The Bulldozer gets to it

As far as the goats go, it has been a rather uneventful week. No new babies (which is a good thing... it has been a wet, cold few days.) We are still bottle-feeding two of the quads. #17 ("Stinky") is doing great. She's growing and every active. Her nickname is mostly due to, well, let's just say that we've determined that the goat milk replacer must not agree with her and has given her some bowel issues. She's now on whole raw cow's milk and we're hoping for some improvement in that department very soon.

#18 ("Tiny") is not doing quite so well. She seems to be taking a roller coaster approach to coming along. Somedays she seems to be doing better and then she's not the next. Problem one is that she really doesn't appear to like to eat from the bottle. It takes lots of coaxing and sometimes she just doesn't get that much to eat. Problem two is that she has this severe weakness (maybe due to problem number one?) that takes spells and seems to affect her back legs the worst. Lately she has not been able to walk. We really thought that we were going to loose her a few days ago but she's been getting stronger this last day or two and has been standing some. There is an entity known as 'floppy kid syndrome' which is really (as best as we can tell from internet research) a mystery to the goat owners world. Some people blame the milk replacer formula so we also switched her to raw cows milk. Thank goodness for our local friendly dairy farmers! We'll just have to see what happens in the end. She seems pretty spirited. As long as she doesn't seem to be suffering, we'll keep trying. Besides, Jonah really has taken to her. "She's my goat... my favorite. She won't die." Yes, we'll keep doing all we know to do.

As far as the house and farm goes, today was a good day for moving forward.

We got the preliminary drawings and estimate for the kitchen cabinets & counters, bath cabinets and a few built-ins. So far, we are quite pleased and really only can think of a few modifications. Also, as evidence by the photos, the excavator starting clearing! The top photo is where the septic system will be placed. It was just an area of wild brush and wild multi-flora rose bushes (ick!). The bottom photo is the beginning of the driveway.

The boys loved watching the excavator knock the trees down and then pull them out. We actually watched for a few hours.

So, all in all, everything is going great. Well, everything except that the den in house that we live in smells a lot like baby goat right now.