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.

Customer Service

Why is it so hard to find GOOD customer service now days?

Let me use my personal example. I have internet. Until recently, it was very good, reliable internet.

Then we had that cold snap. And ever since, our internet has acted like crap. It times out, disconnects, has constant errors and is just generally acting poorly.

Which I cannot have, since I work online.

I have called the company several times to ask them to fix it. Twice they put in a "Trouble Ticket" and assured me someone would call back to go over the issue.

Did anyone ever call back?

Hell no.

So tomorrow I will be calling and really letting loose on them. I have a lot of patience with people, because it is certainly not THEIR fault my internet is not working, but this time I am going to ask for a supervisor and really get this fixed. It is imperative that my internet works, both for my peace of mind and because I work online!

Grrr.

On that same basic subject, I've applied for a "real" job. Still a work at home, but this time with permanent hours and a "real" paycheck. I've sent in my application and hope to hear back soon. Fingers crossed, as this could be our salvation.

Hallie's limp has really improved, I really got into those hooves and got them looking better and have been treating the hoof rot. Looks like we caught it before it became bad. I'm glad to see her looking even better. It does not appear that she is pregnant, so with good luck, she will be ready to breed to the lovely buck I have lined up for the end of the year.

I have a new picture of our future LGD. Isn't she cute?

A Future Guardian

Sorry, but no post on the whole goat scandal I recently delt with. I am trying to worm a bit more information out of the person in question, so I'll have to wait a bit longer. But no fear! It's coming soon.

Instead, tonight I'll introduce my future Livestock Guardian. She was born recently here, to a Great Pyrenees dam and a Great Pyrenees/Anatolian sire, both excellent guard animals.

Without further adieu:

Isn't she just a gorgeous little thing? She'll, with work and luck, grow into K-n-S Farm's Guardian, caretaker of the herd and watchdog. We really look forward to having her here and working with her, and having some peace of mind when it comes to the herd and their safety.

How many of you use LGs? Are they canine or equine or other? Have you had good or bad experiences with them?

I've used a donkey before, way back in the day when we had meat goats. He was mean and grouchy and hated everyone. Not the best experience!

In other news, our current bottle-baby, Baby (I know, real original right?), has discovered that she can leap out of the fence. How you ask? Well, we have cattle panel, and on all of them except one, the entire panel is covered with wire with smaller openings, to prevent escapes. On one panel, it only goes partway up. Well miss smarty pants learned to leap right over that part and out of the hole in the panel.

Too clever for her own good. She's turning into a right spoiled little thing, something I've tried to avoid but seem to be failing at! She's our first bottle baby, we've avoided them in the past but she was too cute to pass up, especially when my favorite doe failed to give me a doeling to keep for the second year in a row.

Baby stays outside with the other goats, but does get a little house time after being fed in the evenings.

I look forward to having her grown up and running about the house...sort of.

Keep checking back for more!