Sprite

Sprite hasn't been drinking all her milk for the last couple of feedings, and last night she was shivering hard. The other kids were not cold, so I brought her in the house with me to see what was wrong with her. She was burning up with fever, and just barely starting to cough a bit. Unfortunately, we have learned the hard way that you don't take a "wait and see" attitude in kids with pneumonia. They have a bad habit of dying just hours after you figure out how sick they really are. So, I gave her a shot of Banamine and anitibiotics, and Kris held her until she stopped shivering. This morning she drank all her milk down happily! She still has a slight fever, so I am not putting her back outside with the other kids yet.
After this weekend we should have considerably fewer goats to feed! The Boer and her doe kid are probably leaving, same thing with Rainy and her buck kid, and if the weather cooperates we are going to butcher the 4 wethers on Sunday with the help of Karen and family. Rio's doe kid will be picked up on Saturday and that will be IT for a while. Whew. OH! I forgot about Astro because she is so sweet and quiet that she doesn't cause any problems. Astro is Karen's goat who we are goat sitting temporarily due to her head butting Oatie's baby. She will go home sometime in the next few days. Seems like we have a GOAT SITTING BUSINESS!

ALSO we are going to have a big family gathering here on Saturday!! The Koepkes, Morgans, and Beairds are coming. Yippee!! (My floor's clean, right? What else is there to worry about as long as your floor is clean.) :o)

I have found a recipe for a "Liquid Soap" that I am going to try as soon as I can get the ingredients:
1 ounce Avocado Oil
4 ounces Coconut Oil
11 ounces Hydrogenated Soybean Oil (shortening)
3.1 ounces KOH (potassium hydroxide)
8 ounces water
BUT, the only thing I dont like about the above recipe is the use of soybean oil, so I will have to figure out if I can substitute something else, or just find a new recipe...

We sold Lily/Alice to the nicest people! I wish they lived closer. They are going to use her for a "nurse-cow" for a little orphan calf they got from their neighbors. There was a HUGE grass fire that burned many many acres and this little calf got burned and they couldn't pair her back up with her mother after everyone was moved to a safe location. They are dealing with Lily's pushiness with a cattle prod and it's working nicely! She hasn't totally accepted the calf yet, so they are still putting her in a shoot when it's time for Baby Smokey to nurse.

Last kid!!!!

Rainy had a large buck kid at 2:40 this morning.

He is STRONG!

And boy am I glad that was the last doe to kid for quite some time.

It's CLEAN!

Never a dull moment around here...
...Someone left the water running in the kitchen and forgot about it. How did this happen? Wellll. That certain person put a rubberband around the squeeze thingie on the water sprayer thingie and stuck it down in the rinse water, and caused me to lose my mind and use the word "thingie" too often.
The sprayer was under water so no one heard running water. We were all outside watching the wild turkeys anyway. And wondering why there is a yellowish-gray haze settling over us. You can see blue sky above it. It's probably cedar pollen, but then again I may just be paranoid!! ;o)
No less than 3" of water on the floor greeted me when I came in.
Water under and behind the fridge.
Ditto under the stove.
And in the pantry. Thank goodness for Mum and Alex who cleaned and organized the pantry and so there wasn't much on the floor that could be hurt by water.
At least it was WARM WATER!!! :o)
Now, there are loads of towels to wash.
OH. Did I mention I got the shock of my life when I pulled the stove out while standing in a puddle of water, barefoot? I'm not one to scream easily, but I must admit I screamed loudly. It hurt, darnit. And it brought back shocking memories of the Philippines where I got shocked many a time.
You might say things are a bit hectic around here.
There's a cold front blowing in hard.
There's one more pregnant goat just waiting for the most hectic moment of my life so that she can add to the chaos.
I think I better go start supper, and send someone to put the towels in the dryer.

Boer babies are the cutest, sturdiest, chunkiest little things. Not especially interesting color-wise, but still...
Unfortunately these two here are NOT the brightest kids I've ever had. The girl took 2.5 days before she would nurse without my help. Somewhat understandable because of how low her mom's udder hangs.
The boy (who is now named Ice) took the exact same amount of time to figure out how to actually suck on the bottle! I'd put it in his mouth and he would just swallow whatever dripped out without actually sucking. Feedings were taking forever.
The mother is a nice goat but her udder gives me nightmares. I've been milking out the bad side to feed Ice and to keep her from getting mastitis. After all the lovely Nubian udders around here I am really spoiled!

Incubator:
The eggs that were in the incubator had a rough time. One time the fire in the living room got rip-roarin-hot and the temp in the incubator went up to 103*. Then, one time someone accidentally unplugged the cord and it got down to below 70* in there for who knows how long. So, I really didnt expect ANY of the eggs to hatch. BUT, three of the Maran eggs did hatch!

Oatie

Shows how much I know!
On Thursday I wondered if Oatie was even pregnant!! Tight ligaments, couldn't feel a baby, etc. I thought that if she WAS due anytime it couldn't be more than one. At least I got that last part right... she kidded Friday morning with a single tiny buckling. What a shame she didn't have a couple girls. :o( But, at least all went well and they are both doing fine.
On Friday I disbudded Pepper and Buckshot (Sprite's brother who belongs to the family that bought Belle.) Yesterday and today we are REALLY enjoying the sunshine and short sleeve shirt weather.
The only problem is that the pollen is blowing
off the trees in huge yellow CLOUDS.
**SHUDDER!!!**

In a HUGE effort to reduce the feed bill, LILY IS SOLD!!
All the extra buck kids are sold.
Six more chickens to butcher.
Four wethers to butcher.
Two doe kids to decide what to do with... (sell or keep.)
And THAT will be as far as I can reduce on animals for now.

Halcyon, I hope you find your camera soon so you can post more pictures on your blog!
Teresa and Rob of Galloping Winds Ranch have a blog now - check it out!