Random rambling

First off, a goat update.   Mr. Mackey got a new antibiotic - one that Jim found out about in  an article that matched his symptoms.   Our vet had it on hand, although he didn’t give much hope that it would work.  We started giving the shots over the weekend.  I am amazed at how much better things have gotten.  Is he perfect and back to normal? No. But he can get himself up, he can walk almost normally (although a tiny bit stiff legged), his joints aren’t as swollen and holy cow he is hungry -and screaming for food!   It helped so much that I put the ones who are limping on it as well.   The only downfall is it has a long wean off time before they can be sold, but we have enough time.  I went from thinking I was going to have to break all of our hearts and put him down, to being hopeful that he will make a good recovery.  Also, by a vote of the people, this goat will be wethered  and kept here as a companion to the pony.  Nobody is eating our baby - we are all way too invested now (including the spousal unit).  

For Sunday dinner, we had steaks that Andrew cooked on the grill.  Quincy had Monday night off work. She turned the leftovers into steak quesadillas.  They were amazing!   I was super impressed, and I am excited to see what she does in her culinary program!  

Mallory “showed up at dinner time” last night.  She came out to run her dogs - and as she was throwing a ball, it went into the pool.  That is where she discovered that it was not the owls, or the coyotes who got ahold of our barn cats.  Weirdly, all three drowned in the pool.  It was not a welcome discovery.   I feel terrible.  We have to pull the ladder for the winter because it is weighted down with water.  I should have put something in there so that they could  have gotten out.   Poor kitties.  

After dinner, these 2 said they were going to do yoga.  I should have known they wouldn’t do it the normal way.  They crack me up.  I’m happy they are besties. And yes, having a goat in the house as well as all sorts of rain has taken a huge toll on my carpet.  I will be shampooing this weekend, right after Mr. Mackey moves back into the barn.   

Madison and Andrew’s dog Dexter.  He’s one of our dog’s pups.  I love him. He’s such a good boy. 

Speaking of our dogs, when Mallory started to go home, Blitz jumped in the car too.  If you know Blitz, you know she lives to go!  Mallory texted “be right back” and took her for a little drive down the road.  All of this family’s dogs are spoiled!  

Evelyn and Preston made after school snacks today.  Chocolate chip bar cookies which were amazingly food!  Evie was impressed that Preston can cook!  

One more thing.  Jim is out of town for a couple days at a water conference of some sort.  The conference is in Wichita.  I had moderate jealousy over him getting to see Colin and Spencer.  It has been too long.   I’m happy he got to hang with them some though!   Jim works a lot of hours.  Some days we barely see him.  I am happy to hold down the fort while he is gone, but I miss having him around. He is the last one to leave in the mornings.  He makes sure the little dog is in and the big dogs are out, house is locked up etc.  He often reminds me to relax for a while, or to stop overthinking things and helps me figure out how to get everything done.  But most of all, at the end of the day, we whine to each other about who had to deal with the weirdest thing that day.  I miss my boy.  

Dang it

Can’t believe we blew through the entire weekend already. I’ll never comprehend how 2 days goes by so fast!  

It was high school play weekend.  The band boosters had their annual dinner fundraiser.  We did a taco bar this year.  It pretty much took up my whole weekend.  I am thankful to Jim and Preston for running our errands, and to the girls who jumped in and helped me clean up some around here.  Jim also burned several brush piles, as we continue to burn up the stuff that has been cut down along the road.  

I will admit to feeling full blown  jealousy After receiving these photos.  Summer is my thing.  I keep thinking spring will be here and it will warm up.  Yesterday was fairly nice, at least it was sunny.   Today was cold and gray again.  My patience is wearing out.  I need spring to go ahead and make its arrival.  

I also attended the monthly goat auction at the local sale barn.  I am hunting for a couple new goats since Harper’s baby died, and Saige’s is still living in a box in my living room.  We did try a new medication this weekend and he seems a little better.   I have a little hope that maybe if we keep giving him the vitamins and antibiotics, maybe he will continue to get better.  Either way, nobody is going to be able to sell him.  I’m hoping we can get him walking good enough he can be a companion for Coco.   We shall see.  I have intensified my efforts at physical therapy.  I am not sure what I am doing, as I am not a physical therapist, but exercising his muscles seems important.  He never complains.  Except when he wakes up and thinks he should be eating NOW! 

We had Sunday dinner, thanks to Andrew for cooking on the grill!   I love Sunday, but I wish it would stay around a little longer!   

This upcoming week is another crazy one, with a dash of weird since Jim will be going out of town.  Hoping that we are facing another weekend very soon!  

Over is overrated

Did you ever have to take a test you were totally not ready for?  Specifically  one that you knew was coming, but did nothing to prepare yourself for?   Yea….that’s how this week feels to me.  Is it my fault for going crazy over spring break and not even remotely staying on my hard and fast school year schedule?  Absolutely!   Was it a mistake?   Yessir.  Am I sorry?  Sort of.   Would I do it again?  Afraid so.   

Jim is having some sort of insane week filled with meetings.   I haven’t seen him more than 10 minutes all week.  The kids are working, attending stuff for school, attempting to get stuff lined out for graduation, and straightening out classes and college financial aide for next year, and in the middle of all of it, we have bottle fed goats on a schedule, a sick goat in the house, baby rabbits due at the end of the week, projects at work for me that are sucking my brain dry, and absolute bone draining exhaustion from lack of sleep and trying to get back on schedule. Fun times here at our casa.   

Shout out to Preston for making the 4 new bunny nesting boxes we needed before the babies get here.  I appreciate his woodworking skills!  All pregnant does are set up in pens ready for the little ones! I do have to make fun of him for a minute though - he was putting together the cages when he came to get me.  I assumed he didn’t know which ones were bred. Nope - he wanted me to move them around because he thinks rabbits are mean, and he didn’t want to touch them.  What I’m the world? I cannot think of a less terrifying animal.  Whatever- moving them was the easy part!  

But Hope….it’s after 10 - if you’re exhausted why aren’t you going to bed?   Because my sweet Harper played her flute in the league band  concert tonight.  It was in Iola.  Do you know where Iola is located?   Halfway between Oklahoma and kingdom come - that’s where!   She texted at 8 to say they were loading the bus.  Quincy offered to run and pick her up for me, so that I could finish cleaning the kitchen, bottle feed Mr. Mackey and give him his last medications for the day.  I am happy she was willing to help me, but I can’t go to bed until I know they are home safe.  Also, my spouse is MIA - I know they had a special planning and zoning meeting, but for the love,  it’s got to end at some point.  Right?

On an unrelated note, Quincy has enrolled for culinary school at vo-tech next year. It is something she is excited about, and smart because she can do dual credit and the school will pay for some or all of it.   Tonight, she didn’t have to work.  She made fried potatoes with chorizo, and fresh pico de Gallo to serve on top.  It was absolutely amazing.  The pico was some of the best I have ever had!   I think her old friends from the Mexican restaurant would be proud of her!  

Just so I’m clear, this isn’t a complaint post.  I am happy we can do all these things.  I am so blessed to live this life.  

St. Patrick’s day

Don’t mind my carpet….having 5 dogs here when it has been raining/snowing/muddy plus a goat or 2 in the house has taken a toll.  I will be shampooing this weekend after Daisy Paige and Olive go home.  Not the point.  Anyway. I had to run Harper to the doctor. She has a pretty severe case of poison ivy.  She was helping Jim clear some brush and it is so hard/impossible to see it in the winter.  When I got home, Mallory’s dog was green.  Why?  Because Saige decided to color him for St. Patrick’s day.  Why?  I have no earthly idea.  Quincy was supposed to be in charge while I was gone - why didn’t she stop her?  Because she thought it was a good idea.  Clearly I need to rethink who I leave in charge around here!  

Saige’s Godmother sent us a St. Patrick’s day cupcake video.  They were adorable, and easy!  We bought all the stuff, and then realized that the tiny cupcake pan I thought I had must have been Madison’s, and so we couldn’t make the little pots of gold that go on the top of these cupcakes.  We improvised.  They had fun decorating them and I think they turned out cute!  Although Lauren wasn’t here, the kids declared them as her birthday cupcakes and then made the sacrifice to eat them for her!   Such thoughtful children!  

Which brings me to Lauren being a St. Patrick’s day baby!  Happy birthday Lauren!  We are so happy that you’re in our family!  You are amazing and  we all just love you!    

Spring? Break

Had a few photos sent my way from the travel crew.  They are having a fun time, and have had some good adventures. They are heading home sometime tomorrow.   Hard to believe how fast this week has gone by!  I can’t wait to hear all about it!   

Ok I know I have littered this blog full of goat stuff lately.  Honesty, it is all I have been doing for days now.  I hope we can get everything healthy soon because this isn’t working well so far.  Yesterday, we had a baby who bloated.  Sometimes, you can fix this with baby mylicon drops or baking soda.  We tried both.  If those fail, an enema will usually fix the problem, but that was not what I was hoping the outcome would have to be.   I tried for quite a while, and knew I had to intervene before he went down and it was too late.  Soooo Quincy and I managed to flush him out.  His relief was almost instant, and I felt bad for waiting so long.  This morning, he was up, not bloated, screaming for food.  I fed and watched for a while and then he was promptly returned to the barn.  

Mr. Mackey is another whole story. Still having difficulty.  I joined an emergency goat page.  It is filled with amazing amounts of weird problems, people who genuinely give their best advice, and some vets who are willing to diagnose as best they can from far away.   I presented my case for them.  I was given a lot of suggestions, and I had done all of them, with the exception of vitamin E. I had not done that because I could not find it.   Today, I had to go to Walmart.  While I was there, I happened to see vitamin E oil.  I grabbed a bottle of it and thought to myself “what can it hurt?”  So I came home, looked on my post, and then administered 2 cc’s by mouth of the oil.  Mr. Mackey has grown quite used to us giving him medications and swallowed it right down.  That is when I truly looked at the bottle and realized it said “for external use only” it is oil for your skin.    I flipped out a little thinking I had killed this goat, after all that work.  Sort of felt a bit idiotic and was googling my heart out, when I looked over and he was standing up!  He had gotten up all by himself!   It actually made me tear up a little.   Now I cannot promise it is actual progress, and I cannot say that it was the vitamin E oil, but it is something we had not seen him do since last week!!!!   Yeaaa Mr. Mackey!  

As I was leaving Walmart, Quincy texted to see if she could go out for dinner with friends after work.  It was snowing pretty good, but the streets were just wet, and my weather app said it would be ending soon.  I said yea.  I came home, unpacked stuff, had a small crisis over feeding a goat hand lotion, and cooked dinner.  The girls and I then ran down to give the babies their night bottles, and I realized it was really, really snowing.  Visibility was bad, and it was sticking to the ground.  I tried to call Quincy, but her phone was dead.  Preston came home from work and reported he had to drive really slowly because the roads were not too good.  Starting to panic a little bit, and continuing to call Quincy.  Luckily, she finally got to her car, where she put it on the charger and called me back.  I was extremely happy to have her walk through the front door.   I always tell people I love where I live.  And for the most part, I honesty do.  One thing I hate though, is Kansas weather sometimes.  It was literally 60 degrees when I got off work at noon today. Six hours later, snowing, blowing nasty junk flying.  Not much of a spring feeling in the air tonight.   

On that note, I guess I’ll go put an extra blanket on my bed and crawl in.  This week has kicked me in the pants for sure!  

Pi day

Today I did something I never thought would happen….at least not willingly.  I took Quincy prom dress shopping!   It was fun, she was  easy!  We found the dress, and shoes, spent less than an hour total, and less money than I budgeted!  I can’t wait to see her all dressed up!  

Yesterday, I talked to Jim about this little guy.  As hard as it is, I had said if I didn’t start seeing some improvement, we might need to talk about putting him down. I don’t want him to suffer.  He must have heard me, as today he is trying really hard to get up on his own. He can get halfway up.  Still lacks strength to make it all on his own, but that is improvement in my eyes.  

Olive and Blitz have been cleaning him.  I honestly think it helps!   He certainly can’t stand well enough to take a bath.  He’s fairly clean.   Thanks dogs.  

Today is pi day.  We started celebrating this made up holiday a few years back. I don’t know why, but it makes me happy, so….whatever.  We had pizza pi.   Saige and Quincy made homemade pizza and chose the toppings.  Both turned out really good!   Saige made a multi cheese pizza.  Quincy made a cream cheese sauce, mushroom, spinach, ranch and bacon and cheese pizza.  It was a great combination.  

We also had pistachio pie, and cheesecake (pie).  A fun little evening!   

Colin and Spencer are having their house painted.  I know Spencer told me what colors they had picked, but after racking my brain, I cannot remember what she told me.  So I am excited to see it finished and see what color it is!  The big reveal!  I miss them!   Gotta get my Wichita weekend planning going!  

Heard a little from the traveling crew.  Mostly when Mallory called to talk to her dogs!   Seems like they are having a great time!  I miss my little office helper!   I had to vacuum my own floor!