Life's Little Lessons

This week I have learned, or maybe it’s received a reminder, that cheap is not always the best alternative.

A few years ago I replaced the kitchen faucet here with one I bought at Costco. Usually Costco has good quality products so I didn’t think much of it. Recently that faucet handle has fallen off a couple of times and then it started dripping so I decided it was time to replace the entire unit.

I went to Home Depot to find another kitchen faucet. Who knew that there are so many choices in kitchen faucets?! And depending on if you have two or three or four holes in your sink you can only use certain models. Prices range from $40 to $400.

Well, I didn’t think I needed anything super duper and didn’t want one of the pull-down type because of the issue I have with faucets becoming clogged with the sand that is in my water. So I bought a decent looking $70 faucet.

Came home. With some difficulty I removed my old faucet and proceeded to install the new one. Other than the fact my arms are not long enough to lay on the base of the sink cabinet and reach to where you have to tighten bolts which required me to have to raise myself with some blankets, the job looked to be rather simple. And it was. Until the point where I tried to screw the hoses onto the valve fittings. My existing hoses were too short.

I took a deep breath and told myself this was not a big problem. I could live from the bathroom sink for one day until I could get to HD after work the next day to buy the proper hoses, which I did. Came home tried again to install the hoses. Right length, wrong size to fit the valves. Many expletives and another night washing dishes by carrying water from the bathroom to the kitchen sink. (I really need a dishwasher). Tomorrow at lunch, I tell myself, I will run into Emmett and buy the proper hose.

So into Emmett I go. I buy the hose, come back home and install. Finally fits! Hurray! Turn the cold water handle and voila water comes out of the tap. Again hurray! But wait! What is that trickling out of the base of the handle—water? Turn off the valve, wipe away water, turn on again. Yep there it is again. Check the hot water handle. Again water comes out of the base of the cold water handle. CRAP!! I check all the fittings all are tight. Wipe water, turn handles, leaks, crap.

Finally I call American Standard and they tell me that I appear to have a defective valve and they can send me another one. Um no thanks I say. I’m taking this back to Home Depot and I’m not getting another American Standard product. In fact, I think I’m buying a much more expensive model this time because replacing faucets every few years along with hoses is more expensive than buying good quality in the first place. And that is my life lesson!


Where is Prince Charming? Wait a minute. I don’t really mean that. What I really mean is when am I going to win the lottery so I can pay people to do these things for me.

Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival

Last month I packed all the kids (goats that is) into the back of the horse trailer and headed to Canby, Oregon for the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. I showed the four boys and three girls in the Colored Angora Goat classes. I'm ecstatic to report that Rosie received Third Place in her Junior Doe class and Cole received Third Place in his Junior Buck class. Rosie, Ariel and Cole then placed fourth in a class for best young flock.

This is my first showing of my Colored Angora goats and it was a great bunch of fun.

The show was Saturday and on Sunday I took Rosie out into the vendor area where she walked around with me guiding her by the shoulders. She had many people stop to pet her and take her picture. She just loves attention!

Building Fence

Whew! Busy Days. I have been working on a 500 foot section of fence that will divide up the property and make it easier for me to wean kids, rest pasture and many other things. I thought I'd get the project out of the way during my vacation in May. That expectation vaporized when Dad had a heart attack and I spent the time with he and Mom.

My newphews have been helping me on weekends. They helped me "plant" 16 pressure-treated posts for end and line-support. I added H-braces myself and pounded in 32 T-posts. Scott came back last weekend and we hung most of the wire but only got the top clips on the t-posts so I finished those this week.

This weekend was a scorcher so I went out early each morning and was able to finish hanging all but 16 feet of the wire fence. I just need to add some gates and I can call that project complete.

So far I've put up about 2500 feet of fence on this acreage. I found instructions on the internet and tailored it to my needs and checkbook. It looks very nice and has held in goats, jersey steers and sheep so it is doing the job I wanted it to do.

Priorities are a Must

It is very easy to become overwhelmed by all of the things there are to do. I have a full time job other than the farm that requires two hours of commute time three days a week. I'm very fortunate to be able to work from home two days a week.


Besides my non-farm job I have a long list of things that need to be done around here:

• Install a section of fence


• Mow the pastures


• Wash fleece I just removed from five goats


• Feed little Rosie


• Tag and vaccinate kids


• Move the chicken trailer out of the backyard into the pasture


• Finish the new dog pen

On top of these there are the things that I want to do to be a good daughter.

• Teach Mom how to balance the check book


• Help her sort through the documents that are piling up in relation to Dad's failing health


• Visit and cook a meal once in a while just to take a load off Mom

Sometimes I feel like I can't possibly get it all done. Sometimes I'm not sure what to work on in the current minute.

At those times I take a few minutes and sit with a pen and paper. I list the things that I want to do. Then I decide which are most important. Those are the things I do first. I don't let those other things that are really the nice-to-have things, get in the way.

So for me right now it's build fence, mow pasture, wash fleece, visit Mom and Dad at least once a month.

Whew. Things have really been hopping around here. Dad had another heart attack last Wednesday. He is doing much better. I took that week off to do some fencing and ended up not even getting started. I did get some mohair washed and prepared for spinning. I also took a dyeing class from Lonna Steele at Puffy Mondaes in Nampa. It was a great time and I came home with some beautifully dyed yarn and sold some of my mohair too. Yippee!

Next on the roster was getting my ETSY store going. I finally have a store called mohairlocks and have posted three yarns for sale there. I have a bunch more to post and some mohair doll hair and will get those on the site in coming days. http://www.etsy.com/shop/mohairlocks

A friend I met via a spinning group is selling her knitted works at farmers markets in Horseshoe Bend and Crouch. Angie very kindly offered to take some of my yarns to those shows. I really think I need to take her up on that offer.

Glad news and sad news

First the glad news . . .

I'm very happy to report that little Rosie has improved enough to be let out with her extended family. Actually, she insisted on being let out last Sunday night. I was feeding the other animals and I could hear Rosie in her dog crate in the house yelling as loud as she could. I hurried to finish my chores and fixed Rosie her bottle. She drank that and then stepped out of the crate. I knew that meant she wanted to go outside to do her business.

I took her out to the backyard. She did her job and then began grazing on her favorite treat in the yard, my only rose. After a few minutes of that I took her back inside and placed her in the crate with much protest from her. Soon she began yelling that yell again. I thought she must want some more greens so I went outside and picked her a very nice salad of greens from the yard. There was a cup or more and she ate most of it. Then she began to yell again. Back out to the yard I took her. Back inside and more yelling. It was apparent that Rosie was finished with being cooped inside. It was also apparent that if she did not go out with her family I was not going to sleep that night.

Rosie went out to be with her family. Mom was happy to see her as was brother and they welcomed her back. Rose was ecstatic and jumped and ran and butted heads with her brother. She has been out for a week now and finished off her round of meds out there. She has a bit of residual cough, but it is improving and she is eating and playing like a normal kid.

And now the sad news . . .
I have had the pasture divided with an electrified net fence because I had some work to do on the perimeter fence to make it goat and coyote proof. I felt the goats were safe behind the net fence and the perimeter fence was not a high priority.

When I came home from work on Friday--the 13th--I saw one of the mother goats laying next to the net fence far apart from the other goats. Then I noticed that part of the fence was toppled over and I had a sinking feeling about what I would find there. I went to investigate and found two-month-old Goldie laying dead, caught in the fence. She had apparently stuck her head through to eat the grass on the other side and her horns prevented her from pulling back. In her panic the situation went from bad to worse and she died. I'm heartbroken to think of how awful her last minutes were. Her mother called all weekend listening for her kid to call back. I have apologized to her for the part I played in the tragedy.

The net fence is now gone. I will never again use that type of fence with horned baby goats.

Rosie the Bottle Baby

This is Rosie. She is a registered Colored Angora Goat. She and her brother Blue were born on March 29, 2011. Rosie's mother has only one functioning udder. She favored brother Blue from birth and did not let Rosie have her fair share of milk.

I started bottled feeding extra milk to Rose as soon as I realized that the mother goat was not providing her with enough milk and was favoring brother Blue. I don't know how much colostrum sweet Rose received from Mom, but I do know that she has been holding her own drinking from the bottle and what she could glean from Mom. At just over a month old she is now sampling greens in the pasture and eating some of the goodies in the kid creep-feeder.

Last Thursday I heard her cough. I didn't think much of it because she had been digging into the food I had just put out for the adult goats and I thought she probably had gotten a bit down the wrong pipe. It was just one cough . . .

Then Friday I heard her cough again, and she didn't drink as much milk as she had been doing. By Saturday it was very obvious that little Rose was sick. It was a beautiful sunny day and the other goats were enjoying pasture time on one of the first great days this spring. Rose followed them out and then lay down, not eating. I watched her and became more concerned.

Sunday it was the same. Beautiful day, other kids romping madly around the pasture, Rosie eating a bit and then sleeping.

In my area large animal vets are becoming very scarce. And very few of them take emergency weekend calls. I knew that I would have to wait for Monday to get Rose in for medical attention. I brought her in the house and set her up in a large dog crate. I filled a vaporizer and set that up near her.

On Monday I got Rose in to see the vet. The diagnosis is pneumonia. She is on a strong round of antibiotics and vitamin shots. So far she is doing well. She is still coughing, but the rapid breathing and fevers have subsided. On warm days I put her out with her family for short periods so that she can have sunshine and fresh greens.

I hope this sweet little goat pulls through this. For now all I can do is keep her warm and well-fed and give her the medications that will help her beat the bug.

Welcome to the Idaho Mohair blog. Here you will find information about farming on a very small scale. I have chosen Colored Angora Goats as my farm product and brought the first goats to the farm in June of 2010.

I'll blog about my experiences involving the goats, farm living, marketing and anything else that I think my be interesting to someone reading about my farm.