Queen Mum's Dancing in the Rain

[Queen Mum]

No, I don't want chaos. I'm just a magnet for it. Honest. I try to avoid it. I run from chaos. I seek peace and tranquility. But my karma attracts chaos. I did something in a former life, I think that earned me this life. Sigh. Maybe I should become a budhist nun. Nah, they would probably ask me to leave or send me to the farthest mountains in Tibet to do avalanche control. You know my chaos would precipitate avalanches till there were none left to fall.

And there I would learn the art of zen.

 

[Queen Mum]

chaotic end to a long and busy day. It started with a doe in heat running like mad from Ian, the rutting buckling who won't give up. Then he got his leg caught in something and nearly broke it. We separated her from the herd for the day. Tomorrow, we HAVE to build a buck enclosure. We can't have 4 bucks running around loose with a bunch of does. It's just too much of a madhouse when one of them goes into heat.

Next we went on a long trip to go to the "big city". (That was kind of fun.) I love field trips.

When we got back, we had a breeding session with Ian and hopefully, he got the job done.

House keeping ensued.

But at the end of the day, there was a poor little goat in the field screaming and vomiting her little heart out. (I think she ate some bad hay.) I hope she is OK, but now I have icky goat vomit all over me and I had to drench her vigorously. Poor baby has a very bad tummy ache. We shall have to keep a close eye on her. Of course, we had to root out all the bad hay.

Time for me to go to bed.

 

[Queen Mum]

Phew! Whitney looks much better this morning! I'm used to goats eating Rhodies and azaleas. Rhodies will kill a baby but they are NOT the poison that most people think they are. They will make a goat very sick but unless the goat eats the whole bush, they just make them really, really sick. I was MORE worried that Whitney ate the moldy hay that we found in the barn. THAT would have been very bad. I feel much better that she is better this morning and not walking in circles.



Ian and Brownie's mama, Caramel used to regularly poison herself eating my landlords 100 odd rhodies. So the routine of pepto and probios is old hand to me. 24 hours of vomiting and drenching is like a knee jerk reflex. But poor little Whitney took it badly. She looked SO miserable. But she is nibbling and out this morning. Now the worry is that her rumen gets back on track. She still needs some loving care. And her rumen is going to be sensitive for a while.


We are building a buck pen for the boys. I need to get out and build a couple hay feeders as well. Ian is being a boy and chasing all the girls everywhere. He needs to calm down. Bucks can be such ... Bucks!

ERGGH! I love my bucks. I love my bucks. I love my bucks.

 

[Queen Mum]

I built a milkstand today. Another milkstand. This will be milkstand number 4. Each one is customized (aka built out of scrap and miscellaneous materials, so has to be "adjusted" to the materials at hand). Each time I build a milkstand, I seem to have to leave it behind. BUT I am getting better at it.

I think this one will work pretty well. Autumnprairie should get plenty of use out of it. It is nice and sturdy. NOT too wide. It is long enough to sit on the end and milk from behind. IT is high enough for trimming hooves. The stanchion will hold little goats and big ones. It has a nice sturdy deck on it. I am thinking of putting a rubber mat on it so it will be easy to clean and will not be slippery.

I still have to put a feed box holder on it.

We have two new goats in the paddock. They are very cute. Two little Dwarf Nigerians. The buck reminds me of Houdini. BUT I love Houdini best. Annie, is so cute though all pregnant and round. (Shhhh, don't tell Jelly Bean. She will be jealous.) Jelly Bean is a lovely girl. YES SHE IS. But Annie has a nice grey and silver coat. And Jelly Bean is OLDER.

The girls all had to tell Annie that she is new and "put her in her place." Annie was unhappy about joining the group at first, but I think she found her spot. They are all kind of a motley crew. Big goats, little goats and medium goats. Boers, Alpines, mini-La Manchas, Dwarf Nigerians and Heinza's. What a crowd. And lots of babies on the way.

I shall have to take pictures.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

I shall have to take pictures.

Yes - of the new additions and the milkstand!

 

[autumnprairie]

I built a milkstand today. Another milkstand. This will be milkstand number 4. Each one is customized (aka built out of scrap and miscellaneous materials, so has to be "adjusted" to the materials at hand). Each time I build a milkstand, I seem to have to leave it behind. BUT I am getting better at it.

I think this one will work pretty well. Autumnprairie should get plenty of use out of it. It is nice and sturdy. NOT too wide. It is long enough to sit on the end and milk from behind. IT is high enough for trimming hooves. The stanchion will hold little goats and big ones. It has a nice sturdy deck on it. I am thinking of putting a rubber mat on it so it will be easy to clean and will not be slippery.

I still have to put a feed box holder on it.

We have two new goats in the paddock. They are very cute. Two little Dwarf Nigerians. The buck reminds me of Houdini. BUT I love Houdini best. Annie, is so cute though all pregnant and round. (Shhhh, don't tell Jelly Bean. She will be jealous.) Jelly Bean is a lovely girl. YES SHE IS. But Annie has a nice grey and silver coat. And Jelly Bean is OLDER.

The girls all had to tell Annie that she is new and "put her in her place." Annie was unhappy about joining the group at first, but I think she found her spot. They are all kind of a motley crew. Big goats, little goats and medium goats. Boers, Alpines, mini-La Manchas, Dwarf Nigerians and Heinza's. What a crowd. And lots of babies on the way.

I shall have to take pictures.

The funniest part about the whole thing is My Brownie and her daughter Bambi were getting kisses from Annie, she was glad to be back you see Annie and Jack and Billy were my first goats and I sold them but I just bought them back.
I can not see them going to another home so I have them back. The best thing about them leaving is BJ is now top buck instead of the bottom goat even after todays sparring.
I am happy about that so next year he will get to breed Brownie and Bambi and I will have 100% boer.

 

[autumnprairie]

I shall have to take pictures.

Yes - of the new additions and the milkstand!

that will be an all day project, pictures.
THank you for the milk stand it is awesome.
now i need milkimg pails of my own

 

[Queen Mum]

The funniest part about the whole thing is My Brownie and her daughter Bambi were getting kisses from Annie, she was glad to be back you see Annie and Jack and Billy were my first goats and I sold them but I just bought them back.
I can not see them going to another home so I have them back. The best thing about them leaving is BJ is now top buck instead of the bottom goat even after todays sparring.
I am happy about that so next year he will get to breed Brownie and Bambi and I will have 100% boer.

BJ has been a very busy boy today! He has been sparring all day. All the boys have been sparring and trying to find out is the "Top buck". It's almost comical watching them. They don't really hurt each other, but they do get kind of silly: snagging each other's collars; bashing heads; chasing each other around; hollering like they are DYING! Then, next thng you know they are all laying around snoozing. BJ is pretty tough. He beat down Houdini AND Ian when they first got here. HE WAS relentless. Now he's working on Jack. But it never gets really serious. No blood has been spilled and if they get tired they just stop. Silly boys, they'd rather eat and are easily distracted by food.

I did discover that Trump Card doesn't like to fight. He won't start a fight and would sooner back down, but if pushed into a fight he gets ANGRY and really fights back, hard! It's almost like he's saying, "Leave me alone, darn it or I will kick your butt." The boys back away from him pretty quickly and then he turns and walks away. He is the tallest of the 5 boys in the pen.

 

[Queen Mum]

The race is on for NORMALCY to begin. That's it, I want a NORMAL LIFE! You all know what I mean, right? A place to live. One address for more than a year. A place where my goats think we are going to live and not have to run down the road again because the landlord's house has been foreclosed. A bathroom with running water and a shower. A kitchen that is more than 3 feet wide and has a refrigerator and a working stove. A bedroom with a bed in it. People next door who I don't have to worry are going to come over drunk with a gun and shoot me or wake me up in the middle of the night threatening to throw me out and make me sleep in my truck. Yep, that would be real nice for a change.

It is very hard to work for other people and depend on them for your livelyhood and your housing. You take potluck and you depend on their grace and goodwill. You have to adjust to their rules and their way of doing things even when it isn't right or safe or healthy and you have to put up with a lot of odd personalities. You meet a lot of kind people along the way, but you also meet a LOT of drunks, drug addicts, controlling people and just plain lunatics as well and the last three places I have been have been with some real fruitloops. I need normalcy.

 

[autumnprairie]

The race is on for NORMALCY to begin. That's it, I want a NORMAL LIFE! You all know what I mean, right? A place to live. One address for more than a year. A place where my goats think we are going to live and not have to run down the road again because the landlord's house has been foreclosed. A bathroom with running water and a shower. A kitchen that is more than 3 feet wide and has a refrigerator and a working stove. A bedroom with a bed in it. People next door who I don't have to worry are going to come over drunk with a gun and shoot me or wake me up in the middle of the night threatening to throw me out and make me sleep in my truck. Yep, that would be real nice for a change.

It is very hard to work for other people and depend on them for your livelyhood and your housing. You take potluck and you depend on their grace and goodwill. You have to adjust to their rules and their way of doing things even when it isn't right or safe or healthy and you have to put up with a lot of odd personalities. You meet a lot of kind people along the way, but you also meet a LOT of drunks, drug addicts, controlling people and just plain lunatics as well and the last three places I have been have been with some real fruitloops. I need normalcy.

am I normal?