Painting

Wendell has gone on a painting frenzy. He painted the main goat shade and their shelter. Then he painted the pressure tank on the well. He has definitely put in overtime this week. Our doe, Emma, is within 10 days of delivery. Then Layla, Blondie and Cloudy will follow suit the next week. Those arrivals will put me on a very strict schedule. My morning and evening chores will become a job and not chores! In a weird way I am looking forward to that. I will be at home much more. For those of you that are planning on coming to Mary Lou's baby shower, please save the date of April 18. We are doing this open house style -- my house and Mary's. Ondrea and I are putting together the details next week and will send out invitations. Most of you know that I am not much of a planner, but more of a stop-by-when-you-want person. Ondrea is very organized and will be a big help!

Happy Birthday Carol Ann!

Today is Wendell's sister's birthday (aka one of my best friends). Woo hoo! Hope she has a great one. The bad part is that she is 2300 miles away in North Carolina. I am sure she wishes that Star Trek technology existed. The kind where you can pop from one place to another in a matter of seconds. I would definitely be headed to see her this morning if it did! So, I will have to pretend to have coffee with her on her deck overlooking the pond. We are waiting for our cheese equipment to arrive from the Netherlands. It can't come fast enough because the girls are really getting heavy with kids. Mammaries are starting to fill! We went to the AZ Farming and Ranching Hall of Fame dinner last night. Mildred & Norman Hale and Gertie & Bill Hickman were inducted. It was so good to see so many of our farmer friends. Later we went to a birthday party for our dear friend Art Ortiz. He had a DJ and we all danced, laughed and ate menudo. It was so good to get a break from all of the work we have been doing lately.

Yes

We got the final results from the blood tests on the main herd (goat people call it a 'trip' -- but I am originally a cow person). Everyone came back great! We are getting ready to vaccinate the preggers that are closest to kidding. We also have to buy a microscope so we can do fecals to determine if we need to de-worm or not. Floating poop and looking for worm eggs is what I will actually be doing. Fun, fun, fun. I will have to thank Mr. Thibedeau for teaching me this stuff in high school. I am really going to be using my skills.

Aren't the puppies growing fast? Luna is very dominant and the boys have wonderful manners. I just have to stay ahead of the head-strong girl. I have only had one challenge when she was young and she has been good since then. These are my co-workers. I love my job.

We will miss you

I received "one of those calls" this morning. A friend of ours died of a heart attack last night. Tom Wills will be greatly missed. There are no words to tell Debbie and his children how bad we feel for them. This is so erie after what Wendell has been through just this past month. Please, please, get your ticker checked if you even think you might have had any symptoms, or if you are over 40. Do it in honor of Tom if you knew him. Aaron and I are both going March 5th. I am so very sad that this wonderful family is missing a huge piece of their hearts today.

Best Management Practices (BMP)

Or, heart-breaking reality, some baaad news. My quarantine pen's blood results were not as good as I had hoped. CAE results on the two does were positive. At least the G6S and CL were good. Wendell and I took them back to Brogdon Farms. Kayla beamed when I handed her Lexi and the noon bottle feeding. Autumn and Dopey were brats so that wasn't too hard. I will definitely miss Isabelle though. I know it sounds cheesy -- but I really bonded with her. I hope one of the next girls come close to Isabelle's manners, beauty and production. Teri called the vet out and she is having a more detailed blood test done. Hopefully she calls me soon and it was a false positive. What an alphabet soup of goat diseases. We are doing the BMP disease prevention methods. None of these factor in that certain goats can steal your heart as fast as any dog. But Wendell is right again. Show animals are exposed to so many other goats. He is also right about never blending the animals until test results are back. You do the best you know how to do. Sometimes something goes wrong and you have to do what is right to keep your herd as disease-free as humanly possible. Waaa!

Feeders, Fences and Feet

Work is a four letter word, but so is love! We have been doing so many things this week. Wendell, David, Erik and Brian have been laboring at the dairy putting up feeders and fences. In the pictures you can see our new pellet feeder that the guys are designing and installing. I am sure there isn't one just like it in the state. Also, it was time for pedicures. We worked 14 hours last weekend doing hoof trimming, blood testing, and measurements on all of the goats.

I made my second batch of cheese from Isabelle's extra milk. Out of the half gallon of milk I got 1.4 pounds of cheese. It was gone in a flash. I plan on hiding a little of the next batch :-) Shouldn't be long before Autumn has her kid. i am on "farm arrest" waiting for the new arrival. Then it should be at least 3 weeks before things really start to get crazy. Four of the girls are due March 11-21. That should keep me busy!

Aaron and Wendell are at the farm setting posts for the fencing. Mary and Erik are on one last trip to Rocky Point, MX before the majority of kids (and thier kid) start to arrive. Hope they enjoy thier Valentine's Day. Wendell is the best Valentine! I had coffee, a card and a gift when I opened my eyes this morning. Watching the grandkids tonight so Diana and Aaron can go to a romantic dinner at the Compass Room tonight. Happy Valentine's Day!

T-shirt tells the story

My son, David, pointed out my shirt to me today and wanted to take a picture. I had only milked one goat (ok, I milked her three times today). Kayla gave me the t-shirt and I knew I would put it to good use! Thanks Kayla! The little doeling, Lexi, is doing great. Wendell has been on the tractor all day. The place is really looking good. I will have to get more pictures of all of the work that the guys have been doing.

Surprise arrival

We had a Super Bowl party combined with a celebration for Wendell's birthday (1/28). Lots of friends and family were here. Of course we are all bummed that the Cardinals lost. They sure gave the Steelers a run for their money. That game will go down as one of the best Super Bowls ever! However, the biggest surprise came at halftime and had nothing to do with football. My niece, Lexi, and granddaughter, Lexia, came into the house saying a goat just pushed out a baby! I couldn't believe it, but they were right. I ran outside to find a wet baby and the proud mom. Isabelle had kidded a little early. I had just checked them all a few hours earlier and I did not think that I would be holding a beautiful little doeling that afternoon. Since the girls found her, we named her Lexi after them. The ears on this little girl are so long! We dipped her navel, milked mom, heat treated the colostrum, fed her 7 oz and put her in my room in a dog kennel. She weighed in at 8 lbs 5 oz. and is just so cute!Thanks to Marie for taking the pictures. I owe you for thinking about them -- as I was thinking about everything but pictures :-) Well, I better get some sleep before the midnight feeding ...

Thank you Kayla!

Our heartfelt thanks to Kayla Brogdon for giving us our first "show" goats. Kayla has been showing goats and pigs for quite a while now. The does have been shown and have done very well in the show ring. They have wonderful bloodlines. However, she has decided to concentrate on her Boer goats and pigs. She wanted to see her dairy goats go to a home where she knew she could visit them. Fortunately for us, she kept them in the family! Two does and a buck will be joining the herd. Of course, they are in quarantine for 30 days. We will be testing them for CAE, CL, G6S and Q-fever. We've got to make sure that we keep a clean herd. I am sure they will pass with flying colors. We wish Kayla the very best of luck with her Boer show goats!

I wish you could have seen the rodeo we had getting them in the pen tonight. There were 3 women (me, Teri and Kayla), 3 goats and 3 dogs. Well, I should have thought ahead and put up the dogs! The goats were not too happy that the dogs were there even though they have always been around dogs. I guess they weren't introduced properly. So, to make a long story short, Teri and I ended up on the ground trying to keep them separated. We both will feel the bruises tomorrow :-) Thank goodness Erik heard the commotion and came over. Finally, the humans now outnumbered the goats and we got them settled in their new enclosure. Erik then headed over to the dairy to feed the goats over there and to help Wendell with more cleaning. They will be working very late tonight. I am going to take a hot bath and wash the rodeo off of me!

Water Works

Well, it takes quite a bit of work to get water from one end of the dairy to the other. A big thanks to Aaron who spent about 12 hours on the backhoe this weekend digging the trenches. Wendell and Erik were the PVC pipe specialists. When the water was turned on there were no leaks. Yippee! We have water all over the place now. We even have HOT water in the house. Thanks also to Matthew who put the blinds up in all of the windows. The last of the saltillo tile was installed in the bedrooms. It is really starting to look like something. No more tablecloths on the windows or concrete floors :-)

Wendell went for his follow-up at the cardiologist and he is realeased to normal activity. Thank you, thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers. I can't tell you how happy I am. His birthday is on the 28th and we will be celebrating BIG TIME with a combined birthday/SuperBowl party! The AZ Cardinals are finally in it! #13 is our lucky number and that is quarterback Kurt Warner's jersey number. Wendell and I were married on June 13, Wendell's dad, Ken, survived a WWII kamikaze attack on Friday the 13th, Wendell's heart stent was placed on 1/13/09 AND the dairy address is 11300 S. Dean. Soooo, we are sure hoping that Kurt Warner and the Cardinals bring a victory back from Tampa Bay.

Goats are doing well. The girls that are pregnant are starting to show and Mary Lou (the daughter, not the goat) is also starting to show! She is due July 1st. Can't wait to see our new little goat milker!

My Heart Dropped

When Wendell told me that his chest felt "funky" and he wanted to go to the doctor "in the morning," I got out of bed and started getting dressed. There was no way I was going to wait all night long for him to see the doctor. He had been very tired lately and had just figured he had been working too much. Anyway, to make a long story short, he is now the proud recipient of a stent in his right coronary artery! He didn't want anyone to know, or make a fuss over him, so he didn't want me to tell anyone. Well, I almost lost my composure after 24 hours of keeping this "secret" and people were wondering where we were. I called my dear friend Kathy Lee and told her what was happening and that I was going to lose it if I didn't have someone to talk to about it. Thanks to her, she calmed me down and I was able to be strong for Wendell. I just don't know what I would have done without her calm reassurance that all would be fine. About 20 minutes prior to the proceedure, Wendell gave me the green light to let the kids know what was going on. I called and let them know that their father was going to have a cardiac catherization. They were all very strong for me. We didn't have any tears or panic! I am so glad about that. Dr. Patel came out after the procedure and told me that Wendell had one of his main arteries that was 99.9% blocked. He continued to explain that he had been .1% away from a heart attack! During the procedure the doctor was able to place the stent into the artery and open it back to 100%. Praise God! Everything turned out fine. He is now home resting for the next week. So, if my posts aren't very often ... That is why.

Progress on the dairy is chugging along. We are still very excited about the does kidding this spring and that we will be making cheese!

Take care, AND if your chest ever feels FUNKY, get to the ER!

Happy New Year!

Well, we had a huge bonfire on New Year's Eve. I don't know if the kids or the adults had more fun :-) Tony and Mike searched the river for wood and came back with an entire tree! They had to be tired after that night. There are a few pictures, but Mary took them and I haven't downloaded yet. We ate our traditional black-eyed peas and ham for luck after midnight. Boy, did that work because Erik, Aaron and Wendell were able to get the well running that afternoon. I loaned my camera to my nephew but took a couple of pics with my cellphone camera. This is a picture of the muddy first water and the happy dance that followed. The dogs and goats are doing well at their new home and I will post pics later when I get my camera back!

Let there be light!

Becky called this morning and gave me some very good news. Her husband, Johnny, works for APS and he told her that they had dispatched the crew to turn service on at the dairy. We now have electricity! Just in time to get the first part of the herd on the premisis for our New Year's Eve deadline. Wendell has been on the tractor for hours on end making the pens level. Tomorrow we will be working all day moving animals and supplies. Then we are going to celebrate the New Year with an evening bonfire complete with marshmallows and hot dogs. Hope that you and yours have a very happy and prosperous 2009.