rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

Brought home my second hand picked lamancha buckling. Apparently he's been busy servicing his breeders' herd without permission since she left him in until 5 months and now that he's gone she's going to lute everyone. Not sure if I'll use him without growing some more or not. Done with bucks for a few years. Then on the way home stopped for DH to get a dryer vent cover to prevent swamp flies from just walking into our house and he fixed it.

Rosasharn WS Sir Patrick is in the breeding pen with Mustang Meadows H Avalon, Bluebird Pond Erudite, Woodland Haven Ava's Sugar, and at the last second Buttercup, aka one of the does waiting on the breeder to register her. Buttercup and Eri are throwing themselves all over him but he just wants the buck pen buddies back. Poor Patty never really goes very rutty or pushy, so I'm thinking I'll need to just wait this one out and give him extra time to get his work done. Bros before does, appears is his motto. All the dwarf bucks are thick in their ever ruts and everyone including Patrick stinks. The does love it and have been spending time harassing him. Patrick has been calling for me to release him and his buddies to come over all day instead of giving them any mind. Poor Patty.

 

[rachels.haven]

Down to the two female guinea pigs. No more baby pigger for my kids. I kind of hate the boars. No personality except for their "job".
I keep waiting for this "tropical storm" but so far all that's happened is that it's overcast and extremely humid. The weather forecast keeps reducing the predicted amount of rain we should be getting. Hmm, looks like I may have cleaned the yard for no reason.
Humidity got so oppressive I've started making a pitcher of only lightly sweetened horchata for "breakfast". Just enough calories to maybe count as a meal if you drink about a quart, and lots of hydration...not enough to send you inside for the restroom, but enough to keep you from feeling sick after an hour or so sweating your clothes out. I've got to learn a new drink for this. There are sure plenty of hydration drinks out there.

So today I redosed everyone with a large dose of herbal wormer because I'd let it go during the coccidia treatment. Now I smell like garlic and wormwood and now rutting bucks. DH says he can smell me coming. About to hit the shower.

Lace's wether left me a new poopy splatter on the barn wall this morning. Well, it looks like he's still got coccidia (or maybe he over indulged in milk, please?). Butcher date is September 4th. Good grief. He's cute, and sweeter than mom, but I need him out of here and maybe Lace too as soon as her big scurs fall off. One is almost off. The other probably needs more pressure from a second band. Then I may re-evaluate her. She tends to be such a nasty goat...unless she doesn't want to, but good luck predicting her mood today (today I imagine her scurs hurt, and she's decided it's my fault and she's angry and refused to come in for grain or let me close to her, but being hit by her scurs ALSO hurts, so no sympathy there). I'm glad her babies appear to be sweet and friendly with fairly little interaction. That's one argument for keeping her until she kids next year, hoping for a doe. The other is that she appears to be a heavy milker with a very well attached perfect looking udder. Kids with constant coccidia and a dam with a bad attitude are major strikes against her. Also, her udder texture is that of a rubber ball and when I milk her, her nice long teats squeak, as weird as that sounds. It literally feels like I am milking a kids inflatable walmart ball. I can't tell you how weird that is. (also, I should say that she did not get wormed today, because she's busy being feral at the moment).

I put up a breeding pen with Patrick, Ava, Eri, Sugar, and Cocoa/buttercup/whatever the kids are calling her on Saturday and they are finally quieting down. Nobody likes changing pens, even Patrick with all his new girls. Bros before does, I guess. I'm hoping to have kids when it's cold and that will help us avoid so much coccidia. I may also separate and bottle feed. This coccidia thing has been a pain.

Next breeding pen will be Durango, Lavender, Ginger, and Chip. I'm thinking the first week of September, since we have a barn and good heat lamps now.

Then the lamanchas as soon as they start cycling. I think I'll try to use Atlas on everyone and get some Lucky*Stars influence kids since my other new guy (named Max) is grandson to the infamous Barnowl Count Dracula as opposed to the son, like my count that I sold was. I'm hoping to get the perks of that line without the ugly moose look and difficult to birth kids. My plan is to grow Max out a little more before giving him girls, and make sure he's not big and clunky, and that he is refined enough. He's got nice width in the rear, which is nice to see in a dairy goat. He's also got a dash of lucky*stars in his pedigree, so using him on the other buck's kids should bring out some nice traits assuming the Count Dracula influence doesn't dominate all. Splendid udders and high production and technically correct builds, but not goats I love to look at. Clunky and too tall. Lamanchas should be smaller and deep and round, and if they're tall, refined looking not moose-like. No milking moose.

Anyway, I guess I'd better open the barn for the dog. It's getting darker and darker and it's only noon. Then I need that shower. Everyone's avoiding me for some reason...Nobody loves me after hugging the bucks (and forcing herbal wormer smoothie down their throats).

 

[rachels.haven]

Oddly enough, while I'm not getting any love, nobody's asking me to do mom stuff for them at the moment either. Maybe smelling like buck is the secret to not being nagged into the ground by children. I even got a load of dishes in.

 

[Bruce]

I keep waiting for this "tropical storm" but so far all that's happened is that it's overcast and extremely humid. The weather forecast keeps reducing the predicted amount of rain we should be getting. Hmm, looks like I may have cleaned the yard for no reason.

Yep, it shifted west and is heading directly for us. But still only expecting 2+ inches total. Predicted winds overnight went from teens to mid 20s with gusts in the 30's from 8-10 PM then 51 at midnight then back off. It is going to clock from east (we NEVER get east winds) now until 10 PM to north at 11 then WSW at midnight.

 

[rachels.haven]

Good luck @Bruce . Luck might be what it all comes down to weather wise with this storm. Apparently south of here it's very windy so we're missing the boat somehow? The wind was gusty high up here, but not low enough for trees so no concerns yet. It's just starting to really rain now.

 

[Bruce]

We've made one "storm planning" change. Moved Sister-in-law's tent off the back deck and into the tractor's place in the barn. After all there is no tractor in there right now

And no, she isn't going to try to sleep on a really uneven and rocky surface. The move was just to make sure the wind didn't damage it. She will sleep in the spare room upstairs in the house.

 

[rachels.haven]

Survived the wind storm. Will go survey tree damage later. Got an hour or two of rain, then sun, then overcast and suddenly heavy wind into the night.

Hope you did okay, @Bruce.

 

[Baymule]

Hope no trees fell on your fence.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Hope you made it through OK.

 

[rachels.haven]

Nope, no trees on the fence. One of my "watch" trees nearby the fence dropped a huge bough, but other than that and lots of little branches down the barn yard didn't change much.