Goatie Goat Updates

It has been awhile since I have posted about our goatie goats so I thought I would give everyone an update .



Butter Bean and Nibbles love The Boy! Any time he is around they are all over him like dogs!They want pettin' and scratchin' and to be in his lap.They were bottle babies and you can tell a difference in them and the other goats for sure.Not only are they extremely affectionate,they are bad and mischievous!


Nibbles is the worse, she lives to squeeze out the gate every time one of us come through it,then run around like a chicken with her head cut off! Feeding time is like trying to tag team wrestle.The two of them see you coming with that feed bucket and it is like a bell rang in their heads to start a cage match!
I am glad Butter Bean is a weather because this Fall he came into rut and was horrible! I can not imagine what the little toot would have been like if he still had ...money in his coin purse.He was after Doodah constantly,and she wasn't even in heat! Her luscious booty drove him crazy! He was relentless,we had to separate them! Every time I saw him after her the "I Like Big Butts" song played in my head!Doodah is bigger than him.
We love these crazy little goats! Here he is giving us "the goat eye"!

He is the only goatie that turns his head around to look at things,he does it real slow,it is silly looking!


Nibbles is also jealous of little Sweet Pea, who lives up to her name.She is just the sweetest little thing,wants petting all the time,but Nibbles likes to chase her off so she can get all the scratchins'.


You can see how big she is getting.I think The Boy is going to pop before Sweet Pea does.He is for sure we were giving the wrong due date and she is going to have her babies sooner!It is worse than waiting to open Christmas presents!


I have to admit,I am more than a little excited about babies myself!

Doodah has officially had a date night! Things are so much quieter when they get a date night! Last time she was in the mood we didn't let her visit Mr.Tumnus.You would have thought the Banshee was a visiting!The wailing and moaning,geesh!

I don't know if she is passed out or pigging out here !

She is defiantly eating in this one!



Doodah is great goatie.She is friendly and well behaved unlike the before mentioned heathens!

Guinness is still a little standoffish.Here she is mid-cud chew.

She will come up to see if you have anything for her to eat,but doesn't like scratchins'.All in all she is a well behaved goat,never acting bad.The Boy is a little disappointed because he wants all the goaties to be like Butter Bean and Nibbles!He thinks he will win over Guinness though, with a little time and patience.

Last but not least Mr.Tumnus.Here he is in the wheelbarrow,the boy was cleaning out their houses and he had to check it out.Usually, it is Nibbles the Mischievous who dumps over the wheelbarrow!


I love his color.He also does not like to be scratched.He is not mean or aggressive and comes right up to us.

I can not wait to see what kind of babies he makes with our girls.We will see in the Spring! So there you have,the official goatie goat update!

Weenie Roast

This is Weenie roasting herself!



It's the time of year when most folks houses smell like cinnamon,fresh baked goodies and holiday scents.Not my house.Nope. You walk in my door and smell gently roasting dog! You other pet people know what I am talking about.No matter if they just had a bath, 10 minutes next to and open flame and it bakes out that doggie essence!



Ignore the no trim along the floor and cables and chords running all over.We put the floor down over a year ago and bought some nice wide old fashioned looking trim to go along the wall.Hubby still has yet to do it!Not that he hasn't been doing anything else,he works constantly.He just has problems finishing things completely,because there is always so much to do and if it is "good enough"he moves on.If only one person is like this it can be OK,but,I must confess,I have trouble finishing things too.I have umpteen craft projects started,three different paint schemes on the porch and the kitchen too.
Anyway,back to Weenie.I know, we were real creative with her name.She is weenie dog mixed with something unknown.Actually, we theorize, she was some other small dog that ate a weenie dog whole and it is living inside her giving her an odd,slightly weenie dog appearance.If you knew this dog that would make prefect sense.She has a deep,deep desire to kill.Weenie dogs were originally bred to kill badgers.She only has access to her back yard and the house,so her murderous tirades are limited to lizards,butterflies, clumsy squirrels,baby birds,wandering rabbits,stray chickens.....Why do we keep such an unappealing dog you may ask.Because The Boy loves her.Where we lived before,there was a housing addition being built not far away.This one,um.. ding bat, yes, that is a family friendly word, family adopted Weenie as a puppy, brought her home and promptly threw her out in an unfenced yard and expected her to stay there.Well she made her way over to our house.The Boy was 5.We were in the back yard and he sees something wiggling in the weeds and being a boy,quickly runs over to poke at it.Then I hear in a voice so joyous,as if he had found a pot of gold,"Momma! Look ! It's a baby weenie dog!"
You would've thought it had fallen straight down from heaven sent from the Good Lord Himself!
My first response,as I think all mom's would be was ,"Don't touch it, it may bite!"
Too late.He had touched it.Every mom knows,once they touch it trying to get rid of it is going to mean tears and fit throwing! Actually,The Boy never threw fits.He was as near perfect as a child could be, still is.Don't think I am just one of those moms,who think their child walks on water.I know he is not really perfect ,but he is a really good kid.
I tell him we have to try and find it's owners.No luck.Then a week later the ding bats show up and claim it,um..I mean her.They take her home and throw her right back out in the unfenced yard.In all of about 3 minutes she is back at our house.I have The Boy take her back,she beat him home.After about 2 weeks of this I decide enough is enough and she is our dog,'cause I needed another dog like I needed a hole in my head! They never came looking for her after that first time and that was only because we left a note on their door.
We already had Rascal,but Weenie was extremely playful and loyal to The Boy.What every only child-boy needs.We had to be careful because she couldn't tell when we were rough housing and would try and protect him from us!


It isn't long before The Boy tells me Weenie has a bald spot.If you have ever had a dog with mange you recognize it right away.Terrific!I take her to the vet,get the medicine and start the long treatment.By the time the medicine overtook the mange Weenie looked like some deranged mutant Yoda! Did I mention how bad dogs with mange stink! What I do for that Boy!Then when she is done with that and reasonably hairy again I get her spayed.There is no way the ding bats are getting her back now.Not that they ever tried.I dislike people like that.
Even though Weenie is a few years younger than Rascal,she looks and seems older.She has had many names over the years,Meanie-Weenie,Queenie-Weenie ,Dog with the Evil Tail.Our theory was only her tail was bad and it made her do bad things! These days she is Weenie Gray Beard.Her whole chin is gray.She is plump,sometimes when she lays on her side her legs no longer touch.Instead of spending her days patrolling the back yard like a maniac for intruders,lizards and squirrels,she naps under my bed.If the weather is cool she will lay on the back porch and, if we come out,will make a token effort at chasing some invisible critter from the yard as to show us she is still on the job.I figure she still has some time with us but is is sad how fast the little evil tailed dog has slowed down.My boy's childhood companion.The dog that took every step by his side,protected him from the booger man and went on every make believe adventure.She still has the energy to come running when he calls and play for awhile.Although,it usually ends with her panting in the corner taking a rest.She is not decrepit yet,but just like I can see the day when The Boy is no longer here,the day that makes me misty eyed,I can see also we will be without our mean little mutt.Seems like yesterday they were both just pups.Not to sound too much like an old fogey,where does the time go?
The Boy realizes she is slowing down.Just yesterday he had said it was too bad that dogs don't live as long as their owners.A child's way of saying he is going to miss her one day.
The Boy is going to be 13 in a few months.Teenager.That doesn't bother me,he is a good kid.It makes me realize my time is growing short.I have only 4 or 5 years left before he starts his life on his own.Of course that is my goal as a mother,to have him ready to have a life of his own,but still...he is my only one.Gosh, I must be hormonal today! I started this post talking about the roasted dog smell and got to pre-emty nest syndrome! I miss a few days blogging and my mind apparently is like a derailed train! Oh well.......change of subject before I have to cry. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?

Throwback Thursday

Today I am only going back a little way,to after hurricane Ike.


These are some photos of what it looked like around here after it passed through.These trees were huge,the pictures don't capture how big they really were.So I put in ones with The Boy standing next to them.I painted him on a shirt! He would be mortified if I put a picture of him on here with out a shirt on!


I miss this tree.It was getting rotten so I am not surprised it fell.It's not the tree itself I miss, it was ugly.I miss the red headed woodpeckers that always lived there.They would come and eat suet from my feeder and take back a beakful back to their nest.



That roof did not get smashed,it was already laying there.That is the roof we recycled.
We are nowhere near the coast.We are 112 mile driving distance from Galveston.



This was one of my favorite trees,I was sad to find it was not strong enough.



This was the Boys tree house,which is now recycled into the turkey coop.These are just huge limbs on it, not trees.



I am so thankful one of these trees did not fall on our house.We have a huge one that leans towards the back of the house,if it fell it would get most of the house.



Most everything is cleaned up now.There are a few big logs and a few stumps,but the scars on the land are still visible if you know what to look for.Me and The Boy road this hurricane out by ourselves.Hubby made it home a few days later.We lived in Pensacola when Hubby was in the Navy.There we went through a couple of small hurricanes, in a mobile home no less!They were nothing.This was scary.I can not imagine having been closer to the coast and riding this out! Lots of folks did though ! So, there you have it! This probably set us back 6 months working on our place,but we were all OK and we didn't have anything significant smashed.I say we did pretty good!

Wordless Wednesday

Hard Workin' Hubby!!!

More Turkeys Pictures !!!!

The boys finally decided to start showing off !



I have been waiting ever since they got their freedom to get a fluffy turkey shot.



I think they knew.This whole time they were teasing me.They would halfway raise their feathers,just enough to get me all excited and ready with my camera,only to deflate themselves again.I was turkey teased!



We got a cool front in this morning,I don't know if that made them feel frisky,but all they have done this morning is regally fluff out their lovely feathers.It worked,because I am in love with them! Really, who couldn't love this face?

Their tail tips are a little ragged from rubbing against the wire in the coop,but still they are gorgeous don't you think?


Did you know Bourbon Reds are not only good looking they were rated the second tastiest of all turkeys?Yep,good looking and tasty...

It's a win win,.....well,for me anyways!

Freeee-ee-ee Bird......

Just play a little Skynyrd in your mind as you read today's post :) ! The Bourbon Reds are finally free.





Well, in theory any way.They can leave their coop but their wings have been clipped so they will stay in their yard.


The Boy hated having to cut their beautiful wings! It was a matter of their life or death though and given the choice I am sure they would choose not being eaten by dogs over their wing tips! The turkeys are so funny, they will follow us every where.We can be standing there watching them and turn and walk away.Then we will here all this rustling and wing flapping behind us and turn around and there they are! They follow The Boy all over just like dogs,it is so funny!

We had a very hard time with these turkeys.I ordered 10 the first time.They we're nice healthy little things.I kept them inside for about 2 weeks.

Then I moved them out to the rabbit hutch.It is about 3 and half feet off the ground and,of course, covered in rabbit wire.The next morning only 3 remained.Possums climbed up and got their little toes and pulled their legs thought the wire.I was crushed,my sweet little babies.I have wanted these turkeys ever since I read about them several years back.They are nothing like baby chickens.They are not afraid,they do not run or scatter when you come near.They will come right up to you, curious and friendly.This was probably my second hardest loss of our life on the farm.Things die on farms,it is just how it is.I accept that pretty well.For some reason loosing these sweet little things in such an awful way got to me.

So I tried to order more but everyone was sold out.I finally found one place that I had never heard of and order 15 more.Some of these were not so healthy.One had a deformed leg and one was a weak little runt and died right away.6 in total died over the next week or so.Then we put them in their coop,which was apparently the possum buffet.No matter what we did we could not keep the possums from some how getting them.Every morning one less turkey.Finally this coop had multiple kinds of layers of wire around it and on the ground and layers of boards around the bottom.When we finally got it like some kind of turkey armored car we were down to seven.Seven out of 25.You want to know how many turned out to be hens?Two,just two.Guess what we are having for Christmas dinner?Yep,excess tom turkey!


I really have my heart set on raising these beautiful,friendly birds.I hope my 2 hens make it so I will have eggs this Spring.If they laid eggs all year round those chickens would be in trouble!I would keep turkeys instead of them!
So, it took me and The Boy all week to get their area done. That's one thing I can cross of my list! Now only 99,467,382,736 more things to go !

Some Days are Just Like That

Thursdays are fiddle lessons for The Boy.We drive in towards the Big City for this.We try to do everything we would possibly have to do in The Big City on this day as not to waste gas and time and, most importantly, my nerves.Because leaving my little oasis in the woods to go to any Big City is like a cheese grater across my brain! The Boy is my only baby and if my only baby wants to play fiddle,then by gosh,Momma is going to make it happen even if I have to go to civilization!
So, today The Boy wants to take Hubby's truck instead of mine because it has some kind of souped up radio,it came with the truck,and he can hook up his little music thingy to and we can drive around looking redneck but sounding ghetto.I say why not.So we are redneck -ghetto thumpin' our way down the interstate at about 75 mph and I feel a vibration.At first I thought it was the road,then I thought blow out,then Wham!Ca-thunk,ca-thunk-ca-thunk...all in about 4 seconds!I was able to get over to the side of the interstate and get out to look,no blow out.I drove across the shoulder to the service road, ca-thunk ca-thunk ca-thunk,because let's face it the side of the interstate going in to a major U.S. city is a death trap! We get out and look some more,hmm...nothing.The movie theater is about a 100 yards away so I decide to limp in there.We get out again and notice the back tire is going flat,there is a huge piece of metal in it.

So I call our road side assistance and they say some one will be there in 30 minute to change the flat.I have been driving long enough to know a slow leaking tire is not going to cause the ca-thunking.
So the tow truck driver gets there to change the flat and I am still looking.He can't get the spare off because it was apparently air tooled on.About that time I notice something hanging down,not connected to anything.This is exactly what I suspected, a dangling thingy somewhere that was obviously broken! I tell him don't worry about the flat because I probably need a tow and can he look and tell me what this thingy is that is broken.Yes,I am that mechanically savvy,everything on the truck is a thingy!So this nice young man schooches under the truck and says that it is what is left of my 4x4 drive shaft,it shattered.

He has to go and get his flat bed tow truck to tow ours, so we wait.While we are waiting The Boy starts telling me all the horror stories that could have happened,we could have flipped or a piece of metal..

could have gone through the gas tank, etc etc.I am glad no one was behind us to get hit by flying metal after seeing the huge hunk in the tire.Did I ever mention we always say a prayer before we set out to The Big City?


The sad part is the whole time we sat there,a woman and boy on the side of the road not one person stopped to see if we needed help.We were out of the truck most of the time so it was evident we didn't have any man help.Half a million people drove by in the couple of hours we were there.We didn't need help,but that is not the point,we could have had we been less fortunate and not had road side assistance or the money for a tow truck or a cell phone for that matter.I leave my phone at home all the time.What is wrong with people in the Big Cities?Every small town I have ever broken down in or had a flat some one has stopped almost right away and helped me.Once The Boy is grown I think I will complete my hermit transformation and stay in the woods in my uni-bomber shack!