In Which I Attend Goat School & Join Facebook

I did it & went joined Facebook. It's been only 1 day, but I'm thinking it was a mistake. I saw some old army buddies on there & couldn't resist. Now I have army people I don't remember working w/, family I haven't talked to in at least 10 years & had forgotten about, adults from my childhood I haven't thought about in 20 years. I do believe that there's a reason we don't keep up w/ everyone we've ever met & it's simply that we can't. I at least can't have a meaningful relationship w/ all of these people w/out being stuck to the computer all day.

I really appreciate blog world all the more for it though. I love getting to read in depth about people's days & projects, goings on & things they've learned. Speaking of, I attended "goat school" yesterday over at my in-laws. I took no pictures, but I don't think my hands were clean enough to hold a camera in there w/ my hands anyway as it was a lesson in hoof trimming. We still don't have our baby nannies, though Mike has erected the House of Goat. It still needs a roof, paint & more fencing, but we're getting ready for them as quick as we are able to afford.

I trimmed their 3 full grown nannies w/ various stages of hoof growth. One had been trimmed a month ago, not too bad. The other was a bit worse & the last goat was walking on the side growth. That is, the sides of the hoof had grown so much that they were bending underneath & were being stepped on. So I got the full gamut, using #9 pruning shears.

It was raining so I was thankfully in my Frogg Toggs. These include rainpants, the only pants I've worn in 4 years, though I still had my skirt on underneath. But let me tell you, if there is a hoof between your knees & a kicky goat who's been eating alfalfa & decides to poo for revenge you want some kind of waterproof covering over your clothes, raining or not. Though it was very hot.

Our next project is a woodstove. We'd like to get that & a new roof before winter. It's the 22nd & I'm going to see if we can go w/out a trip to the store for the rest of the month eating from the pantry. I'd like to see if we can stretch that more & more until a month can go by w/out a trip. I'm thinking powdered milk w/ a qt. of cream. We'll see!