First day(s) of school

So, I did the math

 I have seen a few ads on Craigslist for alfalfa locally at $10 a bale (whether it's actually local alfalfa or hauled in I don't know). For all you Californians, you're probably saying, 'wow, what a deal' (providing you even have a clue as to what a bale of alfalfa is even going for these days, or care). Yeah, NO! Here in the Mid-West, "small squares" bales tend to be 2 string (or wire, yes they still use wire) and are anywhere from 55 to 65 lbs. What does that equate to? Based on an average (60 lbs.), that equates to you Californian's paying $18.33 a bale. Can you believe that??? This is Kansas, not Alaska!This drought is driving people mad in more ways than one.We're not crazy on this farm though. Not entirely anyway. We're driving hundreds of miles to save substantially because at $10 a bale NOW, can you imagine what it's going to be when the first snow hits??? Oy! 

Death By Dairy Goat

That's going to be the header of the Hutchinson News after the state fair. The main title reads: "Judge Mauled to Death by Dairy Goat While Handler (Amanda Harmon), Fair Patrons, and Exhibitors Stare in Disbelief"

Think about it. Dairy goats have no upper teeth. They are herbivores and, for the most part, are very sweet natured. -Except for 'Hephzibah', that is, but that's altogether different.- So, it would come across as unbelievable-flat out impossible one would think- to die at the hands hooves lower incisors, of a dairy goat. But, I think I have something on my hands that nears the unthinkable.

Let me back up for a bit. This past year -I keep thinking about the past year- has been one class after another at the school of hard knocks. Just when we think we have it down, Professor You'vegotta'notherthingcoming insists otherwise. Little by -one step forward two falls on the ice later- little, we're making it and piecing it together and figuring it all out. Alone, mind you. I used to think I was a fairly intelligent person. However, Kansas -of all places- has proven me otherwise. Thank you Kansas for putting me in my proverbial- you are really an idiot after all- place.

I can't say I'm grateful, so let's just say I'm devouring my humble pie at a rate any humble pie eater could be proud of. I can't imagine though you want to hear me get up on my soap box about how hard life is here in Kansas. I am pretty sure I made fun of those who couldn't hack the Mid-West and moved their convertible driving <insert profane word substituted for the padded part of ones back side> back to California. Not us, no. We're "true grit", as they would say. Either that or too stupid to tuck tail and run. Regardless, we're still here. It would not be surprising, however, if the straw that broke the camel's goat's back was something like a judge being mauled by our -otherwise- sweet natured girl(s).

Anyway, back to the headlines of the local paper. Rachel and I have been working with the goats getting them ready for the fair. The goat kids never want to lead nicely and so it takes some work dragging them while they choke and scream and convulse teaching them how to act like the good little show goats they are and not some rampaging blood thirsty rabid beasts of burden obnoxious heathens.

The older does lead just fine. They'd prefer to be off doing other things of course but, for the most part, put up with our "horse and pony show" routine. I figure, you know, they lead a pretty good life; the least they can do is behave on the milk stand and stand in a god awful show pose every once in a while to appease me. I truly don't ask for much! Apparently though, FD, has other plans. I do believe she is plotting an attack of epic proportion, kind of like Rambo meets Animal Farm.

I have practiced with her twice now and twice she has tried to maul me while I try to set up her legs. Okay, maybe maul isn't the right word, but she sure is trying to take a hunk outta whatever part of me she can reach. She is so sweet natured -otherwise-. I think it's a cover though. For all these years she has been waiting for her moment to seek revenge for all the terrible things that have gone wrong in her life. I don't know exactly what those things are, but I'm guessing she thinks her life has just been awful for her to behave this way!

I told her yesterday (in a very sing songy irritated voice), despite liking her very much -otherwise-, I was not above selling her, that she is a show goat whether she likes it or not and if she cannot fill that slot like a good little goat, she could be permanently relocated to the goat sausage stuffing plant just as easily as the extra buck kids!

To be honest, I don't think she understood me. I will give her the benefit of the doubt, chock it up to a bad day, and drive on but I will be darned if my name is on the front page of the newspaper the day after the fair for something of that magnitude. Having the only goat in history to maul someone is not something I'd really like to be known for. I am sure you can understand.

Questions from Mom

Q: Where did you get that fancy bale mover? 

It's not ours. The tractor and grapler belong to the hay grower. 

Q: How long does it take you to unload the trailer when its full?

Depends. A few of the loads (entire or partial) have been for other people and sometimes it's delivered and partially unloaded one day and we unload ours (if we take part of the load) a different day. Throwing them down for someone else to carry and stack is quick! We unloaded seventy some bales for ourselves this afternoon and it took us about an hour to get them all into the barn and stacked neatly. Jeremiah's brother, Matt, was here for a week and a half and they were able to get 100 bales of alfalfa loaded into the south shelter in about 45 minutes and it was about 108 degrees out. We were lucky today, it was only in the 90's.
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Jeremiah was in Tulsa last week learning more about MIG welding with Airgas (welding supply company).

Q: Was the trip worthwhile?  
He thinks so. "You should never stop learning", he says. He learned some new things so in that case, yes, it was worth while.


Q:When does school start officially?  
 Jeremiah will have students on the 21st I believe. Rachel starts this coming Friday and Drew starts a week from Monday.


Q: Will you be glad to have some time for yourself?
Yes and no. It will take some time getting used to. I am very excited about the coming year. I have a lot planned- soap making for the business, goat breeding, house painting, general organization, etc. I am anxious for the children to be back at school. This summer has been rough with the temps forcing them to be inside much of the time.

The past year has been tough on us. There's been so much that we've had to learn the hard way and not because we were so hard headed we didn't take other's advice. There's been no advice! We've been treading a new path into uncharted territory in a way and it's been a huge learning experience. One we're glad we've had the opportunity to partake in but still. I thought we worked hard before!

Misc. Photos

What happens when you let your 7 year old have free reign with the camera.


How to make loading easy!Eight at a time!



Pretty tired of looking at this stuff but grateful we've got it!

2011 Reno County 4H Fair

I feel somewhat like a failure in regard to this whole 4H thing. I vow that things will run smoother for next year!

Rachel had signed up for 3 different categories to show, one of them being a sewn item (which we did not get done in time), the other two were her goats that she raised (Dawn and Cheedoe. Although she ended up showing Apricot because the two little punks didn't want to lead) and a baked item. If I had a better understanding of how thing whole thing worked ahead of time it probably wouldn't have felt like such a disaster but live and learn.

That said, I missed the deadline for the 4H state fair show in Sept. She can still participate in the open show with the "big leagues" along with me I believe but as for the junior competition, she cannot. My fault somewhat although I really had no idea what in God's name all the shows are/were!



The county fair was a joke as far as the dairy goats were concerned. I don't know how many different 4H groups are in Reno County but there were a total of 6 dairy goats shown at the fair by 2 different groups (Ours (Buhler) and the Royal Clovers). One single class-meaning all 6 regardless of age which is not normally how showmanship is done because dairy goats NEVER go up against meat goats in the 'real world'. I was such a shambles not knowing what was going on that I'm sure my anxiety was passed on to Rachel and she was extremely nervous going into the showmanship class (which is based on the show-er and not the actual goat. Although, having a goat who cooperates is certainly a benefit!!!).

She was up against 7 and 8 year old's for her showmanship class, first place being taken by an 8 year old girl whose goat was docile and didn't care one way or other other where she was (show, home or otherwise). Second place was taken by a girl and her goat whom she had to drag around the ring (the goat, that is). Had I known they were passing out awards for the biggest pain in the ass [goat], I would have sent Rachel out with Dawn to begin with!  As it was, we made a change and sent her with Apricot instead of Cheedoe just so I was sure the goat wasn't adding to her stress!

Showmanship class

The goats were due at the fairgrounds on Friday morning. They didn't show until Saturday starting at noon. Much of what was in the barn was meat goats, they're real popular. We were back and forth between the house and fairgrounds probably 4 times on Friday. The heat has been unbearable and while the barn did have port-a-coolers (think huge portable swamp coolers), after a while, they really did do more harm than good as the air by afternoon was heavily laden with moisture AND it was over 100 degrees. All one could do was sit in front of a portable fan strapped to each pen (that showe-rs provided) to just live!

Talking to the judge in the showmanship class

All in all it was a good experience. Rachel won a blue ribbon for her baked good (Chocolate Chunk Cookies). Best I can tell is that each exhibitor is scored against themselves and not another exhibitor. Basically it means everyone ribbons. I didn't tell Rachel that as she doesn't understand placing right now anyway. She's not got that competitive streak about her (yet). Perhaps she never will, she's a lot like Jeremiah in that aspect and I want to encourage that if that's who she is. She was happy to blue ribbon in both of her goat classes too (showmanship and grand/reserve grand) and pretty much said something to the affect she was glad she didn't get 1st place because those ribbons were purple and she preferred blue anyway. Simple pleasures of a 7 year old, ahhhh.

This is Rachel's fake "I'm nervous as heck & I wish this was over" smile. Apricot, not as nicely set up as she should be, stood like a champ anyway and I was relieved for the effort!

A year's progress

August 1. We're coming close to marking a year's worth of life in Kansas, in this house. How it has flown! Just yesterday I could have sworn I was taking photos of Jeremiah on the tractor cutting the brush down in the pastures readying it for the goats. Just yesterday I could have sworn I was sending the children off the bus for school. Just yesterday I could have sworn I was making Halloween costumes, baking pie for Thanksgiving and decorating the Christmas tree, passing out Valentine's pencils at school, making sure the kids were wearing green on March 17th, attending preschool graduation and looking forward to summer vacation, finally, and warm weather.

And now here we are, nearing the end of summer vacation sweating and wishing for this horrid heat and drought to end and wondering what on earth this winter could possibly have in store for us. I almost feel jipped, though those cold stormy winter nights will have us wishing for 110 degrees once again.

There is still lots to do before winter. We haven't gathered a stick of firewood, although what we have accomplished has been great! Both basement rooms are, for the most part, complete. Both rooms are lacking baseboards and molding but the back storage room is now a lovely sewing room, cozy and quaint. The front room is now the family room but in the near future we'd like to take out the staircase and reconfigure it so access to the basement is from the living room and not the door laden hallway. The concrete floor is painted, I did that last summer when we moved in but after a cold winter, we've decided that concrete is not the way to go. We bought laminate flooring that we did install in the sewing room and once we have redone the staircase, we'll lay the flooring there.

Both of the kid's bedrooms have been painted and one of these days I'll get around to making curtains. My living room is finally less cluttered and it makes for a wonderful respite away from the noise of the TV and children for the adults. We had company for the past week and a half and boy was it nice to be able to retire and talk at a normal level. Jeremiah scraped the ceiling about 2 weeks ago but I ran out of time so the paint was put on hold. The work on the house seems slow in ways but I do believe we've made great strides.


Jeremiah has installed quite a few new doors throughout the house. The previous owners really REALLY liked dark wood and flat cream walls. To be perfectly honest with you, I hate it! We are replacing all the doors in the house with 6 panel "off the shelf" doors. The dark wood doors took paint fine but after seeing what the hallway could look like with new doors, we decided against any more door priming and painting! Boy do the new doors really make it look completely different!

Jeremiah wanted to do some demo over Thanksgiving, mainly the kitchen, but we're excited about company coming to visit and demolition of the kitchen is now on hold. I'd love to rip the bathrooms apart, but all in due time.

We put up a pool a couple of weeks ago just so the kids would have more to do than sitting inside. It's heck when the inside is all there is because it's so hot out! While the cousins were here, we had all 5 kids remove the bricks from along side the outside perimeter of the shop. They were allowing water to flow underneath the sill and eventually it would have rotted it out. Jeremiah needs to get up on the roof of the shop with someone (who, I don't know because I am deathly afraid of heights and so was his brother who was just here). There are opaque center panels that allow light to shine in but they were installed incorrectly and the roof is leaking. They need to be removed, cleaned of the silicone caulking and reinstalled correctly then re-rivited. I am hoping the offer of a good free meal will get someone over here to help out.

We're finished with the fencing, did I tell you? When we arrived home from Ca. we finished up the 770' west stretch and, minus a gate in the NW corner where we own a 30' easement to Willison Rd., we're done! Even managed to get some cross fencing up for the buck's pasture. Although, it won't do a bit of good because there isn't crap a scrap out there to eat! It's all dead. Maybe next year they'll get to use it!

I am planning for November breeding of the goats for April babies. I learned my lesson and will NOT be kidding anywhere near February or March if I can at all help it! There are a few goats who will go off to auction in a couple of weeks. The price of beef is falling because of the lack of summer grass to feed them and the certain lack of hay available this winter. It's more cost effective for us to buy half a cow to stick in the deep freeze right now. 

Can I tell you how many loads of hay we've gone and gotten? Do let me tell you. Load 1 and 2 consisted of large round bales of alfalfa and grass hay. Three of them are in the barn, 3 of them are outside. The round bales, if set correctly, normally shed water and snow pretty well. There is an outside layer of about an inch that is usually no good but it protects the inner hay quite well. There is also a netting they use to keep it all tight (baling netting) that also helps shed moisture. Load 3 of 100 bales of grass hay went to the neighbors. We bucked all that by hand. Load 4 of 100 bales of grass hay was delivered on our way back down from picking it up to some people east by about half an hour, we bucked that by hand too. Load 5 and 6 consisted of 100 bales of the finest alfalfa Kansas has to offer-every bit of that went into our barn- and 120 bales of grass hay of which 58 went into our barn, 60 was delivered right down the road and 2 went to someone using it just for their county fair heifer and steer project.

I still do not feel we have enough stored as of right now. The last thing I want is to get the goats through and run out at the last minute. If I am hoarding, so be it. We have plans to make another trip up for hay at the end of the week, all of which is being delivered down the road to the same person who bought half of the last load of grass hay. I have 280 bales on hold with the grass hay grower and 100 bales of alfalfa on hold with the alfalfa grower of his 4th cutting this year. I am to call him back towards the end of August. Of those 280 bales of grass hay alone, 140 bales are spoken by the guy down the road and then the rest are mine.

With, let's see...140 grass hay, 200 alfalfa, 58 bales of grass hay already in the barn and 6 round bales, I'd say we're probably good!

 This may all sound pretty boring I suppose, but it's our life. We look forward to kidding next year, though many of the does will be bred to Andy, our spotted buck, as the economy is still bad and spots sell. He's nothing to scoff at for sure but now that I have the breeding stock I want, I can focus on building up the herd and that will mean cuts next year. I can only hope we get the rain necessary to keep the pasture green and growing! That seems like such a long way off and to be perfectly honest, after this horrible summer we've had, looking ahead to another winter is not really something that brings warm fuzzies to mind! Another year older and Another year wiser though and it should be a bit easier on us!

 Jeremiah has gone back to work. He was supposed to be in Kansas City this week for the annual teacher's conference but was able to forgo that to take another class putting him one step closer to a pay raise and his Masters. I too have thought about going back to school now that the kids will be in school full time but I think I will ride out the Fall semester and perhaps apply in the Spring. Business is going great guns and with as busy as we've been this summer, I'd really like to get better organized before taking on one more thing.

We've put off Jeremiah taking the classes for his CWI (Certified Welding Inspectors license). Someday...just not today. That seems to be the motto these days. We'll get there. We're forever reminding ourselves that Rome wasn't built in a day.

At any rate, I suppose I've gone on long enough. All I ever seem to have time for anymore is updates. I have photos of the 4H show over the weekend that I promise to post. 4H was another stressful venture that I think we'll have a better understanding of this coming year!