It was a really busy week on the farm!
One of the main things that happened was that Leroy moved to a new pen. He was showing signs of being sexually mature, so we had to move him out of the pen with all the little does who were related to him. But we didn’t want him to be lonely - he needed to relocate with a companion. So we took Leroy and Roger together to the pen where Pete, Spotty, and Not-Spotty live.
Their new pen is not very far from the large pen where they had lived before with their mamas and the rest of the milkers and their babies. Still, they both called out to their mamas until their little voices gave out. Their mothers, on the other hand, seemed relieved that they had moved. Even Rain, who had only fed Roger - leaving her poor daughters to drink from their aunt - seemed to be glad.
But, you know, when you watch baby goats nurse and see how they head-butt their mamas’ udders, I can understand why the mamas might be glad to see their babies move on. They could still see each other - Pete’s pen is just across a little pasture from the milkers’ pen. Here’s Leroy in his new pen. Notice he has a collar!
That was another thing we did this week: finished putting collars on all the kids who were born this year. We use plastic collars that will break away if the goats get them caught on something.
I continued my fight to the death with the foxtails. I think I will have completed this phase of the battle next week. Foxtails are terribly dangerous for dogs - their seeds have extremely sharp hooks, and they get caught in dogs’ fur and work their way into their skin. They also get stuck in the clothing of humans, and perforate us. But, while I pull up weeds, I get to look at the lovely scenery. Right now, all the rose bushes are in bloom. This is one of my favorites. It looks pink in this photo, but it’s really a dusty lavender!
And now, I would like to take a moment to praise denim. I have worn denim since I was allowed to choose my own clothing. Back before jeans somehow became stretchy. I’ve always loved it, but never so much as now, when I really understand how denim can stand up to moving bales of hay.
Our hay, at this point, is all last year’s crop. Soon we’ll get the first cutting of this year’s crop. But, right now, the hay we have is so stiff and dry it’s like bundles of sticks! Every day, I pick up bales of hay from the back of the barn, carry them resting against the front of my legs to the door of the barn, and then split them into flakes. Flakes are what the natural divisions of the bales are called. But, that part where I carry the bales. That’s the part that’s causing me to adore denim.
Denim has a long history. We get the word denim from “serge de Nimes” - a style of fabric made in Nimes, France. But their serge was generally made from wool or silk. Still, the weaving technique - which has been used since the sixteenth century - is what made serge de Nimes special. The warp threads are dyed (in denim, with indigo) and the weft threads remain white. In the original serge de Nimes, the weft passed under two or more warp threads.
The next big development on the road to blue jeans was the Levi Strauss company. Levi Strauss (who was born Loeb Strauss in Buttenheim, Germany) headed to New York City in 1851 to escape antisemitism. After a few years apprenticing with relatives in NYC, he moved to San Francisco, which was in the middle of the California Gold Rush.
The miners needed pants that could withstand daily damage from their work. Levi Strauss began making fabric in the style pioneered in Nimes, but using cotton, rather than wool or silk. It was a good, durable fabric, but the seams couldn’t hold up to the abuse of mining. Mainly because the miners were storing gold ore in their pockets. Their pockets were ripping right out of their clothes.
In 1872, Jacob Davis experimented with installing copper rivets on the pockets and at the base of the fly of work pants - to keep them from coming apart at those seams. Davis couldn’t afford to patent this rivet innovation, so he wrote to Levi Strauss, asking him to fund the patent. The two went into business together.
This design worked great for miners, but the copper rivet at the base of the fly did not work for cowboys, who complained that the fly rivet would heat up in the sun and burn them. Yikes! They no longer make jeans with that fly rivet.
But, back to our hectic week on the farm. Thursday night, Jan and I headed out to feed the goats. I had let the girls in the back pen out into the yard between their pen and Pete's pen for the day. Sometimes the goats like to go into that yard and eat leaves. We were just leaving the hay barn, and we noticed that all the girls were plastered to the fence of Pete's pen - where Leroy and Roger were now living. The girls have never been drawn to that pen before.
I said to Jan (smugly) that it was all on account of Leroy’s incredible charisma. He is such a ladies man. He’s certainly charmed me.
And then, suddenly, we heard a noise that sounded as if there were goats inside the wooden shelter in the back pen trying to knock the entire shelter down.
We quickly realized that all the girls were huddled together by Leroy’s pen because it was the farthest they could get from the wooden shelter with the poltergeist. Or what ever was making all that racket.
Suddenly, Isabella bolted out the door of that shelter, and she was wearing a water bucket! She had gotten her head and front legs in between the handle of the bucket and the bucket itself, and she couldn’t get it off, and she was terrified, sprinting from one place to another, trying to scrape the bucket off of herself.
Luckily for us, she ran behind the shelter - where there’s only about a foot and a half between the back wall of the shelter and the fence - and we were able to trap her there. We tried pulling her legs back through the handle - it was impossible. Finally, I had to hold her head in between my legs and try to calm her down while Jan ran back to the house to get wire cutters.
Of course I snapped a photo while I was waiting! Can you see how this is looking down at poor Isabella’s back? I've got my hand on her collar, her head is behind me.
Jan arrived with the wire cutters, but they were no match for that hefty handle. So, she just cut away the actual bucket. Isabella was so glad to be freed from the bucket, but the rest of the goats still were freaked out.
We put hooks on all the handles of all the buckets, securing them to the fences in such a way that no goat should be able to get caught like that again. But, really, I don’t know how she could’ve gotten herself in that fix to begin with.
Jan and I were wiped out. But, all the goats were fine by evening. Whew!