The Worry Begins....

It's begun.

The stress levels are gone through the roof.

Kidding time!

Ack!

I hate it!

I love it!

I don't know what to make of it!

So far we've had pretty good luck with kidding time.

This year not so much.

Azelle was due yesterday, but she decided she couldn't wait

 any longer and had them Thursday.

She started in mild labour Wednesday and by 8 am Thursday morning she still didn't have them.  I had to go to work and Dave had the early shift that week so he was gone to work at 5:30 am.  I worried and worried till I got to work. So I when I walked in the door. I called my dad to go check on her around noon.

He called me at 11:30 to tell me that there was two kids on the ground..phew! But...(there's always a but) momma wasn't looking too good and was trembling. I know it was chilly that day, but she shouldn't have been trembling.

So I left work early to check on them. 

Azelle had cleaned them off a bit, but they were still wet.

She was in the corner like my dad said, laying down and trembling.

I checked her temperature and it was normal. I gave her a bucket of warm water and molasses and she only drank a cup or two. 

Then I knew something was drastically wrong. Every doe I've ever had, including Azelle, just downs that bucket of warm, sweet goo after kidding.

I called the vet and left a message. It wasn't long before she called me back at work. (I have great bosses that let me leave for goat emergencies, but I still have to go to work and make money to pay for these goat emergencies!)

I needed to start her on penicillin and newcells.

But later on in the afternoon, she still wasn't well. I also needed to give her 7 extra-strength aspirin. But the vet wasn't keen on me giving her all that in case she had a tear in her uterus, she might bleed to death...not a good scenario.

To make a long story short, Dave called the vet again at supper time and we were ready to drive 2 hours at 7pm to get the meds (what we won't do for our goats!) when Jamie remembered my mom was passing by there as we spoke!

So I called her on the cell phone. She had just passed the vet's 10 minutes ago but she'd turn around for us and go get it! Phew!!!

 Thanks mom!

So we started Azelle on more drugs than I care to admit. 

By now the little bucklings' ears had fallen. They'd gotten too cold. So now I have an Alpine that looks like a Nubian...shudder.....

I'm working on getting them back up.

Sunday, Azelle is still not doing well and to add to the problems her udder is so tight that I can't even get the milking machine hooked up!

So on our way to church Sunday morning, guess who we meet!!!

THE VET!!!

We call and ask him to stop in. He said he'd be there in two hours.

Phew.

SO! Diagnosis....

Azelle has either a bruised uterus or a tear in her uterus. Also she's got edema in her udder.  Edema is when you have water pockets in the udder. Not good.

We now have drugs for infection, drugs for water retention, drugs for the tear, drugs for the pain and drugs for....oh wait...that's it. It seems everytime I turn around I'm sticking her with a needle somewheres.

Already tonight the edema has gone down a lot, but she's still in pain. And I have to milk her out twice a day, even with the kids on her because she's making too much milk.  She's got enough to supply ten kids.

When I milk her she doesn't move a muscle. I think she knows how well she's going to feel after I'm done.

But other than the fallen ears, the kids are doing great.  

We called the buckling Spring Peeper Claude Chaloux, after a friend of ours.

And the girl (which we are keeping) Spring Peeper Caithness Clairee. 

Many, many moons ago, like 19 years worth of moons, we went to England and the factory where they make Caithness glass.  I loved the name so I decided to use it on this little cutie. Clairee is from a Steel Magnolias character.

We'll call her Cate for short. 

So it's Cate and Claude. And they are CUTE!!!!

Claude and his little pink nose.

Claude and his fallen ears.

Caithness hopping everywhere!

Cate doing goat yoga

Momma not feeling her usual hyper self.

But one thing I've noticed is that Chamoisee must be a recessive gene, because I have a hard time getting another Chamoisee goat!

Maggie is due Thursday and I hope she waits till then. This year she actually looks pregnant. So maybe she'll have two babies, not just one!

Have a Blessed Evening.

Lisa

Peeper's First Day at School

Yes, he was nervous. Just like any first grader would be.

Especially if you're starting in high school.

St. Mary's Bay Academy was having a fund raiser to buy goats for women in

 third world countries so they asked if they could borrow Peeper as a prop.

I was willing, but he wasn't.

So one of the students had to carry him in.

But who's to blame him. Look at the amount of people that was staring at him.

Just a small case of stage fright.

He was happy in Brandon's arms eating the crackers I brought.

He actually didn't have any "accidents" which I was sure he was going to have.

But it was all for a good cause.  I told Gabby, the girl that invited us, 

"Next time charge a dollar to pet the goat."

They might have made a small fortune.

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

Enough already!

The snow is almost to the base of the bird feeder.....almost. 

Shackwacky!!!!

Holy Catfish Batman!

Cooking shows

Sorry for the hiatus.

Computer died...need I say more.

Ok, I've been watching waaaayyyy too many cooking shows.

My latest faves are Farmhouse Rules and Pioneer Woman.

A few weeks ago I noticed that I had actually saved the chicken necks from our meat kings.

Why? Dunno.

So I fetched them from the freezer and with Farmhouse Rules in the background my creative cooking juices started flowing.  

Or maybe my tightwad juices started flowing and I didn't want to waste chicken. 

Who knows!?

I've been on a gravy kick lately also, ever since a co-worker told me that you could freeze gravy! Who knew!?  Obviously not me!

 I make mashed taters and I make gravy and freeze the leftover gravy. 

So I figured I could make gravy with the chicken necks.

I put them in a pan with wine, rosemary, thyme, (all three of these ingredients come from watching too many cooking shows), a bit of water, chicken spice, salt and pepper and Voila!

Here is my cooked chicken necks.  They don't look too appetizing but Jamie and I ate them and they were delish.  I'm telling you, don't waste anything.

I took the juices out and strained out the herbs and whisked in the water and cornstarch and it made the most delish gravy!

So smooth and creamy!  

So I froze it!

Next time I make mashed potatoes I'll thaw it out and we'll have awesome gravy.

The moral of this story?

Even though you're driving your son crazy by watching cooking shows on a crappy Saturday afternoon, good things come out of it!

Like Gravy!

Have a Blessed Evening.

Lisa

Huh?

Hubby asked whilst we were in the honey aisle at the grocery store...

"I think it's time we got bees."

Excuse me?

This from the man that said if I ever got bees he's be armed with a case of Raid Foam.

Maybe 2015 will be better.

Have a Blessed Evening

Lisa

Sayonara 2014!

2014 in review.....

It was crap.

If there was ever a year I wanted gone, it was this one and I've had some doozies in my time.

But honestly...phew.

Bad things that happened...

Murphy died

Vet bills

Vet bills

Evil wild turkeys ruined my spinach garden.

More vet bills

The soap making classes didn't make a hit like I (and many others) thought it would.

We lost the hay barn in a snow storm.

My veggie stand didn't make a hit.

Vet bills

Our turkeys cost us $30 to raise, EACH!

Several more items that I am not at liberty to talk about as of yet.

Simonne's back went out.

My arm still hurts.

Good things that happened....

We had excellent Helpxers

Met awesome people

Garden grew like wildfire

Turkeys were given away to needy people

Simonne's back got better

My arm healed better than any other Keinboch patient the doctor has seen (must be the raw milk)

We rebuilt the hay barn

We decided to keep Daisy

 (it's still up for grabs if this should go in the bad thing or good thing.

 So far good thing.)

I was accepted as a committee member on the municipal tourism board. (which I actually love attending meetings. This coming from a person who abhors meetings)

I had an article published in a local paper

See below....

My rooster picture got published in Backyard Poultry calendar.

See below...

So maybe 2014 wasn't so bad....

Well it's still up for debate.

Hopefully the Lord will bless us with a fantabulous 2015!

I haven't talked much about Christmas...

Well I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas.

I love what Christmas stands for, the birth of our Lord and Saviour.

But I HATE the commercialism that goes along with it.

Especially when you work in retail.  You have to get in the spirit in late September, so by the time that Christmas does roll around you are sick of seeing all the hustle and bustle and Christmas carols....oh don't get me started on those!  If I hear Harry Connick Jr.'s Christmas CD one more time, I shall puke!

Now that I've ranted about that, well I love Christmas.  I would love a Christmas with minimum ornaments and lots of church, food, family and friends. That's what Christmas is really about.

But now I've gotten that off  my chest, Dave kept asking what I wanted for Christmas.

I had no clue.  

Then I said I wanted a digital thermometer.

My new obsession. 

Yes, I'm strange.

I just wanted to be able to tell how cold it was outside before I got outside.

The only way I could tell was by looking at the rhododendron leaves and it can only tell me

-balmy

-chilly

-put your hat and boots on

-and your nostrils are going to stick together when you breath in cold.

So Voila! Monsieur Temp Minder.

Isn't he handsome? This morning it was so cold that he didn't even know how cold it was!

But like clockwork, every morning and every night I mark down the temperature on the calendar.

I am a dweeb.

Have a Blessed Evening

Lisa