Oh, boy. It's kidding season, once more. We have six new kids - four females and two males. Hopefully, the balance will be such that we can fill out our herd and have females for sale (instead of just male kids for cabrito) in 2012.
We've replace the wire mesh on the stalls with hog panels - a gradient variety of 6x6 squares - they start off at the bottom with 1.5 inch gaps and go up from there. These are great for kidding stalls because the young kids can't get out of the stalls or get away from mom. The regular fencing worked to a point, then we have goats that just like to bash the sides of the stalls for no damned reason at all. So the wire mesh gets banged up pretty badly. The hog panels are pretty sturdy and will withstand a lot more bashing, as well as being able to be pushed back into shape once the goats have done too much damage.
Mike set off two burn piles today. It's been a while since Bastrop County's Burn ban has been lifted and since it's been raining a bunch (not enough, never enough), the ban is off temporarily. So Mike did two burn piles (one with the amount of dead trees, old decking materials and average damaged wood stuff would have set a pile off that was too high).
The neighbor lady came across Shiloh yesterday while Mike was on a bike ride and I spoke with her. She's an ex-RTF person and is semi-retired. She moved down the road from a much larger house to the one she has and in the past, has raised hay (mostly for her horses). She seems all right. Her mother is 93 years of age and living in San Antonio. Mimi (our potbelly pig) tends to visit her when Mimi's in heat and yesterday, the woman had Mimi and her kids in tow when she came to the second gate (the one that separates the front yard from the fields).
Life is a little stupid right now. It's been a very tough year financially as well as emotionally for both Mike and I. It has been an extremely complex year, one that we both tend to want to put behind us. Next year will be better. It better be. It can't get much worse than this year. Drought, disease, issues with government agencies and a general depression that comes with a few of those tended to make us a bit... weary this year.
Later,
K
We've replace the wire mesh on the stalls with hog panels - a gradient variety of 6x6 squares - they start off at the bottom with 1.5 inch gaps and go up from there. These are great for kidding stalls because the young kids can't get out of the stalls or get away from mom. The regular fencing worked to a point, then we have goats that just like to bash the sides of the stalls for no damned reason at all. So the wire mesh gets banged up pretty badly. The hog panels are pretty sturdy and will withstand a lot more bashing, as well as being able to be pushed back into shape once the goats have done too much damage.
Mike set off two burn piles today. It's been a while since Bastrop County's Burn ban has been lifted and since it's been raining a bunch (not enough, never enough), the ban is off temporarily. So Mike did two burn piles (one with the amount of dead trees, old decking materials and average damaged wood stuff would have set a pile off that was too high).
The neighbor lady came across Shiloh yesterday while Mike was on a bike ride and I spoke with her. She's an ex-RTF person and is semi-retired. She moved down the road from a much larger house to the one she has and in the past, has raised hay (mostly for her horses). She seems all right. Her mother is 93 years of age and living in San Antonio. Mimi (our potbelly pig) tends to visit her when Mimi's in heat and yesterday, the woman had Mimi and her kids in tow when she came to the second gate (the one that separates the front yard from the fields).
Life is a little stupid right now. It's been a very tough year financially as well as emotionally for both Mike and I. It has been an extremely complex year, one that we both tend to want to put behind us. Next year will be better. It better be. It can't get much worse than this year. Drought, disease, issues with government agencies and a general depression that comes with a few of those tended to make us a bit... weary this year.
Later,
K
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