Posts from — July 2009

But I’m crazy busy.  Our phone line and Internet access has been down for two and a half days due to a bad storm so I’ve been busy catching up on e-mail.  I’ll update soon.

More later …

During a discussion with Wally last night, I realized that it’s a good thing that I don’t have young dog in the sidelines chomping at the bit wanting to work.  For the most part, I don’t have enough work for more than one dog.  I am now confident that Fern is going to be able to step up to the plate when the time comes.  She’s been jumping in and helping Gel when I ask her to and doing a fine job of it.  Last night when Wally went out to put up the ducks, he tried to get Fern to go in and do it, but Gel got in there first and did the job.  He’s quite in charge these days.  He knows the routine and I can count on him to do what he needs to do.  Fern will learn in time.

Kessie, well, let’s just say she’s in training to be a bumble bee and if she’s happy doing that, then all the more power to her.

It rained some last night which was wonderful.  We have any 80 percent chance of rain today.  This morning the weatherman wondered when the daily chances for rain were going to end.  I told Wally that if he had to come out here and set ElectroNet in hard ground, he wouldn’t be wanting the rain chances to end!  As it stands now, we should be able to get it set without too much effort.  We are going to move the fence up closer to the house where the grass is not so tall (so it won’t be so hard to get the mower through it), but it will be sufficient for a few days.  Then we’ll decide on a more permanent location.

I may not have too many dogs to work, but I do have too much milk and Wally and I are thinking about picking up a bottle calf to feed the excess to.  Since I am not working at this time and the likelihood of my getting a full-time job in the next month is probably pretty slim, it makes sense for us to see how this will work out.  In addition to a means to use up excess milk, the manure the calf will produce will be beneficial for compost.  We are looking at our current rabbit herd as manure-making machines.  If they start fighting, we’ll have to cull some of them, but for now, they’ll continue to make compost.  Nothing is better for a garden than rabbit manure.  In the next week or so, I’ll be hauling excess goat (and sheep) manure out of the fenced-in area and adding that to the compost pile.  We wouldn’t have to keep the calf until it reached full-size.  Something to think about.  I may take a drive out to the local dairy later today and see if they have any bull calves available.  Ethically, I still don’t like the concept of bottle babies of any kind, but in our care, the calf would have a better life than it may elsewhere.  Once it was eating grass, we could fence it out with the sheep.

Until later …

Yesterday, a woman posted to Sheepdog-L asking for help in determining what might be wrong with her three year old Border Collie. The dog went lame last year on her right rear leg. She laid her off for several weeks, brought her back slowly, but she was still lame. She laid her off again for three and a half months and tried to bring her back again. This time, she didn’t limp but had a strange gait.  She took her to several different vets including an orthopedic specialist who found a slight abnormality in one of her vertebrae. Give a specialist a little bit of time and (likely) a lot of money and they are bound to find something wrong.

The dog has gotten progressively worst and is in so much pain, she can barely function. She is now lame in her right rear and left front legs and shakes like she has a fever.

I wish I had a dollar for every response to that post blaming it on tick borne disease (”TBD”). This isn’t the first time that an individual has posted with lameness (and other) issues with their dogs and it is blamed on TBD. What is even more disconcerting is the number of people who have suggested that she immediately start the dog on the antibiotic Doxycycline.  Your vet won’t give it to you?  No problem, buy the form of Doxycycline that is used for fish or birds.

Is TBD that much of a problem in dogs these days?  I haven’t seen any form of it in my dogs and they surely have had their share of attached ticks.  Could it be that the immune systems of these dogs is so compromised due to over-vaccination and indiscriminate use of antibiotics that they are more susceptible to TBD?  Could Frontline, Advantix, etc. be contributing to this susceptibility?

This year, I haven’t used any form of flea or tick prevention.  Early in the year, the dogs were covered with ticks, but as the summer has progressed, they are picking up fewer and fewer ticks.  They’ve had no fleas, nor have the cats.  My dogs are all out in the tall grass and woods on a daily basis.  I know the ticks are out there because I have had them on me when I come out of the fields.  I have occasionally used Frontline in the past, but will not use it again.  I am more afraid of the drug than the ticks.

My good friend Helene has written extensively on rear end paralysis in dogs.  She gets a tremendous amount of hits on her Blog from people looking for information on rear end paralysis.  Helene believes that rear end paralysis is likely caused by the rabies vaccine and I agree with her.

It is unfortunate that symptoms of disease are more often than not blamed on insects or other parasites, bacteria or other nasties and so few people will even consider the damage that vaccines might be doing.

I now have a herd name: Spellcast Dairy.  Registered it yesterday afternoon.  I had to get this done in order to register Luna’s baby who is now known as Skittles.  I don’t know how much registering of babies I’ll be doing in the immediate future as I have no plans to keep any babies for anything other than eating, but like I said, I needed to get that paperwork done.  By joining the American Dairy Goat Association, I get a reduction on registration fees.

It’s nice to chip away at things that need to be done.  This morning I pulled everything out of my linen closet in the master bath.  It was a mess of stuff that I had been collecting over the years.  I threw a lot of it away and reorganized the rest and put it back in the closet.  It looks nice.  The next thing I’ll be tackling is the pantry in the kitchen where I store saran wrap, aluminum foil, etc.  I organized that before Wally came over here, but it’s trashed again.  How can those nice, square boxes of wrapping paper get so messed up?  I’m in that closet several times a day and it’s irritating me beyond belief that it’s such a mess; as was the linen closet.

Yesterday afternoon I took a bale of hay down to the sheep.  They probably have plenty to eat where they are, but I figured the $3 that the bale of hay cost was worth it for the sense of well being I got from bringing it down to them.  I had the brainy idea of bringing a spare dog house down for Rose to go into.  This dog house was in the kid pen, but Dusty and Casper had all but destroyed it.  Wally fixed it as best he could and we were going to put it into the duck pen for the geese to go into, but I decided to cart it down to the ElectroNet yesterday afternoon.  I’m afraid I nailed the coffin on that dog house.  As soon as I put it in there, the sheep tried to get into it.  This is a good-sized dog house, but 30 sheep cannot fit into it.  It was too heavy for me to get back on the wagon so I’m afraid it’s going to have to stay down there until Wally can help me get it back up, if it is still in one piece, which it likely won’t be.  I tried to get Rose to come up to the house, but she wouldn’t leave the sheep.  Good girl.  We’ll move them on Wednesday.  Not looking forward to that.  The ground is so hard, it’s going to be a job getting the posts into the ground.  Oh for permanent fencing.

I don’t know what was the matter with me yesterday.  I just felt like crap.  No symptoms clear-cut enough for me to say I had this or that, I just felt lousy.  I guess I simply spent too much time in the sun and heat over the weekend.  I was so tired, I could barely milk last night.  Before we went out, I told Wally I felt sure it was his turn to milk last night.  He just laughed at me.

I feel much better today.  Hopefully it will continue and I can get a good amount done today.

Off to milk.

Until later …

I wrote a while back about trying to buy a Saanen goat from a local dairy and the owner’s refusal to sell me a goat because we did not have a barn.  I was extremely upset by this, but moved on and while I was given the opportunity to buy a Saanen goat from different lines two different times since then, passed on it.  I had convinced myself I didn’t really want another white goat and that I really didn’t like white goats or the Saanen udders (which are quite soft and spongy).

How things change sometimes …

On Thursday Wally called me from the sale to tell me there was a good looking young Saanen doe with a kid at her side at the sale.  He said the kid couldn’t be more than a few days old.  I told Wally that if he felt like there was nothing wrong with her and if she went for less than $60 to go ahead and buy her.  We had talked before he went to the sale about possibly picking up a kid about Rain’s baby’s size so she’d have a playmate.  Wally called me later and said that the Saanen doe and her kid went for $55 and he was bringing them home.

When Wally got home, I went out to help him unload the doe.  We decided to put her in one of the dog runs overnight and look her over closely the next morning.  She lead off the truck nice as could be.  She didn’t have much of an udder, but she allowed me to handle it without fussing.  To be able to handle a doe’s udder without having her on a stand with grain in front of her without her kicking or bouncing around is quite unusual.

The next morning we looked at her closely and could find nothing wrong with her.  If they are registered, most breeds of goats are tattooed in their ears (because they have no ears, the LaManchas are tattooed on their tail).  We looked at her ears and sure enough, she was tattooed.  The letters and numbers in the right ear indicate the breeder (or dairy) and the numbers and letters in the left ear pertain to the individual goat.  The right ear appeared to read either “E” or “C” “LP” and the left ear appeared to read “Y19.”  The “Y” indicated that she was registered in 2008 so as Wally thought, she was just a yearling and this was her first freshening.  Wally asked me to remind him what the woman’s last name was that owned the dairy where I originally tried to buy a Saanen doe.  Damn!  Her initials were “LP”!  I called a friend of mine to see if she knew what the herd tattoo was for this dairy.  She had a buck from her once and went through her paperwork.  The herd tattoo is “2LP.”  We looked closer at the doe’s right ear and sure enough, the tattoo was “2LP.”

I called the woman who owned the dairy and told her that I believed one of her does ended up at the sale barn.  She had a fit!!!!!  She asked what happened to the doe.  I told her that Wally brought her home.  She was extremely happy to hear that.  Ha!  Even though we didn’t have a barn, at least the doe was in a better place than where she might have been.  She looked up her records and told me that the doe was named Raspberry and was out of one of her best milkers named Rosie sired by a very nice buck named June Bug.  She gave the doeling to a man in exchange for some hay work that he did last year.  The buck who sired Raspberry’s kid (who is a buck) was also from her dairy.

She was livid that the man brought the doe to the sale and I’m sure he won’t get another goat from her down the road.  I don’t know why she ended up there except maybe because she didn’t have much of an udder.  At this point in time, as long as she had enough milk to feed her baby, I wasn’t worried about her udder.  There is nothing wrong with Raspberry’s appetite.  She’s fit in with the rest of the does like she was born here.  I have had her on the milk stand every day since she’s been here and she acts like she’s been milking her whole life.  Given her age and the age of her baby, I doubt she’s ever been milked, but you wouldn’t know it for how she’s acting.  No kicking or carrying on.  She gets on the stand and eats, as any good dairy goat would.

The cool thing is that her milk production has more than doubled since she’s been here.  The first time I milked her, I doubt I got a half a cup from her.  Now she’s giving close to a quart.

What the heck am I doing milking six goats?  Who knows, but it’s funny how things happen.  I so wanted a goat from that dairy and if I had been able to get one, I would have had to pay $200 to $300 for a goat in milk (without a kid on her).  By chance, I got a well-bred yearling goat with a kid on her for $55.  The two Alpines continue to do well.  You may recall that I got them quite by chance as well and for a bargain price.  Billy, the younger Alpine is now milking more than Addie.  That isn’t going to last long.  Addie is still being a bit fussy about eating.  She’s an older goat and needs more time to adapt to her new surroundings.  Being younger, Billy is more resiliant to change.  Champagne’s milk production went off when she first came here, but she’s now milking close to a gallon a day.  Rain is pouring the milk.  We haven’t taken her baby off her at night and if she continues to milk like she is now, I won’t pull her off.  Lil, the other Nubian, is still a little off in her production, but I’m not worried about it.  As part of the covered hitching area we made wooden feed boxes which are attached where each doe is tied out.  I am able to feed them while they wait and that way they call can get a good amount of feed without having to fight for it.  That way, I can feed each individual doe as she needs to be fed.  I wouldn’t have been able to feed Luna or Penny prior to putting them on the stand.  If they were not hungry when they got up there, they’d give me trouble milking them.  All of these does would stand for milking even if they didn’t have feed in front of them.

Now I have six, well-tempered, easy-to-milk goats and I’m pleased as punch about that.  Next year will be a lot easier because we’ll leave their kids on them during the day and only milk in the morning which will be nice.  I don’t like milking at night.  It’s like sitting in a sauna.  My milking parlor, while still primitive compared to some, has become very, very functional and nice to look at.

I think these dairy goats have an important role to play in my life.  I was scheduled to pick up my first dairy goat, Rain, the day I was laid off.  I almost didn’t go and get her, but I’m glad I did.  I had been wanting a dairy goat for a long time.  Milking is keeping my hands supple and almost painfree.  I’m making good use of the milk.  We’ll see how things go.  The dairy goats are really more functional than the sheep.  Not only do they provide us with milk, but we can butcher their kids for meat for us and the dogs and cats.  I hope we like the goat kid meat as much as we do the lamb.  We’ll be taking Penny’s baby, Casper and the Alpine bottle baby, Basil to the processer the middle to end of August.

Said goats are all lined up at the front gate ready to be milked.  Until later …

Over a month ago, Wally and I arranged to have four full days off together.  His birthday was on Friday, so he took Thursday and Friday off from work.  I almost had to work on Saturday, but it was an oversight on the part of the Assistant Manager who does the scheduling and I got it off.

On our days off, we planned to make a covered extension off the front of my milking parlor.  Previously, I would tie the goats to the duck pasture fence and bring them in one by one.  If it was raining, I’d have to leave them in the fenced-in area (where they can get under cover) and lead them in one by one.  This was working, but it was not easy for one person to manage.  I shouldn’t say that, I’m never one person out there, I’m one person with a very useful dog.  Now, it’s two useful dogs as Fern is back to helping with the goats.

It took longer than I expected for us to construct the covered extension, but it is done except for painting.  The great thing is that most of the materials that we used were those that I stockpiled.  I have very little new money into it.  It looks wonderful and is very, very functional.  We also did more work on the milk stand itself and put a cover over the nesting box which is now situated along side the milking parlor.

On Thursday I got to meet a long-term, long-distance distance friend in person.  I’ve known Sheryl of Daybreak Australian Shepherds for almost ten years now.  We’ve had long discussions both via e-mail and telephone and shared a lot of joy and heartbreak over the years.  Sheryl came to North Carolina for a wedding and family reunion and she and her husband came to visit us on Thursday.  I was so glad to meet them both and to have them see the little piece of paradise I call home and of course to meet Gel and Fern in person.

As I mentioned above, Friday was Wally’s birthday and I think he had a very happy one.  I was glad to be able to share it with him and his family.

On Saturday we went to the farmer’s market in the morning, then spent the rest of the day working on the milk parlor extension.

On Sunday we finished the milk parlor and cover over the nesting box.

Today, Wally went back to work so he could rest.  I am hoping to hear from the law firm that I interviewed at early this week.  I wish I had a real job to go back to today.  I only work one day this week at Wal-Mart (which is a good thing as I’m so done with working at Wal-Mart) and plan to try to get some projects taken care of.

Until later …

I got called in for an interview with a local law firm today.  It went quite well and I think it would be a job I’d enjoy.  The attorney I met with said he’d be calling me back in a few days to meet with the senior partner.  Fingers and toes are crossed!!!!!!  I so want to get back to work.

Putting on a suit was severe culture shock … beyond shock, it almost killed me!!!  Agh!!!!

Until later …

I decided to sell Luna to the same couple who bought Penny.  They were very happy with Penny, but she wasn’t fitting in well with their existing goats.  It’s usually easier to bring two goats into an existing herd.  They came out to get Luna Sunday morning.  By that time, Wally and I had decided to butcher Dusty (Luna’s daughter) as well as Casper (Penny’s son).  I didn’t care for Luna’s temperament and it appeared that Dusty was going to act just like her. 

When the couple came out, they brought the wife’s parents and their daughter.  I mentioned that we had decided to butcher Dusty and immediately they asked how much I’d take for her.  I consulted with Wally and he said I shouldn’t sell her for less than $60.  While they were thinking about it, they asked to see Moon (the baby with the bent legs).  I went in to get her and put her in the daughter’s arms and it was love at first sight.  I told them that if they took Moon as a bottle baby, I’d let them have Dusty for $50.  The wife’s mother said that she had $50 on her and would buy her. 

Dusty was really too nice a doe to slaughter, but I had more use for her as meat than as a future milking doe especially since I had a pretty good idea how much time it was going to take to break her to the milk stand.  Also, while Moon’s legs were straightening (they could see a difference in her legs from when they saw her last), while running around trying to play with her sister, Moon’s legs were wobbling all over the place and I was afraid she was going to break a leg.  The wife keeps children at her house during the day and I’m sure they will have a ball bottle feeding Moon.  They are keep her in the house and restrict her movement for a while and see how she does. 

When they left Wally thanked me for letting Moon go as he felt sure the legs were not going to get better and that he was going to have to put her down, something he didn’t want to do.

The dairy goat “business” has been a learning experience.  When I bought Rain I knew virtually nothing about dairy goats.  At first, Rain drove me mad, but now that I’ve experienced other goats, I realize how important it is to have a doe who enjoys being handled by humans and who wants to be on the milk stand.  I’m through with chasing goats to get them on the milk stand and dealing with goats who are unhappy about being milked.  I don’t blame Penny or Luna for how they were on the milk stand, but I wasn’t willing to continue to deal with them.

I wrote about how they gave me fits when we worked on the milking parlor.  Even just putting lattice around the lower part of the building was enough to make them act horrible on the stand.  Since I’ve had both Champagne and Lil, they haven’t given me a lick of trouble on the stand.  That’s the kind of goat I want to keep.  I also don’t want to milk with goats with small teats.  It hurts my hands too much.

Our trip to the holistic goat seminar had a dual purpose.  While I was checking out the hours for the Asheville Farmer’s Market, I came across the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture page.  For kicks I looked at the classified section and saw an add for two dairy goats for $100 each.  I called the woman, knowing for sure the goats would be sold by now, but they were not so we made arrangements to stop by there on our way back.  The woman had nine goats and it was too many for her to milk.  In addition to the dairy, she ran a bed and breakfast and an agri-tourism site.  She was one busy woman and her place was incredibly beautiful.  The two goats for sale were a three year old Alpine and a year old Nubian.  As soon as I saw the Alpine, I knew she’d be going home with me.  I was less than impressed by the Nubian.  She had a small udder and teats.  Her mother had a lovely udder and teats and there was a pretty good chance that her future udder would be as nice, but I didn’t want to take the chance.  The Alpine milked beautifully.  We asked the lady if there was another goat she’d be willing to sell.  As she put the last two goats she needed to milk, she pointed out the goats she wouldn’t sell.  I looked at the Alpine she just put up on the stand and asked if she’d sell her and she said she would.  This was a year old Alpine with a lovely udder.  We took them both home.  It was because we brought these two goats home that we decided to offer Luna to the couple who bought Penny.

I put the new goats up on the stand that evening and they were wonderful.  It says a lot for a doe who can be moved to a completely new environment and still cooperate fully while milking.  The woman said that she didn’t keep any milkers who gave her a hard time on the stand.  That said, a doe that is difficult in one environment, may go on to another and be perfectly fine.  Apparently Penny hasn’t given them a bit of trouble since they got her.  I haven’t talked to them about Luna yet.  Different goats for different folks.

Wally and I are now done with dairy goat shuffling.  I am still ahead financially with the goats and even though I am not in good shape financially, I am not too concerned about putting money into dairy goats.  Unless they die, they are not going to loose their value and Wally and I are making very good use of their milk.  We now have five solid milkers.  The Nubians do not produce as much milk as the Alpines and Rain, but their milk is higher in butter fat which improves the quality of my cheese.  I can’t wait to see the udder on Billie, the younger Alpine.  It’s already lovely.  I can’t believe she’s only a year old.  Both goats are in excellent condition.  It is obvious they were very well cared for.  The older Alpine is named Addie.

On Sunday, before I went to work, Wally and I took everything out of the milking parlor then put tarps down on the floor and put stall mats on top of the tarps.  Hopefully this will keep dust down.  Then Wally did some work on the milk stand (the head gate was not holding the goats well) and then we organized and moved everything back in.  It looks great.  As soon as I finishing organizing the items that are no longer going to be stored in the parlor, I’ll take pictures.  While it is not the type of milk parlor that would pass the inspection necessary to become a licensed dairy, it is become less primitive.

A quick update on Simon.  After I wrote about him, he went missing again for a few days.  I thought maybe I had dreamed seeing him again, but Wally confirmed that I was indeed awake.  He returned again quickly, then disappeared.  Today is the first day I’ve seen him several times and he seems to be his normal self.  I wonder if he wasn’t ill in some way.  Hopefully he’s okay now.

Until later …

If you do a web search on the topic of letting a cat outside vs. keeping him inside all of the time, you’ll find that this is an extremely controversial topic.  Most “authorities” recommend that you keep your cat inside both for his safety and that of the resident wildlife.  In these times, it’s more common that a cat is kept inside 24/7 rather than having access to the outdoors.  There are even special formula cat foods for indoor only cats.  These special formulas are of course rubbish and no more than clever marketing schemes on the part of pet food manufacturers.

Since moving to North Carolina, I’ve allowed my cats access to the outdoors.  Early on, when I had almost all purebred cats, I had a screened in run for them, but eventually they all made their way outside.  The first year I was here, four of my cats were killed by neighbor’s dogs.  When my original landlord died, all of the property around me went up for sale and people with more money than they should have bought it up and moved here with their packs of dogs and just let them run free.  At the time my cats were killed, they were in their screened in run, the dogs broke in and killed them.  That was an extremely tragic loss.  I raised hell with the neighbors and they have since fenced in their property and their dogs are contained, as they should be.

Even though I live a quarter of a mile from the road, I have lost two of my purebred cats to the road.  One, the first year I was here and the second a week after Fern was born.  I have also lost four cats to kidney failure (interestingly, all but one was vaccinated), one to a reaction to yellow jacket stings and one to liver failure after her spay.

On Wednesday, I thought I lost another of my purebred cats, Simon, to the road.  On my way to work I saw a dead cat on the road.  It was a large cat and had a classic tabby pattern.  I stopped and examined him and found it was a neutered male.  Even though it was a classic tabby and had the head structure of an American Shorthair, the pattern was more blotched and longer than Simon’s and it appeared very fat.  This could have been due to bloating, but it had not been dead too long.  I put the body off the road near the fence and called Wally and asked if he’d pick him up on his way home.  I was on my way to work at the time.  Calling out at WalMart because my cat had been hit by a car would not have been an acceptable excuse.  Let’s just say the day was miserable.

Every day I do a head count and mentally tally which cat I’ve seen and which I have not.  I did not see Simon that morning so I assumed that was him on the road.  If it was, it would have been a long way for him to have wandered, but his brother, Chester, was the one who was killed a week after Fern was born and he was a long way from home when he was hit.  When I found Chester, again, I was on my way to work, and it was sure it was him when I found him.  My neighbor was kind enough to go and pick up his body and bury him for me.

I asked Wally to pick up the body and take him into the woods.  I would have preferred that he be buried, but the ground is way too hard to dig a grave.  This morning I asked Wally where he took him and he said that he had stopped after work and there wasn’t a body there.  Where the cat was hit was very close to where my landlord lives so on my way to work I had called and asked if they were missing any of their cats (thinking that they may have had a tabby marked like mine), but all of their cats were accounted for.  Being a cat lover, I thought maybe landlady had gone out and retrieved the body.

This afternoon, however, Simon showed up, a bit thin, but none the worst for wear.  All of my cats are now accounted for which is a huge relief.

You may recall that Ted came home a month or so ago with a wound, obviously made by a canine, to his back.  He’s now fine.  A few years ago, Matrix, another purebred came home with a chunk of his foot missing.  He may have tangled with a snapping turtle.  He’s fine now too.

There are dangers for outdoor cats, but I still believe, at least where I live, the benefits of outside access outweigh the risks.  They are all neutered and spayed so for the most part, they stick pretty close to the house.  Unless I’m out in the front field working dogs, I’ve never seen them out in front of the house.  At this point in time, I couldn’t keep them in if I tried.

A quick update on Moon, the baby goat with the bent front legs.  She continues to improve.  I switched her remedy to Pulsatilla, a remedy that her mother has done well on and is one of the remedies indicated for contracted tendons.  It didn’t do much, if anything.  This morning I gave her Ruta, but after I gave the remedy, I looked at the remedy picture for Causticum and realized I that was what I should have given her as not only is it strongly indicated for contracted tendons but also for paralysis of the vocal organs, something I had forgotten about until I talked to Wally about the dehorning process which he did yesterday.  I asked how it went and he told me that Sunny (her sister) screamed and carried on (which they usually do), but he said that Moon couldn’t scream.  He’s right, she cannot vocalize much.  She’s been that way since she was born.  So, tomorrow I’ll go ahead and give her Causticum.  I could do it now, but I’ll leave her on Ruta for a day and see if anything changes.

Wally’s daughter and friends came out to see the sheep and other animals this afternoon.  I took Gel down to bring them up, but when we got up here, I took Fern out to help her keep the sheep close to us.  Oh my was Fern every keen.  I eventually asked Gel to lie down and let Fern do the work.  She was in her glory.  After we put the sheep up, I brought both dogs down to the agility field.  Interesting, Mr. Gel was popping out at the tenth weave pole.  Beast!  I showed them Fern’s lightening fast dog walk.  It was way too hot to be running around an agility field.

It looks like I won’t be going to the contact seminar on Saturday.  There is a holistic goat rearing seminar being held out Asheville way Saturday AM.  I had forgotten about this seminar and I would really like to go.  I’d like to get away from chemically worming my goats.  When we wormed the sheep this spring, we only wormed those who appeared anemic.  Many of them were perfectly fine so we didn’t worm them.  So far, we’ve had no problems with Barber Pole Worms.  Last year we had a lot of trouble with Barber Pole Worms.  I think all the pasture rotation that we do with the sheep has made a huge difference.  They get moved every few days and there is enough acreage out there so that we don’t have to reuse an area for at least a month.

Until later …

I came to the important realization that Fern’s issues (her wilting daisy routine) are management issues, quite similar to those I had early on with Gel.  Luckily I worked through them with Gel and I feel that I can get through Fern’s current mindset.  Just as I did with Gel, I let her quit.  I remember plain as day the first time it happened with Gel: we were taking a private obedience lesson.  The instructor told me to ask Gel to do a hand touch.  Gel only offered a lackadaisical touch.  When I insisted on a proper touch, Gel left me and ran into a crate and wouldn’t come out.

I was devastated!!  In defense of Gel, that day wasn’t a normal day of training.  I had been without power due to a winter storm for three days straight.  Coupled with the loss of my stove, refrigerator and freezer (which was full of meat), without power, I don’t have water.  I was at my wit’s end and very stressed.  I know Gel picked up on that.

From that day forward, I had refusal and quitting episodes with Gel, both in stock work and sports training.  I still see glimpses of quitting in him, but he keeps working for me.  Our relationship is strong enough now so that he won’t quit; but that doesn’t mean he always offers 100 percent.  It also doesn’t mean he won’t let me know that he prefers to do this or that over what I ask him to do, but we get the job done.

Now to see if I can fix Fern.  She’s getting better.  I think that now that I understand what’s going on, it has relieved some pressure off Fern.  This morning, she went in with Gel to help bring out Rain who was reluctant to leave her babies.  Like her father, she loves a good fight and that’s something that needs to be rectified in both dogs.  I have found that if I’m patient and let Gel do his job, he manages to do it without gripping.  If I get pushy, he does too and he’s not always an appropriate gripper.

I think the geese may prove to be good for working Fern.  I sent her to bring them out of the duck/chicken pasture this morning.  She came in tight and fast, quite unusual for Fern, but quite okay.  At her age and stage of training, I’d rather see her tight and fast rather than slow and overly wide.

Everything will work out as it should.

Oh the milk poured this morning!  We put Rain’s babies up for the first time last night so I had four goats with full udders.  The milk went right into the cheese pot.  It’s so much easier making cheese from milk right out of the goat.  It comes in the house at the proper temperature so I don’t have to heat it.  When I milk tonight, instead of giving the milk to the dogs and cats, I’ll need to store it.  I’m down to about a quart in the refrigerator.

Until later …