Bamboo Treat for the Goats

A neighbor down the street had the bamboo in her backyard cut and put on the curb.

So Don and I drove the truck down there and got a load for the goats.

This was after I had carried 2 loads to the goats. Gus, Don's cat was hoping he got something.

 

They love the leaves.  It's much better for my bucks than goat pellets.  In fact, the veterinarian told me not to feed the bucks pellets, when Billy Shakespeare developed Urinary Calculi. Here is a wonderful article on Urinary Calculi. http://www.tennesseemeatgoats.com/articles2/urinarycalculi06.html I almost lost BS.  I feed him hay and oats now; instead of the pellets many people feed their show goats.
 

Billy Shakespeare and son, Minimus

The pile of bamboo will likely still be there until Tuesday, so we may go back for some more free food for the goats.  It would be great to just let them go down there and eat, but I know that is not a good idea.  My neighbors are very good about my urban farm, mostly because they can't see it.

Honey Bunny, Dottie Belle and Anna, Dottie's new kid.

Honey Bunny's kid, April.

Dottie Belle Had 2 Doe Kids

It was about 5 pm today and I was in the middle of making yogurt and cooking dinner; when I made a trip to the garden for tomatoes and noticed Dottie Belle, a Nigerian Dwarf goat, standing in some tall weeds.  She had been yelling at me all day and when I felt her ligaments, But I noticed they were looser, but saw no other signs of labor this morning or early afternoon.  As I came back from the garden, it looked like something moved beside Dottie Belle.  So I went to check it out.  Sure enough she was cleaning up two small little girls. 

Dottie Belle with her 2 doelings.

 One looks just like the buck, Jazzman she delivered on July 17 last year, but about half his size.  The other one is black and white.  Both have Billy Shakespeare white cap on top of their heads. 
Grandson, Chase named the tri-colored, blue-eyed doe Neapolitan.  Connor wants to name the black and white, brown eyed girl, Anna; probably after one of his many "girlfriends."  Either way those may not end up being their names, because I am going to sell them.  Connor asked me why would I sell them.  I told him because I can't have too many goats.  He wanted to know was is against the law.  Anyway, children never want to part with baby animals.  

Connor's eyes are red from chlorine in the pool.

 I already have homes for 2, but Gypsy Ginger is going to deliver any minute, so I don't know if these 2 will go to the same home or not.  But I called Jo Marie and she came right over. We'll have to see Gypsy's baby, but it looks like she will have a tough decision about which 2 she wants.  These are adorable. She bought 6 baby chicks and a coop from me a few weeks ago.  I gave her the 2 baby ducks I had.  But for awhile the grands will have fun playing with the new kids.  I will soon be milking 3 goats.  That could make me very busy.

But not any busier than momma goat.

My Sister, Debbie

It's said that your siblings know you better than anyone, because they are with you from the beginning to the end.  That is certainly true of you,  my sister, Debbie.  I was two and a half when you were born.  There's no one that I have played with, cleaned the house with or fought with more fiercely.

Debbie and Me

We didn't live in a neighborhood, so most of the time we only had each other to play with or the younger siblings to pick on.

Seems we were always side by side.

Me and Debbie in a rare Louisiana snow.

You were by my side through my life's disappointments; sometimes rolling your eyes and smirking.

 

 As evident in this picture, when you got the pretty doll with the "real" curly hair and I got the ugly one with some kind of sculptured painted on hair.

Pictures also show we spent a lot of our time with our hair rolled up in bobby pins.  We know the pain of sitting at Mother's feet while she rolled our hair every night.  Then the next morning, making Mom angry and getting bopped in the head with the hairbrush.

It was always my job to wash the dishes and yours to dry them.  We would sing every song we knew and then start making up songs about our younger sister, Lenora, until she starting screaming and Mother or Dad would tell us we couldn't sing any more.  We loved the Gabor sisters.  I was Zsa Zsa. You were Eva. And we told Lenora she was Moo Moo Gabor.  That really made her scream.  Until I looked for this picture, I didn't realize there was a third Gabor sister; of course not named Moo Moo.

But of course, you often turned the teasing on me.  I lost a couple of potential boyfriends due to information you gained reading my diary.  You still love to tell the story of putting the water hose through the bathroom window and ruining my hair while I was primping for a date.  In those days we didn't have blow driers or curling irons, so curling one's hair for a date was an all day affair.

But as others come and go in my life; I know that you were born to ALWAYS be right there by my side and I by yours.

Happy Birthday beloved sister and may we share many more. 

Finalists For Superintendent From Search Firm

 Social media and the internet are so much better than they were even 5 years ago, when the school board was looking for the last superintendent.  So after 5 years, our local school board is in the middle of hiring a new superintendent. In a vote of 10 to 2 the board voted to hire a firm headquartered in Nebraska to conduct our search. Last time we received 21 names; many were totally unsuitable.   We've had the list of 7 finalists for the position of Superintendent for our system since July 3rd:
2 Caddo School natives for CPSB superintendent job- Dr. Mary Nash Robinson, current Chief of Staff, Mr. John Dilworth, former educator in Caddo, former Superintendent of Birmingham Public Schools and Superintendent of East Baton Rouge School System,  Romain Dallemand (Macon, GA), John Green (Suwanee, GA), Jerry Payne (Pine Bluff, AR), Angella Perera (Smithfield, VA) and Theodore Thompson (Alexandria, VA)
 Already we are hearing from people all over the country about their experience with these candidates.  

I try not to blog about a lot of the school board business; though much of it could be viewed as entertaining, if it didn't affect our children, teachers and community so much.  But I'm going to write about this experience because it is going just as badly as I thought it would when the decision was made to hire an outside firm.  I also want people who are looking for a superintendent to get the opinions and information I have received.

So this is my first post.  I will just post the emails that I have received and my replies to citizens who care about public education enough to get involved.  I also hope people in my district will be aware of the the communications that I am receiving.  Tomorrow and the rest of the week I will be calling the school board members in these districts and getting their feedback.

They put their names on the e-mails, but because I didn't get permission to print their names, I'm not going to use their whole name.

First e-mail

-----Original Message-----
From: Danny H
Sent: Saturday, July 06, 2013 4:50 PM
Subject: romain dallemand

I am just warning you folks that this guy will poison 

your system. Be diligent, check with the Rochester Mn.

as well. Lawsuits and chaos have followed him, just 
saying. Danny H.

Second e-mail 

July 9,
2013

Mr. Larry Ramsey

Caddo Parish School Board President

RE:  Superintendent Finalists

Dear Mr. Ramsey

The Shreveport Times July 4, 2013 article quoted you as saying,  “We have a nice mix of candidates from throughout the southern region, and I’m pleased with how much our consultant has already done to narrow the field.”

I am amazed that you are pleased with these candidates.  Two of them were FIRED from their positions; one left because he could not work with the school board; one has been in the system only two years but is looking elsewhere; one left the system because ‘of concerns over retirement benefits’;  and another has only been in a system since 2011.  Our own Acting Superintendent is the only one without such negative comments.  If this group of candidates offers possibilities, what were the others like?  It seems that this firm has wasted time and money for a system which did not need this.  Representatives of the citizens of this community asked the board to do their own search because the same problems are occurring with consultant firms around the country.

I think the citizens of Caddo in the best interest of students, teachers, and the future of the school system should seek new board members when terms are up.  It should be noted that only two members, Mrs. Crawley and Mr. Hooks, voted against pursuing a consultant firm.  You do not appear to have the best interest of the constituents who elected you and it is time you relinquished your seats to others who are concerned about educating a future generation.

Sincerely,

Bonita B

Third e-mail

Dear School District Board Members,

 

I am a parent of three children in the Bibb County School District in Macon, GA, and a professor at a local university.

 

Based on our experiences with Romain Dallemand in the last 2 years, and as a parent, I am strongly encouraging you to disregard his application for superintendent. Romain Dallemand did more damage to Bibb County schools in his short tenure that I could have ever imagined. Many teachers abandoned the system for other counties due to his lack of leadership and bizarre policies. Many parents pulled their kids out of school to avoid dealing with the mess he caused, putting them in private or home schooling them. He became a local joke and harmed our school system a great deal. Our county wasted tremendous money on this man and his grandiosity.

 

Please, do everything you can to select someone other than Romain Dallemand. You will harm your students if you put this man in the superintendent's office. You cannot believe what he says or trust him. He will deceive you, take your money, and ruin you financially. He is not reliable, trustworthy, or even a true educational professional. He has no personal integrity. Do not hire him. Please take this recommendation from a concerned parent. Mr. Dallemand should never be placed in a position of authority in a school, or especially a district, ever again.

 

Sincerely,

Susan C

Macon, GA 

  

My return e-mail to Susan 

Mrs. C,
I truly appreciate you taking the time to send this email. It shows how much you 
really care about public education for all children. We must be able to track 
and identify such opportunists to preserve our children's future. After studying 
the applicants sent to us by this search firm, I am even more convinced that 
these firms are about the business of facilitating the preying on taxpayers' 
dollars through school boards who want to turn a deaf ear and be blind to this 
practice. We must depend on noble citizens willing to tell us the truth.
Thank you,
Charlotte Crawley 

Vengeful Cat and Forgiving Husband

I was rather dismayed when I took my cat, Cloud, to the vet 3 weeks ago and realized he is 8 years old.  I was guessing 5.  I got him as a very small kitten, and could not believe so much time has passed.  Half of his life is almost over. Cloud may have understood those remarks, because he suddenly started going crazy wanting to go outside. Some kind of mid-life crisis, I guess. He has been the most laid-back cat, but now he acts like a demon.  I have been adamant that he can't go outside, because I had his front claws removed.  So we are in a battle.  Every time the door opens, Cloud is right there and bolts out.  I don't think I will ever have another cat declawed.

Of course he likes to lie on the sidewalk right by the driveway and street.

He particularly scoots outside in the morning, when Don is coming home from a long night's work.  So one day after having a particularly hard time finding him the night before, I asked Don not to let him out when he gets home. So Don was very careful and Cloud spent most of the day inside, before finally making his breakout.

All seemed to go well, until Don called me from the hospital about 9:30 saying he had a big favor to ask me.  One night out of a thousand that I'm actually in bed before 1 a.m.  "What is it?' I asked.  Don said, "My clothes smell like the cat peed on them.  Please bring me a change of clothes."  Well he didn't have to say that twice.  I couldn't get there with fresh clothes fast enough.  Cloud has never gotten up on the settee at the end of the bed where Don lays his clothes.  I guess Cloud actually understands the term pissed-off.  Okay, Cloud gets to go outside now.  

Digging Potatoes With Grampa

Our garden has been amazing this year.  With 100 degree temperatures and much less rain, it's slowing down now.  But it  was a great spring.

 

 

See I can stand with my shovel like Grampa.

 

http://www.territorialseed.com/product/501

 We also planted purple string beans, Royal Burgundy beans, that I ordered from Territorial Seeds.  Purple ones are suppose to be more nutritious. The strange thing was, they turned green when I cooked them.  First picking was small, but I roasted them with potatoes and other vegetables. It was a great dish.

BIlly Shakespeare's New Pen

As usual, Don was not a willing participate in my farming project. All through Lowes Friday he was saying, "This is the last project I'm helping you with."  I replied, "Yes, this is the last project this weekend." (He does not find me funny; but at least he ignores my comments, so that works.)

So Saturday morning we gathered up the items and headed to the spot for B. S.'s new pen.  Don started digging the holes with the post hole digger and said, "I don't want to do this."  But of course it has to be done, because my dear sweet neighbor is not happy with stinky Billy.  And because I tend to be a very lucky person; not just because my husband is not a violent person, but just 2 days before, a former employee in our construction company had called looking for work.  He's kind of a handyman, jack of all trades, and his name is Jack.  So I told Don, that if he just couldn't make himself do the fence; he could hire Jack to do the work for him. I had just spent almost $200 on materials and am still in debt for the Chateau de Poulet, so all I could afford was the free labor that Don was hopefully going to do. My husband ran a very high end remodeling business for 30 years, but for most of that time he was the pencil pusher, not a hammer swinger.  He loved designing and was very gifted at it.  Anyway, I had been far-sighted enough to write down Jack's phone number.  Don disappeared into the house for a few minutes and came back out and said, "Jack will be here in about an hour." 

B.S. now stands on his igloo looks at the does.

So Don mostly got to supervise and advise and Jack worked his butt off.  It took about 4 hours Saturday and 2 hours Sunday afternoon. Late Sunday B.S., along with the new buck kid, Minimus moved into their new yard.  I called Linda and told her to go to her computer room and take a deep breath. 

Father and son now live together.

Sorry But Billy Shakespeare Stinks

I have 3 does and 1 buck, not counting the 2 kids that were born April 1st.  The does and kids live in the back, behind the garage apartment.  But we didn't make a special yard for B.S.; I just put him in the dog yard that fits rather snugly between my house and my neighbor's. He loves to stand on the air conditioning unit and yell at everyone going by.  It's funny to see people stop, point and laugh at the unexpected site of a  goat. 

B.S. is my friendliest goat.  He was only about 2 weeks old when we picked him up in Loganville, just outside of Atlanta, GA. at the Double Durango Farm.  I had to bottle feed him.  That night we checked in a hotel to watch the LSU football game.  So B.S. is one of a few goats to sleep in a hotel and watch a football game.

He and my granddaughter, Kennedy, have been wonderful playmates since the day they met.

Kennedy and Shakespeare last year.

We'll be outside and I'll look up and B. S. is wandering around free in the yard.  I'll look at Kennedy and she will say, "I let him out.  He's my friend."  And he is.  She has great control of him.  I think she will be great showing him at the State Fair. 

 My Neighbor is the best neighbor about my having a mini urban farm.  She is always bringing friends over and even recommended that a family who is home-schooling their daughter come and visit the farm. She saves vegetable peelings for the critters and I give her eggs. But one day she called and said, "I have to ask you to move Billy away from my computer room.  I can smell him in that room and at my front door."

So in the spirit of being a good neighbor; last weekend we built a new pen for Shakespeare.  Don, very reluctantly, and I went Friday to Lowe's to get the needed hardware.  We had a lot of chain link left over from the girls' yard, so that came in handy.  I'll write a post tomorrow about B.S.'s new pen.

Super Moon Over the Chateau de Poulet

The biggest job I have been involved with this spring is the building of the new chicken coop.  I'll do a full blog on just the coop.  But I have been rather mesmerized by the super moon for the last couple of nights and trying to take a picture of it with the coop's cupola and rooster weather vane.  I also noticed that a dragonfly spent all day on top of the rooster's head. 

At 2:37 the dragonfly was there.

At 6:47 it's hovering, but it sits right back down.

I don't have a really fancy camera, but the moon was cool.

A picture without my camera flash.

Tomato Basil Soup Time!

This has been a wonderful spring.  Just about every time I thought I will water the garden and yard tomorrow; it rained.  So I haven't been too busy watering to blog. But so much is happening; that about dark I just sit on the sofa and watch TV like a zombie.  Well, my cable went out last night and they can't repair it until Wednesday.  Hopefully, my blog will not read like a zombie brain wrote it.  I am exhausted, but I don't go to sleep early; well maybe early in the morning I will.

I did not use all of these in the soup.

Back to the garden post...  The first couple of years that I gardened, I had great success with my tomatoes.  I remember giving tomatoes away in 2003. Wow, I just realized how long ago that was.  But the last 2 or 3 or maybe 10 years have made me come close to giving it up. If you really know me, you know I would die before I gave up anything.  I just try a different approach.  First, we went to Gilliam Cotton Gin and got the cotton hull compost.  And with a long, slightly cooler and much wetter spring; we are being greatly rewarded for our hard work.  I go back and forth between I and we, because most of this is my project, but there are times when Don is inspired; never required to lend a hand.

Back on May 21st Kennedy was watching for the tomatoes to turn red.

 Tonight I made tomato basil soup.  A few years ago I read and tried a lot of recipes, but lately I just add stuff until it tastes great.
Here's sort of what I did:
Chopped in food processor 3 or 4 stalks of celery, lots of petite carrots (I've never planted carrots), lots of basil leaves and half a large onion.

I sauteed them in half a stick of butter.  Then I added the diced tomatoes and chick broth.  I poured all of that in the food processor and pureed it.  I pour it back in the pot and add spices like thyme. oregano, salt and black pepper, 2 tbs of sour cream and about 6 ounces of cream.  

I add croutons to my cup of soup.  Don doesn't.  It was the best ever tonight.  Probably because I know how hard we worked to get those tomatoes and it's been years since they have been this good.

Add caption

 

Vindicated By a Duck

In a prior post I mentioned that I gave 2 pre-K classes 20 chicken eggs and none of them hatched. We were so sure that the rooster, Big Foot, was not up to the job.

I knew it wasn't my fault.  And you don't know why I'm hostile.

  Then I gave them 11 of the 16 eggs that my duck, Daisy, laid.  I left 5 of the eggs in the nest.  But I had marked the 1st 4 that she laid with a big black X, because Daisy had not been sittling on them and they sat out in the freezing weather.  Then after more than 2 weeks she decided to sit on them.  I had collected the new eggs each day and saved them for the class. That was why I marked the 1st 4 with the X. 

 I felt so sorry for Daisy sitting for 28 days, barely getting up to eat, drink and take a quick swim once a day.  So on April 5th, when my grandson, Connor, yelled I see baby ducks;  I thought surely only the last egg had hatched.  So I said, "You see one duck?"  He replied, "No, there are 4."  Sure enough the 4 that I had marked with that X had all hatched; leaving just the newest egg unhatched.

I quickly texted the teacher to ask if her eggs had hatched.  None of hers ended up hatching.  So it appears Big Foot most likely does not shoot blanks.  I'm sure he is thankful to Donald for clearing his reputation.  It's still a mystery what went wrong with all those eggs at the school.  One theory is that the heating unit in the building is cut off at 3 pm each day; but I don't know if that really affected them.

Donald takes his job as protector very seriously. 

We are just happy that it is truly spring at our mini urban farm with baby chicks, baby goats and now 4 baby ducks.  Oh, and as for the 5th egg; Daisy had to move on with the 4 that had hatched.  Chase, my 12 year old grandson, understood what had happened and begged me to do something so it could hatch.  I had to tell him that I am not a mother duck and I don't have an incubator. It was just one of those tough lessons one learns quickly when raising farm animals, even as pets.

Adorable family of 6

Nothing beats a good spring rain.

The New Kids Spent Their First Night Alone

This is about 1/3 of what I bought that still need planting.

Today was a busy day.  I still have hundreds of plants to put out from last weekend's shopping trip to every nursery in town with my mother and daughter.  In fact, when we unloaded the truck, my daughter said that it looks like a nursery threw-up in my yard.

But before I could get to my landscaping, I had to milk Honey Bunny, my Nigerian Dwarf goat, for the first time.  This is very exciting for me, mostly, because I haven't had fresh goat milk to make all that cheese and yogurt I learned to make in the classes I took back in February in Waco.   

Milking Honey Bunny this morning meant that the kids, April and Minimus would have to spend their first night away from their mother.  I expected a lot of crying and that's what happened.  I decided to give Honey Bunny a bedtime snack. So I put her up on the milking stand facing away from the pen so she would not see me moving the kids into the "baby house."  That's where they were born and spent the first 10 days of their lives with their mother.  Oh! I haven't even blogged about their birth that was on April 1st.  Things move along quickly around here. 

April, Minimus and Honey Bunny

Of course they started crying when I took them to their house and their mother got upset and started crying.  I put her back in the pen and went to the babies and held them for 45 minutes until they fell asleep. Actually they were asleep after about 3 minutes.  I just enjoyed holding them.  Honey Bunny had calmed down by then. 

For her first day of milking Honey Bunny was super calm and still while I milked her.  Just the opposite of my stubborn girl, Dottie Belle.  Maybe it was good that Dottie Belle was my first goat to milk, so I can truly appreciate a great one like Honey Bunny.  Dottie Belle was a bottle baby. She was not raised with her mother. Instead I bottle fed her.  I'm not sure she has ever understood that she is not human.  So I think she cuts up  more because she is more familiar with me.  We'll have to see if Honey Bunny stays good.  Tonight the kids never cried when I moved them and they went right to sleep.  Honey Bunny still called out to them a few times, but settled quickly.

Working in the front yard allows people to stop and ask me can they see the goats.  Of course I love to do that.  So I had two sets of visitors today; both with children.  They all love holding the kids and chickens.

Gypsy Ginger enjoyed sampling my friend Lola's clothes.

  This evening it was so great to look in the refrigerator and see a jar of goat milk.  It won't be long before I can have some really great yogurt for breakfast.  Now that I have made my own yogurt, I can't eat that stuff from the grocery store.