"Let's have some new cliches." - Samuel Goldwyn

Why?

If you were to go back (don't waste your time) I think you'll find most of my missed posts are on Tuesdays. Our small group meets that evening and we're typically not home until 8:30 because of how far out we live. By the time we get home my brain is too tired to compose even this drivel, so my routine is a cup of coffee, some dessert, and bed. Last night was no different. Especially last night.

With the kids now down in the main goat pen the "herd" is adjusting to new members. Like most social animals they have a hierarchy that needs to be re-established when newcomers arrive. In this case it means Sundae and Stella are merciless in their harassment of the kids and chase them if they come within about six feet. This terrorizes the kids who are about 1/3 the size of those two females and turns feeding time into chaos.

They're segregated for the a.m. and p.m. feedings so Sundae can get the special mash required due to her malformed jaw and the kids get unlimited alfalfa to help them grow. Stella wants Sundae's mash, Sundae wants Stella's grain, and they both want the kids' alfalfa. The kids, meanwhile, are too terrified to come into the barn because the prospect of food only makes the two adults even more aggressive. As soon as I get one goat where he/she needs to be and go after another the first one finds a way to escape and get where she doesn't belong.
AAAARGH.

By mid-morning I had things set up to butcher AJ. It took me two hours because I accidentally cut through the abdominal wall during the skinning process and had to work around spilling offal (an interesting word one rarely gets to use). Pam was in town at her ladies Bible study and got home just as I was moving the carcass from the gambrel to the table for butchering. So unlike the first time, she could tell me how she wanted it cut up to make preparing it easiest.

Itzhak weight about 115 lbs. when I butchered him and that was too big. Too much fat on the carcass and the cuts were too big, making them difficult to prep and cook. AJ was about 85 and that's much better. Less fat, and cuts like ribs and hind legs are a manageable size. Next up is Burrito, AJ's brother. But he's always been smaller and was at the bottom of the order in the group of four kids, so he typically got less of the food at each feeding. He'll not be at that weight for a month or so. Now that it's just he and Dolly he should put on weight quickly.

I'd planned on a run in the afternoon but my chair held me captive, refusing to let me up. I fell asleep, woke up in time to shower, wrestle with goats for the p.m. feeding (yikes!), and head off to our small group gathering.

Oh, and I posted on Facebook that I'd butchered AJ and we now had 32 lbs. of freshly wrapped meat in the freezer. That brought a total flame from a "friend" (now a former friend, per her action) who finds my "bragging" about killing and eating animals we've named inexplicably offensive and insensitive.
Nobody likes to be ripped, but I decided I could deal with it and that the best course of action was to not respond to her post (though I certainly thought of several possibilities). The fun part? Our pastor came to my defense and responded that unless she's a vegan (she's not) her comments were a bit hypocritical and the appropriate thing for her to do was unfriend me, not blast me in public.
If you knew our gracious, easy-going, gentle pastor you'd understand why Pam and I got such a kick from his response to her.

Our small group gathering last night was a Christmas gathering. Our normal pot-luck was appetizers (so much easier to spell than oredervs) and then a white elephant gift exchange. One of the gals is two weeks away from delivering their third child, a couple of them are students at the U of O (one a doctoral student in chemistry, if that isn't mind-boggling), and one couple is headed out of state for the holidays, so this is our last gathering until sometime in January.

One more fun thing happened.
Facebook did that thing where it brings up one of my past posts as a memory. In this case it was from four years ago and one of the pics of the '62 Beetle I restored, specifically the engine bay. Made me smile at the thought of that project and the outcome. (It turned out pretty nice.) So before posting that "memory" I commented that I ended up selling it to a guy in Abu Dhabi. That comment got a few likes, including from Amjab Hibri, the guy in Abu Dhabi who bought it!
He's since sold it to a guy in Saudi Arabia, so my efforts have reached internationally.
Amjab and I had fun working out the sale from opposite sides of the globe. It was one of those occasions when an unlikely cooperation between very disparate people restores your faith in the ability of people to work together.
So it was good to see his name pop up on my feed.

OK, it now 6:55 a.m., I've had breakfast (eggs from our hens and BACON). It's time for a third cup of coffee after which I'll go out to the barn and wrestle goats.