Kids Corral,tattoo session, All Things Goat

You wanna see some pretty goats? The kind that have top bloodlines and come from a nationally known breeder? That has produced many champions in the show ring? Lots of people wait in line and many only dream of owning a Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goat from Kids Corral. The next 7 are Kids-Corral youngsters that I photographed for use on their webpage.

Mike and I really love this little red and white girl, as in, discussed her at length on the way home, stay tuned. She is so tiny that Carol doesn't know if she can be bred. "Dinki" has two little pimples for teats.

We loaded up 8 goats yesterday and went to Kids Corral for the tattoo session. Wish I had gotten a photo of the divider that Mike made for the back of his pickup truck. He has a camper top on the back and then with the divider, was able to separate the 3 boys from the 5 girls, after SweetPea got knocked up so early last year, can't take any chances!

Below are our goats, however, Cahoot was purchased from them. Cahoot was born on 3/31/09, our anniversary, and we bought him that day. Early in our marriage, we used to buy young trees on special occasions, and plant them in our yard (the one we just moved from), but now I guess we buy goats.

Carol Lindblom does the tattooing. Farm ID on the right and year/birth order on the left.

Mike sometimes did the holding,

and sometimes Duane Lindblom did the holding. That's Cahoot.

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if you have an interest in goats be sure to go to

All Things Goats

and they gave us a link
about the tattooing

Duane was playing around with some of his goats.

Gossipin' Goats

I'd like to know what Clara is whispering in Caliente's ear, it might be about me.


Clara


Franklin passes by June.


Gypsy is June's 2009 daughter.

TootleLu and CoCo are Clara's 2009 daughters.

CoCo

TootleLu

Mike and SweetPea

This Sunday morning, we are skipping the Farmers Market and taking 8 goats to Carol and Duane at Kids Corral, a few counties over, and going to have a ear-tattooing session.

Tattoos are a means of positive identification for goats. Goats that are registered, shown, or will have appraised must be tattooed. In the right ear, we'll put the farm ID which for us is WJJ (for the ones that were born here) (WJJ = Wilcox JamesMichael Joanna) and then in the left ear, we'll put the year born ID. 2009 is Z and then you put the order they were born, such as TootleLu will be Z 3 in the left ear.

I'll have some tattoo photo's, stay tuned.

CoCoRaHS, ASU back to classes

We live in Zone 6, the most northwestern part of North Carolina in the Blue Ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. You wanna be a CoCoRaHS? Oh, come on, don't be a party pooper. http://www.cocorahs.org/ I'm looking into it - Volunteers working together to measure precipitation across the nation."

Today is the first day of Appalachian State University fall semester classes.

Early, Ankle, Vet Visit

Shirley and Early peek in to the sunroom.


Last year at this time I was on my back with left ankle above my heart recuperating from a broken ankle and subsequent surgery. The fall was nothing dramatic, slid down a small embankment under a large cherry tree while doing volunteer work at the Humane Society. Cherries on the ground made it slippery and I sure did a number on my ankle. Just writing about it now makes me feel anxious, the pain was bad and then the emergency room experience at our local hospital thereafter was bad. I finally ended up at another hospital with an excellent ortho surgeon but took a lot of agony to get there.


I broke the ankle on July 20th and it was Sept before I could lower my ankle below my heart without agony. Took approx 6 months (and a lot of pain meds) to start walking normally again but I still use it very gingerly, not that it hurts, but I'm very protective of it.

Today, we took 3 young goats to a Farm Vet. Had to go a county over and had never been to this doctor before. A regular Vet isn't allowed to practice on dwarf goats, must have a large-animal license. Sundance has had some diarehha and I needed to know what type of worms he had, can't use one worm medicine for worms, have to know which worms to combat. Cahoot sometimes has a snotty nose. Gabbi developed a lump where I gave her a vaccination. 3 goats checked out and 2 medicines later = $35. Can you believe that? I didn't know you could walk through a doctors door anymore for less than $50 anyway.

I walked out to the truck where Mike was loading the goats, I tried to have a peculiar face, asked, "you know how much that was?" He said, "I don't know, $200?" I cracked up, "$35!"

the 22nd on a Saturday

It's still not finished. Between the rains and "knocking off early"... and if you think it looks messy now, you should have seen it before Mike and I spent a solid two hours cleaning around it. These construction guys sure aren't good stewards to Mother Earth. Not just construction crap everywhere but drink bottles, food wrappers, tobacco-chew cans, you name it. We continue to point out to them the LARGE black trash can that is there for their convienience, but they've yet to use it.


Today, our to-do-list was as long as my arm but we only scratched off a couple of things. The guinea's now have a townhouse, they're a month old, and can now get on the ground in search if bugs. We've got aplenty of bugs. They have a heat lamp upstairs and the dangling light downstairs is to attract insects.

A cute, young couple visited this morning to see and learn about the goats. Once they get properly set up, they want to get some dairy goats.

Henry is always watching for me, for 15 years, that "Humane Society special" has been the best companion a girl could ever hope for.

Mike's watching the Bristol NASCAR race on TV, and will play duplicate bridge online later. I'm solving Anagram Magic Squares (although my chiggers are much better now) and drinking a diet Sunkist. A fun weekend for us, no joke, real easygoing is the way we like it.

The answer - Vanity is other peoples pride.

cartoon, Craigslist, & love that cash!

Yeah, Craigslist. Mike took these tires/8-lug aluminum rims off the RV and I posted them on Craigslist. The tires weren't worth much but the rims would be to somebody, however, of no value to us. A guy from out-of-town drove up brought CASH!

my doctor walked into the examining room

My doctor walked into the examining room, I exposed my red, now scabby legs and said,
"I'm eat up with hives."
She said, "you're eat up with chiggers."

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2100.html
Probably no creature on earth can cause as much torment for its size than the tiny chigger. Tiny six-legged chigger larvae attack campers, picnickers, hikers, bird watchers, berry pickers, fishermen, soldiers, and homeowners in low, damp areas where vegetation is rank such as woodlands, berry patches, orchards, along lakes and streams, and even in drier places where vegetation is low such as lawns, golf courses, and parks. They are most numerous in early summer when grass, weeds and other vegetation are heaviest. Chiggers do not burrow into the skin, but insert their mouthparts in a skin pore or hair follicle. Their bites produce small, reddish welts on the skin accompanied by intense itching as irritating as acute cases of poison ivory or poison sumac. These symptoms often are the only way of learning that an outdoor area is infested since chiggers are so small that most cannot be seen without a magnifying glass. Chiggers feed on a wide variety of snakes, turtles, birds, and small mammals as well as humans.

well, I tell ya one thing, those 32 guinea's that I've got growing in the brooder better jump on those chiggers!

http://www.moonlightmileherbs.com/guineapage.html
To use a very effective, organic means for bug control, you need to look no further than guinea fowl. These endearingly beautiful and entertaining birds are consummate bug eaters and gobble up bugs and weed seeds with nearly every step they take. Owners with property heavily infested with ticks, which can cause Lyme's disease in humans, typically notice a marked decline after owning guineas. The guineas also munch a variety of nuisance insects, including mosquitoes, crickets, grasshoppers, chiggers, aphids, Japanese Beetles, and even small snakes!

Guineas have historically been known as the farmers ""watchdog"", since their distinctive ""singing"" will alert their owners to any changes in their environment. At the first sign of a wild-life predator, or even an unfamiliar human visitor, you will surely be warned! Guineas are a plus to fruit growers as they will protect cherry trees and strawberry patches from marauding robins and other birds.

For your garden, guinea guano is high in nitrates making it an excellent free fertilizer. For those who enjoy home cooked omelets guinea eggs can be eaten, just like chicken eggs. Guinea fowl are truly beautiful and the unusual feathers come in a variety of colors. The feathers are coveted for decorative accents in crafts, such as dream-catchers and fly fishing lures.

But as with most animals, the sheer joy of watching them play and interact with each other, is heartwarming and very relaxing to the human spirit.

27 across - BOONE!

27 across of the Sunday Aug 16, 2009 New York Times Crossword Puzzle -
North Carolina town that's home to Appalachian State University - BOONE!
wow, we've hit the big time!

Saturday Sunroom

We decided to call it a sun room, vs great room and dog house.

My father-in-law keeps coming up here, we live on his 20 acres, he and MIL live on the same property but down at the main road, FIL is so tickled with our setup. Every so often we can hear his 4-wheeler humming up the hill, we call him the County Inspector. Our BIL, his SonIL, is the contractor overseeing the work.

On Monday morning, the construction guys are going to be frustrated with me that I moved stuff in the room and not wait until they were finished with the ceiling but I got too impatient. This room will stay unfinished for a time because the crew is also doing some things outside and we can't afford to pay for much more until later. They start putting on the beige-colored siding Monday.

If you stop by, we'll offer you a cold drink from the little white frig. The crew has the sun room tight from the weather elements.

3 dogs = 3 dog beds. These windows are set lower so we can sit and look over to the goats at the barn. When we let the goats out for an afternoon romp, they come strutting in here like it's their new barn.

Remember, I was doing the newspaper puzzles to keep my mind off having hives? Now, I have graduated to buying buying a puzzle book if that tells ya anything. I have a scheduled doctors appt for Thursday and was trying to hold out until then but we'll see.

words, hives, Henry, hay

I enjoy word games - online and on paper. I guess cryptograms are my favorite. On the computer, I like BOOKWORM.

Also, I'm trying to keep my mind off hives, self diagnosed at this point, they're on my legs and some on my hips. Taking Benadryl doesn't seem to help. Applying oinment that cools the skin does help but I have to lather it on many times a day. I've been researching hives, and my conclusion is, no telling why I have 'em, could be any number of reasons. Can't get a good nights sleep because of the itchiness.


Although the construction crew is doing a good job, I stay nervous about the costs. Mike isn't one to worry about money, so I have to fret for the both of us. And I can hear Mike out there talking to the workers, not staying focused on the job at hand but shooting the breeze about everything from health-care reform to NASCAR, and I want to just go out there and ring his neck.

My 16yr old, Henry, is pictured here enjoying the new deck which the crew is enclosing the today. Henry can you say, "manicure?"


This is a photo from Saturday. Mike was unloading some hay, and the does kept jumping up on the hay, which was stacked on the trailer, just munching away.