What is celibacy?

Celibacy can be a choice in life, or a condition imposed by  circumstances.
 

While attending a Marriage Weekend, Walter and his wife, Ann, listened to the instructor declare, “It is essential that husbands
and wives know the  things that are important to each other."

He then addressed the men, “Can you name and describe your wife's favorite  flower?”

Walter leaned over, touched Ann's arm gently, and  whispered, “'Gold Medal-All-Purpose, isn't it?”
And thus began Walter's life of celibacy..........

She got another one!

Biggest rack yet (we say that every year) and dropped him with one round.

Will goats really eat tin cans?

No, but they will eat diamonds.

 

Goats are actually very picky eaters.  They are very curious animals and will use their mouths to learn about an interesting object.  They like the taste of metal, particularly copper.   (Copper is an important nutrient for goats, so I suppose they will seek it out.)  They nibble on the metal buttons and pull tabs of our clothes, pull the keys out of the ignition of farm machinery, and especially like to get hold of my wedding rings.  One lucky goat worked loose a small diamond from the band and swallowed it. 

 

The jeweler is $300 richer and I'm more careful in the barnyard.

(Photo by MinkeyMonkeyMoo)

Missing

The Coast Guard is a small service; it’s even smaller if you’re in aviation.  By the time you’ve been in for a decade, you’ve run into the same people several times.  By year twenty, every unit transfer seems like a family reunion.  This was true when I was growing up as the daughter of a Coast Guard pilot and remained true during my own career.  When a ship goes down, a small boat capsizes, or an aircraft disappears, chances are high that you either lost a friend or are friends with someone who is grieving. 

 

Coasties are pretty special people – I’ll admit to only a small bit of bias in that statement.  Our aviators are a particularly special breed.  Remember the heroes of Katrina?  What you saw was people responding in the way that is, for them, “ops normal.”  The air crews are close-knit, highly competent, intelligent, and mission-focused.  While they operate within the  confines of highly-disciplined  operational requirements, they also are some of the most compassionate people you will meet.  Listening to a pilot talk a panicked boater through hoist procedures is a revelation in crisis communication.

 

Don’t take my word for how awesome our aviators are: this interview with Lieutenant Commander Che Barnes does a good job of representing the group.  LCDR Barnes was the aircraft commander for the Coast Guard C-130 involved in a mid-air collision with a Marine Corps helicopter last Thursday.  Nine people are missing. 

 

Fair winds, shipmates.

Photo:   evanflys.com

What we do, every day.

The Bonsai goats have figured out how to get through the fence and into the hay shed.....and repeat the feat several times a day.  This is our life.

Circle of Life and all that crap

Kidding season started on Monday.  To date, we've had 14 births and 12 have survived.  I'm sorry to report that the kid in the last post died -- just too small to survive.  It's twin is doing well, even though he's also pretty tiny.  The second kid that didn't make it was a stillborn single, born to a first-time mother.

Things got really exciting on Thursday, when Shaggy went into labor.  We went to check on her when we saw that she was standing off by herself, and sure enough we saw a little hoof peeking out.  Ideally, a kid is positioned as if it were doing a swan dive, with both front legs and then the head delivering.

An hour later, Shaggy was lying on the ground and not visibly pushing.  There was no sign of a hoof either.  This was not good.  After a quick consult with a fellow goat farmer and our vet to confirm the decision, we brought her into the  "medical ward" pen for assisted delivery.

 

We don't have any pictures -- it took all three of us.  The Admiral held her head and gave her a leg to push against.  My husband (who has also had to do this on Monday) knelt beside her and talked with me through it.  I eased my fingers and then a hand into the birth canal, trying to find a leg and the head.  Closing my eyes helps to visualize, but was flummoxed when I found a leg but the head appeared missing.  As I described what I was feeling to Chris, we realized that the head was actually tucked down toward its belly -- something like the lower left position in this illustration, but with the head down instead of to the side, and wedged under the pubic bone.  I had to push the fetus back and down into the womb and then feel around for the underside of the neck down toward the head.  Once I found the head, I had to push the body further back so that I could leverage the chin up past the pubic bone.  At this point, my arm was buried nearly up to my elbow.  Lining up the head and a foot, I delivered the kid just moments later.  I was sure I had killed it, but it started breathing as soon as we cleared away the sac.

 

Feeling ill?  You should have been there.  Shaggy wasn't too impressed either.  Thank goodness Chris was there, because otherwise I think I might have lost my nerve.  The second kid was born on its own.  When it came time for number three, my daughter and I repeated the process on our own.  This time the kid's head was down and a leg was twisted over the head. 

The brown goat is the firstborn; I'm holding the third in the next picture. 

Shaggy is NOT grateful.  In fact, she'd just as soon we didn't come anywhere near her kids.  She is a very good mother and is also very territorial about them.  I was reminded of this when she smacked me in the face with one of those horns shortly after delivering the triplet. 

 

So...four lives saved.  Meanwhile, I have taken on an ill-advised nursing project with 4 does from another farm.  We don't really have the time or space for this right now, but I couldn't resist.  We call them the Bonsai goats because, at the age of seven months, they are significantly undersized.  Three seem to be responding to treatment, but the fourth was foundered and unable to walk shortly after arrival (she's the one on the lower right in the picture.)  We capitulated to the inevitable today and euthanized her. 

We have to take the bad with the good.

Kidding Season Begins Anew

So far, 3 kids by 2 pm.  One died at birth, and two have lived.  This one has a mild case of hypothermia but should be back in the barn in another hour. 

 

Meanwhile, I don't think we need to call in CSI to figure out who the culprit is here:

Good thing those dogs are cute.

The pain just me-eh-eh-eh-lts away…..

Quincy, Illinois Tea Party 9/12/2009

 

We headed down to Quincy today to hang out with all the other right wing terrorists. 

 

As unruly, dangerous mobs go, it was pretty disappointing.

 

These kids looked like they might be a handful.

Mom doesn't look too concerned, though.

I looked hard for counter-protestors.  Only these three showed.  They had folded up their signs by the time I got through the crowd.  One said "Smash Capitalism."  Another said something about fascism.  The third said "You Gave Us Bush."  They man in yellow had a cordial, but firm chat with them and ended by saying that he respected their right to have a different opinion.  They shook hands, and the three young men disappeared soon after.  I wonder if the kid in the communist t-shirt has ever actually talked to someone who has lived under a communist regime. 

'nuff said.

This woman noticed my husband's Coast Guard ballcap and ran over to shake his hand and thank him for his service.  Her son just entered the Marine Corps.

Andrew Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, and Candidate Bobby Schilling got a huge rise out of the crowd.  Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, was scheduled to speak but we had to leave before his turn.  I go to his site several times a day, so this was truly disappointing.

You can see more signs and crowd shots at the Patriots on the Prairie Flickr set.

Headed to Iraq

No, not me, silly! I'm talking about six Iraqi Bundles of Love.  This project was started by an Army officer in Iraq, who was moved by the absolute poverty of the people near his base in northern Iraq.  He was struck by how completely every scrap of scarce material is used up -- paper, metal, packing material -- everything.  And, knowing how we quilters and knitters tend to amass far more material than we can use in a lifetime, he dreamed up a little project with his wife to brighten the lives of local women and to do so in a way that won't cost anybody very much.  The bundles are packed inside of UPS flat-rate priority mail boxes and are self-wrapped inside a large piece of fabric and some ribbon.

 

 

What's inside?  Just about anything you can think off -- fabric, thread, needles and pins, ribbon, small boxes to hold notions, buttons, and patterns.  The more I imagined the happiness and hours of contentment this material would bring to women who have nothing, the more I found in my sewing room that I could do without.  My daughter helped to put collections of material together and we crammed everything in as tightly as possible. 

 

Poor Major.  He  thought that he might get 50 boxes or so.  He's already received several hundred, and I'm guessing that the numbers will jump significantly as the deadline draws near. 

You can still join in -- the shipping deadline is 8 September.  Priority Mail postage to APO's is discounted, so you pay only $11.95 a box.  See the website for details, and leave a comment on any of the posts to request the address.  You can see more pictures and information at the Flickr group and on the Facebook page.