Feeding the goats

With the billy goat in the pen with my lady goats, I didn't want to tie them out to eat grass.  For one thing, when I go to the pen, they all three come to the gate; I don't want the billy out because he isn't used to being tied up, and he would be the first one out the gate if I tried to get the girls out.  He is strong!

They always have hay to eat, but I like them to have grass from the pasture.  There's quite a bit of clover growing tall out there, so I decided to pick the clover for them, putting it in a bucket, and taking it to them.  I found out I could get a bucket full in ten minutes, packing it down tight, and decided to do that twice a day.

Twice a day they see me going to the pasture and yell at me to hurry up (in goat language).  Twice a day they eat every single bit of it.  I reach up over the fence, turn the bucket upside down, and the clover falls on their heads, which makes a silly picture for about 20 seconds until it all falls off of them. 

I sure hope one of their girl babies looks like their daddy; I really like his coloring.  I intend to milk one of the mamas for awhile, just so I can have some goat milk.  Cliff won't drink it, but I will.  It's been a long time since my milking days, and I can't wait. 

Here's what's happening in the garden

Yesterday I didn't go for a walk, and yet, my Fitbit said I made 14,868 steps.  I tilled the garden and put the few plants I bought Thursday at Colonial Gardens in my own dirt.  All the plants that can be planted early were 40 percent off.

Celery, simply because I've never grown it before 

Tomatoes, four different varieties.  I'm trying to find tomatoes that can "fight the blight".  I have two new varieties coming from Burpees that are supposed to not ever have blight at all.  I'll believe it when I see it.  These were full price, not 40 percent off

Berries are doing well.

Red Cabbage, 40 percent off

Strawberries looking good

onions and potatoes

I'll have more fun outside today!

Goats

I hope everyone had a happy Easter.  Two inches of gentle rain that came Saturday and Sunday was just what the doctor ordered for my garden.  The rain also helped the morel mushrooms to grow.  I can't look for them any more because of the hills and hollers on our property where they grow... I'd kill myself... but our grandson and his wife bring them to us.  Actually, if I can't go look for morels myself, it takes a lot of the fun out of eating them; hunting morels is like a treasure hunt!  But Arick has supplied us with enough that we've had mushrooms for dinner three times now.  And I will say that I don't miss all the ticks that are after my blood in the spring.

Cliff and I finally went and picked up a billy goat to breed our two girls.  The lady I bought my goats from loaned him to us for 45 days, and would you believe that my younger doe was coming in heat when we got him home?  Her mother, though, was just in heat on Good Friday, so it will be a little over two weeks before she is ready again.  As young goat bucks go, he's a good-looker, and very tame.  Of course, there's the smell of a buck, which is like no other smell on earth; I'll be glad to have that gone when he leaves.

His owner is wanting to sell him, and she told me to spread the word.  However, I don't know any people who would pay what she wants for a tiny goat.  All of hers are registered, but I don't really care about getting mine registered.  I have Thelma's papers, but not her daughter's. 

It will be interesting to see how many babies come out of my two goats.  Merck Veterinary Manual has this to say:  Gestation length in goats is 145–155 days (average 150 days) and can be affected by breed, litter weight, environment, and parity. Generally, first-kidding does have one or two kids, and in subsequent kiddings, triplets and quadruplets are not uncommon.

My dog Gabe had his operation Tuesday to get the melanoma out of his lip.  I did not ask the Vet if it would come back, although I imagine it will.  With the state I'm in lately I have learned to live one day at a time, and not worry about what the future holds.  I've learned not to make plans but to enjoy the moment, and I am closer to Jesus than I have ever been.

That's a good place to be.

Who let the dogs out?

Missouri weather and garden things

Every year I hear people around me talking about the strange Missouri weather; one day we're wearing shorts, the next day it's snowing.  All of us mention it, but we actually expect it, because it almost always goes that way in March and April.  We talk about our allergies.  Some folks think changing weather causes colds, but that isn't true.  The way you get a cold is from somebody else's germs.  However, allergies feel like a cold sometimes.

Already this spring has given us a couple of 80° days, but this week has highs in the fifties, and possibly 29° Sunday night.  If there's frost, I may not have any peaches this year, since the peach tree is in bloom now. 

All the seeds I planted will be able to stand some cold, and they are doing well.  I was really surprised to see the asparagus was coming up a few days ago, some as big around as my thumb!  I'm not supposed to harvest them for two more years, but if I'm still alive next year and still have half my mind left, you can bet I'll be eating some anyway.  I've never grown asparagus before.

All the radishes are up; about half of the spinach and pea seeds have germinated.  Oh yes, and all the onion sets are up.  In the past week I have carried many, many buckets of goat manure to the garden for fertilizer; I never imagined two tiny goats would give me so much poop!

The grass is green and growing from the few times we've had a little rain, and yesterday I tilled most of the rest of the garden to mix the fertilizer into the soil.  Thanks to the  tilling I've done, my fitbit tells me I made 12,538 steps, so there was no need for me to go for a walk yesterday.

The grandson had a couple of long dog leashes he wasn't using, the kind that lets dogs have plenty of space to run and yet they are tied up so they can't run away.  They are now goat leashes.  When both Arick and his wife are at work, their two dogs can be put up in their barn kennel and I can tie the goats out to eat grass.  They were tied out yesterday for more than an hour while I was tilling, and were eating all that time.

That's it for today.

Unique and Butch