The Farrier came this evening

and the big boys got shoes.  John the Mule tried to escape when I went into the house while we were waiting.  He *thought* that I was going to load them up and go somewhere.  Silly old man.  Wormy asked if I wanted to sell John because he’s got a fellow up in the Carolinas wanting a good mule.  Of course I told him no, then I told him that if John WERE for sale, the guy couldn’t afford him.

Buck has some goopy stuff coming out of his left eye, I’ve got to hunt up some ointment for that.  I’ll probably teach Casey how to treat him and let her handle it since she’s still feeding every day.  I’ve got to hand it to her, she has been faithful about taking care of him!  I think it’s good for her to have something to be responsible for.

The goat herd is doing good, we now have 7 babies, 4 boys and 3 girls.  I’ve already picked out one of the girls to keep.  LOL  I sold 3 of the 4 meat goats left to a hispanic lady for the Christmas holiday.  She’ll pick them up on the 22nd or 23rd.  That will put me down to just one buck left that I’m selling from the last round of babies.    We’ve come full circle, lol.    I’m expecting 4 or 5 other nannies to kid within the next month or so, fun in the cold.

Saw something really strange flying over when I was out filling water troughs a little bit ago…

It flew right over my house – VERY noisy.  By the time I quit gaping and got out the phone, it was almost out of shooting range.  I *think* it was a plane refueling another, but I’m not sure.   I’ll have to show it to Jim and see what he says.

 

Wow what a weekend….

Saturday morning, I loaded Dusty and went to ride in the Relay for Life Benefit trail ride sponsored by the Cowboy Church of Marshall County. I *almost* left without a camera, but decided to try out a new harness that I bought from Amazon.com.
The general idea is good, but being of the female persuasion, I had a bit of difficulty with fitting this contraption around my anatomy. When I loosened it up, I struggled to keep it in place. So back to the drawing board.

Anyway, I wasn’t feeling my best. The blood pressure is all over the place again. I did manage to get some pretty good shots.

It was a beautiful day for riding, and I got to see lots of folks who I haven’t seen in a while.

When I got home, I took a long nap and felt a bit better when the pressure finally went back down.

I put Buck in a different pasture with Dusty, John, Wiley and the heifers. He wasn’t happy about being in a different pasture and kept testing the fence until he got shocked HARD. This blew his mind and he raced around like a maniac for a solid hour and a half until I finally decided he wouldn’t calm down until I let him go to his “safe spot” in the other pasture. After opening the gate and letting him go there, he instantly stopped the running and was happy again. Crazy old man! I don’t know what it is about that place in the pasture, it’s like his safety zone.

Sunday morning, Chris and I decided to de-worm and trim the goats. Amanda and her Chris came to help. This is usually a mini rodeo because 1. most of my goats are ok with ME touching them, but are very suspicious of anyone else 2. they object quite violently to any type of medication and 3. we were trimming feet too which normally involves being laid down. BUT, Over the winter, my Chris built a ‘milking stand’ similar to this:

This cut the physical human labor and stress on the goats down by at least half. What normally takes us several hours just took two hours. Of course part of the speed may have been the two guys wanting to get done so they could go to the river. LOL

After they left, Amanda and I decided we would go riding. She rode John the Mule and I rode Buck on his first REAL trail ride. He was a firecracker when I first climbed on, that old man likes to GO. His walk amazes me – it almost feels like I’m up on a gaited horse or a giraffe – I can’t decide which. So far he doesn’t seem to be bothered by much on the trail, other than my dogs. He hates them, evidently he decided sometime within the last few days that they are the spawn of satan. Anyway, it was a nice ride of about 2 hours I guess. I never thought I would have another animal who could out walk John the Mule, but Buck does. I’m not sure that Chris will ever be able to handle him, because when you first climb on, it’s Katie bar the door. I guess that time will tell with more riding and work, he may settle down a bit.

I gathered up the 4 bull calves and a couple of cows that I’m hoping to send to the auction today. Hopefully the storms that we’re expecting will hold off until we can get them sent off.

That’s about it for now.

Thanks for reading!

Really Busy Weekend here…..

We attended my nephew Brandon’s basketball game Friday night. Brandon is a senior and this was a playoff game – lose and you’re out. It was a hard fought contest, but thankfully they won. Go Sardis Lions! This is the high school where I spent most of my teen years – 7th thru 10th grades, so it has a special place in my heart.
My two nieces Amber and Lindsey were there with their children – Lylah, Keri and Brody. I’m always so happy to see them – I say they’re my grandchildren by proxy – or my ‘pretend’ grand babies.
Brody

Keri and Lylah

Saturday Chris and I spent working in the barn. We finished putting up boards around the stall walls – keeps the horses off the tin. Finished screwing down all the boards around the stalls, ran electric wires to a new outlet plug and a new overhead light in the stalls. Then we put up more wood around the goat pen inside the barn so the babies can’t climb out inside. We finished up the day by running a wire from the charger in the barn outside to the two ‘hot’ wires around the goat pen. Then spent the next half hour cracking up at the babies getting shocked. Yeah we’re a little bit mean like that! lol It’s for their own protection though. I saw a coyote in our cow pasture Friday evening, and we’re hearing them again in the woods.

Ended the day chasing Dusty down the road. Chris had left the main gate open and he escaped along with John the Mule and Wiley the Donkey. The dogs gave chase and the race was on. Luckily he only went next door, but boy oh boy was I MAD!!!! I said a few words best left edited out for moral purposes, but suffice it to say it wasn’t pretty. Dusty got a good scolding, then since he wanted to run so bad, he got some exercise behind the 4 wheeler for about 15 minutes. He never even broke a sweat although I was jogging him pretty fast. Put him in the barn for the night beside Buck who was NOT happy to have company. – that’s another post I suppose – Buck can’t stand him.

Today I spent doing a little house cleaning, playing with the camera, and mostly just soaking up the sun and warmth. It’s absolutely amazing what a little sunshine does for my outlook on life. Enjoyed watching the animals play and lay around in the sun. Couldn’t blame them at all for laying out in the yard napping – looked like a pretty good idea to me!

Watched Turbo stalk and attempt to capture birds at the feeder – notice that I said attempt. He never got within 10 feet of them. But it was fun to watch him ‘chatter’ at them like he was trying to hypnotize them into letting him get close!

He soon tired of that and started practicing his Jedi skills with his toy mouse….

And Buck is still doing good.

And totally unrelated to anything above – here’s a Sweet Gum ball….

Don’t know why I find these things so fascinating, but the shape/structure always appeals to something in me.
Have a great week everybody! The weather here is forecast to be fantastic!

LOTS more photos in my Flickr account :

My Flickr Photostream

The Funny Farm should be our name

Almost every day brings laughter around here. These animals never fail to cheer me up, and sometimes they’re downright hilarious (as you saw in yesterday’s blog!). Today did not disappoint, watch the goat video and you’ll see what I mean….

I’ve gotta start taking a good camera to the barn with me to capture this stuff.

Another event of note happened today – it was Possum Day! I understand that most of the country calls it Groundhog Day, and believes in Puxhatawney (or however the heck you spell it) Phil. I’m here to tell you that a groundhog doesn’t know anything about predicting the weather around here – ‘specially seeing as how he’s several hundred miles away. Our local country radio station has been using Sand Mountain Sam as our weather predictor for the last few years. This was a big event, they even crowned a Possum Queen! This year, Sam got the royal treatment at Red Barn Animal Hospital before his big day at the radio station. As hoped, he did NOT see a shadow and it is decreed that we shall have an early spring.
Here’s Sam with his Queen :

Sam I’m holding you to your prediction! If you lied, I’ll have somebody hunt you down!

Buck – 2 week progress report

I am quite pleased at his progress so far. We still have a LONG way to go, but being able to see some difference in both his physical and mental shape are encouraging. I shot a short video this afternoon out in the round pen. Notice the tail wringing? He only does it when Wiley is around. Evidently he hates donkeys! lol Please excuse the frog voice – I am still battling this respiratory thing.

Chris and I got out of the house today too. I have been just about to go stir crazy. We drove up to Guntersville State park and over to High Falls. I shot a few photos of deer (we only saw 6 which was unusual), and of course other stuff that we saw along the way. There are a few photos of the horses and goats on there too.

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Snow Day!!

The great Blizzard of 2011 struck last night and left the entire upper half of Alabama pretty much paralyzed. All roads are either closed or said to be impassable, and even the Governor is asking folks to just stay home. Handyman (my pet name for hubby) and I went out to feed this morning at 6 am and found that it is still dropping freezing rain on top of 7 1/2 inches of snow at our farm. This is the most snow we’ve seen here and we’ve lived on this farm for going on 15 years. The only other snow I remember in my lifetime being deeper was the snow in 1993 – we had over a foot that time.
Anyway, I did take the camera out and get a few shots – hope you enjoy them, cause I ’bout froze my toes off getting them!

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Haven’t ventured out beyond the barn yet, it’s awfully cold out and since I’m just now starting to get better, I don’t want to risk a relapse. Maybe later if the sun comes out I’ll put my Carhart insulated overalls on and take the 4 wheeler for a spin.

And everyone was nestled…..

all snug in their beds…..

Some of the 30 baby goats all warm and toasty in their ‘kid box’.
The weather forecast for tonight is anywhere from 3 to 10 inches of snow, ice and freezing rain. Unusual and unwelcome weather for NE Alabama, I can assure you. The horses, mule, donkey and goats are all in the barn – horses tucked in with blankets and everyone got big piles of hay. It started sleeting here just a little while ago. Bummer.
But I’m here on the couch with an old warm quilt, fireplace burning bright and a laptop to keep me occupied. I have tons of photos that need edited that were taken when I was without a laptop. I can’t complain.

The following video is for those of you who think all Pit Bull dogs are vicious – this is Lucky my 20 month old girl with a confused baby goat….

And here’s a sweep of this afternoon – gives you an idea of what I’m dealing with….

Buck is doing well. I’m very pleased that his appetite is picking up, and tonight when I put John the Mule into the stall next to him, he actually snapped at John! lol Dis here MY feed you long eared critter you!

Hopefully I’ll have some pretty snow photos in the next couple of days to share. All my camera batteries are on charge and I’m ready.