulls, helmets and protective vests. Hopefully this war will end soon and the real men will come home.

Weaning

I finally got around to starting the weaning process for Copper and Zinc today, it is way overdue. It isn't a complete weaning just a start. I put them in the dog kennel for tonight, then I will milk Calico for the very first time tomorrow morning. I will turn the kids back in with her after they have been fed grain in the morning. I thought that they would cry all evening but so far they haven't made a peep.

Our fox returned this evening. I was just getting ready to milk Cinder and had gone to the back of the barn/house to put grain in the feeder on the milk stand, I hadn't brought Cinder in yet. I looked out the back door and there was that sneaky fox sniffing around.

I went directly into the house and said, "FOX" to my DH who was on the computer at the time. I grabbed the .22 magnum rifle and as I went back out the door, I said, "FOX" again, still no response, so I yelled it at him. That time he heard me and jumped up and got my .22 rifle.

I just stood inside the back of the barn and waited on my Husband to shoot because I have missed him before and I thought that maybe the DH might be able to hit him. He waited until the fox came closer and he had a perfect shot, but he is just as bad as me. The fox jumped straight up in the air when he shot and took off to the woods.

Thief Strikes Again

We were without phones and internet service all day again yesterday. The copper thief struck again. I had to take the neighbor's other two dogs to be groomed and I passed the crime scene. There were only a couple of AT&T trucks there this time and one police car. They were all sitting around laughing and taking a break while my phone lines were lying there shredded and my contact with the outside world was disconnected.

The problem is this; I realized yesterday that they are not replacing the lines with anything new, they are replacing it with the same old copper wire. The reason that I know this is because this is the third time that this stretch of line has been stolen. The lines hang down close to the ground in this spot and it is on top of a hill in a secluded area with no trees to block their view for a couple of miles, so they can see a car coming very easily in any direction.

Now I am not that smart but I have noticed that they only steal these lines on weekends but they do switch it around from Friday to Saturday or Sunday nights. But they are basically hitting the same areas each time. We have been without service on around six different occasions since this all started.

At least this gives the AT&T repairmen something to do, so maybe they won't lose their jobs to downsizing. Job security is good thing, I guess. How's that for a positive attitude? I do know all of these guys pretty well, since we have had a lot of phone problems in the last several years. There was a time that I talked to them at least twice a week. But other than the stolen lines, they did finally track down and fix our problem after I talked to a nice man at the Utility Regulatory Commission. Maybe I should give him another call, at the very least our phone bills should be adjusted for all of these outages.

Disbudding Disaster

We finally got Copper and Zinc dehorned, but it was a very disturbing event. We have disbudded several kids, so this wasn't our first rodeo. This time it was totally different than what we have experienced in the past.

We got everything prepared on Friday evening, put Copper in the box first, he fought so hard that I was afraid that he would hurt himself. Both of us together couldn't hold him still even before we started the burning process. It was difficult but we finally got him finished, he was whimpering pitifully when we took him back to his mother.

Next it was Zinc's turn, he was ten times worse than Copper had been. He struggled so badly that the iron slipped a couple of times and we had to start all over again. When we were finished with him, he was bleeding from both sides, we had never had that happen before.

Both kids continually scratched the burns with their hind hooves, they whimpered and cried all night long, we had never seen this before either. Normally the kids just start playing and acting as if nothing had happened. Jasper and Onyx started running and chasing each other as soon as we released them back to the mother.

The next day Copper had recovered and was fine but Zinc still cried most of the day, he got under the goat/chicken shed and wouldn't come out. I don't understand what caused this and why this time was so different, we did everything the same as aways. We have done them younger than these two and older.

On Saturday a friend stopped in and helped me get Zinc out from under the shed and one of the burn sites was infected. We sprayed it with blue lotion and by Sunday he was starting to act some better. On Monday he was completely himself again.

I started this blog this morning but severe storms hit our area and I had to close the computer down. I was glad that I did because our electricity went out for quite awhile after that and then came back on long enough for me to wash some dishes then went out again. All is quiet at the moment but I think that we are still suppose to get more storms tonight.

Weaned

Jasper and Onyx are officially weaned and they aren't real happy about it. Their mother doesn't seem to mind much. We milked Cinder at 7:00 this morning and got 1 1/2 quarts. We will probably get more than that this evening.

Still haven't gotten Zinc and Copper's horns taken care of. We don't want to do it when it is raining and it has rained for the last two days.

We checked under my little D'uccle hen last night and no babies yet. It did look like one was in the process of hatching. She has a ton of eggs under her, the other hens must have continued to lay in her nest after we moved her, the sneaky things, one of the eggs is from one of the big hens. I don't know how she managed to get into the nest, the door is tiny. Maybe we will have some chicks today.

One of my Rhodies has gone broody now also, I have put in a request to my cousin for some eggs to set under her.

I know that I didn't blog yesterday because I got an e-mail asking me if I was alright. For the last three days I have been nursing a kidney stone I believe. This is the first one that I have ever had and the pain comes and goes. I am currently trying some home remedies. I don't like going to the Doctor.

Let Down

I am sorry to report that I did not get to ride my horse, not even for 5 minutes. We didn't get the tomatoes planted or the disbudding done today either.

It rained for one thing, but it didn't rain all day. We did catch Ranger and since he is white we had to give him a bath to get all of the caked on mud off of him. Then I brushed him and combed out his mane and foretop. Then we washed his tail in a five gallon bucket and put Rio Vista Detangler on it to comb it out, I gave my DH that privilege.

Then we saddled him and my DH longed him for awhile, then got on and rode him off. I had the camera ready in case he did any bucking but he didn't. He was a little impatient about the whole thing and the DH wouldn't let me ride him. But we did put him in a pen close to the barn/house so that I can start handling him some.

My DH also trimmed his hooves and he was a really bad boy for that and broke my husband's best and favorite lead rope, that is something that no horse should ever do, break his best rope.

Then we went to a friend's house for hot dogs, potato salad and watermelon. Copper and Zinc enjoyed another day of not having that hot iron applied to their heads.

Tomorrow is weaning day for Jasper and Onyx, we wean in the sign. This means that we will have to start milking twice per day now, that will really tie us down.

Long Weekend

My dear Husband finally gets a day off tomorrow. I have his day completely planned out for him, but he doesn't know it yet. I have some tomato plants and a pepper plant that need to be planted and since he doesn't want me to put them in the same place they were last year, he will have to remove the sod and break up the soil in another place of his choosing. We will also need to put some type of protection around them because of my scratch happy chickens.

I am going to separate Jasper and Onyx from their mother over night tonight, so we will have to milk Cinder the first thing in the morning. Tuesday will be their official weaning date.

I also have disbudding planned for Copper and Zinc tomorrow, oh joy! My least favorite thing to do on a Holiday or any day.

Then last but not least, I want to ride my horse tomorrow. Ranger was born in 2002, he is an ApHC Few Spot gelding. I knew I wanted to keep him for myself when he was born, he is a naturally gaited Indian Shuffler. He looks to be smooth as silk but I wouldn't know because I have never been on him.

We had him broke almost two years ago and my DH has only been on him twice since we got him back. So he is just green broke at best. The man who broke him for us actually broke him using old traditional methods, he just got on him and rode him, he said that he bucked and bucked but when he stopped bucking, he never bucked again. He told me that he starts out like a ball of fire and that I would think that he is very spirited but he burns out quickly and rides slowly and quietly. Both times that my DH has been on him we have found this to be true.

I have only been on a horse a couple of times since I injured my back and each time was just for a few minutes. If I can ride Ranger for five minutes tomorrow, I will be proud of myself. My DH will ride him first, of course, and hopefully he will be able to stay on him for more than 8 seconds. Keep it tuned to this station for a full report tomorrow evening.

Finally Named

In keeping with my precious stones and minerals theme this year, I was having a hard time coming up with names for my two newest kids. My good friend "Punky" finally came up with the names that stuck. So my new babies are Copper and Zinc. Copper is the little copper colored buckling and Zinc is the black buckling.

They are doing great, they have discovered the rock.



When they get tired of the rock they can always play on mommy.



Or chew on ears



Angel loves the new arrivals



So they don't feel left out, here is a picture of Jasper and Onyx enjoying the sunshine.