Meet the Goats

I know I am behind on this but, hey! I'm proud I got this posted at all! 

About a week ago we purchased two Alpine goats in milk. A friend of Leigh's was downsizing his farm so it was nice to be able to buy these ladies from someone we knew and someone who was willing to answer a lot of our questions. We fly by the seat of our pants a lot of the time!

They came with the names but they just didn't fit with our naming schemes on the farm. We decided that they needed new names. They were soon dubbed Ernestine and Nedra Faye. 

Back Story: My grandmother was born and raised in a tiny town called Christiansburg, Virginia. We have several keepsakes from her life. Among them is a yearbook. Two of the girls who signed her yearbook were Ernestine Slusher and Nedra Faye Tucker. Upon hearing these names my mom knew she needed two little girl kitties names Ernestine and Nedra Faye. This was probably close to 15 years ago. Every cat she has gotten since then has been a boy. I never saw them as kitties, I saw them as goats. So I got two goats before she got two kitties, so I win! 

As a side note that will probably be of little interest to anyone but my mom and myself, I found Ernestine Slusher on the census: 1920, 1930, and 1940. She was the oldest of 4 children, her parents were Quinn and Elsie Slusher. In 1940 she was working as a dental assistant in a dental office in Christiansburg.

Anyway, we call then Ernie and Faye for short. 

Here is Ernie:

Faye had to push Bailey around a little bit just to prove she was bigger and bossier. 

Here she is rearing up for a head butt. 

Despite being bossy with the other goats, she is very sweet. 

Seamus needed to come in and supervise the goat meetings. 

If you look carefully in this picture you will see Elliot in a purple shirt. He was out there just chatting up the goats. I finally asked him if he wanted to get into the pen. 

Never was there more joy in a little boy's face! 

He did ask me why one (Faye) had "big milkers" and the other one had "little milkers". I tried to explain that animals are different just like people. Faye gives almost twice the milk Ernie gives, but Faye has kidded 3 times and Ernie has only once. That seemed satisfactory to him. He then wandered off and I heard him mutter, "I like big milkers." Well, there you go. 

Ernie says, "You sayin' there's something wrong with my milkers?"

We will be drying off the goats in a few weeks, even though we just got them. We will breed then in September and we don't want to have to milk over the holidays. 2 weeks after they kid we will start milking them again. 

By far goats are the most work we have ever had to put into livestock, but I love not having to buy milk anymore!! 

Worst...Day...

in a long time. (I dont say ever because while Leigh was deployed consisted of worse days than this...but this one is RIGHT up there!) Oh and excuse the lack of apostrophes...Quinn pulled that key off the computer. 

So here goes:

1. Leigh woke up late and did not have time to milk the goats with me. So I had to do it solo. Keep in mind we do not have a milk stand, a goat hobble, or children that understand that goats like calm quite milking time. I did the best I could but I was unable to empty one of the goats. (I know you have not met them yet kind reader...you will...

2. We began to do school. Elliot for into my canning stuff and ate some sugar. Lord help us all! I gave him a pass on school today.

3. This morning I began attracting bears. If you do not know what that is click here. 

4. Heather came and got Julia, Elliot and Noah and took them swimming. I am eternally grateful for that. Unfortunately when they came home they were tired and grouchy. 

5. Leigh got home from work at 3:30 (he is in a school for this week so he gets off early). He came home and we needed to harvest 3 more chickens (We did 3 yesterday. They are in the fridge). At one point (while I am making a total of 10 pint of nectarine jam and 6 loaves of sandwich bread) he starts screaming my name. And this scream is unlike one I have ever heard in my life. It said to me: I am I have nicked my own artery, or one of the children has stopped breathing. I burst out of the kitchen to kind him having been attacked by the 3 roosters we had crated for harvest. One for away and the other two were pinned, but they got a hold of him and spurred him. Worth the scream? No. But whatever. I shook for almost a half hour. 

6. After I had processed the jam, I turned my attention to the birds. We plan on making chicken breakfast sausage with the meat and stock with the carcasses. I start a carcass in the pot (one of the ones from a few months ago we had in the freezer) I do it in the crockpot over night. YUM! I cut over 6 lbs of meat off 6 birds. I then vacuum seal the carcasses for future stock, then vacuum seal the meat parts. All the cutting is done with a very dull knife. Add to to-do: Get knives sharpened at the farmers market on Thursday.

7. #6 is done under the gun because Julia has her first day of girl scouts today. She missed last week for being a witch. It starts at 5 and at 4:37 I look at her and say get in the car. I dont have my shoes on. Head almost explodes. She gets her shoes on and I cant find Quinns ANYWHERE. Just then Jessica calls to ask me to pick up Kaylee for girl scouts. (Luckily the lady she is babysitting for comes and gets her daughter while I am on the phone. On the plus side, we left Quinns shoes at her house last night. She brings them to scouts.

8. Scouts goes great. I start feeling weird and I realize I do not have it in me to cook dinner. I also realize I have had 1 Dr. Pepper today. That is it. No other food, no other liquid. I stop by McDonald's. I order food. The jack up our order badly...we were jipped 2 orders of fries, but instead we are given 3 McDoubles with no onions and double Big Mac sauce, a double quarter pounder and small fry. Whatever. 

9. I tag out with Leigh because he has to go to a meeting for the provident living fair the church is putting on. We are doing a backyard livestock booth. He has to be there at 7. I get the kids to bed and I not have to go milk the goats. Yes, I am tracking it is 7 and they should have been done 2 hours ago. Heather calls and I rope her into coming to help. The milking goes fine except Feys milk is a little off color. Kind of pinkish. I call Leigh because after the provident living meeting he is going to a friends house to  help him do some yard work. (Normally he would say no but he is leaving for Afghanistan in 2 weeks.) Leigh tells me to google it because he doesn't have a clue. This is what I find: 

Pink milk is normal in a doe who is not being milked or being milked roughly by someone who doesn't know what they are doing. The swelling from the surge of milk bursts small capilarries under the skin, giving you pink milk.  

Yep that fits the bill...its a weird way to kick me while I am down though. 

10. Not as weird as this though: Elliot, in a fit of rage over not being allowed to swing from the fraters or some damn thing, takes pinking shears to my couch. The head cushion right in the middle. If one of you would please tell Leigh, I do not want to. 

11. While sitting in the office talking about my ridiculous day I still feel odd. I then start getting chills, goosebumps, and achy. I take my temp. 101.5. Well there you go. My ever supportive sister looks at me and says: Well, maybe you are teething. (A bit of an inside joke about certain parents we have nannyd for) Took a Motrin. In the amount of time it has taken me to write this it has gone up to 102. 

I think this is where I am supposed to drop the mike. Ill ask Leigh when he gets home.