Finished!

I have officially finished the first draft of Dragon's Whisper! I hope to finish the second before the end of the year. Think I can do it?

A Kick In The Butt

I haven't written harldy at all this summer. And yes, I'm hiding under the table now. But the other day I forced myself to write. It was only with the help of Write of Die that I managed to get anything done. Then a couple word wars, and I've written a thousand words. It's a start. Wish me luck!

That's a new one!

How worked up do you get over your book? Enough to sleepwalk and tear your room apart looking for a title? (No joke. My mom said I was banging around in my room in the night, and when she asked me what I was doing, I said I was looking for a title for my book. Even found a scratch I didn't have the night before to prove it) Hopefully I'm not the only one whose writing intrudes into their dreams!

A Change in Direction

This blog will be undergoing a change in direction. My writing has become an obsession, so I'll (for the most part) talk about that only now.

When someone picks up their pen and say "I am a writer", they split into two personalities, the Writer and the Critic. A typical conversation with the Critic tends to go something like this...

Critic: That dialog's flatter than roadkill on I-80.

Writer: I know. Shut up. I just need to finish the first draft, and then I'll listen to you.

Critic: (Silent for a moment) No one's ever going to want to read something like that.

Writer: I know. But you can't revise something that doesn't exist.

Critic: That dialog's flatter than roadkill on I-80.

There is no way to completely sqaush the critic, but I have found that making episodes with the Writer and the Critic makes the Critic's jabbering more amusing than anything.  For now, here is a more amusing one.

Critic: There's a plot hole.

Writer: I have eyes, too. I'll deal with it later. I'm nearly done with my first draft. Can't you shut up until then?

Critic: And if I did you'd never get published.

Writer: (Picks up a piece of bad dialog)

Critic: Glad to see you're finally paying-

BONK!

Critic: I can't believe you just hit me with that-

BONK!

Critic: (Staggers) Of all the nerve-

BONK!

Critic: (Collapses, unconcious)

Writer: Maybe I'll be done with this scene by the time he wakes up.
 

Adventures with Goats....and Banjos

Maybe I should change the name of my blog from Adventures With Goats to Adventures With Goats And Banjos. Perhaps I should explain. For a while, I've considered taking up banjo or some similar instrument. I saw something called stumstick, and looked into it. I was going to get one, since it's not too different from banjo. Mom agreed, but decided that it was too simple and I would get bored. (It's made for beginners) So we found a cheap, quality banjo instead. I still kinda like the idea of a strumstick, but banjo will be fun, too. I'll tell ya'll (Who am I kidding, I'm the only one who reads this) when it gets here, and how it goes.

Bit by the Hunting Bug

I know, It's been forever since I last blogged. It's been kinda busy with school starting. But school hasn't kept me too busy to get hunting fever. This year, I have both an any antelope tag, and a deer buck tag and doe tag.  Antelope season starts October first, and goes through the 14th. We're going to try to go on the first.

Another Random Goat added to the adventures!

  From the title, I'm sure you know what happened. We couldn't control our addiction, and we're picking her up in two weeks. She's Alpine, LaMancha (Notice a trait with all our goats?) Toggenburg, and probably a lil' bit of everything. She isn't named yet, although I'm thinking Cinnamon Roll, or something along those lines. She's not Oberhasli red, or dull chocolate brown, Kind of a roan of the two.
 
   In other news, my lambs sold, they're being picked up tomorrow.

Ribbons and Dogs...

Back from the fair with some good ribbons! With lambs: Purple in showmanship, red in non-market (There were so many lambs that didn't make wieght they made a class for them) With goats: purple, bronze medal in showmanship, and purple in market

We got our farm dog! We don't have our farm yet, but we've got the dog!

She's the product of a divorce, the ex hubby took her, then the ex's girlfriend took to beating the poor dog. Our rescue friend took her, then mom fell in love, so we took her. She's a really good dog. Right now she's sprawled out beside me. :)

I've been bad...

I'm killing time. Taking the animals to the fair in about an hour.  I'm terrible about bloging lately, so I'll tell you what all's happened.

The lambs fell out of the trailer. * Mine were OK, but Stella broke her tail off!

Stella is 20 pounds under for minimum weight for sale on Saturday. *When they fell out of the trailer, they went off feed.

Still missing her

A know it's been awhile, but I still miss Caris. I thought I was completely over it by now, I guess you never get completely over it.

Triple Yank!

Before you think I'm racsist, let me explain. 'Yank' is what the guinea's alarm call sounds like. Thier nickname has become 'yanks' from that. I though I heard "the call" so I went in there. There, on the 'roof' of their cardboard brooder box, we 3 very smug guineas! Two of them scrabbled to the other end of the box, where it sloped, and slid right in the laundy basket! Easy catch on those two, the box piece covered most of the top of the basket. Third guinea was another story. Chased him around the room for a while, finally caught the little booger!

Tired Guineas

We have started turning the Guinea's heat lamp off during the day for two reasons, 1 It's so stinking HOT they don't need it. 2 If they have it all the time they won't feather out as quickly. It was dark in there, and I peeked in to check on them. All 10 of the little boogers were curled up, heads tucked behind their wing! Then we talked too loudly...."Pip?"....

Camp War Stories!

I got back from camp alive and able to tell war stories! So here are a few!

Our dorm leader was awesome! She said she liked noise, and didn't like awckward silence. I called her on that later. One thing I should explain is that we had acsess to coffee practically 24/7! (Imagine 12 hyper girls jammed into the same room, yeah!) We got to stay up late, but we stil didn't get to bed before 2:00 (AM!) each night (er, morning!) Every night in the dorm was very, er, loud. LEt's see, there was Sarah being obssesed with popping ballons, There was Ellie and her whoopy cushion, there was the shoe fight, there was Ellie being really loud, there was Ellie being duct-taped, there was the threat to sleep in the hall if we didn't quiet down RIGHT NOW. (BTW that usually sounded like, "HALLWAY!!!! NOWWW!!!!!") Hmmm, what else, there were games, there was us being really hyper, there was "HALLWAY!! NOW!!" If Elle used the whoopy cushion one more time. (The hallway threat was all in good fun, though) There was the fact that security camped outside our door. (Yes, they did, don't ask) There was Sarah scaring the dorm next to us by popping a ballon in their room after they turned out thier lights. So yeah, camp was really boring and dull!

GOT THEM!!!

We got them! We got the guineas! Mom got them while I was at camp! They're so cute! There are 10. There are ,3 Lavendar, 1 White, and 6 mixes of Pearl and something else. We are going to get pictures of them tomorrow. I am going to try to make a little penout of chicken wire for them so they can play in the grass. They will only get to be out for a few minutes, but I'm very sure they'll love it! I have been watching them, and I have come to some conclusions...

-They are funky birds.
-They are funky looking birds.
-They are funky acting birds.
-They dish out 'The stinkeye' often.
-Whenever they lower they're beaks, they scratch with their foot.

 I have to go to bed, so this will be continued tomorrow. (Maybe)

Hot!!!!!!

I know I've been a bad blogger. There just hasn't been too much going on lately. Besides that it's hot. Really hot. Did I mention that it's hot? I'm leaving for camp on monday, so I won't be blogging next week, at least not until friday.

Rain

    After Caris died, mom wanted to get a replacment as soon as possible, so that her place wouldn't be left empty. We went to a friend, not thinking they would have any babies so late in the year, but they did! We thought she was Alpine, but she's... Alpine, Lamancha, Nubian, and maybe something else, she has saanen ears. She is soooo cute!  She is marked just like an Alpine, with the pretty lil black sideburns! She is a gorgeous cream/red roan like color. She's skittish, because the only time she has ever been handled was when we came to look at her. She's already settling down, not liking to be caught, but becoming a love bug after she is! Yes, I'm in love!

   She is going to sleep in the milk barn for a few nights, until she is adopted by her new mama. Last night she got to sleep with a lamb her size. Before, it had only come into the milk barn to get it's goat. It bounded all around the barn, jumping up on the stands, crying for her goat. Rain just watched, wondering what was wrong with it. I am going to go see her in a few minutes, to see how well she did.

RIP

Carris fell into the horse tank last night. She didn't make it. Rest in Peace, Carris.

Goats, goats, and more goats...

Got back from the goat show. It was awesome! There were some AMAZING goats there! I had a hayday scetching goats. Soo fun! I could tell you about all the beautiful goats, but it would take a whole book to write about! I get to go tomorrow too!

I've been watching a bunch of gaot videos online, and saw a really awesome one. I'm not into meat goats, but there was an anglo-nubian (Whatever that is)  That's fatter than any boer I've ever seen. Well, it's not really fat, actually. It's MUSCLE. You can just see em' rippling as he walks! He was a REAL looker! (This doesn't mean I want meat goats now, honestly! (;  )    But still, he was pretty!

(Ok, I'm done ranting about goats now.)

Edited to add. Wait, no I'm not. I just realized that I never told anyone about showing Andy last year. (Please don't think of this as bragging, I'm not trying to, and it will explain my confidence in her)

I got her last year, in March. She had hardly ever been touched by anyone, and was more skittish than a wild rabbit. It was a wrestle to catch her, and a fight to force the bottle into her mouth. After about two weeks, I could get about halfway across the fairly small shed to her before she spooked. Be two months, instead of me having to smack her on the head to get her to take her bottle (Figure of speach, I never actually hit her), she was smacking me into subbmision!

I bonded with her a lot. We became great friends, and she would get to come out and follow me around. She became my pride and joy. Everyone commented on how pretty and sweet she was. I worked with her, training her for the show ring. It didn't take long, and soon she walked like a dream. She would set herself up, too. She would line her legs up perfectly, and stood amazingly still as long as I could.

We got to the fair, and she was an angel all week. She was quiet, and the one time she escaped was when the gate was left unlatched, and everyone got out. She was caught quickly and easily, she didn't run when I came for her. I took her out of her pen to prepare to show about two shows before our turn.  It turns out that the judge was long winded, so it ended up being three hours before our turn. Andy was tired. She was very content to just stand and try to get some sleep. Yes, she did fall asleep in the ring. We had to trade goats for a few minutes, and she didn't give him any trouble either. I got third purple in showmanship with her. I was so proud of her! In showmanship, it isn't just on how well the human shows, it's also about how well the human and goat work together, and how well behaved the goat is. She went home, with her ribbon proudly displayed, and me very happy with my amazing goat. If I have what may seem like to much confidence her, this is why.

Two Options

There are two options for someone going to watch a goat show.



-Not give the dozens of pens a second glance. You've seen goats before.

OR

-Nearly kill yourself trying to pet them all at least once, sketch as many as possible, and still see a few shows.

I think I'll go with the second one! (;

Hairy Dairy Tomorrow!

Yay! Hairy Dairy tommorrow! I don't get to show in it, but I can't wait to see all the goats! Soooo wish that I could show Neal, that beautiful red moonspotted nubian buckling! *swoon*  

Started Tommy on collar training today. He didn't like it very much, but we're going to work on it. Now it's time to start working on setting up my lambs. Rugby is maturing nicely, but still isn't friendly. Stella is a a big happy lamb!