Trying to Woo Dottie Belle

I am such a fine looking buck.

Just look at my beautiful blue eyes.

I've tried whispering sweet nothings in her ear.

But she just jumps on top of the igloo.

Being the herd stud is harder than one thinks.

Too Much Stress--Smaller Brain

There was an article in the local paper yesterday about certain types of stress has been shown to cause ones brain to shrink.  Things like death, divorce, job loss, and cancer.  Then I googled it on line and there were many articles about it.  Here's one that I read http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/09/study-stress-shrinks-the-brain-and-lowers-our-ability-to-cope-with-adversity/

All I can say is "Don't stress me out!  I need all my brain cells.  Maybe we should be kinder and more in touch with people and things that don't stress us out.

This and That

My dear husband works a lot of hours - that's 70 hours one week and 32 the next.  This is after his 3rd job played out.  So this past week he took off--that's the little 32 hour job.  He needed some time off!  Good for him to take care of himself.  So we did a few things I had on my honey do list.  
First we hung the adorable signs that my friend, Sharon, made for me.

Same sign, I just took the picture from 2 angles.

The girls weren't sure about it and tried to eat it.

Finally 

We bought lumber and made a box for our raised bed vegetable garden project. I'm going to set it in the ground, dig out all the weed infested dirt, put down a thick ground cover and fill with bagged soil. I am so tired of growing vicious weeds that strangle everything I plant.  Wish me luck. 

The rest of the time, Don got to do what he wanted to do, well mostly.

I Won!

My husband has heard me say that more than once and is always quick to correct me.  Well, I'm talking about e-bay.  He says, "You didn't win anything. You bought something."  Of course I know the difference, but I still get excited.  My e-bay purchases have been few and far between the last 5 years.  But here is one find that I searched for over 6 months before I found a 3 leaf clover butter mold for a decent price.  I found a couple before, but they were trying to sell them for $60.  No way.  There are many "antique" molds to be found on e-bay, but I had to have the 3 leaf clover like the one we had when I was growing up.
 
My mother milked our cow twice a day.  Often times, the only thing in our refrigerator would be a very large bowl of milk.  Food was either growing in the garden, in a pen, in the freezer or in jars that Mom had canned.  We didn't go to the grocery store and buy produce and such for the refrigerator.
So the milk was in the bowl for the cream to rise and then be skimmed off.  When we had enough cream, it was time to make butter.  We had a glass hand cranked churn.  That thing was too slow for me to stand and crank.  Finally, Mom and I decided that the electric mixer might be the way to go.  It did work beautifully and more importantly, quickly.

I have this fantasy of making butter with goat milk and using this mold.  I realize that goat's milk is homogenized so it will be harder to separate the cream and milk.  I watched a video on the internet that showed how to do this. So it does seem possible to do this.  

BS believes Dottie Belle enjoys the chase.

Right now I need one pregnant goat.  All 3 of my does went into heat this month, so there will be no May kids; therefore no milk or butter.  Little 4 month old Billy Shakespeare seems to be a kid prodigy in the mating department.  He is just too short.  But he is growing everyday.  I'm only putting Dottie Belle in the pen with him.  I want only 1 goat to kid at a time.

A Visit With the Grands to the Red River National Wildlife Refuge

I have to admit it; I was not looking forward to having all 3 grandchildren today.  The schools were closed for MLK day, but their mother had the choice of going to work or taking the day off.  I told her if she wanted to stay home, that I could keep Kennedy Thursday.  She normally works Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  I love spending time with them, but a cold rainy January day stuck in the house with 3 children who are so different in age is not a good arrangement.  So last night she decided she would go to work.  The Wildlife Refuge just opened a fabulous visitors center last week and the weather was predicted to be 75 degrees with a good chance of rain.  So I crossed my fingers that the rain would hold off for a trip to the refuge.  It was very overcast but warm.  The grands were a joy to be with and I think they learned something also.

There was a huge alligator gar.

First we viewed the exhibits.  They are excellent.

We found deer footprints on our hike.

All ages enjoyed the hike on the levee.

Though the sky 

was darkened with clouds, 

they held back the raindrops

until our adventure was over.

My Farm Name is Official

This one has the best logo.

About 6 months ago, I joined the ADGA.  Then I realized that wasn't the association that I meant to join, because all the shows around my area are sponsored by the NDGA. I have such a terrible handicap when using initials. My brain mixes up the order of the letters. Oh well, my goats will be double registered. So just before Christmas, I completed the on-line application to join the Nigerian Dwarf Goat Association and get a farm name and tattoo for the goats. I received my membership packet in the mail yesterday.  I had to enter 3 possible names for my farm.  The one I wanted was Thornhill Acre, after the name of the street I live on.  I got that, so now my blog is Charlotte's Menagerie and my little goat farm is Thornhill Acre.   To have an official certificate for my mini urban farm is fun.

Friday the 13th

Well, it's not over yet, but it's been a good day for me.  I slept very late.  I was determined to stay under the warm covers until well after the 24 degrees was a thing of the past.  About one o'clock I ventured out to the grocery store.  It had not crossed my mind that it was Friday the 13th.  I bought a buggy full.  As the fellow was pushing my buggy out the door, the ground beef that I bought to make chili, fell out and he ran over it with the buggy.  He was quite upset and started listing all the unlucky things that had happened to him today.  He had quite a list. He asked where my car was and for the keys and asked me if I would run back in and get another package. As he handed me the ripped package, I said, "Is it okay for me to just run in and get another pack?"  He said, "Oh sure."  But he looked in a bag and gave me the receipt just in case.  I could just see my bad luck of being accused of stealing hamburger.  Anyway, I went behind the meat counter and handed the lady the damaged pack and got another one.  But as I was walking straight out the door with the new pack, I was quite anxious about being stopped.  Good thing I was quick, because he was still upset and was having trouble figuring out how to open the back door of my truck.  He said he was going home as soon as he finished with me.  He really believed that his day was jinxed.

Useful Gifts

Along with some very nice Christmas presents, I received two gifts that I requested. Both are to make things better for my 4 Nigerian Dwarf goats.  I've already blogged about the aluminum milking stand we ordered from http://www.birchridgefarm.com/goatstands.html.  I got the silly idea of opening it at the end of our Christmas gift exchange and confusing 5 year old Connor by saying that it was for him so his mother could trim his toenails.  Well, here is the video.. 

Honey Bunny getting her first pedi on the new milk stand.

 Then the next item I asked for was a hay manger.  I gave my son-in-law, Trinity, 3 pictures of hay feeders I found on the internet and told him to take the best features of each.  Wow, did he do a great job.  Here's the video of them wheeling it down the street from their house to mine.

They kept it a secret, so I was not videoing this.

The top opens and it will hold a bale of hay.

The girls and I have really enjoyed it.  Even Kennedy has tried it out.  I just hope her mother doesn't see her little LSU tiger eating goat pellets.

Santa's Apprentice Tryouts

I know this could not be anymore amateurish, but I have to start somewhere.  The kids and I had fun.

The day after Christmas, Santa knew he must retire,

So he sent out a call that an apprentice he will need.

Young Connor dressed in his cowboy attire,

Quickly jumped on B.S., his trusty steed.

All the antlers were neatly hung upon the gate

Cowboy Connor knew he'd be chosen to deliver the toys.

And of course he would never be late.

It would be his charge to travel the world spreading joy.

With the help of his brother Chase,

He would transform these goats into reindeer.

The bayous of Louisiana would be their home base.

Only one detail remained a bit unclear.

He knew to yell, "On Gypsy! On Honey! On Dottie Belle!

As he harnessed each to his little red sleigh,

He wondered would this be the challenge from hell?

Cause how will he teach the goats, "Up, Up and Away!"

Putting Out the Snow Village

This year I didn't even try to get all the Christmas decorating done in just a couple of days.  I did the tree first about a month ago, then I hung the stockings. 



Never did get around to putting the lights outside. 
 
Tonight while their parents went shopping, the boys and I put out the Snow Village.



I'm not much for realism, so I bought some of the Department 56 Snow Babies pieces that I like.  Chase was busy setting out the traditional village, while Connor and I started unboxing the Snow Babies. 

When Chase saw that we were going to mix the 2 concepts he said, "Hey these don't fit together."   I said, "Sure they do.  It's like real life and then all around you there is make believe and magic."  He just gave me that look of "crazy lady."

After it was finish, I walked back into the room and found Connor playing with a character on a sled and pretending it was crashing into the village.  Oh well, I have grandsons.

The Gingerbread Man Who Didn't Get Away

I got one thing done today that I have been planning for a while, but I never found time for it.  Connor is the grandchild who loves to cook.  So, when he and Chase came over and plopped in front of the TV, I said, "Who wants to make a gingerbread man?" 

The picture is blurry because these guys were being silly.

Connor jumped up and ran into the kitchen and said, "I do!"  I let him melt the stick of butter in the microwave, pour the ingredients into the mixing bowl and turn on the mixer.  The only time I messed up was, I cracked the egg and added it to the bowl so quickly that Connor's, "Let me do that" came too late.  I also forgot to take pictures while he was making the gingerbread man.

 

But just after he and Chase finished decorating him and were headed for the door, I stopped them and said "Let's take a picture."  So this gingerbread man did not get away.

My sister, Debbie, a teacher and a grandmother of 12, often cooks with her brood.  You might want to check out her blog @ http://debbiesknowledgetrain.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-love-my-mama-evans.html

Billy Shakespeare Is Crying For His Bottle

This is how Dottie Belle treated him yesterday.

He is looking at me through the office window.

Today has not gone Shakespeare's way.  First we got a hard rain last night and a little this morning.   Now there will be no bottle today.  He was born on September 26, so he is 11 weeks old and it is time to ween him.  Diane at Double Durango Farm, where I bought him said she weens her kids at 8 weeks.  Well, I love to give them a bottle, but the rest of this week will be too busy with Christmas.  So he is in the "dog yard" right next to the office where I am blogging and I can hear him crying for his bottle.  All I can say is, "Eat your hay."

My Christmas/Birthday Present From My Husband

It seems to shine like a diamond.

My dear husband ordered my Christmas/Birthday present tonight.  Because my birthday is January 7th, I often request combination gifts so I can get more expensive ones.  I have found that when I want him to get me a present, it is best if I decide what, show it to him and then order it with his credit card.  He finds that easy too.  I know some ladies get diamonds and such, well those I wouldn't even bother to request.  I'm a very practical sort; except I have goats in a city.  Just forget the city part; I sure have.  I have been searching for months for the right goat milking stand.  I found plans for my son-in-law to make me a wooden one.  But then I was surfing the internet and found this very light weight one that I can easily move,  fold up and put out of the way.  It should arrive on the 23rd.
http://www.birchridgefarm.com/goatstands.html  

It is made at Birch Ridge Farm in Vermont.  Of course shipping from there to Louisiana by UPS was $65.
So the girls and Billy Shakespeare will be trying it out for their Christmas pedicures.

Decorating My Christmas Tree

Start with one formerly live Noble Fir tree.  I want a flocked one, because we really can't get one that is very fresh this far south, so the "snow" glues the needles on.  Be sure to trim off a couple of inches from the trunk so it will draw water.  Add very warm sugar water to the tree stand.

I use many strings of multi-colored lights first.  I start at the top and weave in and out from the trunk to the point of the limbs and around and down the tree.

Then I added an equal number of strings of white lights.  They really make the tree shine brightly.  In this picture the lights don't look equally distributed, but they really are.

 Then I added 7 streams of ribbon that when went from top to bottom on the tree.

 

I added the burst at the top, along with the angel that I usually put on top of the tree.  







The burst and the ribbon are new this year, so I decided that angel didn't go well, so I replaced her with this one.

And I added some ornaments.

I added gold satin with a starry sheer as a skirt.

And Cloud and I stood back to see what we had done all day.

Notice the red ornament on the floor; Cloud did that.

The date on the camera is totally wrong--darn it.

Giving Billy Shakespeare a Bottle

I got Billy Shakespeare 3 days before he was 1 month old.  The breeder had been giving him a 16 ounce bottle twice a day.  I bottle feed the girls 3 times a day.  It is probably better to do it 3 times.  Before long Shakespeare was drinking 20 ounces. The breeder said she bottle feeds her goats until they are 8 weeks. But I have read that 12 weeks is better. Besides I like bottle feeding them and think it's better for bonding.  This week and next week will be his last bottle feedings, because next week he will be 12 weeks old.  He is eating hay and goat pellets well.  He is only getting 22 ounces once a day.  Kennedy has been helping with the feeding.

Is It a Male Thing?

I have 2 daughters and 1 son.  Paxton is the baby of the family.  When he was small I had so much trouble keeping up with him in stores.  It is terrifying to lose a 3 year old in a mall.  So I bought him one of those leashes that Velcros to the child's wrist and the parent holds the loop on the end. That was in the late 80's; there are much more clever "leashes" now, like monkey backpacks with a leash. Well, for Paxton that was not going to happen.  He said I could put the leash on my wrist and he would hold it.  Since the results "could" be the same, I was happy with that. But he could not let go or he would have to wear it. That worked fine; "he was in charge" sort of.

With goats, I first got 2 does when they were less than 2 weeks old.  When they were a couple of months old, they walked beautifully on a leash.  






Now Billy Shakespeare is 11 weeks old and getting a little big to carry, so I wanted him to learn to walk on a leash.  Again, I'm having trouble with who is in charge.
 

A Great Cat

Cloud is the best cat I have ever seen.  I got him when he was 5 weeks old.  I got the flu the next day and laid on the sofa with him for a week.  Wherever I am in the house, there is Cloud; except when I go to sleep, he doesn't follow me to the bedroom, unless his food bowl is empty or his water isn't fresh.  Then he will sit at the bedroom door and meow until I take care of those responsibilities.  We had him neutered and his front claws removed when he was quite young. So he is not allowed outside. I can be eating salmon and watching TV, get up to go get something and lay the plate right beside Cloud and he ignores it completely.  He only sniffs or eats his cat food.  He doesn't jump up on the kitchen counters.  I did not train him to be like this; thank goodness I didn't have to, because I'm not very good at training cats or dogs. Actually, it's more like they train me.

He wants to be around Kennedy, but when he gets enough of her rough-housing he just leaves the room.  He is a huge cat, yet very unimposing.

Placed an Order for Chicks

I currently have 6 hens and 1 rooster.  Two of the hens were hatched here, and are half Copper Maran and half Plymouth Barred Rock.  They turned out to be a beautiful black with a green sheen.  But I am still unhappy with the loss of my little Sultan hen, Cracker.  So when My Pet Chicken http://www.mypetchicken.com/  sent out the e-mail that spring orders would begin on Dec. 1; I placed an order for 4 Sultan hens and 1 Easter Egger hen. My Pet Chicken is perfect for my mini urban farm, because I can order as few as 3, day old chicks and they arrive at my house by mail.   I've even bought 2 coops from them.

I only have one hen that lays a green egg, so since the shipping is so high and it is the same if I ordered 3 or 5 chicks, I went ahead and ordered 5.  It was kind of sad to have just one Sultan.  I always thought Cracker must be lonely.  She was much smaller than the others and could not see very well.  When she was out of the coop, she always sat under something like the back of the coop or a bush.  Sometimes the chickens who were not raised with her would peck her in the head.  So when the new chicks arrive the end of March, I will keep them in a coop by themselves.

The little Sultan was always the friendliest chicken.  The boys loved holding her and even road her around in a wagon.

Shakespeare the Stud Muffin

Thursday, I noticed that Billy Shakespeare and Honey Bunny were actually being very affectionate to each other.  Honey Bunny was not a bottle baby and has never shown affection to any being. Gypsy, Dottie Belle and Shakespeare were bottle babies, so they are always rubbing on each other and on me.  Actually more affectionate than a lot of dogs.

Honey Bunny says I like the little guy.

I just filed Shakespeare and Honey Bunny's behavior away to be processed while I slept.  I got up Friday morning convinced that Shakespeare could not longer hang out with the girls.  While I was at the goat yard Shakespeare actually showed what all this affection was--foreplay, but with Gypsy and she was not interested in him.  Gypsy is the smallest doe and I don't think it would be good to breed her now anyway. Honey Bunny is my registered doe and I want to take her to a show before she is bred. 

Dottie Belle wants to go back to the other girls.

So I have decided to move Dottie Belle into the "dog yard" with little Stud Muffin Shakespeare.  Don asked me why I want to breed a non-registered goat, whose kids would not sell for as much money.  My thinking (and it may sound bad) is that I want to practice my first kidding with the "cheap" goat.  Poor Dottie Belle, I really love her; she and Gypsy were my first kids.  But I know that I could make some bad mistakes, like I did with feeding them grain and Dottie Belle got "goat polio." 
Also, my point of having 3 does is to breed one at a time and always have milk.



Shakespeare was born on September 26, so he is 10 weeks old.  I read somewhere that bucklings have been known to impregnate a doe as young as 7 weeks, so hopefully none of mine are "with kid" yet.  But since Shakespeare is getting too big for the Schnauzers to be his companions; Dottie Belle is now living in the dog yard with him.

Do any of you have experience with young bucks and know when it is best to get them away from does you don't want to bred?

Football this Weekend

Well, we are having quite a football weekend here.  Tonight Byrd High School will play Carencro in Lafayette Parish for a chance to play in the state championship.  Byrd hasn't been in the semi-finals since 1964.  They haven't been state champions since 1949.  Thursday night's pep rally  http://www.ktbs.com/video/29903872/index.html


LSU will play Georgia tomorrow for the SEC championship.


Sunday the New Orleans Saints will play the Detroit Lions.


I didn't drive to Lafayette, but I will be watching LSU and the Saints games on TV.  The last 2 years I have been watching them from my sewing machine, because I was busy making leather purses.  I thought of this idea in 2010 when the Saints were 11-0 and I just knew they would win the Super Bowl.  I have made a purple and gold LSU purse, but I forgot to take a picture. Looks like the New Orleans Saints, LSU Tigers and the Byrd Yellow Jackets may all be champions this year.  I'm sure that has never happened.  Could this be the year? Maybe I should get busy sewing.  People like to buy purses of winning teams.

View my Etsy shop at

http://www.etsy.com/shop/theDivaSeamstress

I've made a Dallas Cowboy purse and a Boston Red Sox purse on request; but I don't root for them.

It's That Time of Year, Again

Yes, we are expecting the temperature to be at or below 32 degrees before morning, so it's time for my husband to stand out in the front yard cursing and saying things like, "This makes no sense."  "I hope it dies."  "This is the last year I'm going to do this."  "You don't understand how much I hate this."  And I reply, "Yes, I understand."  "No this isn't the last year. That's why we are doing this."

Picture taken from Wikipedia.  Mine's not this big.

You see about 8 years ago, Mom and I drove to south Florida.  The boulevards were lined with beautiful small trees covered in clusters of golden trumpets.  I know I got caught up in how beautiful the trees were and all reason left me.  So I stopped at the first nursery, bought one and loaded it in the back of my truck.  We had 2 mild winters, meaning it really didn't freeze, so in late spring my tree had beautiful blooms. I would see people stop in front of my house to see the beautiful tree.  A couple of people even rang the door bell to ask what kind of tree it was. 

But the last 3 years we have had a fair amount of freezing weather, even ice and snow; so Don and I have gone out and covered the Brazilian Golden Trumpet tree that should be living in zone 10 instead of zone 8.  First, I cover it with lights and add a couple of flood lights.  It hasn't bloomed the last 2 years.  In fact, the first cold year I didn't put the lights on it and I thought it had died.  But it came back from the bottom.

It grew a lot this year.  I had to cut the tallest limb.  I just couldn't reach it with the ladder.  I told Don that we were going to have to find a much taller ladder.  He said we had the tallest ladder you can get.  So I said then we may have to rent a helicopter to drop a cover over the top of it next year.  To which he replied again, "I hope this damn thing dies and you just don't believe me."  Sometimes he is just not a good sport.

I didn't take any pictures of our task, but of course a video would have been entertaining, but that would have pushed Don over the edge. And besides I was busy wrestling with the cover and tree while standing on top of a ladder and praying my dear husband would continue to hold it for me.