Lincoln Theater, Dailey and Vincent

E is all into experiences over stuff.  So, for Christmas last year she gave J the chance to go to a VA Tech football game with her.  She had 9 months then to work on sorting that out.  Well, J and E never came to a conscience of which game to go to.  As an alternative, J decided to go back to the Lincoln Theater.  Dailey and Vincent already had one sold out show so they added a Sunday matinee.  I jumped on getting the tickets and this time I printed them out at home.  Row G, not the balcony.  

 It was a Christmas themed show with some gospel and bluegrass mixed in for good measure.

 We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

I think the average age in the sold out crowd was about 70.  J recommends if Dailey and Vincent come to your town, it's worthwhile going to see them.  wonder what E has in store for us this year.

End Of An Era

J said it was ok to get rid of his house shoes.  

 He originally got them when he was in 10th grade.  Any identifying mark as to brand has long since worn off.  But he said his dad took a spell of ordering things from LLBean and Eddie Bauer around that time. 

 The gum soles look more like asfalt with all the rocks that have embedded into them.

Ever since J got some crocs from Walmart to slip on when he has to run outside for a minute, these have been languishing in the closet.  Now they are ready for the greenbox. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a blessed day.

Doing Their Job

We just picked up our new billy goats a couple of days ago.

 The brown one is 1/4 nubian and 3/4 boer and the white is a pure bred boer.  They are 8 months old.  We haven't used a boer in several years so we thought it was time to change things up a little.

 We have turned them out with the nannies and hopefully, they are doing their jobs.

When I went last night to feed the dogs and check on the goats, I caught this sunset.  We are blessed to live in such a beautiful area. 

Trail Cam #8

It's camera trapping season again.  J and I have put out the trail cam a few times without success.   Then J took it down into the gorge a couple of weeks ago and retrieved it today.  It was a very successful spot. 

 There were several deer pictures,

 some bucks and a doe. 

 We got a two legged creature.  Only one person other than our son-in-law has permission to hunt.  We might should find out if it is him.  Then J got a picture of sometime he has been hoping to see....

 Yes, that is a big black bear wandering around in the middle of the day.

Then something we didn't want to see, those old hateful coyotes. 

 At least we have some protection.  Thank you Bumble.

Looks like the goats made a pass through the gorge.  They are doing a good job keeping it cleaned up. 

The Big Roundup

Tuesday was our big goat roundup.  They were already sold and we had to deliver them to the livestock market on Wednesday. 

 It only took an hour of walking this time to get them all together. 

 Jett (and the three other dogs) watched over the proceedings. 

 Most of the goats herd,

 but some still follow. 

 That's what 148 goats looks like.  We got them all into our large barnlot for Tuesday night.  Then early Wednesday we pushed them on into the barn to start sorting.

We culled a few nannies and kept 51.  We then sorted out 20 nice doelings to keep or sell separately to someone wanting to raise goats.  Then we kept 5 of the really small ones to maybe sell in the spring when they are bigger.   That left 72 kids to sell, our most ever.  But between the end of kidding and selling, we lost 13 to worms and coyotes.   Amazingly, my record keeping proved to be accurate, my paper count matched what we actually had.  Our weights were really down.  Between keeping back 20 of the biggest, the bad worm year, 20 of the nannies being first time kidders, and battling foot problems because of the wet weather, they only averaged 44 pounds.  Maybe next year will be better. 

The Other Meat

Looks like we grow more here than beef and goats.  Muzzle loading season is in full swing and our son-in-law came over to do a little hunting.  

He got this nice doe early Saturday morning.  Looking forward to some deer jerky...Hint, Hint. 

Coupon Saturday #22

OK, so I thought I could stop for a week.  But then Dollar General came out with their $3 off $15.  With 4 accounts, that's $60 I had to come up with.  

Retail price of everything is $60.  But I did have to get milk on one account and pickles on another to make it work.  Since I would have gotten those items anyway, but maybe at the grocery store instead, I subtracted that out.  Total spent on items in picture, $3.60 plus tax.  Should have been $1 less, but I forgot to clip the crest coupon off of one of the accounts.  Lesson learned - must follow my spreadsheet and not guess.  I have seen where some people have 40 to 100 different accounts.  Must  be a full time job for them.

There's A New Boy In Town

J has been sticking his toe in the Brangus/Ultrablack water for a while now.  Remember UB1 and UB2?  He actually kept one of those as a bull to have as a sort of back up, because something is always going wrong with the other 7 bulls right when you need them.  But J has also been studying up on the breed and looking on line at several sales.  Well, this weekend he bought one at a sale in Arkansas.   There was another producer there that brought the bull back as far as North Carolina.  

 So J and I went this morning to pick him up.  He is a February calf that J wants to use to breed our heifers next year.  He thought he could buy a young bull and develop it cheaper that buying a mature bull.

 So we loaded him up and brought him home. 

 He is turned out with our heifer J is feeding for a beef.  Looks like he knows how to eat.  Hopefully, he should be calving ease but will be able to add some pounds to the calves from the first calf heifers though hybrid vigor.

Then, just because I thought it was a pretty view this evening looking down the driveway.

Coupon Saturday #21

I really have been trying to cut back, but what can I say?  I'm addicted.  Is there a couponers anonymous? 

 I tried Family Dollar again with their digital $5 off $25.  I was going to see about the 1/2 off Halloween candy.  I got 4 bags of candy at 1/2 off and basically paid $1 for everything else. 

The Bic razors were also from FD, different trip.  I still had a digital coupon making them free.  I wasn't sure if it would work on this kind and I didn't want to mess up the previous transaction with it if it didn't, so there.  Then the rest was a trip to Dollar General.  Classic case of coupon overreach though.  I needed a 5 cent filler item.  But what did I do?  Tried that $1 Dial soap again.  But this time the coupon didn't go through.  So I ended up paying $1.45 instead of just 45 cents.  Lesson learned, stick with the scenario.  Can anyone guess what is going to be in everyone's stockings this year?

Bad Goat For Sale Pictures

It's that time of year for us to get ready to sell our goat kids.  This year we have more than a trailer load so I thought I might try to sell some straight off the farm.  I have been checking out goat prices on Craig's List.  Some of the pictures are special.   The first four are my pictures. 

 I tried to capture some of the herd and the type of pasture they are on. 

 Then I went for some individual shots.

 It amazes me that with the current technology where you can take unlimited pictures, see them immediately,  and even edit them if you choose, that there are so many bad pictures being advertised. 

 Exhibit one.

 Now this one confused me.  Is the person that small or is the leash that long, or is the goat that big?

 Are we selling the cat and the goat?

 I guess this one is showing off the brush eating capacity. 

 J asked if they were up in the barn loft taking this picture.

No, they were just pygmy goats.