Irma

Today my dear sister and I zoomed up to Cleveland and picked up little miss Irma, Davis and I's newest goat.

As I mentioned before, Irma is 75% angora.  You can really tell, both in her fiber (long, luscious curls) and in her bone structure.  She has brown eyes, is very friendly, and is a cutie-patootie!

Irma was a little nervous at first after an overly-friendly reception from the dogs.  She decided to hang out indoors for a little while.

When we first brought her home, the boys were too busy eating to notice her.  This was very surprising to me.  I mean, I know how much goats love to eat, but I figured a lady goat would take precedent over an afternoon snack.  I guess I was wrong!

Once the boys were finished munching, they realized there was somebody new in the pen.  They both eagerly rushed inside (quite a change from the usual pushing and bribing back into the pen after grazing!), where they stood at a distance and observed their new friend for a while.  The boys kept glancing at each other and nudging each other, and seemed a bit nervous about introducing themselves.  Finally Truitt pulled himself together and came forward to meet her.  Lots of sniffing and odd sounds ensued, and Irma didn't seem to like him very much.  She expressed herself accordingly, and Truitt sulked off to eat leftover crumbs from the feeding trough.

Eventually Dean decided to have a go at it.  He took his time, slowly inching toward Irma and sniffing shyly.  She didn't seem to mind Dean quite as much--perhaps because he looked a little more familiar.  She lived with several other fluffy white nigoras at her last home that looked a whole lot like Dean.

It seems that everyone is going to get along just fine.  Right now we have Rousseau and Irma together in the new section of the pen, and the boys & Desmond on the other side.  Davis built a lovely house for Irma, which I will have to post pictures of later, once I get it all set up in the pen. (As a side note, he constructed Irma's house for under $3 using cull wool from Home Depot.  Go Davis!)

A very exciting day indeed!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. :)

~Bessie 

Dividing Fence Progress (and this and that...)

Look what my wonderful husband built for me!!!

I called him last night on my way home and asked what he had been up to that afternoon.  "Nothing much." he said.  The little jokester.  What he had really been up to was putting together a beautiful gate for the new goat pen!  We had sketched out some plans together over the weekend, and the finished product looks even better than I imagined it would.

We are going to build our own gates from now on.  This gate cost about $25 to make, and it is super-sturdy.  I think I paid $75-$100 for the metal gate I bought last year.

Now the only thing we have left to do is put up the actual fencing wire!  We'll do that tomorrow, and on Friday we'll bring home the new girl!

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A couple other things of interest...

Isn't this a neat-o froggie?  I thought he was so cool!  Look at his light coloring.  He was sitting on the fence down by our garage this morning.

We also encountered a HUGE garden spider.  Unfortunately he was blocking our path, and we had to destroy his beautiful web.  Sorry, spider friend.

Well, I must get going!  Gotta go to work. :)  Have a great day!

~Bessie

New Addition!

Exciting times at the homestead--next week Dean and Truitt will be welcoming a little lady into the family!  Davis and I have been working on a dividing fence for the pen for breeding purposes, and it is coming along nicely (albeit slowly!) so far.  Well, except for the fact that we just finished digging several post holes and an unexpected rain storm filled them all up with water.  Alas!  We shall be siphoning tomorrow...

Davy

My post hole--I hit a reeaaallly big rock!  There are lots of those up here.

The goats were curious about the strange holes we were digging...

Rousseau

Desmond

Here is a picture of the new girl:

Unfortunately she is not looking at the camera in this picture.  However you can see her lovely coat!  She is 75% angora--her mother was an angora, and her father was a nigora.  I am excited to breed her to Truitt (who is purebred Nigerian dwarf) and see what happens!

In other news, my sunflowers are blooming beautifully, and my zinnias are finally starting to pop--well, the lilliput zinnias, anyway.  The giants are just about ready--I can see the big buds nestled down at the top of each stem.

My sewing machine is officially out of commission, so I haven't done much sewing lately.  Very sad!  I need to take her in to the shop, but just haven't had time to do so.  Ah well.  Eventually, eventually.

Davis being a goober (post-post hole digging today)

Well, I must off and make dinner!  Have a lovely week,

Bessie

Flowers and Pickles

Ah, summer beauties.  My zinnias and sunflowers are just beginning to blossom!

The first zinnia!

Lovely nasturtiums

And...

PICKLES!

Davis and I made our first batch of pickles in the canner.  We have to wait until next week to try them--I'll let you know how they turn out!

~Bessie

Sewing for Buttercup

My poor car, Buttercup the Volkswagen Beetle, is in sad shape right now.  She is 10 years old, and her parts and pieces are either starting to show a lot of wear-and-tear, or falling completely apart.  I plan to keep Buttercup until she dies, so I have decided to slowly fix up her innards.  After all, it's what's on the inside that counts, right? ;)

Project no. 1: New Shift Boot!

I ordered the fabric for this project waaaaay back in the spring, and just got to it this past weekend.  I definitely waited until the last bit of my summer break to get it done!   

As you can see, Buttercup's shift boot was in a very dismal state.  It had gotten so worn and stained over the years that I couldn't make it look good no matter how much I cleaned it.  

Removing the shift boot from the shift knob was a bit trickier than I anticipated, but with a little help from Davy I was able to get everything taken apart.  

The boot was stapled at the bottom to a rectangular piece of plastic.  This is the piece that fits down into the plastic mid-section of the car (I know there is a name for that section, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it is) (8/8/11: The center console.  Duh!).  The staples were quite difficult to remove, and I ended up leaving a few of them in. 

The next step was to rip the stitches and make a pattern from the old boot pieces.  Pretty simple. :)  (Don't those old pieces look gross? Blech!)

Unfortunately, my sewing machine is having a very bad week.  It desperately needs a good cleaning and tune-up, and has refused to sew anything for me no matter how nicely I ask.  Thus I was obliged to sew this baby together by hand, which was no small feat, considering the thickness of the fabric and the fact that my tendinitis has been acting up a lot lately. 

I guess I was a little distracted and put out with my sewing machine, and forgot to take pictures of the actual construction of the boot.  Alas!  Here are some pictures of the finished product:

Isn't it cute???

I used a pretty pink buttonhole twist for the top-stitching.  It's hard to see in these pictures, but take my word for it, it looks nice!

The most difficult part was stretching the fabric back onto the rectangular plastic piece.  That took a while.  Oh, and I definitely put it on backwards a few times and had to take it all apart and fix it.  Ah well!  I think it turned out pretty great. 

So Buttercup feels a little better about herself now, and I feel a little better about her too.

~Bessie