Nothing happens out here for a week or so and then all of a sudden we are busy, busy, busy. I had noticed that Parrot and Sissy were limping a little bit, so I took my hoof trimming bag up with me. As long as I was at it, while Michael set up the next day’s kid rations in the small trailer, I trimmed the hooves of any nanny that happened by. Some of them are impossible to work on without wrestling to the ground and having Michael hold them there, but a few put up with me trimming as they stand. They make it known that they are none too happy about standing on three legs and they will try to tug the foot away from me. But with the does that are most tame, this is half hearted and they seem to trust that whatever I am doing to them is in their best interest. Even so, the job is more physically taxing to me when doing it this way. When the goat is immobilized on the ground, I can sit there with her and do hoof after hoof. But when I am bending over her, it takes more out of me. I easily fixed up Reggie and Swallow, but when I got to Swift, I had to get some help. I must have neglected her last time, for her hooves were an inch too long! She had shown no signs that this state of affairs bothered her and I did not notice any evidence of rot when I cleared out the hoof and then trimmed away the excess.
Just as we were getting ready to go up to feed the goats, a call came in from Jeff, our crop partner. He had come to share the results of our soybean venture and I was very pleased with the outcome. My share of the profits will definitely pay the real estate taxes for the year, which is all that I wanted this first year. In addition, I note that the goats are not very hungry at evening feeding, having gleaned the fields all day for stray beans and hulls. This is unprecedented, for a goat will never admit to being full. Usually, goats appear ravenous at all times and will eat until their rumens are extended to the point that they look like they have huge bulges on both sides of their backbone. Soybeans are not an optimum feed for ruminants though. I do not recall offhand what it is in beans that is not good for them, but I certainly do recall that soybeans are not supposed to make up much of their diet. On the other hand, the hulls of the beans are very good for goats and I think it is the hulls that they are getting out there in the field more than the bean itself.
Jeff and I negotiated a settlement that was much in his favor, but as I told him, I want him happy and coming back for more. I think it may have cost me about two hundred bucks to appear generous and thus make sure that he will be here in the spring to get going on our long term project of raising alfalfa. At the end of our meeting, I just had to ask him how he got so gray headed all of a sudden. When I met him, I thought he was maybe fifteen years my junior and he had brown hair. Yesterday, I thought he was my age because he has turned completely gray. He said it was due to the women he lives with and Michael just stood there nodding. Humph.
Rebecca is coming out today to butcher her two goats after all. Claude will simply have to take the smaller kids or let them grow some more. In preparation for that, Michael and I cleaned out the chest freezer last night. I wanted to find some pork ribs for Bekka’s birthday supper, but was surprised that there were none in there. I had planned to make ribs for her, but also barbecue two chevon (goat) legs in the manner described to me by the Jamaicans. There were some pork tenderloins though, so I thawed one of those along with the chevon. We filled a trash bag with old and freezer burned items from the bottom of the freezer and plan to feed the dogs for a month with it. Even so, there is little room for another goat in my freezer unless Michael lets me put the trash in the outdoor bin. Usually, we keep all food trash frozen to outfox the varmints that would get into our trashcan and after finding a goodly amount of such in the freezer just taking up space, I want rid of it.
Today, we will skin and eviscerate two kids and then let them hang overnight to tenderize. In the morning, we will cut them up into serving sizes, package them and freeze them. We are expecting more guests tomorrow as well. Claude and company will be coming out to dispatch Honey and we also invited a family from Columbia to visit. I met these folks as part of my preparedness campaign and it is great fun to have a young family that is like minded to share ideas and preparations with. Aaron and Shannon have two beautiful red headed boys, two years old and six months. The dad is a marine corps veteran of Afghanistan and we got together as a result of my latest interest in marksmanship. Both Michael and I enjoy him very much for he is easy to talk to and knows so much about how to prepare for disaster. By the way, I hope you don’t think I have gone off the deep end and joined some wild eyed militia group. Far from it. I just think that in this day and age of complete dependence on the power grid and “just in time” product distribution models, any disruption could leave populations at risk. Setting aside food and water stores and thinking about how to survive in an extended grid down situation is also great fun. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst is my philosophy. And in doing so, I hope to put in place needed energy saving systems that will benefit us regardless of what the future holds.