Saturday Doings

Saturdays can sure fly by fast!

I finally got myself in gear and went to do the laundry today. My washer is down again and I'm in bad need of getting the utility room a good cleaning. I need a new drain hose for the water softener also. I guess I need to get that all tended too. In the meantime I went and played "slot machine" at the local laundromat. It turned out being a good deal in a way. I hated putting 16, 14 and 7 quarters in all those machines. I opened 3 $10 rolls of quarters and had a handful left that didn't get accepted by the touch machines. I find it frustrating to have AMERICAN quarters rejected by machinery that is geared to consume them. That was all I got back for my coin feeding.... just a few rejected quarters. No lights, no bells and whistles, no winning the jackpot. What a bummer!

I used my home made laundry soap and I LOVE IT! After the washing was over, they all felt CLEAN. No residue effect. The rinse water on the front loading machines ran clean. My clothes smell clean. SUCCESS with home made laundry soap. I used a dry soap recipe being I knew I'd have to tote it to town.

While at the laundromat I got talking with a gal and she asked if I knew anyone who was in need of baby things. She had a handful of receiving blankets that her daughter no longer used and said I could have them. She laughed and said yes, they'd be fine for my "kids"! So my baby goats will have some new used blankies to cuddle up here in the house. They are also GREAT for drying kids, foals, etc during birth.

Usually I hate going to the laundromat but today turned out to be as "fun" as it could get. I think it's the expense I hate so much.

It got up to 34 degrees today and felt like a heat wave here in the land of snow and ice. It's always odd how 34 in the Fall about freezes one to death and wracks my achy bones terribly. Then come January, if we get 34 degrees I've finally acclimented to it and go out to do chores with a flannel shirt and my work gloves and boots. (Sweatpants and a tee shirt are a given.)

In doing chores, I experienced something I've never had happen in 35+ years! I found a drowned possum in the horse stock tank. GROSS! I couldn't tip it to clean the tank as it's too full. I'm siphoning it out. It bothers me because I don't know if the nasty thing can transmit EPM to my horse via the water! The gross thing was sunk to the bottom of the tank and I don't know how long he'd been in there Being winter, I have some plastic jugs in the tank (ok, quite a few along with my four 2 1/2 gallon jugs for taking water to the goats) and then if it freezes some she can nose butt them enough to break through the ice to drink. There is a tank heater but sometimes it gets so cold it can still freeze the top of the water a bit. So GROSS and now I'm very concerned about my horse getting the dreaded EPM! Where do I find out if she can contract it from the water?

Wish me luck for tomorrow. I'm going to look at a herd of goats and might be bringing one home. She's a bred 2 year old. I have a couple concerns but will go anyway. They have more than just her for sale and being a WELL-KNOWN herd of quality goats (show too along with strong milking abilities/genetics) I'm going and going to try to be open-minded regarding my concerns and soak up what ever knowledge is available for "the taking". There's always more to learn and this will be a good learning experience too! I think these folks are reputable so I'm hoping this will work out for both sides. I hate being taken or dealings to not come out as expected. I much prefer a deal end up being one that both sides feel they came out ahead. That's the best way. Unfortunately life isn't always that way. Part of the reason I'm concerned is it isn't the best of times to be buying another goat but..... maybe I'm just crazy to have another doe to milk! I hope it can work out so we both get to be very happy with the deal.

If nothing else, it's suppose to rain tomorrow and be above freezing. So it should be a good trip being the roads aren't all ice-covered now! Mine is but it's a dirt road and that's live in the frozen "north country"!

I really need to come up with a new "farm name" for the goat herd. I'm no longer breeding and showing Quarter Horses so don't need my QH farm name I used. Now I need one appropriate for the horse, goats and chickens and homesteading. Such a predicament.... coming up with a name I like to say, hear and see in writing, not to mention to make a "logo" with it for use online. I need to get it because I need to get my horse website transitioned over to the goats and chickens more than the horses. I have taken some time off from the website because of a storm tragedy. At the time hubby had the stroke and was back and forth in the hospital, we had a horrendous storm and I lost a pregnant mare and a young stud I'd just sold but the transporter hadn't arrived to ship him out west. Another mare aborted as the lightening hit the flooded pasture and arc'd, hitting all the horses to some extent. It was pretty horrible and with dealing with hubby's stroke it was a bad time for that to happen too. I was up looking out the window during it because the lightening had just hit the transformer outside the house and I was standing in the kitchen looking out towards the horses when it happened. It's time to take some pics down from the website and move on with it but I've been stuck coming up with a name for some time. Such a dilemma.... such decisions to be made!

I hope you all have a good weekend. Thanks for reading my meanderings! Thank you for the prayers or crossed fingers for tomorrow to turn out good for the other folks and us with a possible new doe!