Just checking in to see if anyone was around. Other than Dee, I don't think anybody else has posted today...the 31st. Is this an early April Fool's joke?? Did you all go "somewhere else"?? Guess with Easter, most everyone was busy.

Well, anyways, I figured I'd better check in since it's been quite awhile since I was online...anywhere! It's been a hectic and frantic two weeks. My son's step-daughter (10 yrs.old) had some surgery last Tues...a tonscillectomy, an adnoidectomy and some cartilege "debris" the doctors decided to remove while they were "in there"! She has been really miserable, and talk about a swollen face!! Yesterday was the first day she actually smiled and attempted to laugh. What gets me (and I cannot watch!) is when she has to flush her nasal passages!! She's doing okay now, though.

I also made a really quick bus trip to N.C. to help my mom get adjusted to her husband's latest physical problems. He's been in and out of the hospital with a major stroke and, since then, several "bleeders" in the brain. Prognosis is not good and the doctors don't seem to know how to prevent them or help him. So probably he'll be under constant care now. My mom is handling it better than I thought. She is trying to learn how to do stuff around the house she never had to do before. Although she is not allowed to drive, she is planning for the inevitable future without her husband and is making arrangements. All in all, I'm really proud of the way she is trying to take charge of the situation.

In the midst of all this "family business", I've been rushing around trying to get goat kids tattooed and registration papers in order before being sold! If I hadn't had all doelings this year, I would have just shipped them off to the meat market all in one bunch!! But I had several really nice babies and it seemed like kind of a waste :-)! Plus I've decided to sell one of my best 3 yr. olds...simply because she gives too much milk. Last year, with five milkers, my wrists started giving out on me...so I cut down to three milkers this year. But it still seems to be too much for my wrists. So I'm cutting back to two milkers...am keeping the best of my Sodium Oaks/Shahena'ko does. They are both just two years old so they have several years of breeding ahead of them...AND since both of their mothers were capable of milking two years or longer on one breeding, I'm hoping to skip an occasional year with these two!! And, ya know, when hubby and I first started homesteading we wanted to be as self-sufficient as possible and just take care of ourselves. The last several years or so we've been raising pigs for other people, growing a bigger garden for other people and producing more and better milk goats for other people!! Just because they wanted to buy my milk and cheese! I could not even imagine making time to show!!! So we're going to simplify our lives...in a major way.

Well, hopefully someone else will check in...sometime! I'm really getting lonely :-)!! Maybe, Joy, you should consider this an "over the fence chat"?? Never thought of putting it in there. Hope everyone had a really great Easter!!!!

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2002

Answers

I think Joy is already on vacation.

Did you ever think about getting a milking machine? Save on your wrists. I've decided to sell all my kids for meat, including the does. My goats have a herpes problem and I don't want anyone else to bring it into their herd. Picked noses all winter long. Poor girls have colds now because of the March weather. I had triplets and another doe is due this week.

You should see if your step-granddaughter (?) has problems with milk. Alot of the nasal, ear problems are milk allergies.

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2002

No, I'm still here, just nothing to say. Taking a break from packing (my back hurts!). I'm leaving early on Wednesday!

-- Anonymous, March 31, 2002

Hey Joy...I just got around to reading LAST week's OTF chat last night at midnight!! Soooo, you're going to Hawaii, huh!!?? Don't worry. You can rub it as much as you'd like! The closest I've been to Hawaii is looking at the pictures my ex-brother-in-law brought back last Chrismas! Have a wonderful time and don't forget to think about us ALL the time...:-)!!

Dee...believe me, I have thought about a milking machine! I've been kicking it around for over a year now. But it all boils down to whether or not I really WANT to get bigger. We all know that bigger is not necessarily better :-)!! There is so much other "stuff" going on in our lives right now and we're sort of losing our independence...in a way. So I'm gonna lay low for awhile with the goats. Like I said, I'm keeping the best of my best and in a few years I'll look around for a buckling with similar breeding. In the meantime, I'll hang on to my 250 lb. nubian "baby" buck for a few more years!! As for my step-granddaughter, her problem started at birth! She was born with a partial cleft palette which the doctors never diagnosed...I guess. From what we've found out, that condition aggravated other problems...don't know all the medical explanations!! She has been drinking goat's milk for 5 ys. now ever since my son got to know her mother. So hopefully she doesn't have an allergy to that :-)!!

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2002

Ahhhhhhhh

-- Anonymous, April 01, 2002