Itty Bitty Hooves

Getting The Spirit

I bought hubby an electric massage chair for his birthday this year and it’s really cool, but now I need a new ‘comfy’ chair for watching tv in the evenings. Mine is a really old rocker easychair. It isn’t in the best of shape, but it is comfortable. My biggest gripe with it is it’s so low that it’s hard to get out of. Maybe I’m just getting old. Okay, I am just getting old, but so is that chair. I’ve been looking around, I think I used up my ‘Christmas gift’ possibilities yesterday with my purchase, but I can play that one off as a family gift since I’m sure hubby will use it too, so maybe I can swing a new living room chair into the picture for Christmas. I found some AWESOME leather/fabric combos at Century furniture they look positively luxurious. I’d like something like that since I adore the looks of leather and yet love the comfort of a soft fabric. I’m begining to feel the Christmas spirit already. Maybe I’ll pull the lights down out of the attic this evening.

Where To Move?

Real estate prices are really sky rocketing out here even in farm country. The farm land is going up by leaps and bounds because of the new ethenol plant hopes. Farmers are plowing up fields and replanting corn where they used to have other things in hopes of cashing in on the corn craze… I hope it continues because even rural housing real estate is receiving a beneficial boost from land values jumping. They still can’t compare to the extraordinary prices you find up in the city where empty residential lots — when they can be found — can cost over fifty grand for less than a 1/4 acre. Man if I could get that kind of price for my land with ten acres here I could have a million bucks. Not too mention I could sell the parcel with the house on it for a lot more. Ah well, not likely any time soon. In the meantime still trying to decide which area of the country we’d like to retire in for good. Thoughts are leaning toward Tennessee and Kentucky. I desperately want warmer winters, but we’re afraid of the drought ridden areas like Texas and Oklahoma. The scary thing is Tennessee has been getting a bit of that just lately, and it’s even threatening to come up as far north as we are now. It’s getting so that we might not have any place moveable and still be able to have the animals.

Getting Fitter

Well I did it. I just ordered the ‘total gym’ online. I’ve seen the commercials and thought it was cool, but I finally decided that one: I spend so much time each day working at my computer that I need something that will get my blood moving. Two: I need to be able to do it AT home, and three: the older I get the more things sag so man I need this fast. Vanessa Williams was on television yesterday promoting something or other and made the comment that after 40 you have to move your body or things start to get fat… yeah boy, she got that right for sure. I do a lot around the farm but it’s the same thing all the time and other than moving hay bales from a stack to a cart it really doesn’t involve anything heavy. It’s good for cardio because it’s a lot of walking and pushing and stuff, but not really ‘exercise’ in the toning sort of way that I’m needing more and more of.

So, I bit the bullet and got the ‘try it for 30 days for only $49.95′ deal and then it’s like 99 dollars a month for 17 months if I keep it. I hope it is as good as it looks. I think I’ll like it a lot.

All’s quiet on the western front here today. No heads stuck, no escapes, just peace and quiet. If you think that’s no big deal, you’re so wrong. What a difference it makes when even one doesn’t get stuck like yesterday. It throws such a wrench in your day and can make blood pressure rise. I can’t wait until this weekend. I’m going to try a method I’ve heard a lot about, but never seen until just yesterday when a friend posted a picture of her horned goat with the bar method employeed. You take a stick about a foot long and duct tape it to the horns horizontally. It doesn’t interfere with the goat in any way accept that they can no longer fit their heads through small holes! Gotta try it at least on Blondie. The trick will be to catch her. LOL

Peace Between Goats and Fence Shortlived

It was just yesterday I was saying how wonderfully peaceful it has been without escapes, and stuck goats for the past few days. Wouldn’t you know it, it seems like I put the hex on my screnity. This morning Blondie was once again stuck in the fence bawling for me to come rescue her.

Now goats are well-known for their tendancy to put any fence to the test, and mine are certainly no exception, but it is Blondie who just can’t seem to get the idea clear in her mind that horns and small openings do not mix.

When I hear a goat bawling over being stuck I can almost to perfection name the goat–Blondie.

So it was this morning. The kind of cool thing about this morning is I got to test a theory I came up with awhile ago. Our buck Mickey is in with his herd of ladies of which Blondie is one, now. He’s a happy camper, but even though he’s not overtly aggressive he is pushy, and he does have one massively impressive set of horns that hook in an incredibly effective way that seems to always get you right behind the leg when he rubs up against you which is really all he wants to do.

He’s not mean, but his horns, and his weight make him dangerous to be around.

I’ve thought and thought about how to keep him from coming up on me and a few months ago I discovered that he, like most goats, hates water. More precisely, when I was filling a water tank in the goat pens and he came up, I sprayed some water in the direction of his face and he backed off.

Hum… I thought. Really cool but rather limiting. It’s only going to be effective so long as I’m within reach of the hose. That doesn’t help much when walking across the pasture.

The next time I went to WalMart I picked up a package of water guns. The little toy guns kids play with. I hoped that the spray from the gun would be a deterent for Mickey, but wasn’t really convinced on their effectiveness. We’re talking the difference between a full-force spray from a water hose, and a teeny little stream of water from a water pistol.

This morning armed with my little water gun I stepped into the field and began to make my way across to where Blondie was held captive by the nasty old fence, and sure enough, here came Mickey trotting through the grass towards me.

I aimed the gun when he was a few feet away and squirted him right between the eyes. He stopped and stood there while I continued to spray him and I started to think that this was a serious miscalculation. The spray was so thin and weak that it didn’t seem to have a real effect other than giving him cause to contemplate and wonder what I was doing.

… then…

he backed away.

Whew. Several times he came back over as I worked to free my stupid goat from the fence. Each time I stopped what I was doing and resumed my gunslinger stance playing target practice with a 350 pound goat.

Each time he gave up and walked away to mess with his girls.

I have found my solution. I don’t kid myself into thinking the water gun will be all the effective against him if I were carrying something REALLY interesting like… food. But just to walk around the pasture without worrying about being knocked over, or stuck with horns… it is terrific.

Little Big Dog

Have you heard about the brave Chiuhuahua? (Give me a break, I think that’s how it is spelled. It is probably the hardest breed of dog to remember the spelling of.) I’m sure you have. It has been all over the news. I talked about it on my other blog the day it was first reported but it is just so amazing that you really can’t stop thinking about it.

This little bitty Chiuhuahua in Colorado somehow sensed that the one-year-old toddler grandson of his owners was in danger. In their backyard the boy was splashing his hands in a bird bath when the little dog jumped between him and a rattlesnake that had slithered into the area only inches from the boy. The dog took several bites and fended off the snake. Hher owners heard the dog, whose name is Zoey, yelp and came running. They grabbed the boy and got him who had no idea what a rattlesnake was, or what was going on, out of the way. They then came back and got Zoey and rushed her to the vet. She was in very dangerous condition for quite a while. A little dog like that can’t take too much venom. She made it though. She’s doing just fine and is a pretty close to being a national hero.

What’s really so striking about this is her size. I’ve owned dogs, and I’m sure we’ve all either owned one or heard of one with such brave attributes, but it isn’t usually one so tiny. This little dog took on a snake that probably weighed as much as she did, and in pure length was much bigger.

When you hear stories like that it’s hard not to know why our pets are so very important to us. They are companions, fellow commiserators when we’re down, and ultimately our protectors in times of need.

God bless little Zoey. Someday when the little boy grows up, he will know how truly brave his little friend really is.

Hay Troubles–Rain Woes

I was watching the news last night like I always do, and once again that old complaint reared its ugly head. The weatherman commenting about what beautiful weather we were having and how there wasn’t rain in the picture for at least the next 7 days. Now I know that for most folks rain is a pain. Heck for all of us it is, but sometimes I think people who live in cities and even in the country when they don’t own livestock, or farm produce like corn, wheat, and the like realize how vitally important rain is, and how bad the droughts are in this country. Even our state which is not quite in a drought state is experiencing yet another really bad hay crop year. Fields are only yielding percentages of what they were once capable of. It is downright scary.

Now I’m sure some who live in cities would say well that means you can’t have all those stinky animals. Hopefully they’re vegetarians that say that. Without those stinky animals there are no steaks in their freezers, or pork on the barbeque. At best there will be fish and chicken. But even chicken needs some feed and corn and other field products are suffering as well so get rid of the chicken in the recipes.

Top that with beyond bad hay crops there will be other shortages as well. Other crops that will suffer from the severe droughts. Luckily Illinois is doing well with their corn. It’s high and mighty already and looks like, baring a disaster, it will have heavy yields for the state. What about other drought ridden states. Illinois can’t feed the entire country. It’s time for the weather reports to say when a little rain would be a good thing.

Calm and Peaceful

That’s the way it’s been around here for the last few days. It’s a nice break from fence breakdowns and other issues. The weather has been warm but not unbareable and it’s supposed to last through the week. We even took in a hay delivery on Sunday so the barn is full of fresh smelling hay–the best we’ve been able to get in a long time. It feels good even if it isn’t anywhere near enough to get us through the year.

I’ve stopped milking altogether now even though Alex could have gone on for quite a few more months. Mostly because I’ve been putting in full work weeks of 8 hour days at least on the computer and needed to take a break on my wrists where I could get it. Also because I don’t want to get too into the milk. As delicious as it is my main focus with the goats is meat production. I wanted a herd that would be easy to care for and less time consuming than a dairy herd. I wanted the dairy does so I would have great milk production in the dams and their second gneration boer cross offspring. I do love Alex though and I think she misses our daily milking sessions as much as I do at times.

All in all I could use more nice relaxing weeks like this.

Get Your Goat

Hey in case you haven’t seen it yet, my new article called ‘Get Your Goat’ is out now on Associated Content. It’s a general online magazine that I felt would be a good way to pass on the word about these delightful creatures, their uses for people both as pets and livestock, and the things needed for their care. We need to spread the word about goats. In the world they are the most common type of livestock and beat out all commers for sources of meat and milk, but in the U.S. we are sadly behind the rest of the world in enjoying the fantastic abilities these animals provide.

Support goats, and their productive assets provided to us. Write articles, talk about them to everyone who will listen, and above all, USE the products from your goats.

I have gone to two goat shows MEAT GOAT shows… you’d think that the vendors at those shows would at least provide some form of goat meat. Clubs can make it possible… find out how and DO it today. That next visitor to your show may learn just how wonderful goat meat is if you give them the opprotunity to try it. Don’t miss out on one of the easiest marketing opprotunities you have. Use what you produce!

All’s quiet on the Goaty front

It’s been a quiet day so far in the goat pastures. It didn’t start out like it was going to be. While I was getting ready to go out and feed Bob was getting his things together for work and I heard the door open and close. I looked out the window to see him trudging across the back yard toward the goat pasture in his uniform and proceed to release a stuck goat from the fence. Blondie–what a predictable goat. Of all the horned goats who could possibly get stuck in the fence, and do occassionally, she is the worst. You think she’d learn that putting her head through the fence means getting stuck, but no. She’s obviously not one of the brighter bulbs in the pasture. That’s probably the reason she hasn’t figured out we are not here to hurt her. Of the six boer/cross goats we got this spring who were practically wild and untouched, she is the most standoffish still. In fact one of them, Specs has become quite the little in your face nusience (but it’s an enjoyable nusience). Even Cherry who is the next most stubborn when it comes to human acceptance isn’t as bad as Blondie. Heck for that reason alone you’d think she’d stay out of the fence. Being stuck means being … ew… touched by people to get free. LOL Hopefully she’ll learn soon.