My day so far....

2AM: Tsu gets home from our friend, Jer's, house. Nightshade wakes up and starts fussing. I force a bottle into his mouth and he angrily drinks a half ounce before refusing to eat any more. He falls back to sleep almost immediately. I, on the other hand, lay there wide awake until I give up on sleep and read until 4am, when I fall asleep with the book on my face.

5AM: Alarm clock goes off. I jump, hit snooze, fall back to sleep.

5:09AM: Alarm clock goes off again. I get up. I stumble to the bathroom with Nightshade following on my heels, let the dogs out to go potty. Use the bathroom. Let the dogs back in.

5:20AM: Brew coffee. Apply meds and fresh band-aids to my filleted fingertips (um, yeah, I had a bad day yesterday, lol.)

5:25AM: The Infernal Offspring emerges from The Abyss, stumbles to the kitchen, gets coffee and a bagel with goat cheese.

5:40: I force another bottle into Nightshade's face, get another half ounce into him, he stands in my lap and gets his "I'm going pee, don't bug me" look on his face.

5:50AM: Change diaper on goat. *rolls eyes*

6AM: Drink coffee.

6:10AM: Drink more coffee. Start car with remote starter (WEEE!)

6:20AM: take Nightshade and go get in the car.

6:26AM: Infernal Offspring emerges from the house to go out and catch the bus.

6:29AM: Bus arrives. I return to the house.

6:35AM: Curl up on couch with dog, goat baby and book.

8AM: Get milking supplies ready. Put a collar on Nightshade, take his diaper and t-shirt off. Head outside with him walking nicely on a leash. Tie him to the towing ball on the back of the truck. Feed the horses.

8:15AM: Get goat supplies and milking gear ready. Take it to the barn while leading Nightshade who is still walking nicely on his leash (he caught on to walking on the leash super fast!). Tie him to tack hook next to milking stand.

8:30AM: Start the daily pen juggling by pulling parsley out of the kid stall and tying him in the horse stall. Rosemary tries to jump out of the buck stall so I let her out and lock her into the milking stand. She starts to scream, everyone else joins in. I take the kids their medicated feed. I give Rosemary feed, then stick Nightshade under her. I let him eat until he gives up. he now looks like he swallowed a softball. Her udder is almost empty. *shocked face* I normally get 3/4 of a quart out of her, no wonder Nightshade looks like his belly is going to explode. I put Rosemary in with the kids and all three finish emptying her out pretty quick.

I got remove Brego's feed bag so he doesn't try to drink with it on and end up drowning.

I let Thyme onto the milk stand. I get about a quart out of her. I put her in with the kids and again all three mob her and strip her out for me.

I let Sage onto the milking stand. I get a full quart from her, she still has some left but not enough to warrant changing jars. I give her more food and stick Nightshade under her.

I move Parsley back to his own pen while Nightshade works on Sage's smaller side of her udder. (Yay, that should help balance her out some!!)

Nightshade finally stops nursing and stands there looking bloated, then he pees for about 6 minutes straight and then drinks some more. While he nurses I put hay in for everyone, top off water, then I tie him back up and put Sage back in with the kids. Now it is her turn to be mobbed by all three kids.

9:15AM: I haul everything including the bottle kid to the big barn, unload Brego's feed bag, all the empty feed containers, etc. Carry milking supplies into the house while Nightshade follows, not walking so nicely on the leash because his belly is so full he looks like he just wants to lay down and snooze. I filter milk into clean bottle, and put in fridge to chill.

9:30AM: Pull out milk I pasteurized last night and put it in the double boiler to make mozzarella.

10AM: decide my mozzarella is going to be fail again, decide to try packing it in a mold to see if weighting it down and using it sliced will salvage it since it tasted sooo good but won't stretch.

10:30AM: Realize I haven't heard or seen Nightshade since 10am. Make my "mama goat calling to baby" sound. Hear a little noise right at my feet, look down to see Nightshade almost asleep curled in the corner where the cupboard and stove come together. Chuckle to myself. Pick up the baby goat and come sit on the couch to make my blog posts. Nightshade lays across my chest and promptly passes out. I discover that typing with a goat across your chest is easier than it sounds.

Mary and Sparrow will be going to their new home...

Probably this weekend, unless Jim can get some time this week.



I'm flip flopping between being fine about it and flipping out.

I feel at peace about where they are going but... it's hard to see them go. I bought Sparrow to train and eventually resell, and i got Mary to keep him company then ended up spending more time working her than i did him. I got way more attached to them than I should have. I've had one silver bay pony or another here for over half of my life. *sigh*



I know it is the right thing to do. And they can bring them back if they don't work out or if they can't keep them for any reason.

*sigh*


Brego does fine alone, and he isn't REALLY alone. He has the neighbor's horse on a shared fence line and they have recently become entirely enamoured with each other. They stand on each side of the fence staring at each other longingly. So I know he will be fine.

I know this is the right thing to do. I know it is for the best. I know with Tsu losing his job it is the RIGHT thing to do.

But it is still soooo hard.

It helps that I am so focused on the goats right now. It helps that they are taking up so much of my time and effort and that they actually provide us with more benefit than cost. It helps that I have a bottle baby in the house demanding virtually every waking and most sleeping moments.

I think THINKING abut them leaving will be worse than once they are gone. Because every time I look out there I think, "they won't be here this time next week." and I have my mini melt down.

Nightshade, my new buck.

He is, seriously, smaller than most of our cats right now. And he is dozing off on my lap right now. He is a one week old, myotonic (fainting goat), and at this moment he is wearing a diaper and trying to chew on my fingers as I try to type. We stole him away from his mama yesterday. He is eating well from a bottle, he doesn't latch on himself yet, but he eats well once I get the nipple in his mouth.

He woke up twice last night, slept next to me on the couch. He has started to answer me when I do my "mama goat calling a baby goat" sound. He is still looking for his mom, but not as hard as he was looking yesterday. He will be a bit smaller than I had originally wanted but for $50 I am not going to complain!!



He screams his head off in the crate. So mostly i keep him diapered and close to me. He and the dogs also run up and down the hall and he bounces around before falling back into a deep baby sleep.



His dad actually looked like a silky coated fainter. Mom was just a bit smaller than my does in body size but shorter legged.

He sleeps with his eyes partially open, and it freaks me out, lol. I found some mites on him so I treated him for them, once I am sure those are gone I'll start to introduce him to the other kids.