Busy, Busy, Busy....

We have had so much going on around here, that I haven't been able to keep this blog up to date. It is going to take me a few hours on a quiet night to get all that has happened posted. Just keep checking back, hopefully I'll get it done soon. We are busy with baseball season, we have weaned our kid goats, working on cleaning fence rows to run electric fence, getting ready to add on to Shane's grandparent's old house for us to move into, and the list goes on and on...I did manage to get some photos the day of weaning. We knew that our scores wouldn't be as good as they were last year. We had an unusually rough winter. What we had read about kikos years ago, were that they can thrive under less than ideal conditions; this winter put that to the test. We had no forage available, the rye grass or clover didn't really show up until just recently. We had more freezing weather than we have ever had for winter as well as a lot of rain/sleet/snow. I am curious as to how many inches of precipitation we received this past fall/winter season. Anyway, I will be back again to post more pictures and news hopefully later this week.

Signs of spring!!

Signs of spring are everywhere!! Finally a shade of green instead of brown! Now if we could just tolerate this pollen. Everyone is walking around sneezing and with watery eyes and noses.

This is a picture of our pond. The nasty yellow stuff is pollen that has managed to land in the pond out of the air. Everything around here is dusted with a light yellow powder.

A yellow jacket "hurted" worse....

" A yellow jacket 'hurted' worse." Those are the exact words of our little girl Mallory when she got her hands on this weed. She said that those plants stung her hands, and she wasn't fibbing. I went out the other day to take some photos on a beautiful sunny day of the goats in the pasture. I decided to sit down on the ground to let them get used to me being out there. I looked to make sure there weren't any pellets where I was to sit. No sooner than I sit down, I jump up and I was on fire. I couldn't believe those darn fire ants had time to get under my clothes to bite; but there were no ants. I looked closer to find a weed that I all too well remember from last year. It brushed against my legs last year and it felt like acid had been in contact with my skin. (tip: don't wear shorts or flip flops in the pasture, there are all kinds of suprises waiting out there. It makes sense why cowboys/farmers wear boots, long sleeves, hats, pants, chaps, etc. I have learned my lessons the hard way!) OK...... so back to sitting on the weed; I had athletic pants on and somehow it penetrated and irritated my skin. The weed is a little prickly, but not sharp. Most everyone that has come in contact with it here, get whelps and turn red in the area with a lot of stinging too. If anyone knows what this weed is called, I would really like to know. I pulled it up with this clip that is holding it in the picture, while being careful not to let it touch my skin. Please let me know if you know what it's called. You can just leave a comment....

Slim Pickins

Our goats don't have much choice of food around here, so some have resorted to climbing trees for a meal. This goat stays in this tree almost daily eating the limbs. Amazing to me how hard she works for her meals.

I just happened to have my camera when Kimba decided he couldn't wait for me to feed him his dog food. We keep it stored under an old hog barn in a garbage can as you can see, and he got the lid off to eat. That can became a real issue during the icy wet weather we had due to the goats being allowed under the old barn. We had a couple that figured out there was dog food under that lid and were able to get it off. Whoever said goats weren't smart, has no idea. They're quite intelligent, just very hard-headed and stubborn. It's not that they don't have sense somtimes, they are just like kids and want to do some things their way just to be defiant.

Sinbad's healing

This is and updated photo of Sinbad's wounds. The one on his neck is completely healed and the others are coming along real well. I think he is going to turn out to be a great LGD. He has bonded with Rooster and Pistol Pete. If you see the 2 bucks out in the field, Sinbad is right there with them....