Winter at Cherry Butte

The Butte is wearing a mantle of snow now. I really dislike snow - I always have - it is wet and messy and miserable! The one good thing is that it had to warm up to snow! We had a few days of very unseasonable COLD weather - that usually doesn't hit until January or so. The goats, horses and chickens didn't seem to mind a whole lot - neither did my company when I left them Thanksgiving afternoon to run out and water everyone (amazing how excited we can get over a dripping faucet).

Another slight problem we have encountered is that our hay man is OUT of hay!! Last year he had a surplus. I am buying it by the bale at the feed store and the owner is working on getting me some big bales - I still feed those by the flake and it is more time consuming but the price sounds right and he will deliver and stack them.

We tried a big bale of Teff hay this fall - looking at it on paper it should be great - high in protein and alot of other stuff. Well the bucks ate it o.k. as did the one pen of goats - unfortunately the horses and the majority of the goats thought it made good bedding and peed in it. So, that cheaper alternative didn't pan out for us.

Several does who are due the first part of February are really beginning to get big! I am sure as the time draws nearer, I will get more excited - better get organized and start laying in some supplies . . .

A Visit to the U of I Caine Veterinary Teaching Center

 

A couple of weeks ago Aaron told me that one of the yearling Nigerians had a nasty eye. It was watering really good but the wind had been blowing and this little love likes to crawl UNDER the feeder to eat the alfalfa leaves as they fall through. A couple of days later tho - her eye was WHITE! I started treated it, flushed it out, gave her penicillian and all of that, but it just kept getting worse. I was fortunate enough to get her in to the University of Idaho Caine Veterinary Center over in Caldwell. Dr. Pellers was wonderful! First she checked to see if Melodee is bred and she IS - yeah!! So then then stained her eye and dtermined that the globe had not ruptured so they flushed it, doctored it and sewed it shut to give it a chance to heal. So she has been in the barn for a week and playing the sympathy card in a major way the entire time - LOL. So today we took her back and Dr. Pellers took the stitches out - it looks much better. It will scar a bit and she may be on the vision impaired side but at least she still has her eye!