Goat Care and Little Goat Discipline

GOAT CARE:
A week after the goats came home, the 3 boys were due for vaccines. My mom came over to lend a hand, and asked if I had an orange to practice on... How hard could it be? There's resistance, and then it gives, and then you empty the syringe right? So I filled my syringe, and my mom taught me how to tap out the air bubbles and "squirt" to make sure they were all out...just like on tv..
I grabbed Apollo first because he was the smallest, (Youngest goes first!! My sister used to yell when we were kids...) and tried pinching the back of his hip to create a "tent" to insert the needle. Well he wasn't in the mood...so my mom had to WWF his little goat butt...and I was impressed. She got on her knees, grabbed the stuffed my little pony, and yelled, "Go!" Oh shit... So I grabbed his skin and pushed the needle in. He started to scream as I emptied the syringe. I was actually alright...wasn't too emotional...and apologized to him, wishing I had a little treasure box for him like they do at the dentist's office. Instead, I gave him a little grain.
Next was Dante...I did one, so I felt I was a pro by the second one. TAP TAP TAP for the airbubbles, and a small squirt, you guessed it, just like on tv... I got my mom knee pads to make her more comfortable, and she tackled Dante to the floor. "Go!" she yelled. So I pulled the skin out on his back leg and stuck the needle in. He screamed and jumped and knocked the needle out of his back leg. I had to stick him 3 times to give him his full injection. I had bad visions of accidently stabbing myself, or even worse, giving my mom a tetanus shot. I gave Dante his grain, and apologized 3 times since I had to stab him that many times.
My mom offered to do Mr. Fibbs, and I let her. She was definitely a lot more professional looking with the tapping and squirting...like a real MD compared to a first time soon to be junky. Mr. Fibbs went real quick, and he got his grain. I'm thankful every day that injections only come once a year!!! Would practicing on an orange have helped? Only if I was in the back of a jeep going 4 wheeling down a road full of potholes going 40 miles an hour!
Several times the boys have ended up with hay and straw in their eyes....like WAY back in their eyeball. Shortly after I brought them home, Apollo got something in his eye...and I tried and tried to get it with no luck. It looked like a small piece of wheat, and the wheat was facing the direction I needed to pull...not good.
So mom and super steve came over one night and provided a few extra pairs of hands while I got it out of his eye. He sat in Steve's lap and was totally calm like he was watching the latest Twilight movie...just needed a little goat popcorn. ANYWAY, my mom held open his eye, and I pulled the straw out. It was over an inch long, and barely an 1/8 of an inch had been showing!!! I put some Eye ointment on him, from my super duper goat first aid kit I made, and he was good as new.
Scours...Scours is the same as goat diarreah. You can tell anything about a goat by their poop. If they are healthy and happy, they poop little berries. If their poop is anything but berries, something isn't right. So every day, I check their poops. Well about a week ago, I noticed Dante was shooting split pea soup...not good. So I gave him some Probios, which is good bacteria to help digestion in goat tummies. For 3 days I would go down to the barn, and the back of his legs were covered with poop...I literally had to cut the hair on the back of his legs to get it off. That, and LOTS of baby wipes. So, let me tell you WHY he was crapping his little brains out...(Because he doesn't want to talk about it right now.) Dante learned to suck the nipples on Lucy's bucket, and was butting her out of the way and drinking her milk. ANY sudden change in a goat's diet will make them extremely sick. Since then, he has managed to wipe his ass on everyone, so everyone is getting summer haircuts this weekend...
But back to Dante, which brings me to Little Goat Discipline...
He is the naughtiest of all naughty little goats. When I first caught him in Lucy's bucket, I clapped my hands at him and said NO! I think he laughed at me. So I went to the internet, and looked up naughty goats...and what to do. Well, mother goats head butt their children when they do something not acceptable, and I certainly wasn't going to do that!!! (I know some of you thought that's where I was going with this...) Anyway, I read to pull their tail, or ear, or punt them in the chest..(with your hand, NOT like a football...) So I tried that...every time I saw him go to the bucket, I pulled his tail. He turned around and stomped at me with this goofy grin he always has on his face, and I stomped back. Mind you....this goat comes to my knees with the top of his head...And we're stomping at each other like a bunch of two year olds...Then he went back to the bucket. So I got a squirt bottle. And he does NOT like that. Goats do not like to get wet. So the second he would go for the bucket, I would squirt him in the face. Again, he would stomp at me...but then he would walk away. BUT he would watch me for the second I turned my back, and he would be back at the bucket. Goats are extremely smart. So, in the mean time, for the safety of his stomach, Lucy only gets her bucket while I am down there...I let her drink as much as she can, and then remove it. The first time I did it...he stomped at me.

Me and the Queen Bee

A few weeks ago, I noticed a queen was building a paper hive at the entrance to the barn, inside...and I knew I had to take care of it...but I didn't want to spray it, because it was right around the babies...
So I would watch this thing get bigger...watching the queen go in and out...
And then finally, Saturday night when I was leaving the barn, I saw her leave and this motherly instinct took over...With a dozen eggs in one hand, and my 6 ft level in the other, I smashed it against a rafter...(It was about the size of a lemon). For a second I was devastated it smashed, because I wanted to take it to the house to show M...and then the next second, I saw a yellow jacket climb out of the smashed hut....WHEN THE F*$& did she get a roommate?! So the yellow jacket started to fly, and I assumed it was after me...so with my eggs tucked under my arm like a football, I started to run. I ran a circle around the Tahoe before diving into the passenger seat and slamming the door...waiting to see if the bee would be stinging my window...I climbed into the driver's seat and looked around to see if the bee was circling my car...looking for a way in. I even closed the air vents just in case.
I then worried all night that she was going to sting the babies just to get back at me for demolishing her condo...

Victoria

About 8 weeks ago, I noticed Victoria's chest was dragging again, and she was kicking at it as she walked. Not wanting it to split open again, I once again brought her up to the house...(The hospital isn't finished yet.)
Well we became reaquainted roomies quite quickly...She was no where near as bad as she was when I had to play doctor the previous time. So I softened her food, gave her clean water and kept an eye on her. The following weekend I took her back down into the field to frollic with the rest of the hens for the day. At the end of the day, she looked pretty pooped, so I brought her back up to the house. When I realized her chest wasn't going down, I emptied her by making her throw up. (Tipping her upside down.) Well she clogged my sink and fought a little bit, knocking my brush into the sink... *gag. She felt much better and was a lot perkier after that, but I, needed two bottles of drano and a new brush.
Every day I had planned to take her back down to the coop because she was doing great...but in the morning her crop was full again. (It's supposed to empty and digest at night.) The morning after my birthday, the day I went to get Lucy, Vickie wasn't looking so hot...I went to get her some applesauce...and when I came back she was laying down... I picked her up into my lap and she looked at me and then closed her eyes. And that was it...she was gone... I cried as I tried to wake her up....trying to curl her claws around my finger...I rocked her and cried for about 15 minutes. I can't count how many times I had saved that chicken's life....but she wasn't meant for one more. I know it was probably what was best for her...once a chicken has a pendulum crop, they have it forever, and it is something that she would have always had to deal with... I loved that stupid chicken...
RIP Victoria

It's been awhile...

Geez....where do I start? My mom and I finished our gardening classes put on by the master gardeners. What a wonderful series... I am on the mailing list, so I look forward to future workshops!
I did get my babies on my birthday. My mom, mariah and I drove down to Oregon to get the boys. Dante and Mr. Fibbs are brothers, and little Apollo. My mom also got one named Nickleman. The following day I went to Shelton and got Lucy in the Sky...or Lucy for short. My mom got another goat too...Ziblet. After two days of driving I was pretty pooped, so after the excitement died down, and everyone went home, I was sitting in the barn with my 4 babies in their new home. They were checking everything out, coming to smell me...jumping on their haybales and checking out the new feeder I built them. I could barely keep my eyes open, and kept glancing at the corner tucked around the corner of the feeder...Just...need...to...close...eyes...for...5...ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I curled up in the straw and slept for about 20 minutes. Then Apollo tried climbing me like a mountain, and I woke up again.
Let me tell you about each one...The three boys are Nigerian Dwarfs. They will get to be about 21 inches at the shoulder...
Mr. Fibbs THINKS he is the boss...Every time you go to pet him his face says "I should run" but his body argues because it feels so good. He loves getting his chest scratched. He's also a little screamer and drama queen... If you walk away from him he starts screaming bloody murder. Even after having him for 3 weeks, he doesn't like when people leave. He's very much like the real Mr. Fibbs. He is black and brown with white spots on his side, and blue eyes.
Dante is Mr.Fibbs' brother. He's a silent lover...but a stinker. He will come stand by me, and just stare at me, or lean against me until I pet him....and then he halfway closes his eyes and smiles while I scratch him behind his ears...No matter how often I correct him, he climbs up into the feeder, and eats. Everytime I look, I can only see his butt sticking out. I fought it everyday for awhile, but I figure eventually, he won't be able to fit in there... He is now taking to drinking out of Lucy's bucket. I pull his tail or pop him when he does, and he just looks at me and stomps his little hoof... I've read that an effective way of punishing a goat is with a spray bottle...they hate getting wet. I will have to try that. He is all black with white spots on his sides, and a white spot on his head. He also has a little white beauty mark on his lip. When he is in the sun he also has some small brown spots called "moon spots" in the goat world...
Little Apollo is a little baby. His birthday is only a week after the brothers, but he is half their size, and quite the mama's boy. The second day I had him, I was sitting on a hay bale, and he came at me full gallop from the other side of the pen. I was a little scared when he launched himself through the air and landed on my lap. He then made himself comfortable and started chewing his cud which looked like a little wad of bubblegum in his cheek...He gets pushed around quite a bit by the older boys, but from what I've read, just like the chickens, they need to establish their heirarchy. He loves to bury his face in the grass hay, and I've had to remove hay from his eyes several times. He needs little doggles. He is white with a goldish brown streak down his spine. He has gold spots all over him, and little gold freckles on his ears. He has a little 1" mane, so he kind of looks like a stuffed my little pony. I didn't tell him that though...the boys pick on him enough...
And then there is Lucy. Lucy is a Nubian, and looks more like a floppy eared deer. She has long gangly legs and will probably be 130 pounds full grown...When I brought Lucy home, she was 19 days old, and about the same size as the boys who were 8 weeks old. She is all black, a little salt and pepper around her belly...with a white spot on her head, long white ears and huge brown eyes. She jumps into my lap..gets comfortable and then puts her head back on me and whimpers. Its so damn cute. And since she is so young, she drinks milk out of a bucket with nipples. She gets a half a gallon a day split between two feedings. SO I go down to the barn at 330 in the morning, before I go to work, and fill her little bucket. Then I go down after work and fill it again. She didn't take to it the first few days...probably the change in scenery...and actually got quite sick. She got scours, (goat diarreah) and it can kill a baby goat in 24 hours. I was so worried I was going to lose her. I gave her some medicine orally to stop scours, and monitored her milk intake. Within a few days, everytime I went to the barn, she would run to her bucket and start drinking...Kind of like "Hey mom! Look what I can do!" She is drinking every day now...and has already grown two inches taller than the boys. I am trying to wean her off my lap...(even though it is terribly difficult to resist that face and the whimpering...) but I'm not stupid...I don't want a 130 pound goat laying on my lap.

Rome wasn't built in a day....

A year ago, my daughter Mariah and I went to Italy... The architecture and art were amazing. The thought that towns took hundreds of years to build...and works of art took lifetimes. Did Leonardo DaVinci ever rest his chin in the palm of his hand wondering how much longer his Mona Lisa would take? Did Michelangelo ever lay back on the rickety scaffolding inside the Sistine Chapel fighting the urge to change course? Or perhaps stealing a moment or two to scribble his "To Do" list for the day or the week? Did the creators of Venice sit on a hill side thinking, "We need to build this city on water?"
I walk through my field, touching the new budding leaves of my three year old fruit trees...picturing them as a fully operational orchard. Climbing up ladders to pick the fruit...watching honey bees from my future hives lazily bob from blossom to blossom. I walk up my trickling creek, knowing one day it will be filled with rocks, and will have a bridge going across it, with grasses and pussy willows lining the sides. I stand in the middle of my kingdom mentally pointing at the landscape...There will be the shed/cold storage...there will be the garden and the berry patch...there will be the split-rail fence with the row of sunflowers...
Over under that tree will be the swing that I may...or may not will be able to sit on..(depending on the branch...) :) Up on that hillside will be the pigs and the turkeys...and back behind the barn, the goats and maybe the rabbit hutch. I close my eyes, and I hear the symphony of the animals...the clucks, baas, oinks and gobbles...the buzz of the occasional bee... I open my eyes and look around...the scotch broom that needs to be pulled, the potholes that need to be filled...the hundreds and hundreds of feet of fence that need to be put up. Did the great renaissance masters ever sigh deeply looking at their blank canvas?
I look at my old barn...which is looking more and more like a new barn. But yet, there is still so much to do...
My babies are coming home in two weeks! On my birthday, April 22nd, my mom, Mariah and I are driving to Oregon to get the boys. Apollo, Dante and Mr. Fibbs. And on the 23rd, another bundle of joy. (HEY! I NEVER SAID I WAS STOPPING AT 3!!!) On the 23rd, I will be getting a Nubian. She will be 3 weeks old. Her name will be Jekuthiel's Lucy in the Sky. Jekuthiel is the name of the dairy she is coming from. My heart floods with joy when I think of bringing these 4 home... I am going to run and skip with them, and lay in the straw with them. I am going to introduce them to "The Girls", and they will all be the best of friends...
Some day, my animal family and I will be lounging on the hillside in the sun...admiring our masterpiece...
Rome wasn't built in a day.

Drumroll.....

Hello fellow farm friends, and wannabe farm friends. I would like to introduce you to my three new sons...
http://www.camanna.com/new_arrivals.htm
They are the three that say "Reserved by BB" The little white one with golden spots is Apollo...doesn't he have the cutest face?!
The little black one with white spots under him is mine, but unnamed as of right now...
And his brother, the little brown one with white spots and blue eyes is Mr. Fibbs. He has Fibbs' blue eyes, and the resemblance is uncanny. ;) They should be coming home on my birthday weekend next month...which is perfect timing...the barn should be done by then. :)
Class last Saturday was great...I've decided that the preacher farmer is like a paper doll...(a very big one)...and the only thing you can change on him is his flannel...his bucket hat and overalls, and the big white beard are fixed...
No sign of cat piss either...
We learned about composting. I knew quite a bit about it, but my compost, I now know, is not wet enough. Our teacher Paul, said that your compost needs to be wet enough, that if you pick it up and squeeze it, water should run down your arm...really gross dirty water...
So I have uncovered my compost bin so it can catch some rain...My compost bin is mostly pine shavings, chicken poop, egg shells, and the occasional coffee grounds and kitchen scraps that the chickens don't get.
I also need worms...so for awhile, if I find a worm, its going in the bin...not to the chickens.
Speaking of chickens...I have decided to donate 100% of all profits from egg sales to the Susan G. Komen cure for cancer between now and September. My sister Amy, Mariah and I are doing the 3 day walk in September. It's 60 miles in 3 days. (Jenny Craig would be proud.) Thank you for your support!!!

Barn doors...

Doing some cleaning out of this tired old barn....brushin away the cobwebs, opening up the windows and letting in some fresh air....breathe. There is a pile or two of dirt left that still needs to be swept out....sweeeeeeeep out of this barn...and back out into the world....scattering out in the wind. Pull a few things out of corners...and off of high shelves....won't be needing this anymore....don't even bother blowing the dust off. I need to make room in this barn....for new things, experiences....new reasons to giggle and even new reasons to cry. New reasons to belly laugh and new things to make me sigh. A couple of my posts are rotten, but I am replacing them one by one. One or two rotten posts won't bring this barn down. Breathe... My old barn door was hanging from a hinge....enough to see what was behind it. And we all know...doors don't open until others completely close. So I grabbed a big girl hammer and some big girl nails and nailed that old barn door closed. Silence........breathe...... New doors are opening....This farm girl has new Barn doors....and whatever is behind them is so bright, I need my RayBans. ;)