Both boys have been disbudded. I did one boy on Monday the 25th and the other boy was ready on Wednesday the 27th. I have been spending time with them every day, at least ten minutes, holding and scratching them so that they are learning to like people. They both LOVE to be scratched on their necks. I'm also teaching them to allow me to pick up each foot in preparation for hoof trimming as adults.
Starburst is making great progress! Every day I've been bringing grain to the fence line, calling her name, getting her attention, pouring some into a white bucket, speaking her name as I lead her out of the pen. I allow her to have a few bites of grain, then I take her by the collar, lead her into the milking parlor and put grain in the feeder. The first couple of days I had to help her onto the stand.
Today I called her name - no grain - she came to the fence line. I opened the gate, she walked through, looking around for the grain which is usually in the white bucket on the ground. I walked into the milking parlor, called her name and she ran in and jumped onto the stand.
She is still kicking when I wipe off her udder and milk her, but that is to be expected as she is nursing her buckling kids. Buckling kids are very insistent about nursing when THEY want. So she kicks them away a lot because she is determined to teach them manners. It is so interesting to see that the dams will not allow their kids to nurse anytime they want.
Doelings tend to be better mannered, and learn to wait until mama gives the signal that it's okay to nurse. I have tried and tried to see or hear the signal given by the dams, because both kids will be eating hay or whatever, and suddenly they both dart over to the dam, dive under her udder and begin nursing. She must signal them in some way, because otherwise she kicks at them to stop.
Because Starburst is in the habit of kicking babies away from nursing, she has it in her head that anything that touches her teats needs to stop, and it is her job to make it stop. But she has to learn to let me milk her when she's on the milking stand. I just keep my hands on her teats, and I don't let her kicking at me remove my hands. If I remove my hands because she kicks, she will kick and kick to make sure I don't touch her again. So it's very important to not let her detour me from milking. We know this from experience because dh is not as insistent when milking and they kick up a storm because he lets them remove his hands.
I am very pleased with her progress. Especially since she has been half wild all her life. Typically we remove the kids from the dam overnight from the age of two weeks, especially when they are buckling kids. Then we milk in the morning to harvest that milk which built up overnight, and then put the kids and dam together during the day, so the kids can learn how to be goats by spending time with their dam with the herd.
We wait a little longer to separate the doelings from their dams overnight. Wild Thang has been with her dam every day, 24 hours a day since she was born on October 19th. The past week she's been with her dam in the maternity ward to get used to the new surroundings. Tonight is the first night she will be away from her dam. She is staying in the maternity ward while her dam spends the night in the doe pen. Tomorrow morning we'll see just how much Miss Z is producing in a 12 hour period, since her kid won't be able to take the milk. Then we'll put Miss Z back in with Wild Thang for the day.
Until next time.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Starburst and New Kids Update
Labels: goats
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Kapusta (Cabbage and Pork)
Labels: recipes
Kev made this for dinner today. One of our church brethren is from Poland and brought Kev some authentic polish sausage from a local butcher that he frequents. OH, I have never tasted sausage so delicious in my entire life. It's worth $5.99/pound!
I'm so tired. But I wanted to share this recipe.
Cooking Time: 2.5 to 3 hours
- 2 to 3 lb. pork butt
- 3+ cups water
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 32 oz sauerkraut
- 1 large head cabbage
- 1/4 cup butter
- salt
- pepper
- optional, kielbasa and/or optional, 12-16 Deli Quality Beef Franks (we use Hebrew National,Nathan's, etc. but these are not NT)
After baking for 1 hour, and the pork has begun to brown lightly, add 1 large onion, sliced. Continue baking covered for 45 minutes, or when meat is falling off the bone. Remove pork from
bone.
In a large pot (12 quarts for this recipe) saute 1 large chopped onion in 1/4 cup butter until light brown. Add 1 to 2 cups water, cut-up pork, pork juices, onion, salt and pepper to taste from baking pan to the pot. Shred a large head of cabbage, rinse under hot water and drain. Add the sauerkraut and cabbage to the pot. Add kielbasa or beef franks.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 1 hour. Taste. Continue cooking and tasting for another 30 minutes or until the cabbage is of the texture you like.
The recipe is supposed to be soup-like, so you might need to add more water.
Until next time.
Monday, February 25, 2008
IT'S A TWO-LEGGGGGG!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!
Labels: goats
The two baby goats that were born the day before the wedding are the wildest we have ever had.
I was sitting in the maternity ward the other day, holding the two new babies on my lap, feeling guilty for how wild the two born four months ago had become. As I sat there, with the two little furballs generating heat on my lap, I realized what had happened.
Well, for one thing, I was not even home the day they were born. I was at work, cleaning the room for our wedding, dusting and mopping the floor, taking down and setting up tables, decorating, folding silverware into napkins, stacking plates and on and on and on. I was on my feet from 7am until 4pm. I was exhausted once ds2 and I arrived home. I had enough energy to walk out and see the new babies, and I think I actually held them for a moment or two before I had to get back in the house and start getting more things ready for the wedding. I was then up until 9pm getting last minute things done. Up at 4am the next morning getting packed and ready to leave. Gone all day, we were home for an hour or so and then off to the hotel for our honeymoon. We came home to milk the next day, but were only home an hour or so.
I didn't have time to hold babies and acclimate them to people. That's why they got so wild.
My friend was in the midst of her own wedding preparations, she had agreed to take the little buckling, but things just got so hectic.
The easiest solution at this point, unfortunately for the boy, is the freezer. He is seriously wild.
The doeling, on the other hand, has value as a future milker. But not as a wild creature. She is going to have to be tamed down.
When I got the maternity ward in position, I decided that I wanted to get Miss Z and her doeling, who I may name Wild Thang... into the maternity ward, too. Because it's IMPOSSIBLE to get near Wild Thang in the big pen. She runs like a stampeding bull whenever one of us come anywhere near her. In the maternity pen though, I have options.
The first thing I had to do was get her into the maternity ward. I had a plan, and I knew if I was patient, I could move her over relatively easily. I milk her dam in the morning, at 3:30am. Some mornings it is very dark, and the little girl doesn't see me, I guess. Miss Z sees me. All the does know she is the only one that gets milked in the morning. Miss Z comes running around to the wooden gate and when it's very dark, Wild Thang runs with her, out of the gate. But on the mornings when the moon is full and it is light out, Wild Thang stays away. I knew if I just waited, she would come running out. This morning was the morning.
Miss Z came running out, and Wild Thang came out with her. WHOOPS, "It's a TWO-LEG!!!" she bleated out in alarm when she realized I was standing there. Her dam ran into the milking parlor and jumped up on the milking stand waiting to be milked. Little Miss Thang was crying out, "Mama, mama, where are you? Mama, where are you?"
My plan was coming together. I milked Miss Z, and let her off the stand. She went running back over to the wooden gate. Her doeling ran beside her, anxiously trying to get into the doe pen. I had picked up a short length of hay twine so I could wrap it around her neck to hang onto her.
LJ was out there with me. Little Miss Thang stuck her head into the wooden gate, trying to squeeze her way back into the pen, but I pushed against it so she couldn't get in. I was able to reach down and get the twine around her neck. When she realized she was caught, by a TWO LEG, she reared up and started screaming. LJ isn't used to seeing the goats act so crazy, and he was rushing toward her, smelling her behind, jumping around, like he thought she was going to play with him. I yelled at him to stop.
Dh was throwing hay and heard the screaming baby goat, and heard me yelling at LJ. The baby goat screamed again, I yelled again at LJ. Bear in mind it's 4 o'clock in the morning. Sound travels in the country, lol. Dh was alarmed, he thought something bad was happening. He was afraid the newborn baby goats were in danger because the other day ds2 observed our female dogs rushing up to the baby pen fence scaring the baby goats. I apologized later, because I'm sure it was very frightening to hear your wife screaming at your dog and hear a baby goat screaming. He came running over and I told him LJ was okay, I was just trying to get Wild Thang into the maternity pen. He opened the gate for me and she wrenched and leaped and almost twisted her head out of the hay twine I had twisted around her neck. Whew. If she'd gotten away, it would have been VERY difficult to capture her again. I would have probably have had to let her and her dam back into the big pen and wait another couple weeks until she let her guard down and ran out with her dam.
Now the work begins. I spend time with the baby goats, I'm in the pen holding them on my lap. I am also working with them as I usually do with baby goats, training them to allow me to pick up their feet so they will be good at hoof trims. Miss Thang cautiously watches me with the other babies, and I've also been bringing treats for the other goats. The other girls all crowd around me and Miss Thang sticks her head closer to see what's going on. I will be working with her for quite some time to get her accustomed to me, or she will be impossible to milk. My goodness, I thought Starburst was wild. This one is as wild as a stallion. Here in this next picture, you see her dam standing up on the fence, trying to figure out what I'm doing. Her wild baby is the black baby with the tan lines on her face and white ears, to the left. She's looking up at her dam wondering what she's doing.
Cautiously peering around her dam.
After a few days, I will start putting Miss Z back into the doe pen over night, and that way we can harvest her night time milk. We leave the doelings on their dams until they are six months old, but not full time. Four months is old enough to be without mom's milk overnight.
Ahhhhh, the tiny new babies.
The bigger boy's hornbuds were ready for disbudding yesterday. I think his littler brother will be ready tomorrow. If you look at the larger image you can probably see the two black round marks on his head?
Starburst is doing very well on the milking stand. She even jumped onto the stand herself last night, and tonight! That is great progress! As long as she is busy with grain, she does not kick. She stands still and allows us to milk her. We are only taking some of her milk since her babies are very tiny. But milking her will teach her the routine. The big test with Starburst will be to see if she responds to her name and comes to be milked once she is in the doe pen in a few weeks. Slowly but surely. I hope I never let any of the doelings stay wild again. I hope I've learned my lesson.
Nighty-night!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Now You Can PDF
Labels: geek-stuff
PDFs are important when it comes to accessibility across the various platforms. If you use Microsoft Word and your friend uses Corel WordPerfect, or Microsoft Works, you will not be able to send files to your friend. Well, you'll be able to, but she won't be able to open and read them. Sometimes they'll open halfway, but all you can see will be a bunch of gibberish.
Enter PDF. Almost every computer has Adobe Reader, which allows your computer to read PDFs. You can't convert a Word document, or an Excel spreadsheet to PDF unless you have a program to do it for you.
I purchased a program from Serif sometime back that will create PDFs. If I remember correctly it cost under $15 for the program plus shipping. I can't find it, hence my discovery earlier today.
Primo PDF - a free PDF creation tool. FREE. Just download, install and it acts like a printer. When you pull down the menu to print in your program, choose the printer you'd like to use, you will see that PrimoPDF has become of your choices.
If you don't want to mess with downloading, and you only need to convert a document into PDF on occasion, they also offer an PrimoOnline, Free Online Conversion to PDF.
Until next time.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
WOW! Babies!!
Labels: goats
Dh had just called me, letting me know he'd be over to pick me up shortly when Kev called to tell me he was sending me pictures so be sure to check my email.
Me: "I just turned off my computer, 'cause your Pa is going to be here any minute."
Kev: "Well, you'd better turn it back on."
Me: "Why, do we have baby goats?!"
Kev: "Oh, you already know?"
Me: "No, I just guessed because that's why they're in that pen. You didn't know Starburst was pregnant?"
Kev: "Nope."
We came home to find two beautiful little bucklings. 95% of the time our bucklings are beautiful and flashy and gorgeous. Most of our doelings end up being plain brown or black. Figures!
They are doing good. I observed them nursing a few times. Mama's a little freaked out over these little mouths on her teats, and keeps hopping around, but they are able to get a few gulps of milk down before she cartwheels away. ;-)
I got Mama out of the pen and up onto the milking stand. She was a little creeped out by the stand, but was loving the grain treat. She tore into her hay when I threw a flake into the pen, and that is a very good sign that she's doing fine.
This little cutie kept falling asleep in my arms.
Here they are snuggled together in the corner of the maternity ward.
And here is what happens every Tuesday evening. Dh takes out the garbage cans, with all the dogs along for company.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Ladies In Waiting
Labels: goats
I had the day off today, thankfully because someone had to drive into town and pick up the prodigal son last night. No wait, he wasn't prodigal, he was just at Bible conference for the weekend.
We were home by 10pm and talked until midnight. I slept in until 6am. Finally got out to milk around 7am.
Came back in and went back to bed. I was still tired.
I got up again around 9am and went right out to paint the new maternity ward. Dh got the roof put on yesterday and I wanted to get the girls in there today. I put on two coats. One was a base paint - we've discovered it's important, otherwise the paint just soaks in to the wood and you have to do three and four coats. It didn't take too long, maybe 3 hours tops. I waited to move the girls into their new digs until afternoon milking, around 4pm.
They aren't too excited about the new arrangements. They happily scarfed down the grain treat they were given, but they refused to eat their hay. Starburst (the one with the white spot on her head) really wants to be back in the doe pen with the rest of her herd - and her mother. She is the one that is half wild, and I'm concerned if I don't spend some extra time with her, she will be a terror on the milking stand. The other doe is Mocha. Her mother died 26 hours after she gave birth to her triplet doelings, so she doesn't have a mother to miss. She was bottle raised.
It is also important for these girls to really learn their names, as I call them when it's their turn for milking. It's so cool to see the girls run in response to their names being called.
To the left you can see a doe headed towards me. That's Mocha's sister, Little Brooke. She thinks I might have a grain treat.
No joy. So she takes off and heads back to the herd, and the hay.
Starburst, the one to the right, is due on Friday. Mocha is due on March 12th.
I was thinking while milking tonight, that this new area is really going to work out good. What we usually do is separate the kids from the dams overnight, when they turn two weeks old. If the kids are wild, and the kids and dams are living with the entire herd, it's nearly impossible to get the kids and their dam separated. Then I milk the dam in the morning, and put her back in with her kids for the day. It will be important to get Starburst on the milking line as soon as possible; otherwise, she will think only her kids can have access to her udder. Since we have our goats for milk, they have to learn that milking is a big part of their life. A way to earn their keep. And they LOVE the "grain"stand, aka milk stand.
The last doe to join this group will be Miss Z. She and her doeling kid. Her doeling kid IS wild, and scared senseless of "the two-legs". When I milk in the morning, before work, it's 3:30 and it's dark. Sometimes Miss Z's doeling kid comes running out with her. I guess she doesn't realize I'm there, just that mama's leaving the pen, and she's going with her! She doesn't do it every morning, but often enough that I know I'll have an opportunity to put Miss Z in with the pregnant does. That way I'll have a chance to spend more time with the wild doeling. AND, the area is small enough that I'll be able to spend time with the new kids.
Until next time.
My Son Went to California and All I Got Was...
Labels: ds2
On the way home he gave me a hint that he was bringing something "White, square and absorbent" as souvenirs.
A pile of napkins from Carl's Jr. Apparently there was some debate from another member of church as to whether taking this many napkins would be considered thievery.
And all those aren't mine. I have to share with ds1 and dh.
Way to go with the souvenirs, Kev.
Until next time.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
New Scanner
Labels: Memory Lane
Actually it's one of those All-in-Ones. It's an HP Photosmart C3180 All-in-One Printer/Scanner/Copier.
It's used. I've had it a few weeks, but just got it hooked up today.
My other scanner was borrowed from work, and was horrible at scanning images. I'm happy to see that this one seems to be doing a much better job.
I found an old picture from 1970, and added it to my New Year's Post Memories of a New Year Long Ago - 1970.
Click to see three little cuties. I sure did look like I had buck teeth.
Until next time.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
When Pastor Loses Kev
Labels: ds2
I got a frantic phone call today from the Pastor Raw Justice. It went something like this:
"Rawmilkstar, hi, this is Pastor Justice. I can't locate Kev. He seems to have been abducted. OR something. I don't know where he could have wandered off to. This is a big place, he could get lost anywhere!! Can you give me his cell phone number so I can call him? We're trying to get the next sermon started."
"Oh, Pastor Raw, oh my goodness, heaven sakes alive. Here is Kev's number. Please have him call me as soon as you find him. Someone could have hit him over the head and drug him off someplace!"
"Oh, my goodness, no I don't think that could have happened."
"Right. I was only joking." (Actually the logistics were intended to make that a hilarious statement on my part, as Kev is a large man and if someone hit him on the head and knocked him out, they wouldn't be able to drag him anyplace, he'd be dead weight. Hey, Kev inherited his sense of humor from someplace, didn't he?)
Within moments, I got another call.
"Hi, this is Raw Justice. I found Kev. Sorry to alarm you. He was sitting on the other side of the pole, out of my line of sight. He was here the entire time. The lost sheep has been found. Sorry again. We're having a great time here, not to worry, not to worry. At least, we're having a good time. I don't know about Kev. I think he's having a good time, but I can't tell you for sure. Bye now!"
I was relieved to hear the little flock had been restored.
Until next time.
Questionable Business Name
Labels: Just Stuff
Is it just me, or do you wonder what this person was thinking when they chose this for their business name?
When I asked dh what was the first thing that came to mind, he came up with the same thing as I did.
Until next time.
LJ Plays Tug
Labels: LJ
LJ loves this rough game. He shakes his head real hard back and forth. Some dog raising books say you should NEVER play tug with your dog, but contrary to popular belief, Tug-o-War can be a great training tool for your dog. Especially if your dog is one that has a supposed "locking jaw". BTW, that's a myth. American Pitbull Terriers do not have a "locking jaw". What happens there is they do have a very strong jaw, and they simply don't want to let go. Therefore, it is essential to train your dog to "drop" or "release". LJ gets all hyped up when someone plays Tug with him, just like the dog in the YouTube video link above, and he stops immediately when we say "Drop!"
OH, and I forgot to report that LJ's histiocytoma dropped off on Monday. Now his ugly wart is gone!
It is still foggy outside! Usually it has burned off by now.
Some more links on the "locking jaw" myth:
Pitbull Fact vs. Fiction
Dogwatch: The Locking Jaw
THE REAL PITBULL
Until next time.
Fog in the Desert
Labels: Just Stuff, Ranch
We don't get fog very often but apparently the conditions were perfect this morning. Missing your camera, Kev!!!
Ironically on this weekend, when Kev is gone with our good camera, one of my coworkers needed to have the company camera which I foist around with me everywhere I go. We used to have two of these cameras at work, but another coworker had it in her car, when her car was stolen (from the parking lot at the building where we work at 2am in the morning - which in that neighborhood she shouldn't have been there carting things in and out of the building to her car at that time). She claims she bought a replacement camera, but when I ask her about it, she just offers to let the agency "borrow" one of her personal cameras, "that one doesn't take very good pictures." Grrrr. So I'm stuck using our old family digital camera - the Samsung Digimax 301. I digress. Here's the pictures I was able to get this morning.
Until next time.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Rawmilkstar Has Company
Labels: company
Some friends who recently began drinking our goat's milk were able to stop by our place on their way to their vacation destination. The little girls wanted to meet the milkers and try milking!
It has been raining most of today, and I wasn't sure how it would go over with my milkers. They hate the rain!
Happily, the rain let up when my friends arrived. The oldest daughter tried her hand at milking, as did Papa and Mama. Mama and C managed to get the hang of it, but Papa didn't. At least I don't think he did.
The milkers were all a little skittish. Usually they come in order to be milked and run out of the gate and into the milking parlor and up onto the grain stand. One of them would not come out and I had to chase her around the yard, well, slowly walk up to her so as to not alarm her by moving too quickly.
I really, really enjoyed having them out to visit. I hope they are able to stop by within the next month and see the new kids.
Thanks for stopping by!!!!
Kev Runs Away
Labels: ds2
No wait. He hasn't run away, he's on his way to Bible conference in California.
He's called me a couple of times already, in tears. He misses his mommy and daddy and BroMan. I told him, "Suck it up, you're a man now!" And then I texted him five times with "Are you there yet?"
I haven't had time to miss him yet. But maybe after dinner, when there's no one else to ask to put away the food. Or the chilled goat's milk.
No one to sit silently with while we both make blog posts about our lives. Maybe we can reminisce about the old days when he was hopelessly addicted to the Internets, stuck in his room and we'd instant message each other.
No one to ask to go out to the car and get my purse. Or my asthma bag. Or my laptop bag. Or my crocheting bag. Or my knitting bag. No wait. I could ask my husband to do that. Okay, that's okay. I'll survive.
Maybe he will be so happy to be home when he gets back we can do hoof trims and blood draws on the goats on Monday.
Have fun, son!! Can't wait until you get back home to help me with those hoof trims!!!
I love you!! Be a good boy!! Uh, be a grownup adult man!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Happy 2nd Birthday LJ!
Labels: LJ
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday, Little Jihad,
Happy Birthday to you!
We love this boy so much. Here he is when he was less than a month old.
And now you can see how he has grown... still thinks he is a lapdog. Sitting on dh's lap just like when he was a tiny puppy. LOL.
Dh bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Valentine's Day. He brought them to work for me yesterday, when I was having another meltdown. Sheesh.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
I'll Be Back
Labels: Just Stuff
I promise I'll be back soon. I've just been really, really, really, insanely busy. And preoccupied. But I'm looking forward to a four day weekend, where I get to stay home every single day. I can't wait.
Love and hugs to all my readers.
Until next time.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Nostalgic Popcorn Maker
Labels: Just Stuff
Ds1 likes popcorn quite a bit, so we considered getting this nostalgic popcorn maker at Christmas. It was marked down to $50 from $100. We decided against it, because we know air poppers can be had from the thrift store for under five bucks.
But when our local grocery store went down even further - to $25, we decided to get it for him. Only he doesn't really like it.
I think it's a great novelty item, I really do like it. I thought it would be something fun to have when we invite guests over for dinner. Which we never do in the first place, so that's always ridiculous when I have that thought.
Maybe someday.
It's a pain to clean as it uses oil in the silver part. You have to take it apart, wipe it out, and then soap up the clear windows on the inside as they are splattered with oil.
The popcorn tastes as good as if I'd popped it on the stovetop in the pan which would be much easier to clean.
So I have mixed feelings about this product.
Maybe I can try selling it on eBay.
Until next time.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
How Chuck Helped Me Build a Maternity Ward
Labels: goats, Never Forget, work
We have two does due to kid in February. One is due on February 22nd. I haven't figured out the date on the other doe (oops). I am sure I have it in my barn records, I just have to look for them.
Last year, I put in a request to my husband that he build me a maternity ward for the pregnant does. Well, the wedding kind of took up all our spare time and the doe ended up kidding in the doe pen. Which wasn't that big of a deal except that made it basically impossible to get hold of the babies and spend time with them, so they are the wildest babies we've ever had.
Also, one of the does due to kid is half wild. She is not scared of me, but she won't come up to me readily either. So I am going to have to really work with her, to tame her down for milking. My hope is to get her into the maternity ward by next weekend, and then start spending time with her every day. I also hope to be present when she kids as that helps the bonding process between the doe and her human milkers. We let the does keep their kids, but we get kidding goo on our hands and then let the doe lick us clean. She's licking her kids clean, which helps her to bond to and get to know her kid, so licking us helps in the same way.
It is very important that a doe licks and cleans her kid because she will reject them otherwise. If a doe has twins or triplets and she licks and cleans one and the other crawls off in the other direction and she never gets to "know" the kid, she will very likely reject the kid. Most does hate other kids, and will head butt them. If she doesn't bond to her kid, she treats the kid as another doe's kid. Then you end up having to bottle feed.
Bottle feeding isn't that big of a deal, but it does add about an hour to chores as there are now bottles to clean, babies to feed, in addition to milking the dam, processing the milk, etc.
So we decided this weekend we'd get the maternity ward built. We are building a small shed 8 feet by 8 feet square. Dh is also supposed to be working on his other weekend job, but he keeps going 90 miles to the jobsite, only to find the electricity isn't turned on. That's a real bummer, not to mention a huge waste of gasoline!
After we get the maternity ward built, we'll paint it. After it's painted, we'll put a fence around it. We have a lot of fencing material, so we just need to take the time to put the posts into the ground and we'll be set. Hah. Here's the hubby sawing the boards down to seven feet long.
Here I am framing the wall, which means I'm hammering the wall studs together.
I have to make sure the 2x4s butt up to each other, and since the ground isn't perfectly level I have to stand on one stud with my foot angled over onto the other one, press down and hammer. Dh took some pictures of this technique, but they didn't come out. The camera actually considers them a different format and won't show the image at all.
Okay, I hammered all the walls together, and now we have to move the green swimming pool (the dog's water for drinking and laying in, when it's hot in the summer) and the dog's shade area.
Here's a closer view.
Here's Mocha, one of the pregnant does. She's standing with her front legs on a higher surface than her back legs. They like to do that later in their pregnancy. She's also chewing cud as you can see by the golf ball wad sticking out the side of her mouth on the right side.
Here dh and ds2 are carrying the walls to the area where we're putting the maternity ward.
The walls are up!
Now the plywood is up! We've got a BOX!
Here's the front side. We only framed in three sides. We'll leave the middle section here open for a doorway.
Dh had to leave at this point to go in and make Rattlesnake Stew for Question and Answer night at church tomorrow.
I stayed outside to finish shearing the walls - which means I was hammering 8 nails into each set of studs. 8 nails multiplied by 23 studs. Okay? That's 184 nails. It takes about 6 to 8 whacks to get each nail in. Not to mention the ones I nailed into the stud, but missed by a fraction of an inch, had to remove and nail it back in so it would catch. Let's say an average of 7 whacks to get each nail in. That's a minimum of 1,288 whacks.
Speaking of nails, I broke my thumbnail by whacking it.
And my hands are covered with rust from handling all those rusty nails.
OH yeah. Chuck's not my husband's name.
Here's Chuck:
Remember when we took Chuck 1100 (Total Gym) back to Walmart? Well, his big brother Chuck 1700 Club actually had showed up the day before. I swore myself to secrecy so I could see how it was going to work out.
My goal was to get some exercise, and that was it. Not get sucked into diet mentality, just get my body moving.
I am very pleased with the results. I'll tell you more about it sometime. To say the least, one month ago I would not have been able to pound in over 200 nails (remember I also pounded two nails into the top and bottom of each stud on the walls, so that would be another 44 nails) without having exercised this body like I have been for the past month.
Go Chuck!
Until next time.
