windthread

this morning.   Cloth  fragments and glue stick on craft paper card

and Otherwise.   Alyssia is in the midst of a Flare.   Flair?   Flare?   In the midst.  She also has a torn rotator cuff.   

it was decided last weekend to see what happens if we transition from baled alfalfa to alfalfa pellets.   The bales weigh 100lbs.  The pellets come in 5o lb bags.   

The three buck Goats,  2 intact bucks and Jack Flash the wether companion of Sunny Ray,  will continue to need baled Grass hay.   Particularly SR and Jack…there's really nothing left in their small forest to eat.   Nogal,  some.  But not a lot.  They can't eat alfalfa,  it causes problems in Bucks.   The 11 Doe Goats free range,   their diet is all that they browse here and varies by season.  We watch that closely….not wanting over browsing  to the detriment of the eco system here.  So far, so good.  They are like deer.  So we started transitioning on Sunday.   In the morning they get the usual alfalfa,  dry leaves stems.  But evening feed was t he pellets.  which are 100% alfalfa.  There was concern because the pellets are the small pellet horse feed.   Goat pellets are not all alfalfa but mostly with things like wheat, corn and soy.   There are feelings about these other ingredients,  particularly soy.  So it was a question of they would be able to handle the small pellets that are some larger than Goat pellets.   I watch them eat.

Along with the bags of pellets,  Jenny brought 8 stainless feed bowls.  Small.   i immediately thought….This Will NOt  Work.  When i gave them pellets in N Mex i gave them in the large feed tubs…3 of them.   In N Mex the pellets were additions to regular feed.   The difference here is that the pellets are THE evening feed.   Goats are not considerate of one another.  At all.   Some would get a lot,  some some and some a little.   When it comes to Feed,  everyone needs to get enough.  

Sunday,  she arranged the bowls in an arch up the hill from this house….far from where they have been getting the baled alfalfa down by the feed shed.   We poured pellets into them and called.   Come Come!!!   They looked up.   What?    and hesitantly  came and FOUND and wolfed them down.  Because there were 8 bowls,  they ran back and forth between them,  Everyone,  and everyone got a fair chance.  None of the bowls were tipped over.  So,  monday and today,  Tuesday.   All goes well.  There is still need to Watch.  To be sure.  Particularly since maybe 4 are bred.  

The pellets are stored in a BIG plastic food grade barrel she got.  We put it in the Kidding Shed.   They don't know about that.  It will be a secret i hope,  forever.   When they are off wandering,  i take 3 large plastic pitchers out there and fill them,  bring them in this House.   At feeding time,  around 4 to 5,   i take the pitchers out and fill the bowls and if they're not already there,  they come in an instant to the sound.     I DO NOT want them around when i fill the pitchers or anything else.  It would be mayhem.  so i work at being sneaky.   So far,  so good.  But they're very smart and really,  more like a herd of Women than animals.   Women who love food more than any other thing.  So…that's that part of the Goat News.   The rest,  today,  is that Lucky Star broke Sunny Ray free.   The last time she broke his gate,  she went IN.   I assumed she got bred.  But now…i don't know.   I had layed down for my 20 minute nap  and just as i'd drifted off,   i woke to wierd sounds outside the door and looking….lo and behold….Sunny Ray and all of them snorting and pushing and milling about and Jack Flash too…the wierd sounds,  buck sounds from  SR.   In these moments there's nothing to do but TRY.  I put my boots on went out and got the rope lasso…..Walked into  the middle of the melee and got it on Sunny.  He's a big Goat for a Nigerian.  As big as i am  and much stronger.   So with the lasso in one hand and grabbing his horn with the other,  we made our way down down down and down to his forest yard…everyone coming along making all manner of vocalizations,  he resisted some,  tried to become free some but really went along for NO REASON other than he's Sunny Ray.   The very last part is a drop in the hill and i was afraid he could pull me down, but we inched and inched slow and i kept talking to him….help me,  Sunny….we need to do this,  Sunny,  and we slid down and into through his broken gate and i let him free and BREATHED.   I used the lasso to tie the broken part closed  and waited as Jack Flash twirled and spun with all the Doe Goats who found him interesting free like that and that went on a while,  me calling him,  him ignoring me until an emergency vehicle went with Siren up Olive Highway and he ran to his gate and in.

What do i want to say about this.   I guess just that i was Glad.   Glad that i managed.   I managed an ify moment.   I did what i knew to do and it worked.   I am old and skinny and small.   But i did what i knew to do and it worked.  An everyone is very ok.  We are all ok and Fine.

The NEWS today is not at all Good.  I am helpless and ineffectual that way.   For humankind.  But here…i did what i knew to do and we are all good.  Stuff's  OK.