Laverne and Shirley (c/o me) got $4 in the mail from friends in Cle Elum (you know who you are, Sue and Bill!) for the new fence. They also got $3 via Paypal from a UK friend (Carl!). So that's lucky $7 for the first day of returns. That'll buy one 7' fence post 4' in diameter; PERFECT! It'll be sturdy.
I'll need at least 40 or 50 more fence posts, I'm guessing, if I place them eight feet apart. Then I'll need fencing material. 100 feet costs about $70 (if I remember right). I'll probably need at least 300 feet of that. (YIKES! I guess I'd better get out there with a tape measure and figure it out to the inch, so I get only what I need and no more!)
Today at the feed store I bought two bales of grass hay, 50 pounds of cob (corn, oats, barley), two bags of cedar shavings, and a 30 pound mineral block for the goats; then at the grocery store I bought them 30 pounds of Granny Smith apples at 29 cents a pound. $86 later, I think Laverne and Shirley are completely taken care of (except that I'll need more apples) until I can get them out in the fenced yard-to-be within a couple of months (weather, my work schedule, and my back and hand willing). My goats really are pretty cheap to keep, now that I have the pen made ($200) and the crushed gravel in ($300). I don't think they've cost more than $200 beyond those costs to keep for the six months I've had them, and that includes hoof trimmers, a hoof rasp, leashes, collars, hoof pick and antibacterial foot dip (for after trimming their hooves). They only eat about a half flake of hay a day between them. Once the fence is in, I won't have to feed them all spring, summer or fall because they'll be out in a pasture eating the brush, shrubs, blackberry leaves and other green stuff, so they'll be free to keep three quarters of the year. (It's getting them set up the first time that costs the big bucks.)
I was out hacking away a little bit this weekend on the path for the fence. The path goes pretty much right through a big, mossy ol' stump that's rotting to pieces, so I should be able to smash that out of there with a pick ax. An old, downed barbed wire fence runs nearly along the same path; it's tangled in dead blackberry vines, so I just cut it out as I come across it. It's probably 90% gone by now; I just have to make sure it's completely gone because the barbs are rusty and I don't want goats, nieces or grownups getting tetanus. I've had a tetanus shot, but I don't know if the nieces have, and I know the goats haven't yet, so I need to be sure to get rid of every last piece of downed wire.
While I was cutting dead, dried blackberry vines (big, thick ones), one of them snagged me, catching me in the left cheek and embedding a big ol' thorn there (briefly). OWWWW! It's fine now, but it was no fun at all when it happened. Maybe I ought to wear a bicycle helmet when I'm out there.
Today when I got back with the hay and stuff, I let the goats out of the pen to roam on the lawn and "help" me unload the SUV. (Yeah, right.) Laverne almost immediately jumped into the back of the SUV, atop the two bales of hay, to supervise while I carried the mineral block, cob and two bags of cedar shavings out. Then she "helped" me move the bales to the shed by jumping on each one every time I rolled it... She thinks an 80 pound bale isn't sufficient exercise and that adding a six month old, 100 pound goat is probably "just what the doctor ordered." (It is, if said doctor wants me to develop a hernia; otherwise, not so much.)
How can I not love working for my goats? They're more fun than I can describe... They even tried to "help" me cut blackberry vines by standing in the way and looking up at me adoringly. I believe that's when I took my eyes off the task at hand and snagged myself in the cheek with the blackberry vine.
What can I say? I'm twitterpated.
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