I will have to admit that having a farm during “social distancing” has been nice. We can enjoy the outdoors and never share air with other folks. There are some perks.
But, I still enjoy doing my part as the grandkids are home with parents that work. We enjoyed a grandma day – which entails me spoiling them a bit and trying to recognize and use teachable moments. They were happy to be cooped up in the car while taking Candice to work because at least they weren’t cooped up at home. Supporting local business by ordering take out ice cream and eating it on our way home win-win!
This slow down in life has allowed us to do a little catch up with goat care. We buckled down and did goat care over three days. Every single goat has now been given their annual CDT shot, worming medicine, copper, and had their hooves trimmed. Every. Single. Goat.
Bam Bam waits his turn
I find it much easier to give worming medicine and copper pills with a goat on the ground, as I stand over top of their shoulders and lift their “chin” up. If I can manage to do this before they ever get to the foot trim stand, then half the work is done and they are quite happy to get to the good tasting grain. Also, they don’t drool the nasty tasting (I assume) worming medicine back into the food bowl – making the whole process of giving them medicine kind of pointless, and making the grain taste terrible to the goat which makes foot trimming much more complicated. We have learned ALOT by trial and error and error and error.
My newest lesson came in the process of giving worming medicine to our sweetest goat Apollo. Seriously, he is the sweetest goat we have – all around. But, in the last two years he has grown quite a bit! Not much mini about this mini-lamancha! As a matter of fact, he is quite tall. Tall enough, apparently, to lift me off my feet and carry me all around the barn as I try to keep my balance, get one foot to touch the ground, hold the worming medicine, avoid the horns, and just “for the love of God” land somewhere! Farmer man was amused, I am bruised! I still catch Farmer Man randomly chuckle – and I know he is replaying the whole scene in his head! In the end, I won and Apollo got the worming medicine, and then he got his feet trimmed, and we made up! Lesson – same technique but much closer quarters – like close enough that he just can’t run anywhere!
He looks MUCH shorter in this photo! 
Still my sweet buddy
We have taken advantage of a little spring-like weather to continue clearing up property and getting ready to run some division fence. Farmer man is in his happy place cutting the pine trees away and improving the view. So, with a little help, we burned a couple piles. That sounds like a relaxing afternoon, right? Nope, worked all day dragging pine branches and logs into the fire. I am pretty sure that all three of us are begging for a little Ibuprofen this morning! But, it’s amazing to walk into this little area on the lower end of the front hill and see grass growing, be able to see the house and the driveway. When we first bought the place, it was so hard to walk through the tangle of naturally downed pine trees, brush, and briars. We barely had a path, and now we have a good piece of field, open and looking healthier.
The constant battle between Barn Kitty and Big Red continues! Every once in a great while, I will carry him inside to eat, and he will finish his bowl of food before he runs crazy toward the windows trying to escape. Big Red has figured out where he goes when I pick him up – and now she intimidates him through the window! Poor Barn Kitty, he just wants to eat!
It’s nice to be able to see the beginning of spring, get some work out of the way, be able to go outside and enjoy the sunshine, and just be mindful of the blessings we enjoy. God is good and we are blessed beyond measure!
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