Happy Valentine's Day!

After a day spent surveying the damage from Thursday's seventy mile per hour winds, cleaning up and making repairs, its time for dinner out and a movie.

A rarity!

Looking forward to it.

Happy Valentine's Day to You!

Neocounter

One of the fun things for me on the blog is when a new country gets added to my Neocounter. As of a couple days ago, 13 and 14 added on, and so the list is now rotating through. Whoopee!!

I think its fun. I just wish I knew who these folks were and what their blog looks like. I think that's how most of us find a blog - off another blog.

I learn from the blogs I like by going through their lists, and so on, and so on...

I added a blog for the month of February from CNN. Its a reporter blogging about living on food stamps for a month. It adds up to $176 for the month, or $6.28 a day. The information about food, nutrition, recipes, the economy, health, stigma of food stamps, unemployment and more is all rather interesting and an intelligent read in my opinion. Some of the comments are educational too.

So far the reporter is doing well with it, and is also getting awareness to the topic, and seems to be affecting change. Who says one person can't make a difference? Anyway, the guy seems to making a really honest effort on this piece. Not fluff.

The Mystery is Over

My barn gloves of four or five years were suddenly missing around the New Year. I looked every place possible in the garage, barn, house, where ever. Today as I was using the hose to de-mud the dog, I found them over the wall and in the mulch, soaking wet, but okay.

We have had about three decently warm days where the snow and ice from January has ALMOST all melted. I guess they have been under the layers and layers of snow all this time. Well, now I have a spare pair for working guests!

Goats With Laryngitis

This was the moon last night and today is the full moon.

Maybe that explains some things...

This has been a rough couple of days for the twins, especially Trinity. Actually its been a rough couple of days on the farm hands too.

We finally have had this warm break in the weather and the fields are almost snow free. It was also time for the twins and Layla to join the herd. Actually it was past due, but the cold, ice and shelter situations delayed what should have happened at least two weeks ago.

Yesterday the twins learned about the big, bad world of electric fences. Yes they did! We put up a section of electric netting above the permanent fence so that the goats could get to some ungrazed field. They were all happy to be there although the twins did a lot of yelping as they tried to go through high tensile fence and sniff the electric net. So after thinking that they had learned what was what, we decided to walk Jock around the fields. Just as we had closed the alley gate, Trini started screaming. I took off for the goats while Dave took off to cut the power.

Two heart attacks later...try running on wet fields in rubber boots. Anyway, Trini was caught in the electric netting fence, and until I got to her, got several pulses. She was caught in a square up to her waist. (Actually that is about where she was caught today in the video you can see below). I had to first calm her down and then slowly peel her out of the fence. After that, she didn't stop yelling for a while, and by the end of the day she could only croak.

Today the goats were out in the sun again, and I worked on fixing holes still left from the fence installation, while observing what was going on with the goats. I wanted to make sure the twins memory was more than 12 hours regarding fences. There was one yelp from Neo, but in general everyone was chowing down and enjoying the weather. Things changed late this afternoon. The only reason I noticed that things were awry, was that I saw the head of little Miss Trinity sticking out behind the barn when I drove up the lane. I just figured she squeezed out between the gate, and so I went over to straighten things out. I guess I must have left a gate unchained, because everyone was by the barn door, waiting. Everyone but Trinity. She was stuck between the barn and a gate post. I couldn't get her going forwards or backwards and the post wasn't going anywhere in the frozen ground. I ran back to the house and called a neighbor, and Dave, and got no answers. So I grabbed a camera and went back to the barn.

VIDEO OF TRINITY STUCK BY THE BARN

If I sound a little stressed, I was. What finally worked was moving the rock that she had her front feet on, which lowered her just a little, and then SLOWLY backing her up. Her brother helped by standing on my back. Mom stayed by her side.

This Is My Cat On Drugs

Ever have days when you feel like this?

Or this?

Snickers could not get comfortable, but the sink seemed to work for her since she was into avoiding the carrier. Who knew what we were going to do to her if she got in that again!

This was yesterday and today she looks less druggie, but is still happy in the sink since the bathroom is much toastier than the barn. I think the ceramic is cooler. Then again, it looks like the heat must feel good on her belly. The vet instructions say to take her for a walk, so we are closing a few doors an letting her roam a bit. She seems very happy to find new nooks to sleep in, but hasn't had much energy for extended carrying on. We have to keep this up for 10 to 14 days. We'll see, but right now the bathroom is the kitten's room. I think the dog is a little envious, but he can't fit in to see what's going on. Its really tight in there.

And luckily, Snickers already has the dog trained.

Goat News in the Wall Street Journal

Yesterday the best piece of mail was right on top and I didn't even have to open it. The return address from my Princeton friend, a Ligonier native and Carnegie Mellon grad, had me smiling all the way to the house.

Inside was a real surprise. Goat news on PAGE ONE of the Wall Street Journal. Who woulda thunk?


"A Lehman-financed venture owes a company called Goats R Us about $53,000. The goats performed fire-prevention by munching shrubs and grass on a property the venture owns in Oakland, Calif."

The main point of the article is not good news for the Goats R Us people, but the story is informative and has some cute bits mixed in. It gives the goats personality, which of course, we goat owners already know about.

"Big land owners use goats for fire control because they are dependable and hard-working. They clear brush and poison oak, which two-legged landscapers try to avoid. The goats also are often preferable to herbicides, especially in residential areas, such as Oak Knoll.
"They were doing a good job at vegetation management,'' says Al Auletta, who was overseeing the project for the Oakland Redevelopment Agency. "The goats were pretty effective at that.""


If you want to read the whole article click below. Its pretty good.
Far Away From Wall Street, a Herd Gets Gored
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123276626553612633.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments

Spay Day

Snickers got to be an indoor cat last night in the seclusion of the kitchen bathroom.

No food after 6 and no water after midnight wasn't going to happen in the barn.

Poor Snickers.

She's at the vet, probably sore and groggy right now.

She hit six months and had her appointment to be spayed.

This morning she really wanted a meal but cuddling had to do.

None too soon, as I have seen another cat of unknown origin and sex around the past few days. We did our part adopting these two abandoned cats. They don't need to add to the population. If I need more barn cats, I know where to ask.

Meanwhile Mama Mia is acting like a lost soul. I can't believe it, but I think she is looking for her kitten. She sounds very sorrowful today, as she follows me around the barn and from window sill to window sill, crying.

VIDEO OF MIA CRYING WITH THE SIRENS