Weary, Hot & Miserable in Noodle..

This drought is an awful, despicable thing. This is one of the worst droughts Texas has ever seen in a CENTURY and in my neck of the woods there is no end or relief in sight.

The grass fires that rampaged through the state wouldn’t have been so bad, if only they had been followed by rain.

Here’s a picture of the grass fire on the back of our property we had earlier in the year:



This one burned a lil more than ½ of our property…hubby and I stood outside of the goat pen with fire extinguishers and hoses until the fire department arrived....The fire stopped a mere 10ft from the goat pen... Thankfully nothing of importance was lost. Volunteer fire fighters put out our blaze and were quite efficient. Do support those volunteer boys when you can, with all the fires we've had across the state those boys have been run ragged!

I traveled to other areas a few hours east of us in the state and they at least had green vegetation and a bit of rainfall (in fact when I went that direction to get Tonka it was raining).

Here the rainfall we received was nothing more than a cruel joke…a spatter here and there, barely wetting the topsoil. OR, we got a nice run of tornados and hail, both of which brought very little rain. Only once this year have we actually had a puddle of water on the ground…that puddle was quickly soaked up in mere hours.

All the vegetation is dead or dying.. I planted a nice, huge plot of Rye, Rape Grass & Clovers for the goats……they came up well & were thriving, but the continued absence of water caused the wilting that rapidly led to death. Past few days we’ve had temps ranging from 102° to 111°! After the sun has gone down it gradually creeps down to 100°...Sad that the 90° nights actually seem cool.

Poor goats are hot and miserable, milk production is on a rollercoaster thanks to the heat and most days everyone is drooping.

Since our days have been well over 100° degrees, the kids get cabin fever as they aren’t the sort to be happily cooped up inside. So to help everyone the kids and I have been foraging.

We get up early while it’s still cool enough to be outside….. milk, feed & refill water troughs & buckets.

Then we grab a wheel barrow, some shears & set out to find yummies for the goats.

Mostly tree clippings, and whatever green grass we can find on our walks. The kids have a blast, they take turns pushing the wheel barrow, pointing out what they think looks yummy and the goats benefit too. So far we’ve been able to gather one wheel barrow full every morning & the goats LOVE it.

Sabrina & Lilly enjoying tree clippings. Look how big Lilly is! She's only 4 months old!

The girls. Sabrina up front, Lilly in the center, Tootsie & Keys (mini Alpines on right)

Bleuberry scattered the pile.

You would think it odd that an activity that sounds like a chore would be so fun for the kids, but they have a blast. They help out quite a bit, and eagerly too, and when I take over they hunt up lizards and whatever else catches their eye.

The baby boys & their goodies. Tonka (Lamancha) up front & Houston (mini Alpine buck) next to him.

Houston the mini Alpine buck, Sam my Alpine boy in the background..he was camera shy.

My handsome earless wonder Tonka, I simply adore this boy.

We do this until about 10:30 or 11:00, then we play “Water Hose War“, which is basically me shooting them with the sprayer, or them trying to limbo under the water, or my favorite.. making them run laps while I see how many times I can shoot them.. Then they get to play outside until they are damp dry, and by that time it’s time for lunch and they can settle in to weather the hottest part of the day indoors.

I see no end to the drought this year, but hopefully next summer Mother Nature will be a little more generous with that rainfall!