My Name is Mud

There was all of one mud puddle on our entire property. It's measurements were approximately two by three feet. Who manages to fall in that particular location about three minutes before we are going to go to town with Meemaw? Gunther....of course. Who is not going to let his brother have all the muddy fun? Barrett, who jumps in the puddle immediately after Gunther falls in it.

Who is not amused? Me. Who documents the whole clusterf&%# ? Meemaw.

A Kid (goat babies, not redheaded midgets) Update

The kids are now two and a half weeks old. Daisy, the doe on the left, is doing well. She is a little on the wild side, though. She is making it increasingly difficult for me to catch her, and cuddle. I am trying to make friends with her via the sweet goodness of raisins.

Elliot, our little billy, is as sweet as honey. We made an unfortunate discovery last week. It seemed that Elliot had/has a broken rib. We weren't sure how it happened. We suspected that the other mama in the pen, Evey who is not his mama, may have hurt him. I have seen her head butt him to get him to go away. It was the next day that I realized that my theory was wrong. I caught Mack, our knucklehead puppy, dragging the billy out of the pen. I am sure that Mack was the one who hurt Elliot. For a short time I thought perhaps Elliot's injuries were more than he could recover from, and we would have to put him down. Not two hours later, he was hobbling around, nursing, and wagging his tail. He spends a lot of time resting now, but is doing well. We are hopeful that he will heal, and lead a happy life.

After the incident with the Mack and Elliot, I made the difficult decision to get Mack a new home. He was just not working out on our little acreage. He was a smart dog, who was bored and many a temptation (remember he murdered a chicken too). A neighbor of ours took him on. Mack will have a job running cattle, which I think will make him happy. The man who took him recently lost his wife, and a new dog to train is a welcome distraction. I can still go see Mack and give him cookies, but I don't have to worry about him threatening my other animals.

Think good thoughts for Elliot. He is still recovering.

Edit: Thanks to my mom for taking pictures of the goats.

You Can't Milk The Dog, Son

We are in milk! The twins are producing plenty of delicious milk for both the kids, and for our family. We began milking last week, and the girls have been agreeable about the whole thing. Jason even built a milkstand out of some miscellaneous lumber we had sitting around. I must say that milking would be much easier without a couple kids underfoot, but we manage to get it done.

Barrett has been intrigued by the whole process. I imagine a two year old must have a hard time understanding the what hell is going on. I am even struck by how weird it is if I think about it too much. Barrett kept calling the goats' teets "weenie". We corrected him "No, son, those are ninnies". The goats' "ninnies" look nothing like the ninnies he is familiar with (my own breasts)....thank the lawd. So, he thought we we were some sickos who like to put goats on a platform and yank on their weenies.

Dan, our fat coonhound, was the victim of Barrett's confusion. We caught him trying to milk Dan one day. Dan, as sweet as he is, only grumbled and shot Jason and I a look that said: "Please do something about this". We have since explained that Dan has a weenie not a ninny, and it does NOT produce milk. I think Barrett is still confused, but the world is a confusing place....what can you do?

Goat Dude

If you know this guy, tell him to e-mail me. A man that has a jacket commemorating his second place show-goat NEEDS to be my friend. He was spotted in Oklahoma according to People of Wal-mart. I would love to meet him, and his goat.
Thankyouverymuch.

So...I Took A Month Off

I abandoned the blogging world for a few weeks. What has been going on this month?
I would love to say that we went on vacation, or something fun. Nope. We were here on the acreage, doing the same stuff as always. I was just lacking motivation to write about it.
Notable events:
---We had two more births. They came as a total surprise. I knew that two of my goats were pregnant, but I figured that I had a few more weeks. I am an inexperienced goat OBGYN, and my EDD was OFF. Evey gave birth to a baby girl on Friday, February 26th to a baby girl, and Jeanette gave birth on Saturday, February 27th to a baby boy. Both kids, and their moms are thriving. We have named the girl Daisy and the boy Elliott.
---- I jabbed myself in the eye with a feed bag the other evening. I tore my cornea pretty bad. I am currently wearing a patch. I have heard all the pirate jokes, so save it.
----The boys have had approximately 869 baby fights. They break something every day.It's been the same ol' stuff.
----I still haven't replaced my funky USB cable for the camera (the boys did something to it), so no new pics. I am hoping my mom will bring her camera over to take some pictures of the new baby goats next week (Puhhhhlease, Ma!?), so I can show everybody.
---- We got ten new hens. They are all babies. I will give them names, and introduce them once I am fairly confident that they will survive....as chicks have a high mortality rate. The last thing I want to do is honor one of my friends by naming a chicken after her, only to have it die a day later. It's bad juju.\

That's about it! I have you missed you, my bloggy friends.

Mack- a-doodle

Mack the puppy has discontinued his interest in chickens. For that I am thankful. He is actually turning out to be a pleasant little dog. He IS a puppy which means that he is naturally annoying, but nothing can be done about that. We have concluded that he is most likely a burnese mountain dog/ australian shephard mutt. He greatly resembles a burnese mountain dog, though. We have no idea how big he'll get....but we are guessing he'll be around the sixty pound mark (God, don't let him be much bigger than that.) Not that I am adverse to big dogs. Dan is 103 pounds....the thing is that he doesn't move unless he WANTS to move. It can be a problem.

I had forgotten what it is like to have a dog who is THRILLED to be my companion. Jules is my dog, always will be my dog, but she has the attitude of a cat. "I'm going to be taking a nap in here. You can come pet me....or you can not. Doesn't matter." Dan is Jason's baby, he has been since day one. He likes me, but I can poop in my hat if Jason is around. Mack follows me...well, he follows me around like a puppy. I like his companionship. There is nothing like getting up to go to the bathroom at three in the morning and having a little dog be absoluteley ECSTATIC to see that you are up. "Hey! You are up! Yay! Wanna play? Wanna play? Wanna Play?"
My answer is usually: "GO LAY DOWN! You are going to wake a baby."

So....it seems that Mack has found his forever home here on Dammit Farms. He's an accidental acquisition....but so were my kids ;-)

Dammit Farm on Ice

Thursday, Day one of the ice storm.
9 a.m.--It's slick and icy, the freezing rain continues to fall.
10:20 a.m.---We still have power despite the 1/2 inch of ice coating the power lines. Jason falls off the back of his work truck while prepping the generator. He complains of a sore butt for the next several days.
12:00 p.m. We lose power. We suck it up, as it was expected. Hook the generator to the t.v. and the fridge. Life isn't bad.
7:00 p.m. Hallelujah!! The lights come back on.

Friday, Day two of the ice storm
I wake up, make breakfast, feed animals, blah, blah, blah
12:30 p.m.-- We lose power AGAIN.Meanwhile the snow is falling fast.
1:06 p.m.----I hear Jason scream and walk outside. He is laying by his truck."Did you fall again?"....."Yes!" he answers, a bit irritated....'cause why the hell else would he be laying in the snow? Jason will make noise about his sore behind, and this and that hurts and blah, blah, blah for the rest of the year.
2:00 p.m.----Jason has to go on a call. He takes his work truck, and thus the generator with him. I have to endure a few hours with the kids and no "t.t." as Barrett calls it. Oh...and might I mention that we have well water, which relies on an electric pump to make its way to our house. We have no running water....can't flush the toilet, or do anything.
5:00 p.m.----Jason shows up with a new propane tank. We have a winter wonderland cookout for supper, since we can't use the stove.
6:03 p.m. All of our firewood is frozen together, so Jason brings out the blow-torch to free them.
7:00 p.m.----Jason attempts to connect the generator to the main power input to our house. A neighbor comes to help. A few minutes later our satellite box starts smoking and popping. I frantically unplug everything in sight. I yell to Jason, who is still outside, "Smoke! bad! smoke!"
He turns off the generator. We decide to just stick with our lone chord powering the t.v. and the fridge.
7:45 p.m. We pack every container we have with snow, and bring it in the house to melt. This is how I will water my animals for the next several days.
9:45 p.m. Jason discovers that the chimney to our wood-burning stove (our primary source of heat) has several holes. He Tapes them together....no seriously.

Saturday, Day three of the end of the world as we know it

10:00 a.m.----We slide to town in our "winter chariot", the old Suburban. We must buy new pieces for our chimney. Seeing the damage firsthand does not make me feel positive about our electricity situation. Lines are broken everywhere, and some poles are splintered in the middle, and have fallen over.
1:30 pm.----We eat lunch while in town and try to forget about our troubles at home. I look longingly at the hotel across the street. I fantasize about a hot shower and cable.
3:00 p.m.---We are back on Dammit Farms. In the dark, and silence of snow and no electricity.....still.
4:25 p.m.---Jason talks to someone at the power company. We are given a quote of 7 to 10 days before get power back!!!! I about cry.

Sunday, Day four
12:00 p.m. We get power back! I try to make a a dent in Mount Laundry and Dishes. I make brownies to celebrate our electricity.
3:02 p.m.--- We lose power AGAIN.
3:15 p.m.----- I consider making a noose, but eat half the brownies instead. Fuggit.

Monday, DAY FRIGGIN FIVE
7:30 a.m.----Jason goes to work, leaving me and the boys without the generator. I spend all day trying to entertain them. I make soup on the wood-burning stove.
4:00 p.m.----We go to my mother in law's house, so that we can all bathe. Our cumulative stench was becoming ridiculous.

Tuesday, Day SIX.....Oh come the f&*% on!
8:00 a.m.---Jason leaves with the generator again. I am losing my mind. Barrett points at the t.v. several times during the day. "Ohhhh.....t.t."
9:20 a.m.---- I discover that if I collect the water from the gutters that I can use the water to flush the toilet.JOY!
3:00 p.m.----Jason comes home with a borrowed generator. I won't be left without electricity again.
5:15 p.m.----I come back from feeding the animals and......WE HAVE POWER. I frantically start doing laundry. I figure it will go out at any time.

Wednesday.....
As I type right now, I am still terrified that we will lose power again. I never knew how much running water, and a working oven meant to me until this week. Say a prayer, people. Say a prayer.

Here is a picture I stole off of photobucket that will give you an idea of what this storm did.