Waste & Hormones

Yes, I know - WASTE AND HORMONES?!?!?! But here me out... This is what my day has been filled with. The goats having been wasting so much of their food that I went and bought a 'actual' feeder. They previously had a 20 gallon metal bin that worked great until Miss Snowflake decided to claim it as her bed! Pee. Poop. Yeah, I don't blame them for not wanting to eat the food in there! So, I went down to the local feed store and bought them a cattle feeder. A 2x4, some plywood, a handful of screws and here is what I created...



Not to bad on a budget. The trick was putting it up all by myself without having anyone help me hold it up. Took me a bit while, but it happened!

As for hormones you ask? OMG - Belle, the oldest 'baby' goat (she'll be one years old two days after Christmas), is heat AND DRIVING ME NUTS! NUTS I TELL YOU!! She has been bleeting (the noise they make) pretty much all day long without stopping! I called the vet to confirm and she did. We get to enjoy the annoyance for 3-4 days - OH JOY! For those of you who are wondering how you can tell if a goats in heat...

*If happens in fall, it can happen about every 21 days until they are out of the season. (BUT, the vet warned me it can happen ALL YEAR ROUND. Please, let us all pray that it does not happen to me or I might be short a goat!)
*She wags or flutters her tail continuously. My girls say it looks like "she's wag her tail like a poodle"
*Her girly parts get swollen and red.
*She stops eating.
*She bleets NON-STOP. Nothing makes her happy. Although, Belle seems to quite up when I am outside with her, petting her, holding her head. But even then, it doesn't work all the time.

All I can say is, if ,we, the human female counterparts are anything like the female goats: MEN - I AM SO SORRY! But, at the same time, you do not understand how much it SUCKS for us too!

PS - The baby chickens are officially FREE RANGED chickens! I put them outside today. They were stinking up my garage in their indoor coop. Here's to having 12 babies tomorrow morning! ;-)