what's up buttercup?

Yes, I am officially the goatmom now, though I did want to be the food lady. I can still title my blog that. I’m not sure I like the look, so I will probably mess with that soon. I am going to also delete the references to my farm name. Too distinct… but you know how to find me if you want to buy a goat. : )

So I posted a blog the other day, and it didn’t take. It bummed me out, and I haven’t
attempted to blog since then. From now on, I will blog in Word, so if it doesn’t save, I have not lost my entire post!

Yes, the excuse for being incommunicado is still that we are extremely busy. It is just hitting us with one event or commitment after another. Of course, they are all events or activities that we have signed up for and agreed upon, but still…

“The blog that wasn’t” talked about my experience entering the State Fair photo competition. I have not yet heard if I was accepted, but I am not optimistic. I am hopeful, but the odds are not in my favor. I arrived about 2 hours before the deadline, and I was entrant number 1101. Each of my photos was tagged A, B, C and D, so if everyone entered 4 photos, that would mean a total of 4400 photos! What an immense pool of entries to choose from.

The woman checking everyone in said that the average is about 3 photos chosen out of every 10 photos that are entered. I guess they are not impossible odds, but still quite slim. In a way, that is great. You know that if you were selected to exhibit, that you have something worth considering. It wasn’t one of those “I got first place out of one entry” deals.

Speaking of that, now that I am a bit more anonymous I will have to tell you all about the county fair show. WELL!! Quite the gossip, let me tell you…

First of all, there are not a lot of goats in our small county. We have several 4H clubs within our county, but the show superintendent happens to be in our club. Her kids are members, and she is a parent volunteer. The show superintendent arranges for the judge and the prizes, and fills out the paperwork. This woman does the work out of the kindness of her heart, and helps the kids get ready for the show. Her daughter is older than L, and she offered to help him get ready, although of course, we had the fiasco and were not able to show this year.

So anyway, we decided to go and support the other 4H members who were showing this year. We showed up, and were disappointed when the previous show’s judge (a dairy cattle show) announced that he would be judging the dairy goats. He was a young man, and explicitly stated that he did not know a thing about dairy goats, but was “told by someone he trusts that he should judge them like a dairy cow.” Umm, okay… So he picked the largest goat in each class, without regard to proportion, without looking at other areas that might have disqualified them or made them outstanding. There were kids there (fleshy, people kids) that were showing tiny several-day-old kids, which were darn cute, but how could they compete in showmanship when they are scooting a goat around the ring basically making it “ski”!? And they ended up getting first! When he was pointing out the placings, he would say things like “these white goats” (which were Saanens), or this little brown goat (an alpine). It was sad. But the saddest thing of all was that when the meat goats came around, he specifically stated in the ring that he docked the Boer goat for having more than 2 teats! Boer goats are supposed to have four teats!!

It was really frustrating, and even L was sad for the other kids. However the superintendent’s daughter actually got so many trophies that she had to pack them up in a box to carry them home. I bet she had over 12 trophies. On the one hand, I was sad that L didn’t enter—he could have won. But, on the other hand, there is no guarantee that he would have won, since the judge’s criteria were not fair or accurate. Also, if he is going to win, it’s better that he wins in a hard competition, where he can really be proud of his prize because he really deserved it, not because the judge was crappy and gave him a gift.

One interesting thing that happened is that I ran into someone that I know. I have not been forthcoming lately about some things that were going on, just because I wanted to remain under the radar. But I can now say that a little less than a year ago I became a member of my state organization that supports the livestock industry that I participate in (yes, I am being vague). I was asked to be a committee chair, and I did so. I then was required to attend board meetings and it was quite an interesting experience. After a few meetings, it became election time, and I am now up for election to the board. I don’t know if I will win or not, but if not, I’ll still continue on as committee chair, so I can report on the happenings.

Okay, so at our county fair I ran into this lady from the board, and she is actually very nice. (As an aside, the woman is not from our county, but lives about 2 counties away and was making the rounds to all of the 4H goat shows that she could attend. She pointed out several goats that were being shown that she had actually sold to 4H-ers in my county.) We were both appalled at the judging. But then one of the moms came over. The mom somehow knew her, and was freaking out because her daughter was not being judged fairly. She was NOT being judged fairly, so the mom had reason to be upset, but it was quite unbecoming. (I am SO filing this away for future reference!!) The woman turned out to be someone I know, also. She was M’s special ed associate last year at school. There were some issues there, so I didn’t immediately call attention to the fact that we knew each other. Plus, she was freaking out. Her kid ended up winning, so it was all good, but she was freaking out about the judge. It was an interesting, people-watching moment.

Everyone knows the expression “six degrees of separation.’ However, in my state it is like 2 degrees.

Today we picked up our newest doeling. We put a deposit down on her in May, and had been trying to arrange with the breeder a date to pick her up. It was really hard to come up with a mutually agreeable time to go and get her, but we finally agreed on today. I do believe I broke the first commandment of goat buying, which is not to buy a goat that was less expensive without regard to the husbandry of the breeder. I go back and forth about the decision. I mean, she was not cheap! But she was a few hundred dollars cheaper than the other ones we bought. She has really good bloodlines, too. And she is pretty. But admittedly, her breeder was less than the ideal animal husband. I may be being a little unfair, as I think what is really the case is that he is starting out, and instead of starting small, he went and bought a huge herd of goats from Texas. He has a livestock background, but not in goats. And he just can’t keep up with them. He is not neglectful or malicious, but he just doesn’t have a handle on what he is supposed to be doing. He has so many kids this spring, and he hasn’t tattooed or tagged them. So he has this giant herd, and I am wondering how he can even figure out who are the parents of which kid. On the other hand, we picked out our doe, and he managed to keep that straight (we took pictures, so we know we got the right one). He did get a health certificate (unheard of, but supposedly required), and vaccinated her. But when I asked him about the vaccinations, he assumed I was not sure what I was asking, and his detailed explanation was wrong. The doe was muddy and dirty, and we bathed her as soon as we got her home. So… we will cross our fingers and hope for the best. It could be the worst goat mistake we’ve made, or it could be the best deal. We shall see.

For now, her name is Jane Doe. Her mom’s name is Sapphire, so I was wanting to name her Gemma. But nobody else likes it. So we’ll wait to see who she says she wants to be.

Now I think I am caught up. I will try and be better about blogging now!