Life Bounces On...

If you are a follower of the goat blogs in my blog circle of friends, you know it has been a tough year with many sad, sad losses. I have to say,we have been blessed these last years. We haven't had to dig any new graves under the oak in the goat pasture until this last week.
I had  three girls I was waiting on to kid that had been bred with my Pygora buck Charlie. Tiny Zippy had her giant Snowflake with out a hitch. Minnie, possibly the sweetest goatie ever and also a pygora ,was to give me my first full pygora kids. It was not to be. She kidded during the night and had problems and I was not there to help her. From what I could tell the first kid was positioned wrong and was dead the second suffocated because she was too tired or inexperienced to clean off the birth sack or possible it was born dead also. Even sadder than loosing these beautiful kids was listing to Minnie cry for them for days. Last to kid was Daisy. Needless to say I was a little on edge about her kidding. The first was breech and dead before I got to it. The second one lived thankfully! A little buck. Here is George...

The Boy says George has a bad case of goatie monkey nose! He is actually light orange and if he had been a girl I would have named him Clementine! I am sure I am not the only one glad to see this kidding season behind us. It is part of it, but never easy. We have 4 kids in the nursery pen.

Buster insisted I take his picture! He is a ham! He looks like someone dropped ice cream on his head and it ran down his face..

It is funny how watching them jump and play can make you forget your sadness over the ones who didn't make it. Life bounces on after all,when you have baby goats to watch!

Snowflake

I don't think a person can ever see enough pictures of baby goats! Am I right? Yep,I thought so. You all want more baby goats! Here is your baby goat fix for today,meet Snowflake!

She is white and fluffy, but it is also hot as heck here so I think I am wishing for some cooler days, and Snowflake just seems perfect!

Her nanny is Zippy, Doodah's clone daughter. This was Zippy's first kid. As you all can see,Snowflake looks nothing like her Ma.

She looks just like her daddy,the beautiful pygora Charlie!  I have no idea if she will have woolie hair or just be a fluffy goatie but I can tell one thing and that is she is going to be lovely.

She is half as tall as her momma! I have no idea where Zippy was keeping this big kid as you could not even tell she was expecting except for a tiny milk bag. She was not extra fat at all and Zippy is an extra small goat even by dwarf standards. I though she would have a tiny kid like she was. Goats,one surprise after another! Only 2 more girls still to kid and that will be it for the year. I wonder what kind of surprises they have waiting?!?

I Still get Surprised Now and Again

Right before I left on my little trip I got a surprise from Sweet Pea. Now you all have to understand Sweet Pea is a very, very...let's put it politely, round goat. The last week I was thinking she was even out doing herself in the roundness a little. So the day of the surprise I was out checking on everyone in goatie land like I do several times a day because you never know what mischief those goats have gotten themselves into. All you goat people are nodding your heads right now I know! Any ways , she wanted back in her stall so that made me a little suspicious.  After all, it was not like Sweet Pea to  be wanting back in  during prime grazing time. She didn't get that full figure by hanging out in the barn all day! I let her in her stall and made a mental note to come back out soon and check again.When I did  sure enough she had a kid about a third of the way out and stuck with it's feet behind. 

Well, I tugged it out and  started working on it as it was having a tough time getting started. I finally get it to breathing sort of regular and look over and danged if there was not another bigger head sticking out with no legs again. I tried to reposition it but there was just no doing it. So quick prayers were said that I could get it out with out breaking it's neck. It was looking at me and that really made it a bit worse.  After a little work, that seemed like forever but was only a minute I am sure, the second one was out and OK. Whew!  So I am thinking that day Mr.Tumnus broke out and had a big ole fun time in the girls pasture was when these two were made. Yes, I know you all are asking, How could you not know she was expecting?! Well, like I said she is exceptionally round and she was still letting her grown daughter snack everyday so she had a milk bag. Some goats are just like that on not weaning. She is the only one we have like that here though. This is her right after kidding when she should be all sunken in.Yeah right,not Pea! She is normally twice this fat or more,lol!

If there is one thing I have learned it's that something on the farm is always going to happen unplanned!
So here are my little surprises...

Total goatie cuteness I know! This is the first one,a little girl...

The Boy named her Popsicle,lol! She is our first baby ever to have wattles!

The second, and much larger one is named Buster. He looks like something dropped on his head and ran down his face! Buster also has on white shoes!

They are both very sweet and tame. Sweet Pea is a good momma. She hates all other goats and will try to pound them to mush or even bite them but she loves her babies more than any goat we have ever had. I am not surprised that she is the one who snuck in a date with Mr.Tumnus!
Thankfully it all worked out ! I will take these kind of surprises any day!

I went and spent a few fun filled "girl" days with my friend Texan. We shopped and had a good time! We have decided that we are going to make some of our own clothes so we hit every shop in town that had material and patterns,lol! We are both sort of new to sewing clothes,we have both done it but not enough to feel confident so it was really fun to be able to look at stuff together and  have another woman's opinion!  We came back to my house and had our second class on chemical free bee keeping. I think there are a couple of gals who will have their own bees come next spring! She also made Jack a toy because her new big ole furry baby, Keeper, has one and loves it. Well,sure enough Jack loved his too!

That is the face of a happy pup if I have ever seen one!

He is still slinging that around this morning!

This is a great toy!

Jack sends a big Woof of thanks to his Auntie Texan!

There is no Critter I Won't Duct Tape

What is that strange creature in the distance you ask? I present you all with another creation  of a fed up farm woman!

This is Dolly Doodle. The Doodle that gets her head stuck every. single. day. in the fence. She is  the only goat that does this here on the farm and I'd just had enough this morning!

So desperate times call for desperate duct taping! You all may remember the duct taped chicken straight jacket episode. 

Dolly  is a very good goat and an excellent milker but we have to face facts..she is dumb as a stump. Now, I know all goats get their heads stuck from time to time, it is the Goatie Way. Many a farmer has stood,scratching their head and wondering how a goat did something. It is the Goatie Way and there is no explaining it except maybe it is like the Force in Jedi .

So anyways, everyday with a stuck head is a little much and there is.. well.. more to the story...

(that is Daisy looking at the camera. Doesn't she look like she is embarrassed to be seen with Dolly?)

.... every time Dolly gets her head stuck her  giant son Peanut, comes running to drain the milk bar. You all know how these momma goats hate not controlling the milk bar! But that is not he worse part, the worse part would make anyone think she would stop getting her head stuck...Jack being a 6 month old male puppy..well you know..starts in with a little trans species loving..ya know just for fun! Yes, the summer of 2012 hump fest...between Jack and Dolly..you would think that would make her run from the fence and have goatie night mares! (Sorry folks,no pictures of that!)  It is sure giving us nightmares from watching them! OK maybe not nightmares so much as  hysterical fits of laughter.So I decided enough was enough and turned to my trusty animal behavior modification kit! Duct tape being the main tool in my kit and this time a piece of PVC pipe. You all may think this  was easy. Yeah right. It was not! The Boy had to hold/wrestle her while I had to try and tape this to her horns. I have seen folks wrangle gators easier than it was for us taping this piece of pipe  to Dolly's horns !

Dolly spent the whole morning behind the barn hiding in shame..yeah this shames her but not being drained by her overgrown kid and being humped by a giant dog all the while with her head stuck in the fence. Dumb as a stump I tell ya! But that is OK she is still one of my favorites despite her lack of IQ points.   Jack will be seeing the vet in a few weeks for a little snip snip but that only cures half the problem and really, if Dolly wouldn't get her head stuck everyday Jack would not be able to take advantage of her like that. So for now Dolly will have to wear my version of a goatie dunce hat!

Once again..Duct Tape Saves the Day!!

Hot Dog

It was 98* here today with a feels like of 103*!   I don't care what anybody says, that is hot folks! Good Ole Jack has found his way to beat the heat...

That WAS the goats water,lol! No longer,it is now the official Jack soaking tub!

 Hot as it is I am temped to make him mover over and let me in there with him!

Southern Nights

I went outside last night and the singing of the night creatures was so loud! In fact you can hear them in the closed up house. I though I would share them with you all,this is the sound of a southern night....

Super-duper,Extra Special Baby Goat!

Doodah had triplets! Now, Doodah always has triplets and very pretty triplets at that, so that is not  the extra special part. Although it is impressive. Ole Doodah must have got to thinking,"How can I top the usual beautiful triplets I have every year..."
 And just look what she did! This little boy,we named Roger, has a black heart on his nose!

Way to go Doodah,way to go!

The Sisterhood of the Goat

Hello everyone! It seems I have had trouble blogging these days. I just can't  make my self sit down and do it. So today I am doing a repost from waaayyy back in September 09 of how we got into raising goats. This is for  The Sisterhood of the Goat! If you have goats or love goats this is the place to find more folks just like you!


GAA or Goat Addicts Anonymous 


Hello,my name is Melodie, and I am an addict.A goat addict.I didn't mean for it to happen.I just tried one,a Pygmy.I didn't know Pygmy's were the "gateway" goats!

Really,it's Heidi's fault.Yep, that children's classic led us down this road of addiction.It got the boy in it's goatie clutches first.

You see,when we first moved down to the Houston area we rented a house in one of the many burbs.Hubby was in Norway,our stuff was in storage in Northeast Texas.Me and The Boy stayed in this house a week with nothing but a blow up air mattress,a few cooking items,a wooden pin ball game and a used copy of Heidi.We were waiting for Hubby to fly home so we could drive up and get our stuff.

I know,Heidi is not exactly military obsessed boy reading material.I read it out loud and he really enjoyed it.I found out soon why he liked it.Yep,you guessed it,the goats.From then on it was nonstop,"Can I get a goat?"

We told him he couldn't have one while we lived in town.Finally we moved to the farm and for Christmas he got a bottle baby Pygmy, Butter Bean.


He was soooo cute and sooo tiny.So when I learned they need a friend,I had no problem finding and buying another goat.
The Boy became a walking encyclopedia of goat knowledge.Actually,The Boy is a whole set of encyclopedias on various things,explosives,tanks, weapons,aircraft...you get the picture,but the new volume was goats.

This is a dangerous addiction,it gets a hold of a person before they even know what hit them!It starts out as a child's pet.You find yourself looking for excuses to go out in the goat pen.When you walk around you no longer see beautiful wild flowers.Instead you think," I wonder if the goats would like to eat that?"You start looking for things to entertain your goats,new toys for them.Before you know it you are no longer watching TV in the evening because you are out watching the goats play.
You can't go anywhere because,really,who will take good enough care of your goats!When you go out you realize your clothes are covered in goat hair or,even worse,you get to church and the front of your dress is hairy!
That is just the first stage of addiction.Then come the excuses.You find yourself making up excuses why you need to buy more goats.We could milk them and make soap,we can sell their babies to help pay for their room and board.Yeah,yeah,that's what we can do!!!I am at this stage.The Boy is far worse off,the only thing keeping his addiction under control is his lack of a job to support his habit!If he had a job every dime would go towards goats and goat accessories.Sigh..that is the life of a goat junkie.
Laugh if you want.Everyone says it won't happen to them.Trust me GAA is full of folks who thought that same thing!Hitting rock bottom won't help either,there really is no hope for the poor folks who succumb to the goat addiction.
Even if you are reduced to living in your truck,you will some how get a camper shell and fill it with your goats.You will sneak them into parks to graze.People will point and grab their children close when they see you pass by covered in hair and smelling like goat,"The crazy goat person!"

Like most addicts,we want everyone else to share in our addiction!So come on,it's just one baby Pygmy goat! I can hook you up.I promise nothing will happen,you'll love it......

Jack is Growing

Jack says Hello!

 He is growing like crazy! When we brought him home at just a day shy of 6 weeks he weighed 9 pounds. 5 weeks later he weighs 25 pounds! He gets puppy food with 2 farm fresh eggs twice a day and it is gone in what seems like 2 bites...

 He is a sweetie! He  loves his people and spends his days in with Charlie and Mr.Tumnus in the buck pen. Eventually he will be in the pasture with the girls. He has the softest fur of any dog I have ever felt. It makes a person just want to snuggle and cuddle him. Of course, that is almost impossible to do since Jack can not possibly  be still long enough to be snuggled or cuddled!

 Jack still spends his nights in the yard. I do not want a big mutant coyote to get him! We have also taken to calling him  The Big Galoot! He is so funny when he runs along ,big ole paws and clumsy puppy cuteness..

He has that puppy biteyness. He is trying to eat the camera string.

Did I mention he is bitey? Bitey,bitey bitey!!

Jack is not bitey in a mean way,just that I love you and want to chew all over you puppy thing.

I wonder how much he will weigh at the next puppy check up in a month?!?!?!

Wordless Wednesday

Goaties in the green.....

After so long with the drought this is truly a blessed sight!

Catch Up

Whew! Well, the garden is planted for the most part and  I would like to say that means less busyness but, in reality, it just means more work with the weeding and tilling! Then comes the good part the eating and canning!  I will say there is an urgency for me in getting the garden planted  living in, what I at least consider, a difficult climate. The window to get everything planted is somewhat small. It has to be planted soon enough that the veggies will make before it gets too hot or too dry, although this year the dry isn't a problem, and late enough not to get nipped by a frost. I never forget though, this is Texas and every rain could be the last for who knows how long! Once everything is in the ground it takes the pressure off and makes it a little more enjoyable. You all have to remember I am an asthmatic,out of shape middle aged woman breaking up gumbo clay soil with a tiller so it takes a while to get the garden ready to plant! Now, I will show you all some pictures of what I have been up too. This is a raised bed up close to the house ...that biggest plant is Clary Sage and there is some New Zealand spinach and some kind of celery stuff, kohlrabi, chives, purple sprouting broccoli..red onions and further down is some lettuce and one cauliflower..there use to be more cauliflowers but Mr.Tumnus got out and ate them. He always eats them if he gets out..apparently they are his favorites!  I have yet to have a year that I get more than one cauliflower! Mr.Tumnus on the other hand gets plenty,lol! There is another bed next to it that has red bell peppers,parsley lettuce, celeriac, eggplants...more onions...

Here are some of my cabbages covered by some burlap for shade. I planted these in the wrong spot and it is getting too hot on them but the burlap shade cover seems to be working.That bed also has herbs,sage and horehound and some onions plus some small cherry bushes and flowers.

This is a separate garden place where I have some raised beds..the grass is impossible to keep up with with all this rain so just ignore that! This looong bed has giant jalapenos..bush winter squash, cantaloupes,lemon squash and some tame blackberries. The other beds in here have asparagus,onions,leeks fennel and some paprika peppers.

On to the big garden. 51 tomato plants and 6 tomatillos! I use the cattle panel method for the most part for tomatoes. I did plant some carrot seeds directly under them and the hay between the rows keeps down weeds and conserves water plus I planted squash and cantaloupe and water melon to grow between the rows on top of the hay.

I had more tomatoes than I realized and ended up making a few cages out of a roll of old hog wire.

I already have some baby tomatoes!!!

I also have 8 tomatoes in a raised bed up by the house. They are all  different types of cherry tomatoes like yellow pear,fox cherry,black cherry....

I made some shade tunnels to grow Kentucky pole beans and speckled butter beans on.

Underneath I have some summer squash and peppers and I have a little room for something else under there..don't know what yet!

 The first pole beans are already coming up!

These are green beans up..

I also planted more peppers,purple hull peas, corn, more squash,more watermelon,okra, cucumbers,beets...parsley..sunflowers ..just anything I could find I stuck in the ground!

The apple trees have apples!

 This is the omega rich chicken forage I planted for the chickens coming up nicely.I threw  some black oil sunflowers and sorghum in the mix too. Those chickens can not wait to get in there believe me,they love their garden too!

  Peanut Doodle would like to say hi...but since he has a mouthful of my skirt he will just have to look at you sweetly instead!

On to other news...my friend Texan is having a giveaway to celebrate the opening of her new Etsy shop ,My Suite Retreat! She has some super cute things for sale and I can personally testify to the quality of her work because she makes me stuff! So click on over  to her blog and get in on the giveaway,you may be the lucky winner!

I got 2 awards while I was away. I will only do one today. It was from Suzan at Tree Hugger!

Suzan has a great blog! She is always doing something fun and has great photos and she loves the past and genealogy! One of these days, when I get some spare time, I am going to get her to give me some helpful hints on how to get past the dead ends I reached in researching my genealogy!

The rules of this award are to link back to the giver and pass it along to 5 other blogs with less than 200 hundred followers. I like this because it help us little blogs get a few more friends! I think almost all my blog friends fit in to this category  so...I choose you all! But I will list 5 because it does help with getting new folks together. 

OK...I will do 6 because I am putting Texan on here and ..well I already linked to her give away but she really has a great blog too!

Dakota Goats- Deb,she is about so much more that just goats! She has a lot of critters and makes soap!

Homesteading at Redtail Ridge-Dr.Mommie all kinds of good stuff over there!

I Forget what I Forgot-Sharon, she is a good blogging friend who never misses commenting on a post! She is retired and living with disability but she keeps on going despite it. Inspirational and she has had some pretty great adventures and somtimes she tells all about them!

The Wild Magnolia- Her blog is filled with beautiful poetry and photos.She adds a smile to every day!

Grow Fish Eat-Chris..he just cracks me up! 

Isobelle Go Lightly is one of my favorite goatie blogs along with A Goats View of Eden Hills!..

Oops that is 7! I could do 2 dozen more but I am out of time! I have such a wonderful blogging family. I will list more next time since I have another award to post.

Let's see..what else..Hubby is home! That is always good news! All the critters are good and the grass is high and the Boy just keeps getting taller! Life is good....