Well the goats were supposed to arrive tomorrow, but…
The darn fence and enclosure are not finished!
I admit it. We bit off more than we can chew.
We are exhausted, overworked, overheated, and unfortunately very behind.
Last night we admitted it could not be done. One side of the fence has not been put up (the side with the heavy gate), and the enclosure is not even half finished yet. It’s taking so much longer than we thought.
I got stung by TWO wasps at the same time, which is three in one week!
Three in my life and all three this week! Wasp spray is the one chemical we are willing to use on the farm. If there’s something natural that WORKS, please let us know! Until then it’s the kind from Lowe’s that kills. Sorry folks, but wasps are a hazard to children and adults.
I have had horrible swelling and terrible itching with my bites and the muscle in my arm aches like I have the flu. Awful beasts, those wasps! By the way, my human homeopath recommended Vespa Crabro 200c for wasp stings and that helps with swelling. My animal homeopath suggests grabbing dirt and spitting on it to make a paste and putting that directly onto the sting. I did that the second time and it really did take the sting away right away.
Now if only something would help with the itch…and redness…
I called the goat breeder/ now friend this morning and told her where we were at. She was super nice about it and will hold them til we’re ready, which is hopefully going to be this coming Sunday. I’m really hoping that it can happen, but we still have to:
a) finish the fencing
b) put up hot wire “goat shoulder” height
c) potentially put up wire around the outside bottom of the fence so predators won’t dig in
d) finish the enclosure
e) hang up 9, yes, 9 mineral feeder pans that hold two minerals each because we are giving our goats 18 minerals to stay as healthy as possible
f) paint the rusty metal poles in the barn and goat area
We were going to build a hay rack but the breeder has kindly offered to trade us two of her homemade hay racks for half a bale of the non-GMO alfalfa hay we scored. Non-GMO is very important to us and this hay comes all the way from Arizona. She’s also giving me kefir grains, which I haven’t been doing but really need to because they helped my gut heal so much and I’ve been getting sick again. Last but not least she is giving us one wooden electrical spool, a favorite toy amongst goats.
In general we are tired out of our minds (and bodies! especially bodies). Christine has been getting up when the sun rises to work on these goat projects. I wake up, walk two dogs, feed three dogs, feed the cat, feed tiny human, and then come down to the barn to join her.
Chai (LGD puppy) had an unfortunate accident with our Haflinger several days ago.
He kicked the heck out of her with his front hoof and she fell over and he kicked some more. She finally got up and ran away yelping like crazy. I thought every bone in her body would be broken but she was just terrified out of her mind.
I gave her arnica every 15 minutes for an hour and she seemed fine after that. I also gave her rescue remedy both internally and rubbed onto her ears. I’m not sure if she learned her lesson or not, so I’ve been keeping her away from the horses and she’s mostly been on the tie out which is quite unfortunate. When she has been loose she has been terrorizing the working humans by grabbing tools, pieces of wood, etc.
Ah, puppies.
Unfortunately her sister who our real estate agent bought was bit by a rattlesnake bite today, poor girl, and she has to be at the vet overnight tonight. Not a good week for these poor puppies!
I’m inspired to do a video about what we feed our dogs which I will do some day when things calm down. I’m so grateful that my teenager has really stepped up and has been helping with her sister and also making us dinner when we are outside working on the barn. I can’t stand cooking so I’m especially grateful.
Now if only I had another child who liked doing dishes…