Farm Flashback Friday to 2009

I decided to do a "Flashback Friday" post.  It was nice to go back and read the happenings of that time and know that we have come a long way in preparations for our goat's kiddings.  We now plan for the kids to arrive when the weather is much more suitable for being born out in the pasture.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a Happy New Year!

 **Flashback**


Here are the photos I promised!  It has been one crazy kidding season!  You'll have to read our December 2009 link on the website @ www.deepsouthkikos.com to get the whole story.  Many lessons learned.  Hypothermia with kids, tube feeding, overprotective guardian, etc........           

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas!

Catching up....

Boy oh boy! Have we had an exciting month! I've been behind on the news as usual, but I must say I'm spending more time enjoying everything that's going on more than thinking of my next post.....I guess it's been a little vacation :) 

Taylor, Mal, Dillon, Alex, Peyton, Noah

Our oldest Dillon is now the big "9". We had a trip to our state Farm Bureau Annual Meeting planned around his birthday, so we invited a few friends over at the last minute and had pizza along with an ice cream cake. Shane and Paw Paw got a fire going so we gathered around a bonfire and enjoyed each other's company. It was really nice! 

Dillon received many nice birthday gifts, but I must say there has been one that has brought much entertainment to us.  It is the "Dart-Tag" gun set by Nerf.   The darts have a velcro tip that will stick to the opponent's "uniform" .  There's no denying if you've been hit.  Those things really stick.  Of course you get some pretty "cool" goggles to keep your eyes protected from all of the flying darts.  You will see in the photos below, how much fun Dillon and Shane have had with these.  It is very entertaining for me.  I stay out of the firing range and just laugh at them.  My poor treadmill has finally got some use lately. ;)

Fort behind the treadmill

Some serious father and son bonding going on when this game is played. 

For our 10th anniversary, Shane planned a surprise weekend getaway for the two of us.  He knew that I had always wanted to go see Graceland, so we made the trip to Memphis.  I had no idea we were going.   It truly was the best surprise ever!!  I absolutely loved being able to see all of the Elvis artifacts.  I grew up watching old Elvis movies and videos with my Aunt Lynne.  She was so in love with Elvis, and I guess that rubbed off on me as a kid.  Such good memories! 

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Of course, they had a photo opportunity for you to have your photo taken in front of a green screen that would show up the background of Graceland in the photo.  I must say that it was rather expensive, but I didn't pack my camera, so I wanted to have some sort of photo from the trip.  It was so cold that morning and the picture was taken outside: hence our large jackets.  If you are an Elvis fan, I would recommend making the trip.  It was wonderful! 

A Day Out and About

It seems like everything happens when Shane is not home. The other day was no exception. Shane and the kids left for their ride to the parade, while I stayed behind to finish cleaning the house before I was to leave.  I jumped out of the shower and looked at the clock and realized that I didn't have a whole lot of time to get ready, if I didn't want to be late for the parade. So off I go running around the house like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything ready (including myself... of course) Not only did I have the parade to go to, but I also had to take our sweet daughter to one of her little friend's birthday party. Oh...and I planned on trying to squeeze a little Christmas shopping into the day as well......OK, so I'm back to the story at hand.....sorry....sometimes I go off in tangents ( actually a lot ;)   So as I was walked out the door to get into my car to leave, this is what I saw in my yard 

Goats....yes it is not uncommon to see goats here on the farm, but they are generally supposed to be in the pasture on the other side of the fence.  I didn't hire them, on that day, to do a little landscaping.....oh no....they decided to get out to sample the acorns and all things green on the other side.  

So there I was.....sort of dressed up.... well, by dressed up I mean: my hair was washed and dried, makeup was applied, my nice jeans ( you know the ones without all of the manure stains, holes etc.on them), my nice boots ( you know the ones without all of the stuff mentioned before on them).  I felt pretty good.....I was dressed and ready to go and would have arrived right on time. 

BUT, the goats had to be back in a safer area than in my yard and the highway.....So I proceeded to wave my arms (like a crazy lady) while running towards them to get them headed down the road in the right direction.  Those acorns must have been really good because they paid me no mind.  I ended up taking my jacket off and swinging around by one of the arms to "shoo" them in the right direction.  I swear if we had a video camera here, we could totally win some funny video contests.  This place has produced many, many, many, funny situations; even if they didn't seem so funny at the time. 

The goats did oblige me on this day to keep all of the passers-by from thinking I had lost my mind waving that jacket around swinging it like something gone mad. All I could think about was that I was not going to make it in time to the parade; but after much hooting and hollering and swinging my jacket, those goats were put back in a secured area. 

There is truly never a dull moment around here.  That is what living on a farm is all about!  Oh and by the way, I made it to the parade just in time to see my family.  You may already know that because I posted a video of them, but I just had to share my event for that day.....

Ashley

Christmas Parade 2011

This past Saturday, my family (excluding me), decided to make a ride into a little town nearby for their Christmas parade. They hauled the horses about 4 miles outside of that town and met up with some others that were going to ride with them.  This was the first long solo ride for Dillon. His horse did super, considering he had never been in a parade with all of the sirens and noises. Mallory rode behind Shane in the buddy saddle.   She says it got boring....she's ready to ride on her own..... Mom's definitely not ready.

Here's a little clip from the end of the parade.  Shane and Mallory are on the red/white paint (Sonny) and that little guy is Dillon on his horse (Shaggy).  

Shane said that Sonny did give him a little trouble.  Sonny was not happy to be there.  He finally got to see how he behaves with me; which is totally stubborn.  Shane is able to keep him in line......I'm a total pushover which isn't the best quality to have when trying to ride a horse that wants to go his own way.   

Hay Quality

We have always felt that our animals should be able to thrive on a forage based diet alone. Due to us living in south Mississippi, we are able to have forage available year round (most of the time). We have learned  (the hard way, I might add ) that just because you have plenty of forage available, it doesn't mean that your livestock will thrive. If the forage isn't nutritionally adequate, your bottom line can suffer. 

This year, Shane purchased hay from a guy a few miles from our home.  He sent off a sample of the hay to the LSU AgCenter  Forage Quality Lab. You can fill out this form here, and mail it along with your sample + $15. Louisiana and Mississippi forage and livestock producers can submit feed and forage samples for analysis to this lab.  After testing your sample, they will send you a copy of the analysis.   This is a very valuable tool to use to ensure that your livestock are getting the proper nutritional requirements. We  had a deficit of TDN% (total digestable nutrients) and CP% (crude protein) because all of our females are bred; goats and cattle. They require a higher TDN% and CP% than what is available in the hay.  Due to our results, we are experimenting with a Sweetlix protein tub to supplement along with feeding the hay. Right now, our cattle and goats are grazing stockpiled summer grasses with some clover starting to show through.  When our Ball Clover comes up enough to be grazed, we will no longer supplement with the tubs.  The forages available to them, at that time, will provide enough nutrients. 

This year Shane learned of another tool from a MSU extension agent, which is the hay calculator found here.  When you get to the Mississippi forages page, on the right side you will see the word calculator.  Click on that link. It will take you to another page.  There will be a link for the hay calculator as well as instructions on using the hay calculator on this page.  You can enter the data received from a  hay analysis, along with other data related to your operation (different types of livestock to be fed, number of head, number of bales in inventory, etc.) Once all of the data is entered, it will tell you if there is a nutrient deficit or surplus for each breed of livestock produced.  It will also calculate how many tons of hay that you will need for the feeding season.  We both looked at it and decided that I needed to share it with you.  I hope that it is easy to understand.  Sometimes I have so much information to share, that I find it hard to tie it all together into one cohesive post. 


** The http://mississippiforages.com/ website has lots of great information for those that are in this region.**   

Please Tell Me What To Do

Once again, I've gotten some mustard greens and have tried to get all of the sand off of them. I have washed and washed and washed. There has to be a better way. First I cut them from the roots. It had rained so they did have extra dirt on the leaves. I put them in a cooler full of water, like someone had told me to do. Then I took them out, rinsed and cleaned out the cooler and repeated the process a couple more times.

I brought them inside and then proceeded to rinse them in my sink.  I started thinking that there has to be a better way to do this for just one mess of greens.  So the thought occurred to me to ask all of my friends out there in cyberspace.  What do I do?  Is there an easier way to get the sand from the greens?  I haven't cooked any greens lately because of the sand issue.  Nothing worse than getting a good ole bite of savory greens only to have a grain of sand find it's way between your molars while chewing.  Uggghhh!  We'll see how these turn out.  If you have any suggestions for me......PLEASE......I'm begging.......please leave a comment below to let me know your tricks for removing the sand.  

Thanks! 

Ashley

A Work In Progress

Some of you may know that we are in the process of remodeling the house that used to be Shane's grandparents. We have been working on it for a while now....like.......almost a couple of years. We have been trying to do all  that we can by ourselves. It has been an experience, to say the least.  I wanted to give an update on how it's working out.  The home is an older block home; made out concrete blocks.  The interior walls had an old outdated paneling hung over them, that we took down.  We also knocked a wall down that was between the dining room and living room.  This opened it up quite a bit!  You can see in the photo below what it looked like prior to the drywall work.  Check out that green wall that had been hiding under the paneling for who knows how many years.  Minty :)

This past week my mother in law was out of school for the Thanksgiving holidays (she's a teacher), so she came over to give us a hand.  The drywall was finished and primed, so she and I were in charge of getting the wainscoting boards stained and  a coat or two of poly.  We opted for a "natural wood" look, so I picked a lighter shade for the stain. I tell you, I don't want to go through the process of trying to pick out colors for anything EVER again!  It is so frustrating for me....I can never make a decision.  ( By the way, we had summer weather the whole Thanksgiving holiday week.  It was in the 80's.  Can you believe it?)

After we worked on the planks we'd let them sit on the saw horses for a while under the lights until they were dry enough to handle. 

Then we'd take all of the planks and lay them on the floor in other rooms of the house to let them dry for the rest of the time.  The stain took 8 hours while the polyurethane took about 4-5 hours.

Below is a photo of the same room with the boards in place.  There will be a chair rail put on top of the boards and the windows will be cased in with the wood.  We are going to get a new fan and definitely a new front door, but for now it's just a work in progress.

This is a shot from the other side of the room that has the chair rail added.  It is really turning out nice.  It's pretty neat to  see that what you've envisioned come to be.  

Hopefully we'll make more progress through the remainder of  the year and be able to move in by Spring of next year!  My fingers are crossed very tightly!

Today's the day to reflect on all that we should be  thankful for. God has truly blessed our family more than we deserve. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family near and far!  God Bless You!

Crock-Pot Cornbread Dressing

For those of you that have been asking for the recipe for crock pot dressing, here it is:

4  cups of deboned chicken ( I usually cook a chicken in the rotisserie and use the meat from that; store- bought rotisserie chicken would be easier!  )

6  cups of cornbread crumbled

9  slices of white bread torn into pieces

1  small onion, chopped in the mini food chopper ( I don't like the big hunks)

3  stalks of celery, chopped in the mini food chopper ( again, I don't like the big hunks)

3 1/2 cups of chicken broth ( I have frozen chicken broth stored for this) or you can use 2-14oz. cans of chicken broth.

2  cans of cream of chicken soup

4  large eggs

1/2  tsp pepper

1/4  tsp salt

2  tsp ground sage

Mix all of these ingredients in a large (very large) bowl.  Then put it in a greased 5-6 qt crock pot.  Then cut up 1 stick of butter into "pats" and arrange on the top of the mixture.  Cover and cook on low for 7 hours or High for 4 hours.  Stir well before serving.  

Ever since I have used this recipe, it is the most requested dressing...... It stays so moist!

Pinkeye

We have 2 commercial does that we are having to treat right now for pinkeye. I thought it would be a good idea to put a picture up for those who may have never had to deal with it. When we first had goats, many of them were purchased from the stockyard. Several of them would have pinkeye and end up needing treatment. Long ago, we quit the "stockyard" goat buying and haven't had one case of pinkeye until now. There's a saying we have here at our farm. " Well, now we know.  Live and learn. "

If caught early, sometimes pinkeye will be present itself with a reddened eye and drainage. It may have a few patches of the white cloudiness on the cornea.  Below is a photo of the doe with the worst case. Her cornea has actually turned opaque white. You can also see that there is drainage around the eye.

  

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We have isolated the does in a cattle trailer from the rest of the herd. We have sprayed their eyes with a warm saline solution to remove the drainage. We are treating them with LA-200 5cc/100lbs SQ (subcutaneous-which means under the skin, not in the muscle) injections. Previously we have used a Gentamycin ophthalmic spray without giving any injections. The LA-200 has been recommended to us by the vet. You will have to check with your vet to see what is recommended for you to use as treatment, if you should ever have to deal with this. 

I wonder if any of this stuff will count towards keeping my nursing license current??  I could just see myself saying, " Sure, I've continued to practice nursing, I am a mom and live on a farm."  What more can I say, it has come in real handy!

Anatolian Shepherd Pups.....and A Colt Too!

I finally made it out to the pasture to get a few photos of Jael's new pups. She had made a den under an dead tree that had fallen over this past summer. They were so funny. When I walked up to  take the photos, those little pups barked and growled at me like they were big massive dogs. I couldn't help but chuckle because they are just big ole balls of fur right now.

They have started coming out from under that tree with Jael in the pasture a few feet away. The pasture they are in has some of our newly weaned heifers and our bucks. Jael is an extraordinary LGD. I'm glad that we are able to raise our pups out in the pasture with all of the livestock so they are able to "learn the ropes" from Jael. We are also expecting pups from one of Jael's daughters, Cheyenne, any day. Cheyenne has super LGD instincts like her mom. We expect great pups from her as well.

On guard

We have a neighbor right down the road from us that also has goats, but no LGD.  He said that he believes coyotes a getting some of his goats.  We do have quite a bit of coyotes in our area, but since we've introduced guardians to our farm, we haven't had an issue.  Check out this post here to see what  LGDs can do to unwanted predators in the pasture with their goats.

Below is an updated photo of Dixie's colt.  He is almost 2 months old.  There is a lot more of  the black showing through his coat than when he was first born.  I'm not sure how long it takes to find out their true color, but he is a mixture of colors right now.  He is also very dusty in this picture.  It's dry as a bone around here, and those horses love to plop down and roll in dirt.  It's so funny to see such a big creature wallowing on the ground.  My mother in law said that for each roll they do on the ground, add $100.  She said growing up, they would say that however many times the horses rolled from one side to the other; that would equal how much they were worth. 

2 months

Pickle What?

I have been up to my ears in bake sale preparations this week. We are winding up the Fall Festival King and Queen competition this weekend and bake sales were a part of it this week. I've learned a lot about what kids like to eat and drink this week. I saw a lot of kids running around with cups that looked like this......

You may wonder what is it just like I did.  Whatever that was in those cups was "gold" to all of the children because they flocked to a specific table that offered these for sale.  Can you guess what it is? 

This, my friends, is what the kids so fondly referred to as pickle pops.  Frozen pickle juice.....I mean who would've thought it?  So for today's bake sale, I did what any other bake sale mom would do.  

Pickle pops

 I sold 2 gallons of pickles yesterday and was left with all of that juice.  After seeing all of the mayhem over the pickle pops, I wasn't about to waste that juice by pouring it out.  Oh no, my freezers are full of trays of frozen pickle juice.  They were selling it for 25 cents a cup.  These cups are like little Dixie cups. Those two gallons made about 65 cups.....Whew!

Hallelujah this is my last day!  Each day is designated for a different grade.  Since I have TWO children participating,  I am a little "scatter-brained" these days.  I could be like another parent that has 3 children in it, all the while expecting my fourth in a couple of months.  Bless that mom's heart......She should get a medal! 

Kissing The Goat

Our children's missions class at our church held a Kiss the Goat contest to raise money for some of their missions projects. They chose 10 adults in our church that they wanted to have kiss the goat and made a jar for each one. It was then up to the church and community to decide which of the 10 it would be. The person with the most money in their jar was the chosen one. Our pastor, Bro. James, had repeatedly said that he wasn't going to be the one to pucker up. Well guess what? 

" Bro. James meet Milkshake, the goat......Milkshake, this is Bro. James......"  

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Bro. James was such a good sport.  He even held this pose, in the photo below, for some time in order to  have it documented.   Thanks Bro. James!

All of this took place in our kid's playground area at the church.  Today was our Fall Festival, so there were plenty of kids around.  It was so funny how all of the kids just wanted to play with the goat and nothing else.  Milkshake had never seen so many kids.  I think she is still in shock from having so many of them playing with her. 

50's and Pumpkins and Birthdays, Oh My!

There have been so many things happening here and there that I feel like I have been  a rubber ball bouncing from one thing to the next!

The kindergarten classes at the school celebrated being in school for fifty days by having a "50's" day. All kids were encouraged to dress up 50's style. A friend of mine had a costume from when her daughter celebrated 50's day a couple of years earlier. We borrowed it and it worked perfectly! I did put one of Mal's uniform shirts underneath the top because it was a little large and was falling off of her shoulders a little, but that shirt did the trick. 

50's cutie with her beloved puppy Patch

The kindergarten class also made a trip to Mitchell Farm's in Collins, MS to visit the pumpkin patch.  The night before the trip, the temps dropped down to the 40's.  It was such a drastic change from the mid 80's during the day that we had been used to.  We all had chattering teeth the whole tour.  It was kinda miserable to some folks. I personally prefer the cooler weather.  You can put many layers on to stay warm when it's cool, BUT in the hot weather you can only peel so many layers off before you might possibly get arrested for........well......you know what I'm saying ;)

 

Picking out pumpkins

Mitchell Farm's also had many, many fields planted in beautiful sunflowers.  We tried to get the class together for a little snapshot in front of them. That was a job!  Between 5 of us with cameras maybe one photo turned out.  Those little stinkers couldn't be still for 2 seconds to look at the camera.  They were so excited to see what was coming up next.

My baby girl also wanted a horse birthday cake for her birthday.  I went to Wal Mart to pick out one from the bakery but I was completely disappointed at what they had to choose from.  I ended up going by Mallory's request and purchased all of the things needed to make her cake.  I stressed out major for this one!  Do these things look like they will equate into a beautiful "horse" birthday cake?  

Well they worked out fine.  She thought it was the best cake ever!  That is what was most important.  She wanted a horse with her baby....check.  She wanted green icing for grass.....check.  She wanted a wooden fence......check.  It turned out like what she'd asked for. She even picked the blue icing for the writing and border.  Best of all, she could keep the horses and play with them afterwards!  

Happy Birthday!!!!

Name ideas anyone?

We have yet to come up with a name for this little guy. We have all bounced names around, but none have stuck yet.  We're hoping to come up with one, so he can start getting used to hearing his name.  Do you have any ideas?

I absolutely love having him here to visit with everyday.  I will go out in the field where he is and he will come running up some days, where other days he will slowly and curiously come to check me out.

 

It is so funny to watch him playfully aggravate his mom.  I guess all kids like to push their parent's buttons from time to time just to see how far they can go ;)  In the this picture, he kept getting right in her way when she was coming to see me.  No matter how she tried to move around him, he kept getting in from of her and blocking her path.  

He is very curious about the goats that are located in the pasture that joins theirs with only a fence separating the two.  When they come up to get water, he can't resist going to watch them.  It's like he's trying to figure out why those creatures look so different.  

We try to put our hands on him everyday.  I think he isn't so wild because of that.  He will try to nip at us, and I just tap the tip of his nose with my hand and tell him no.  He will actually stop doing it after I have done that.  Every now and then he tries it again, but I definitely don't want him to think it's okay to bite.  I do understand that they are curious and trying things out, but I don't like the nipping.  He will just have to nip at his mom, not me. 

A Day of Family Fun

This past Monday, our kiddos were out of school for Columbus Day. I figured what better time to take them on a little family outing! So much of the time we are busy with school, life on the farm, and just life in general that we forget to just get away for plain ole' family time.  Dillon has been wanting to go to Battleship Memorial Park to see the USS Alabama for about a year now.  I had planned to go in the spring when the weather is usually pleasant, but we didn't really have a spring this year.  It went straight from winter to summer.  The weather was even a little warm for this time of year, but Monday was the day!

USS Alabama battleship in the background

We were able to walk on the deck to check out some of the weapons that were used on this battleship.  It's very fascinating!  I couldn't imagine being at war while at sea.  My older brother is in the US Navy, and he loves what he does.  I am so thankful for those in the military that are willing to serve our country!  

Looking through the sights

Not only was the trip fun for the kids, but it was very educational.  There was so much to see and learn, that I think we may have to make several more trips.  I don't think either of the kids would mind that at all. 

Shane with the kids.  That girl is SO silly!

Me and the kiddies.  There she is again with her silly faces :)

In addition to touring the USS Alabama, we also toured a submarine, the USS Drum.  This photo below was taken inside.  Can you imagine this being where you had to prepare your meals and doing the dishes?  It was such a tight squeeze in there!  I find it so fascinating to see how different things were years ago, too.  I am a total geek when it comes to museums and such.  I love the smell of all of the old things, and I get so excited about seeing all of the historical artifacts.  I am so thankful that there are people out there willing to keep and preserve things for us to be able to enjoy.

  

This is the "doorway" that you had to go through to get from one compartment to the other on the USS Drum.  Even the kids had to bend and twist to get through them.  For Shane and I being taller, it was a sight.  I would step one leg over and lean back and turn to get through.  I don't know how they do it!  Me being as clumsy as I am, I probably would have knocked myself out a few times by banging my head on the top part.  I can't even walk down the hallway in our house without running my shoulder into one of the walls at least once a day.  You'd think I had a put a little something extra in my coffee ;) 

Along with the battleship and submarine, they also had many different  airplanes, jets, helicopters, and even some tanks. This was the favorite of Dillon and Mallory.  I'm guessing it's the cartoon character that made it such a hit.

I hope all of you have a great weekend.  It is finally going to cool down a little here in the South.  We are hoping to have some mild 70's this weekend with very little humidity.  I am so ready for that kind of weather! 

Happy Friday Y'all!

2011 Oklahoma Buck Test

I've been meaning to get a post going about the 2011 Oklahoma Buck Test, but I just haven't been able to sit down long enough to do it. It's just as well though. We received an email yesterday saying that some of the calculations were off on the final data that we were given back in Sept. They have reworked the data and have put it up on The Kerr Center's website. You can check it out here.

I think it turned out to be a very informative day.  They had quite a few speakers, lunch, and we were able to catch up with some of our old friends while getting the chance to meet new ones.

Future farm/ranch managers

Shane and I decided to let our two kids sit in on the seminars to take notes for us.  Can't you tell they are absorbing all the information that Dr. Ann Wells is speaking about in her session.   In case you can't tell which are our children, look at the bottom of the picture.  The one with a big "cowboy" hat and the lefty belong to us ;)

There was also a session for the attendees the get to do some hands-on FAMACHA training (eye scoring the goats).  I'm so glad that we learned to do FAMACHA a few years ago.  We try to check our goats every month for with this method.  When we first started doing the checks there were always certain does that had lighter color membranes under their eyelids.  This was due to being anemic from wormloads.  At the end of that year, we looked back at the records and it was always those certain ones that had to be treated with dewormer due to the anemia.  We culled every single one of those does for that reason alone: and boy did we see an improvement when it came to FAMACHA checks.  We rarely, if ever, had to deworm any of our goats........that is until Shane brought in some Boer and Boer influenced commercial does.  I still don't even want to talk about that whole ordeal.  Maybe in a few years................

 

Dr. Dave Sparks explaining how to use the FAMACHA system to those attending.   He's the guy with the orange hat.

Below you will see a participant holding the card near the goat's eye with the eyelid pulled down to expose the membranes.  On the card there are 5 different colors to use as a guide to grade the goats anemia.  A #1 on the card is blood red, which  is totally healthy and on the other end of the color chart is a #5 which is white and would indicate the goat is severely anemic and is pretty much knocking on death's door.  By doing these checks monthly you will be able to see which animals are resistant to parasites (worms).  You can even take it a step further and do fecal egg counts (FEC).  A  FEC is truly the best tool to check for accuracy when it comes to finding out if a goat is wormy or not.  Anemia can also be caused by lice, coccidiosis, or other issues; but it is most often caused by the barberpole worm.  With a FEC you will be able to determine exactly how many parasite eggs they have per gram of feces.  I could keep rambling on and on about FAMACHA and FEC's but I don't want to bore you to death.  Here is a link to a power-point presentation that I found on the web that pertains to using the FAMACHA system.  It shows pictures of sheep, but it is the same for controlling worms ( barberpole worm ) in small ruminants.

 

Eye-scoring a goat

After seminars, we had a lunch of pulled BBQ goat meat, and then headed out to pick up the bucks.  Below you will see photos of the bucks from this year's test.

All of the producers and other attendees gathered round to take a look at the test bucks.  As you can see in the picture below, I had someone try to speed through while I was taking this pic.  Boy, did she have plenty of energy that day!  I guess it was due to taking all of those notes for her parents and sitting  through the seminars.  Poor kid! ;)

My little cowboy decided he wanted a better view than anyone.  I think he also wanted to be a big fella and jump right in and help the men sort the bucks.  They had it under control, so he just sat there and watched.  My babies are growing up too fast!  *Sigh.........

We had a great time taking this trip to Oklahoma.  We decided the whole family would make the haul and I'm glad we did.  It's always so nice to get together with goat people.  They really are some of the nicest people.  By the way, if you aren't a goat person, can I just ask that you please not look at anyone cross-eyed when you find out they raise goats?  Not all goat producers are weird.  Seriously.....well there may be some, but you didn't hear that from me!