Thursday March 29, 2007

I got a call this morning from the woman who sold us our goats. She had a baby goat she didn't need to keep and wondered if we wanted it, since our pygmy goat's baby did not survive. I didn't feel the woman owed us anything - this is just part of what happens with animals sometimes. She was certainly not obligated to do anything to make it up to us. But she said she wanted to give it to us anyway, and I was very pleased to take it. I drove to her house and picked it up. It is a very beautiful little girl, one week old, and very people friendly. It rode on my lap all the way home.

I am hoping that the pygmy will adopt it, though that will be tricky. For one thing, most mothers reject other animals' babies. For another, the kid is a full-sized goat baby and will have to get down on her knees to nurse out of that mother, since the pygmy is so small. But they seemed comfortable with each-other and I have some hope. I am keeping the in the barn for a week to give them a chance to bond. I will go down tomorrow and see if I can hold the mama and help Rambler (what Dave and I decided to name the little girl) learn to nurse off of her.

On the advice of a couple of people (and my books) I also did one other thing to help the match take. I skinned the dead baby goat and sewed on Velcro straps. Then I strapped her hide to the back of Rambler. That was the first time I have worked with a dead animal (Dave always does the butchering because I just hate that part). But the general consensus is that the match takes better if the new baby smells like the momma's baby, and I was the only one here to do the skinning. So I did.

When I went to feed the horses today, Ryder was in with the youngster's herd (he had broken his fence) and they were all scattered around (they had broken their gait). Turns out I have a three year old and a two year old that are in heat. So Ryder bread them, then chased the geldings in that herd clear out of the pasture (didn't mind the young stud colts, just the young geldings). Ugh. I spent a couple hours fixing fences, then caught all the horses and put them each in their own pastures. Then, as I was leaving (finally) I noticed the mares in Ryder's pasture all wondering out of the other end of the pasture into my neighbor's field - another fence down.

I have this summer blocked off to replace most of my fencing. But it is going to be hard to get by until then. I have help doing it come June and I am hoping I don't have to start this project on my own. But right now Ryder's sex drive is waking up and he is not particularly content to be in a herd of pregnant mares that are not coming into heat. And then he has these young horses coming into heat across the way from him. It is going to be next to impossible to keep them apart. I am going to have to do some major moving around of pastures if I am to get through this spring without unplanned pregnancies, but I so want to let my main pastures grown in well before I put horses on them! I will have to figure all this out in the next couple of days.

In the evening I tried to milk Smudge (the Pygmy goat) so that I might be able to entice Rambler to nurse, but couldn't figure out how. Loaded Rambler and Smudge in the back of my pickup and closed the cover on the bed so they couldn't jump out. Drove a mile down the road to my neighbor's who raise goats. They taught me how to nurse her and I got about 1 baby bottle full out of her (I am saving that for tomorrow - I plan to take a baby goat to town for my sister's daughter to pet, walk and fuss over. She will love feeding it a bottle). I worked on getting the baby to eat, but she wasn't hungry yet, so we will see how that goes again tomorrow.

Wednesday March 28, 2007

Went out and found that the Pygmy who had the baby die was swollen and infected around her vulva. I took her in the barn and made her a stall up. Washed the floor with bleach, then dried it and put down fresh straw, a bucket of water, a tin of grain and some hay to eat. I then washed her all up and made up a bucket of warm water. I took a bag and tube and flushed her vagina with warm water, then did the same thing with iodine and warm water. I reapeated that, then took s syringe (no needle, of course) and put some first aid cream in there. I am hoping to keep her in the barn and treat her every day until she heals.

Fed all the animals on my own today and then went down to town to meet with a client. Taught her and her husband about birthing and how to give shots to the horse. They are the ones who bought Nefertari and have a baby due May 3rd.

Long day, but good.

Dave is in Minnesota today and begins his new job tomorrow.

Everything was covered with about 1/2 inch of snow when I woke up today and it snowed all day - ground is wet enough that it doesn't accumulate in wet spots, but it looks pretty.

I fed all the animals today and did a lot of resting.

Tonight I am trying to decide about one of my geese. We have this one male goose who decided for a while to try and woo me for his mate. He was very funny, following me everywhere and preening before me and chasing away any other male goose that got close to me. It was very funny and really quite sweet. Eventually he decided to try to find a goose mate, but he still is very friendly and comes up and coos at me and sits next to me while I pet him. I like him and consider him a friend. But we have a lot of animals on this ranch and I needed to cut down on the number of geese. We chose two mated pairs to keep and decided to slaughter the rest, except for him. We couldn't bring ourselves to slaughter him and so we gave him to a neighbor. He walked the mile back home, however, and is here again. Today he came up talking to me and asking to be petted. I picked him up and put him in a cage so I could give him away to someone he couldn't get home from. But now I'm not sure I want to. With Dave gone I know I will be lonely, and it is the animals that I bond with that really help with that. I kind of want to keep him. But I really wanted to get down to four geese - I feel like that is a manageable number. And it will be hard to keep up with everything on my own. But is one more really a big deal? Need to decide that soon.

Monday March 26, 2007

Hard day. Went out first thing to check on the goat that is due to have babies and she was lying down with a baby stuck partway out of her. The baby was dead. She couldn't get it out. All labor had stopped.

Didn't know what I could do without hurting the mare, given that she was not having contractions anymore, so I ran to get a neighbor who raises goats. Drove her over here and she helped me remove the baby. The momma is fine and healthy, so that is a relief.

Brushed and got to know Stormy, the new mare. Enjoyed spending time with her.

Spent some time with the goats then took a nap. Jarred fed tonight. I'm worn out and heavy hearted. One of the things I love most about this life is the intensity and that everything that happens has great import - it is often life and death. But the death part is hard. Nature is cruel much of the time and I find that hard to bear. But it is also an intricate part of why I love this life, so in a way it is okay as well.

Sunday March 25, 2007

It is the middle of the night, and I fell asleep around 10pm, but the dogs woke me up with barking. My body hurts so much that I can't go back to sleep, so I am doing office work until that eases. I feel like I have been run over by a truck - but I also feel like I earned it! I did more work this week (and had better energy) than I have done in a year. I will need to really rest for this next week so that I don't slide backwards, but I am really pleased that I lasted through such an intense week and am still doing as well as I am.

We got up at 6am today and hooked up the trailer. Loaded Nefertari in the pouring rain and went down the mountain the Arlee way, because we didn't think the trailer would make it with the mud down the Frenchtown way. Stopped at my sister and she and her daughter joined us going out for breakfast. Then they went home and we transferred all Dave's stuff into his mom's car. They left for Omaha and Minneapolis. It was hard to say good by.

I took Nefertari to her new home and loaded up the mare we are trading her for (she was a part sale, part trade). Then I came back to town and spent 5 hours doing errands and getting everything I need in town for the next while. I got home around 5pm. Went right to bed.

I woke up around 7pm and had dinner, then started re-organizing my closets and dresser drawers and straightening the house. It looks really good and I always feel better about my life when my space is neat. I am very excited to have some time to myself and about Dave's new job. But its also sad not to have him here. Talked to him on the phone before bed and went to sleep.

Saturday March 23, 2007

We got up before 10 am and checked on the goats, then started getting Dave packed. Spent half the day gathering everything he needed, then I began packing everything for him. He and I took a break to go do the feeding and we worked on drainage in the middle 20 on the way back, for about 40 minutes. I think we made a difference in the pasture.

He changed the oil in the generator and put more water in the battery bank. That took about an hour. I emptied the truck of all the ranch-related laundry we did in town last week and then began packing his stuff into the truck. I walked down to catch Nefertari, whom we sold and are going to deliver tomorrow and did the rest of the feeding.

We began working on packing his office, the only part not done. But it got to be 6pm and we had to go to town to babysit my sister's kids while she and her husband went out (and to have a last evening together - the kids were asleep most of the time and we got a good dinner and watched a movie.)

We got home after 11pm and continued working on packing the office. Finished that and loaded the last things into the truck. Dave went to bed while I wrote up a contract for Nefertari's sale.

I am exhausted beyond saying. Thank goodness our rush week is over. I can't believe we made it through. Now I can sleep for days!

Oh, and can I just say, thank God for Mothers? Dave's mom has been here all week. She came out to help when she heard how sick we were and I don't know how we could have gotten ready to leave without her. She did so much to get Dave ready and to get the ranch ready for me to handle it myself. I am really grateful to her.

Friday March 23, 2007

We got a ton done today. It is good that our marathon week of working before Dave leaves is almost over - I am so exhausted my joints and, well, my whole body hurt every time I move. I have got to get some rest soon. I should be able to slow down once Dave is off for Minnesota on Sunday. In the mean time, I think he is almost ready to go and the ranch is almost ready for me to be able to handle it on my own.

Today we got up and were out working by 10. We went down the the barn and sexed our geese so that we could determine for certain that we had two mated pairs and we could slaughter the rest. (Sexing geese involves pinning them down, covering your finger with lube and pushing it into their anus until either a penis or a vulva pops out. Lovely work.)

We killed the first goose and got him ready to slaughter. Then Jared showed up to work and we turned the butchering over to him while Dave and I did other jobs. First I walked out to the field where four of the geese were hanging out and identified our experienced, mated pair for him. We planned to shoot the other two. It was really quite horrible. We shot one with a handgun (because we thought the rifle was overkill) and it would not die. It took four holes in its head and we finally had to chase it down and slit its throat. We were both just sick about it. Making an animal suffer like that was never our intention.

In any case, Dave and I then went to work on the turkey pen while Jarred slaughtered the first two gese. We spread mulch, put up a perch and moved a large, unused shed in for shelter. Put up some better fencing in places and basically got the place ready for the turkeys to move in once the grass seed takes. That took most of the day.

When Jarred got done with the two geese, we got out the rifle for the next one. She was hanging out with our old mated pair (she was their daughter) and we shot her and killed her right away. The really awful part of that was that we should have slaughtered her months ago - as she got old enough to mate, she formed a bond with her father and mother. We didn't realize she was mated to him too. He ignored the other goose we shot, as most will do unless the injured goose is its mate. But this one was different. He saw her go down and rushed to her, spreading his wings wide to shield her from Dave, who was walking over to retrieve her. He kept frantically trying to push her into the water, where she would be safe from him, but she wouldn't move. Oh, it was awful. Next year we slaughter the youngsters before they reach mating age. I can't do that to the geese again.

We wanted to slaughter one more and get ourselves down to 4 geese. But the last one was the big gray one that followed us around for months, trying to bond to us. He has gotten so friendly. I couldn't do it. Neither could Dave. Jarred came to the rescue there and said he would take it home as a pet. So that made me feel better about that.

By the end of the day, we were exhausted beyond belief. Jarred did the feeding for us and Dave and I ran to town for boxes to get him packed tomorrow. He leaves Sunday morning.