Disbudding

The little goats got disbudded to day.  dehorned before they start.  They were not happy, but it was quick and now they will be better tolerated goats by humans and also it is safer for them. They can't get caught in fences or hurt each other. Nat came up and brought all the equipment and did all the dirty work and all she got was a hot chocolate in return. 

As soon as she left, I hotfooted it down to borrow Ed's truck to go pick up the corral panels I bought on Craigslist. I actually got there on time and the owners helped me break it down and load it onto the pickup. I left 2 panels there because they would not fit safely.  Home and they are sitting in the driveway. Hopefully Brian will help me unload them tomorrow am and I can go get the others or wait till next week to get them.  Not sure till I know how long to  unload them.

I gave the counter a 4 th coat of  tung oil finish and that will be the last one.  I need to let it cure for a few days before I use it at all and that will work with my plans.

Busy Day

First of all, I still have to milk the goat with the bad teat a couple of times a day.  I finally got some bag balm for her and it actually looked better tonight but I could be imagining it.  I took a trip to Tractor Supply for some grain and bought bag balm and probios for the dogs.  My vet thinks they should be on it. Then a short trip to an antique store to look for Howards beeswax. They were out so I ordered it online. I am going to try and treat the countertop after I finish putting tung oil on it.  Bill and Brian worked on the kitchen all day.  Bill says I am going to be surprised at how low the bill is for the kitchen.  I doubt it. .  They finished the plumbing so I have a working dishwasher. Brian d id the rest of the backsplash and the window trim .  Bill put up my Mason jar light which looks really cool.  They determined that my brand new kitchen heater has a cracked fan and that's why it suddenly started to make lots of noise.  Bill put one of my new lights in the bathroom and couldn't find a part to put the other 2 up so he will be back to do that but not till Thurs.  I gave him my paint color for the kitchen so they might be starting that on Thurs, but they still have to grout the backsplash. 

No new kids today.  hurry up or I am not going to be able to go to Maine.  Kathy came over to meet the kids and she helped me put up 2 new heat lamps and lower the existing one. Those kids are warm now!!  toasty warm.  They will be running and playing up a storm tomorrow. Nat is coming over to do their horns tomorrow afternoon.

My nanny cam doesn't work well at night for some reason.  It works very well during the day. sound  keeps cutting in and out and so does the picture.

Goat kids

Goat kids

I had my first set of goat kids twins born last night about 5pm. I did not go out early to put the sheep in the barn and I waited to go out in a minor snow storm. Dare and I struggled to get them in but they couldn't see Dare so did not go where he asked.  Anyway while we are out there flailing around and almost have them In I here some little animal crying way back near the arena.  I had all the lambs up near the barn and I thought I had all the goats but I guess I didn't count. I put Dare away and went back there to find 2 new baby kids.  I grabbed them up and got the mama to follow me very slowly back to the barn.  I put her in the stall with the kids.  They were still a little wet and seemed cold and not all that responsive, but what do I know about goats?  I rearranged the heat lamp over them and left them for a while. I came back out numerous times to check them. I added more straw , I lowered the heat lamp, but  what I was watching for was nursing. Finally I saw one of them nurse and I decided to tube feed the other on because I really had no idea. Their mouths were not as warm as I would like so I tubed them.  I thought I was giving them a good drink but this morning when I looked at how much I was supposed to give them, I barely gave them a sip.  I even brought one inside to warm it in front of the stove and then back out into the cold again.

I worried about the little suckers all night so when I woke up at 1:30 I went out to check them and again only saw one nursing so I brought the other inside and warmed it for an hour and tubed it again  and back out again.  Tired, this morning but I went out to check and no real change , they  are just kinda lying around not too active.  And the ewes teat was swollen and had not been nursed on.  So ai called Nat to come and check them out.  The came this afternoon and milked the ewe out again and told me what would probably happen in the next couple of days and reassured me the kids tummy were full of milk so they must be both nursing on the same teat. (when I am not looking). I made little coats for them and I brought them both in and warmed them by the stove today.  I went to tractore supply to get a digital thermometer and took their temps.  They were both about 101 and normal is 102 to 104.  I got one up to  103 and the other up to 102.7.  THey will be fine.

I called on a round pen today in Spencer and went over and bought it this afternoon. Waiting to hear from them to see if they can find somebody to deliver it for me.  Hope so , I hate to try and got get it myself.

Black Walnut kitchen countertop

Finals Points

This kind of caught me by surprise.  I knew I was amassing a lot of points but I had no idea that it would put me this high in the standings.  I have no trials from now until May so I will certainly drop considerably but hopefully have enough points to qualify for Finals in Texas this year. 

Stockdog Final Standings

For all trials processed from 6/1/2013 thru 1/15/2014

Cattle

1.

HOF PCH WTCH CHUCKANUT ROYAL SECRET RTDcs PATDcs CDX AFTDs GV

JAN WESEN

BOW, WA

31.0

2.

WTCH ROCKIN'C PICKUP MAN OFTDds(Dually)

DIANE F MENARD

STURBRIDGE, MA

24.5

4.

WTCH FINLEY'S DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU OFTDs AFTDd

DIANE F MENARD

STURBRIDGE, MA

20.0

Ducks::

 .

1.HOF PCH WTCH CHUCKANUT ROYAL SECRET RTDcs PATDcs CDX AFTDs GV

-JAN WESEN

BOW, WA

25.5

5.

WTCH ROCKIN'C PICKUP MAN OFTDds

DIANE F MENARD

STURBRIDGE, MA

20.0

9.WTCH FINLEY'S DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU OFTDs AFTDd

DIANE F MENARD

STURBRIDGE, MA

17.5

Sheep

1.

HOF PCH WTCH CHUCKANUT ROYAL SECRET RTDcs PATDcs CDX AFTDs GV

-

JAN WESEN

BOW, WA

28.0

2.

WTCH ROCKIN'C PICKUP MAN OFTDds

DIANE F MENARD

STURBRIDGE, MA

28.

26.

WTCH FINLEY'S DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU OFTDs AFTDd

DIANE F MENARD

STURBRIDGE, MA

12.0

Dually and Nanny cam update

I forgot to update you all on Dually.  He's fine. He had xrays and a couple of fecal exams during which they pulled out a large piece of plastic toy that was causing a lot of discomfort.  They gave him some special canned food and some metronizole.  He seems to love the canned food because he has been eating like I have never seen him eat and I am mixing it with a very inexpensive kibble.  Go figure.

The nanny cam dried out completely and I have been enjoying watching the sheep in the barn at all hours.  I also watch the goats be assholes to the sheep. If it wasn't so darn cold out they would stay outside and the sheep would stay inside at night but I am a soft touch so Dually puts them in one of the little stalls and the sheep get the big stall.Tonight all 4 goats went in one stall together. That's a little close.  Last night Ihad one goat in one stall and 3 in the other. The one goat somehow bumped the camera so it was upside down all night.  I fixed it this morning. Good thing, they can't really  get to it or they would destroy it I'm sure.

Tomorrow I will have updated kitchen pictures.  The countertop is finished except for the tung oil finish and the backsplash has been started. 

Saved!!

The little darn red lamb whom forever after shall be known as Trouble, apparently fell,jumped or climbed into the freezing cold stock tank today.  Not sure how long she was in there but I happened to glance out the window and see her.  I ran out there in my slippers(thru 2 inches of snow)and grabbed a towel on my way.  I pulled her out and started toweling her right away.  When I put her on the ground she started to shiver so I bundled her up and took her in the house to warm her up. As I was going in , the dogs were going out to see what the commotion was and as a result, I didn't have to fight the dogs off when I walked in.  I held her on my lap in front of the wood stove wrapped in a blanket until she stopped shivering which took about 1/2 hr and then I took her back out to Mom. I locked everybody in a stall with a heat lamp just in case she was still cold.  A few more minutes and I might have been pulling a dead lamb out of the water.

Joan's Birthday Party!

My sister's birthday is Monday.  She is younger than me but we are still old. She wanted to go bowling.   I made her a birthday cake this morning.  It cracked but it tasted pretty good. Lots of whipped cream flavored lemony on it.  I drove down to Dartmouth with all the dogs and the cake.  I stopped at Home Depot on the way to get my backsplash tiles .  I have pretty much made a decision on it, but I am not going to say for sure until they are in and  I can't change my
mind.  Anyway we rolled 3 strings at the bowling alley. Those big balls are heavy!! By the end of the 3 rd string, my arm was giving out and  the back of one leg was going to start screaming "STOP".   I think I stopped in time so that I am not going to have much of a negative effect from the bowling.  I did not do very well though. Almost won the last string but exhaustion took over and I gutter balled too many times.

While I was gone, Bill came over and finished installing the counter and it looks like he did something with the dishwasher since it is now in place.  I don't think I should try it until I speak to him though.  I can just see water all over the kitchen. not good.

 undersink door and dishwasher in place

 counter installed and knobs on upper cabinets. edge on counter not installed yet

window seat window without anything blocking it now

Stupid nanny cam

I spent hours getting the stupid camera to work so I could put it in the barn and watch the ewes lamb. Hours and hours.  Finally got the think to work and took it out to the barn to see where I wanted to hang it up. As I was fooling with the extension cords, it pulled the camera which was just resting on a 2 by 4 into the bucket of sheep water. Ok we can assume that wrecked my brand new camera.  I took it inside anyway to blow dry it out and the blow dryer stopped working. Great.   So I sat in front of the pellet stove and held the camera there for  a while till I could see the moisture was dry on the lens, but again, I'm sure the thing is toast.  I'm going to bed. 

Oh the other thing today, is Dually is sick.  not eating, moaning and throwing up.   Just friggin great..

I've got a sink and it works!

 probable backsplash

 copper apron front farmhouse sink directly from Mexico

 installing the faucet from ebay

 dishpan is in case there are any leaks --we have reinstall sink drains because I don't yet have the matching ones so the installation is all temp

 this is where the dishwasher will go

This is the window seat window -window seat not yet built-dishwasher to be installed not right there.

Audio books.

I am excited.  I went to the library and they helped me figure out how to download books to my Iphone.    I am listening to a Janet Evanovich book.  I wanted a number of other books but its the only one that was available.  It's ok because I put the others on hold and they will notify me automatically.  How cool is that.

So 50 deg today  and most all the snow is gone and it has been replaced with a lot of ice, but fortunately it will be warm again tomorrow and maybe some of that will also be gone.

Just put 2 ewes in the barn tonight. One looks ready to lamb.  We'll see how good a shepherd I am in the morning. If there are lambs then I am good.  I will be leaving fairly early in the am to give a duck clinic so I hope they are up and nursing and then I can leave easily. Looking forward to the clinic.  I hope everybody is happy with my presentation and they feel they learn something.  We'll see.

So today while I was listening to my audio book, I baked more cookies.  oh did I forget to mention I made peanut butter cookies yesterday and molasses cookies today.   I am going to bring a bunch to the clinic so I don't eat them all.

I also ordered a remote camera for the barn so I can hopefully see when lambs are coming and be semi prepared. Of course it won't arrive until Tues and theoretically I could be done lambing by then. I don't think there is a chance in hell of that happening but anything is possible. I do have one ewe that did not have any milk for her lambs last year so I am worried about her.  And I have a ewe that is too small and should not have been bred, but I planned to send her to market so I was not careful and now she is bred and not at market.  Hope that works out for me. 

Dare went after Peaches today when I took some peanut butter cookies out to living room to eat them and he must have thought they were his because he  attacked her when she came near.  I threw the nearest thing  at him to stop him. It was only kleenex boxes but it worked. She has a little mark on the top of her head .  I think she was getting the best of him.  AFter all she is top dog and he does give in to her eventually.

Fighting with the water

So I only have to water the livestock every few days but it involves dragging the hose out of the cellar and attaching to the outside faucet at which point I go back into the cellar and grab  the hair dryer.  I hook the hair dryer to the extension cord hooked to the duck water and turn it on.  I goes on for all of 30 secs and then shuts off and I can't get it back on.  I check the breaker, it's fine, I check the button on the outside outlet and reset it or so I thought.  Then I take the dryer in the house and try it on the plug in the bathroom.  It didn't work so I figured broke. I then took off my overalls and my big down coat and all my sundries and changed into a pair of jeans and another coat and went to Walmart to buy a new hair dryer.  I found one for $10 and drove home and changed back into the barn wear and went out and plugged it in and WTF the new one doesn't work.  Not possible, so I go back inside and get the old one and plug it in the kitchen and it turns on.  So I take it back outside and reset the other button on the outside plug and Voila it works.  Now I have a new hair dryer which I only use in the winter and never on hair.  Ah well.

Lets see, the rest of the day.  Hmmm. took the dogs out a couple of times because it wasn't that cold and I went to the dump and I picked up some sand at the town yard so I am ready for snow and ice.  I also  built a small pen out back so I can work the dogs a little bit before it gets too snowy and icy.

Too cold to spend much time outside

I almost spent the whole day in the house,but I finally put my coveralls on and took the dogs out and fed the sheep and the ducks and took the dogs out back to run for a few minutes. As cold as it is , they do better when there is no snow and more cold than with the snow on the ground. The snow gets all balled up inbetween their pads and makes them lame on all 4 feet.  funny but not that funny.

Might have spent 30 minutes outside but that's it.  I then put the heat on in the porch where the dogs can get inside and I left them all out for a couple of hours. They can use the doggie door to get in and out.  I guess it was long enough to make them tired because nobody is  bothering me right now. 

But what did I do today?  Laundry and I cleaned off my desk and sorted thru some stuff and actuallyfiled some stuff away.   Also bought one of the judges tickets for the trial in May so they are both all set to get here now.  Just have to work on the trial.   Also called and reserved a motel room for the clinic at the end of January.  Hope it's not too cold.  Hate to pay for heat here and then pay for a  motel on top of it. I am planning on working Edge mainly at the clinic. Might do some stuff with Dually but Dare will probably not do anything and Peaches just stays in the crate anyway.  Got to remember to bring dog coats in case they have to stay in the cars and its "really"cold.

Kitchen pics

I've run into a few people recently or talked to them on the phone who have requested kitchen pics so I will oblige. I am not finished obviously but slowly little we are making little steps forward.This week they installed a heater under the cabinet so I will have some heat in my kitchen . The pellet stove has a ways to go to get in there so I needed another heater. They also started to cut and fit the underlayment for the countertop.  I am pretty sure he went to buy the wood for the rest of the countertop on Sat which means he will be cutting and planing it this week before he brings it up to install.  In the meantime I am still looking for a backsplash.  I have a few I will show you but I need to get the piece of beadboard cut and put up because I have a feeling that is what I will want.Forgot to mention , there is a section of countertop already done and you can see it in the  acouple of pics.  It's black walnut plank style with a finish of tung oil.

 Not sure about this .  aluminum with leather type embossing for back of stove

 this is a 2in by 2in dot

 this has 2 copper with a design dots

 pulled out some tiles to put colored dots in. this is a green glass dot

 I really like this

6 by 6 tiles . the color is right but I kinda hate the type of tile it is.

 faces road

 This window faces the front porch with the front door being to the left.