I don't know where the time goes. This week has just gone by in a heartbeat. Between, watching grandkids, feeding goat kids and household chores I sometimes feel that there is too much to do and too little time and energy to do it all. I got milk on Friday, went to Walmart on Thursday, took care of my grandson on Wednesday and did the laundry one of those days. Anyway, you get the idea.

The flies are starting to get bad. I will have to get some fly traps and spray for the animals. I cleaned out the barn and got rid of all the cat food cans and other garbage that attracts the pesky flies. It is much better but more will be needed. The goats will have their Ivomec treatment again next weekend. We will have to cut hooves again and give the new kids their immunizations.

I got my Angora goat manual this week and have been reading bits and pieces when I get a minute. There is so much to learn and do. I still want to get some info from a different source, something from Southwest breeders. The way the economy is going, I'm thinking of irrigating the pasture and growing grass. I don't know how practical that would be. It is so dry here and the soil is nothing but rocks and caliche. My daughter has mentioned getting a dairy goat too...hmmmm. Don't know if I want to be that tied down. Maybe she would milk it!

Steve fixed the shade cloth over the raised bed today. It needed to be raised up so the gladiolas can grow taller and bloom. I also got my first tomato from my cherry tomato plant. There are five tomato plants out there. I got different sizes and colors. I hope we get lots. There is nothing like the taste of fresh tomatoes. The spinach is doing good too. I should pick some of it soon.

The kids should be weaned in about another month. I find that I am getting anxious to move forward. I want to get the pygoras moved to their new homes, get some new Heritage breed chickens, namely Delawares, and move Falkor to his new pen. At least I have a plan that is ready to go when the time is right. For now, I am enjoying the goat kids and the grandkids.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We got a lot done around our little farm. There is always the usual stuff, like cleaning out pens and feeding everyone. We also got new lights put up on the patio. I filled the humming bird and oriole feeders and hung them up, weeded the raised bed in the back yard and the rock garden in the front yard, and made macaroni salad for our family Memorial Day bbq.

One of the cats caught a good sized lizard. I went to investigate and saw that the lizard was not very injured, just playing dead. I removed him from the cat's presence and let him go in a very prickly, densely vegetated area near the garage. Hopefully, the cat didn't find him again. The cats are great about getting rid of unwanted critters. The thing is I cannot train them to discriminate between critters that are wanted, like lizards, and ones that aren't, like rats. They also kill snakes but they can't tell the difference between a rattler and a king snake!

While all the family was here yesterday, I recruited my son and son-in-law to help rangle another goat. Jenny is our biggest, wildest and meanest doe. She is also the hardest to catch. Her toe nails were getting so long that she was limping around the pen dangling her left front foot. After our dinner, Steve and Sam and Jeff went out armed with rope, toenail shears and bloodstop powder. I stayed in putting food away. I figured I'd have plenty of time to get out there before they caught her. I was wrong! They caught her, Sam and Jeff held her and Steve cut all her nails before I could even get out the door! Amazing! Steve is getting better with his lasso! Jenny is still limping but she will eventually get better and use her foot again. She is already putting weight on it. Who knew goats needed toenail clipping!

Steve also spent quite a bit of time pruning trees yesterday. He wants to make the place safer when fire season hits. I hate cuttting trees! They spend years getting big and branching out and I just hate cutting them. So we rangle about that. He wants to cut 10 branches off and I say only 2! So we compromise or I give in and he cuts the ones he thinks need it most. Now there are big mesquite branches all over the yard that need cutting up and removing. Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day or, in our case, not enough energy left in the old bodies to get everything done in one day! Ha!

It is now 7am and about time to start the feeding routine. The goats are already yelling at me and my little red dog is barking. She wants back in the house. Hiho, hiho! It's off to work I go!

The rain finally disappeared today. It got up to around 94 degrees but there was a good cool breeze so it didn't seem so hot. The pool was still a bit shocking to dive into but also refreshing.

The goats and alpacas seemed pretty comfortable. They weren't over-consuming water or hiding in the shade all day. Falkor was up on his hind legs trying to gobble up the new mesquite leaves that are hanging over his pen. Little Bones didn't have to be confined to the inside of the barn to keep her from over heating. Mouth and Bold-Fresh are done whining about being wethers. I don't think they will miss those little parts of their anatomy overly much!

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. I hope you will all have a great day and remember all those who served to keep our country free and safe. I always think of my own Father who served in the Korean War, and my husband, who gave 20 years of his life to the Air Force.

We woke up to heavy drizzling rain and zero visibility this morning. Our lone rooster and the wild birds are the only noise. Cool white mist shrouds everything and dampens all sound. The goats are huddled in their shelters. They really hate the rain. The alpacas are content to cush in their barn too. Haven't seen any of the cats and Buddy is enjoying a cool snooze on the front porch. With his thick undercoat and long outer coat, he really enjoys the coolness and damp. As for me, I enjoy the stillness and peace. The rain is a nice change from hot sun, but I am glad it won't last long. Prolonged dark days and dampness tend to depress the spirit. If I wanted lots of rain and damp and dark I would still live in Oregon.

The weatherman seems to think this is just a little storm blown up from Mexico. It is awfully early for monsoon, although, because we live in the desert, we can always use the rain. It will be a good day for spinning and writing.

We are out of hay this morning so I will feed the animals alfalfa and timothy pellets. Then when Steve brings the hay home this evening I will feed them that. They will be all excited to get real hay again. It is only a reverse of the usual schedule, but animals don't realize these things. They are totally reliant on us for wherever their next meal comes from. At least I shouldn't have to fill water buckets so many times today. The rain and damp will keep everybody cool and still. I will be the only one slipping and sliding around on muddy pastures.

Mouth and Bold-Fresh seem to be back to normal, playing and jumping around. Bold-Fresh came to hang out yesterday when I fed Mouth and the other 2 kids are starting to hang out too. I took my youngest grandson and we hung out in the pasture for a little while yesterday when it wasn't raining so much. Mouth, of course, climbs all over me and eats my clothes. The rest of them aren't so sure yet but they will come close enough to touch and chew on my fingers. Little Bones is thriving too. She has a couple of cement blocks in her pen. She loves to climb up and jump off of them. She loves to jump and spin around in mid air. Her brother is a little more reserved, maybe cuz he is still in the pen with Caramel. I am pleased with how they are growing.

After driving to Tucson to see a doctor, I went out and sat on an old crate in the goat pen. Mouth came right over to say hello and to be pet. Bold-Fresh is still mad at me for putting that band on him yesterday and he wouldn't come near. The other 2 kids were very curious and came to check me out. The little doe is so pretty. My daughter said she could not tell the kids apart, but I can! Ha! Bobbin's 2 kids have much nicer fleece than Mouth and Bold-Fresh. It is more dense and more fine. They are more like angoras than pygoras. It was nice to sit quietly, look up at the trees and sky and feel my peace return to me.

I got out my drop spindle and a box full of rolags that I combed out of white alpaca fleece. It is fleece from an alpaca named Sally. The spindle is already almost full enough to put the yarn on a nitty-notty and wash it. Kathy Withers is having a drop spindle contest at the Tucson Fiber Festival in October. I don't think I will enter but it will be fun to watch others compete. For those of you who aren't into fiber or yarn, "spindle", "rolag", and "nitty-notty" are terms used to decribe equipment used to make yarn or, in the case of "rolag", it is a roll of fleece that has been washed and combed and is ready for spinning. I make rolags instead of "roving" because I am "hand carding" the fleece. I would have to send it to a mill to get "roving",which is one long continuous roll, kind of like a whole bunch of rolags attached together, end to end. As you can see, the fiber world and spinning have a whole vocabulary that is unique. Anyway, I want to spin some more so I'll be back later.

Two of our little bucks got turned into wethers yesterday. They are not too happy about that. I imagine it hurts some but it had to be done. They will make better companion animals or pets this way. Sometimes I really hate what has to be done to animals to make their lives and ours more liveable. I have decided to keep Bold-Fresh as a companion for my big buck, Falkor. Mouth and Bobbin's two kids will go to a new home with last year's kids.

Some of my family members think I should find new homes for all the animals. They are only thinking about me and think I am too stressed by the goats and alpacas. Maybe they are right. I'll have to think about that. It is true that the animals keep me at home and restrict trips and time in town. I'm not sure that is a bad thing the way the economy is right now. I have often fantasized about learning to ride a Harley and taking off in the sunset......

Life is full of ups and downs. Today was a definite up! My new shearer came today. He called when he was on his way. He arrived and set up very quickly. He sheared the alpacas with them standing in a stall instead of tied up and slammed to the floor. Both Prince, who absolutely hates being sheared, and Tinker behaved well. Well, better than when they have been tied up. Last year Prince spit, peed,pooped, struggled, screamed and thrashed around. This year he kicked a few times but there was none of last year's hysterics. Tinker only kicked once and then he hummmed his way through the whole process. The shearer was very fast and efficient. He was done before the alpacas knew what happened. What a relief to have them finally done! Falkor and Caramel, the angora goats got sheared too. No laying them down. No cutting or bleeding. They both got cut up last year. I am so glad.

Another really good thing, Steve and the shearer did just about everything! It was so great! The two men did all the work just like men are supposed to do. I don't have any aches and pains from holding down animals or fighting with equipment. Fabulous! Thanks to both of them!

Then I showed the shearer how to get to my friend's place and helped her hold her two baby alpacas while he sheared them. He made it seem like a piece of cake! Then I came home, fed the baby goats and jumped in the pool! A good day! Hallelujah!

Lucy had her babies yesterday. She wasn't due until the 24th so things did not go well. She had one big white male that she actually tried to clean up and take care of. The other two were difficult to identify. They were hairless, and underdeveloped. She was still in the pen with the buck so Steve and I tied up the buck and tried to lure Lucy into the neighboring pen. She refused to cooperate and we had to lasso her again. Then we moved her baby but she would not touch him again. As soon as we went inside, she managed to get back in with the buck and left the baby. So I brought the buckling inside and tried to feed him. He nursed a little at first but only got weaker and weaker. He had very little hair and no teeth. He finally breathed his last this afternoon.

It was a very difficult day for me. I really hate to see the moms struggle so to give birth only to lose the babies. Lucy did this last year too. She had 3 babies and they all were very cute and seemed to be healthy but she did not take care of them and I lost them too. I don't think Lucy should ever be bred again. I don't know if I will breed any of the does again next year. We would have had 10 new kids if all the babies had lived this year. 10 kids out of 4 does! Amazing! As it is, we have 6 beautiful kids, 4 bucks and 2 does. The pure angora kids are thriving and so are the pygoras who lived.

I have promised the wild does to a guy who wanted some goats. He has even paid for them but I don't feel right about this sale. I do not feel that I should perpetuate the problems I have had with these wild goats and pass them on to someone else. I will try to persuade this gentleman to take some of the tame goats instead. I'm thinking of selling the wild does for meat instead. I know this sounds cruel but I cannot keep them and I cannot, in good conscience, sell them to anyone else to breed again or cause someone else the problems and grief that I have experienced with them. It has caused me to re-evaluate myself as a farmer and breeder. What are my goals? Why do I want these beautiful animals? Can I take care of them in the way they need and deserve? I don't know the answers yet.

It is hot again today. I guess it will be until the monsoon hits in July. Then it will be hot and muggy! All the cactus are blooming big time. Bright orange and yellow flowers on the prickly pear. The cholla have smaller purple blooms and wicked stickers. My California poppy is blooming in the raised bed and the Mexican primrose has quite a show in the rock garden. The yard will fill up with tall stickery weeds once the monsoon arrives so I am enjoying these flowers now.

Hi Y'all. Sorry I have been away so long. Sometimes it gets crazy around here and I don't get to the computer.

First I should say that I am still feeding Mouth 3 times a day. On the advice of several friends and acquaintances, I have decided to bottle feed all the kids until they are 12 weeks old at least. Mouth was put back on real goat milk today so I will be visiting my new milk source more often. Both of the angora kids are getting 4 feedings a day and getting cuter by the minute. Little Bones was leaping and frisking all over her pen today. So fun to watch healthy kids perform their crazy antics!

I was able to contact my new shearer today too. He is in Sacramento today but plans on returning to Tucson soon. He informed me that, due to his trip to CA., he is really backlogged in his schedule. He asked me to leave my name and number and promised to call me once he returns to AZ. I sincerely hope that he will be able to fit in this little farm soon. If not I have one other option. A neighbor has offered to help and maybe show me how to shear myself. What a load off that would be! I could shear whenever I was ready and, boy, would it be cheap! Ha!

I don't know how real farmers keep their heads above water financially. Some of them even make money! I hope to make some money selling the kids. I would like to sell my fleece too. I suppose I should get busy and post stuff on ebay or craig's list or something. Maybe after the kids are done bottle feeding I will get to that. There is so much to do and so many things need to be fixed or built around here. I've had people tell me they are bored at home all day and that is why they work. Well, I am never bored and I have more to do than there are hours in the day. Sometimes I get discouraged because there are so many things that MUST be done that I have trouble finding time to do the things I want to do. One thing though, I am very thankful that I no longer have to punch a time clock. Another thing, I am thankful that I no longer live in a development. I am thankful for all my animals and my family. And thanks to all of you who read this blog.

Our little bunny did not make it through a second night. He was too cold and still needed mom's milk I think. I let him rest under one of our sage bushes.

Mouth is doing fine in spite of stuffing himself a couple of days ago. I have cut his bottle feeding down to twice a day and will make that one next week. I cannot believe how fast the first kids are growing. I have a special fondness for Bold-Fresh. I guess it must be his attitude because he looks pretty much the same as the other white pygora kids. He comes to see me even though I am not bottle feeding him. He is one cool kid! Ha!

Southern Arizona is cooking again. The weathermen say it is a little early but we are already hitting temps in the triple digits. It was 80 degrees at 8:30 this morning. Our thermometer is showing 104 degrees now at 3pm. I worry about the animals when it gets so hot. I make sure they do not run out of water and they all have some shade in their pens. In the case of Little Bones, she is penned in the barn since she doesn't have enough sense to keep cool yet.

I have been given the name of another shearer so I will be calling him soon. It is even more important to get the animals sheared now that the temp is so high. The goats especially seem to get too hot. The alpacas seem to do surprisingly well. They will all feel better without their heavy coats though.

I am making a trip to buy more goat milk this evening. The little pigs, oops, I mean kids, are going through it fast. Let's see, I bought 2 gallons on Sunday and this is Thursday, so the two angora kids are going through half a gallon a day! Wow! Don't think I'm feeding them too much. They aren't having any diarrhea and they always want the bottle when I bring it. I do think Caramel is nursing the angora buck some but not enough. He still hollers when I come out with the bottle. If I see him nursing, I skip that feeding and give him the bottle at the next feeding time. I think it is unusual for a kid to drink from a bottle and his mom. I read somewhere that they learn one way or the other and it is hard to train them to take a bottle if they are suckling on mom. He doesn't seem to have a problem either way.

I made my decision and my poster for selling the kids. I am debating about when to post it. I think I should wait until they are all weaned but maybe I should try to sell them now. That way, when they are weaned, they can go to their new homes right away. I'll ask Steve what he thinks.

As soon as one problem is solved, another presents itself. I guess Lucy did not like being alone. She pushed her way through the fence and is now residing with the father of her kids. We will have to move one of them before the kids arrive and fix the fence. Falkor will have to be moved as it will be easier, but it may be awhile before we can build a new buck pen for him. He is the reason Lucy was able to get throught the fence in the first place.

At the 2pm feeding time, Mouth was so full that he would not take a bottle. That could be good or bad. It means he is eating hay but maybe he ate too much. I will have to keep an eye on him.

Little Bones has been moved to the goat barn. She was able to escape from her little pen here in the house and seems to be doing OK, so I graduated her back to the barn. I did have to pen her inside when the sun got high because she doesn't seem to understand that the sun and the heat are dangerous. She is cooler inside. She and her brother have upped their milk intake to about a cup per feeding. I'll have to get more milk in a day or two.

Last night I was watering my tomatoes a little after the sun went down. Something moved in the green foliage. I thought it was one of those bull frogs we get in the summer during monsoon. I got a flashlight from the house and what a surprise! No snake, thank God. It was the tiniest baby rabbit I've ever seen. I don't know how it got into the raised bed which is waist high. Maybe one of the cats caught it and left it there when it stopped moving,not realizing it wasn't dead. There is not a mark on it and it seems perfectly OK. I left it there overnight, thinking that there are more predators out at night, and it would be better to let it go during the day. It was still there this morning so I showed my #2 grandson, Dan. He, of course, wanted to hold it. So now it is in an old fish tank with a cardboard box for hiding and a bunch of hay for bedding and food. I haven't decided if I will try to raise it on goat milk or let it go. I have no idea if it is big enough to survive on it's own or if I would be releasing it to certain death. It is about the size of an adult mouse.

I made a list of all my goats. I plan to make a flyer to post at the feed store with the ones for sale. That will make Steve happy since we have too many goats and maybe we will get back some of the feed costs.

It is a new bright shiny morning in southern Arizona. I love mornings because it is cool and calm. The wind hasn't started blasting and it isn't hot. I like to sit on the front patio and watch the swallows dive and swoop catching bugs. I think they fly just for the fun of it. They are amazing little flyers.

Yesterday we accomplished some big changes. Steve spent most of the morning building another goat shelter. It is the third one he has built and the best so far. I was very pleased. The new shelter allowed us to move the 3 yearling kids out of the goat barn and into the big pasture at the northwest corner of our property. They will have more space to run around and play. They were not happy about the move yesterday. Goats don't like change, like a lot of people. They tried to push through the gates and climb over the fence, hollering all the while. I suppose goats "bleat" but when I am outside and they can see me, it feels like they are yelling at me. I don't think I've ever heard a sound quite like goats hollering! The 3 yearlings are the first babies we had on our farm. They were born in the middle of a rare blizzard we had last March. Silverado and Valentino are brothers, grey and black respectively. The other one is a gray doe named Butterfly by the grandkids. They are all friendly and easy to handle. I cannot decide if I will sell them or not. They have all been disbudded so I do not want them put with goats that have horns. Horned goats would beat them up.

Little Bones and her brother are doing very well. I thought Caramel was nursing the male yesterday but I could not be certain. I skipped a bottle feeding with him to see. He was ravenous at the next feeding so I don't think he was getting much from her. I found a new source for goat milk just across the highway from us. A really nice lady raises dairy goats and has lots of milk. I got 2 gallons from her for $3 each, a good price.

We also separated Lucy, my still pregnant doe, from the other moms yesterday. Boy, was that a struggle. If you ever buy goats, make sure they are tame and will follow you and not be afraid of you. Catching skiddish wild goats is frustrating and dangerous. We enlisted the help of our son-in-law, Jeff. He and Steve got in the pasture with 3 adult does, 3 kids and one bottle fed kid. The plan was to chase Lucy out of the pasture and encourage her to move to the goat barn. The goats all stayed in a herd and Mouth, the bottle baby, kept running toward whatever human was the closest, hindering any effort to separate Lucy out. Finally, after a couple of unsuccessful races around the feild, Steve got his lasso out. Now, Steve is no cowboy. His roping efforts are very amateurish. Jeff and I cornered the whole herd, 7 goats. Steve got as close as he could without making them run again and started tossing his noose toward Lucy. On the third try, he managed to get a pretty good hold on her over her horns and side of her head. Jeff and I ran in to grab her collar because we didn't want to straggle her. Jeff got wrapped up in the rope and she was fighting as hard as she could to get away. I got there in time to keep Jeff from going down. Steve also got there and got a grip in her horns. Jeff got untangled but did get a scape on his shin. No blood, thank the Lord! Steve then straddled Lucy and kept a hold on her horns. I pulled on her collar and we walked her to her new stall in the goat barn. She will spend the rest of her pregnancy there, unmolested by the other moms, and hopefully, she'll have healthy cute kids at the end of the month.

I hear Mouth hollering at me so I guess it is time to get dressed and feed everybody. Later y'all!

We named the new baby girl "Little Bones" because she is so small and thin. She is doing oh so much better today. I have named a couple of the other kids too. The other bottle baby, Jenny's son, I am calling "Mouth" because he is so loud when it is time to feed him. And I named his brother, "Bold-Fresh" because that is what he is. He always comes to visit when I am feeding Mouth and butts him while he's eating unless I pay attention to him and rub his chin. I think Mouth will be wethered but Bold-Fresh will not. I have not named Bobbin's girl and boy yet. They are still shy and I need to spend more time with them before their names present themselves. I will be selling all the bucks/wethers and keeping the two girls. Steve is nearly in a panic because we have so many goats. So email me if you want to buy any debrahedin@msn.com.

Steve is outside building another shelter for some of last year's kids. He is getting rather good at doing this. He is always helpful with whatever I want to do on this farm we've started.

Yesterday was another stressful day. My newest smallest girl kid seemed to be going downhill. She wouldn't suckle and only wanted to sleep. I couldn't figure out what would cause such a thing when she had been doing so well. I called the vet , who was out of town. That office also informed me that 2 other vets did not see goats. So I called Kathy. She was very helpful and advised me to get some fresh goat milk. So I called Liz and got some fresh goat milk that also had colostrum in it!

At 2pm, Little Bones, had stopped eating and started sleeping. I had tried to feed her several times but she would just go back to sleep. About 7pm, I got the goat milk and at 8 pm I managed to get a few gulps down her. At 10pm, she started suckling again. Then she started walking around again! Boy, was I happy! Today, she has been alert and walking and making noise. She even walked toward me when I called and wanted to feed her.

It is late now, about 10:30pm. So I will write more again later. Many thanks to Kathy and Liz for their help and support and Thanks to Dennis too, because if he hadn't been home, I wouldn't have been able to get the milk!