There are not too many days that I question the wisdom of our choice to embark on this adventure, but this was one of them, truly the day from Hell. We spent the day worming goats again but this time it did not go smoothly. We had modified the working chute making it narrower so the girls could not turn around in it. That part worked out pretty good but for some reason a good many of them decided they didn't want to walk down it or even if they did they didn't want to go up the ramp to the head gate. This means we have to push or pull them down and up. Not an easy task and very frustrating. Of course it was hot which made it that much worse. Rory was not a happy camper, it made the day very difficult.
But then, that part was over and we let the girls out into the new pasture where they had never been before (remember that fencing part on the last blog). There are plenty of trees and weeds for them and they were sooo happy. Meantime we also weaned off the remaining babies, they were not so happy. There was an abundance of yelling for a couple of days, but they seem to be over it now.
September 25, 2007
Time does get away, so to continue. We have been really busy! The mudding and taping are over and we have to paint before the trim guys get started. Painting is a new adventure in itself. We have a sprayer from our North Carolina days so we thought this would be relatively easy. Ha! According to Leroy and Dave the way to do it is to spray the primer (Rory's job) and then back roll it to make sure the paint covers all the texture (my job)
.
Then you spray the real paint and back roll it and then a second coat if needed. These guys were nice enough to leave their scaffolds for us for a week so we could get the cathedrals done. Remember that we had to have plastic over all the windows and doors and we are now spraying paint everywhere and we have 10 foot ceilings besides the cathedrals. So, now we have spray everywhere plus Rory is holding the sprayer up in the air and I'm trying to roll these ceilings. Of course I can't keep up so he ends up rolling a bunch in addition to spraying. 
Believe me at the end of the day it's Miller Time
We estimate that we have about one and a half days left for priming and then on to the real paint. Meantime………….
We had to get the pastures ready for winter and next spring. 
This involved brush hogging all of it, seeding all of it and then harrowing all of it. We only had 8 acres ready for this now but it still took us a few days to do. We planted winter wheat, rye, white and red clover, alfalfa and some purple top turnips in varying combinations in the different pastures. With a little luck and a little rain we hope to get a couple of month's worth of pasture for everybody plus have it green up quicker in the spring. This will save us a lot on hay. So far for this winter we have 32 tons of the stuff, runs into a few bucks.
The Brick and Rock guys have been working on and off. Terry had to take a couple of weeks off to go hunting in Africa, poor guy, but now they are back at it and should be finished in a week or so.
They finish the fireplace today and then finish up the windows in front and the front columns and that's it. 
It's been a long haul but it looks great!
Garage doors came this past Friday. That install did not go so well. The fellow showed up at around 4pm. I left at 6 and Rory got home about 11:30pm. We had been there since 7:30am. Needless to say he was a bit pooped and the doors still didn't work. But, not to worry seems we got a guy who knows what he's doing and all will be well on Tuesday morning when he returns to install a slight modification on the track system. They look really good and we are happy happy. This is the second time we picked someone out of the yellow pages, first time was sheet rock and mud, and we couldn't have gotten anyone better. Great guys that do a great job. Meantime………..
We couldn't very well spray paint in the house as they were doing the fireplace so we decided to clean up the trees in the front of the house and the upper part of the driveway. 
The little girls have eaten all the leaves from the bottom branches so we thought we'd chop them off at least on the trees in front of the house. The rest we'll leave to grow new leaves next year as this is the preferred forage for the goats. If goats can forage above about 1 foot from the ground there are no parasites. Those little buggers are in the grass about 4 to 6 inches up. 8 to 10 inches it the right height to graze the cattle down to about 4 inches. See how this should work? Then you put the chickens (chickens, what chickens?) on and they break up the cow patties, great fertilizer, eat all the fly larvae and all kinds of other bugs and give you great eggs to boot. In the winter the chickens live in the hoop house (hoop house?) under the rabbits (Rabbits, what rabbits?) and they scratch up all the rabbit poop which has the highest concentration of nitrogen of all poop, which now makes the most wonderful compost which you spread on you pastures. But that's another story. Anyway, back to the trees. It took a couple of days but we got all the branches off in the little concentration of trees by the house. Some still had leaves on them so we left them for the baby girls who ate them up with great gusto. We were very tired but it looks so much better.
Our friend Frank arrived from Florida on the 24th. He'll stay with us a week. He's always such a big help. This trip it looks like the oil will get changed in the tractor, RTV and Rory's truck plus getting the explorer ready to be sold, finally. Frank was on water detail this time. We haven't run the water lines yet. We decided to burn one of the burn piles while Frank was here. 1 down 6 or 7 to go.
New arrivals
We've decided to go in a new direction with the goats and to that end be bought two registered purebred Kiko Billy Boys.
This is Romeo.
and Casanova
We are hoping to get more into breeding stock instead of slaughter. Kiko goats are hardier, better mothers, livelier kids and more parasite resistant plus having registered animals make them worth a whole lot more. We will be able to register the kids even though they will only be 50 %. These guys are less than a year old and still have a lot of growing to do. We are asking a lot from them this year but so far they seem to be up to the task.
We now have a register black Angus bull that calls the farm home.
We had thought we would borrow a bull from our new friend Lawanna, but we realized that we would not be able to get our act together in terms of transporting cows back and forth this season, if ever. So, we have our own bull and by the look of things we will start having cow babies by the end of June.
October 7, 2007
The days just get away. Breeding season has begun and it is a hoot. We have 22 boys in the side pasture and the girls in the pasture next to them.
For those of you who don't know anything about goats and breeding (besides the basics) it is something to see. The boys start out by urinating on their own face and the back of their front legs. This makes them very fragrant indeed. Not all that pleasant for people but the girls just love it! So, the girls that are ready to breed stand by the fence and wag their tails at the boys. This drives the boys crazy and they walk up and down the fence stomping the ground and whupping. They talk to the girls by making a noise that sound like "whup, whup" and then they wag their tongues at them. I think this is pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen and I don't even mind that they stink. I think you have to be a farmer at heart to appreciate this. On the 28th of September we put Romeo in with the girls. He's pretty small and not a year old yet. The girls mobbed him. He had 4 or 5 girls surrounding him all the time wagging their tails at him. We left him in for 2 days and then we had to take him out and give him a rest. He ate, lay down and went to sleep, poor guy. I even caught him standing up and leaning against the fence sleeping. Two days later he seemed recovered and we put him back in. The girls seem to know that he'll be there now so they are not so frantic to be around him. The plan is to leave him in for a month, leave a week with no boy in with the girls and then put Casanova in with them. That way we can tell who the father is by the birth date. Goats are pretty exact with gestation being 5 months. We are expecting our first babies at the end of February.
Yesterday we took 20 boys off to the auction. This was not easy for me and I'm glad we are going into breeding stock so I know when we sell them they are going to live happily on some other farm. We didn't stay for the auction, which would have been too much. So, now we only have our two Kiko boys until the next kidding.
The brick and stone work on the house is finished, including the fireplace.
It looks great and we couldn't be happier. We have finished priming on the inside and have some of the ceilings done. Tomorrow we start on the real paint doing the rooms that will get the built in cabinets first so we can get the floors down. Once that's done the trim carpenters start. Still a lot to do but we are making progress. I'm still hoping to be in this winter but I don't think it will be by Christmas, we'll just have to see how it goes.
The cats are cute as ever and Bear and Sophie are playmates. Sally is moving slow these days and is getting pretty fat. I told you about the puppies didn't I? If not, puppies in about 3 weeks.
Now back to the skinny thing. When my sister in law, Barbara, was here in July we naturally started talking about gaining weight as women always do. She was lamenting that she had put on a few pounds and I said, "Barbara" 
I work like a dog and I've put on 20 pounds since we moved here. And yes, I know muscle weighs more than fat and yes, I am stronger and have better stamina, but no, this 20 pounds is not muscle.
She then said the magic works, "yes, but you don't have to dress!" I had to think about that for awhile and then realized that that was so true. There is not a place that I go that I can't wear jeans, sometimes nice jeans but jeans all the same. I don't wear makeup anymore and I'm fine with that. It is such a liberating concept. I now eat some of the skin on the Kentucky fried chicken and I have ice cream without guilt, or not much guilt anyway. I haven't gained anymore weight although I haven't lost any either. We did not go to Hilton Head this summer and we won't be going on the cruise this year either so I'll only have to start worrying about it by late spring. Till then I'll just try and hold my own. The cows, goats, dogs and Rory don't seem to mind so I'm not going to either, till the spring. Till next time…………..
