Tuesday April 10, 2007

Fed the animals and Jarred showed up to work for the day. We moved about 2 tons of hay from a pile in front of our barn to various barns that will need hay on and off through the summer months. I groomed and worked with Big Red, Sahara and Rose on leading and manners. Walked Big Red to the far pasture to return him to the other youngsters. Keeping Rose and Sahara in a pen near the house for a bit - they need daily work right now. Worked with them for a few hours then went in to sleep some.

Seeded pastures (3 of them) and got the greenhouse and garden fence torn down. It was rotting and we have decided that more effective in this climate would be window boxes that sit closer to the ground. One of the female turkeys got caught in her fence and badly hurt. We put her down and slaughtered her. She is in the oven now. I had hoped to keep her for breeding, but she was just too badly hurt.

Fixed some downed fences in the Blue Moon pasture. Tired tonight.

Week without Internet - Dave's Job

Things are not going well with Dave's job situation yet. We moved him out to Minneapolis to work for a firm that hires people out to big companies to do high tech work for them. Our understanding of what we were getting into was different than what is there. They do not have a job for him yet and will not put him on the payroll until they do. So he is still not working. He has begun applying for jobs all over the country again. Had an interview in L.A. yesterday. I feel like we are starting over.

Talked him into taking the train from Minneapolis and coming home until we hear something. No reason for him to be sitting out there when he could be here. He leaves tonight (Tuesday) and will get home Wednesday evening. About a 22 hour drive.

Week without Internet - Death and Crying For Days

Some aspects of ranch life I will never find easy to take. I do not know why death has to be such a constant companion of nature.

I got a week-old baby goat last week which I tried to get one of my mothers to accept. When they wouldn't, I took her in the house to raise like a puppy. I bought her diapers made for dogs (she never had an accident in the house, once) and I bottle fed her. She romped around the house and followed me all over the ranch. Her name was Rambler and I really adored her. Every afternoon I put her out with the other goats for a few hours so that she got use to being with goats as well as people. Then we'd do back to the house and she would sleep on my lap or explore the house until she got tired, then crawl into the bed I made for her and sleep through the night.

Thursday evening, I went to town and I became so exausted I couldn't figure out where I was or what was going on around me. I got myself to my sister's house and just crashed. Was about as wiped out as I have been in a long time - could barely function. I slept until late and then limped home. I had put Rambler in the goat pasture before I left for town and I checked on her briefly when I returned, then left her there. I didn't have the energy for anything but sleeping. I went to bed.

The next morning I found her dead. I assume she got trampled by the other goats and, without a mother to protect her, couldn't get out of the way. I didn't know that was a risk, but I should have. I have seen it happen before - small things can't get by without protection. I stood there stairing at her and I couldn't believe my little one was dead. I kept begging myself to do something differently, but it was too late. I went back to the house and crawled into bed. I cried all day. I should never have left her out there. I should never have left her out.

Week without Internet - Goat Pastue Improvments

Jarred and I have been working on some improvements to the goat pasture this week. We build a number of things for the baby goats to play on, including a teater-toter. They jump up there and rock up and down, trying to knock eachtoher off. The youngsters are strong and healthy and a neighbor family has bought them (when they are weaned) to take home as pets.

Week without Internet - Goose

My male goose has once again settled on me as his mate. He is much more serious about it now, following me everywhere when I am outside. He coos at me, flutters his neck and rubs against me, wooing me in true goose style. He watches the windows of the house, hoping I will come out, often seeing me sitting in the living room or passing by a window and rushes to the house to entice me out. I think he has decided that I am truly the finest mate because what other goose has a mate who makes food appear every time she walks outside? He stands around as I feed the other birds, preening, clearly proud of me.

He also protects me avidly when I am outside. He even walked the 1/4 mile to the far pasture with me, strutting by my side and then getting out ahead of me when we were turning a corner, so he could protect me from anything unexpected that we came across. Rajah, who has spent his life doing just that, kept looking back and I could swear he was shaking his head in disgust. He is not impressed with my suitor's protestations of protection and love (though I've noticed that any time the goose goes after HIM, he tucks his tail and runs, yelping, towards the house.)

Week without Internet - Lost Horses

Jarred fed for me for about 5 days and when I took back over I counted my horses in the far pasture and came up 3 short. Not unusual in and of itself, since they are getting out regularly. But I can always tell when there are horses out and around the property somewhere (everyone else is always a little excited about the escaped crew being around) and on this day it was clear to me that there were no horses anywhere near-by at all. It soon became clear to me that these three horses were nowhere near by and had not been for many days.

I saddled up Destiny on Easter Sunday and road her for about 3 hours. Explored further back into the hills than I have ever gone. Beautiful ride and really enjoyed it, but saw no sign of my horses. I realized they couldn't be within 5 miles of the ranch or I would have seen them. I was getting ready to start looking in near-by towns. I stopped everyone I met on the road and asked, but no-one had seen them.

Monday night someone came by the ranch and said they had found them. They were 10 miles away, down by the town of Arlee. I hooked up a trailer and went to get them. They had been living it up, having a good old time being wild horses and were quite wild when we got them back. Sahara (my 3 year old Arab-mix) was the leader. The other two just followed her out there. She is a really fabulous horse but needs a challenging life and is a teenage girl, through and through. Just ditched us to go find excitement somewhere. I now have her in a small, secure pen I set up with panels and will start working with her every day. She is perfectly content to stick around if she is getting attention regularly. But I don't think I have a pasture that will hold her otherwise.

Week without Internet - Fencing

Fencing is the bane of my existence right now. I just have to limp by until I have help and can replace a lot of this old fencing with reliable stuff, but spring is a hard time to do that. I have gone up to the far pasture to feed a half a dozen times in the past few weeks and had to fix fences, round up horses and get everyone back where they belong. I have Ryder and the moms in one of the only secure places on the property, but the youngsters keep finding ways to get out. Lots of fixing fences this week.