Timid goats, Holidays, no bathrooms

Our newest goat additions are beginning to settle into the routine that Mama has for the farm. So far, they have not ventured very far from the pen where we originally deposited them, and they do not seem impressed by the feed we have been using on the farm for many months, but overall, they are starting to come around. We still have them with Solomon and will continue that until the end of this month. At that time, we should be able to put them with the other females in the proper goat lot. Solomon will go to a new home and at least one of the newer goats will go to that new home with him. By the time we get all of our females back on the farm we will have six nanny goats in that lot – providing we get to sell Kia and Yukie. Lilly and Dolly should come back to us bred. Whether the other goats are bred remains to be seen. We are waiting on them to go into heat right now. At that time, we will be able to determine if Solomon will be able to breed them. We have hope since he is certainly willing to do so.

We carved pumpkins at work yesterday. It has become an annual tradition – and a very competitive activity. It is amazing to see the creativity in the group as the final products were displayed. My team did not win but we were pleased with our effort. The rules are that you have 30 minutes for one member of the team to clean the pumpkin – but no carving can be done at that time. Once that time has expired, you are given one hour to complete the carved pumpkin. What was done by a couple of the teams in only one hour was very impressive. Ours was the one with the hands. Whataburger requested photographs of the one representing the burger so they could post it on their Facebook page.

As we speed toward Thanksgiving, I am both excited and apprehensive. With the compiled project lost, the looming specter of Black Friday and the rapid approach of Christmas, I feel wholly unprepared for the holidays – at least from the financial perspective. We will also need to get someone to watch over the farm for us during the Thanksgiving weekend we are at Brittany and Andrews. Having the animals to care for on a daily basis is inconvenient when it comes to scheduling time away during the Holidays. Mama and I talked about the need to be home on the extended holidays so we did not have to inconvenience anyone with the care of all our animals during their holiday festivities. But we are not there quite yet. If needed, I am willing to stay behind to manage the farm so Mama can see the grandbabies. I love our grandchildren, but it is far more needful for Mama to get that face to face time with them. Whether or not that would ever happen without me remains to be seen. In any case, traveling during Thanksgiving and Christmas is problematic.

We have no working bathrooms at the office this morning. I do not imagine we will be able to keep the office open through the day if we do not fond a solution since the average person needs to go to the bathroom at least every hour or so – depending on water/liquid intake. The septic tanks are full to overflowing and we are waiting on a pump truck to clear them out. I suggested that we get someone to look at the leech bed to see if it is working properly. I suspect it is not. What we will have to do through the morning is to go to anywhere available around the town to use the restroom.

I can work with that; but it will make for an interesting morning.