What a Day!

This morning was such a calm and peaceful morning.  Roosters crowing, the smell of coffee perking, and the plaintiff cries of goats waiting to be milked.

I started a jar of sun tea....

Pondered the perfet plant to go into this planter...

Morning chores went off without a hitch.  Except for this.

Her ligaments were gone, and she was restless....pawing at the ground here and there. I knew it would be today.

I moved her to the kidding pen and watched her closely all morning as I worked outside in the garden, and doing other chores.

By 11:00 she wasn't getting serious, but me and the family were getting quite serious about needing food....so I went into the house to fix a very late breakfast.

An hour or so later I checked her again and didn't see any progression, so I went back to my cave (dark bedroom with a window unit set at a devine 65º) and took a well deserved nap.

about 2pm I was awakend by Bob saying "where are the kidding towels?  Moon Pie has popped!"

CB had come by for a minute and was the first to spot them.  Bob and I were still somewhat in a food/siesta/coma and gathering our missing brain cells.

2 bucks.  Absolutely beautiful, strong and sound eye-candy type bucks.  What a shame.  Their names are Cabrito and KaBob.  Pie did an excelllent job, kids and placentas all out and done in about 2 hours with no assistance.  She'll be raising them herself.  Her udder is coming in nicely and I'll have pics tomorrow.  I would have had pics today......but guess who showed up...

Once he was done munching on his keys, he had some serious duck rodeoin to do....

The ducks won.  Again.

Then he spent some time mopping the driveway......just before he found another fire ant mound.

This was his third run-in with fire ants, and each reaction has gotten progressively worse.  Tonight it got downright scarey.  He had 2 ants on him but he broke out in hives from head to to within 15 minutes.  By 30 minutes he was wheezing.  I gave him a good bath and washed all of the spots well, then gave him a dose of Rescue Remedy before heading to the store for infants benedryl.  The RR immediately stopped the spread of the hives and eased his wheezing.  The Benedryl stopped the itch and helped him rest.  Out of the woods for now, but I think we may bet checking into getting an EpiPen for him just in case.  It's just not worth the risk. 

As for the ant mounds, I'll be using my special blend of peppers on them.  Works every time.

That was a close call.  It reminds you just how fragile they are.