Pack Goat Central

Yikes. The Krampus is one scary dude!

And I love the Christmas tree ornaments!!

Yesterday we took Delilah out for a date. This is a young son of Nubbin's father and I like him better than his daddy (even if he is just plain brown). He's long and tall and I'm told his mother has a gorgeous udder. I don't remember his name--it was one of those weird names taken out of some B-grade fantasy novel, so Phil just called him "Chief". Delilah liked him. I'm hoping she took. He was not quite as keen as I hoped he'd be and I think it was because he had been busy all day with the two girls he was penned with when we drove up. But hopefully he got the job done.

[attachment=1009]
[attachment=1010]
[attachment=1011]

He does have good looking conformation. Hope she took.

"Chief" is a nice looking man! It's obvious Delilah thinks so, too.

Today I took my old 87 Fiero (Thats the purple car in the picture--My first car that I got when I was 18 with money earned in basic training) for a successful shake-down run. It has been down for 17 years or so, ever since something came loose in the gear box and blew a hole in the differential case. It came with a 2.5 Iron Duke 4cyl that sucked anyhow, so over the years I've been working on installing a Quad4-High Output with supposedly double the horsepower. Its been troublesome and has had some problems that were very hard to figure out. For instance, the clutch has been horrible and stranded me on a test run in the spring. Turns out the V6 clutch I put on it was so strong that over the years just sitting there, the finger-springs bent the flywheel into a dish. This never happens and required yanking the engine out again. Anyhow its been a nickel dime nickel dime but it seems to be nearing completion. I have to finish some interior work, change the clutch slave for a bigger one, clean the injectors, replace the computer, and I'll be done at long last. BTW those cars didn't come as convertibles. I installed the kit and painted it back when I was in my 20s. It still looks great and still has the "Smokin' Elvis" skull on the gas cap-- A logo that Oingo Boingo used sometimes. An 80s tribute car indeed!



In the spring I need to decide which of my other project cars to restore. 66 VW chop-top, 51 Willy's Jeepster, or the other 87 Fiero with the 3800 engine. Which one will it be? I'm as helpless as a kitten, up a tree....... BTW that little red car is a 65 Lotus Super Se7en kitcar, my daily driver. Goats are BANNED from jumping on cars around here, let me tell you!

So awesome! I love flashy cars. Someday we'll have a classic again.

Damn! thats some major work. And i like the kit. I had an 86 v6 model for years and loved it. It was a shame Pontiac didnt put more into the materials. For the first 60k miles, it was fast and fun! Best car I have ever driven in the snow.

The goats and I took a hike to the Columbia River today. It was 57*, breezy and partly cloudy day and I was comfortable in a t-shirt. It's hard to believe it's December 21st! The days begin to get longer now which means more time to hike!

I made cajeta for friends and family members' Christmas gifts today. I used brown sugar this time and I didn't like it as much as the white sugar kind, but there's no time to start a new batch. I made fudge the other day, and hopefully with 2-day shipping everyone should have their stuff in time for Christmas. It's also a Christmas tradition for me to make our own cards, and I finally got those done this morning. I drew a picture of two naughty goats savaging a Christmas tree. Phil colored them to look like Snickers and Sputnik.

Also, I continue to be amazed at goats' incredible breeding instincts. Delilah went to the buck on Friday, and yesterday she was still acting in heat. She's usually my short cycle girl, but I guess her first encounter with a buck flipped some kind of switch inside because she was still in heat the next day and today. And today she was not just a little in heat--she was on fire! I let everyone out to graze except Jezebel and Delilah because I didn't want Delilah and Finn together. Finn was wooing her through the electric fence, but I didn't think Delilah was desperate enough to try jumping over. Boy was I wrong! I don't know how long they were out together before I noticed, but certainly long enough to have some fun. I ended up leaving Delilah penned on my basement patio where the gates are higher. Hopefully she took with the first breeding or we may have more little Finn babies than we planned on. Oh well. He's a nice boy so it's not a disaster if she ends up having his kids.

Ive been enjoying the hunting seasons while they last these past few months. With the warmer weather last week I had started cleaning up the farm getting it ready to sell. Going to move to Burbank area in the spring hopefully if we can find a decent little place. Cutting back on the goats a bit to do so. Hoping to get down to 25 total. currently sitting on about 40, so not an unreasonable challenge. Finding homes and caring for the number of animals I do just takes up to much time and resources. Also been thinking about Bend, OR. a lot. I sure do love it there. Very tempted to grab a few goaties and head south Heading over to my brothers over the new years weekend to house sit. He has to head to Seattle to do battle over the dredging of the snake river. He is an attorney for the Army Corp. of Engineers and some environmental group is trying to stop them from doing it. So ill be in Walla Walla for a few days to enjoy bird hunting and fishing and as much venison as I can eat