Rancho's Rough Week

My dear little pup Rancho was able to come home from the vet Monday morning!! I was SO happy to see him again, and SO glad that he is actually home after not knowing whether he would come home or not.

For those of you that don't know what happened to him, last Wednesday morning he was extremely sick, throwing up pretty much non stop and totally lethargic, I checked his temperature and it was also very high. The day before he had been perfectly fine, running around just like normal. Right away I could tell something was seriously wrong, so I called our vet and was able to get him dropped off there. Later that evening the Dr. called me and said that he was very concerned, wasn't able to put a finger on what it was yet, but was suspecting some kind of intestinal blockage, and wanted to get some x-rays.

Thursday he had the x-rays done, and that evening I was told that there was possibly some blockage...not at a specific point but nothing was going from his stomach to his intestines, so now I had 2 options, send him to a specialist for surgery which would cost like way more money that we could afford, or have my vet do an exploratory surgery, if he went in and it was something simple, like something just stuck in there he would remove it and hopefully all would be well, if it looked too major he would just put him down and not wake him up from surgery. Needless to say I was having a really hard time with it all, I really love that little dog and it just about killed me to think of having to put him down at such a young age. :( So we all started praying, that it would be something simple, and God would work things out somehow. He had his surgery on Friday, it went well, they didn't find any specific blockage, but found that his intestines were kind of out of place, the Dr. corrected that and we were just hoping that fixed the problem. Saturday morning I called and they told me that he was up, and doing a bit better but was still getting fluids and needed to stay there at least until Monday. Monday morning I called again and the Dr. said Rancho was up and going acting like a total new dog!! I went and picked him up yesterday afternoon, and the vets were just quite amazed at how things had turned out, they did not think at all that he was going to make it....and the Dr. told me that it must have been God that turned things around, and I'm sure it was!! Praise the Lord! I know it's just a dog...but God cares about even the sparrow that falls to the ground, right? :)

He's doing great, just sad that he has to stay confined for a while except for going out on a leash to make sure he doesn't eat anything weird and mess things up again...I'm sure glad to have him home!! I can't stand this picture of me...but it was the best one we got...so it will have to do. :D

Besh

My New Boer Buck!

Finally was able to get pictures of him today! I'm sure most of you read on Mom's blog that I got him...so neat how the Lord provided.

Actually it was rather humorous, Saturday morning Caleb, Daniel, Andrew, Josh and I were driving to the sale and all of the sudden it hit Caleb that we really didn't know how we were going to pay for a buck. So he started asking me about it, and was like "why in the WORLD are we going to this sale without the money to buy something???" :D I was like...well, hopefully the Lord is going to provide somehow. So we went on there, and sure enough I was able to find this little guy. I totally loved him, but had NO idea how high the bidding would go on him. Then I had the folks from Colorado come up and say they for sure were going to purchase the two bucks from me, so that was a major provision right there. Now just to hope the bidding wouldn't go TOO high. :) Finally it came around to him, they had 128 goats there and he was number 97 so it was almost all day before he sold. I was really nervous while Dad was bidding, but praise the Lord we got him, and for an even better price that we expected.

So here he is "10 Buck 2 Boers 111"...let me know what you think of him! :) And keep in mind, he's only 5-1/2 months old.

Besh

It's ANNA'S Birthday Today!!

WOW!! My little sister Anna is 16 years old today....hard to believe, but actually that makes me like REALLY old, oh boy!! :)

So much I can say about my dear sister...hmmmm where should I start? First off I guess I'll say Anna and I are like COMPLETE opposites in so many ways. She has light hair, I have dark, she likes to get up early...I LOVE sleeping in, I like goats, she likes cows, (that's a big one :P) Anna is quiet, I'm...umm, not so quiet. :) I make bread, she makes desserts...lots of little things I guess. But despite the fact that we are opposite in so many ways we ARE best friends. :) It probably wouldn't be such a good thing anyway if we were both loud you know. :P Anna is great for keeping me in line...she will claim that she has to go along with me to places and "monitor" to make sure I don't act TOO crazy. :D She's also really good at "detecting" certain things...very observant. :)


Anna is a SUPER good dessert maker, which is a REALLY good thing for me, because I greatly enjoy trying out what she makes. :) It's always the best!! It really IS a good thing that I don't get fat. :P She is also extremely talented at playing the piano, I'm amazed at how good she has gotten. There WAS a time long ago when I would teach her....she passed me up many years ago. :)



Photography is also something she greatly enjoys, and I'll add is VERY good at. I love seeing all the pictures she takes, she certainly has a lot of talent in that area. She always gets a good laugh when I get behind the camera...somehow I just don't get it!! :) So, in case you see a drop in quality in these pictures....that's because Anna didn't take them. :)


One of her favorite things to do is going out early in the morning and seeing the cows coming in for their morning feeding...she really enjoys anything that has to do with cattle, has her own black Angus heifer as well. We always have to joke around about what is better...goats or cows, but in the end we just have to realize that we'll never be able to quite agree there! :)






Anna is just an amazing sister, a lot of times it almost seems as if I look to her for an example...even though I'm the elder one. She loves the Lord with all her heart, and loves serving her family. We have tons of fun together whether its in the kitchen or out walking through the pasture. I'm truly blessed to have her for my sister.

I got some input from some of her friends as to how they would best describe Anna, I thought it fit her perfectly! "She's a very sweet, kind, wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, kind of girl, quiet but loves to have fun, a great photographer, and just like a "little mom."



And then from another one... "She is very humble and loving to her family and friends. She is loyal, and is a faithful letter writer!! She has a meek and gentle spirit, she loves the Lord with all her heart, and is a great prayer warrior! I would also say she's a real cowgirl :D, a superb dessert baker, and a wonderful photographer!!!!"






I could go on and on about Anna...she's just SUCH a wonderful sister. Hope you all enjoy the pictures I was able to gather up of her! :)

Love you SO much Anna!! Happy 16th Birthday!

Your sister,
Besh

OK State Fair Boer Show

The Boer goat show was a lot of fun even though we didn't win anything significant. :) Lots of competition out there with Boers!! We had fun though, I took seven and boy was it ever a lot of work getting them all ready. :D I had lots of help though, Elijah, Andrew, and Dad washed and dried them for me so all I had to do was the clipping, mostly. Although I did end up washing the first one which happened to be my buck....phew did he ever smell!! :D I finally finished up with everybody around 9:00 and we headed home.


The show was Saturday morning...we had a bit of an adventure though when my big Boer buck got loose in the show ring!! NOT GOOD!! He is still just WAY wild and so he took of running, jumped over a chair and then went right into a crowd of people. Thankfully someone grabbed onto him, but he got pushed really far until our neighbor who was standing by grabbed on too. So thankfully he was caught before he did any serious damage. :) That buck is just a bit scary on the loose. :P

Next is the Tulsa State Fair Dairy goat show...coming up on Friday! :) I'm pretty excited about it, and I'll be sure and update when I get back....NOW make SURE you check back here tomorrow...I'll have a little something up that you will want to check out. :)

~Besh

Oklahoma State Fair Dairy Goat Show!

We arrived back from MO at about 4:30, loaded up all my equipment and goats and took of for the fair. We made it in time, and I got right to work getting my girls ready. I had already clipped 2 of them, so they just had to be washed and dried, and then I clipped the last one. I take SO long clipping goats, so we didn't get finished up until about 9:30. I was taking my time though, because I was talking to a lady for a while, and then people would come through and ask questions and such. Several times I had quite the group standing there watching me. :D Somehow our stalls were like right where everybody came into the barns so we had tons of people coming through. :) It was so funny though, because we were right next to a whole row of La Mancha goats (they don't have ears) and it seemed like EVERYBODY almost was constantly asking "why do those goats not have ears??" or "do they cut their ears off?" I probably got asked that at LEAST 20 times! :D LOL at least with my girls I don't have to worry about that question...they've got ears a plenty! :P Then I had one person ask me if you could use my clippers to cut a little boys hair... she liked how quiet they were. :D I was like, well I guess you could, it's the same type thing. :D


The Tuesday show didn't go so well for me...and quite honestly I was really discouraged about it, thinking about how much we had invested into these goats, and trying to figure out why they weren't winning. :) Anna thinks the judge was mad at me for some reason... but I don't know. :P My goats were like SO not behaving that first day...oh boy it was NOT good!!

Wednesday turned out to be the big day. We left a little bit later, because my girls don't show until later in the day. While we were waiting I decided that I wanted to try out riding some Go-Karts that some of the others had drove the day before. It turned out being so fun!! Andrew and I got a 2 seater because he's not tall enough to drive one, and we were moving!! Poor Micah was so frustrated with his car because it didn't seem to go as fast and Anna and I kept passing him up. :) I think Andrew was just a bit worried about how fast we were taking the corners. :P We ended up doing it again when Caleb, Dan and Elijah came up later in the afternoon. I embarrassed myself really bad though the second time I drove. :P LOL got in trouble rather, it was pretty funny. :D And my back is majorly sore from driving them, they have absolutely NO padding and it's super bumpy. :) Rather painful sitting in hard backed chairs at the moment. :)




The show started out with me placing 4th in the open show with Main Attraction, which was higher than yesterday. And THEN my girl Shardae took 2nd place out of a large and VERY competitive class of juniors! I was SO happy! Andrew's doe placed a lot higher than the other time as well. The doe that placed 1st in front of Shardae ended up going Grand Champion Junior doe, so Shardae had a chance at Reserve, but it ended up going to a yearling doe.




The Youth show was really small, but we got Grand Champion, and Reserve, and then ended up getting Best Junior Doe in Show with Shardae. :) I was really happy about that too. It was so much fun, and certainly made up for the day before!



It was my first dairy show ever, and I really enjoyed it. Learned a lot and am looking forward to the one in Tulsa next week. :)

But for now...I'm getting ready for the Boer goat show on Saturday. Elijah and I took them to get their health papers this morning, and we'll be taking them up to the fair tomorrow afternoon to get them all prepped up. I'm taking seven, three bucks, and four does. Should be fun!

A Trip To MO!!

Well, we finally were able to make it to MO to visit my dear friend Danielle, they were having a screening of a documentary about her Mom and we went down to see that, and to spend some time with Dannie. Dad, Anna and I left early Sunday morning and made it there by about 1:30..,it was SO great to see Danielle again. :)

First of all we met up with Danielle at her house and got to meet her Dad and step Mom, and her cute little brother Luke. Then we headed to AppleBee's where everybody was waiting on us for lunch..."everybody" meaning Danielle's sisters Mandy and Tara, Sage and Tera Naylor, and Hans and Helena Bluedorn. The waitress there was like cracking us up SO much though, it was hilarious! :D After lunch we went over to a coffee shop, it was rather windy outside and well...lets just say Dannie and wind don't go too well together. :P Then we headed to Tara's house to change and get ready for the screening.

It was really neat to get to see the documentary, very sad of course but I really enjoyed seeing it and it touched me deeply. We got to meet lots of people there as well, which was a lot of fun.

After the screening it was time to party!! We all went out to dinner and then headed to the Hunts house, they were SO hospitable to us, opening their home and just treated us so kindly. I had so much fun, finally got to meet Collyn Hunt, Danielle's friend that I hear so much about. It was so neat though, even though we'd never met before it felt like I'd known Collyn and her whole family for years! We played "spoons" and then four on a couch, and got to hear some singing as well. :D AND we ended up staying up all night talking! :0 Well, actually Danielle and I were like SO wiped out that we ended up sleeping for about 45 minutes but that was it. :) We were just having so much fun together we didn't want to go to bed. :) And of course our time there was so short we had to make the most of it. We left Monday morning at about 6:30 so we could get back in time to take the goats to the fair...but I'm going to make a separate post about that.

It was such a great trip and I enjoyed every bit of it! The pictures aren't the greatest...but they are pretty much all I have. :) Love you, Dannie Mistina!

The Big Girls...

Thought I'd post some random pictures Anna took of the cows...those little calves are getting big!


This little visitor was sitting up on the barn the other morning...not sure where it came from!!

Getting My Boer Ladies In Shape...

I've been needing to get all my Boer goats wormed, and prepped for breeding which is coming up here pretty quick, and I still had some I needed to pull blood on for some testing as well. So trying to think of the best way to "get er done" I posed the idea to Andrew to make a pen and chute where we could run the girls one by one onto my grooming stand. That way we wouldn't have to chase each goat down and drag it on. :P So Andrew got to work and fixed up a small holding pen with a chute that led right up to the stand.



I had a lot of help too, Andrew would run the goats into the chute, and I would open the gate at the end and they would come right up onto the stand...the first one escaped but it worked really well with all the others. Once we got them secured, Hosie had a needle and syringe ready for me to pull blood, then they got wormed, and hooves trimmed. Hoof trimming does wear me out though, especially with my big Boer girls that enjoy trying to kick as much as they can. Not to mention a few toes stepped on....yes I was wearing flip flops. :P But it's so nice to know it's all done! We had a lot of fun, and Andrew just loves anything to do with moving livestock around so he had a blast helping out. :) Mercy even had fun trying to feed them hay. :)

Unicycling.... :D

Well, I thought you all might enjoy laughing at some pictures of me "trying" to ride the unicycle. Beware these pictures are a bit scary of me though! :D I've been working at it for about a month....it's taking much longer to learn than my genius brothers who mastered it in probably a week. :) Oh well...practice makes perfect I guess! Or rather in this case "crashing makes perfect." :P I tried to pose some "wipe outs" while Anna was taking pictures...but she never could quite get them...and I got tired of crashing on purpose so just me riding will have to do. :)

Hopefully ya'll will get a laugh from these... :P





Oh wow, I just realized I actually did TWO blog posts today!! :D That's amazing for me! :)

Besh