So much has happened since last week! The best part is, Harper is happy now! I am so relieved. We worked hard to help him feel loved and nurtured. Every day he became a little less frightened. As he gained confidence, he became curious about his new humans. By Sunday of this week, he was trotting up to the fence whenever I came near his pen. By Monday he was eating peanuts out of my hand. He is truly a sweet goat. You can tell by his face that he feels at home now. He doesn’t look worried any more. He and Roger are getting along beautifully. And Leroy is happy in his new pen, as well. This photo is Roger (on the left) and Harper (standing). They've run to the fence to get peanuts.
We had to draw blood from all the milkers to send to the lab for pregnancy tests and CAE tests this week. (Caprine Arthritic Encephalitis - a disease that mothers can pass to their kids through their milk). Last year when we did this, Meg was visiting us. She is tall. The way you draw blood from goats is: one person stands over the goats’ shoulders, holding them still with their knees. One person stands behind the goats so that they can't back up. One person holds the goat's head still, and one person draws the blood from an artery in their neck. Last year Meg stood over the goats' shoulders. This year it fell to me. I am not tall. Most of the goats are small enough that it didn’t matter. Rosa, however, is so big I wasn’t able to keep my feet on the ground at all times.
We backed the goats into a corner, so they couldn’t back up to try to escape. Last year, it was my job to stand behind their butts and keep them from backing up. But, with only three of us, there was no one to spare for that job. Jan held the goats’ heads up, and Deanna took their blood. She had to fill a test-tube for each goat (seven of them). Afterward we packaged all the samples and sent them to the lab. I hope our girls are all pregnant. We’ll ultrasound them later - in a few more weeks. Just to see how many kids to expect from each doe.
Chicken world is also interesting this week.
One day recently, Jan looked out into the yard that belongs to the house dogs - the dachshunds. Their yard’s back fence has the milkers’ pen on the other side. The dogs are rarely interested in the milkers, and the milkers are rarely interested in the dogs. The dogs are much more likely to be interested in the chicken wilderness - which is outside their left side fence. Or the guard dogs - who patrol outside their right side fence.
Anyway, Jan looked out into house dogs’ yard, and the dogs were barking crazily at the fence to the milkers' pen. The milkers were all at the far end of their pen, huddled in a clump, obviously completely frightened. Jan rushed to their pen to see what was the matter. It turned out that a chicken had flown over their fence and gone inside one of their two barns. She was occupying that barn, and the goats were acting like she was an enormous monster come to torment them. Jan picked up the chicken and took her back to chicken wilderness.
When she told me this story, she told me that years ago she had had another chicken who refused to lay eggs in the nesting boxes in the chicken coop. Instead, she flew over the fence into the milkers’ pen every day, laying her egg in the goat barn. Jan had to haul her back out of the goat barn every afternoon. Before I moved here I had no idea how entertaining chickens were!
Birds are not just entertaining, they are also gorgeous. I want to share some photos of their feathers. This is a dark Brahma:
This is an ameraucana:
This is another ameraucana:
This is a buff Brahma standing in front of our ameraucana rooster:
This is another ameraucana:
And this is a buff Brahma standing in front of a light Brahma.
What is amazing to me about many of these chickens is how each individual feather has an intricate pattern on it - and then those feathers go together to make amazing over-all patterns. I love how brilliantly the avian world is decorated.
The final thing for today is that the photos of my shampoo bars have come back! Jan and I have both been using my shampoo bars for six months now, and our hair is fine. So I'm going to start selling them on my web-site January 15th. Here's the first photo of the bars:
I've made three fragrances. Orange, Lavender, and the old Herbal Essence fragrance from the 1970s shampoo. (Those are the green bars). From now until the bars officially go on sale, I'll be sending out free samples with each soap order. If you were hoping to get some soap by Christmas, this is the last weekend that I feel confident your soap will arrive on time. Here's the link: https://www.serenasoaps.com/