Santa Parade

Well it's Monday. That means cleanthegoatpen day. I also cleaned the chicken pen. That one was really sad and gross. It's been raining so much that it's like a mud, shavings and poop soup. Yuck!!! When Dave gets a free day he's going to join the meat bird pen and the laying hen pen together. It'll give them a lot more room to move and two places to go outside from. The other is smaller but it doesn't flood like the other one.

So now I have very happy and clean chickens and they also got a treat of lobster shells. They love to peck at them and it makes their egg yolks orange.

I discovered that a guy that I know owns a Christmas tree farm!! This is good. I've known this guy for years, but I didn't know he had this as a side line. What I'm getting at is that he has many, many, many fir trees that will never make it as a Christmas tree. Soooooo, he's happy to get rid of them for free!!! But who on earth wants an ugly fir tree. Wellllll....goats do not care what they look like, as long as they taste good.

So Dave and J. went to his lot on Saturday and loaded up about 10 trees for now. Well I have very happy goats. He said that he's got at least another 100!!! that he wants to get rid of.

Oh Happy Day!!!!

If you've never had goats before you're probably asking why on earth do I want fir trees for the goats. There is something in the fir tree that is like a tonic for the goats and it helps in an easy pregnancy and delivery. I don't know if it's an old wives tale or fact, but my goat lady (the lady that sold me my first goat), kept having pregnancy problems with her goats, so someone told her about this and she tried it. She never had a problem again in 25 years. Whether it's coincidence or fact I don't know. But it can't hurt.

We went to the Parade of Lights last night. I'm posting a few photos of it. It was really nice, but really cold. J. was so excited to see Santa, he was beside himself. There was so many nice floats.

A frozen child.

.

Even the reserves got in on the fun.

So cute!

This was a very colourful truck

And here's Santa and the Mrs on the firetruck.

Ok, it's now after supper and guess what????!!! It's raining! Grrrrr. Those poor hens are having a hard time getting a dry run. The pen is still dry and they're loving it. They're even sleeping on the floor! Isn't that just sad?

I'm back!!

Wow! That was one heck of a flu. But I'm back! I only have a cough left that I was told will last for a month or so. Even though I'm no longer contagious people look at you in a weird way when it sounds like your coughing up a lung.

So many things have been happening but at the same time it's almost not worth writing about.

The weather here is beautiful. It's nice and warm and sunny. Though we are also having our share of rain. On a few days it rained and rained and rained. Friday it was a complete downpour. The day started nice and sunny. The weather man did say it would rain, but there was not a cloud in the sky, I thought," You wing nut! It's not going to rain." WELL! Rain it did. At noon it clouded over and put Noah's flood to shame. I ran to my car and it's only a few dozen feet. I was soaked to the bone. Yuck! Cold rain. I put my bun warmer on high in the car. It felt good. ahhhhh.....

We got the last 4 meat kings done on Friday also. We had 7 left, but I think they died of heart attacks or something. But the time Friday showed up there were only 4 left. But they are big. Well for our family of 3, 6 lbs is big. We'll use those as turkeys. Like I've said before it was a hard year for meat birds. It's so discouraging.

Tomorrow I have to clean out the meat bird pen, the laying bird pen and the goats. It's going to be a long day!

I decided that I'm going to make my own Christmas cards this year. But I needed a photo of a goat with a Santa hat. Easier said than done. Whisper was petrified of the hat. So plan B....J. is going to wear the hat while he holds Whisper. Again easier said than done. It took 30+ photos to get one kinda good one. Thank goodness for digital cameras. The one I'm posting is not the one I'm going to use.

Tootsie came home yesterday full of fleas and hard grease. The vet was closed so I gave him a flea bath till tomorrow. It's going be cost a small fortune to deflea and deworm 4 cats. Ugh.

J. and I went to a Christmas tea today with my mom and aunt. It was nice. I like those kind of things.

My mom is on the left and my aunt Elizabeth is on the right. J. took the photo. He did a pretty good job.

Well I guess that's enough for today.

Have a blessed evening

Lisa

Just a thought.

Why do we use anti-bacterial hand sanitizers and soaps, yet colds and H1N1 are all viral.

Day 7....H1N1

I'm wondering if I'll be able to go to work Monday like I'm supposed to. I can barely walk from the couch to the bathroom.

If I don't go to work Monday I will be in humongabonga trouble. It's our annual ladies night and it's all hands on deck. NOBODY can be exempt. I wonder what they'll do when I show up with my sweaty night sweats and my 101F (which is still there) and mingle with the customers. Plus I have to bake something to feed to the ladies. Nice H1N1 germs in there. I think I'll ask my mom to make her famous fudge.

Why do they call them night sweats when they are all day long?

I woke up with the worse headache EVER (I've had some doosies) at 3am this morning brought on by excessive coughing. This is why my hair hurts. Between Extra strenght Advil for migraines and hot packs on my head it went away.

I still cannot sleep in our bed. I don't know why. I've tried extra pillows changing positions and nothing helps. After 2 hours of tossing and turning I just go down stairs and sleep on the couch, which I promptly fall asleep. Weird. Maybe it's God's way of not letting me get too close to Dave while I'm sick. So he doesn't get it also. Not that he wants to get close to my stinky self. Yuck.

I can't really write anything about the farm, because I have no clue what's going on. Dave has been doing everything. Needless to say, the housework has gone awry. I also keep thinking of one week of no pay. Not good. Whether I'm stinky or not, I have to get back to work.

H1N1....day 5

Well yours truly has caught the dreaded H1N1. It's not pretty. I went to the doctor yesterday and he confirmed it and I'm off work till next Monday. Not good. I have no sick days. So that means a week without pay. Ouch. I think that hurts more than the flu.

It really knocks you out. I am feeling better today. I still have a 102 fever tho. But at least I ate breakfast today. On the bright side I have lost 5 lbs!!

It's a strange flu, with strange symptoms one of them being disoriented. I'm bored out of my mind because I slept from Friday to Monday. My mom said go on the computer or watch TV. But I can't concentrate on anything more than 5 minutes. It's strange. I am having a hard time writing this blog. My cousin has it also and she said the same thing. Your eyes even have a hard time focusing.

Oh another positive note after I survive this I will be immune to it. At the speed the government is going with the vaccine, we'll all be immune to it. So they can save their money on the vaccine. Maybe that's their plan after all.

Well that's about all I can write for this morning.

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

Finally!!!!

This has been a weird heat for Febe. I think she's finally bred. It's taken 3 times, but tonight I can honestly say that I'm sure she was in heat. Not a false heat, not a hmmm....I wonder... heat. A real, freaking out-I-want-my-man-standing heat.

I milked her tonight, nothing unusual except a little slime, show her the buck rag and nothing but that's been nothing new this week. An hour later Dave goes in the barn to feed the pigs and comes back in saying "I think your goat's in heat". I'm thinking "not tonight honey I'm tired", sigh... I have so much to do tonight and I wanted to sit down and colour with J. I mean it's not like it's down the road. I....well...I mean "We" have to hook the trailer up and drive 30 minutes to get to the buck.

So I get in the barn and Dave has her on the milking stand. She is almost screaming (she's a blatter everyday anyway, but this was different), her tail was twirling so fast I thought she was going to take off like a helicopter! So I figured we might as well bring her to the buck. So in the meantime I put her back in the pen with Whisper. Well, poor thing...she just attacked that tiny goat! I'm thinking "Oh boy she is just beside herself, she must be in heat".

So off we go and she got her fix three times and she's happy now. So I'm assuming she's bred. I'll let ya know in 21 days.

I'm telling ya, these goats are going to be the death of me. Holy cow!

Well that's my exciting news of today.

Have a Blessed Evening.

Lisa

Common Sense

I received this email a few months ago and I just loved it. It is so true in today's society. So I thought I'd share it with the world. Feel free to pass it on.

An Obituary You Really Must Read.

An Obituary printed in the London Times - Interesting and sadly rather true.

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, *Common Sense*, who
has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was,
since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He
will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair;
- and maybe it was my fault.

* Common Sense * lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend
more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children,
are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but
overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended
from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for
reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
*Common Sense * lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the
job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental
consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could
not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

*Common Sense * lost the will to live as the churches became businesses;
and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

*Common Sense * took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a
burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
*Common Sense * finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed
to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
*Common Sense * was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust,
by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;
I Know My Rights
I Want It Now
Someone Else Is To Blame
I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone

If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do
nothing.

What is it with animals...

What is it with animals? What goes on in their little brains? Am I the only one that wonders this?

Daisy will take a nice soft blanket and suck the living daylights out of it. Why?

One of my favourite pasttimes is watching the laying hens after I've cleaned their coop and added new shavings. You'd think they were at the health spa. Especially since they have to contend with a muddy, flooded run.

Another fun thing to do is to watch them with strands of speghetti. I truly believe that they think it's an earth worm. They'll grab a strand and run!! It's so funny.

Febe is feeling under the weather. She's crabby, pushing Whisper around and she's not eating well. I don't know if the trailer ride to her date put her in this mood. She's also got diarreah. I find that she's a goat that you have to watch what you feed her. The least little thing will put her off her feed. I don't think she's bred though. We missed church yesterday because I thought that she was in heat. I guess not. So she's been on a trailer ride twice in two days. Maybe that's why she's crabby.

We will be getting piglets in February. Charlotte was in heat yesterday, so Wilbur did his duty. It's cute to see them all together. They look like one little happy family.

I'm having issues with the tractor. I can never get that thing started. It turns, then dies. I have a trailer load of chicken poop to get rid of and no tractor to haul it with. So this means the goats have to wait to have their pen cleaned. It also means that I have to wait for Dave to get home to tell me one more time...."what do you do to this tractor?". Then he'll turn around and start the darn thing with one turn of the key. grrrrrr...

As you know, Tootsie, is doing great. We were going to keep him in the house for good. But he was not liking this decision. I was just afraid that since he couldn't jump anymore that he wouldn't be able to defend himself. Well he's been jumping on the cupboards, jumping on the bed, jumping on the table. So he's now jumping outside. He is so much happier now. He comes in the eat and take a nap and a cuddle and then he's off again. From what I've seen, he's made a full recovery.

Well I have to go and do some more work.

Have a Blessed day!

Lisa