Come on, snuggle up next to Cinders here, one of our barn cats, and lets have us a nice chat. I'll explain why my blog posts have been so intermittent. I haven't been purposely neglecting you but Murphy, as in Murhpy's Law, has refused to leave. What's that saying, "Guest, like fish, begin to smell after three days." Well, it's been 6 weeks and Murphy smells to high heaven. He's cost us over fifty hours of lost time and a small fortune as we've had to replace almost everything, monitor, computers, printer, buy a routter, and parts to our phone line. Not to mention time with the technicians checking out equipment to see what works and what doesn't.

Cross your fingers that we've run out of things to checkout, fix, or buy because the only thing left is the speakers on the tower. Oh no, I shouldn't have said that. He might of heard me. LOL


During the computer problems of this past week I did try a new bread experiment but it was dense, really dense and the chickens got more out of it than us. I'm not discouraged. I've done more research into soaking flours and sprouting grains and I've three new experiments to try. I'll share with you tomorrow some of my research after I fix lunch for a group of ten ladies or so in our swimming exercise group. I'm fixing the Alfredo sauce and home-made noodles along with the garlic bread and the others are bringing the salad and dessert. That is what you get when it is known you teach cooking classes.

But first of all, I wanted to show you the cutie that greets me each morning. I'm doing chores for a friend this week and she has a two week old calf. Isn't he adorable. I wanted a better picture but he wouldn't stay at the other side of the pen, thinking surely I had something more for him to eat, as if a half gallon of milk isn't enough.

After he's drank his fill, it's out to feed the chickens, dogs, and the goats.

And I do mean goats for she has at least twenty. This doe, Capella, (don't think I spelled that right) scored I think 90 at the linear appraisal last year. She is a beauty. Wish I had a better picture but she wasn't in the mood for photos when her tummy was rumbling and hay was calling her name.

I wish I could have Chicory meet this gal. If Chicory thinks she's wide, she ain't seen nothing yet. This doe is supposedly going to kid in May. And though she is displaying herself as a bit wider and fuller than she is because her head is down, she is still huge. Wider than Chicory with two big balls on each side but she isn't at all full upward and not as deep down as Chicory. Even if she doesn't have as good a tummy muscles to hold it all in. She's huge by any standard. I'd think she was due much, much earlier but look at that nothing udder. There is no preparation for kids going in there.


Goats are like woman in that their bellies start to bulge lower down on the stomach during the beginning of the pregnancy and then as the baby or babies grow, they fill upward.

Goats get deeper down, filling out downward toward the ground also just as woman fill out more there too. Then when they near the end of their pregnancy, the babies drop. If you look carefully, look especially on the left side of this picture, the babies have dropped down. Chicory's flanks are hollowed out a bit. Today is the first day that they have done this. The kids will move back up and down numerous times in the next couple weeks but they will begin to spend more and more time in down in this position partially in the birth canal.


Then when Chicory goes into labor, her flanks will hollow out even further. First time fresheners,9 goats having their first kids0 do not hollow out as dramatically has older does. This makes it more difficult to tell if the doe is in early labor. I wanted to show you another picture, maybe one you could see this more clearly but my computer won't let me upload any more. See, Murphy won't leave me alone.


Does anyone want to become stronger? You know how trials make you stronger.  I'll be glad to give Murphy your address. Just so as he doesn't become like Sherman, the rooster that showed up from who knows where and has been here for two months. I don't think he's leaving.