Friday, October 26, 2012

Security Breach


I have spent a good deal of time thinking about my breeding schedule. I have been planning kidding dates to correspond with shows and the fair. Cora Belle is still on milk test so I planned for a very late breeding so that she would produce for the full 305 days required. I have thought a lot about who I would breed to whom. I have decided not to breed all the does like I did last year. Maybe just Cora Belle, Wedding Belles, and Hazelnut.

Can you tell where this is going?

Tonight when I went down to put all the does away the herd ran to me as they always do but with two additions, Lucky and Pepe.
Apparently in my haste to get the buck pen up after Keith's accident I forgot to attach one of the livestock panels to the T-post.
I then spent the next ten minutes wrangling the two bucks away from the girls. By now the girls had had enough of those stinky boys...especially Pepe.
When I got home, Keith asked, like he always does, how things were at the farm. I burst into tears and told him about the mess I had walked into.
He wrinkled up his nose and said, "I'd throw those clothes directly into the wash. You smell like a buck."

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Go Ask Alice

Sometimes when I'm stressed and overwhelmed I make a desicion I regret. So this last spring when I had babies and milk coming out my ears I decided to let Alice go live with a very nice family that had bought Alice's boys. When they put her in the back of their car the last thing I saw was her staring out the window with a panicked look on her face. That look was seared into my brain.
Over the summer I received glowing reports on her and followed their love for her and her milk on Facebook. I still felt that pang of regret whenever I thought of her or saw her picture.
When the nice family took her home I made them promise that she would not end up on Craigslist but be returned to me if their situation changed.
This weekend their situation changed and I was pleased to get a message that they were going to bring Alice back. They had to relocate after retiring from the Navy and couldn't take a goat with them. Alice was coming home.
Sunday they pulled into the farm and opened the back of the car and there was Alice. She jumped out,  sniffed the air, and took a look around. I was happy to see her. She was healthy and happy. They had taken excellent care of her.
Now I know I should have quarantined her but instead I put her back in with Buttons and Boots (her old gang) and with only a few head bumps she settled in like she had never left but not before she chased the nice family's car down the drive saying "don't leave me"
Now they have her face seared in their brains.

Alice just has that effect on people.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

And He Walked Away

Monday morning while going downhill into a busy intersection roundabout Hubby lost his brakes. He was able to avoid hitting anything other than the very back corner of a log truck. His dump truck flipped over spilling its contents and crushing Hubby's collarbone and breaking a rib. Considering that there was no room in that smashed cab for a human body I'd say he was very lucky...as were all the cars that happened to be in the intersection that day.
With surgery on Tuesday to piece together his collarbone that is now in 5 pieces and a potential 6 month recovery, I may as well throw out my honey do list. Now I'm doing everything.
But that's ok. It could have been so much worse.