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....