Rain, Rain Go Away

Rain, Rain Go Away, Come Again Another Day

As many of you know, when we get a heavy rain, our bottoms hay field floods. When I say floods, I mean three to four feet of water on the field; and it may last a couple of days. From late August until 1 March, the goats spend their days on the browse of the creek bank and the grazing of the hay field.

A couple of weeks ago, we have a group of goats to escape from their paddock; and they made it to the house. When I discovered them they were browsing around our pontoon boat. I really didn’t think much about it at the time. But looking back I wonder. As everyone knows, a ‘party boat’ must have floatation vests for each person on board.

What I had apparently missed, while the goats were out, was a couple of the goats had gotten up on the boat and had been checking out the floatation vests and belts.

Monday night/Tuesday morning, we got over six inches of rain and the bottoms flooded. About 5 feet deep water covered the hay field and was working it way up the hill toward the goat barn.

When I went down to check on the animals, our herd sire, Hercules, was in his shelter, knee deep in water. His feet were wet but his back was dry. I moved him to a new sheltered pen.

What I found next, you are not going to believe. I went into the feed room and looked into the barn and there they were…the embryo babies, all three of them, had on bright orange floatation vests.

That was one of the funniest things I had ever seen. I tried to figure out how in the world they got the flotation stuff out of the boat, to the foot of the hill, and on the babies. I think they had help. At first I though it was my in-laws, then I decided they could not have gotten to the barn through the flooded bottoms. It had to be one or more of the dog who assisted them. As I looked around, I spotted a bright orange floatation vest about half way up the hill side. Yep, a dog has assisted.

When I started questioning to get to the bottom of this, I asked Dixie, but she was not saying a thing. DaleDell hid under a shelter and would not come out. I decided to ask Venus. She stuck her head up and walked away, like the Reserve Grand Champion she is. In the barn, no one was talking.

I heard Herc begin a conversation with a couple of does and decided to check with him. I ask what it was all about. He told me Venus had been behind it; but when she found out the vest would not fit her, she talked with Kattie and they decided the Embryo Babies needed the vests more than any one else. Bessie, crying over next to one of the shelters, was complaining that she, our favorite baby, was not offered a vest. I went over to take the vest off the little girls and was told, in no uncertain terms that the vests were to stay on the babies until the water started to go down. I tried to explain the rain had stopped and the water should be going down, but was told I couldn’t remove the vest until they could see that the water was going down.

Princess and Duchess, sisters, both told me, in unison, they wanted to talk about the current breeding schedule and how they miss running with Duke. I told them that was for a different story and went on through the barn. The ‘little ones’, the does that had been at the top of the hill (they are all between 3 and 7 months) were complaining that they had not been given vests but would not be caught dead in those bright orange ones. They wanted light pink or any other pastel color. Moving on through the barn, I looked back and here came the three Embryo Babies, 2 months old and dragging the strings to the floatation vest in the mud. They wanted fed. I explained that I was not down there to feed but to check on everyone.

I went into the rabbit part of the barn. They were all high and dry. Dry? Yes they were dry; they were without water, so I hauled water for them. The old bunny buck gave me a wink and stuck his nose toward one of the does. I looked at her; she had a twinkle in her eye, so I allowed her to join him in his bachelor pad….uh, cage. I went about feeding the rabbits and dogs, then checked back with the buck. Smoking a cigarette, he asked that she be, gently, moved back to her residence and bragged we would soon have additional rabbits to feed, for she was now in a family way…

As I return to the feed room, Venus stuck her head in and said, “Look here, I’m a Reserve Grand Champion and a Champion Senior Doe, I want my own private, well my daughters can join me, shelter. One that is dry and has hay in it, just like at shows.” After a short conversation, she went away in a huff, followed by all her daughters. None have spoken to me since.

I had fed all, checked the fences and started back up the hill on my four wheeler. I passed the Border Collie pen and was informed by Daisy and Sage that they wanted shavings added to their pen. It seems that Daisy, ‘Buns in the Oven’ has begun to gripe about the wooden floor in their house.

Up the hill I went. The young bucks all wanted something…. most wanting what all teen age boys want - girls. I said I would see what I could do. I parked the four wheeler and went into the house, scratched my head and looked a Shoi, the house dog. “Well what do you want?” Shoi didn’t say a word. About that time I heard the telephone ring and I woke up…..It was Pat, letting me know she had made it to work, finally and Clear Creek was out of banks and on the road in several places. She had to detour, several times but was finally at work. Then she said, “Oh, did I wake up you, I just wanted to let you know that I was ok and that I love you,” adding, “I’ll email you in a while. Bye.”

I got up, got dressed, jumped on the four wheeler and went back down the hill. I looked around; no floatation vests on the Embryo Babies. The water was high, and Herc’s old shelter did have water running through it, but he was ok. I checked out the area. All was well; the fences across the hay field were washed away, along with a couple of gates. I would wait until the water went down before I worked on fixing the fences.

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