Surprise! A Puppy

J was busy while I was traveling across the country.  

 He got a puppy.  Well, someone brought him a puppy and asked if he wanted it.

 They had advertised the puppies a few weeks ago.  They were  out of a 1/2 Great Pyrenees 1/2 Anatoline mother and father and were born February, 26th.  But when we called, they didn't have any more females left.  Apparently, the breeder was trying to keep one as a house dog, but decided it wasn't working out.  So after a two weeks of being in the house and playing with children, he brought her to J to see if he still wanted her.

 J put her in the barn with the bottle goats to start with but she prefers trying to stay with people.   Bumble and Jewel have accepted her but she hasn't been going off with them yet.

 She seems to like the bottle goats, but  gets a little nippy when playing with them.  The breeder was calling her Bella.  I don't know if we will keep that or not, any other suggestions?

I think she is going to be a bit more work than our others were to start with.  She has followed J to the house a couple of times and he had to go back to the barn and sneak around the other side to lose her.   She came to the house yesterday once and this morning.  She is small enough to crawl through the gate and get in the yard.  

 I grabbed the rattle paddle (cattle sorting tool) and took off after her.  The rattling was enough to make her run back out, no paddling necessary.  I hope she works out but it won't surprise me if she ends up just being a farm dog and not a goat dog.

 A few more goats have kidded since we turned them out.

Kid count 104ish?

Oregon Trip Days 6 and 7

I have taken a billion pictures, the views everywhere I look are stunning and unexpected.  The terrain changes around every corner.  My neck is sore ( not really) from swiveling my head around so much.  I told E that I need a GoPro set to take a picture of everything I was looking at, in 3 second intervals. Yesterday we went to Crators of the Moon. AMAZING!!!!  It took up our entire day.  There was the most incredible 360 degree view from atop a cinder cone.  We spent the night in Boise, then back out  early to the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area.  I took lots of pictures of the views and flowers, but my camera wasn’t good enough for the birds.  I will have to try to get E to do a guest post for those.  We finished up the day at the Painted Hills.  Then we drove into Prineville to see where E will be working and on to Redmond where she is staying.  

Oregon Trip Days 4 and 5

 Once again I am limited to iPad pictures.  We left Billings Montana Wednesday morning and headed to Yellowstone.  We went in at the East entrance.  E had asked which one I wanted, east or west.  I said west, so of course she set the directions for east.  We found when we got there that the road was closed between Canyon Village and Tower Roosevelt.  That meant we couldn’t go to Tower Roosevelt without doing lots of back tracking.  We did see lots of other things including two grizzly bears, elk, bison, several different bird species, stinky fumaroles, mudpots and geysers.  We saw Yellowstone Lake, the Grand Caynon of Yellowstone, Mammoth Terraces, and Black Dragon Caldron, along with numerous overlooks.  We were also lucky enough to get a room at the Yellowstone Lodge.  That meant we could get up early to see Old Faithful.  But because there are no park rangers on duty overnight, there were no morning predictions of the next eruption time.  There was a Japanese man that had been waiting since 5:45 a.m.  it ended up erupting around 7:30.  There was no crowd, maybe 15 to 20 people total.  Then we went to the Grand Prismatic Spring, upper and lower geyser basins, and over Craig’s Pass and the continental divide.  Next was a drive through the Grand Teton National Park. We ate lunch in Jackson Hole and saw the outdoor sculpture exhibit at the National Museum of Wildlife Art.  We are spending the night in Idaho Falls.

Oregon Trip Day 3

The pictures I can post from the road are limited to what I take with my iPad, so I will catch up later with my camera photos.  The first two days E and I just spent driving, 1370 miles.  Then today we stopped in Bismarck, ND and spent a little time in the North Dakota Heritage Center and Museum.  I got to see some dinasor bones.  Then it was on to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  E bought a year pass to the National parks.  I think that will come in handy for her time out in Oregon.  The park was very nice, lots of overlooks, trails and wildlife.  Also, from my iPad I cannot scroll down to comment on each picture, so bear with me.  We saw prairie dogs, bison, mustangs, and a magpie.  On to Yellowstone tomorrow!

Just Kit sunday #148

Kit was wanting to show off some of the flowers in the yard. 

End Of An Era

E graduated Magna Cum Laude from Virginia Tech last night.

 She now has a BS in Wildlife Conservation, with minors in Equine Studies and Biology. 

 She had a big cheering section, grandparents, parents, sister, aunts, uncles and a cousin.  I think there are now12 in our immediate family with degrees from Tech.

 J said we have had a child in school for 20 years.  It is both a celebration and a little sad to see the time go by as fast as it has. 

I'm pretty sure that J's and my hair wasn't as white 20 years ago.

 It seems like only yesterday  E was off to Kindergarten orientation.

 Then her first day of school.

 Maybe we helped foster her interest in wildlife.

Now on to her next chapter,  Oregon!  Yes, she is headed off to the other side of the county.  She has a 6 month position working in range land management.  I am driving out with her then flying back.  Looking forward to an interesting trip but not toward leaving her out there.  Maybe after some travels she'll be interested in coming closer.   Congratulations E!

Farm Workers

Mike was a big help with the goats Friday.  It was time to round up the little ones and band the males, then deworm the nannies.  With Mike there I even got to trim some of the nannies feet that were bad.  

 Mike was scooping up the kids 3 at a time.   You get done in 1/3 the time this way.

 I also took the skin sutures out of the c-section.  She is doing great and her kid is growing like a weed.

 Then Sunday, E came for a visit.  She put her goat herding skills to use with the bottle goats, scooping them up and back to the pen after they had finished their bottles.

 Then Mike came back Monday to help with the cattle. 

 This job wasn't too demanding, sorting out the cows and squirting dewormer on the calves.  We did have 3 to dehorn, not my favorite job.

Then they all got turned out on new pasture.  Then we had 14 spring calvers to work back at the house.  With Mike around it's like a vacation for me.
Kid count- 98

"I'm Still Standing"

Just have Elton John's song going through your mind with this post. 

 On Friday, after securing a working set of hip lifters, and having Mike here to help out, we got our down heifer up. 

 She stood up for about 30 minutes before she started fighting it and the lifters slipped off.  Mike did a nice job keeping her company and telling her it would all be ok. 

 Then Saturday, J and K lifted her again.  She was standing much better so I suggested taking the lifters off while she was standing.  She didn't fight at all and stayed upright. 

 J brought her more hay and we left her in the lot for the night.  The next morning she was still standing.

We turned her out into a lot with grass and she has eaten well, filled back out and walked around.  But this is now day 4 and we haven't seen her lay back down.  Maybe she is trying to make up for being down for 8 days. 

Just Kit Sunday #147

Kit has been venturing back to the barn on occasion.  Bumble and Bea were always very respectful of him, but Jet and Jewel hated him.  Now that we only have Buble and Jewel and they are confined with the goats in the kidding field, Kit is back to having more freedom. 

 Jewel was outside the barn barking up a storm though.  I thought she had seen a fox or some other varmit.  But no, it was just Kit Kat.

 One this day, I let the bottle goats run around some.

Kit kept an eye on them for me.  It's nice to have good help.