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Re: Farm Life

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 9:26 pm
by LostNFound
Meanwhile down on the farm, The people struggle but it is good, it builds the soul and gives the spirit a complete rejoice. A Cat has left its harsh flesh to fly in the heavens. A horse could be cold but the people provide a warmth in many ways. The Goats, yes the goats, so raunchy and encapsulated with natures impulses. They eat, sleep, procreate and endure the cold. Such wonders they are. Spring is coming and the moisture that is always needed will soak deep and the new life will spring forth as the peoples spirits grow so much more toward enlightenment. Yes another day comes and goes and all the moments that it holds are imprinted on the inner universe of the mind. The river flows and life grows.

Love your farm Spiritwind
Steven

Re: Farm Life

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 11:41 pm
by maggie
LostNFound wrote:
Love your farm Spiritwind
Steven
I do also so thanks for your sharings. Maggie

Re: Farm Life

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 4:41 pm
by Spiritwind
Another week gone by already. I think I naively said something about an early spring, since it had been a fairly mild winter and some of the goats are starting to shed. What came in like a lamb is going out like a lion though. We’ve had 5 times the average amount of snow for February here, so it’s making up for lost time. My husband was unable to go to work on Tuesday due to the snow, and we spent most of the day shoveling paths down to the goats. Heck with the driveway. And now we’re all beat up from it.

I had to go get hay a full week earlier than I had hoped due to moldy hay. The guy did say he would replace any bad bales, but I had to bring them back. Some I didn’t know were moldy till I opened them up, which makes taking them back kind of challenging. I can’t just have half a dozen crappy bales of hay sitting around in the hay barn because I don’t have the room, plus I gave some of what I could salvage to the deer. They are coming around everyday now. They do catch on quick. But I found another place to get it, and it turned out to be better hay for less money. Yesterday was the only break in the weather we’re expecting to get, so at least now I should be good for almost a month. Can’t get the pickup down to the hay barn right now, so may just be taking it off the truck a bale at a time, but I can live with that for now.

And, the kitchen drain is still froze up. At least the bathroom sink is working okay, even if it is a pain in the behind to have to do dishes in it. It’s weird how adaptable we can become. I’m saying can, because we really don’t want to have to. I’ve noticed we’re all creatures of habit, even all the animals. The goats get downright upset when you change things around. But then, they adapt, and so do we. We may kick and scream, but in the end, resistance is futile. It is what it is.

I don’t know if I mentioned it or not, but I did become an affiliate for Hempworx. I had tried out that free bottle I won over 6 months ago, and really felt the difference. But being the doubting Thomas that I am, I wasn’t absolutely sure it wasn’t just a fluke that I felt so much better. Then we got our first bottle since joining up and went through it in about three weeks, since my husband jumped on the bandwagon too. We ran out and have had to wait to order more. I would say if the difference is as noticeable as it was both times before, we can safely assume it really is the CBD oil that is making us feel so much better. I have some plasma products to try out too, which I’ve been too busy to experiment with yet. Having an arsenal of items for staying healthy and mobile is a good thing, especially nowadays.

But I still want to get a small tractor. No matter how you slice it up, we need to reduce the physical demands of our current lifestyle. And sell some goats. I have the ad out, but no one is anxious to buy goats right now, and probably won’t be until we quit getting hit with snow storm after snow storm. I do have a couple people who want to do some breeding with our bucks, but even that has had to wait. By the next installment here, the herd will have grown, for sure. With 5 girls pregnant I’m guessing somewhere between 10-12 kids. And I am still scrambling to get ready. We did put up the fencing to block off a pen in the back area of one of the shelters, but I still have to muck out the big barn. I’ll probably be doing that this morning before the next storm rolls through later on today. My neighbor did also help me trim little Hazel’s hooves. He did kind of have to just grab her around the middle and roll with her from side to side so I could do my thing. She is such a brat, but still, cute as a button.

I actually feel quite honored to be a part of the birthing process with the girls. I have always felt that both the process of birthing as well as dying and leaving the physical as very spiritually imbued events. There is just something about it that feels holy, sacred somehow. My own birthing experiences with my three children were likewise some of the most special moments in my life, where I was more fully present than at most any other times in my life. With all the hustle and bustle and demands of just being here and meeting life’s daily requirements, these moments remind me of what it’s all about. I can’t speak for anyone else, but my capacity to hold, feel, radiate, and act in a more loving and aware manner has increased exponentially throughout my life. It takes very little to make me cry these days, and laugh also. Despite how the world really is, as that awareness has grown too, I feel as though I’ve found a vein of pure gold.

I mean, learning to love without conditions, without expectations, despite what the world demands of us, and the upside down way things are organized in this particular construct of reality is not something to take lightly. So many people I know are struggling to make sense of it all, and struggling with just being here. There are quite a few I know who I would just love to have a magic wand for. But maybe I miss the point. Each of us, to some extent, must find out own way. That doesn’t mean we can’t be there for one another, though, and offer our support. We just can’t take on another’s burden. Learning to love is an inside job, and I know of no easy way. It is also a choice. One, which for me, I can’t imagine not having made. Why choose hate? Why choose bitterness and revenge? Where does it really get you? No where, from what I can see. I’ve literally seen people get bitter and die that way, alienating those that love them when they need them the most. I would not want to go out that way. And nothing is for certain. We don’t know, any of us, how long we will be here, and I can’t help but think that it is up to each one of us to rise to the occasion, and choose to become the best version of ourselves we can be. No one to blame. Even all the trauma I’ve experienced, in a way, just doesn’t matter anymore. Most of it was inflicted by those who really didn’t know how to be any different than they were. And I know I have hurt others through my own ignorance.

No, now is the time to love with total abandon. And with that I will bid you adieu.

Except, thank you Steven and Maggie! I’m glad someone actually reads here, even though I mostly post for my own benefit. It is strangely therapeutic, and it’s even helped with remembering when certain things happened on occasion. My record keeping skills aren’t always reliable, LOL.

And one last thing, I hope I don’t get in trouble for. I would like to leave a link here for hempworx, in case someone is interested in knowing more. It has really helped with pain relief and even circulation and digestive issues, as well as balancing out ones sense of well being. I noticed that it just seems to smooth out the bumps, so that no matter what is happening I feel more in control of my inner landscape, for lack of a better way to put it. I am looking forward to using it with our animals too.

Http://www.Hempworx.com/LaurieThompson" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Farm Life

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 4:29 pm
by Spiritwind
After going to bed super early and choosing not to get up and check on all the goaties last night, I finally got some much needed sleep. Thankfully, no middle of the night birthings last night. Firefly had three kids two days ago, two does and a buck, and, so far, they are all doing great! I put little sweaters on them made out of oversized sweatshirt sleeves, and made sure there was plenty of straw for them to snuggle in. On the same day a very nice woman and her husband came out and were going to buy Arrow and Hazel, but decided to buy Celeste and Ivy. She liked the two little ones because they are so cute and little, but when she realized if she wants to milk too, that Celeste and Ivy, being pregnant and a little bigger, was the best way to go. I was shocked when the woman put a leash on Celeste, we let her daughter Ivy out, and she followed her right up to their van and into the crate they borrowed from me. I did not think it was going to go as smooth as it did. Whew!

Funny how life works. My husband works at a hotel as the maintenance supervisor, and it just sold. There must be a glitch in the switchover, as his usual paycheck was not deposited into our account today. I’m sure it will get worked out, but in the meantime the money I just got from the goat sale is more than appreciated. Yes, like millions of other Americans, we live paycheck to paycheck. One good thing, though, is that I have become accustomed to being pretty much home bound most of the time, and always plan ahead. And at least we never have to worry about the power company shutting us off, ha ha! We have plenty of food, and with the wood stove we stay warm, and even if we couldn’t get out to get gas for the generator we can use the power stored in the batteries from what the solar panels generate. We would have to use it sparingly, but it’s far better than nothing at all. And, we should be getting an inverter finally, so will be able to use our system again for internet during the day without running the generator. The only big problem we would have is the well, because we have to run it with the larger generator. We have a few ideas to remedy this, too, but all in good time.

I like being self sufficient. The way I see it, being brain washed into relying on our government has only made people unable to function when things go awry. It’s like a highly addictive drug that at first they freely hand out, then once they get you hooked, the cost for all this help just goes up and up and up. Plus they’ve got many convinced that all the problems of the world are caused by us every day people who actually do all the necessary work in the world to believe it’s our fault! Every single day I read more about different corporations, which our government is as well, dumping wastes and poisons into our rivers, air, food, and medicine. The forests are disappearing at a rapid rate, which is what generates a great deal of the oxygen we breath. “They” already have a solution. Yeah, we’ll just sell you some robotic bees, and upload your consciousness into a machine body, and, wallah, it’s going to be great! NOT!

You see, I firmly believe that those who seek power are the real problem here. And since they seem to rise to the top of the heap (not really a natural process, either, no matter how badly they try to convince you), they set the example for all the rest of us to follow. I can’t tell you how many business owners I’ve known that seemed like okay people, until I realized that every single one of them is basically a legal crook. “It’s just business”, is their catch all phrase to get out of any sense of responsibility. They have so separated themselves, in consciousness, from what they see as the herd that needs managing, they don’t even seem to register what seems so obvious to the rest of us. It reminds me of that song by Pink Floyd, Another Brick in the Wall: “We don't need no education, We don't need no thought control”.

I still have hay on the truck, and can’t get it down to the hay barn. I’m hoping my neighbor comes over today to help me unload it. My left collar bone and the muscle group that surrounds it, has been yelling at me since I mucked the barn out. Along with shoveling snow, and chopping wood, it’s been another work intensive winter. I don’t think I’ll be making any more predictions about how it’s going to go, as February has been like a whole winter in one month! My husband and I talk about this all the time, though. The fact that the work we do is for us, for our own survival and well being, and that we do feel more in control. I don’t expect much of anything from “the system”. And I don’t believe in the concept that we “need” government at all. They may think they do, but they don’t own me!

So, back to my neighbor. He wants to go to the city, so if he helps me unload the pickup, my husband can take it to work tomorrow and we can use the car. Our other good mileage car is still sitting with the tire off. Yes, sometimes we just have to wait to get certain things done. That’s another thing I’ve become accustomed to. I used to panic over all kinds of stuff, and I generally just don’t anymore. That is a result of unplugging from the system in a lot of ways. Most things people worry, stress, and have anxiety about, are not really the emergencies we think they are. I don’t have to compete with anyone else out here either. The new neighbors that had their big beautiful home and shop built, expensive pressurized septic system and power installed with that wonderful smart meter, are probably just a paycheck away from loosing it all. The bank really still owns everything, and all it would take is a couple missed payments to loose everything. They are a young couple and we’ve heard him out there having a total meltdown, so I know they don’t have it all that well together. I think back to the housing crash that started in 2008, and how so many middle class folks lost their homes. It can happen faster than you think.

It pains me to think about how this has all been set up to work this way, too. Keep everyone chasing that almighty dollar, while just a handful do very little in the way of physical labor, yet live off the blood, sweat, and tears of everyone else. Yup, from the moment you are born, your parents pay for you, until you can pay for yourself, just to be alive. My animals don’t worry about those kinds of things. They just wait for me to bring the food and water to them, clean up after them, provide their shelter and so on. In exchange, they give me fresh milk, cheese, and plenty of compost. That’s what government promised us. Work hard and you can have a great life, they fooled us into believing. While true for some, it’s not true for ever growing numbers, and I see it getting worse before it gets better.

Sorry to drone on and on. It’s just I have been noticing the things I write about here since I was still in grade school. We’ve moved so far away from where we could be, and should be, since the whole system is based on gargantuan lies. I can’t just shut off my empathy for those who suffer, especially since I know it doesn’t have to be that way. There are glimmers of hope, though. And they don’t come from any governing body. They come from real everyday people. I know growing numbers of people who are moving in the same direction we are, and realize that the solution must come from us. A conscious choice to move away from our dependence, our addiction to being told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it as well. It reminds me of a mobile home park my husband and I use to manage. The owner micro-managed us almost to death.

Anyway, winding down here, I have three girls that should kid within a week, one of which will probably give birth today, and then Ballerina who is a couple weeks behind them. I put the little sweaters I made on Firefly’s kids, but had to switch them out for the bigger ones. She is 2/3 Lamancha, so her kids are always larger than the Nigerians. They do come out with distinctive personalities, just like people do. It was so nice to just go out and sit with them yesterday. One of them is a whiner already, and another one is just as sweet as pie and snuggled up and fell asleep on my lap. Those are yummy moments. I must admit, when birthing time gets close, I get all keyed up in anticipation. My mind starts to race, and it gets hard to stay calm and balanced. You would think it was me getting ready to give birth! Ah, but the sweetness of being there as new life enters this world is just divine. And, surely, spring really is just around the corner, even if it doesn’t look or feel like it at all. Guess I’d better get going. Love to all.

Re: Farm Life

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 8:30 am
by Spiritwind
Well folks, I have lots to write about but no time to write yet. It’s after midnight and I have a first time doe in labor. It may be an all nighter as her mother could go at any time too. I have a few stories to tell, not all good. Let’s just hope there is a good ending to the one I got happening now. Will write more as soon as I am able. I’m starting to wonder if I’m getting too old for all this excitement. Not sure how much more I can take. I’m tired.

Re: Farm Life

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2019 8:59 pm
by Spiritwind
I have no idea how this is all going to flow, but I’m going to make a stab at summarizing some of the more dramatic events of the last week and a half. It will actually be therapeutic for me to put it all in order and finally let it all go, the could haves, should haves, whatever.

The following is what I wrote on March 2nd, in the midst of what ended up being far more than I would have ever dreamed I’d be dealing with in such a short time. It was a packed ten days.

“Just came up from the barn. Took Lucky, little Bambi’s only surviving kid who I have been bottle feeding and keeping in the house for the last four days down to hang out with all the other kids, all eight of them. I don’t want him to forget he’s a goat, plus, I want the rest of them to be familiar with him too. I was struck by how amazing life is, amidst all the challenge. Just early yesterday morning I was thinking about how I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do this anymore because of how traumatic, and traumatizing it can be, and yet once again I am reminded of how there is always so much more going on than meets the eye, and how so much of it gets overlooked because we’ve stopped, for the most part, paying attention to that wonder.”

Though we made numerous improvements, we still ended up caught with our pants down in a number of ways. One thing is, I had been very lucky that I had not encountered many of the things I experienced this time around. A full six years into this, and I still had not had to deal with middle of the night births, and close to zero degree temperatures. Even with the previous two difficult births we had experienced we were lucky, because in the first case my expert friend was home and not far away, and in the second case my husband was there to help. Bambi was the first to surprise me. I had been checking every couple hours or less to see how she was progressing. As anyone knows, every birth can be totally different, so after hours of keeping an eye on her, running down to the barn in the middle of the night and so on, I decided to lay down for a couple hours. As fate would have it, that’s when she finally went full on into labor and her first kid was kind of stuck. My neighbor came by as I was getting up and said “she has one half way out...”. By the time I got down there he was out, but not doing very well. His tongue was hanging out and his eyes were kind of bugging out and blood red around the corners. Not good. I worked with him for quite a while, suctioning out his throat, and making sure he was completely dry, and generally trying to stimulate his circulation and blood flow. He had been oxygen deprived. I kept checking on her, but wasn’t even sure she had more in there as she seemed to have gone out of labor.

He started looking better and better. But I was worried about her. She had no interest in the grain or warm water with molasses I offered, which was strange, and she was shivering. It wasn’t that severely cold, so I began to suspect she had more in there. At exactly the same time my husband was frantically trying to get ahold of me. He had fallen off a ladder at work and was having trouble just getting back in his vehicle at the store after work. I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to go rescue him or not. I would have put her on the milk stand and just went in to see if there were more, but her head happens to be too small and she can pull it out of the locking neck mechanism on the stanchion. So, not a one person job. I wanted to rush her to the vet, but, besides needing help to load her, having only the pickup to drive, and having to wait until I heard back from him, it was a frantic moment indeed.

After some struggle, he did make it into the vehicle. He made record time getting home. It took me and the neighbor all we had just to get him inside. By all rights he should have went to the hospital, but, you know, he was worried about me. It was shortly before the vet closed, so I scrambled and me and the neighbor got her into a crate, pulled her up on the snow sled, and got her loaded into the vehicle. I grabbed her baby thinking maybe I should bring him with me in case she had to stay. She wouldn’t have anything to do with him. But I was hopeful.

Re: Farm Life

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2019 9:01 pm
by Spiritwind
It’s doing that thing where it logs me out all the time again, so I’m going to break it into several posts.

We got there at 15 minutes to closing. They have a very experienced goat person there who stuck her hand up and pulled out one, and then another. Neither one of them made it. I was quite shook up, but happy I was able to get her in, and that we had managed to save the first one. This was on a Tuesday. I tried milking her. It did not go well, and that was with the neighbors help. I managed to get enough to at least get that first bit of colostrum that is so vital for newborns to have, and that was about it. The next morning I put Firefly on the milk stand, but with three little ones herself I didn’t get much. I generally don’t separate the kids overnight until they are at least two weeks old. I got some, though, and mixed it with some feed store formula for kids. He is now 9 days old and already grown substantially. He thinks I’m his mom. And our little home smells pretty bad right now, since I’m still keeping him inside at night in a crate.

Two more days went by and I was certain that Jinjer and Miracle would be giving birth anytime. Miracle seemed to be in labor, but progressing slowly, so once again I kept checking, finally getting down to every 45 minutes, on into the night. I did hook up the heat lamp we had and left the generator on as it was another close to zero temperature night. She didn’t look stressed until just before 4 am. I got my husband up because it was looking like she was going to have some trouble. First fresheners, as her and Bambi both are, means they really don’t know what’s going on or what to do sometimes. She had two girls and we did have to help pull them out. We both worked hard to make sure we got them good and dry. Again, she didn’t seem interested in the warm water and molasses I offered, but did eat a little grain, so I thought she must be done. It can take several hours to pass the placenta. I kept checking on her though, and noticed, like Bambi, she was just kind of standing there shivering. I put a towel on her for warmth, and went and got my poor husband up again. He came down, and even though he was a physicians assistant and had helped birth several human babies, had no idea what to look for when sticking his hand in. He felt a bubble, and we figured she must have another one still in the sack in there. As soon as he stuck his hand in she started to push again, and sure enough, there was another one. It didn’t make it. We were both feeling quite overwrought by this time, and downright exhausted. But it wasn’t over yet. I had an appointment to take our female cat, Katniss, in to get spayed, and beings how she had went into her first heat already, I didn’t want to put it off. So I headed out to the vet with her. I got a call shortly after I got there with Carl excitedly telling me he was in the midst of delivering Jinjer’s babies, but not to hurry or worry! Yeah, right!

She had three kids, two girls and a boy, with no problems other than the severe cold to deal with. My husband used almost every towel I had left to dry them off, but I guess I can just buy some new ones. The stains just kinda won’t come out I found. Anyway, now we’re in to Friday morning. Bambi’s little guy is doing fine, and so are all the other kids. I figured I’d better move Ballerina into the barn on the weekend even though I didn’t think she was due for another week. The barn was full up and I wanted to give Bambi a day or two to recuperate, so decided to wait until Sunday. I get up Sunday morning and go out to feed and check on everyone. I got down to the bigger pen where Ballerina is and had a moment that was indescribable. Horror is as close as I can come, as I realized she had her kids sometime in the night. I raced in there, screaming as I went (it was another single digit night temperature wise). She had two kids laying in the straw and they weren’t moving at all. I picked their limp bodies up and ran screaming back into the RV. My husband heard me, and although he was in great pain, momentarily forgot about it as he raced outside to greet me. It looked like they both froze to death, even though she had done her best to dry them off and both were alive at birth. We laid them on a chair, and were trying to come to grips when I thought I saw an ear twitch. Sure enough, one was still alive, barely.

Once again my husband sprang into action and I helped him prepare a warm water bath to place her in. We worked for five hours on her, trying to get her to come back to the land of the living. We both said many prayers, and I even got a couple more friends to lend some healing energy to the situation. With the grace of Great Spirit, and the love for life we all had, a small miracle occurred and she did start to come around. Afterwards my husband got the book out on raising goats and it had instructions to do exactly what we did when this kind of thing happens. It said that usually they have to be bottle fed because it takes several days to recover. She couldn’t even stand for a couple days, but I did manage to get her to nurse from mom, and she is slowly getting better every day. Both her ears droop on the ends, presumably from being frozen, but she’s alive, and Ballerina gets to at least have one of her babies to care for. We kept her baby in all night the first night, and have been taking her out every night to nurse when I get up to feed the other little guy we have in here, and then bring her back in until morning. And her mom is a dream to milk, so I’ve been getting enough to supplement the little boy so he at least gets some real goats milk in addition to the formula I have to use.

Re: Farm Life

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2019 9:01 pm
by Spiritwind
Even Jinjer and Miracle contributed some milk to the cause. And now, it turns out that I have one more birthing experience to go through yet. Coco is also pregnant with some Raven kids. When he escaped his own pen (which he did several times even after adding three more feet of fencing surprisingly enough) and got into the pen she is in she must have been in heat and now I’m not even sure when they are due. I’m going to go back through my posts here and see if I posted when he got out. At least she is not a first freshener, and has not had any trouble with her previous two births, and it should be warmer by then.

And I am exhausted. The other really interesting thing, is I’ve had no sign of infection this year. So, it really was the grain. I have learned so much this year (and so has my husband!), and none of it has been easy. Hell of a way to become an expert. We lost four kids out of fourteen, and would have lost three more had we not responded as we did. We did get a second heat lamp and ran the generator all night for several nights, just to make sure it wasn’t too cold. Put little coats on all the kids too. Single digit temperatures up here can be deadly (it has been uncommonly cold for this time of year) and I will never breed this early again. And, we plan on hooking up a security camera down in the barn for next year. I do not want this to ever happen again.

And now, without any further commentary, I think I’ll get this posted and go down and see how they are all doing. One last thing, though, is I do have Miracle and Jinjer sold. The woman and her husband live off grid up north from us and now they have their cabin built want to get goats again. She is even going to take all four of their female kids, and after two months decide which two they want to keep and give the other two back so I don’t have to bottle feed them. I’ll keep the little boy and bottle feed him when they come get them next week. He can hang with Lucky, and I already have someone who might want the two of them. I am on my way to reducing the numbers, and I’m ecstatic that they will be going to good caring homes.

Nature taught me some valuable lessons this year. Humbling, traumatizing, beautiful, and more. There by the grace of Great Spirit go I.

Image
This is Bambi's boy, Lucky. He's a cutie pie.

Image
And here is little Miss Vida, Ballerina's girl that made it. Her ears hadn't started to droop yet. Don't know why.

Re: Farm Life

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2019 7:33 pm
by LostNFound
The heart leaps out and the smiles fill the face. Thank you so much for this sharing. So Precious is life. It all is so worth it.

Re: Farm Life

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 3:50 pm
by Spiritwind
I am feeling great resistance at writing anything, yet at the same time feel compelled to write. A strange inner conflict, that one. Part of it is that I still feel lingering sadness over the loss of several kids this year due to difficult labors, extreme cold, and a convergence of strange circumstances. Just because our practical mind tells us it’s time to move on does not mean grief just magically goes away. It’s a process.

Plus I had an incident a week ago Thursday that shook me up in it’s surrealistic, almost unbelievable weirdness. I won’t share the whole story here, as it involves my husband and was very personal. But, I literally thought, and he thought too, that he was dying. Obviously he didn’t die, but still it had a very deep profound effect on me. As it was occurring he wouldn’t let me call 911. It’s true that we are out here off the beaten path, so if he actually had been having a heart attack it’s unlikely they could have made it here in time to do anything. I kept thinking, how am I going to explain to his family why I didn’t call an ambulance. He just kept asking me to just be there, 100% for him, and just love him, which I did. He kept saying “it won’t do any good, they can’t help me”. But many thoughts of how I would even be able to stay in this world without him did come front and center. As I now feel the emotions coming up for me about what happened that night, I realize how profoundly it is still affecting me.

Then I look out at the world around me in all it’s confusing and deeply disturbing and stark ingloriousness. I see so many trends that do not honor life, and shake my head and pinch myself that I really am experiencing the unraveling of the very fabric which we have all taken for granted most of our lives. We’re just not in Kansas anymore, and yet, here I am. The only escape I have is in where I live, and the little life I have chosen, along with my husband, to carve out for ourselves here. This is why I do what I do. Sure, I raise goats, but it could be anything. And this last week with all the comings and goings in regards to “goat life”, I have met some more wonderfully different independent self reliant people who have also chosen to walk away from the mainstream.

It was a brisk week. Starting last Saturday I had a family with five kids come down from a couple hours north of us who bought Arrow, Hazel, and Lily. I just heard from them last night that they have them in an old attached greenhouse where they can interact with them all the time, and that they are doing good and starting to warm up to them. Then on Sunday I had two guys, pretty sure they were a couple (very cute together), come out and look at Bambi. They fell in love with her and should be coming back within two weeks to get her and even the little guy, Lucky, her little buckling she rejected. They are going to get things together so they can bottle feed him. He is pretty hard to resist. They really just wanted her to begin with, but I assured them that goats being a herd animal she would not be happy at all being alone.

Later that same day the couple that wanted Jinjer and Miracle came down from a couple hours north of us. She hadn’t told her husband that she wanted to keep two of the doelings. I guess she wants to wait until they got home and he fell in love with them himself, LOL. Us women can be tricky that way. Big smile. It makes me think of when I first brought two goats home in the car back in October of 2012. My husband was helping his son remodel a home he bought in the San Diego area so wasn’t home. I broke it to him on the phone. I said, “see what happens when you leave me here alone”. And finally, after they came and left, the folks who wanted to borrow Bob came up and got him. Kind of funny, because they had a big old horse trailer and we still had a ton of snow. I guess she couldn’t get her son to come and get him this time due to the lingering stink, LOL. They had a heck of a time backing back down the road. My neighbor is kind of a stinker in that he still feels the need to make a statement to Dick, the neighbor further up the road. So he plows in such a way as there is no turn around up there, and he does it on purpose. Big sigh. Yes, kind of childish. Oh well.

Then, the next day the folks that wanted to breed their doe to Raven brought her down. They had been waiting for the other people to come get Bob. They were really fun people to meet, and we will probably even make a drive up to see them where they live. We had a ton in common, and my husband and her husband actually out talked us ladies. What I am seeing is a whole lot of people who actually do see at least some of what I see about where we are collectively headed (or herded, depending on how you look at it). And they don’t like it. They all commented on the need to grow your own medicine and food, and stay away from conventional everything, really. All so very interesting. I could write more, but feeling the need to get out there. I am early into the milking routine this year with having bottle babies. And next week we are going to have a dramatic warm up. Nothing like going from temperatures right around or under the freezing mark during the day, and frigid cold at night, to suddenly be close to 60 degrees (F) during the day. There will probably be some flooding, and it’s going to get very muddy out here. Not my favorite. And then it’s going to be a scramble to get ready for gardening season again.

I am absolutely shocked, also, on how quick I sold all the goats this year. It’s never happened like this before. That tells me something too, just not sure what yet. It’s strange to be down to just 7 adult females, 3 bucks, and some kids. But it feels right, it feels like what I needed to do. And thank you thank you thank you Great Spirit for sending good people to me. I am grateful. It makes it so much easier to let go when I have a good feeling about the people they go to. Oh yeah, and a reminder to myself to comment on the neighbors dog next time. I really do got to get going though. Oh, and one last thing. Little Miss Vida, Ballerina’s kid that survived, is doing great. It does warm my heart that it wasn’t a total loss for her. And she is such a good mommy, and a great little milker too.