Getting Ready for Oopsie Babies

Sunday afternoon I shut Aphrodite in the Love Shack.

Aphrodite

She was not happy at all about being shut in alone, but when you decide to bust in with the buck and get bred at an unauthorized time, you get shut somewhere that is easy for my mom to check while I’m at work during the day.

Not to mention it’s easier for my middle of the night checks.  Add to that the weather was looking rainy and stormy and then cold for the week, and she got shut in.

Well, Monday I got a text from my mom saying the goats were in the field again.  Bless her. She followed my directions and put them in for me.

Then I got home and found that Perdita (did I even find time to share that she ditched her horn apparatus) was stuck in the lane fence and Aphrodite apparently jumped the Love Shack fence because she was out in pasture.

Perdita with a new horn apparatus

Add to that a likely severe weather event on Tuesday evening, and I made a change.  I shut Aphrodite in the garage when I caught her.

I also had the Ranger back in the garage due to the potential storms.

Antigone, my wimpy little mama and her babies got the Love Shack.

Antigone and kids so she can get inside and be safe.

I also set up for a night in the safe room soap room.  When I got home on Tuesday evening, everyone was where I had put them, and I moved the cats and dog and me into the soap room.

Tiger, Rocky, and Salem

That way it would be easy to check Aphrodite too.  Well, it did actually work out well.  Sort of… I was awake pretty much all night between the cats fighting and the dog snoring and the bucks being mean and the storm.  Really, I got so tired of Bob growling, and I was a bit nervous.  I finally threw him into the garage with Aphrodite.

Then I realized that Xerxes was being a jerk and refusing to let Frodo and Benji into the buck room.  I went and opened the door and called to them.  They came rushing past the bucks and into the garage.  They were very grateful.

Xerxes, Freddie, Frodo, and Benji on pasture together

Then the storm hit.  But the three goats, cat, and wild bird in the garage were safe, and the three cats, dog, and me in the soap room were safe.  Luckily, the severity of the storm had died down a bit before it reached us.

Somewhere in there Rocky decided to be crazy and start his wacko scratching at the door.  And would. not. stop.  Finally, I gave up and took the dog and went back to the house.

Rocky

And when I went back out in the morning to get the animals all where they belong, Aphrodite was still just lounging there and no baby.

But she was still shut in and could not get out of the garage! And mom was coming to check her again during the day.

A Winter Storm?

You might have seen our weird weather on the news.  Yesterday, we had a high wind warning.  They even let us out of school early so they could get kids home and the busses of the roads before it got really bad.  The wind guests overnight were expected to be over 70 mph.

We almost had whitecaps on the water.

It let me get home and feed the goats and then pick up the food pans.

Being goats, they just went back out to pasture.

The layer of loose dirt was already all blown clear.

Cinnamon

I tell you, I felt like I was living in some weird version of The Amityville Horror with all the flies the warm temperatures brought out.

And it smelled like April tornado weather.  This is not typical December weather; in fact, it set the all time record high for the month of December.

The highest temperature recorded was 74. I missed that while doing chores.

I was quite worried for my trees.  After the derecho last year, they are still looking pretty battered and high winds are the last thing they need.  My hope was that not having leaves would help keep them safe though.

Xerxes

The tarp blowing out the window.

Then after I came in after shutting the birds in, I checked the radar again.  That was really scary.  Within a few minutes there was a line of tornado warnings pretty much across the whole state from top to bottom.

I called my mom and told her she better get out here before it hit because I was not driving through debris again.  Then I started moving animals into the soap room because it’s probably the safest place on the farm and I can actually get Sky in there (he won’t go in the basement).

Sky and Bob eating.

Rocky and Tiger checking things out.

So we all chilled in the soap room.

Sky and Bob

Mom and I played cribbage.

After the line of severe weather went through, mom went home and we went back to the house.  Of course, there was still really strong winds behind the storms, but I felt a lot better after the severe weather went through.

Bob (yes, he’s been fighting again)

But after the storms came the high winds.  The gusts were still in the 60 – 70+ mph range.  Then I started smelling smoke.  It concerns me when I smell smoke with my barn and buildings.  I braved the winds to check it out, and was surprised to see my barn doors wide open.

Reva going in the barn for a snack.

I couldn’t get them shut on my own, so I called my son. While I waited for him, I had to use the cattle panel to keep the goats from feasting.

Pretzel “helping” me

We decided there was no way it would stay with just the board (sticking out from the door), so he had the great idea to use the Ranger.

I am ready for some calmer weather.

I had to go to work this morning, so the goats got to play on it all day.

Oh, and by the way, the smoky smell was all across the state, but the smoke was coming from Kansas.  And I never wanted to tag another post with derecho, but the Washington Post is referring to the storm system as a derecho.  Once again, I am very grateful for how lucky we were.

And the Rains Came

Wednesday had possible storms in the forecast–both morning and evening. I was already rather grumpy because the predicted rainfall totals showed my farm getting between a quarter and a third of an inch.

However, at this point, since we are still in a moderate drought any rain is welcome. I was a bit surprised when we actually got a tenth of an inch in the morning. I was hoping this little extra might put the total for the day closer to half an inch.

I did my chores early in the afternoon, just in case we actually got some; however, the app on my phone was showing pretty much all of the rain missing me. Then the rains came. It sprinkled enough that it brought the goats up from pasture.

Daisy in the doorway; Popcorn outside (don’t worry–he went in when it got bad)

The wind and rain picked up. They built up and then began back building and we spent about two hours under a severe storm warning.

There was a tornado warning in there for a while. Actually, there were at least twelve confirmed tornadoes touching down in the state yesterday. This rotation was radar indicated, so I don’t think there was anything that touched down with this warning, thankfully.

When it was all said and done, we also ended up under a flash flood warning. Trust me, I did not flood. I live on the top of a hill. Thank heavens.

At one point there were four advisories (these and a thunderstorm warning)

The next morning, I went out to assess the damage. The garden obviously had some wind.

There was obviously some rotation here too. I don’t know how else those tomatoes would be in three different directions. I do think everything up here will recover.

I think the only real damage was the loss of my tarp hut.

Could have been a pool if the board hadn’t gone through it.

There was no way it could survive the weight of all that rain pooling in it.

Don’t worry, Freddie. I’ll fix your tarp hut

The next problem was trying to figure out how much rain we got. My food pans only hold about four inches.

I didn’t get the water tubs filled yesterday. I figured they would be easier to dump and scrub the next day if I let the goats drink them out more, but I have no idea how much it was, and the trees would impact the level as well.

I finally decided the big tub where the goats like to nap would give me my best estimate.

According to this tub, we got about 5 1/2 inches of rain in the two hours of this severe storm.

Grateful beans and pasture

This is all rain that soaked into the ground. You might have noticed that the barnyard wasn’t really muddy. It’s wet, but that rain all went into the ground. I can hardly wait to see next week’s drought monitor.