Seven

We are extremely pleased with our new Nubian, Seven. She is absolutely the kindest little soul to ever walk this earth.

She's taken quite a liking to Rogue, the new LGD puppy. They get along great and have been seen sleeping together even.

We are really looking forward to producing some Mini-Nubians with Seven.

Rogue is turning out really great. Twice now, she's given an "alarm bark" after which I go and check up on it, making a great show of looking for the disturbance and telling her that she is a good girl for letting me know something is out there. So far, she doesn't appear to be a boredom barker, thank goodness. I do want to encourage her sounding off when she hears or sees something that might be a threat, and I think we're well on the road to that.

The extended pen is well on its way as well. Just a bit longer and I think we'll be able to haul everyone in together and get it up. I'm quite likely going to extend on side to run all the way across the back of the house. This means there will be goats right at my back door, but there's always a way around that! I'm thinking at first I can get set up a gated area to keep them away from the back door, and then later on, we can add a back porch. Won't that be nice! I can even put my milkstand on it and have an overhang, so I can milk in poor weather.

I am making a trip out of town for the first time in a long time. And it will be a trip without Steven. I know, astonishing!

I am going with my friend and neighbor to visit another friend, up in north Texas. She runs the River Bottom Ranch, and my beautiful little buckling is waiting for me. I can't wait to go, and see her, and all of her goats. We're even going to go riding, so very exciting. I haven't been horse back riding in some seven or eight years, which is sad because I used to work quite a bit with horses.

I may not be updating until I'm back from the trip, so be sure to check in after the weekend!

The Usual

Sorry its been a while. I was feeling really down after losing the bottle baby.

Things have been their usual around here. The daily in and out routine that I enjoy so much.

My brother has gone to work with husband, which is really great! They want him to cut his hair though, which he isn't happy about. But he'll do it, because you know, hair grows back but jobs right now are pretty hard to get. I'm hoping it all works out and he can start saving some money and get a hold on life.

We brought home Seven today. A Nubian. Yes, I said a floppy eared, loud mouthed, roman nosed Nubian! She is a junior and is just the sweetest thing ever. We fell in love with her some time back and when she came up for sale we couldn't resist. So she came home with us today.

We also went grocery shopping today. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Albertson's! We got a ton of food and saved over sixty dollars. It's the best. I love their sales on meats.

Rogue is doing really great in the goat pen. The other night she was barking at something. No idea what! But she was dead serious barking at whatever it was, telling it this was HER territory and that she was in charge around here. Super cute and great.

Not much else to talk about today, really. Check back soon for more.

I'm sorry

I'm so sorry little one.

It was a disgusting, cold, rainy day. I sledged through it as usual, bringing the irritated goats their hay and alfafa pellets.

You were laying with the two junior doelings. I didn't think twice of it. I checked the juniors, as they've been feeling poorly on and off lately. I gave them their morning dose of nutri-drench to keep their spirits up, gave everyone a pat, and went inside.

I came out to check on everyone and found you down, legs stiff, unresponsive. My heart was in my stomach as I rushed you inside. Your temperature was so low I couldn't get a read on it.

Desperate, I put you in a plastic bag up to your head and submerged you into hot water, trying to get your temperature up. I got you out and put you under a heater and a heatpad, rubbing you and praying.

I was too late. You passed away while I held you and cried.

I'm so sorry for not noticing you weren't feeling well that morning. I'm so sorry that something was amiss and you had to go.

It broke my heart to lose you on my wedding anniversary. You were my first bottle-baby and while you had your problems, little escape artist and loudmouth, you had your irresistible charms.

Today was almost worse, when you weren't there to greet me at the door, smug again in your ability to escape "fort knox" the goat pen.

I'm so sorry, and I miss you.

Rogue

Still keeping an eye on the situation with the mortgage company. They get one week before I call and "inquire" about it again.

We brought home our LGD! We've named her Rogue, and she is a right clever little thing. She already has a solid foundation on recall, and I've worked with her a little each day.

She has already graduated to spending a lot of time IN the goat pen. Yes, in with the evil head honchos, Rudy and Hope. They were not pleased of course, but amazing what a few squirts of water in the face will teach a goat.

Sure enough, they started ignoring her, and the youngsters of course could care less. They'll eat right next to Rogue.

So that's working out really well. I am really pleased with her.

America and Isis are nearly back to their old selves. I keep a hawk eye watch on them and make sure everything is going alright. The only conclusion I and others could come to was that the weather changes were upsetting their systems. I pray that their problems are coming to an end.

A very good friend and breeder of mine is selling out her herd now. I am extremely sad for her, and hope that things get better. She offered me first pick, and I decided to take a very beautiful yearling Nubian she has. We fell in love with this girl on a visit to her house, and I couldn't pass her up.

Sure, its a large breed, but she is disbudded and very gentle. I look forward to seeing out it works out.

I am looking forward to making a trip up north soon, to another breeder's home. The breeder of Romeo no less! She's invited me and my neighbor friend and goat breeder to come up and spend a couple of days. She has a beautiful ranch and I am really excited to go.

I haven't been on a trip separate from Steven in a very long time, if ever. I seriously don't remember ever being apart from him for recreational purposes. But I imagine he'll live, don't you?

I'll have to show my brother how to milk poor Hope though! I think he can manage it.

Speaking of my brother, he has an interview at Steven's work, yipee! Fingers crossed all goes well.

On a final note, I'm fairly certain I felt kids moving in Rudy today. Looks like April showers bring May kids.

Solutions

Sorry it took me a while to update, but been super busy.

We spoke to the mortgage company, and went up there. The lady in charge of this issue said it was going to be TAKEN CARE OF.

Awesome!

I am of course, going to stay 100% on top of it and MAKE SURE it gets taken care of, but its still a huge relief.

This means we won't lose our home or our tax return.

I will keep you updated on whether it actually gets taken care of or not.

On another note, my friend has decided to get out of Nubians. I was quick to ask about a certain young doe she has that hubby and I fell in love with during one visit over there.

Looks like we're going to be adding a gorgeous Nubian doe to our herd as well!

Mistakes

Funny how someone else's mistake can come to haunt you.

You may recall we recently bought this house. We closed in October.

Last night, hubby brought home a "Final Notice" from the county, stating there were back property taxes due, and if they were not paid in 30 days, they were filing suit and auctioning off the property.

Well that's a real kick in the teeth. As you can imagine we became very upset and I really dived into it. I looked up our property online, and sure enough, the property taxes have not been paid since 2003.

How ridiculous is that?

So here we are, thinking we're going to lose the house and everything we worked for. We certainly do NOT have the amount owed.

I broke out our settlement papers, and sure enough, on the Deed of Trust, it says Lein(s): NONE.

The mortgage company has made a very big mistake.

Now the question is, will they fix it?

We'll be finding out tomorrow.

Reviews

So yesterday we went out to the new Cracker Barrel in College Station and also saw Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton. So I'll go ahead and review those!

Cracker Barrel:

QUITE crowded! No surprise since it's a pretty popular restaurant and new in the area. The host quoted us ten to fifteen minutes and we found a place to sit outside. They provide areas to sit and checker boards, and we had a checkers game where I was pwned by hubby.

We were called in pretty quick, sat down, and had our drinks in no time.

Brother ordered a bacon cheeseburger, hubby and I the chicken fried steak.

Food came out at a good pace. Not super fast, but they provided a little game on the table with occupied us easily.

Brother realized his burger had mayo. He asked politely if he could get it without it; no problem, they only needed to replace that bun.

Hubby's chicken fried steak was good. Mine? Overcooked and crunchy to the point I couldn't eat it.

Seriously, it was just a dry piece of crunch. Hubby gave me a bit of his and it tasted quite good. The manager took care of it and removed my entire meal from our bill, but I didn't get to eat much and was disappointed.

All in all, excellent service, subpar food. The manager even told us it was frozen chicken fried steaks. Yuck!

Alice in Wonderland:

We saw it in regular 2D, as most 3D movies will give me a headache.

It was a little slow, but the acting was excellent. It moved along well despite being a bit slow and was full of chuckles and it had its moments.

It was a very strange movie, but coming from the book (it was a mixture of both Through the Looking Glass and Alice in Wonderland) and Tim Burton, what else can you expect? I enjoyed it, maybe not enough to buy the DVD though.

We didn't make it to the grocery store, hubby and I were fussing a little over some things. We had a long talk and worked it out that night though, and went grocery shopping today.

Came home to find poor little Isis not feeling well again. I've brought her inside and she's going to stay in the bathroom until I'm sure she's feeling well.

I've set up a creep feeder where the young and small goats can get to hay and feed without the big ones chasing them off all the time, I think it will help.

Moshpit

We managed to get the form we needed and got our taxes handled. Or at least, mailed off again with what is supposed to be the CORRECT form.

Of course, the IRS will take another 6-8 weeks to get back to us. Joy!

Thankfully, there is nothing that shouldn't be able to float until then. It just sets back a lot of my plans and really annoys me. But what else can you do right?

I am really looking forward to two trips coming up. One is a "girls get together" with two friends of mine, one of which is the owner of River Bottom Ranch and little Romeo. I'll be getting him when we get together. We are looking into going to the Tyler Texas State Park and having a "sleep-over."

The other one is when I'll be picking up two new does I'm purchasing. Both are just gorgeous girls and the breeder is really awesome. I'm looking forward to adding both to my herd at the end of this month/early next month.

Yesterday I went to a Health seminar put on by a local chiropractor. He really didn't talk about anything I didn't know already but its always good to hear a point of view from another person.

Tomorrow we're celebrating my birthday (it was Monday). We're going to have lunch at Cracker Barrel (I've never been!) and go see Alice in Wonderland. I can hardly wait, going to be ton of fun. Check back for a review both on Cracker Barrel and the movie.

Yesterday also, Isis was feeling very poorly. I found her lethargic, a bit pale, and miserable. Panicked, I brought her inside, hit her with Power Punch, Vitamin E with Selenium, a dose of Ivermectin, a dose of Strongid, and a dose of Corid.

She almost immediately perked up after that. I conferred with several friends, gave her a small dose of Vitamin B, some probios, pepto, and offered her more baking soda. (They have it free choice outside.)

The general consensus was that the sudden heat wave caused an upset tummy. She was back to her normal self in nearly no time, and went back outside that evening. This morning she seems to be doing fine.

I have started another round of Cocci treatment for the young ones, just in case, and am hitting everyone with a round of dewormer as well. We had some wet weather and then hot weather, a breeding ground for worms. Better safe than sorry.

Another topic, I really think the tap water here is making me sick. I weaned myself off of soda, and onto a sort of flavored water drink that is sugar and caffeine free. I mix a powder with water every day and have one.

And ever since then, I've had massive headaches near every day. I noticed that the days (my birthday and one other day) I allowed myself a soda for the day, I did not get a bad headache.

So I'm done with the water here, better safe than sorry! (I say that a lot) I'll be buying bottled water for my drinks from now on.

That should be it for today. Check back tomorrow evening!

The IRS

Ugh I'm so annoyed with the IRS.

As you know, we purchased a home last year. We qualified for a First Time Home Buyer's credit. I dutifully filled out the paperwork, made copies of everything I needed, and send it off.

I admit I was counting on the money a little bit for certain things. Something I know better than!

Yesterday we received a letter saying we didn't send the right form and that we have 20 days to rectify the situation, after which it will take an additional 6-8 weeks to receive our refund.

Ugh!

So now I have to take care of that, on my birthday no less, and get this mess sorted out. It really sets back a lot of plans we have but you know, what else can you do?

Blah.

On a vaguely related note, I've doubled my work hours. Tons of fun, right? That means I now get up horribly early in the morning so that I have enough time to work my new daily goal, and still leave enough time for everything else, including my current webmastering jobs.

I possibly picked up a new webmastering job this evening, for a goat friend. I'll be helping her redesign her website in exchange for goat milk soap. Sounds good to me!

Hubby laughs at me when he sees me trading my webmastering work for stuff like this, but hey, I really enjoy doing websites, its like a fun puzzle for me, so I might as well get something I want out of it without making some poor soul who needs a good website pay through the nose.

My way is obviously working, since I've got Blue Romeo coming from one "job" and now some LOVELY goat milk soap.

Yipee!

River Bottom's Blue Romeo

Recently I acquired pictures of the little buckling's sire and dam.

This is his dam: River Bottom's Maragette

















And his sire: Pecan Knoll Obadiah NDGA #05263M






















Aren't they just gorgeous? I can hardly wait to get my hands on the little guy. His name has been decided. River Bottom's Blue Romeo. Isn't it lovely?

Update on Hallie

A great short video showing the progress we've made with Hallie, the rescue doe we brought home in January.

Hallie came to us underweight, sickly, and appeared to have been traumatized in some way. She was literally terrified of people and not just the wild aspect I've handled many times, but flat out shaking in her hooves wide eyed horrified near humans.

I started by completely ignoring Hallie except for necessary health treatment and hoof trimming. In time I began talking to her conversationally when I was out there.

That moved to having her eat grain out of a bucket while I held it. I then moved to touching her from time to time for just a moment while she ate.

Today I caught her, squatted down, and petted her. As you can see from the video, it went quite well! She's on her way to becoming a spoiled part of K-n-S Farm. They don't call me the Goat Whisperer for nothing!

An update on the little buckling; he is indeed mine! I spoke to the awesome owner of River Bottom Ranch earlier today and it looks like I may be able to pick him up on Friday. Very excited!

I also spoke with the owner of two does I have put a deposit on and gained permission to borrow the pictures she has for my website. She is also sending me new pictures and a picture of the sire of the doeling soon.

I am just absolutely pleased with all the positive changes coming!

Possible Buckling Addition

Wow! Look at this little stunner!

These were the pictures e-mailed to me by the wonderful breeder at River Bottom Ranch. I am doing some work for her in exchange for a buckling from her milk lines.

So far, this is the only buckling born at her ranch and he is just absolutely gorgeous.

He was born on Valentine's Day and so far she is calling him Mr Blue.

My eyes just about popped out of my head when I saw him, I tell you. She had teased me earlier, telling me she had a blue-eyed buckling born, the likes of which she had never seen before. And then proceeded to lose her camera!

Needless to say I was on the edge of my seat waiting for these, and it was worth the wait!


This little boy is from awesome milk lines. Perhaps not champion quality but far better than my own. He will add awesome improvement on his daughters, and his color and beautiful blue eyes will help make sure his sons find awesome pet homes.

I am not 100% certain if she is going to allow me to take this fellow as my payment for the work I've done, but I'm hoping this is the case! Why else would she send me these stunning pictures, after all, right?

As you can imagine, I can hardly wait to make this fellow part of the herd. And he'll be ready to try out his new job with my younger does early next year I'm hoping.

With luck, I will be adding a second buck shortly after, so I can have two clear bloodlines to breed too.




I had quite the adventure tonight as well. My friend and neighbor raises goats as well, a few Nigerians and some larger breed Nubian does and Nubian mixes. My favorite doe from her herd decided to kid somewhere in three acres of briar and thorn vine, and leave the kid behind!

Needless to say I headed over there, around 9PM at night, and got some flashlights and helped her husband search for the baby or babies. After about an hour, he finally called to me that he found it!

I was very relieved and we came back to the house to reunite the mother and kid. My friend was ecstatic to see that it was a beautiful little chamois doeling. Just a beautiful little creature that looked like a little rabbit hiding in the woods. And so they christened her "Bunny."

A suitable name, in my opinion.


And a final tidbit for tonight: The aforementioned bottle-baby of K-n-S Farm has officially been renamed.

Her new name?

K-n-S Farm Ninja.

Don't you laugh! This little monster can and has found a mysterious way of getting out of the pen, despite my best efforts. Perhaps she levitates over it. She gets out in the morning whenever she feels I've slept long enough, and runs to the front porch to yell at my window, demanding I get up and feed everyone.

She also has perfected the wall jump. She runs as fast as she can, leaps onto the wall, springs off, and lands perfectly. Quite a sight to see. So her new name is Ninja.

Judgement

I was on a forum today (like all days) and people were sharing pictures of cute dogs.

I of course love my little Chihuahua Luna and posted a couple of pictures, including some of her in one of her outfits.

Someone took it upon themselves to call me out for being "cruel" to my dog.

They said that dogs did not like being clothed, that I was torturing her by forcing her to wear clothing. I was a cruel bad owner, and I probably fed Alpo to her and never clipped her nails and carried her around in a bag everywhere.

??????

What?

So this person figures all of this out because I post a picture of my little queen dressed up? Are you joking me?

Let me clarify by saying first, yes, Luna does have a wardrobe of clothes. Guess how often she wears any of them. Almost never. Why do I buy them? Because it makes me happy and once in a rare while there's a reason for her to put something on.

Is it torture? Cruel? I cannot ask Luna to tell me this, only show me. When I open her little wardrobe up and get something out and call her over, does she cringe and hide? No. She runs over and sits down and waits. She cooperates at putting her little legs through the shirts.

As opposed to hats, which she will scrape off her head in a moment.

So, going by her reaction, clothes are not cruel torture. Indeed, she has sweaters which I put on her if she is feeling very cold. Once a sweater goes on, she sleeps better and shivers less.

Now to the slanderous other remarks and assumptions this person made.

Do I feed Alpo? Hell no. I wouldn't give that slop to the neighbor's evil dog, let alone mine. Luna has allergies, and generally eats a mixture of raw foods and IVO chicken. She in excellent weight, not fat not thin, and her skin, coat, eyes and teeth are clear and clean.

Have I never clipped Luna's nails? Are you joking me? I clip dog nails every two weeks. Luna sits patiently and holds her paw up. Show me another chihuahua that does that. And I've seen a ton of evil little finger biters, having worked in dog grooming.

Do I carry Luna around in a bag? Are you joking me? She has four legs, just like my other dogs. She walks on a leash. I do pick her up if she needs to be picked up, but for the most part, she heels on and off leash. I don't even own a doggy carrier.

So what this all boils down to really. Does anyone have the right to judge another person based on something so innocent? It's one thing for someone to post pictures of an emaciated animal, to call them out and say something then, but to call out someone for something you perceive as cruel just because you don't like it? No.

There's a big fat line between something that is actually cruel and something that isn't. I don't agree with carrying a perfectly healthy chihuahua around in a purse. Does that make it cruel? No. Do I call someone out for it? No. It's none of my business if that's what they choose to do.

If someone posts a picture of their obviously skinny horse, do I say something then? Yes. But often tactfully (at least at first) and I make an effort to find out what's going on and help.

The point is, don't make assumptions about someone over something so ridiculous.

You might be wandering about what I said to this ignorant fool. I told them to get a life, grow up, and go volunteer at the Humane Society and really see what cruelty and torture is, and stopped posting on the thread.