Back to Sorta Normal

We were evacuated about a week. The moving stress upset some tummies so I gave all the goats some probiotic paste a couple of days and cut back their grain a bit. That helped. 

When we banded Buddy we also banded his horns. They weren’t really quite ready to come off but he managed to knock them loose. 

So my friend came and helped. His horns were just hanging by flaps of skin so we snipped them off, cleaned him up and covered everything with blue kote to prevent fly strike. His eyes were a bit swollen and his temp was elevated so a few days of antibiotics. He’s recovered now. Just to note that *usually* banded horns come off with just a small amount of blood, the rest of the horn base having healed up already. 

Flower color of the month, hot yellow to match our 110-112° temps. 

I put up a canopy in the hill pen with 90% shade cloth on two sides to give the goats more shade on hot days. 

I didn’t milk while evacuated since Posie and Caramel both were still nursing their twins. When we came home it was just too hot to put them on the hill until I got the extra shade for them. But I did resume our regular milking schedule and got about one cup of milk from each of them each evening.  Now that the temps have come down a little and there’s more shade I put them in the hill pen for the day and milk in the evening. 

Posie before milking on a 9 hour separation 

Caramel before milking on a 9 hour separation. They are both giving about half a gallon of milk a day. Caramel’s udder is still quite lopsided but beginning to even out a bit. 

We had two new fires start, again one to the east and one to the west and had several very smoky days. I think they are out now, I’ll have to check. 

Down to two cats, Tink the old lady on the left and Freya on the right. Always a standoff. They don’t like each other at all. 

I worked a bit on the hill pen this morning getting ready to set more T posts to hold a cattle panel and tin to hold back the dirt. 

I’ve been trying to resurrect an old canopy and got this far to discover a couple of the roof pieces were mangled. I’m not sure they can be fixed or not. I’ll see if my son has time to look at them. 

Aelf checking out the new girls next door. 

A dahlia opening up. 

I had pretty good success rooting some dahlia cuttings. 

Some things are struggling and some are thriving 

A leaky wading pool helps hold moisture for some potted plants

Another dahlia 

Gazelle and Chocolate 

And soon we’ll have okra 

I did evening chores with a light sprinkle. It wasn’t even enough to wet the ground but it did smell good. 

Chocolate and Gazelle are still wild and jumpy but I have found a good motivator!

In other news I set a batch of cheese, started getting my desk cleared off and unpacking my tools. (Yes I evacuated my tools!) and of course the usual chores. 

#appreciation

Today I appreciate just being able to hang out and do a few things at home.