Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. I wish I had a better reason to post now.
I got home from work Friday in a hurry to check on the animals and meet up with some church members at the theater.
The first thing I saw when I got out of the truck was a round bail of hay tipped over with some goats climbing on it. Not all of the goats were visible so I started to worry immediately that one or more might be in trouble. My youngest grandson was in the driveway when I got out and he was tagging along as we went through the gates to get to the goats. I was keeping Olive and her calf in this area too. I bought some stock panels and had plans to build a coral next to the milk area to close Olive up at night before the morning milking. For now her and her calf were with the goats and I would just open the gate and she would walk to the milk stanchion. As I got closer I could see Olive at the far end near the main gate and I started counting goats. All goats accounted for. Olive saw me and came running bellowing the entire way. I knew something wasn’t right. A quick look around and her calf was no where in sight. I ran to the tractor with my grandson closing gates behind us. I was praying the entire time that the calf was back in the trees and not under the hay. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I slid the forkes under the edge of the round bail and started tipping it up and there she lay. The animals had eaten a big portion of the bottom of the bail and the calf had tucked herself in the nice cozy space. My guess is when the goats started climbing and playing on the bail it tipped over. It never crossed my mind that a four month old calf would get caught under a round bail like that. Hard lesson learned for sure.
Poor Olive, has walked around the pasture and bellowed for 3 days now. Especially right after I milk her. I would open the gate to the milk area and she would walk to the gate going into the goat area where her calf would be waiting. Now she almost runs to the gate bellowing and looking for her calf. This should end in the next day or so but it’s heartbreaking for now.
A story with a happier ending. Bobby Jo who was staying in the pasture across the road got hit by a truck after a wind storm blew a tree onto the fence. Busted the headlight assembly and put a crease in the hood and Bobby Jo came away with some cuts and scrapes. She will be fine and nobody was hurt. The guy said she was walking down the road away from him and he didn’t see her until he was right on her. He swerved and thought he had missed her but at the last second she turned her head right into the truck. We could see where she brushed down the side of the truck. When she turned into the truck it must have flipped her onto her back because all the high points on her back, and hips were scraped up. She also had some cuts on her ear but nothing major. I don’t know how she didn’t flip her stomach but this happened about three weeks ago and she is fine.
On the adoption front, we received our approval and officially requested information on the three children we were looking to adopt. There were a couple things that were serious red flags and after discussing them with the social worker we received notification that these children were not a match for us. We were both hurt and relieved at the same time. We really wanted to help these kids but weren’t ready to give up on them just yet. Thankfully that decision was taken away from us. We have to trust the people who know the children best to help us make the right decisions. We have since requested information on a couple more sibling groups and about twelve teenage girls. We added the bedroom with hopes of adopting a sibling group but the process started with one young ladies comment in her bio so if no groups are a fit for us I’m sure we can find a single child that will. We’ll just have to be patient and keep praying.
