Looking Better

Within the next couple of days Sandy will be going outside to be with the goats. She isn't happy anymore all cooped up inside Debbie's room. Besides Debbie's and Faith's allergies are really kicking in, wheezing, coughing, sneezing, and stuffy noses.

We've plumped her up a bit, given her lots of time and attention, lots of good food and goats milk. Now it's time to see if any of that means anything to her and she'll decide to stay around. Just in case we don't have the opportunity to see her around again, I took these photos just a few minutes ago. Thought I'd share them with you all.

Denise

Goat pics

I finally got around to taking pictures of the goats. I had to wait until they were all out and about. I also had to wait until the least friendly one would be comfortable enough not to run away if I got too close.

The one in front in this picture is named Sassy (previously named), and we just call her Sass for short. The others name is Tapestry (also previously named).

Tapestry is very friendly, she was a bottle baby, so she has no fear of us. Sassy on the other hand was not a bottle baby, and on top of that she has her own baby she is nursing right now making her doubly suspicious of us. However out of all of the alpines available to choose from she had the best looking udder, and most amount of milk to offer, even with a baby on her.

As long as I bring her baby into the milk room with her she will stand and milk fine for me, but if he isn't there she will only bellow and look for him. Sometimes he (by the way his name is Walnut, Wal for short) will not be paying attention and doesn't notice that Sass has gone into the milk room until she starts to bellow for him. It can be quite a chore getting them both organized and ready for milking. On the other hand goats are creatures of routine, and once they understand my routine they will both know what to do.

Wal will eventually become dinner, and then all of Sass's milk will go into our bellies. The exciting part about having goats is when you breed them and seeing what comes out. We will be using a Nubian buck that our friend has, so crossing the three breeds should produce some interesting babies.

You can see more pictures of them by following this link http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos and looking in the "Goat Pics" file. I will also be adding new photos to the "Goat Barn" file that were taken the day before the goats came.

Denise

Goats

We brought home our goats last night. The drive was an 8 hour round trip to central New Mexico. We had to travel that far to find some good goats. After doing a search in the local area I found few who had dairy goats to begin with, and those that did didn't take good care of them. The situation that I bought the goats from this time was much like my first goats experience. This lady has 100 goats, she is starting a dairy, but not operational yet, and really has too many to handle.

I had several to pick from but only found two suitable for our needs which is quantity of milk. We ran into a situation we hadn't planned on but in the long run we think it will be fun. One of the goats has a two week old buckling on her. However she produces way more than he needs so there is enough for us to have also.

One is an Alpine, the other is a Lamancha. Both are nice looking goaties and we are looking forward to their milk and their babies. Together they gave me 1/2 gallon this morning.

Until I get some pictures posted of them you can view what the two breeds look like by going to this site http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/goats/ and using the alphabetical listings find their breeds.

Denise

More of Sandy

Here's another picture I took of Leah and Sandy today. Leah is really into baby mode, in the sense that she carries around a baby doll that's not all that much smaller than she is, and she takes very good care of her baby. Sandy is just like a live little baby for Leah.

Denise

Sandy

Two days ago I sent Debbie and Becky outside to fill up a container with water since I had workers laying linoleum on my floor in the kitchen and the container was too large to fit under the faucet in the bathroom. Debbie promplty returned with this kitten. She was so pathetic sounding and looking. She could barely meow, and was very lethargic. She was dehydrated and looked malnourished as well. She had no strength or will to try and climb out of our little home we made for her in a plastic container. I gave her water right away and she drank and drank.

I called some friends of our who has a goat milking and asked for some. By that night she was trying to climb out of the plastic tub. By the next day she accomplished climbing out, and today she is playing like a little kitten should.

We decided to call her Sandy since when we found her she had sand all over her face, also her tail and the tips of her ears are the color of sand. Sandy is dining on kitten chow and goats milk, we expect she'll be plumping up soon. She'll soon become an outside cat, as soon as I get some wormer in her to make sure she is healthy on the inside.

The picture taken of her was only minutes after Debbie found her.

Denise

Sunset

I took this picture tonight as the sun was setting, this is the view we have of the sunset right outside of our living room windows. Today the sunset was peculiar because we have a few clouds in the sky, and the wind is blowing, kicking up sand. Just thought I'd share these photos of the view from our new home.

Denise

We're Back

Well we are moved into our new place. There are still some outside items that remain on post. We have until July 6th to be totaly out, so we are taking our time getting everything over here. In the mean time we are working on making the house more convenient for a family our size. The biggest thing lacking here is the storage space. The only closets are the ones in the bedrooms. We have many projects going right now.

My hands have been too busy unpacking boxes and keeping up with the regular house duties to take any pictures. However I thought I'd post this picture I took right before we moved in. It was actually a very common day around here, but I just happened to be here for it. We were having a dust storm when these pictures were taken from the front of our house.

Denise Perry

6 mo. old Katie

Katie had her six month pictures taken today. I went to Sears this time, and was so much more pleased with them than with Walmart. Found a great coupon so it didn't cost that much more than Walmart. The personality of the lady was great, she was very imaginative. For instance if you view the photo album I'm going to include a link to you will see Katie sitting in a wagon surrounded by bears, the photographer set the pose so that it looked as though Katie were riding down a hill. As always it's hard to pick the right photo for the package, that's why I had Grammie here to help me. We chose the picture of Katie on her belly to bring home. In the mean time I have the others to email, or print out on my home computer.

Hope you all enjoy!!

Denise

View them here http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos?urlhint=actn,del%3as,1%3af,0 under the same title as this blog.

Official Opening

Today was our official opening of Faith Baptist Church in El Paso. Though there are many wrinkles we need to get ironed out, we have made it known to the public that the church exists. Today was the usual day of the Rinka's (the Pastor's family), the Perry's, and the Healey's. We did have two out of state visitors. Mrs. Perry (Mike's mom) and Mrs. Rinka's mother. We took some pictures of our families all together, and some individual. See them here under the same title of my blog. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos

Denise

Coming Along

Things are coming along with the house. It is now in place and buttoned up on the outside. There is still work on the inside that needs to be done, and I think that will be the slowest in progress. We now have water and sewer connected to the house and the gas line is in the ground. The electric man will be there tomorrow to connect the house from the pole to the house. I will then have to visit both the gas and electric companies so they can send out "meter men" to attach the meters and official start service for us. Unforunately there is not swamp cooler on the house yet, so it gets quite warm inside.

Mike is coming along very well on the goat barn. He is doing such a nice job and made a nice little barn with a hay loft for me. It should hold quite a few bales of hay. I have pictures of the barn as it is being built. I also have pictures of the house as it was brought in, blocked and leveled. Please visit them at this site http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos under the album names "Coming Along" and "Goat Barn".

My mother in law is here with us and will be helping with the packing. We are planning on moving into the home, wether finished or not on the 10th.

Denise