Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[greybeard]

After last year, I was so hoping that you would have a "normal" year or even a little on the dry side. I cannot imagine you going through this all over again.... My sympathies although they aren't worth spit in your circumstances....

Worth more than you know, and certainly much more than my own complaining.
The reality is, this is just part of owning property and working it in this part of the world. If I go back West, instead of 2 ac/pair, I'll be looking at 10 or 20 ac/pair, and instead of Chinese tallow and pine trees, the invasives are going to be mesquite, prickly pear, juniper, and huisatche.

 

[Bruce]

On a more serious note, I will say that GB has a wealth of knowledge and may be considered essential to them!

Yeah, like how to put up fences to keep their "stock" in. Some manage to escape.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Leave it to @Bruce to make me laugh!

 

[Bruce]

 

[greybeard]

Yeah, like how to put up fences to keep their "stock" in. Some manage to escape.

Mine have swam over some of my fences, so not foolproof and I guess fat boy in NK might have the same problem..albeit for different reasons.

 

[Latestarter]

Big thank you to @Devonviolet and her DH. They brought over their disbudding iron and kid box for my use and I got all 9 kids taken care of. Did the disbudding on my back deck. So much faster when you can bring up 3 kids at a time and then swap them out in the box one after another. Saves 2/3rds of the trips back and forth. Also made the kids much more comfortable afterwards as they were held (before and) after being done. The DV contingent was able to get their "kid fix" to hold them over until Falina has hers.

Nothing like the smell of burning hair, flesh, and bone in the afternoon. My stache clippers ran out of battery pwr about 1/2 way through clipping horn hair on the last goat. Dot's boys are some really handsome animals... big, strong, really nice conformation. I'm pretty sure they'd make very good herd sires. RJ comes from strong milk lines and Dot has proven to be an excellent milker. The other three boys are wether or dinner candidates. I might keep one with silver frosted 2 tone hair as a wether and replace the idiot wether I have right now. The more I think about it, the more certain I become that this is the future.

So in payment for their loan of equipment and time, I provided a nice grilled rib eye steak dinner, some dug up plants to take home, and ~3 gallons of fresh goat milk so DV can make some fresh cheese. I have room on the top shelf of my refer again

We have come up with a couple of names... The belted doeling is DS; short for double stuffed (oreo). The beautiful colored doeling from April is now Champ, short for champagne. I absolutely adore her color shadings. She is so beautiful. So 2 more doelings (at present) to be named. One is completely black... No white at all that I can recall. The other is black with white face stripes along her muzzle on either side like RJ and Bang have and other white patches on her body. She's really pretty as well. DV got a really nice face pic of her in the disbudding box.

I had been attempting to mow the pasture before they got here and of course everything is so wet that the deck got completely clogged. I had just finished cleaning all the crap out when they got here. After they left I went back to mowing. While cleaning it out I noticed the blades are about worn out (again) so I'll be buying replacement blades and changing them out again. This will be the 4th set of blades (3rd replacement) since the tractor was new last spring.

 

[Alaskan]

This will be the 4th set of blades (3rd replacement) since the tractor was new last spring.

is that standard? Just what are you cutting?

 

[Devonviolet]

The DV contingent was able to get their "kid fix" to hold them over until Falina has hers.

Oh my, YES!!! DH and I enjoyed holding those little guys so much! They were so calm in our laps, which is a testament to the time LS spent cuddling them, when they were first born.

Dot's boys are some really handsome animals... big, strong, really nice conformation.

All of LS's kids are darling and sweet as sugar. But, he is so right! These two boys are absolutely gorgeous!!! They will definitely make a couple of awesome herd sires!!!

DV got a really nice face pic of her in the disbudding box.

Yes, she is a pretty girl! Here is that pic:

As always, we had a great time at Latestarter's. DH and I are impressed with all that LS did throughout the births, of all those kids, and how he is managing them now.

His fencing project is going well. He has H-posts and T–posts in place and one long stretch of 4x4" wove wire fencing stretched, and it all looks professionally done.

Dinner was delish! LS pulled three nice size Ribeye steaks out of the freezer, and we stopped at the Church's Fried chicken place to pick up some coleslaw and beans. It turned out they didn't have beans, so we got Fried Okra. The coleslaw was good, but note to self . . . Nix the okra next time. It smelled so good, when we first got it, DH and I sampled it in the truck, on the way to LS's place. By the time we ate, it had cooled off and while the flavor was good, it was a bit soft and "rubbery". Don't think we will do that again.

I have a problem with food lodging itself in my esophagus every once in a while. This has been going on for the past 15 years. It can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 18 hours for it to go down. In the meantime, I can't get water or even my own saliva down. As much as I love LS's medium rare grilled Ribey steak, I am now 2 for 2 on not being able to finish my meal, at his house. It happened again yesterday. AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!! I know LS felt really bad! But, really it wasn't his fault. He said, from now on he's grilling chicken when we go to his place for dinner!!! DH suggested it should be in the form of Gerber's Jr. baby food chicken!

After we got home, I remembered something I tried the last time it happened, and tried it again last night. It worked! Magnesium has a relaxing effect on muscles. I had some, in liquid form (Milk of Magnesia [MOM]). So, I took a swig when I got home. It took a while, for it to work, but in about 20 minutes, I felt the lump, of lodged meat, go down, and I was finally able to swallow some water. I told DH I'm going to find a small bottle, so I can put some MOM in my purse, for future problems.

LS did such a great job, disbudding his kids, and it didn't bother him the way it bothers me. So, I asked him if he would disbud Falina's kids, and he said he was more than happy to do that. So, when our kids buds start popping up, I will invite him over for dinner (NOT STEAK! ) and he can disbud our kids for us. I'm thinking Roast Leg of Goat, gravy (to help the meat slide down), Armenian Rice Pilaf (an olde family recipe) and homemade flaky biscuits will be on the menu.

And as always, we really enjoyed spending time with LS's humongous dog, Mel. He is such a sweetheart! His big head comes up to my waist when he stands next to me! Whenever we first get there, for a visit, he gets up on the fence, so we can love on him. LS said we are the only ones he does that for. So, it seems he loves us as much as we love him! He just loves it when I poke my fingers through his thick fur, so I can scritch and massage his neck and back!

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Sounds like an awesome visit! I think that girl that everyone goes on and on about should be named Beauty! I think she’s quite stunning!

@Devonviolet the nurse in me couldn’t help but ponder your swelling issues. DH’s Dad has a similar problem with anything “heavy.” He has his esophagus “stretched” by a GI doc when he starts flaring up again. It’s been about two years and he’s due! Just a thought.

 

[greybeard]

is that standard? Just what are you cutting?

I haven't seen it but I suspect Bahia grass as well as anything else that may be in there, either growing or brought in by water. Bahia is very hard on mower blades. I go thru several sets/year on my lawn tractor and have tried about every kind of blade made. Back in my early 'low stocking rate' days, when I was mowing my pastures, my 5' bush hog behind a 45hp tractor could get bogged down in Bahia a lot easier than when mowing heavy brush. And of course, if he has sandy soil, the sand particles wear blades down very quickly too.

Almost all of Joe's mowing problems will go away with the introduction of some good 4 legged mowing machines. I haven't hooked onto my big mower in nearly 5 years now.