RIP Numbers

The last couple of weeks I've been having some problems with the sheep. A lot of them have been losing weight, their hair looks awful, and having the runs. Sounds like parasites right, except they're all on a regular deworming program and are clean for bugs. After that nice 50 mph wind filled day I could add pinkeye and snotty noses to the list. Two lambs died but they were weaklings anyway so I just chalked it up to nature doing it's job. Then my two goats aborted.

Yesterday my spotted ram Numbers Malone went down and went down fast. Within 4 hours he'd gone from walking and eating to three feet in the grave. I couldn't even pull the skin back enough to sub-q him, he'd dehydrated so fast. Took him to the vet, where they popped an IV in him and loaded him up with everything under the sun, but he died within an hour. Vet said he was toxic, something he'd eaten. She's taking tissue samples to A&M to see what happened. Makes me sick. I really really liked Numbers.

Cortez and Fuego were acting sick yesterday but they seem fine today. I'm changing the feed out though, on a hunch that it's aflatoxin related.

In other news diesel is up to $3.69 here, making me hug my 18 year old, 30 mpg Nissan. The truck is parked until diesel returns to a normal level (which will likely never happen in my lifetime) or I have to pull the trailer. I have found that I can haul 10 feed sacks in my Nissan if I put 3 in each seat and 1 in the trunk. I could probably haul more than that but I don't want to squat it. You can imagine the looks I get at the feed store, heh.

Hay and Rain for $200 please

Last summer was the best ever for the Texas panhandle in terms of rain and temperatures. Everyone who grew hay had bumper crops. One friend said she put up 400 square bales off her little pasture, and that was before the baler broke and left the rest to waste. So wtf can't I find any to buy?

Because the brokers are snatching it all up by the semi loads and transporting it out of state, that's why. And what's worse, they're putting contracts on the rest of the season's expected hay production, so folks like me are just SOL. Unless of course, we can afford to buy 55 tons at a time. I just don't have the storage space available for more than 100 bales at a time.

Some of the older ewes and one of the older rams are looking pretty rough. I've wormed them heavily, which only served to make them look worse. Once they lost their Buddha bellies, they turned into scarecrows. This is a hard time of year for them. The pastures are a mix of sticks, stalks, and dirt as you can see from this pic. The rye is trying to come up but unless we get some rain I doubt it will do anything. For once I'm glad I didn't plant the middle section in wheat, because it wouldn't have come up. I have protien blocks out and am feeding a corn/oat/soybean mix, but I have to find some hay pretty fast.

If it were not for internet radio, I'd pull my hair out. Downside of rural living - if you don't like country music, you're in trouble with regards to radio stations.

Caprock Canyon visit

I went with my boyfriend over to Caprock Canyon to hike around a bit, but the wind caught us by surprise and we wound up leaving after a few hours.

The fact that I consider a walk to the mailbox to be strenuous had nothing to do with our premature departure.

I wish I'd taken my tripod. I'm not the steadiest of people on a good day, and with a 30 mph wind knocking me about, I had a hard time keeping the camera still. We have plans to return later in the spring to do a little hiking/camping weekend, will bring the tripod then. I still got a lot of neat shots, nothing fancy but it does show off the interesting geology of the area. There was a rock of some sort that I did not recognize. It appeared to run in a solid sheet beneath the red dirt, almost looking like white marble on top, but along the edge it had a glitter to it, and would splinter off.

In other news, Dirty Harriet died over the weekend. She was the first Boer goat ever born here, and while she was not the most productive of girls (4 kids in 6 years hrm), she was always my favorite and she knew it. When I sold all the goats, I kept her, her son Earless Joe, and one other old girl who was the first Boer goat I ever bought. She was spoilt rotten. I'm not too happy about her passing.

The Twins Go Outside Yay

Last night I put the bottle babies KC & Sunshine out in the trailer for the first time. They were born during an ice storm so they'd been in a box in my hall and they were really stinking up the place. I ran to SquallMart and got a heat lamp for them, and resurrected some of the baby goat coats that I thought I'd never use again, and now they're hooked up. My trailer doubles as portable stalls, and it's parked beside the house where there's an outlet for the light.

KC is on the left, Sunshine is on the right. If you're over 40 you'll get the reference. The group was before my time but my brothers are all at least 10 years older than I am so I grew up on a lot of 60s and 70s music.

When I had the goats, I was always using these blankets. I can't count the times I heard some goat breeder brag about how the babies were so strong and tough and how they could handle the weather. Pffft. Every one of them had heat lamps in a stall somewhere for winter kidding. I must have 30 of these blankets, because otherwise the babies would get cold and that was that. On the other hand, I've seen lambs born into a snow bank who were up and running like antelope within a half hour. These two wouldn't need the blankets or heat light except I had them in the house for a few days and I figured it'd make the transition from 70F inside to 20F outside a bit easier on them, heh.

Eh it's bottle time again.

Who's Yer Mama?

I brought some ewes home late last night and one of them dropped some lambs tonight, and proceeded to knock them ass over teakettle every time they tried to get near her. Guess the stress of the haul right at the time she was due was too much for her, because she absolutely hates them.

Guess that makes me mom. Ugh. Not to mention, we're in the middle of an ice storm now so in the house they go.

Bottle feeding is a pain in the butt. Every four hours for the first couple of days, then you can slowly draw them down to 3 or so bottles a day. I learned with the goats to always put a 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in every bottle. It works like an antacid and I never lost one to overeating. That doesn't make it any less of a PITA but at least I can let them chug down two huge bottles a day instead of 4 small ones without worrying that they'll bloat up and die on me.

Of course this means they'll wind up with names. 500+ goats and now nearly 200 sheep later, I'm really scraping bottom of the name bucket. I used to name them after things I'd like to have, like Miata, Carerra, Mercedes, Ocean, Lottery, then slowly dropped down to things I needed, like Washer, Dryer, Insulator, Charger, Radiator, Clutch. Now it's just whatever comes to mind when I look at 'em.

I got Bucked

You know that feeling you get when you think you got a steal of a deal on something, only to realize you took it up the spine and didn't even get a kiss for it?

Meet Bucked. As in, Bucked Knees. I can't believe I did not see those wonky legs. I was too busy congratulating myself on getting a weanling with enough horn to make a 10 month old proud to notice his ground dragging front pasterns and bucked knees. When his head is up, it's even worse looking. There are grills all over town callin this dude's name. He's so gimpy he can't even keep up with the other boys, so he mostly hangs out near the pens hoping for a handout.

Just when I get to thinking I'm too clever for words, I bring something like this home.