We have babies! Today while we were at work, our goats decided to multiply! We have 2 little guys. We have not sexed them yet.. Check them out.

Goats- Jami Lynn is Looking Huge.
I just do not know.. We bought her bred and she never had babies.. Awesome-o humped her all fall (as a buckling) and now she is so fat her belly drags.. I want to say she is PG, but I do not want to get everyones hopes up. Croy says her little goat nipples are not so little anymore. Is she bred? I hope so.. I am going to stop saying she is.  Maybe believing she is “jinxes” it.. hmm.

Horses are Fluffy.
Winter coats are thick and the horses are quite warm with their long fur. This winter has been particularly cold. I try not to throw a blanket on them unless the weather goes below 0. The weather man has not been to great at predicting the weather when it gets below 10… I missed putting the blankets on them on some of these freezing nights. The horses are still alive. No colds. I am suprised Sunny is as healthy as she is. She is in her upper 20′s and has Cushings Disease. Her disease has not gotten worse at all. We do not ride her anymore and she has become a lawn ornament. She has the life of companion.
Con and Roverd are best buds. The run and play all day. It is somewhat funny, because Con is so huge and Roverd is so small.

Cat show next weekend.
yes, you heard it right… Cat show. Our kitten Steve aka Reti Opening, has a cat show on Valentines Day weekend. He is our curly Laperm kitten that my friend Christina sold to us. I am going to show him with her. This should be fun. I have never shown CFA before. I used to show Pixie-bobs in TICA. I had 2 cats that ranked in the top 5 of their breed internationally, and I barely showed. It was fun.

The House is a Celebrity……. well sort of.
I have photos on Flickr of alot of the stuff that goes on here at Wind Ranch. In December, we got an interesting inquiry through Flickr. This person asked about our house, because they were building a Field of Dreams (not so big) house too. They were wondering about the things we would recommend to them. I said they needed great out door furniture, because we use the porches here, all of the time in the spring-fall.. After talking a little more, we found out they are building their house in Iowa! Not only that only about 15 miles from our house… amazing. We have become contacts in Flickr so that we can watch their house go up. Right now, they are starting their framing. Amy, the one who I am talking too, asked for a couple shots of the stairwell yesterday. She is having a hard time explaining it to the framers. I shot a couple and posted them. It is neat to follow their journey.
There is a creepy weird aspect of this connection. Since they live so close, though a suburb of this big city, there has been a chance we would run into them. Beyond email contact…. Well, at one of Xoe Futsal (indoor soccer) games, we ran into them.. They recognized Xoe from Flickr pix. Their son plays Futsal too. Croy and I both have had a chance to chat with them.. They seem like good people, but the creepy factor still lingers..

Our Family in a Nutshell.
Croy and I are still employed, even with the economic turmoil. We both quietly worry and are always listening and watching for red flags on our projects. You can never tell. Xoe is playing Futsal and is participating in soccer clinics in town. We are amazed every time we watch her play. her foot skills are really improving with these clinics. When our little local soccer league starts up, she is going to totally be bored.
Sage is starting to read more and more. As I have been trying this blog entry, she has been in here 3 or 4 times asking what this or that word is from her favorite Dick and Jane.. She is out on the sun porch reading in the swing, now.

It has been a real cold December at wind ranch. Literally no riding and as much time bundled up or indoors as possible. The horses and goats have thick fur now and the dogs have spent more time inside.

We realize Jami Lynn either puts on a lot of weight in the winter or she has a bun or 2 in the oven. We are researching and asking for as much advice as we can to learn how we are to care for baby goats in the cold months. Jan and Feb tend to be the coldest in Iowa. I guess our buckling has some live ones already.. Good note- boy goats do not stink as much in the winter. Yay!

We now officially have a herd of bays outside.

About a month or so ago, I had it in my head that we would buy Sage a pony for her birthday. I actually hauled Xoe with me out to see several ponies and wound up not getting one. Xoe has the knack (or sense), like her father, to pick a good animal. There was one pony we made an offer on but they sold it quickly and we missed out. This was an awesome paint miniature horse, actually.. She was well behaved and she looked perfect. Part of the reason I wanted that mare is because these people who had a bunch of ponies did not pasture them, they tethered them to rocks or posts in their little 1 acre yard. I felt bad for these ponies and perhaps we could rescue one from that life of being tethered.

Last week I found out they had another for sale. I called them and told them I would be out on Saturday to check out this 4 yr old gelding named Tass. He is a welsh bay gelding. I went out there and had the little girl there, saddle him up and ride him around. He was calm as they get. These girls at this house own their ponies and ride all day long. I think they are home schooled and maybe the ponies are a project? The little girl was delighted with the little wad of cash and they delivered him to us by noon.

I took Sage and Xoe with me to run errands while the pony was getting delivered. Croy was home to receive the pony and he immediately feel in love with the little guy. He took him for a walk with a lead rope around his neck before we got home. We let the horses nose each other through the fence before we let all 3 together. Normally, I put new horses in contamination (a round pen or different pasture) but this guy appeared harmless, I know Con and Sunny are and he looked very healthy. We put him out there and they all played and ate together.

We now have a herd, more than 2,bays

out there.. Meet (the Sage named) “Rover”.

a photo documentary

Meet Fatty Patty. Sage got a teddy bear hamster for her birthday!

It has been a pretty slow week here at Wind Ranch. Conquistador’s hoof is getting better. We got 3 more round bales stored for winter. The farmer only got 2 bales off of our portion of the land he baled this time. Our 3rd cutting was not too good. He gave us an extra bale in the last cutting.. So I had to pay for 2 bales of the 3 this time. He was kind to give them to us at 60 a pop. The price of hay right now is really insane. I really should snake away at least a ton of small square bales… But those are going for 6 bucks a bale right now.. A ton is about 50 bales.. 50 x 6 bucks is….. you do the math. Too much.

The goats are learning how to climb trees. We have one, along the fence line that they could climb and escape. The other side of the fence is the Crazy Chicken lady’s land. If the goats go there, we will end up having to call the sheriff again- except this time we would press charges if they do what they did last time. Luckily a goat can not “scare” a state fair chicken. So holding the goats for ransom would not really work. Plus I would like to see them catch Jamie Lynn. He he he..

In other news.. I got “prenotice” that Wells Fargo plans to lay me off in 3-4 weeks.  They have offered me a severance package that lasts up to 5 months. They also offered me my job back in a lesser paid role. I am not to happy with them; I do not want to make 20k less and go from a level 5 position to a 3. I am already networking and interviewing around town. Not many are reapplying for the lesser roles. They are getting nervous.  If they come back and offer our old jobs in their true extent, then there would be movement in applications.. I know many who are leaving. I would have severance until March. Woohoo- paid vacation!

This news does put a damper on my plans to get another horse. It appears that Croy also plans to not do anything for my birthday (this week) because we will not have income after March, if I do not get a new job. Grrrr.. I am not laid off YET.

Sage had a good soccer game last week. Here she is on the right. That girl is photogenic. She scored a couple goals and then shut down.

Xoe had a game this morning and did pretty well. The other team had 12 girls and they all had major breaks when they got to sit out. Our girls had 2 subs.  Plus in the next town they have 10 yr olds on their team because they are a smaller community and haven’t as many players. Our girls all looked like kindergartners next to them. We lost, but not too bad..  All I can say (and not sound too big headed) is that Xoe amazes me..

Here are some photos of what I am doing with Con’s hoof in effort to get him to heal..

Step 1-soak his foot in Epsom salt and water mixture for as long as he can stand it. Today he stood in it for nearly an hour as I groomed him and played with him..

Step 2- dry the foot really well and then pack the hole, that the vet dug to pop his abscess, with a sugar betadine  mixture.

Step 3- use vet wrap and wrap a baby diaper (size 1) on his foot.

Step 4- duct tape that diaper on there

Oh, and a Q fior the goat friends… Is Jamie Lynn really due this month?? http://www.flickr.com/photos/jetling/sets/72157607348058906/ See that link..