Major Decision After The BIG Goat Plans Take A Turn!

We're still on carrot watch. No carrots have germinated yet, but it's not surprising, as I mentioned before, carrots do take a while to germinate. The norm is seven to 10 days. We're getting close to the seven-day mark now, and that's average. So, I mean, it could be 12 days, it could be 14 days, but we're still on carrot watch here, 2024 at Cog Hill Farm. This is Jason, and hope you guys are having just the best day ever today while I'm out here in the backyard garden area. I haven't really done much back here because I'm just been trying to rest my back some. I did fill up these two remaining beds right here with some soil. We actually bought another pallet of this topsoil because I had some beds that, you can see right here, this one just needed more in it. And I have that big raised bed in front of Brooke's mom's house, and I have two more of those that I wanna put somewhere, and so I need raised bed soil for it. And then we thought, better buy it now instead of waiting until it goes back to regular price, and it's not gonna go bad. So we just gotta store it somewhere. We just have to store it somewhere. Why I'm over here, like I told y'all every time, come over here in the backyard garden. They are over here waiting on me. But why I am over here, I do wanna show y'all that Mr. Nuggo has gotten up off his eggs. If you saw Brooke's video that came out yesterday, you know that he started sitting on what we thought was just one egg because we've been collecting the eggs. And she had actually laid another one either last that night or that morning. And he started sitting, which was very strange. Caught us way off guard because she laid, was it 16 or 17 eggs last year? And I think Brooke said that that made eight, he's laid eight eggs. All right, he didn't lay any eggs, she laid eight eggs. Goldie did. And so that kind of caught us by surprise, especially since Brooke has been gathering them because we explained that we don't want them to hatch any emus out for several reasons, mainly because we don't want or need any more emus. And it's fixing to be wintertime. And we just don't, him sitting for 60 days straight during the harsh winter for emus that we don't need or want. And y'all, you know, besides, we have three friends that want emus or ate emu. And outside that, y'all know emus are really, really, it's just not an animal that's popular and people want and trying to find good homes for them will be so difficult. Our buddy Lester over there, he struggled with ostriches. And yes, you may think that it wouldn't be hard, but it really would be difficult. So, you know, we just don't want all that happening because we want all our animals to have great homes. If we can't keep it, you know, it just would be a tough situation. So no sitting for now for Mr. Nugman. Y'all hear that cool bird right there? That's one of the coolest calls, in my opinion. Listen, that is a brown-headed cowbird that makes that call. It is so unique. It is very, very, doesn't sound like a bird really. It's so strange. I wanna show y'all something that I did do, but I have been trying to take it easy and not get my back all out of whack because it's definitely healing. And I'm way better now than what I was. But I did come out here and I made sure that I didn't bend over in either the wrong way. And I did put us a drip line in here in the Alabama parterre garden, because it's just so dry. It is so dry. You can see my roses here. These are my American pillow roses, which are extremely drought tolerant, but they are dropping leaves. They're trying to, they're stressed out. I mean, they're really, really stressed out. So I decided to put this drip in. And drip irrigation is so inexpensive, very, very inexpensive. I'm not done with it. I'm gonna put some emitters out here and some lines to get to the plants. So last week I showed y'all Fifi, our white Nubian dairy goat, was in heat and that we had made a decision to retire her because of the last pregnancy she had. But now, look who's in heat, Miss Paris. Now the other day, Brooke thought Miss Paris was in heat, but obviously she wasn't, but she is now. You can see her coming up to the fence. She's trying to swoon the boys over here. Now Paris is over two now. We always like to wait until our Nubians get two years or older before we even think about breeding them. And Brooke is thinking about breeding Miss Paris, but we do want to be able to produce our own milk here on our farm. And this year you guys know that dream finally came true. So now she's thinking about breeding Paris, but again, our concern is the babies. Either we keep the babies or we got a good home for them, but we actually have a amazing and loving family that is wanting dairy goats. They have a daughter and that's her dream. And so we have been discussing this with them for quite some time now. This isn't something that just popped up on the radar. I know we discussed more than likely we'll move Paris over here to this extra pasture over here. It's already got a shelter. Everything's in place. And we'll put Mo in there with her because Mo is no relation to any goat here on our farm. And that way Joe will not be by himself. He will be, he'll have Mo and Paris on this side of the fence. And he'll have, of course, the honeymooners on the other side of the fence. Well, you pulled it up right in time. But I was just explaining again how we were thinking about breeding Paris. She's ready and willing. She is ready. But I didn't know if you had made your mind up if you're going to or not. I want to. Okay. Because, you know, I have a home for the babies. I already talked about that. So as long as I have a home for the babies, then I can train her and hopefully milk her. I want to let Capri have at least a year off. Right. So she's not bred back to back. I mean, it's not a have to thing. I just, if I was a goat, I wouldn't want to bear children every single year. Yeah, that's right. I mean, I look at things the way that, that I put myself in that position. There you go. Kind of like Nugget sitting. I mean, that's you. You don't want to sit out there for 60 days when it's freezing cold and temperatures are not good. Right. So you do the same thing. That's right. But yeah, I do want to breed her. And you know, if she could have gotten to that gate, she'd open it herself and went over there. Oh yeah. She's wanting to go over there bad. So bad, bad. So you want to try and move them today or you want to think about it? I could hear this morning when you and I were drinking coffee in the house, we could hear a goat hollering, but I didn't know who it was. When I came out to feed this morning, she was in the stall with all the other ones and she came inside the barn hollering. Really? She was so eager to get out and get moving. I got you. You know, that heat cycle just does a crazy thing to them. And it does. And how long does it last? About a week. It is last week. So we don't have a big window. Yeah, that's what I thought. I think today's day one. You know, I kind of feel like if we're going to move her, we need to go ahead and do it. Okay. Because what if something happens and we can't do it tomorrow and then the next day and... All right. Well, I'll make sure we have a water and a feeder over here. Which I don't think we do, but I'll double check. So we need to definitely close that. Definitely shut the gate. Holly said I got to throw this ball. You got to drop it though. Drop it. You ready? Throw it in the grass. I'm going to throw it way over there. You know, the last time I went to TJ Maxx, I looked for something for you. What's that? They make this thing that you set the ball in, so you don't want to use it. Oh, I know that. Yeah. It'll throw up pretty good ways. Yeah, we're past 20 now. All right. Also, the tractor part came in too. You think you can get that fixed today? I don't know. I may try. Well, I'm fixing... I got the drills because I'm fixing to fix my trough that my little goats... Oh, the goats. Yeah. I've got some washers that I'm going to put in the screws. That's a good idea. So it doesn't come back out. That's a good idea. So we got things we got to do. Yeah. We got a tractor. We got to move goats and got to fix a trough. And this isn't going to be today because I know I won't have time today. That's Loretta. The gas tank came in for Granddaddy's tractor. What? Yeah, it came in yesterday. I thought you just ordered it yesterday. I did just order it. Well, if we don't get to the tractor today, I say that's okay. Let's get our stuff fixed. Okay. Meaning move the goats and fix the trough. Okay. What do you think? Sounds like a plan. I'm out of feed for the geese. Yeah. They crumble? Yeah. You think I can fit a bag in my basket? 50 pounds. I don't know. Does it say a weight limit on that basket? You remember? You can test it out. I can't. Test it out. All right. Loretta. Hey, quit teasing, Joe. Poor Joe. Goodness gracious. I thought you were helping. All right. Man, it ain't coming off. Jessie, no more getting in the trough, girl. Okay? No more getting in the trough. All right, so I ran to the house to get the part for the tractor. Y'all look at Brooke. So it does hold 50 pounds. Look at there. Goodness gracious. Don't fall. Oh, gosh. All right, alarm system. I'm gonna get away from here. What y'all doing this morning? Hmm? What y'all doing? Oh, skipper tipper. Tip in the lead. Tips in the lead. Here comes everybody else. Hey, baby. Hmm? Everybody want a front row seat. Mm-hmm. You wanna go put the trough up? We can use this one. Or do we have one? Now, we can use that one. I meant the trough that they tore down. I already did it. Oh, you did it already? Yeah. Oh. I'm kind of fast. I see. Okay. We already did it. No, trough for them. Do we have something over there we can use? We got a food bowl. I mean, they really don't need a trough this big. No, they really don't. If we've got something over there we can use. Let's see if we can find, find, I think we got a bowl that leaks water that would be good for a food bowl. I think. Well, look at there. Yeah. That one. That bowl leaked. So, we can use that for a food trough. Look at that jet flying. Where'd it go? There he goes. Goodness gracious. That's not what I came to see. I came to see this big fella right here. What's going on, Moo Man? How you doing, sir? Looking handsome as ever. There's your buddy, Mildred. She's over yonder. Mildred said he's going to stay in the shade a little bit. It is warm. It's definitely, definitely warm. We're going to be in the mid eighties again today. Mildred said she got to get that grass though before cold weather hits. Yeah. Glad to see you over here. I usually, after you get fed in the mornings, you go head on out to the, to the pasture and I don't blame you. I do not blame you one bit. I don't. All right, big daddy. I'll come check on you later. We'll come check on you later. I got to get some goats transferred. But this was the trough I was talking about. So, make sure there's nothing under it. You never know. But it looks fine. And again, this trough is cracked. You can see right here. So it does not hold water at all. But it'll hold feed just fine. And we're not going to feed them that much, but got to have something to put the feed in. I'm going to rinse this out. Let's see if we can get all this stuff swapped around without them boys rubbing on me. What you think? I think I can. I think I can do it. Hey fellas, what's going on, fellas? Tell you what, we can put the feeder. Yeah, I don't want it that close. I'm going to put it over here. I don't want it that close to Joe. That'll be good right there. I can't tell you- Paris and Mabel should be the only ones in this pasture. I swear, Topper's in there. Did you just miss him? No. Let me zoom in with my phone. Maybe I can see if the gate's open. But Bo-Pete was working on it like she was a locksmith. He knew how to let everybody in. I can't tell. I think Top's on the other side of the fence. I think it's the optical illusion. He is. So Mabel and Paris are the only two in there. Yep, they're the only two in there. Which is okay. Good. She does not have a collar on and she is not going to lead. So we're probably going to have to wait on her to come over here. And then just open the gate and her do her thing. That'll work. All right, buddy, your dreams are about to come true. Yeah, she's over there hollering for you. Electricity's not on, is it? It's not on. Got that one, no problem. That was too easy. Woo! Hot? No, I smell them. If Mo comes over here- Huh? I can get Mo to come over here. I got some animal crackers in my pocket. Mo! What? Come on, daddy, open the gate. Hurry, hurry. Come on, Mo. Wrong Mo. Come on, buddy. Come on, come on. Jason. Come on. Come on, Holly. Come on, Mo. Mo, come on. No, we're not. Did you see him? I saw him. He ran up to me. Yeah. Come on. Look here. Come on, buddy. Mo. Nothing in there. Come on. Look, look, look, look, look. Yeah, you're not gonna do that to me. Come on. All right, now don't you think- We didn't even have to touch him. Uh-oh. Oh, come on, Holly. Holly. Holly's stuck in there. Holly's not leaving me here with this thing. Oh, Holly. Come on, girl. Come on, Holly. Hurry. Oh, goodness. You say it didn't touch you, it'd be worse if it touched your dog. Oh, goodness. Let's turn the fence on. Okay, I'll get it. We don't want Joe to get the pears, so that's why we're gonna go ahead and cut the fence on. Cause that's his daddy, her daddy. Right. All right, here we go. We are on. Now let's go get pears. We're gonna go get pears, buddy. Yeah, we're gonna go get pears. See how this goes. This is probably not gonna go smoothly. I don't think. Hopefully I'm wrong about that. All right, so we gotta get Ms. Mabel back over to her party over here, so she won't be stressed out. But I may have to help and hold pears back. We'll see. You know, if this fails, we're just gonna have to let him in here for a little bit and then put him back out. Okay, let me go get a feed bucket. Yeah, she's not real quick, baby. Maybe she will be this time. All right, big, big, big, big change of plans. It's not going like we anticipated. And you know, that's just, that's just farm life. So we don't wanna stress the animals out. And Pears is getting a little stressed out. She does not want to follow us or go with us. She doesn't have a collar on. And so this is her first time with everything. So we got an idea. That is, Brooke is going to get. The goats are following her now. We're putting the goats on the other side. I gotta go shut the gate. So now everybody's separated. Pears is in this pasture by herself. There's no goats next to her. We're gonna bring Mo over here. And this is kind of how our friend that was a Nigerian dwarf goat farmer. And she was one of the top goat farms in the Southeast, if not the entire country. And this is how she did it. And basically she would put her book in with her dough that's in heat. And she would just put the book in there for a few minutes with the dough. We watched her do it. And sometimes it was like seconds. I mean, literally less than a minute. And you know, everything would happen. And then she'd take the book and put him back in his pasture. So that's what we're gonna attempt today. This is gonna be the less stressful and hopefully it works. You think he's gonna go run or we're gonna have to? I don't know. I got a few crackers. You got some animal crackers? I mean, it's not like he's gonna get to where we can't ever get him again. I may grab this yellow bucket because he thought something was in it. All right, Mo, take two. Come on, Mo. Let's try this again, partner. Come on. This way. Mo, you're faster than I am. Come here, Holly. Come on. Uh-uh, not the tree. Not the tree. Leave the tree alone. Uh-uh. Attaboy. Now. Come on. Let's go. You're almost in there. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Come on. Oh, I stink. Come on. Let's go. Come on. All right. Good deal. I still don't think he knows she's in here. She sees him. I know. Oh, yeah. Here we go. All right. Oh, she's so. Yeah. Just submissive. She quit crying, too. Yeah. She's as happy as he is. They're courting, and the deed was done, but we wanna make sure. I don't think so. We don't know. I mean, it looked like it, but we're not 100% sure, but she's still courting him, so we just wanna make sure. You see Jessie? Yeah. She's like, man, you stink. She likes him. Oh, yeah. She likes him. And you know, we have seen those before that don't act like they like the mate. He said, what beautiful waddles you have. Mm-hmm. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Mm. Definitely them. Got it that time. Mm-hmm. And then try to get Mo back to judge. You know what I think? What? I think if we had moved her over there, she'd have gladly just lived over there. Ha, ha, ha. As long as she stayed in here. I mean, she likes him. Yeah, she does. She don't wanna be separated. No. And I don't think I've ever had that. She's courting him as much as he's courting her. Yeah, it really is. That went fairly well. That might be or probably the way we're gonna do that from this point forward. That went smooth. And I will say this. I do smell like a buck. I got some buck scent on me. But I will say this. Mo is nothing. And I mean nothing smell-wise compared to Joe. It's not close. It's not even close. If that would have been Joe, it would have been 10 times this bad. And Parris is way over there back with the herd. He gonna lead you now. Joe said, come on back, friend. Hey, I'm willing to bet something. What? If you work with Mo enough, you can get him to lead very well and we can rent him out. But you gotta start working with him. I'm gonna start working with him when he's not in rut. Is that right? Welcome back, friend. Oh, he said, this is my girl over here, Loretta. Have you met her? All right, Mo. Back to your boy, Joe. Definitely gotta get this done today. Mama gotta have her tractor back and Holly's gonna supervise me. All right. Right off the bat, I got issues. So this is my hose right here, okay? I got this clamp off. It comes down and goes underneath to right here. Here's my hose. It comes down and goes right here. But guess what? Do y'all notice anything? Yeah, there's my hose clamp. See it? That's not the end that the head of the clamp is on. See, you have to screw that clamp off. It's got a flathead screwdriver or a hex head wrench. You can use either one. But it's up here. It's on the top. It's facing that way. It's facing this bar and engine. Obviously, that was all put in pre-radiator, probably pre-motor too, down the assembly line. But I just, that's extremely frustrating. All it had to be was turned this way. Crazy, crazy, crazy how engineering just does not think about the poor farmer or mechanic working on this stuff. All right, y'all. Got it done. And this time, I got that bolt facing. And if I ever have to get in again, I can get it out pretty easy. I don't have to worry about that issue anymore. And if you look, is it this side? Yeah, right there. You can see that crack. There's actually two of them right there. Yeah, right there. You can see it good. And that's where it was leaking fluid. But this won't be leaking anymore. And I cleaned it up real good. I tried to get as much of the oil and residue off that I could. And I wanted to do that just in case we saw some more fluid. It'd be a lot easier to find than looking through all that old crud or old oil sitting there. But I think this is gonna get us right here. And Mama can get back on her tractor. Let me show you what the boss number two's doing over here. Y'all look at this. Out here in the sun. See that? Sunning. If you missed the live stream, you don't know that I did record a kid's video. So the Cog Hill Farm Kids channel will be back up and going. And I should have that edited and uploaded one day this week. So stay tuned for that. But in the meantime, y'all be good.