Obsession

I think most people that have goats would tell you that they never knew when they got their first goat that they’d become obsessed with poop.  I tell you, though, there’s nothing like seeing perfect goat berries falling from your goat’s back side like a Pez dispenser.

with apologies to Joani for such an unflattering picture

It’s a good sign of a healthy goat.

front to back: LilyAnn, Sidney, and Dolly

This time of year is when the pasture is getting eaten down and the goats might start picking up worms.

Colt and Astra

You hate to see runny poops.  I kid you not, I followed Caroline around with a glove on to try and get a sample a couple of days ago, but she was not about to give it up.  She did enjoy pushing against my leg and bouncing.  I checked her eye membranes, and they are bright red, so I’m not too worried.  I might have to just keep a glove in my pocket for the opportune moment.

Caroline

I had to pull Clover away from her kids and shut her in after worming her because she had bottle jaw (even worse than diarrhea).

Clover

She’s been wormed, and I’m giving her sweet feed twice a day and all the good alfalfa hay she can eat.

Clover and jealous cows

I’m optimistic that she’ll fully recover.  In the meantime, I will continue to be obsessed with everyone’s poops (and their jaws and eye color).

I hope you’ll come back to join me for Friday’s Hunt.  I have this week’s items listed at the top of my side bar.

Way Too Long

It’s been way too long since I scooped my barn.  Two summers ago, it was too rainy to get the manure spreader in the barnyard, and by the time it got dry enough, I had garage construction, so it didn’t happen.  Last year, I was consumed with pumpkin patch stuff all summer (By the way, that lack of time to actually care for and enjoy my animals is a big reason I’m not doing the pumpkin patch anymore).  That means, I’m scooping three years of manure.  Luckily, goats are way neater than cows.

Butter and Tequilla playing in front of Farina and Aurora

I’m going to try to get it done or mostly done before I go back to work in about three weeks (Yikes!).  We’ll have to wait until the crops are out of the fields before it can be spread on them.  That means I’m making a giant poop pile.

I’m also hoping, when I get done and the llamas come back over here, they will not make a llama poop pile in the barn.  That really is annoying.

And messy.  All the goats and I agree they should keep their piles outside.

I hope you’ll come back to join me for Friday’s Hunt.  I have this week’s items listed at the top of my side bar.

Llama Roast

I decided not to go to the farmer’s market on Thursday because of my concern for the animals in the heat.  It’s a good thing I stayed home.  The heat really about turned into a llama roast or two.  Most everyone was holding their own.

Farina, Maybeline, Buster, and Aurora

I mentioned that Odie was really hot, but I couldn’t catch her to bring her to where I could hose her down, and I wasn’t going to chase her.  That would not help.

Odie

Instead, I went back to getting fresh water in the tubs.  Then I saw Aurora.  She and Buster had just run out to pasture a few minutes before, and that was her nearly fatal mistake.  She was open mouthed panting.  She stood up to walk into the barn and her back end was all wonky.  I quickly got another hose and ran it into the barn.  She just looked at me with pained eyes and let me hose her down.

Aurora

While I was in there, I went to check on Odie in the back of the barn and saw Maybeline was also open mouthed panting with stressed eyes, so I drug the hose back there and hosed her down.  Thankfully, she let me also.

Maybeline

After an hour of hosing one and then the other and luring them out of the barn where there was no air moving and into the shade, they all did a bit better.

Farina, Buster (front), Estar, and Aurora

Luckily, we had some rain over night that helped to cool us down to just horribly hot instead of killing hot.