Birthday Socks

We are still having many goat frustrations so I will talk about something totally unrelated.

Instead of a birthday card A sent me a pair of socks.

I love them.  Aren't they perfect for me?

On a sad note I wasn't able to save Cubby Cakes.  We still have 3 others we are bottle feeding for now.

J also found another calf twin.  It appears that when the cow had them 2 days ago J only saw one.  He then saw the twin the next day but the cow didn't seem interested in it.  So we now have another bottle calf.

EKR Zone

I'm a little tired of the goats so I thought I would post a different animal.  Oreo was fascinated by all of the different holes in this tree.

E has decided to start updating her blog again so she won't let me use her pictures anymore.  Check out the new posts at the EKR Zone.

Bottle Goats

Ok, so we are push overs.  We have decided to let E keep Cubby  Cakes IF she feds him twice a day EVERY day.  Then we thought while she's doing him she might as well do two others we found this morning not being cared for.

This is Cubby Cakes is in front at about 6 days old.  Rocky, the beloved Squeeky's kid,  is in back at 1 1/2 days old.  There is quite a size difference between different goats.

V just returned from the B&B Stockman's and Livestock Judging Contest.  She was 8th high in Cattle Judging and the team was 1st in Cattle.  There were 430 contestants in all.

Up For Adoption

Because goats have a very small brain and an overly large proportion of it is used to think up ways to irritate people, we have ended up with 4 kids so far for adoption.

These 3 are sleeping after being bottle fed.
You can tell when this one had twins she decided to take care of one and totally ignore the other one.  Once they have made up their pea brain to abandon one there is no way we have found to force them to take care of it.  Can you tell we are a little put out with them?
E is most disappointed to have to give up Cubby Cakes.  It was a tiny twin the nanny took care of for 2 days then changed her mind and now doesn't want it.

Because it is so difficult to reacclimate a bottle fed goat back into the herd we haven't been keeping them.  They are on the way to foster care tonight.

Goat Stands

In response to Scooter's insistence that we build goat stands, i.e. playground equipment, E says who needs to do all of that extra work when the nanny goat will do.

Kid count:  41 more or less.

Update

Update on our calf problem discussed in Tuesday's blog.  It started nursing on it's own Friday morning.  It is doing fine now.

Twins less than 24 hours old.
New born triplets.

Kid count:  25

Big thank you to E for yesterday's and today's pictures.

C-Section

I had to do my first c-section on one of our goats today.  It was the little appaloosa spotted goat.  She only had a single and it was too big for her to have.  I could get the legs but the head kept flipping back and would not come through the pelvis.  So I took here to the clinic to operate. 

Shaving the hair to prep for surgery.
After my incision into the abdomen to extract the uterus.
Closing the uterus after removing the fetus.

Unfortunately, the kid was dead.  Goats don't handle stress very well so I'm not sure if she will make it or not.  So far this evening she was recovering ok.

State Contest Results

We've just returned from the State Horse Judging contest in Lexington.  There were 4 halter and 5 performance classes.

There was a very nice arabian class.
And what I felt was a controversial quarter horse class.
V placed 10th in performance in the senior division, and E was 2nd in performance and 6th overall in the Junior division. I had to listen to and score the Jr. FFA reasons.  It has been a very long day.

Calving

One of the first cows that calved this spring had a set of twins.  Unfortunately, she only decided to take one.  Therefore, we now have a bottle calf.

For the time being, he is in the dog pen in the barn.  He will be on hold as a spare in case another cow loses a calf.
I'm leaving this afternoon with V and E.  They will be competing in the State 4-H Horse Judging Contest tomorrow.  I will be listening to Jr. FFA reasons.

Baby Goats Are Arriving

We had our first kids today, a set of male twins.

The one on the left J named rider (because of the helmet shaped head), the other E named Ted.

I guess I'll have to start those "goat stands" soon.

Calving

We had a heifer starting to calve Sunday morning before we went to church.  She still had not calved when we got back and J had to pull the calf.  It's head and tongue were very swollen and it could not stand or nurse.  

It can now stand but it still won't nurse.
J has been trying to get it to nurse twice a day but we end up having to tube feed it.
J is very frustrated that he can't seem to leave for 2 hours without some disaster happening.

Mustang Adoption

Friday we stopped by the wild mustang adoption at the Lexington Horse Center.

They were divided into about 8 different pens according to age.
They seemed fairly calm until someone would pick one out.  The workers then had to try to separate it from the group in the pen, run it into a chute then load it onto a trailer.  They didn't appear too calm during this procedure. 
I decided our barn lot fence wasn't high enough, so we did not adopt one.

Horse Judging

V and E attended the Northern District Horse Judging Contest today.  There were 5 halter and 4 performance classes.

It was a small contest, probably less than 100 total 4-Her's.

E placed 4th in performance, 5th in halter and 2nd high overall.  I guess she managed to mark her cards correctly this time.  V did well except for the stock horse class.  She did not place.

Daffodils

The daffodils have started blooming.  I took some pictures today before it freezes tonight.

I'm leaving today with the girls to go to another horse judging contest.  This will be the Northern District contest.

Pruning

I worked on pruning the pear trees yesterday.  It is always a challenge.  The trees are suppose to be semi dwarf which means that they will grow to the height you prune them.

All of the branches grow straight up.  I tried bracing them out at angles but it never worked.
I have now resorted to just getting on top of the 8 foot ladder and topping them as far as I can reach.  This seems to be working so far.

Driveway Repairs

We filled in the big sink hole in the driveway.  

It took a dipper load of rock,
and two passes with the gravel truck.
I think Scooter could get up here in his Mercedes now.

I did like how is was a sort of rain gauge.  I will miss that.

Project

Here is a hint of the project we worked on last week.

I'll have the complete project picture tomorrow.

Rainbow Sunday

Color week is concluding with rainbow day.

I didn't even notice the reflection on the snow until I view the pictures on the computer.  I then had to go back out to take different views.

I have enjoyed color week because is has taken the pressure off of what to post.

E just got home from a birthday party; roller skating, pizza and lazer tag.

Violet Saturday

I'm going to call it purple.  The weather was beautiful today.  High in the 70's.  We spent all afternoon outside working with the animals.  E used the purple halter for Pep.

I lunged Thumper with the purple lunge line for a few minutes before I got on.
I love my purple yard ornament. (taken earlier in the week)
J's hat definitely has a purple hue.  We caught all of the show cattle today.  J lead them all then tied them up for the girls to brush.

Blue Friday

Continuing with The Little Red Hen's Color week,

We are having this section of fence replaced soon.  The fence builder marked it with blue tape.

The sky was a beautiful shade of blue.
I got to drive our blue Ford tractor today for a project Scooter will appreciate.  I'll explain in a later post.

Green Thursday

I found some green patches of grass next to patches of snow.

There is a large green light panel on the side of our barn.
J bought several green gate for the farm.  We haven't had a chance to hang them yet.
Update on past contests.  V's stockman's team was 6th out of 25 and she was 22nd out of 85.

The B&B contest E managed to switch 2 cards so they counted them for the wrong classes.  If she had turned them in for the classes she had marked on the cards she would have tied for 1st.

I don't know how to stress more the importance of marking the cards right.  I guess this will be a painful way to learn the lesson.