Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Updates

One week from today is the Nativity of Christ! I cannot believe we are ending 2007 so very soon.
It certainly is true that time flies VERY fast the older you are. It's astonishing.

We are all dried out, or were all dried out. Sunday night we got nearly an inch of rain but it did nothing compared to the storm. I was able to remove the pallets from the chicks stall. We are trying to get the new coop done before the end of the year. So far I am just finishing up the floor. But that is the hardest part, the posts the floor sets on, so once that is done it'll go fast I think.

Last Saturday, the 15th, I took Firefly down to the farm where the buck is. She started really confusing me with her symptoms of heat. I was seeing different symptoms for like a week so finally I just called them and asked if I could bring her down "just to see". At the very least I would get what they call a buck rag. A rag rubbed all over the buck and sealed in a jar. When you think your goat is in heat you open it and they will get all excited over the smell. Smell? you may ask. Ah, the smell is UNREAL! Goats are seasonal breeders, including bucks. They call it "rut" for a buck. He goes into "rut". This (move about halfway down the page to the subtitle "bucky characteristics) is what he does when he is in "rut"....all for the sake of ATTRACTING his mate, and he'll take as many as he can get. Anyway, we introduced Firefly to her buck friend and she was instantly smitten. They "played" for about a half hour doing what goats are suppose to do when breeding. It all looked very much like she was bred. If it took we will have kids right about May 13. Butter will be bred the first week of January. Now back to that smell. See Firefly was with that buck for 30 minutes, playing with him, rubbing on him and he on her. Well, we had to bring that doe home...in our truck....with us. I am certain that if I were to go out to the truck right now it would still smell. I had "buck" smell on my hands ALL DAY!!!! It is UNREAL! No wonder it taints the milk with a buck nearby, and it DID taint the next days milk. She stunk so bad her milk was inedible the next day. Last night Kelsey went to the barn with me and said it still stinks. I don't notice anymore.

James has been blogging about our latest adventure so I guess I don't need to say much there. After the initial shock and not knowing how we were going to make it all work I am now fine with it. We have a plan and the plan will work. So we are car/truck shopping!

Have a blessed last week of Advent.

2 comments:

Bluecanopy said...

buck smell....grody!

i love learning about this...way cool.

Mimi said...

Yuck. Male goats are sooooooo smelly.

I'm glad you are in a good space, and dried out!