Blah, blah, blah.....

What looks like a dead chicken, but she's just playing dead.

I just finished making pumpkin spice soap. I think it's going to be pretty good. We are going to a ritzy hotel on Thanksgiving weekend to sell our soap. So I'm going to try and sell it as a limited time only. Kinda like I do with the Peppermint Stick. Which reminds me, I have to make some of that also.

I now know where the saying, "He kicked the bucket." came from. This morning while I was milking Febe, I was almost done. About 2 liters worth, when she decided to kick the bucket. Milk went flying everywhere! I was so ticked off! I wanted to strangle her!! So I can just imagine where this saying came from. Because after milking and they kick the bucket, you want the goat to kick the bucket!

This year the Febe's milk production is doing well. Usually by this time the lactation curve has taken a nose dive. This year it's keeping up there rather well. This is good. I'm not sure why, but I guess every year is different. Cindi Lou is also keeping constant.

This was taken about 2 weeks ago.

Well that's it for tonight. It's kinda boring at the moment. Well except for the extension on the house. That's pretty much keeping us busy at every second of the day. It's finally coming along.

I'll have to post a recent photo. The gyproc is starting to go up tomorrow.

Well have a Blessed evening ya'll.

Lisa

And once again, the vet comes to Spring Peeper Farm.

You are getting sleepier....and sleepier...now when I snap my fingers you'll cluck like a chicken.

Ok, I'm pretty sick of seeing the vet. The last time we were at his office I told them that I hoped that I would not have to see them or talk to them for a very long time. Maybe a Christmas card. Maybe.

Febe, my main gal

Well guess what! Febe's joints are starting to creak and crack. I can tell when bad weather is coming. She starts to limp, bad. A few weeks ago we had a couple of days rain. I practically had to carry her to the barn. She was bad. I'm suspecting CAE.

Tundra dying of heat today

We called the vet, again. He said the next time he was down, he'd stop in. Don't forget, he's 1.5 hours away, so unless someone's dying, we wait till he comes down for a mink rancher and we share the mileage. Also, we are now a registered farm, so we will come for us. If we weren't a registered farm, he wouldn't even think of coming. The expense would be too great for us. But anyhow, I digress.

Tomi, the head stud.

He's suspecting CAE also. So he came down to take blood samples of all three to see who has it and who doesn't. Cindi Lou is supposed to be CAE negative. Tomi we don't know.

Oh and before I go any further, CAE stands for Caprine Arthritis Encephilitis. I think I spelled it properly. Rumours abound about CAE, like it's contagious from goat to goat. The only way to stop it from spreading is to take the kid away from the mother before it even hits the ground. Not even let her lick it. They also say to pasteurize the milk before giving it to the kid. Another rumour was that it could pass on through a CAE positive buck.

Well the vet told me the alot of research has been done on CAE these last few years. So here's the truth.

-It's not contagious from goat to goat

-The only way a kid gets it is from the mom's colostrum, not the milk after, not from being licked by the mom etc...

-Bucks cannot transmit it either.

SO, that being said. The vet said that if perchance, Febe comes back positive and Cindi, negative, I should breed Cindi first. Save some of her colostrum and when Febe's kids are born, feed them Cindi's colostrum and throw Febe's colostrum out. Phew! Does that make sense? Clear as mud.

Because we love Febe and if she has a doeling, we want to keep one to replace Marygold.

But, this still doesn't help Febe and her creaking and pain. So I did a little research of my own before the vet even showed up. I found a natural remedy called Arthritis and Joint support on Fiasco Farm. It's been formulated for goats with CAE.

Cindi Lou sniffing out the old trees.

I ordered it (it came quickly considering it's from the States) and I had it when the vet showed up. I didn't give any to the goat until I got the OK from the vet and he said it should work great. He said with the ingredients it's also no milk withdrawal and safe on pregnant does. The stuff he would have given me, he said I wouldn't have ever been able to drink Febe's milk.

So hopefully it works. So far I just spread it on her grain and she eats it, but I'm going to try and make dosage balls to see if she'll take it better.

Well chickens are funny creatures. Because of them, my blueberry patch is pretty bare. Here's why......

I don't have a partridge in a pear tree, I have a chicken in a blueberry bush.

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

It's Party Time!!!!!!!!

Waiting for the procession to start. J. went all the way in the light rain, through the sunroof,.

Ok, well it was party time, August 15th. I'm a bit on the late train.

We went in the Tintamarre again this year. We also went through the entire walking the streets and walking in the club with banners, flags, screaming, yelling, woohooing etc... Then actually stayed and listened to the band. This is one of the only times that minors can go to the club and stay the entire evening. It's all under a humungabaga tent, half is divided for the drinkers, the other half for the rest of us.

Our Acadian family photo. We were waiting for the walking procession to start.

Everyone was waiting to start walking.

The Baie en Joie was even dancing in the rainy streets.

In last year's Tintamarre I burnt out my car horn!! So when Dave asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year, I wanted the Dixieland horn for the car, so I'd have a majorly cool and loud horn for the Tintamarre. We were barely into the procession that my Dixieland horn died on us!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!! I was so not impressed. Neither was Dave for that matter. I mean, jeepers... I got the horn for that occasion. Oh well!! We still waved and yelled all the way to the meeting point at the club. I'd say that this year's Tintamarre had at least 200 cars honking, decorated, pots banging etc... One of the people watching actually had a little canon, so when we'd pass by, he'd let it explode! That was cool. Most people had just pots and pans. Another guy had an antique air raid siren going. I mean how often can you go driving down the road, escorted by the police, ambulance and fire dept making all the noise you can imagine and nobody complains and you don't get arrested!!

The procession has three starting points and runs about 60 miles long. Meeting in the middle.

Just a few people.

It was cool! It's my favourite part of the festival. It's all about letting the world know that we are here and we're aren't going anywhere again! We are proud of our heritage.

Head fiddler, he's not bad on the eyes either.

The band that played this year was Grand Derangement. It's means, The Great Deportation. They are really good.

Grand Derangement

Well that's about it for today.

Have a Blessed evening.

Lisa

Cops and Cupcakes.

This is the picture on the back of a old 50$ bill.

You never know what's going to happen here. Monday was supposed to be a cleanthegoatpenandchickencoopandhumancoopday. J. had an appointment to the dentist and I had a hair appointment. Well on the way to the dentist I heard on the radio that the RCMP Musical rides were in town and they actually had tickets left for their afternoon show.

Hmm....I wonder who's more in love with the horse? Me or J.?

Dave was gone to Antigonish to check out a motorcycle (that's another post on it's own, we won't go there.) so I called my mom, got tickets and off the Yarmouth we went. I love the Musical Rides. So does J. They came 4 years ago and we went then. But honestly, the only thing that the Musical rides serves for me, is to remind me how much I want a horse !

Awaiting the theater.

Tonight our church's youth had their Cupcake Theater and dessert auction. They had it last year also and it was just as funny. I don't know where they get their skits, but they are hilarious. Of course the desserts were excellent and even though we left early from the auction, I think they did quite well. Let's put it this way, one cake went for 210$!!! There was about 3 large tables full of desserts to auction off. One of our church ladies made 4 dozen little cheesecakes, one dozen went for 75$. Finally, they auctioned off the last dozen singly. I got one for 7 bucks. It was good. I'm curious to see how well they did. All the proceeds went towards our church building project.

The auction dessert tables! Yum!!

One of the skits.

I think the funniest moment of the evening was when they were about to pull for the door prize of a humungous cupcake, my cousin, who was sitting with us, said, "Man, I hope they don't pull my name!"

Sandy and his prize!

The words were barely out of his mouth, when they called his name! I think we almost peed our pants laughing.

Our excellent auctioneer, Earl Prime.

Well that's it for tonight.

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

Dis, Dat and udertings!

Ok Soap box time!

I'm French, well Acadian French to be exact. I'm proud of my heritage. But one thing that drives me to distraction is people making fun of my accent. I work in a completely English environment. For years I have worked hard to hide my accent. Most days I can get away with it. But NO MORE!!! I'm letting it all hang out!

Two reasons behind this change of attitude.

First one...one of our regular contractors came in the other day and I slipped up. I let a dis go by. Blair's a nice, funny guy and on cue he starts, "Oh it's dis, is it?". I was having a bad day, so I gave him "The look".

So this time he actually looks at me and says, "You know, I shouldn't be making fun of your accent. At least you can speak two languages, I can't. You should be proud of that."

You know what....he's right!

Dave and I worked hard to make sure J. pronounces his English words properly. We started with the books of the Bible. 1st and 2nd Thessalonians works really well.

But now I honestly don't care if he's got a French accent or not. Be proud of it!

The second reason is...that most English people can't speak properly in their own language. So if they can't speak their mother tongue properly, I'm doing pretty darn good speaking both well, with an accent, thank-you-very-much!

At work all day I hear..."My lag hurts" hmmmm....I always thought that a lag pertained to a bolt or a screw, not an appendage. Or a verb as in, "I lagged behind."

How about..."I'm going upstair." There's more than one!!! You are going up a flight of stairs or you are going upstairs!

My favourite is "Yes sir, it's sold by the each." For Pete's sake! It's sold by the piece!

It's film not filem.

It's pretty near here...not pertn'r.

So people, before you start ragging on my way of speaking, think about how you speak first.

Ok, I'm stepping down now.

Have a Blessed day.

Lisa

Our yearly trip to Halifax

Very barren market.

It's that time of the year again. School clothes shopping. This year I wanted to go to the Halifax farmer's market. The website says that it opens at 9am, so we got there around 10am. Hardly anyone was there! Vendors and customers alike! At our market it opens at 9am and all the vendors are there at least 30 minutes before. Most of the vendors only showed at 11am. By noon it was starting to be busy. It was international day. I ate a buckwheat crepe with mozza, tomato and basil. It was really good. J. and Dave ate spicy Thai and chicken noodle dish. They liked it also.

We liked this style of arbour, so Dave's going to build me one for my grapes.

I bought a pair of earrings and that's about the extent of our shopping. We did walk on the waterfront and bought a bedazzled frog. We also saw goat's milk soap at 20$ a bar. Mind you it was wrapped in cashmere yarn, fur...whatever you want to call it. But still... jeesh!

I'm not sure if I'll be going to that market again. I think my favourite one is in Annapolis. I find, that's the one with the most variety and people. Our's can aspire to be like the Annapolis market. Maybe some day....

Well, my brain never stops. The brain activity is constant, even while I'm sleeping. So while I was on the ferry from New Brunswick a few weeks ago I spotted an article in an old magazine. It was talking about Haskap berries. This struck my fancy. I made it my mission in life to get some Haskap berry bushes. I called every nursery around and nobody had heard such a thing.

I finally found two in the Annapolis valley that had some. One nursery would only sell them in 3 weeks from now and they were 25$ a bush. Ahhhh...nope. Too much. This nursery is notorious for their overpriced stock.

I called the other place. They had some and would sell them now! So on the way home we stopped in. AND they were only 15$ here! Woohoo! I bought 3 bushes, since you need two varieties for cross pollination. We also bought a few blueberry bushes since some of ours have died in the last few years.

So check out this site if Haskap berries strikes your fancy.

Oh, I almost forgot...our son made his first Kijiji purchase. This is what he bought. My son the Nerf addict!

Have a Blessed day

Lisa

Definately, not the year of the goat.

It hasn't been a happy goat year amongst the goat people of the area. Our Boer goat friends have lost most of their kids to miscarriages. Another had a very difficult birth. We've had blood in our milk from broken blood vessels in the udder, the Marygold episode and now Cindi Lou has problems.

After the Marygold episode, we decided to bring one of the older goat's poop to the vet to check for coccidiosis. So I've found that Cindi was looking a little skinny, so I decided on her's. Since we've already spent over 250$ in the last month on goat vet bills, 16$ per poop inspection was going to stretch the already thin goatie budget.

So anyway, Cindi's poop had no coccidia. Thank goodness!! Phew!

Instead she is packed tight, chuck full of worms and worm eggs. ARGH!!!! Will it ever end? So we have to treat everyone. So there goes another 40$! I have dewormer here, but it doesn't seem to be working with these suckers. This one has a milk withdrawal of 5 days! I stocked up today on milk and then I treated everyone.

Cindi still has blood in her milk. It's been a month and it's not getting any better. It's really a minute amount. It's only noticeable after a few days in the fridge, but still, who wants to drink blood laced milk. Yuck! The cats are happy and so is Tundra, because they get it all.

Febe seems to be getting slower. Her joints are cracking. Especially these last few days since it's been wet and muggy. Almost like she's got arthritis.

So that's my goat problems. Hopefully it'll get better next year. We've decided to keep Febe's baby if she has a doe next year. I'm not sure if I'll breed Febe elsewhere, so her daughter can be bred to Tomi the following year, or get another buck in a few years. That I have to decide.

Well that's it for the goat news for today. Stay tuned next week when you'll hear Lisa say.......

Have a Blessed day

Lisa

Marygold update.

Well we brought Marygold's body to the vet on Monday. He did an autopsy on her. He asked if we wanted to watch. Uh....no. Dave did watch, I couldn't. If it would have been someone else's animal I would have since things like that fascinate me. (no, not weird, just always wanted to be a vet.)

The long and the short of it is that she had an underlying stomach problem from birth. The food was not traveling through her belly in a timely manner so it was all collecting in her second stomach. He took out over 3 liters of food in one stomach! So she didn't have any fat on her at all the protect her. It made her immune system weak, so when the coccidia parasite settled in her, she didn't stand a chance.

What threw us off, was that Tomi had the coccidia parasite when he came here and he had bad case of diarreah. Marygold had no diarreah. The vet told us that the coccidiosis causes the intestines to go nuts and can tie them up. That's what happened to Marygold.

That's so sad, she must have been in pain.

Well that's about it for now. I'm not too much in the blogging mood these days, but I figured that I should update on Marygold.

Have a Blessed evening

Lisa