Playing Hooky?

You either thought I was playing hooky or busy since I didn't blog yesterday. Wonder which one would get the greatest number of votes.Some might say because today I took the little girls bike riding, I was playing hooky today. Then again I had to adjust training wheels on two bikes, hold the youngest grand daughter in one arm while I grabbed back of shirts to halt run aways, push to get bikes started rolling, and for one stretch - I held the youngest and with the other hand I pulled the smallest bike along, and since both hands were occupied I kept the front bike going up the hill with upthrusting shoves on the back tire with alternating feet. Yeah, maybe not hooky.

Then while the girls took a nap, I finished unloading a twenty foot trailer load of manure. You can see part of it in this photo. We increased the garden last year, this year, and are in preparation to increase it for next year again. Not many crops are in the ground right now and yes, the garden has wa...y too much manure on it for this year. It doesn't look real shiny with the wrong combination of soil and the cool weather. BUT, next year I'm hoping for a super one as the manure will have a year to break down. With raising three little girls - since let's face it, we have them most of seven days a week, we aren't going to get much else done this year. Not with an eighteen month old for sure.

When they woke up it was lunch time and you know what comes next. Then it was time for a dunk in the children's size pool and I snuck off a few feet away to take photos of bugs on flowers. Maybe, you could call THAT hooky. And the ice cream cones served after the girl's swim could be categorized as hooky but does it count I had made the ice cream a few days before? So in my book, babysitting three little ones is never a hooky day but then to some of you it might just be much easier than your day to day schedule.

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This year is all about changes. Remember Zoey? She's going back to her original home.

We decided to keep the two girls of Chicory's. Wish I could get them to quit giving me butt side views only and show just how pretty these little one are but alas, I'll have to just keep trying. We figured since Zoey is a an American Nubian and these two little girls are also, why not keep the girls. We think they will out class Zoey especially if they inherit their mom's udder.

Michelle bought a new buck and so all three of our girls will have someone to go visit that isn't also called Dad. He is a pure-bred Nubian like Chicory and boy, does his mom have a gorgeous udder -saw pictures. I've heard that pure-bred Nubians are more in demand. What would I know, we've had Saanens for twenty-five years ?

What I don't understand is what difference a pure-bred doe makes. Pretty is as pretty does as far as I'm concerned. I want the conformation, high milk production, and a sweet, quiet disposition. I've seen too many papered horses, goats, and everything else that weren't too impressive. Also too many people that thought they had something because their animal was registered and they actually had junk.

The problem is since things were challenging we had been leaving the doelings on mama to nurse. That's not going to work as we will be housing them with her this winter. So off they came and things haven't been going real smooth. We let the grand kids in with them too much and they got to chasing them a bit at the end. The doelings weren't too bad when they were in with Chicory and would come to me but now in their own pen - they are a challenge to catch. I'm just going to have to down size the pen for awhile.

Problem number two is that they don't like the lumbar bucket and that's what they had yesterday. Not that I wasn't holding them up to the lumbar bucket too but a baby bottle gives me more control on how much they eat, so I started them on that this morning. It's been taking me an hour fussing with them and trying to get them tamed and fed. The one doe I had to squeeze some milk from the bottle into her throat, let her swallow and repeated the move over and over again. The other doe after a bottle caught on and drank the second one herself. YEAH!!!

Cracker jack, well, I found him pen hopping. He'd snuck in with Zoey and drank off of her. She was empty this morning. I shrunk the hole size in that little section in the fence and so we shouldn't be having that happen again. I'm guessing since he didn't nurse off of Chicory that she's glad to be free of him.

Tomorrow will be interesting as I have the kids from a quarter to seven to ten thirty at night. They may have to sit in the truck for this part of chores.

As you can see, the kids love their new pen because of the shed. The paint is peeling off and I'm going to start working on it. I could use a little advice though. It may not look like it but I usually paint the old, old sheds every year. I skipped last year and look how bad this one is. The wood is very old and the paint just doesn't stick. Yes, I've tried primer two different times and now I just paint with barn paint each year as it takes almost five gallons to get the three sheds covered.

But as you can see, I don't paint until the little goats are older and not proned to mountain climbing antics. I'm not that dumb.