Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[MaryJanet]

I wanted to give this post both the 'love' and the 'laughing hysterically' emojis! I love the thought of a well-trained pet goat! You will have to take some video of her as well as photos.

Me too! I especially appreciated the "FSM as a bridge between Catholics and Protestants" hypothesis

 

[fuentemoon]

Opened my front door to grab a shirt I left hanging on the gate and startled a little family of what I think were nutria seemingly snacking on my lawn. I haven't seen one in years, and never in any yard of mine. We live relatively close to a drainage area, but farther then I would think they would usually wander. They were kind of cute, though most people just call them water rats. Wish I could have snapped a pic, but they zoomed away.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Remind me, what does SCA stand for? And is this kind of a thing that all you Ozzies do?

Society for Creative Anachronism i believe. They are here in the US As well.

That’s right Bob. I believe it originated in the USA. There are quite a few medieval re-enactment groups around now.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

These are amazing! You are so creative. Thanks so much for sharing these. Very cool. I imagine it must have been a lot of fun.

It was great fun. I especially liked the music and dancing. Hubby was the “Dance Mistress” for a few years.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

I hope I'm not going to make you angry.
Cillin is in overall fine condition despite the various dinks and dents. No worms. No mites and no infection in his foot.
Gloria wasn't keen on cutting the core out. If it had been infected then possibly yes. She says that surgry on the foot is a last resort and often cause more problems thhan it solves. There is a core and a scab. It is the pressure that is causing the pain and preventing the core from being expelled.
She has advised those circular corn pads with the hole in the middle, or whatever I can come up with that will do the job. She's prescribed an ointment which as I understand it is a drawing ointment; it helps draw the core out. I don't know what it's called yet.
If in three weeks of changing the pad thing daily, cleaning the site and applying the ointment the core isn't out then he's to go back and she'll consider operating.
He's on low doese Metacam. One graduation on the supplied syringe daily for a week. The site should be less swollen by then.
Gloria cleaned the site and applied a ointment a bit like the heat ointments you use for muscle strain.
Cillin is eating better. This evening herded all the hens in at supper time and shut Treacle. Cillin ate with the hens and ate quite a lot. It's important to keep him eating because the stress and pain is likelu to lead to crop problems eventually.
As soon as I've worked out how best to keep the foot pad on Gloria says he should be out with the hens. She's very against confinement believing that the stress means they eat less, excercise less and get depressed.
I bought another bottle of Metacam. 14 Euros.
Gloria charged me 10 Euros.
I don't know how much the pads etc will be.
Cillin ate some prawns and yogurt before bed and his crop while not full has food in it.
I forgot my camera.

Thanks for the update Shad. That is very encouraging news.

 

[RoyalChick]

I think it might be Friday.

Maggie testing if she can stand on the water bowl like she could when it turned to a solid block of ice (the answer is no), and Minnie pausing at the threshold between the nice dry covered run and the more adventurous but damp pasture run.

Happy rest of Friday everyone!

 

[BY Bob]

The owner of the missing racer has said Joe is not his bird. Joe is not a racing homer(probably a Turkish tumbler). Joe is a hen and was undoubtably bred in AU. So although I'd love to know a pigeon could make that trip, what we have is fake news.

This is very sad. I'm very sorry I brought this hoax to everyones attention.

Apology Tax

 

[BY Bob]

So the whole thing was a storm in a teacup

I feel like such a fool.

 

[BY Bob]

Ok, yet another baby goat post... she’s at least 7 days old and trying to eat everything, especially plastic, paper, and metals. She licks at the cat dishes and tonight was all up in my face as we were trying to eat dinner. I hope she isn’t too young for it, it’s sort of a grain? You guessed it! Spaghetti. She loves it. If it doesn’t upset her tummy too much I may have a new training technique...

Today we were practicing some basic obedience. She knows her name, down, come, and most importantly “pee pee on the James Jacket” going to need to build on consistency though, and definitely work on heeling. Yep, I’m potty training a baby goat. Just two accidents today: one first thing in the morning after her bottle, and a second accident after 3 hours in the truck running errands and coming home to make dinner. I started the water to boil for her dinner bottle and our pasta, then went out to put up the chickens; I had just come back in and started the sauce when she started getting a little antsy... I quickly realized the essential jacket was still in the truck and she was looking for her place to go (the jacket is mostly done for anyway).

also convinced her to nose the goat feed a bit, she may have even accidentally eaten some while going for the noodles. So progress is being made, and I plan on having this little goat trained better than the farm dogs at the very least. Maybe I “can’t” have a dog... but this little goat is going to be much cheaper to feed and better trained than most of the dogs here! I might be giving up on her rejoining the feral herds, she seems a little too imprinted on us, but we will have to see how it goes as she gets older.

So, maybe there is something to be said for the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster after all? Not only do you get to wear a super cool colander on your head for your drivers license photo, but what better to unite humanity than pasta, eh? Chickens, Cats, and Goats all agree as well! But that still doesn’t solve the sauce/gravy dilemma, perhaps it will resolve like the Catholic/Protestant situation as two similar branches?

Kris this is amazing. I am so excited to follow along as you train her. I guess they are smarter than I realized. (please Shad I know, humans underestimate animals all the time). This is fun!

 

[BY Bob]

And I’m going to have to be juggling goats and cows, and chickens, and trying to get some decent pictures to cover the taxes on those last few post!

No tax required for last post. Not that we don't love photos.