My Haul

The kids got invited to a friend's house to play this afternoon and I got to have a little time to myself. It's wonderful and I was so excited that they got invited out to play. I hope they're on their best behavior and having a great time.

I decided to take the time to go see if Lowes had their cold weather veggies in yet. The broccoli and cauliflower did so well in the fall that I want to put in another round of them for the spring. They were in!

In addition, I got more collards and kale, since mine are being sluggish, swiss chard, since the ants and slugs ate all my seedlings, and brussel sprouts, just for fun. I bought the seed potatoes to plant in about a month and onion sets which are bigger than the ones I started from seed.

I also got 2 more blackberry bushes. Over the years, I have probably tried blackberries 10 times with no luck, but I'm determined to make it work!

Scilla, our new little Alpine, is a sassy little vixen. She came to me with a good bite out of her ear, which was reopened by a run-in with Kat. It's finally almost healed up, though she'll never have hair on the top of that ear again.

A couple of days ago, she ended up with this scrape to the inside of her leg. I'm guessing the older girls ran her through the Christmas tree or she did it in the stall waiting for her grain. I know that's how she re-opened it this morning. The stalls are made of rough-hewn lumber and she and Phoebe are always standing as tall as they can on their back legs until I get there with the grain bucket. I want to start feeding them on the stand, but haven't managed to get them through the gate without being pummeled by Kat or Onyx.

But Scilla just can't leave well enough alone. She goes out of her way to taunt Kat and Onyx and push her limits with them in every possible way.

Asher is doing well. He's learning what "leave it" means with treats. I'm going to have to parlay that into what "leave it" means for chickens.

I felt bad for him this afternoon. I was trying to bring a bin of chicken food to the hen house and Scilla, Phoebe and Onyx decided it was time to romp around me (presumably to see if they could get me to spill the content of the bin). One of them, I didn't see who, stomped on Asher. He cried out and growled. I don't like the idea of him growling at the goats, but this time it was well deserved.

NIMB and Privacy....hello?

I will get back to farm things, I promise, but I am just so frustrated with the world this week that I can't hold it in.

Air in a Can. Have you seen that? The smog in China is over 20 times safe levels. So here we are, screaming "Not in my backyard", shipping factories to China, shutting down coal plants, and burning up food so we can have "cleaner fuel" to gum up and ruin our engines.

Meanwhile, they're ruining the environment to their hearts' content (or their lungs detriment) over there and shipping us back poorly made crap to take the place of things that used to be made by Americans. I'm sorry, I just don't see how any of this makes sense to anyone.

And on to privacy. I believe they are conditioning school-age kids to have no expectation of privacy. Some districts are requiring students to wear ID cards with chips in them to track their location. If the student isn't comfortable with that, she gets expelled.

Then last week, I saw that a school removed the toilet paper from the boys restroom. I'm sure the stall doors had already been removed, as they were way back when I was in high school. Now seriously, what is wrong with these kids (and their parents) that they would think that vandalizing the restroom is in any way, shape, or form acceptable?

Then today, I read that a school is planning to snip 60 strands of  hair to drug test students! Drugs are bad, I get it, but doesn't my hair belong to me? Doesn't my kid's hair belong to him?

Enough ranting for the morning. I have goats waiting to be fed and milked.

Enough Phony Outrage

I am so incredibly sick of all these little kids being suspended and interrogated for toy guns, for inappropriate use of toys, for paper "guns", or even for going bang bang with their fingers!

Have these people gone completely mad? Little Jimmy and Susie Kindergartners are now terror threats? My heart goes out for these children who must be very confused and upset that they're in so much trouble for doing something so normal.

I notice that most of these reports come out of the Northeast. Is that simply a function of their proximity to Sandy Hook or a matter of the overwhelming big-government, nanny state mindset up there? I contend it's the latter.

Sandy Hook was a tragedy perpetrated by a sick man. Instead of recognizing it for what it was, the deaths of those children are being used to push this administration's unconstitutional agenda. And if a few little kindergartners get harassed in the process, it's for the greater good, right?

Stories like these make me thank the Lord that I am able to homeschool.

Puppy Pics

I haven't posted any pictures of Asher recently. He's a great puppy. But puppies like to play. When I've been out there for a while, he gets wound up and starts trying to play with the Alpines. It's driving me crazy!

Sick

I finally caught it.

It's been working its way around my extended family since the first of December and has at last decided to take up residence in my sinuses.

Why is it that you always feel worse in the morning? By yesterday evening, I was feeling okay. After a little cup of bourbon (I'm convinced it's the cure for the common cold), I was even out in the pasture playing with Asher and the goats.

Now I just feel crummy. And did I mention I've been up since 6:00 when hubby's Sports Center app sent out a "da-duh-da, da-duh-da" alert? What could have possibly happened in the world of sports at 6am on a Saturday that would justify a push notification?

It's going to be a two-cups-of-joe morning to get the energy I need to get going today.

Billy Goat Stink

I smell like a billy goat. Every sweater and coat I own smells like a billy goat. I put on a clean pair of jeans in the morning and by breakfast they smell like dirty dog and billy goat.

And I'm sure my nose is semi-used to the odor so I wonder what I must smell like when I go out in clothes that I think are clean.

Around the Farm

Onyx is still so funny- always standing with her feet in a bucket. She is having the hardest time adjusting to Phoebe and Scilla and torments them mercilessly. Evil doe.

Kat went into heat again last weekend. I'm starting to wonder if I'm ever going to get her bred again! She really needs to freshen. I need kids to sell and would like to be getting more than a quart of milk a day from her for the next year.

It makes me glad I bought the Alpines since I don't know if Kat will get bred and still don't know whether Onyx's left half will come back when she freshens. The vet gave her a 50/50 chance. It's a good thing I like her, because she has sure been trouble. If I ever buy a doe in milk again, I will require a CMT (California Mastitis Test). Live and learn- and lose a lot of money before you've learned. I want two doelings, hear that Onyx?!

Some of my dear friends lost their pygmy doe on Monday. So very sad. She was pregnant and they think she lost her mucus plug on Saturday. Then the breeder came out and said she had severe diarrhea. So severe, that it was just water and it was impossible to tell whether her wet tail was kidding related or sickness.

They are first time goat owners like me and my heart just breaks for them.

I better get my act together and go milk. It's cold out and I have been dreading going out in the mornings. And it's been taking so long to get chores done because I have to separate the new does to give them their grain and usually end up having to do some puppy training too. I can't wait for everyone to acclimate.