Kidding Season

We started off the season with a bang this year.

I used an on-line gestation calculator on the ABGA (American Boer Goat Association) website to calculate the approximate due dates for each goat.  Back in October, I took note of which doe was bred on which day.  Billy kind of concentrates his efforts on one doe for a day or two, so I just observed them each day to, hopefully, get a more accurate due date for each of them.

Apparently, my method worked pretty good because yesterday was Pansy's due date and she went into labor at 7:00 last night.  Usually, she has her babies when I'm not around and I just arrive to see her cleaning them up.  As luck would have it, I went to check on her right after Wheel of Fortune and I could tell that she was in early stages of labor.  So I stayed to watch, hoping to video it on my new GoPro camera.  (That was not to be because I didn't have it charged and it died too soon).

Daughter-in-law came out to sit with me and watch the birth, but by 8:45 Pansy had birthed nothing but a bubble of the water sac, which burst and then...nothing.  It was fairly anti-climactic.  I remembered reading somewhere that if a kid is not born within an hour of the doe starting to push, then something was not right and someone would have to do something.  By 9:45, no baby had made it's debut and that someone was going to have to be me.  I did not want it to be me.  I did not want to do something.  Waiting for nature to take its course sounded like the best option to me.  So, we waited.

10:45 and still no baby.  So, Daughter-in-law went and got her iPad to do some googling for me.  I had her go to the Fiasco Farm website first, because they're the kind of bible of all that is goat.  That site said there should be a baby within an hour (that must be where I read that).  Other sites said anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, there should be a baby, otherwise, the babies might die or have brain damage from lack of oxygen.  We were at the two hour mark, so it was time for action.

The websites said to get gloves, make sure hands or gloves were clean and feel around in the birth canal searching for feet.  I don't know about anyone else, but that is not enough information for a novice like me.  For those of you who are in this situation or might be in this situation in the future, read on.  This experience doesn't make me an expert, but this information I sure could have used last night.

OK, so I got my rubber gloves and slathered them with Purell Advanced (Purell Advanced is the only hand sanitizer that really does kill 99% of germs.  Tom had done the research back when the flu season started).  I couldn't put it off any longer, so...I went in.  Yes, I put my hand inside the vagina of a goat.  This is the something that I did not want to do.

It was surprisingly easy.  She was very slippery, so I didn't need a lubricant as the other websites had suggested.  I was very timid, so I started out with just a few fingers.  I quickly realized that more than a few fingers needed to go in and that, if a baby goat (or two or three) was going to come out of that canal, then surely my hand could go in.

So, in went the hand.  I couldn't feel anything that felt like a baby goat part, least of all, bony little feet.  I put my hand in a little past my wrist and this was where I really felt like I could use more information.  How far is too far?  How gentle did I need to be?  Was I going to puncture some vital organ or poke and eye out?

I got in there far enough to feel what I thought was tiny little ribs.  If that was the case, the baby was sideways across the birth canal and nothing was coming out and I decided that we needed some expert medical intervention and went to call the vet at 11:00 at night.  She said to bring Pansy in and she'd meet us at the clinic.

So, I woke Tom up, he hooked up the trailer (no small feat in the dark), and Son helped me pull Pansy by the horns and hoist her up into the trailer.  As you can imagine, she was not at all thrilled to be shoved into a trailer in the middle of the night in the middle of birthin' babies.

We arrived at the clinic at midnight.  Dr. Missy (a new, young vet fresh out of vet school) slathered her arms (up past her elbows) with some sort of cleaning agent (meant to ask her what it was so I could have have some on hand).

  (Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this because I forgot my camera and my iPhone pictures did not turn out well)

It turns out, the baby was, indeed, sideways and tangled up with her brother.  The Dr. worked for 45 minutes sorting them out, turning them around and getting them out.  Pansy was not happy and she bellowed loudly, but she did not try to get away or stop the doctor's activity.

The second kid was doubled over sideways and after a lot of digging around, the doctor pulled him out back feet first.  Both kids are healthy and vigorous.

Tip #1: Be prepared to go in past your wrist.  Dr. Missy had her entire arm inside the doe.

Tip #2:  You do not need gloves.  Just clean your hands real good.  It is hard to know what you are feeling with gloves on. Clipping your fingernails is a good idea. 

Tip #3:  Don't be afraid to dive right in and sort out body parts.  Find the two front feet, try to align the head up with the feet and PULL.  Nice and steady.  The preferred way is front feet first, but it is possible to pull it out by the back feet.  Of course, you want to be as gentle as possible, but from what I observed, the doctor was rummaging around in there like a kid looking for his favorite toy in the toy box.

Tip#4:  It is possible for the babies to survive at least three to four hours after the water breaks.

Tip #5:  Have meds handy if possible.  Penicillin to prevent infection, Oxytocin to help the uterus contract, and a tetanus shot.  If you don't have them and it's the middle of the night, get them as soon as you can the next day.

Thanks to Daughter-in-law for hanging in there with me and taking pictures.

I need a nap.

Vardo, Part Four

Wallpaper!

The wallpaper finally arrived from Lowes.com.  It's risky buying wallpaper over the internet because I really didn't know how the colors were going to turn out in real life.  The "red" in the print turned out to be a little on the pink side, but it'll still look good with the planned red curtains.

It took me a day and a half to install the wallpaper in the slide-out.  Thankfully, when I unscrewed the window trim, the windows didn't fall out on the ground.  

I need ideas on covering the sofa.  Possibilities (1) taking the cushions off completely and putting a futon mattress in it's place; (2) Making a slip cover.  I don't really want to take off the old fabric and recover it.  If I take it off, then it's off for good.  The fabric is clipped on with really stiff wires underneath.  Not fun.

In the meantime...curtains and crown moulding.

My Disgrace

So, my equine loving neighbor called me a few days ago.  She said her farrier would be at her place this Tuesday (today) and could she have Pony's feet trimmed.  Ah, there's nothing like a horse person noticing that you've neglected your equines.  Yes, I have been neglectful.  To my credit, I did notice that Pony could barely walk.  I did check on her and made a mental note to myself to call the farrier.  I did let a week go by without doing that (my terrible procrastinator self).

I deserved to be disgraced and I was.  But...all is well.  The farrier came over and trimmed Pony's feet and she's walking better already.

While the farrier was here, I was able to slip little donkey, Sophie, in there, too.  Her feet were so long that I don't know how she could even walk, much less run (but she could and did).  She was not happy about the feet trimming.  After working on a very upset Pony for a while, they gave her a break and started on Sophie.

After quite some time of kicking and thrashing, the farrier and my neighbor (who was a great help) decided to lay her down....

...and hold her down.  Neighbor layed across her and held three feet in his hands while farrier clipped away.

This might look easy, but this was a moment of calm during several storms.

Sophie kicked and thrashed and flailed and got her head stuck in the fence.  (Her head was behind neighbor's shoulder between the two fence slats).  Everyone (but me because I was standing there, useless, taking pictures) was bloody by the time it was over.  I've gotta hand it to them, neighbor and farrier stuck it out, stayed in a good humor, and got 'er done.  When it was time to let her up, they had to pry her head out of the fence, scraping her eyelid in the process.  Poor little thing.

Then, it was back to Pony.  I don't have pictures of this because I felt like a dope standing there taking pictures while they were struggling with a rearing, jumping, twisting, falling, fit throwing Pony.  I should have stuck it out, though, because it was really something to see.  It's a good thing she's little or she could have caused some damage to life and limb.

But, it's done and I'm on the farrier's schedule, which works better for me since I put off phone calls to schedule those kinds of things.

Happy Avengers Day!

Liam attended a Valentine party today.  The children exchanged Valentine cards and ate lots of sweets.  This evening when we asked him what today is, his answer was, "Rebengers Day!"

Why would he think that?

Cajeta

I told people at the beginning of 2013 that it was my goal to save enough goat milk to last us through until the next milking season.  But, frankly, I got tired of the milking routine and put an end to it earlier than I had planned.  So, I thought I wasn't going to achieve my goal.  But, with just Tom and I using the milk, it turns out that I did reach that goal.

Well, it's not milking season yet, but it will be pretty soon and I still have quite a bit of milk left in the freezer.  I need to empty the freezer out to make room for the milk that my three milkers will produce this season, so I decided to make some cajeta.

Tom and I first read about this in an article about some Texans with a Nubian goat dairy farm.  It is a Mexican sweet sauce, like caramel or dolce de leche (or so I'd read) and can be used to top all kinds of desserts, or just to eat with a spoon.  It can be made with cow's milk, but I'm not sure why anyone would bother since cajeta is a goat milk thing.

It has to cook several hours and has to be watched and stirred diligently, so I waited until I was going to have a full afternoon to devote to it.  In one article I read, the dairy that made it, presumably in large quantities, let theirs cook for about eight hours.

But, I wanted to start small, so I started with one quart of milk and it took me three hours from start to finish.  I read several recipes and combined their collective knowledge in hopes of keeping it as simple as possible and hoping for a good outcome.  It was surprisingly easy.  The hardest thing about it was not being tempted to run off and do other things, risking burning the sauce.

The ingredients were:

1 quart goat milk

1 cup brown sugar (you can use white for a lighter sauce)

2 tsp. vanilla extract (not imitation)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda dissolved in one Tbs. water (or, one recipe suggested cow's milk instead of water.  I'm not sure why)

Some recipes called for one cinnamon stick and some for rum, which is probably delicious and I'll likely try one of those the next time.

Bring all ingredients except for dissolved baking soda to a boil.  Some recipes said to put all ingredients together in the beginning.

Use a wooden spoon to stir...something about reactions to metal, blah, blah, blah.  Just do it even if you don't understand why.

  I chose to add the baking soda after the sauce came to a boil.

Take the sauce off the heat and add the baking soda/water and stir like crazy because it really foams up and may bubble over.

After that, just put it back on the stove and simmer over low heat until it's done.  The description of doneness was that it will thickly coat the back of a spoon and that while stirring, the spoon will leave a delayed trail and you'll be able to see the bottom of the pan for a second or two.  If you like to use a candy thermometer, it's supposed to reach 220.

One quart of milk made exactly one pint jar of cajeta (with a little left in the pan for licking).  And, they were right...it is delicious!  I'm trying to think of things to put it on without getting too fat.

If you want to make this, see to it that you have plenty of things to do in the kitchen so that you won't be tempted to leave for a few minutes.  Although, I was able to dash back and forth putting clothes in the washer/dryer, for the most part, I stayed in the kitchen and stirred.  I was able to shred a block of peccorino with my new processor, clean the kitchen, surf the web, and cook dinner.  I'd probably have a cleaner kitchen if I made this stuff regularly.

Boutique Pumpkins

My heirloom sugar pumpkins did so well this past season that I was able to give many away to friends and family.  I also gave about a dozen to our favorite local cafe.  So, I've decided the new thing for the garden this year is going to be boutique pumpkins.  These are pumpkins that are different shapes and colors than the regular round orange ones.  They can be used for fall decoration as well as cooking and eating.

I ordered several different kinds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and they arrived in the mail today.  I love ordering things on-line.  Ordering gardening and farming stuff reminds me of a song we learned in high school chorus, The Wells Fargo Wagon

I tried to choose pumpkins that would look good together if they are used for decoration.

"Galeux d'Eysines"

pronounced "Gal-OH deh-ZINE"

Salmon peach colored skin, covered with warts.

"Flat White Boer"

This is a pure white pumpkin, but shows yellow in my lighting.

"Winter Squash Iran"

Foam green, mottled in soft peachy-orange.

Is it a bad sign that they don't actually have a picture of the pumpkin and someone had to draw it for the package?

"Marina di Chioggia"

Pronounced "ma-REE-na dee kee-OH-ja"

Deep blue green and warty.

"Jarrahdale"

Slate blue-grey.

And the seed company threw this in as a freebie.  The package says it's a summer squash to be harvested all summer long.  So, I guess I'll give it a try, too.

I'm hoping to have enough to sell at our local farmer's market that is open on Saturdays.

Beanie Baby

Just because he is so cute and The Nephew is missing him.

Bye-Bye Oskar

For my birthday, Tom bought me a super-duper top of the line food processor to replace the 25+ year old Sunbeam Oskar mini processor that I had complained about this past summer.

We researched and read all sorts of reviews and finally decided upon the Breville Sous Chef food processor.  It really was more money than I wanted Tom to spend, but after reading reviews, he insisted that this is the one I need, and I agreed.

I went from the little two cup capacity, two blade attachments to this 16 cup behemoth.  (note to self: remove toilet paper from background in the future)

There's also a mini cup for smaller jobs that fits inside the big cup and at least eight different disks and blades for various chopping, slicing, and dicing.  This should make the zucchini shredding and cucumber slicing a breeze this summer.  There's even an emulsifying disk for making butter, which I can't wait to try.  The directions claim that cookies, cakes, and milkshakes can be made in this thing.

So excited!

(Who says that women don't like to get kitchen appliances as gifts from their husbands?)

Vardo, Part Three

Still waiting on wallpaper, so I reupholstered the dinette.  This would have been a very quick project, but every time I hit a snag and things didn't line up just right, I got discouraged and stopped working on them.  I didn't figure out a good system until I was working on the last cushion, which went together easily and quickly.

This is the before picture.

And the after.

These little white tab things are screws that hold the two trim pieces in place.  I have to make covered buttons for them when I can find the proper parts.  They don't sew on like conventional buttons, but snap on with a little plastic ring. 

LIam Sez

 I love children's pronunciations.

"Chocolate Sustash"

"Han Sizatizer"

"Kooky"

"Hillbiller"

Vardo, Part Two

While I'm waiting for Lowes to ship the wallpaper that I ordered (weeks ago, grrr) for the walls of the slide out, I decided to go ahead and do the ceiling with a paintable vinyl wallpaper embossed with a tin ceiling tile pattern.  It was on the shelf at Lowes and I just had to buy one roll.

This is what the ceiling looked like before I started.  In the past, I've been very anti-wallpaper.  I never wanted it in my house and never, ever wanted to install it.  Bleh.  But, it seems the cheapest, easiest way to go in the trailer, and cheaper than buying actual ceiling tiles.  So, for my first wallpaper job ever, I'm doing a ceiling.

The area is thirteen by three feet, so I decided to install the paper in the direction of the short side, cutting several strips of three foot long wallpaper.  I used my rotary cutter using the cutting mat as a straight edge.  It worked great.

Zip, zip.

Even though this paper was pre pasted, I bought a tub of vinyl to vinyl paste and brushed it on with a paintbrush.  It really was very easy and I have a ton of it left, so I'll be able to do the whole Vardo project without having to buy more.

My first strip!

And the finished install.

A few days later, when I was sure the paper wasn't going to fall off the ceiling, I painted it a dark grey.  

I really liked how it looked with just the one coat of paint, but I thought I might be able to get a more aged look and more depth if I added a lighter grey on top.  I used a sponge and just lightly swiped over the paper.

So, it's finished except that I might add a light coating of metallic paint.  

Losing a Big Oak, Gaining Firewood

We had this wonderful old oak tree die last summer.  It had been ailing, I'm not sure why, but had a big spot on it that we had the Arbor Barber treat a couple of years ago.  I think the drought finally did it in despite my faithful watering.

The tree is right by the much used path that leads from the house to the barn.  We were afraid that it might start dropping branches on us as we walked back and forth.  In addition to that, we need more firewood.  We are shocked at how much wood we're using this year.  Tom had the wood shed completely stuffed with wood and we were all ready for the winter.  But, winter came early to Texas this year.  We're getting many days of freezing temperatures and we've already used half (maybe more, I haven't looked in a few days) of the wood Tom had stored up.

Thankfully, we're having a nice mild week and are able to get some farm work done.  Cutting this tree down is one of Tom's goals.

An acquaintance of ours has this cherry picker that was broken.  Tom fixed it for him, so he's letting Tom use it for free.

Driving the cherry picker, Tom is maneuvering the bucket into place.

He's using a chainsaw on a stick.  As a side note, this is why it is nearly impossible for me to buy Tom a Christmas present.  This morning he said to me, "You know, if you want to get me an early Christmas present, I sure would like to have one of those chainsaws on a stick (I'm pretty sure that's not the technical term for it, but I can't really remember what he called it) like your brother has.  I think it would be safer to use."  I got all excited and planned to go get him one this very afternoon because I have yet to think of anything he would want for Christmas.  But, within the space of about ten minutes, he had gotten on the internet, found the best one for the best price and in five more minutes, was on his way to Tractor Supply to buy it for himself.  

Well, so much for that idea.

Up in the sky, ever so high.

He got all the major branches off and just has the main trunk to deal with tomorrow.  That there is a big load of firewood already.  He probably won't be able to fit the whole thing in the woodshed.

I hated to lose that tree, but there are two or three smaller ones surrounding it that will benefit from the sunlight that they will now receive.

Vardo, Part One

I've embarked upon a new project, mostly just for fun and to satisfy my decorating appetite.  This one will probably be a long drawn out process (I still haven't finished recovering my dining room chairs from last year at this time...well, I did predict that it would probably take me a year or more) for three reasons:  (1) I'm a procrastinator; (2) I seem to be able to work on these kind of projects only when the mood strikes...and the mood doesn't always strike often enough; (3) It's big, so I'm only setting small area goals.

Well, enough of that.  I'm turning our  travel trailer  into my version of a Gypsy Vardo.  If you'll remember, the trailer had leaks which Nephew repaired by completely tearing out and rebuilding.

Instead of replacing the cabinetry that was on this wall, I had him fill the wall with shelving.  I thought it would be better use of the space.

You can't see the whole wall (in the back) because the slide-out is in, but where there were once upper and lower cabinets with dead space in between, there is now an entire wall of open shelving.

Painting the shelving was the first thing I did.  It was the most easily implemented part of the plan; something I could accomplish quickly and cheaply without getting discouraged by the enormity of the project.  To save money, I went to the local paint stores and bought their "mis-tints".  Those are the paints that were custom made for customers who decided that they didn't like the color so they returned them to the store.  I got a gallon of Sherwin Williams premium flat paint in a neutral color for one buck.  I used it as a primer instead of buying their regular primer, which is probably 20-30 bucks.  The only paint I had to buy for regular price was the red because I couldn't find a mistinted red and I really wanted to get finished with this part.  

I also painted the kitchen cabinets with a mis-tint.  You can see the teal color in the bottom left hand corner of the picture above.  Even though I'm finished painting them, I'm not ready to show the kitchen yet because I still have some work to do on it.

To finish this wall, I had to make the curtain for the window.

I ordered enough red velvet from Hobby Lobby to do all of the windows in the trailer.  There wasn't enough room to mount the curtain rod the way it's supposed to be (on the wall at the corners of the window) and I had to hang it from the shelf above.  It's not ideal, but it works.

And I got these at the flea market, which are looking pretty tiny all alone on the shelves.

Y'all might be wondering why in the world I'm doing this.  Well, besides the "fun" aspect of it, I really can't see this travel trailer ever doing any more traveling.  Because of the leaks, I couldn't, in all good conscience, sell it to anyone who wanted to use it as it was intended.  I decided we should keep it as overflow guest quarters and for living space for family in the event of an economic crash (and I feel compelled to say "which we are hoping won't happen, but Tom still thinks it will").

So...I want it to be comfortable and cozy for guests, but I can't fill it up with a bunch of unnecessary, (but cool) stuff, because if someone actually has to live in it, they'll need the space for their own stuff.  But, I need to put the necessities in there for guests.  I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for colorful old china dishes, rugs, etc. at the flea markets, junk shops, and on-line.