For those of you new to the farm, this is Nibbles... Yep, that's Nibbles (the baby pygmy goat) standing in Victor's feed bin eating Victor's breakfast while the big guy is munching hay. He sure will do anything for groceries...
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I went to the farm after work yesterday to help feed the animals and snapped this picture with my Blackberry phone while taking a small "sit-down" in the barnyard. I was enjoying what started out as a nice strong breeze. Admittedly, the lighting was a little weird and was sliding into that color that I call Thunderstorm Orange. It made for a pretty photo, even though my phone doesn't do too great a job, but the weather got increasingly worse over the next little while. We fed the horses as the wind picked up, and the temperature plummeted to below 50 degrees right before it started to HAIL!!! Dad got wonked in the face with a piece of hail and we all high-tailed it up under the new porch on the barn to be stranded for a while. We watched the trees sway spastically and listened to the loud crack of hailstones and rain hitting the tin roof while the wind tried to push us back out from under the shelter. Amazingly, it was over as fast as it started - leaving it dark snarky clouds on one side and glorious red orange sunset on the other. Beautiful, but funny (in a weird way). This was a weekend full of traditions for me. First, I took off on Friday as I try to do every year for Mom's birthday and we spent the day getting a little pampering as you'll see in the pictures. Pedicure, great lunch at Sixth at Watkins and a new haircut! I highly recommend Sixth at Watkins to anyone looking for a new place to try. They're only open from 11:00AM-2:30PM Monday through Friday, but it's worth the time squeeze! WONDERFUL French Onion or Baked Potato soups... Then, on Saturday I went with Jason, John, and JT to the Renaissance Festival in Fairburn for the day. It's about a 3 hour drive, but very worth it. It poured down rain, but we bought ponchos and just did our thing. There were no crowds and for once it was wonderfully cool! It's the best time comfort-wise that I've ever had there. We even got our turkey legs! Sunday was spend recuperating from sore legs and throbbing feet, but was nicely restful. I feel recharged and ready to tackle the week! After work yesterday, Jason and I stopped by the farm on the way home to help feed, but ended up staying for dinner because Josh and Jessie were there too. Dad cut some of the middle pasture on the old Ford tractor before he and Josh worked on the fencing for the two new goat paddocks. The rest of us played with Pancakes, who is developing enough personality for at least three goats! He heels like a dog (or at least a puppy) and bounces all over the place. I am particularly impressed by his ability to run and jump sideways at the same time. He LOVES the new stumps that we've had cut out of the big old oak and has learned to scale them like a baby ibex. He certainly livened up the proceedings and interrupted more than once to be petted and cuddled. It's impossible not to love the little rambunctious guy! Despite his best efforts, however, the fencing is well on it's way to being "up." Also, thanks to Mom for the awesome lasagna and garlic bread. It was a great dinner with wonderful people; we are truly rich and blessed in family. The power company came to clear the lines and while they were at it they took down the huge old oak at the bottom of the lower pasture. It survived several lightning strikes, but had finally just about given up. We're going to cut the trunk up into 2 and 3 feet high rounds to use as climbing platforms for the goats' playgrounds, thus recycling. Still, I'm sad to see it finally go. Thanks, Grammy, for the pictures. Saturday morning, Mom, Dad and I went on a field trip. A Myotonic goat breeder in Sandersville (who just happens to be the aunt of my cousin-in-law, April) told Mom about the Goat-A-Rama that happens yearly in Tennille, GA, which is just a few miles outside of Sandersville. We have a history of visiting odd sounding festivals and a serious love for goats, so it seemed a near thing that we'd try it out. There were WAY more people there than we thought there would be, first off, which was a nice surprise. They sold goat merchandise and souvenirs as well as dishes made with goat meat and the usual fair type foods. We didn't win any of the door prizes, but did get a look at some neat types of goats and some cuddly looking alpacas, which are much more expensive than I ever thought! $20,000 for a mom with a baby!!! Yowzers! That made the goats at $250-$400 for most breeds seem pretty reasonable. Right at the first Mom and I fell in love with a tiny teensy little Nigerian Dwarf baby goat who was still on the bottle, but she was too rich for our blood and we don't really want a doe of a breed other than Myotonic right now. The lady who was selling her also had Nubian milk goats and said that she would sell one of the boys along with the Dwarf as a companion because he wasn't show quality, or she would sell him separately as a pet. Poor baby, she said his ears are a tad too short and his face is a little feminine. At TEN days old!!!! I couldn't believe it and asked to hold him, and of course, after that all was lost! That's what I get for taking the little cage in the back of the car for "just in case." I did put him back and walk around to look at the other goats, but my heart wasn't in it because he's the guy I wanted! We got to see he and his friends being bottle fed later in the day and that was terribly cute, too. We signed up for a raffle to win a meat goat or some feed, but didn't win which was all right. The meat goats looked mean and had been shaved so that they looked like they were wearing velour suits! After that, we saw the pygmy goats who were amazingly cuddly little guys, too, and were WAY less expensive than the larger breeds. None of them appealed to me as much as the bottle-baby Nubian guy though, so back we went. I got him for peanuts, basically, and am now the proud "mother" of a currently 12 day old Nubian boy goat whom I have named Pancakes. He is the exact color of the cinnamon pancakes that Jason loves to make at home. We put him in the little cage with hay to lay on, and as soon as I left him, that's when the bleating started! This little guy has got some serious lungs on him... He sang and he whimpered and he bleated and he yelled to beat the band. It was the most pitiful, heart-wrenching sound I have ever heard. We couldn't take it and thought if he had a friend that he would improve, which proved true. Mom picked out Sugar Baby, who is a two month old male Pygmy (the only one that wasn't solid black or white). They settled in together and now seem inseparable, although Pancakes is much bouncier and more playful right now. He's been better socialized, we feel. They're settling in, and I'm sure there will be "goat tales" coming soon. Goats really are joyous, frolicking creatures that are full of springs and hyper energy. We've gotten little dog harnesses and are using a horse lunge line to teach Pancakes to go for walks, even though right now he pretty much walks us. We want him to be comfortable with the harness and being led around before he gets too big. His eventual home will be our back yard where he'll hopefully be a fun pet for us, a good companion for our dog, Otis, as well as a "redneck lawn mower." I'm VERY excited! There's not a lot to say except that we all seem to be feeling some better finally, and I took my camera out for a spin after it cooled off some in the evening yesterday. There's a new donkey picture, a new Sassy shot, and a new cover picture on our home page to show for it, although I couldn't get the lighting right with the slanting rays of sunshine. It was a lovely evening, though, and Mom and I played with some shots of the wisteria growing off the pump house looking out towards the lower pasture. This was my favorite one we got; I adore wisteria and the smell is two steps away from divine. If you are from around here and haven't yet - the drive from Waynesboro to Augusta on HWY 25 is full of glorious falls of wisteria right now and it's worth the trip just to look. The doctor says I can be out in public again, so I'm back at work today. The weekend was pretty slow as I rested as much as possible, but I did get to see the family briefly on Saturday evening. I'll post pictures of that later on today. Mom took this picture of me and Sassy yesterday evening after we fed. We're working pretty diligently on shedding Sassy out, but it's a slow and fuzzy job! The places where she's let go of the hair are a gorgeous palomino, but the long cream winter hairs are stubborn and I'm thinking we'll have to pull out the clippers this weekend for her legs and jawline. Can't wait to see what she looks like under there! It's wonderful how she responds to quiet softness and slow gentleness in a way that my younger guys never have, or maybe it's the age creeping up on me that we seem to be connecting so well. Either way, she's a very sweet and patient lady! |
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