{"id":4268,"date":"2012-03-30T13:14:38","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T20:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=4268"},"modified":"2012-04-21T15:12:06","modified_gmt":"2012-04-21T22:12:06","slug":"changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=4268","title":{"rendered":"Changes."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.\u201d<\/h1>\n

Charles F. Kettering <\/a><\/p>\n

I like this quote.\u00a0 Because I can relate to a stubbed toe.\u00a0 A lot of quotes are a little too lofty for me.\u00a0 But I just stubbed my toe the last week so I know how badly it hurts.\u00a0 Actually The Other Half stubbed my toe for me, but, hey, whose fault is that?\u00a0 I was the one walking barefoot on the deck and he was the one wearing size 13 steel toed boots.\u00a0 (Obviously that makes it his fault.\u00a0 Who wears steel toed boots on the deck??)<\/p>\n

In any case, it is totally true.\u00a0 You can’t get a stubbed toe sitting on the couch.\u00a0 And you can’t get anywhere in life, sitting on the couch, with your foot elevated, complaining about your stubbed toe, and asking everyone in your family to look at it and give you their opinion on whether your toe is broken or not.\u00a0 ‘Cause, I hate to tell you this, but no one really cares about your stubbed toe.\u00a0 That’s why someone made up the quote “Life isn’t fair.”\u00a0 No one knows who made up that quote or I’d give them the credit for it.\u00a0 But I bet they knew life wasn’t fair way back when they were sharpening their arrowheads on a nice rock and, just as they were getting it to a perfect sharp edge, that arrowhead broke in their hand.\u00a0 Bet they even kicked that rock and stubbed their toe.\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Life isn’t fair.<\/p>\n

So around here we focus on moving forward.\u00a0 Even if we have to limp forward.\u00a0 Which is exactly what it felt like we have been doing for the last few months.\u00a0 We didn’t just lose Tasha<\/a>.\u00a0 We lost Little Bit<\/a>.\u00a0 Even though we had never seen him cross the road.\u00a0 Even though he acted terrified of cars and dashed into the woods at the sight of our own car coming up the driveway.\u00a0 Even though he was neutered in order to keep from straying in pursuit of female friends.\u00a0 Despite all of that, we went down to catch the school bus one morning and found his little body limp in the road.<\/p>\n

A week or so after that, we found Jack<\/a> down on his side in his pasture.\u00a0 He had no symptoms consistent with any kids of goat illness.\u00a0 No obvious injuries or blood loss.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, we had seen him standing and contentedly eating hay 10 minutes before he went down.\u00a0 He never recovered and died within an hour.\u00a0 It was absolutely inexplicable.<\/p>\n

What happened next was not so enigmatic.\u00a0 Josie<\/a> made a habit of tearing through fences and gates to get to food when she felt like it.\u00a0 As our largest goat, she was often hard to stop.\u00a0 And when she broke into the chicken pasture and devoured a can of chicken food, it wasn’t the first time.\u00a0 But it was the first time that she was in advanced pregnancy when it happened.\u00a0 Only about 4 weeks left.\u00a0 So there wasn’t enough room for a bloated rumen and her kids.\u00a0 She was already in respiratory distress when I came out in the morning at 5:30am.\u00a0 Oil and massage didn’t get the gas moving.\u00a0 She was way beyond walking.\u00a0 The after hours vet service was not answering the phone or I would have had them come out.\u00a0 The local home improvement store wasn’t open yet or I would have tried to tube her myself, out of desperation.\u00a0 I didn’t have a trocar and I don’t think I could have faced making the puncture and the consequences anyway.\u00a0 She took her last breath in my arms.<\/p>\n

It all sucked.\u00a0 It was way worse than a stubbed toe.\u00a0 But, although I am not always sure where we are going, we are headed somewhere.\u00a0 Even if it’s just for the day when we are sitting on the deck, toes intact, chickens pecking in the yard, guineas searching for ticks in the woods, pony lazily scratching her back against her favorite white oak tree, goats nibbling blackberry canes on the dam, ducks paddling in the pond, barn cat sunning on the deck rail, livestock guardian dog sleeping in the shade, pig nosing around in his wallow, perennial flower heads bending in the slight breeze, and the vegetables in the garden flourishing so much so that you can hear the corn stretching for the sun and the peas climbing their trellis.\u00a0 We do have days like that.\u00a0 It’s just a matter of moving along to get to them.\u00a0 Or as another smart person put it:<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving\u201d<\/h1>\n

Albert Einstein <\/a><\/p>\n

See, I get that one, too.\u00a0 Because I know how to ride a bicycle.\u00a0 Although it’s been a while since I rode one that wasn’t stationary, keeping track of calories burned, and able to play my Seether<\/a> CD to keep me motivated.\u00a0 But I’m sure I could still ride a regular bike.\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 If my toe wasn’t broken.<\/p>\n

So we keep on moving.\u00a0 Since we had more milk than we could use and a higher feed bill than we could tolerate, we sold a couple of the does in milk.\u00a0 Magenta and Cocoa went together to a new home in South Carolina.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Their new owners came out to meet them and milk them and then drove off with them, feeding them animal cookies as they went.\u00a0 A good deal for all.<\/p>\n

All of the January and February kids were sold.\u00a0 Ralphie, Rita, and Rosa, found homes.<\/p>\n

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And Eve, too.<\/p>\n

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Which only left us with Max, the blue eyed buckling.\u00a0 Who we get more and more tempted to keep each day.<\/p>\n

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Then Julia gave birth to a miniNubian buckling.\u00a0 We named him Joseph, in honor of Josie.<\/p>\n

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He’ll be for sale soon.\u00a0 We generally can’t keep extra bucklings (since they are related to our does) but we do enjoy snuggling them while they’re here.\u00a0 And Joseph will probably be the last miniNubuan kid born here.\u00a0 With the loss of Jack, we decided to get a Nubian buck.\u00a0 We always keep 2 bucks since goats are herd animals and one buck would be terribly lonely when it wasn’t breeding season.\u00a0 Now we’ll breed our Nigerian dwarf does to our Nigerian dwarf buck, Merlin.\u00a0 And our remaining Nubian doe, Julia, will be bred to this guy:\u00a0 Captain.<\/p>\n

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We helped out a friend with disbudding at his farm and, in return, came home with Captain.\u00a0 Captain is a little big to be bottle feeding.\u00a0 He was still nursing but already on grain and hay at the farm where he was born.\u00a0 However, since a full grown Nubian buck can weigh up to 200lbs we decided to give him a bottle for a few weeks to bond with him, keep him friendly, and easy to handle.\u00a0 His presence also gives Max someone to play with while we make a final decision about him.\u00a0 Should he stay or should he go?<\/p>\n

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Perhaps the hardest decision to make was whether or not we should get another barn cat.\u00a0 Little Bit was perfect.\u00a0 I didn’t think we would get that lucky again.\u00a0 I also knew there was no way to keep a cat off the road.\u00a0 I contacted the people who installed the invisible fence for our livestock guardian dog, thinking we could keep a cat within the barn and pastures using an additional collar.\u00a0 They said it really wasn’t suitable for cats as they tend to get out of collars and also can clear the fence faster than the 3 seconds warning before the shock.\u00a0 We were very unsure about what to do.<\/p>\n

What finally persuaded us was the fact that our county shelter is forced to euthanize cats every single week.\u00a0 We couldn’t guarantee a barn cat at our farm wouldn’t be hit on the road or some other accident.\u00a0 But we could make sure there was one less cat dying unloved and unwanted on a steel table at the back of the shelter.<\/p>\n

Make that 2 <\/strong>less cats dying unloved and unwanted on a steel table at the back of the shelter.\u00a0 Meet Daisy:<\/p>\n

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and Penny:<\/p>\n

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For 2 cats that lived in an apartment until their owner moved to a place that doesn’t allow cats and were then surrendered to the shelter (I have never, never understood that phenomenon.\u00a0 I have simply never moved to anyplace that doesn’t allow my pets.), they are doing extremely well.\u00a0 They enjoy being outdoors, sleeping in the hay rolls, and get along with all the critters.\u00a0 Perhaps they watched a lot of Animal Planet.\u00a0 Or Nature.\u00a0 Or maybe they just love being loved again.<\/p>\n

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In the midst of all these changes, a friend of a friend needed a new home for her flock of chickens.\u00a0 So we ended up with some new Buff Orpingtons added to our flock.\u00a0 Sampson, the rooster, says, “Thank you.”<\/p>\n

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She even brought us a Turken or Naked Neck chicken.<\/p>\n

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Apparently this breed of chicken is produced because it is easier to pluck and they are fairly common in Europe.\u00a0 Well, it’s obvious they aren’t bred for beauty and are rare enough around here that visitors always ask us, “Awww, poor thing.\u00a0 What’s wrong with that chicken?”\u00a0 So besides being a good egg layer, she’s also an excellent conversation piece.\u00a0 Works well to distract visitors when the buck starts peeing in his own face.\u00a0 Just sayin’.<\/p>\n

Of course, our farm isn’t the only one going through the ups and downs of springtime.\u00a0 The amazing fiber farm where I am learning about Shetland sheep and Angora goats recently had to put down an ewe that was struggling after the birth of her twins.\u00a0 I have been assisting at Avillion Farm<\/a> whenever I can so I can learn about the care and raising of animals for their wool.\u00a0 I had planned to eventually put 2 or 3 fiber animals on the pasture that runs alongside the driveway.\u00a0 Eventually comes sooner than you think.\u00a0 The ewe’s lambs needed a home.\u00a0 Which means our final change (for this week) was the addition of 2 baby rams—-Simon and Isaac.<\/p>\n

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Simon appears to be single coated, very fine, and with lots of crimp.\u00a0 Isaac looks to have a more intermediate fleece.\u00a0 Their names were chosen in relation to their wool—S for single coated; I for intermediate—as that is how we are telling them apart at this point.\u00a0 Simon actually has a bigger splash of white on his forehead.\u00a0 Or maybe Isaac has more white.\u00a0 Hmmmm…..raising sheep is trickier than I thought….<\/p>\n

It really is astonishing at how fast things can change.\u00a0 And a stubbed toe is no excuse for not getting up and moving along.\u00a0 On a farm, the only one allowed to wallow is the pig.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.\u201d Charles F. Kettering I like this quote.\u00a0 Because I can relate to a stubbed toe.\u00a0 A lot of quotes are a little too lofty for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[187,191,190,147,189,154,102,32,183,188,193,192,185,194],"class_list":["post-4268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barn-cat","tag-botte-feeding","tag-buckling","tag-chicken","tag-doeling","tag-dog","tag-goat","tag-kids","tag-lambs","tag-miking","tag-nigerian-dwarf","tag-nubian","tag-pig","tag-turken"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4268"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4615,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4268\/revisions\/4615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}