Yesterday we had another baby goat born. This will be our last one for a few weeks I think. This baby's mom usually has 2 babies but this year only had one but she made up for it for how big this baby is, it is the biggest newborn baby goat I have ever seen and I am not exaggerating. The only bad thing is that it is a billy so we will get rid of it. We will either sell it or try to find a 4H kid or FFA kid that wants to show a goat at the fair to give it to. This baby looks like it is a couple months old already, I wish I had scales to weigh it. Have I said yet that it is a huge newborn. Now for what you have all been waiting for, some pictures.
Here it is standing next to one of the babies born 1.5 weeks ago, it is the one behind. Only 1 day old.
Here it is standing next to its mom, most baby goats can stand under their mom to nurse but he has to kneel down to make it under. He is a really good looking kid.
We love movies, I really love movies. I am indifferent on most TV watching, we haven't had cable or satellite since we got married but we watch movies very often. Anyway, tonight are the Oscars and many of you may not read this until after they are over, but, yesterday Fiesta Square Theater had a special Oscar Best Picture marathon. They showed all 5 movies nominated for best picture back to back on one screen for one day. It cost $30 for the day (which is a lot cheaper than going to them individually) and you got unlimited popcorn. We don't go to movies in the theater very often but just could not pass this up. The first movie started at 11am and the last one ended at 11pm, for those of you who aren't good at math, that is 12 hours of movie watching in the theater. It was a crazy, awesome day. We talked our friends Adam and Sarah into going with us which made it even more enjoyable. Luckily there are restaurants around there so we could go eat in between movies. We got these special lanyard passes to where around our neck that made me feel very important. They even did trivia in between movies and gave out prizes. It was a lot of fun and a cool thing to say that we did. If you don't already know, the movies nominated are Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, Atonement, Juno, and No Country for Old Men. I thought I would let you all know which one I think should win Best Picture and see if the Oscar gods agree. First, let me say that I don't think that Michael Clayton or Atonement should have been nominated. They were good but not great and it seems like that same story has been done in other movies just in different ways. I would much rather have seen Sweeney Todd or The Lives of Others nominated. Juno is my favorite of those nominated and the one I would most likely buy and recommend to other people. But the movie I think should win Best Picture however is There Will Be Blood. I really thought it was excellent and was excellently made. I also think that Daniel Day Lewis should win for best actor for his performance in it. So, there you have it, we will see what happens tonight.
We had another goat have babies. This goat was one of the ones we got from our friend Travis when he moved to Ohio. She had 2 babies, 1 boy and 1 girl but only the girl survived. The little boy was really small and weak and I think had some problems. We brought him inside to try to save him but he just never could do anything on his own, even nurse. It looked like he was blind as well. I am not sure what was wrong with him. It was sad but it is good the girl survived, especially because she is worth more to us and we will keep her on the farm. Any boys we have will be sold in the spring sometime. Here is a couple pics of her for you.
The new goat is the white and brown one. The goat in green I have had for over 5 years
As a federal employee, I get quite a bit of vacation time, a lot more than Margo. So, sometimes I take a week off just so I can spend a week getting some stuff done around the farm. This is one of those weeks. I had several things that I have been wanting to get done that take some time to get done. I had also been waiting to do some of these things for when we got our tax return back so we could use a portion of the money to do some of the expensive projects. Some of those things aren't very fun, such as I have been digging ditches and moving dirt to improve some drainage issues. I also cleaned out the manure from the barn. This took like 4 truckloads and was very tiring. I put most of it on an area where I am going to plant blueberries and blackberries this year and some on the garden. Another thing I did the other day that was pretty fun was build some railings for our porch. It is now much more kid friendly by preventing them from falling off and killing themselves. Our deck had railing all the way around but on the side portion it only had the top rail and not the in between rails. Some parts of it are 6 feet off the ground and would hurt if someone fell off. We have had a friend's dog jump of this portion and do a nosedive into the ground. Here is a before picture with Macy assisting to show you what it was like. You can see the safe railing on the front but for some reason the people who built it were ok with falling off the side.
Here is the after picture, after I have built the railing and installed it. Unfortunately they did not have pre-built railings that I could just nail in, I had to build each section completely.
Now, all of you with kids can feel a little more comfortable that your child won't die on the Farm of Hale.
The biggest and most expensive project of the week was completed yesterday. Since building my rock wall and removing some old landscaping to make more parking, I have been wanting to have some gravel brought in to make the driveway and parking areas better and more clean looking. My boss's husband gave me the name of a guy here in West Fork that hauls gravel, so I called him and he and his friend (who smooths the gravel with his tractor) came by and gave me an estimate on how much gravel it would take and the cost. It was more than I hoped but still within our budget for this project. They came out yesterday and brought 4 dump truck loads of gravel and then smoothed it all out nice and level. I am so glad I hired the tractor guy as well because he did a great job and it would have been way to much for me to do by hand or even with a tractor. Here are some before and after pics, it is so amazing the difference it made and I am very happy we had it done. The pictures don't do it justice.
Here is the driveway
Here is in front of the shop and by the rock wall
Here is the where Margo and I park in front of the house.
So, there are some of the things I have been doing so far on my "vacation". I am so worn out that I am about ready to go back to work for a rest.
Crazy Goat finally had her babies. She had them yesterday, which was nice because we were home and Margo was present for the birth. Earlier in the day, we saw that she had some pre-birth grossness hanging out of her female goat area so we put her in the barn where it was warm and dry. She had two girls (which means we will keep both of them) and did not have any problems having them. They are doing very well and I will probably let them out of the barn tomorrow because they are already starting to get a little rambunctious. I had hoped that they would have really cool coloring like their mother but they ended up looking more like their father. They are very cute though. Feel free to come out and see them. We will probably have more babies in the next few weeks. Here are some pics.
This one was the biggest of the two and has more brown spots.
Here is the other one.
The cow needed to check out the new additions and sniff and lick them a little.
Congratulations to Chrissi at my work. She won the second annual goat pool.
I was tagged by one of my favorite people, Kathy, to list 6 quirky things about myself. I guess you would call this a chain blog post. Someone makes a list and then "tags" someone else to make a list on their blog and therefore learn more about fellow bloggers/friends. We have found the lists on our friend's blogs very interesting so far. Things like Kristy and her comfort coke and pillowcase sniffing, Travis (high school friend) and his cardboard hatred, Emily and her prison obsession, Sarah's air typing, and Kathy's mowing. I did not realize how crazy people I know are. I told Margo that I don't have hardly any crazy quirky things that I do. She severely disagreed. So, here is the list of 6 quirky things about myself that Margo suggested.
1. I don't like to put q-tips in my ears dry, I have to wet them with water first. For some reason I hate the feeling and sound of dry cloth in my ears.
2. I don't like to hear girls peeing. I know that sounds a little odd since it seems like I should only be hearing Margo pee. But, at work, I have a small bathroom connected to the clinic room I work in most of the time. People use it pretty often. For some reason hearing guys pee does not bother me at all, but hearing girls pee kind of weirds me out. I promise it is a different sound.
3. I like for my toiletries to change with each new one. Like when I run out of shampoo and have to start a new bottle, I don't like to use the same kind again, I like to switch to a different kind or at least a different flavor. I don't mind using the same one some other time but not immediately after. That goes for toothpaste as well and if I got my choice it would be the same for soap and deodorant. I can use the same kind time after time but I really don't like to. Margo forgets sometimes and gets the same kind and I don't like it but I use it.
4. For some reason I hold whatever I am drinking in my mouth. This usually only happens when I am casually sipping on a beverage and not when I am chugging because I am really thirsty. I will take a sip in my mouth and hold it in there for anywhere between 5-20 seconds before I swallow. I am not sure but I may be holding it in there until it becomes the same temperature as the inside of my mouth.
5. I don't like the feeling of dry cloth in my mouth. I am not faced with this very often but when I it does happen, I freak out. Growing up when you would loose teeth and would bite down on a washcloth to help with the bleeding. I always had to wet it before sticking in my mouth. The main time I am faced with this now is at the dentist. I don't have the best teeth in the world and have spent a lot of time getting work done the past couple years. I don't mind getting shots in my mouth or them drilling or doing other work on my teeth but if they stick a dry gauze in to help keep my mouth dry or whatever when they are doing work, I will freak out. Luckily most of the time when they do this I am numb and can't tell but sometimes I am not numb and it about kills me. I get a terrible look on my face and break out in sweats. The dentist always thinks I am hurting or something but I have to explain that I just hate having dry gauze in my mouth.
6. I am an anti-packrat. I hate, hate clutter. I can handle temporary clutter like a stack of bills or dishes or clothes or with sentimental items. What I hate is keeping things just to be keeping them. If we are not using it currently, it gets thrown away or gotten rid of. I go through on at least a monthly basis and reorganize the house and get rid of stuff. I get rid of clothes we don't wear, things we don't use, decorations we don't use, movies we don't watch often. One of the big things I do that drives Margo crazy is reorganizing the kitchen. I will go through and try to make things more organized and downsize things. I get rid of kitchen tools/utensils we don't use, I only keep a small number of those free plastic cups, food that has been in the cabinets for to long gets thrown out. A lot of people's refrigerators are packed with food, drinks, condiments, and other things. Our fridge looks bare because I get rid of things we don't use or haven't used in a while and only keep what we need and are actively using. I am always bugging Margo, trying to get her to get rid of stuff and she is always trying to get me to stop getting rid of stuff. I am not a clean freak per say, I just don't like clutter and unused things lying around in closets, garages, and other places.
As for other people I want to tag to do this on their blogs. I would like for everyone who hasn't done it already to do it because it is very interesting. I especially am looking forward to Martha's, Trav's, and John's.
For those of you who don't know, Margo works for an organization called ATTRA. It is a non-profit sustainable agriculture information service funded by the USDA. They have offices throughout the U.S. and one of them is in Fayetteville. It is a great place for farmers to get resources and publications on how to do farm related things to make them more sustainable and profitable (all of you farmers and gardeners out there should check it out). Margo is one of their livestock specialist, and her main specialty is goats. This makes me proud because I love goats. Anyway, she goes to lots of conferences and even gets to speak at some of them and do presentations and stuff like that. Well, she was at one up in Missouri a few weeks ago and a farm news program was there covering it and did a piece on meat goats. The name of the show is "This Week in Agribusiness" and it comes on some local TV stations throughout the U.S. and on cable and satellite on RFD TV. Margo and one of her co-workers, Linda, got interviewed for the segment and were on the show. Many of you may not get the show so I thought I would post the video here for you to see (they posted the interview on youtube).
On a totally other and random subject. As some of you may know, The Late Show with David Letterman is one of my favorite shows and has been for probably 10+ years. I love the show and think Letterman is very funny. We have been to see his show a few times in New York, and actually were almost on the show, we even got taped but the producers decided not to do it. I can tell any of you who have not heard that story some other time. Back to my point of this, Letterman has been doing this bit every night for the past few weeks in his beginning standup routine making fun of Mitt Romney. I am not anti Mitt Romney or anything but this bit was really funny and I wanted to share it with any of you who do not watch Letterman. Basically, Letterman gives a lot of examples of who Mitt Romney looks like. Here is a pic for reference.
Here is a condensed list of Letterman's people Mitt Romney looks like.
He looks like the guy that winks at you when he shakes your hand. Mitt looks like a guy wearing a golf shirt in an Eddie Bauer catalogue. He looks like the owner of the steakhouse who keeps interrupting dinner to find out how things are going. He looks like the desk clerk at a hotel who tells you your room's not ready. Mitt looks like the guy at a party who gives you his card. He looks like a tennis pro at a restricted country club. Mitt looks like a guy modeling briefs on a package of underwear. He looks like that guy on a Father's Day ad for Norelco. He looks like a guy on cable urging you to tap your home equity. He looks like an American President in a Canadian movie. He looks like the medical expert in a infomercial. He looks like the guy who promises accident victims he'll get the money they deserve. He looks like the guy on the 'Just For Men' bottle" He looks like the guy who tells you how to buy real estate with no money down. He looks like a cosmetic surgeon who gets ambushed on '60 Minutes.' He looks like the photo that comes with the frame. He looks like a guy who would run a seminar on condo flipping. He looks like a weekend weather man. He looks like the neighbor who spends way too much time on his lawn Mitt Romney looks like that guy on the golf course in the Levitra commercial. Mitt looks like a guy who said he met Marge on eHarmony Mitt looks like a guy who goes to the restroom when the check comes Mitt looks like a guy who forgot to remove his teeth whitening strip Mitt looks like the guy your mother points to and says why can't you be more like him. He looks like a former Tarzan. Mitt looks like the guy that shows you around Total Fitness. Mitt looks like the guy who has a crease in his jeans. He looks like the guy that would approve your check at a supermarket.
We finally got a halfway decent snow this week. I really, really like snow and it helps with the dullness of winter. My favorite thing to do in snow is sled, I can't get enough of it. Most of NWA only got a couple of inches but out here on the farm we got close to four inches. Here is a pic to prove it, this was taken on the deck.
Up until today, everything was still completely covered. I am sure snow would get old if you had it all the time but here where we don't get much it is so exciting to have it. One of the other great things about snow is that it makes the outdoors look beautiful. That is one great thing about our house, it looks amazing in the snow. I thought I would take a pic so everyone could see.
I think if I moved the truck and Margo and Jake weren't in the picture, I could sell it to a post card company.
