Watsonville Show

I love this show, its my favorite show, and it also happens to be the closest show. I had a great time, a special thanks to Lynne Kary for nudging me to clip Fletch, thanks to Debbie T0omey for letting me use her stanchion, and an EXTRA special thanks to Penny Hamers for doing the majority of the clipping, and letting me use her clippers. I also want to thank her for helping me "teach" Fletch how to walk. He moved up two places from saturday to sunday thanks to these ladies. I had had an EXHAUSTING week before the show and clipping just wasn't high enough on the priority list after work on friday, but boy does he look like a new man. I finally have pictures that do him justice. I'll bug my husband for some of the pictures he took and post them later this week.
After the show in Sunday we were invited to a Canada Day Party at a neighbor, as exhausted as I was we made it to the party, boy those canadians know how to whoop it up! Live music, a pit fire and sparklers, were some of the highlights. Good neighborhood fun.

Finally got some of my site updated!

Got some goats up there who have been here a few months, and took down the ones gone, added some to the sales page and updated the kidding chart.
This weekend is the Watsonville Show, which is my local show, well 45 min. is local for me. Its my favorite show with the big goats, the kids love the Wojcik's big Sanaan's. The raffle is GREAT, and the food is alway delicious. Not to mention all the nice folks. My daughter, Maggie, (pictured above 2005) like the raffle in particular. Can't wait to see all you guys!

Test Results In!

All goats tested negative for Johne's, CAE, and CL!!!! I am so happy.

On a less cheery note I spent yesterday afternoon in an urgent care facility after jabbing an exacto blade into my left middle finger knuckle. OUCH! Four stitches and 2 hours later my hand looks like this....

Kids at school...

...the four legged variety. My kids(the 2 legged kind) have been bugging me since before our goat kids were born about a "show & tell" with the baby goats, and I finally did the classroom visits today.

The kindergarteners laughed boisterously when our little buckling tinkled and left berries, there's not much funnier to a 5 year old than bodily functions.

The fourth and fifth graders were a little more mature, and we did their visit on a fenced lawn, which is preferable to the classroom. My daughter, Maggie, is having the kids in her class vote to name her doe's kids, a buck and a doe.

The buck is going as a wether to our local water company as brush control, they have successfully used goats for the last several years and they seem to keep people out too, they have a wether who was wethered late in life with a nice set of horns and a sizeable beard who lost his companion last sping and they are taking two of our wethers as companions. They say ever since they got him the graffiti has stopped, personally I don't find goats intimidating, but the graffiti artists must!

The doeling will be ther first she is keeping out of her doe, so she is excited about her.

The three kids I brought to school also made the rounds at my work and daycare, big hits all around.

Spring finally sprung

The weather seems to at last be holding, its supposed to be 90 degrees today, I wore a skirt with high hopes, even if it meant my morning feeding of the goats/chickens/dogs was a bit precarious. We are done with our first round of kiddings. 5 girls, five boys, it seems fair. The next round begins in June/July but I only have two does kidding, and both are first fresheners. Next on the goat agenda is shows, with my first show coming up in less than two weeks, then they come fast and furious thru June. I still have lots of work to do on the doe and buck pens, adding proper gates, finishing feeders, adding mineral feeders, etc.

Our new buck, Banker, its fitting in quite well, I can't wait to use him, but thats on the back burner until the spring kids are all homed. Right now we only have 2 wethers without final destinated set, so I'm not too worried. This is only the second season I have disbudded here, and my husband was kind enough to do the actual burning while I held the kids, last year I only did a few kids. If I can just get tattooing down I'll be in business, I'm not sure which is worse tattooing or disbudding.

I spent the weekend "spring cleaning" and am rather sore, and not quite victorious, but made some respectable headway. I am sore and have ten bins of future goodwill items moving on, half of which went directly to children in the neighborhood.

I'm trying to make our home, home again after dressing it to put on the market, and deciding not to sell, I have a few walls started with their new paint color, as white walls are making me feel a bit like I'm in an assylum.

The garden is started, 8 kinds of tomatos, sunflowers, roses, a strawberry free peach tree, lots of nasturtium, sweet peas and herbs too, a couple strawberry plants, you get the gist.

Updates coming in more detail, but for now...

Its seems like a stone age since I've even looked at my blog, let alone posted, much has happened, but life goes on. To recap, Ruby had a seizure, the goats had 10 kids between four does, Colin and I went to Maui and I recently updated my website...more info can be found on there, I'll be back when I'm not at work supposed to be working.

So my birthday was last sunday....

Lets start with friday, picture this:
I'm sick with a nasty headcold since wednesday, as is Ruby. Now my mom has offered to take the kids for most of the weekend so Friday evening the four of us start heading towards Redwood City, thinking that after dropping of the kids Colin and I will go out for a nice quiet dinner. Well we haven't yet gotten onto 17 and Maggie says her stomach hurts, really hurts, she thinks she may throw up any moment hurts. We turn around, head home and spend the weekend either being sick or taking care of sick people, by the end of the weekend Ruby is the only one not wanting to lie around all day moaning or sleeping. My sister, Kevin and her daughter, Kira come over and make some soup for dinner on Sat, come back over Sunday and reheat the soup while Colin Ruby and Maggie have made a cake. On sunday I head out early to Half Moon Bay to drop off a goat, pick up a chick, and check in on a gallery hanging that I have 4 prints in, I return home to more sickness feeling pretty punk myself. These rocks in my head don't seem to be going away anytime soon. I had asked for the day off work on monday since the day before was my bday, much to my boss' shagrin, and I spent the day doing chores taking a few picture and deciding not to make the 1 1/4 hour drive to school, instead going to watch my kids gymnastics lesson. When we get home I do not pass go, I head directly to my bed and aside from a couple of potty breaks, spend the next 13 1/2 hours sleeping. I woke up feeling...well, sick of course.

So far for my birthday I have received a MAC eyeshadow in a pretty blue, a ceramic hand-colored rabbit from Ruby, and I hear on thursday I will have 10 graduated stock panels delivered!

Leroy

My happy little puppy is quite the escape artist, he can squeeze himself down like mice do, he was squeezing thru cattle panels long after we thought it could be possible. He is also the sweetest dog I've ever owned, just a complete love...

Introductions: Olive

So lets start here, this is Olive, my LGD, short for livestock guardian dog, she's a great pyrenees, and her little friend is a doeling (female goat kid) from my goat Lily. Lily is the herd queen of my relatively small herd of Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats. Olive is 3, and a love, but quite serious about her job. Just for reference, she's 90lbs, a little runty for a pyrenees, her mom was 110.

Viva La Goats?

I guess it would be cabras, but who would know what that was, so after much enjoyment reading a blog that a woman I sold a couple wethers to, and being frustrated by having to comment as anonymous, I decided I could blog myself, I may be the only person who reads it, but hey, it'll help me remember breeding dates if nothing else!