Ragdollcatlady's Just a Little Patch of Weeds Farm journal

[Latestarter]

Sorry about your issues... Hope Rosie wasn't permanently damaged and recovers fully without undue trauma. Not saying anything else.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Thanks everyone.

I am sure Rosie will be fine, she is walking normal so thats good. Very unhappy about being locked up though. Like I said she roams everywhere and that was fine with me.

Promise, I agree that dogs need something to use up their energy. When we just had Beaux and Leaky, they were fine being mostly lazy house pets, but Leaky would love to run crazy around the yard for short 20 minute sprints and would try to get Beaux to join him with no luck. I was hoping Wiley would run with him and they do. Sort of. After dinner in particular, but anytime they get really excited, Wiley wants outside and Leaky likes to "bite" her rear and they run and make a rukus for awhile. Together they have a ton of energy! I think it was just energy directed wrong. They are both really good dogs. Leaky is 3 but very special needs. His little brain was lightly toasted on the super scorching day when my friend found him, lying on the side of the road in the heat. They thought he was dead, but stopped to check. Wiley is just a puppy. A smidge over a year and with poor enough manners that she was most likely not in the house at her first home. She is still not potty trained despite being quickly crate trained since she came to us. She forgets to go when outside, and we try to get her outside ALOT! And I hate to crate her anymore than she already is since she has to be most of the time I am at work. I come home to let her out at lunch and as soon as I get home.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Rosie is OK. Some scars across her nose, but she is back to being rude to my little Pearl.

Today we did BoSe on the nigerian girls, Nubian girls and Bellini and Cosmo. Had to do Cosmos hooves too. They grow insanely fast and she walks weird. I feel terrible though cause she freaks out when we have to handle her.

I am pretty sure Brie(nubian) is bred. She looks huge. I tried to breed her to Swagger, but he is a nigerian and one of last years babies at that, so we had to turn a plastic sink upside down to give him a boost. She would be due around April. Bailey (boer) is huge too. She should be due sometime between late February and the start of march if she took early. Then Rigatoni (boer) should be about 3 weeks after that if the flirty behaviors I saw meant they were bred around those times. This all over the calendar breeding is making me crazy, but we got a late start to breeding. In part because I don't want a ton of babies with flooded pens and no place to put them. In part because my assistants are all moving out and getting jobs/going to school so I am left shorthanded. Most of my goats are friendly enough I can handle and catch them myself, but a few of them are fairly timid and I have to help with those.

Pirate is supposed to get her stump amputated on tuesday. She has been having alot of pain lately so I can't wait any longer. The Dr wants to do that surgery separate from her spay, so we gotta wait on that one. That way her thigh muscles can heal and not interfere with the abdominal muscles healing. She was bad for her blood draw the other day... I couldn't even help, had to let the coworkers do it. I know she will be fine, but I am a nervous wreck about this all.

My BFFs dog was attacked by their neighbor dog breaking into their yard! Bruno is OK, small puncture would, but darn neighbor is trying to say that they are both 50% at fault. They will accept half the vet bills just so there are no fights, but their dog was in his own yard, they are not at fault. The dog that broke into their yard is at fault!

Sold all 5 of the mixed breed pullets ( I was not wanting to have to eat them) so that is good!

Our old retired 4H show bunny (fuzzy lop) that was looking a little sickly is doing better since we separated her from the younger rabbits.

Talked to the neighbor about getting some of the walnut fire wood from her orchard. She has generously told me to take all I need!

 

[ragdollcatlady]

I took this pic several weeks ago. Not sure if I shared this story before but I like it. When we were first married we didn't have alot for Christmas. I borrowed a plastic Christmas tree from my mom and we bought 3 ornaments. As a joke I hung a stuffed Kermit the frog upside down in the tree. We didn't have a star or angel for the top, so I took one of my childhood dolls, given to me from my grandparents. I used some old silk fabric and silk leaves leftover from another project and made an angel, using a toilet paper roll and duct tape to secure her to the top of the tree. She watched over us every Christmas for many years. Each year, I would long for a "real" angel, but preferred to spend what ever we could manage on gifts for the kids or husband. I never found an angel I thought was pretty enough to replace my little doll anyway. Then one year, my MIL gave us her old Christmas decorations as she no longer needed them. Included was an actual, lighted angel! But, ceramic face and all, I still didn't like her as much as my little friend and by then she was a tradition. So I took her off the tree to give her an upgrade. While I was working on her, DS was very upset that she was missing from her usual spot at the top of the tree so he made me a construction paper angel, as only a 5 year old could. It was so sweet! I hung her near the top of the tree til our other angel was finished. That paper angel still comes out every year, even though our angel has resumed her place. I took the ceramic angel apart and used the plastic lighted base and wings. I bought our angel some pretty new fabric for her dress and this is how she has been adorned for the last several years. I realized that the sentiment behind her, both as my childhood toy and our childrens Christmas angel was far more than any other angel would give us and I have no intentions of retiring her ever.

Pirates surgery was successful. She was doing fine until I would peek into surgery, then her monitors would start to alarm and her oxygen levels would drop. As soon as I walked away, the monitors would behave and her O2 levels would go back to normal! Afterwards, she was freaking out so bad from the E-collar. Once it was off though, she settled down. She will sometimes get so painful, that she runs straight at me yowling angrily and climbing right in my lap while "telling" me just how bad she feels. I give her her "drugs" and my poor little junkie is flying high about ten minutes later! LOL! I am glad we are through the worst part. She is learning how to rebalance and is back to playing and hopping around. Her buddy Wiley was soooo worried about her and had to check out her sutures. She just patted Wileys face and seemed glad to be back home with her friend. She was so bad for the blood draw a few days before that she reset the curve for judging how bad cats are behaving at work ... as in " worse than Pirate or not as bad???" Here she is helping with the laundry...

and her stump now...

 

[Latestarter]

Aside from the missing appendage and stitches, she looks good. Hope she heals up completely. Thanks for sharing the angel story.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Thanks Latestarter!

Today I drove to another city to buy my kid his market goat for 4h. Came home with a mom and 5 week old, red with dark dapples, buck kid. Kid looks nice and long, sturdy. Hope we have a champion!!! The mom is sweet, almost to being obnoxious we were told. I laughed and said 'that's just my kind of goat!' She reminds me of Ravi. She is a traditional, unregistered, seems smaller than our big boers ( have to see how she compares to them tomorrow). But hopefully since the kid is by himself, he will grow like crazy. He is the right age. I was worried that if we got a single, he would be lonely. This way he has company, hopefully mom will let him nurse for a long time, keeping the protein up for more muscle.... She has a nice udder, long teats but I don't think it is show quality. I hope he can show her in the breeding goat class. We have the option of a breeding back to a stocky young black dappled buck this summer..... but without registration on anyone.

Of course there is a goat for sale online that I want for myself....... Somebody stop me!!!!No more goats, no more goats, no more goats.... I have enough, I have enough, I have enough.... remind me to never look for goats for sale online ever again....ever, ever, ever....it is the kids fault!I think that as long as no one makes offers on Beefy or JackJack Jr, I should be fine....deep breath....

 

[goats&moregoats]

Glad your cat is doing well & congrats on the new goats.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Thanks G&MG!

It is POURING!!! I mean POURING!!! here. I usually tell folks that since we are in the bathtub of California, we never get rain, but when we do, it's like God turned on the tap....Well the tap is open! I might just float right out of the tub like a little fishy......LOL!

Rain is good. I love rainy weather , but I am a bit worried about all the flooding in the animal pens.... So far everyone still has a dry place to hunker down. The ducks are loving it all though!!!

Had to go to town to get bananas for the goats as we need to finish coppering everybody. Bummed we gotta do it in the rain...and that I forgot to order the empty gelcaps.

DS was a little concerned that his new doe is pretty small. I would guess she is in the 100+ lb range. I think the buck looked like he had some Kiko in him, his horns went out to the side like I have seen on Kikos and he seemed built more like pictures I have seen of them too. He didn't look all that large either, maybe 125-150. I think the guy was estimating high, he thought she was 150 and the buck was 175 (though he admitted he didn't have a scale and noone had ever asked him about weights before). Ravi averages somewhere between 150 and 175 so there is no way the doe is that big. But, I like that the doe is in nice condition, no runny noses on any of the goats at their property, and she is very friendly. In my opinion, she is average for a boer in the general market. The kid is nice and long. seems square on his feet. Looks a little lean, but our baby boers did for awhile too. He reminds me of a shorter, longer Beefy at that age. And if he does have Kiko, he should grow well. We plan on weighing him today so we will have a starting point.

Picked up Starbucks while in town to give us fuel for the goat chores....I am such an addict ... just smelling the coffee at the drive through window ...... Can you say Starbucks Junkie??? I think if I could never have Starbucks again, I would just go dig a whole and climb in it.

I picked up stuff for a chicken tortilla soup....it is actually lazy persons soup cause all I put in it is hominy, canned enchilada sauce, chicken or duck, and corn tortillas, then top it with cilantro and maybe lemon. Kinda like Pozole, but not. Like I said lazy. That's me. Oh and if you add cheese it is like enchilada soup! Nice! and still lazy.

 

[Latestarter]

Glad to hear you're getting rain... CA always needs it, but wish it was slower and steady rather than downpours. Hope everything works out with the new doe and buck.

Sorry... haven't been able to figure out the "attraction" to Starbucks. Only went there twice and it was more than enough for me. Way overpriced nasty tasting crap IMHO... Went the 2nd time to verify my 1st impression Absolutely not worth climbing into a hole over being without... My daughter is an addict to it as well.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Thats Ok Latestarter ... We need some folks that are immune to the addiction to save the rest of us should the world start to fall apart. I mean really... a zombie apocalypse I could handle, but if it meant no Starbucks, then we would have issues!!! I need to befriend a barista ASAP!!!!