Introducing Nibbles

On Saturday, Justina visited White Rail Ranch in Porterville, California to pick out a goat for her 4-H project. She will raise it and show it at the Santa Barbara County Fair. We stayed the night at my mother's house in Bakersfield on Friday. Then on Saturday, Justina and I, along with my mother, drove up the 65 to Porterville. When we arrived, we were greeted by owner, Judy Kaye.

Judy led us over to a pen of about ten wethers, born in November. (A wether is a castrated male goat or lamb.) She had pretty much picked one out for Justina, Ear tag 501, but I looked at all of them anyway. And the one she picked was the best one of the group. Of course, my goat experience isn't worth a hill of beans. For the Santa Barbara Fair, they need to be born after October 1st.

November Wethers

This is Justina's first year showing large livestock at the Fair. Up until this year, she had only shown rabbits and cavies. The wether she got seemed to bond to her instantly. And he was extremely calm which is great for a young person like Justina. She eventually named him Nibbles for the way he liked to nibble on her sweatshirt sleeve.

After we decided on the wether, Judy went to get her mule cart with a trailer to take Justina and Nibbles over to the scale to weigh.
















Justina rode in the trailer on the back of the Mule cart, as Judy showed us around the ranch and took us to the scale. The goat was weighed, wormed, and dusted for lice. She also changed his herd tag for a scrapie tag. On the way home, Justina said she loved the ride because she felt like she was in a parade.

During our ride around the ranch, we got to see Nibbles' dam, Mo Special, and his sire, Jack Knife. He weighed 70 pounds. The minimum weight for the Fair is 75 pounds. One year, Amanda's lamb barely made weight. That was a nerve racking experience and one that I would like to avoid. With being only 5 pounds under the minimum and four months until Fair, there will be no weight worries with this guy. While on the scale, Judy changed out his ear tag for a scrapie tag, wormed him, and dusted him for lice and mites.

Judy Kaye, owner of White Rail Ranch and Justina, my mother in background

As a project leader for sheep, I try to encourage kids to go with a breeder that has the mindset to teach and guide them, not just sell them an animal. All sorts of things can happen with livestock. Years ago, we were an agrarian society. If you had a question, you could trip over experienced livestock people. Now, at least on the Central Coast, not so much. Connecting with someone who not only has that knowledge but want to pass it along is crucial to a positive outcome with that project animal. I really feel like we did that with Judy Kaye at White Rail Ranch. She was very encouraging with Justina. And even by the time we got home to Orcutt, Justina had more confidence in handling him.

























We got home around 5 pm, which worked out perfectly because that is the approximate evening feeding time, we were hoping for. Justina took a brush and brushed off any shavings and mud. Then she put a blanket on him as it was still getting pretty cold here at night. She fed him and then spread out some pine shavings for him in his shelter. It will take him a few days to get settled into his new home.

Nibbles was sad to see Justina go home.

12 of 12 for March 2009

Today is March 12th and that means 12 of 12 time. My 12 started out a little late as I had a hard time getting motivated this morning. I was still wiped out from yesterday's goat pen renovation. But fortunately, tonight, we pretty much finished it. Tomorrow, I will spread the sand in the pen.

So on with our countdown . . .

I took lunch up to Alyssa (left) and Amanada (right) at school this afternoon.


Abby and I went to Farm Supply in Santa Maria. She loves the baby chicks.


While at Farm Supply, I picked up the Five-high galvanized panel to finish the pen.

The rabbits got run around time on the lawn. This is Pink-Eye, the New Zealnad buck. He will be a father times three by the end of April.


I picked up some all-purpose sand at Hell Depot . . . I mean Home Depot . . . to help with the drainage situation in the pen.

Here is that rotten piece of plywood I ripped out and the wire mesh that was coming apart. Most of the wood disintegrated when I pulled it off. And after pulling off the wire mesh, James and I found all sorts of nails sticking out. Believe me, I am grateful that we have place to keep the animals. But I have nicknamed our temporary little 4-H farm "Tetanus Acres".

Abby asked if she could play in the "little house", referring to the shelter we built. I told her that it was going to be the goat's bedroom. So here are Justina and she playing in the goat's room.


Abby wanted to help. So she has claimed this hoe as her own.


James tacked down an old tarp across the plywood roof of the shelter. We get lots of misty mornings and evenings here on the coast. So this will keep water from pooling on the topside of the plywood. And the tarp is old. So if it doesn't survive until next year, then no biggie.

As I mentioned before, the back fence was pretty unstable. James is reinforcing the rails by screwing them into the posts. They were nailed before and now the nails have come out.

Unfortunately, Justina got a late start on her homework this evening. She is working on a math paper. Math is actually one of her strongest subjects.

Keone is a family friend who was a trememndous help in repairing the pen. He came by for a refreshing , ice cold beverage after they finished tonight (and a little Rubik's Cube action).

Gimme Shelter

This afternoon, James, Justina, and I worked on her goat pen. And we also got some help from a family friend, Keone. The first order of business was to fix the gate. The post the gate had been hung from was leaning, which made opening the gate difficult. James went in from the fencing and drilled some screws through to the post. And viola! The gate now swings freely, which made getting in and out of there easier. He also removed part of some aluminum siding that was used as a shelter by the previous occupant. This was not going to be enough, and I had concerns about Justina gashing her head on the sharp corners and edges. So James removed it. This also opened up some room to work.



The next order of business was actually the most important task we had to get done this evening, and that was to address the drainage issue and built a shelter. For disease prevention and good hoof care, the pen should have good drainage. This pen unfortunately does not. It has been two weeks since we have had any significant rain, and one half of the pen is still goopy and slimy. Fortunately, the other half which is on the gate end of the pen is higher and not as bad. We decided to built the shelter over the bad drainage area.

This area was our biggest concern. You can see the
water where it is still pooling.

We lined up some old pallets across the bad end of the pen. Then we took a sheet of plywood and laid it on the pallets. This worked out so nicely because the area in question happened to be 4 feet by 8 feet. What do you know? A sheet of plywood measures 4 feet by 8 feet! Justina ripped apart a pallet for spare wood pieces. We used those and some 2-by-4's to build the frame for the shelter. And on top of that we nailed a plywood sheet to it.

Pallet flooring, the latest in goat home decor!

One last thing we did was screwed part of an old pallet to the back wall. One of our feed buckets has hooks on it. So she will be able to hang the feeder onto the pallet. The whole thing took us about 2 hours. And we finished right as the sun set. The shelter will be finished tomorrow when we stretch an old tarp across the top and down the back side of the fence to close it in. But the number one goal tonight was to get the flooring and roof of the shelter finished. Mission accomplished!

The pallet on the back wall is where Justina can hang the feeding dish.

Tomorrow, we will finish up the tarp and use some galvanized steel mesh panels to build up the back wall and reinforce the side wall. A couple of the rails are completely rotted through and the wire mesh is coming apart from the fencing. It is also a little on the short side and needs to be taller. Next to the gate, there is a plywood panel that is completely rotted. If I wanted to, I could easily kick my foot through it. We have some leftover plywood panels from various projects here at the house. So we will replace that as well. That will be the corner that the water bucket will be, secured by a bungee cord. Lastly, since the edge of the shelter's floor is right where the ground starts to slope downward, I will pour out a 50-pound bag of concrete sand along the edge to help with the drainage situation.


Justina did a great job helping. She hammered down any sharp nails that were sticking out, pried apart an old pallet for James and Keone to use the spare pieces of wood, and nailed down the plywood flooring onto the pallets. And the refreshing thing is that she wanted to help. There was no moaning and groaning if she was asked to do something. She was eager to take an active role is getting ready for her 4-H animal. She has a natural work ethic at 9 years old. How cool is that!

Justina was quite the worker bee this afternoon!

Today's Scavenger Hunt

This Saturday, Justina will be getting her goat for the Fair. And that means we need to get ready for it. The pen it will be kept in needs some work. There are drainage issues and there is currently no shelter. And the walls need to be strengthened and built higher. (A goat can clear a 4 foot fence with ease and they are amazing climbers. So today, I went on a little shopping trip combined with a scavenger hunt. I got a galvanized mesh panel, some plywood, two-by-fours, and some pallets. I got the pallets from businesses that were throwing them out. So tomorrow afternoon, when James gets off work, we will go down to the pen and work on it. A friend of his will also be helping us out.

Unfortunately, we cannot keep the goat or lamb in our backyard due to an obnoxious neighbor who found a loophole in our deed. Last year, they turned us in one week before Fair, not because of flies, smell, or anything like that, but because it just irked them to see the animals in our back yard. (We are not the only neighbors they pick on.) The county code for our particular neighborhood states that we need to have at least 10,000 square foot to keep one hooved animal for a junior livestock Fair project (e.g. 4-H, FFA, Junior Grange). Our deed says that we have .22 acre (that's twenty-two hundredths of an acre), which calculates out to be 9,583.2 square feet. That means we are 416.8 square feet short to keep the one animal here. A friend of mine in real estate has pulled our parcel map and the measurements are not stated on there. And our mortgage paperwork says that it is "10,000 square feet or .22 acre."

So at some point we need to get a survey of our lot to determine the actual square footage. The county inspector even suggested that we have it done because the acreage on the deed may be an assessor's figure. And we should, not just because of the 4-H animal project situation, but because we really should have a definitive measurement of the lot and know our actual square footage, especially given the adversarial situation with the people next door. (I would use the word neighbors but I don't want to turn it into a four-letter word.) But that will cost several hundred dollars and will just have to wait.

A Delightful Dinner

Last week, Justina checked out Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals for Kids from the school library. And she was dying to cook something from the book. So tonight she planned and prepared a wonderful meal. She made Grilled T-Bone Steaks with Chipolte-Chili Rub and Cilantro-Lime Compound Butter, corn on the cob, Stacked Fruit Sticks (fruit kebabs), and for dessert, Cookie and Ice cream Fill-Your-Hadwiches (ice cream sandwiches). And all of it, she made using recipes in the cookook.

I helped her with some of it, like mincing the cilantro, and chopping the oranges for the fruit kebobs. Otherwise, she made the ice cream sandwiches, zested a lime and made the compound butter, mixed the seasoning for the steak and grilled them, cleaned and steamed the corn, hulled the strawberries, and skewered the kebabs. She did an incredible job and everything was delicious.

In Other News . . .

Alyssa went to Santa Ana's Mater Dei High School today to watch the St. Joe's girls play Junipero Serra for the CIF Division 5-AA Championship in basketball. She left on a rooter's bus at 8 a.m. this morning for a 12:30 game. I got to watch the game online as our local newspaper streamed it live. After three years of losing in the quarterfinals, the girls finally did it. They won! Congratulations to all the players and coaches. Go Knights!

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

Today is my husband, James' birthday. He is 18 years old. (Wink, wink.) Abby and I are still recovering from our creeping crud and the birthday boy is still re-acclimating from his business trip. So our family had a modest little dinner at Shaw's Steak House in Santa Maria to celebrate his day and show him that we appreciate all that he does to provide for our family. I included this little video as it is now an inside joke for the tow of us. Happy birthday Sweet Pea! May God grant you many years.

Happy Birthday!

Jeers, Cheers, and Tears

Normally, I do not write about news stories. I usually like to write about our family life, which is what I am most passionate about. However, these three news stories really struck a chord with me today. So I felt compelled to comment.

JEERS

Jeers going out to the Obama Administration. Apparently, Barack Obama has proposed some cockamamie ideas to fix our country's economic woes, but this one is so terrible, I am livid. Obama wants to do away with the tax deduction for charitable contributions for the wealthy. I would ask if the President was smoking crack, but I think the more appropriate question is does he think, we are smoking crack. How in the hell is this suppose to stimulate the economy? And how can anyone propose this with a straight face? Charities are already reeling under the weight of this economic crisis which grows worse each day with the news a yet another bailout plan. The Dow is a very crafty translator of government double-speak and its plummeting numbers reflect the daily messages put out by this administration, shrouding its socialist agenda under the cloak of a modern day New Deal. Puh-leeeez! Obama, you are no Roosevelt!

CHEERS

Cheers to the Los Angeles Dodgers for ixnaying their the offer to Manny Ramirez for $45 million over two years, and their even latest offer this week for 25 million for one year. While it is questionable how many Dodger fans would actually be able to squeeze tickets to a game in their tightening budgets, could Manny Ramirez look these very fans in the eye and say with absolute conviction that he is indeed worth it. Seriously, Manny, 25 mil would've been enough to buy a larger helmet for your ego. Dodgers' owner, Frank McCourt said that negotiations would have to start from the beginning. Believe me, it is not every day that I would sing the praises of the Dodgers. So I seriously hope that they stay firm on this.

TEARS

Tears for the death of radio legend Paul Harvey. I was a child who listened to talk radio while riding int he car with her parents. And I remember hearing the Rest of the Story. Of course, back then I thought about how corny so many of his segments were but loved them nonetheless. I especially liked when he would talk about the childhood of some famous person, not revealing their name until the last line. I can't even imagine the influence he had on so many. That unforgettable voice will be missed. Good day Mr. Harvey.

In Other News . . .

Abby has fully recovered from her bout with roseola. She did need the inhaler a couple times last night. But today, she was just fine. James came home from his business trip and hung out with us during the day. It was just an overall nice day. Tonight, Alyssa had her Winter Sports Banquet at St. Joe's. James, Amanda, and Abby went to that. Justina had a 4-H meeting to go to. So I went there with her.

And speaking of Amanda . . . there are not enough words to express how proud James and I are of her lately. Amanda has five A's and one B at this time! Many tears have been shed, many hairs pulled, and many prayers said. Truly, this is an answer to our many prayers for our Amanda Panda. She didn't even realize it until James showed it to her online. We are just as proud as can be! Way to go Mo-mo!

Until the next time, take care and God bless. :)

Roseola Blues

Abby felt as miserable as she looked in this picture.

Yesterday, our little Abba Zabba woke up with puffy red eyes and was extremely congested. In fact, I seriously couldn't remember a time when any of our kids were as congested as she was yesterday. Normally, I try not to give our kids any cough medicines or decongestants during the day, maybe at night. Afterall, there is a reason for all that sneezing and coughing; the body is trying to expel it out. But Abby was one miserable kid. So I went to the store to try to get something for her and I struck out.

The last time we had a sick toddler that needed any cold medicines was Justina, who is now 9 years old. Apparently, I missed the memo because now cold medicines are no longer recommended for children under 4. So I bought some saline spray for her nose which I used throughout the day. It helped somewhat. But I wish it came with someone else who could pin her down and spray it up her nose besides me. (I felt like such a monster!)

As the day progressed, the redness surrounding her eyes spread to other areas of her face. She complained of headaches and had a fever. By the time she woke up from her nap, the rash was way worse. And she was beginning to cough. So I took her in to be seen. The diagnosis was roseola.

Now roseola sounds like it should be something happy, a word filled with gaity and good cheer. Perhaps, it could mean "I had a roseola of a time." Or maybe it could be the name of a dance at a cotillon ball, "We danced the roseola after the waltz." Well it means none of those things. Instead, it is a nasty little virus that makes little children feel miserable, and spreads its misery to their parents and siblings. The doctor said to use Tylenol and Motrin to control the fever and headaches, continue with the saline spray, give her lots of fluids, and prescribed an albuterol inhaler for cough.

This morning, she woke up happy as a clam and the rash was nearly gone. And her appetite, which was absent yesterday, has returned. Infact, she made up for lost time. The resiliency of young children is just amazing.