Found some pretty purple flowers in the field today. Don't know what kind they are. I just enjoy seeing them.

The goat likes to snack on dandelion flowers (and almost everything else that grows above ground).

Cat and goat meet face-to-face for the first time outside the goat pen.

The dog was very jealous of the attention the goat was getting. The dog weighs about 75 pounds. When the goat is fully grown it should tip the scales at 250 to 300 pounds. It's still a baby yet.

When you have chickens you see a lot of egg "designs" you'll never see on store shelves. This is a new one for me. Despite it's deformity the membrane is intact so the egg is probably good to eat. We've also gotten a few double yolked eggs and the occassional egg with a soft shell. With those the hard outer shell never forms so you have an egg with just the opaque membrane enclosing it. Those too are okay to eat if you can get them from hen-house to skillet without breaking.

Monday, July 19, 2010
We had an unexpected guest this morning when a neighbor showed up on his bicycle. He’d come to claim the last dozen eggs we had for him. A couple of weeks ago we’d traded a couple dozen eggs and some other stuff for a box of 357 magnum ammo he had on hand. He only took one dozen eggs at that time and came back today for the second dozen. He stayed awhile and we solved all the worlds problems and also did some internet searches for info he was looking for. He lives a short distance from us in his hand built log cabin on a private lake. He works at temporary jobs when they’re available and is quite resourceful, often living on whatever he forages, hunts or catches in his lake.

I gave him a lift back home and used the hydrant on the property adjacent to his to fill the water barrels in the truck. The hydrant is gravity flow, fed by a thousand gallon tank up the hill that’s filled by a spring. The water is some of the best you’ll ever find. It took awhile to fill the barrels and it was about 12:30 when I got back home. I siphoned the barrels all afternoon. I get one started then do other things until it’s empty then repeat the process until I have them all emptied. This afternoon I worked with the goat awhile. It wasn’t halter broke when we got it and was scared to death of us. Yesterday I brought some willow branches into the pen with me and sat down on the rock and fed them to the goat one branch at a time. I spent over an hour in the pen doing that. I only gave them to him if he took it out of my hand. At first he’d grab a bite and run. Then he got to where he’d take some and step back. This afternoon I made him get a little closer each time then got him to where I could rub his back or head while he ate. I probably spent 90 minutes or more doing this. I finally got him to trust me enough that I felt confident of taking him on the leash outside the pen. I mainly followed him around with just a little guidance on the leash at times to keep him on one side of a tree or the other. I just kept taking more control a little at a time until he got pretty good at following me. Again, it was probably another two hours of this. I also worked to get him where he didn’t mind me rubbing his back, head or neck. The dog was extremely jealous the whole time this was going on so I had to stop repeatedly and give her a good rub-down. I should be able to catch him easily tomorrow but we’ll have to do some review on the leading lessons. In a few days he should do well without the reviews. We’ll also tie him up and let him graze while we work nearby. We have so many large predators around that, for his own safety, we’ll never be able to leave him unattended.

We plan on using him for a pack goat so he’ll have to be comfortable with us and trust us enough that he comes to us for protection instead of running away from us when something scares him.

We did some yard clean-up this afternoon. Susan had filled more buckets with wheat, corn and beans this morning so we took them out to their temporary storage area. We also moved some fencing we had in the playground area. I fixed one of the lawn chairs that needed minor repairs (a couple of pop rivets). Susan ran the power mower to trim the lawn up a bit there.

We currently have a thunderstorm going outside. It’s one of those with very little rain but with enough lightning to keep the forest fire lookouts watching for smoke. It also keeps them sitting on their insulated chairs in case the lookout tower gets zapped by lightening … which happens quite often. Working in a metal framed building built on metal legs and positioned on top of a mountain during a thunderstorm is not a good way to relax and enjoy the weather.