Sadness....

I woke up this morning to a dead doeling.

Yesterday it rained and rained plus we had lots of thunder and lightning, so before going to the farmer's market I made sure that the goats were inside. Everyone seemed fine. Marygold wasn't particularly lively, but all my goats are sluggish in the rain. So I didn't think too much of it. I checked on them that afternoon and everyone was still the same.

Then after supper our pastor and his family came over for a visit. He's a goat farmer too. He said that Marygold seemed to be limping. So I figured that was the reason for her "sitting"down. I brought her out of her pen and made her walk around. No limp. Honestly, she seemed fine.

Then after they left I checked on her again. Her belly seemed a bit hard, so I figured she might need a bit of help burping. So I massaged her belly. Then I checked her eye lids. They were rather pale so since it was rather late, I figured that I'd deworm her in the morning. But her poop was fine.

Then at 4am I woke up and had an awful feeling that she was gone. I figured I was just nuts and tried to go back to sleep, but it kept bugging me. I finally fell asleep. Then this morning I quickly went to milk and check up on her.

I was devastated when I saw that she had passed in the night. When I got "the feeling" I should have gotten up and checked on her.

We are bringing her to the vet tomorrow for an autopsy. My main concern is that something is contagious.

So until tomorrow I'll just have to keep wondering.

Have a Blessed day.

Family Farm Day

Yesterday was a fun, fun day!

I had registered us for a family farm day. I had seen the ad in the magazine Rural Delivery. It was a day filled with seminars and interactive displays. What first drew me to the ad was the words "Goat Nutrition!" That's all they needed to have me hooked!!

Goat things are just about impossible to find around here and goat information even more so.

Registration was a reasonable 25$ and you got a ten dollar meal ticket. So really it was 15$ for the entire family. Mind you....we had to drive 2 hours to get there.

On top of the goat nutrition seminar, I listened to a women's panel, and marketing your produce. All were interesting, but the marketing your produce really didn't apply to me. I did take some pointers home. Dave listened to working your farm with animals.

J. made butter and went on hayrides.

Making butter, shake, shake, shake!!

Lunch was catered and really good!! I don't like potato salad, but this one was to die for!!!

During lunch you could go see the displays. I bought heritage seeds for next year and got up close and personal with honeybees! I was amazed to be that close to an open hive and not freak out! Maybe some day.....sigh....

The bee man!

While waiting in line to register we struck up a conversation with this nice man. We asked him what he farmed and he asked the same of us. We told him dairy goats and how we wish the government would let people sell raw goats milk and cheese. We let our opinions known that the government was saying one thing and doing another etc....

Well FYI...you never know who you're talking to. When we all gathered in one of the halls for opening speeches etc...we were kinda surprised to see that one of the special guests was that guy we were talking to in the lineup. He was the local government official for that area...ooopps! He actually mentioned that he had been talking to a couple in the lineup and totally agreed with what that couple was saying... Well ya never know.

Have a Blessed day!

Mydnight Marygold

I can't believe that summer is almost gone. Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm going to be the big 44!! Scary.

Since I was a child I considered summer gone after my birthday. So sayonara summer!

We've had a new addition to Spring Peeper Farm for a while now, I just never got a chance to blog her. Please put your hands together and give a warm welcome to Two by Two Mydnight Marygold.

Marygold!

After alot of thinking and praying, we realized that Febe is not getting any younger and with all the udder problems she's had this year, I believe that this fall might be her last breeding. Then she'll be going into retirement.

The Horn!

We had the vet over here this week to cut off Tomi's horn (That was funny, we had to put him

under. I've never seen a goat drool.) So while the vet was here, he took out his ultrasound machine and checked out Febe's udder. Well, to put it in Dave's terms, she's blown a gasket. She has lumps in her udder. While they aren't dangerous, they are causing blood in her milk at times.

So considering all this, we decided that we needed to get another goat. She's from our goat friend's farm. I know them well and I know that the mom is a great milker and their herd is healthy.

Cindi doesn't like her too much. Febe actually seems to like her. It's weird, since Febe doesn't like anyone. Cindi didn't like all the attention she was getting.

Ummm... Excuse me! I want some attention too!

It's so strange how all goats have such different personalities. I think that's what I love about goats.

Monday we're all going to a family farm day. I can't wait. I'll make sure I post all the details.

Now that all the rain is gone, we are now having a small drought. We can't win. It's so hot here that it's hard to do anything. The garden's kaput. Even though I've been watering and regularly giving a manure tea to the greenhouse, I'm only getting teeny tiny tomatoes. It's sad. The only things that are doing kinda well in the garden's are the sunflowers and the beets. The pumpkin plants are a total of 4 inches tall. Woopie!

It's all so discouraging.

The extension on the house is going well. We are only one week behind. Not bad considering it's only been going on for 3 weeks.

Well It's bed time.

Have a Blessed evening.

Lisa

Beulah Week!

Tabernacle at Beulah.

We've just gotten back from vacationing in New Brunswick. We only stayed 3 days, but we had lots of fun.

We went to a Wesleyan camp ground. Well it's not really a camp ground...well yes it is. Check it out for yourself. Beulah

This is the cafeteria. If you look behind the people you'll see some cars. The line for curly fries went from the split in the path to those cars! Crazy!

10 days in July is called Beulah Week. They bring in excellent speakers, evangelists etc... So twice a day for ten days we all congregate in the tabernacle and sing, praise the Lord and listen to the speakers. You leave there rejuvenated, relaxed and ready for what the world is going to throw at ya.

Our pastor and his wife, Cathy.

The grounds remind you of the movie Dirty Dancing...the relaxing atmosphere reminds you of Dirty Dancing. You almost expect to see Patrick Swayze walking up the path. lol Everyone is so happy, content, nice and smiling. It's the Christian version of The Stepford Wives, only genuine.

Dave and J. enjoying poutines after the evening service.

The last time we were there was several years ago. It was BG....before goats! Then we stayed for the entire 10 days, we also had a place to stay on the grounds. This year we had to stay in a hotel in Saint John...45 minutes away and rather expensive. 100$ a night thanks to priceline.com instead of 260$, but two nights is enough. Plus the ferry to get there was 400$. It's getting ridiculous for Canadians to travel in their own country. It's actually cheaper for me to fly to England than it is for me to fly to Alberta. But that's a whole other post.

Hotel ritual...pizza delivery.

J. walking on water at the hotel pool.

J. and I enjoying breakfast at Cora's restaurant. Those two plates were one meal!

The beginning of Evening on the Boulevard.

On Wednesday nights in Beulah week is Evening on the Boulevard. People set up little tents and sell FOOD!! One other reason for Beulah week (besides worshiping the Lord) is to eat, eat and eat some more!! It's just a Wesleyan thing. We take the Bible verse about breaking bread and fellowshiping with your fellow Christian literally!

Beavertails!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The last time we were there, Dave waited in line one and a half hours for curly fries! Not this year. After the evening service he only waited 10 minutes in line for beavertails!! Not a bad wait and worth every minute. They were good!! I love Evening on the Boulevard. It's a nice time for fellowshiping and eating with your fellow Christians. See we do take that verse to heart!

While we were in NB we visited Cindi Lou's home. I mean, now come on! You didn't think I could go on vacation and not visit goats! Alex, Cindi's former owner was really nice and informative. He had 49 goats there! Wow. J. got to visit with Lady Gaga. It's a goat.

Alex and one of his main dudes. FYI, that buck is on all four legs. He was huge!

But the vacation came to an end and we had to steam ahead. We got to the ferry terminal and we were greeted with fog! Oh well , the ferry has radars.

Our view of the ferry. It really was right there.

A happy, relaxed (kind of) family waiting for the ferry to go home.

Oh! another newsworthy item. While I was on vacation I got an email from Reader's Digest. I had sent in J.'s story about his head bump and they loved it! They're going to publish it.

Have a Blessed evening.

Lisa