rachels.haven's Journal

[Ridgetop]

I do keep all meds inside the house, but if keeping the Today and Tomorrow tubes in the fridge will keep them longer, I will do that. I keep the injectable antibiotics in the fridge with the vaccines, Vita B, etc. I will transfer my boxes of Today and Tomorrow to the laundry room fridge too. It is a full-size fridge but I am filling it up with animal meds - I'll need a third fridge soon! LOL

BTW, I buy and use tomorrow as an antibiotic for puncture wounds in my LGDs and other animals. Excellent stuff.

That is "off label" use so I guess I should not tell anyone about using it that way. I need to start saying "In my opinion" when giving medical advice - don't want to be arrested for practicing without a license. LOL

 

[rachels.haven]

Today Shaun let me pull blood on the bucks for our pre-kidding screening (also hoof trimmed). Thank you Blues Clues. Then I packed him up and took him to the shop with a device in hand and did all but 10 of my does. He insists the device play in the background in the shop but then he left the shop to play with rocks and buckets and dirt and the cats outside, so I got to draw blood to Blues Clues. Alone with the goats. Poor goats. Lol.

The last 10 does I'm leaving because next week another goat keeper is going to come and I'm going to help her learn to draw blood for her own screening.

This was my first time using vacuutainers and double ended needles and WOW. Fast and easier. All I had to do was find the vein and plug in the tube and if I missed I could get back in without worrying about pulling on the plunger to make sure I'd found it. The tube just filled itself when I was in the vein.

And goat feets are getting back under control.
Trimming feet really helps me decide who's bucklings will be staying for growout and who will be dinner.

 

[rachels.haven]

Time to fry some drumsticks while listening to my "radio" (a isu dairy goat playlist)

 

[rachels.haven]

Crap, I forgot I was supposed to pull hair on some of the does for DNA while they were detained. That will cost me...a fair number of grain scoops.

 

[Bruce]

so I got to draw blood to Blues Clues. Alone with the goats. Poor goats. Lol.

At least it wasn't Teletubbies!

 

[rachels.haven]

At least it wasn't Teletubbies!

YESSS sir!

 

[rachels.haven]

Yesterday...I determined we had gathered what the trailer and truck needed to be hitched together and I pinned the ball into the frame the shop put on the truck and attempted to back the truck ball to the hitch with Mark spotting me. Half way through Mark lost focus or maybe couldn't see the ball for a moment due to one of his many blind spots and not seeing what he's not looking at or a combo of both and didn't have me stop in time and i backed the two objects into each other. No damage to either party or the Mark, but I decided I probably need a backup camera. I was only about an inch off, but I was done. How frustrating. I'd cleared the camper port out for the trailer too. You know, so I could fail at backing the horse trailer into it too.

Today I got 80 crabgrass bales from my grass hay guy. It's in the carport on posts and plywood. Thank you, sir.
The rest of our alfalfa hay should be coming next week. All 370 bales of it to fill the shop wing the rest of the way. The producer is a full time farmer in Ky though and he's eyeballs deep in corn and soy harvest so he may need to reschedule, and I am okay with that. He already brought us some hay and that will last until harvest is done.

It's still freakishly warm here. And we are droughting again. Oh well. I hope the water doesn't go contaminated again. Last time the water department only told us when at the latest legal time possible and by then we'd all been drinking the water for 4 months. There were some very upset pregnant women. Turns out fetuses shouldn't have pesticides/herbicides. Too bad for them. Depressing.

Today was cooler. Supposedly it's not going to break 85 for the rest of the year, lol.

Frustrations with the kids' school are occurring. Shy Dan (who refuses to get a haircut) and has amazing grades has been labeled a juvenile delinquent for being the latest kid to get his hand caught in a not to code railing by the lunchroom that kids constantly get their hands stuck in. Aiden (bold short hair), who also has amazing grades, is being evaluated for being gifted. I guess they're both in the 22% of kids in the district that tested proficient in Math and one of the 26% of kids that tested proficient in reading and language arts in the district. The middle school Aiden's going to next year has had to settle on a rape case AGAIN (also recorded and passed around student body, or it didn't happen, of course).

We are droughting so our water is probably contaminated with herbicide/pesticide and we'll find out about it in 4 months when they are legally forced to disclose it. Last time that happened there were a lot of upset pregnant women on the water utility's public page. Oh well. At least the fields down the street aren't on fire again like last year. And I've got hay and am getting more hay in. May have done my kids a disservice by moving them here. Our home is stable but the rest of our world is a mess.

I got personally invited to a local ADGA club meeting, the one that's going to help plan the national show. Mark is still sick with some respiratory funk, so oh darn, we can't go (he actually is, I should probably bring him into a doctor or at least get him a covid test because he's the only one who didn't get a booster this year and we all got a light case and this one was trying to to put him in the hospital, but he's on the up and up now). I might be looking at an MDGA buckling to grow out and evaluate someday soon for when my current three put themselves out of a job. Yay, butterfat! but can we keep the lamancha-ness?

 

[Baymule]

Get an under the counter water purifier for the kitchen. It will do a lot to clean up your drinking water.

My BJ did all the trailer hitching, pulling and backing up. I was merely the assistant. The first time I had to hitch the trailer by myself, it took over an hour. Backing it up to the chute to load sheep only took 15 minutes. It was a very frustrating experience. BJ was perfect at all things trailer, why would I mess with that? I applauded his expertise and bragged on his talent. Then he was gone.

I told of my frustration here on BYH and was sent a link to a marvelous invention I’d never heard of, but I got myself to the store to purchase it. It works! It’s fantastic and I am successful every time. I still suck at backing up the trailer, but getting better at that.

Buy this!

Magnetic Trailer Alignment Kit

Amazing deals on this Magnetic Trailer Alignment Kit at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

 

[Baymule]

On the hitch pin, if it looks like this and is held in with a clip, take it from me, the clip will someday fall out. You don’t want that to happen.

Buy a locking hitch pin, put one key on your key ring. Put the other key on a big key ring with something big enough on it to make it easy to find and put it in the truck glove box. Then it is always with the truck plus you have one on your own key ring.

Please be advised that this locking pin comes in 5/8” and half inch sizes, measure the receiver hitch hole.

 

[Ridgetop]

If the hitch support with the wheel that you crank down to load and unload the trailer on/off the hitch is an open tube you can stick a broom in it and back up to that. That is what I use when I hitch by myself. Drop the tailgate and put a piece of tape on the inside off the tailgate right where the ball is underneath. Then back up that tape to the broom handle. I have a hard time with backup cameras. They make me nervous.