MILK!! And kid pictures.

Awww look, they have little horns growing!







The does are enjoying getting all up in my grill, yo.



So today I stuck Parsley outside, and moved the does into his pen for a couple of hours. The kids were FREAKED OUT. They got their kid feed that is supposed to keep them from getting Coccidiosis while the moms were out for a few hours. They ate really well. Then, after about 2 hours, I milked the does one at a time and stuck them back in with babies. And this is what I got.



It's delicious! sweet and not at all goaty. Tsu tried a sip and admitted it was sweet tasting but acted totally freaked out by the idea of drinking it, which is hysterical since he is the milk drinker in the house and I am the one who finds cows milk to be disgusting.

Isn't it beautiful? hehe.

Girl talk.... my return for a follow up mammogram.

*passes out*

That was the single most excruciating mammogram I have ever had in my entire life. And I've had several, because of a horse related bosom injury in my early 20's.

She took 8 different shots, left the room for 20 minutes, came back in and took 2 more. The last 6 were with this top squishy thing that had a projection sticking out of the bottom about the size of the bottom of a coffee cup that they put directly over the questionable areas and tightened until my knees buckled. Literally at one point. I'm a pansy, but I can usually tough it out without complaint.... it hurt so bad I was unable to keep myself from vocalizing in pain.

To put this into perspective, I went through 23 1/2 hours of labor without making a single groan, and only screamed when the doctor cut me without me being numb (then continued to grumble about it for the last half hour of delivery or so, hehe). I may grunt, groan or yell when physically exerting myself (like when I try to carry in the water hose, hehe) but when it comes to pain I generally keep quiet right up until it hurts so bad that I yell.

i was whimpering and groaning in pain, just trying to breath and stay on my feet.

The poor technician kept apologizing, but they had to crank down on there to get the shots. By the time we were done I could barely move without my eyes watering. Tsu picked me up some ibuprofen at the clinic pharmacy and I took them as soon as we got to the car. It wasn't just "The Girls" that hurt, it was the muscle under them. We did some shopping and ate lunch and got home before the real soreness kicked in, and last night I wasn't even able to lift my arms above shoulder level. I was very slow doing my chores, and thankfully Brego drops his head when I put his feed bag on him, otherwise he might have had to skip his grain.

Our buddy Jer came over to hang out and cook us dinner (yay!! that is twice this week, lol) so the men handled all that stuff while I curled up on the couch looking pitiful and keeping medicated. A while back he brought us some dietary supplements and he insisted I take some because he finds he has a lot less soreness after injury or exertion if he has some so i did so.

This morning I feel much better. The Girls are still uncomfortable but nothing like yesterday and the muscles under and around them don't hurt.

So now I just have more waiting to do to see if they give me the all clear or if they want to check me out some more.

On the bright side I got my most recent blood work back, the stuff to check liver function because of the meds I am on now, and it all came back good. So I can stay on my Zocor to keep the cholesterol down and hopefully head off a heart attack. *rolls eyes*

I'm going to try and get some new pictures of Chickory and the Kennii. They are all growing horns now since I didn't disbud them. Next week I think the Kennii will get banded (neutered, basically. in goats that is called getting "wethered") and i will decide then if I think I need to band Chickory right away or wait a while longer. Since he will be kept as a pet I want to give his urinary tract as much time to mature as possible before wethering him so I will wait until the last minute before doing his banding. Since the other two are meat goats it doesn't much matter when I band them, and the sooner the better. I just want to make sure I can give them their CDT shots first.

Update on today's foolishness....

The health care thing is straightened out and we do have coverage until end of April. THANK GOODNESS. However, they didn't handle our paperwork in a timely manner so we don't get a paycheck for another 15 days. This would be a pretty crappy deal except that we had pulled some money out of our 401K to get things squared away and it hits our account tomorrow... so we can use that to tide us over until they catch up on the severance payments.

Crisis averted for now. I can breath a little easier even though the health issues are still weighing on me.

I got an inquiry about the minis already as well. Lady with two girls looking for 4H ponies. I hope to hear back from her.

I firmly believe that the right home for them will show up, and I hope I have the insight to recognize it when it shows up. I would LOVE for a couple of kids to end up with these two.

Video of snowy day and placing sale ad....

Well, the unpleasantness first...

We had a bit of a hiccup in our situation today that drove home how real all this job loss and health stuff is. In a nut shell, we got a letter saying today is our last day of health coverage even though we are supposed to be covered until April 31. I read the letter and they actually list a couple of dates in the body of the letter so i suspect it is just a form letter and there was a computer error but it still is scary and we are waiting for a phone call to be returned to find out what the deal is.

If this is the last day of our coverage it will cost us $1100 a month to keep the insurance going. This wouldn't be so much of a scary issue for me except that i had an abnormal mammogram and have to go back thursday for another one, as well as needing to go in tomorrow for another bunch of bloodwork to check liver function, etc... and if this letter is right that means no coverage for this.

Yeah, the letter saying today is our last day of coverage and saying we needed to pay $1100 a month to keep it arrived TODAY. And our pay from the severance package hasn't arrived yet. *sigh*

Anyway, I completely freaked out for about an hour, then I remembered that what will be will be, and no sense letting myself spazz about it. However, my hair immediately started to shed. lol. Hopefully I calmed down before I triggered another mass hair fallout. At least this time I already have some cheap wigs. LOL.

However... it just reinforced the fact that I have to find a home for the mini horses. I sucked it up and started placing ads. Wish me luck, and wish the mini horses luck. My dream home for them would be someone with horse experience and kids who want to take them in 4H or something. I've always said Sparrow needs a little human to show him off. And I would ideally like to keep them together. I don't care about how much i get for them, I just want them to have good homes so i don't have to worry.


*sigh*

Now that the suckage is out of the way... the good stuff. I finally got the videos i took the other day uploaded. Nothing fancy, I was just using my digital camera so it's not the clearest video. But it's still fun. I hope you enjoy them.

Well, there is ONE good thing about winter....

Photo ops.

There is just something breathtaking about horses running through snow. Especially when the snow hides all the poo that had frozen to the ground. I also got some video but we rely on our internet for TV (netflix) now and our connection sucks (one bad thing about rural life, no good high speed options for internet, just mediocre options) so uploading will have to wait until we aren't trying to watch tv.

The ponies have been getting short shrift lately, at least as far as me talking about them and posting pictures of them. I'm afraid that OMGBABYGOATS took over my brain there for a while, hehe.



but really, it's hard to resist them, you know what I mean?





But as soon as i saw this face looking at me yesterday morning I knew I needed to get the camera and get some pony pictures.



and i did. Like... 65 of them plus some video, hehe.



I found this old pool toy to swing around to get them running, since they are pretty much used to everything else and just look at me like I'm boring them if I try to chase them with anything else.





Mary doesn't care much, hehe.



It sure got Brego riled up for a bit, though.







Man. I still have to pinch myself sometimes to believe he is really mine.



Of course then I let them play with the pool toy.



Brego was not amused.



Once he sniffed it out a bit he lost interest and went back to doing what he does best.

NOMNOMNOM