I am SO exhausted and it's getting ready to be worse this week!

[ihurttoo]

Sorry for venting, but I am so exhausted right now and it is getting ready to be worse. My husband is going out of town this week, and I will have to do all the bottle feeding of our baby goats while he is gone. (They have to eat every 4 hours, even in the middle of nite!) I also will have to bottle feed our 22 bottle calves twice a day.

When I dont sleep, it sends me into a fibro flare which almost always causes me to have an IC flare. I am terrified this will happen!

Please send me courage and pray this doesnt happen!

Thanks for listening!

Hugs,
Amy

[kadi]

Yikes! That's a huge amount of work! Can anyone come to help you out a little? What do you do with these animals? (City girl here doesn't get it!)

Sending a hug & hoping the week will go well & your health will remain stable.
Love,
Kadi

[ihurttoo]

We get the bottle calves from dairy farmers. They sell them b/c they sell the milk from the mothers. We feed them formula made for calves. We buy them for $100 to $125 each. We bottle feed them for a couple of months until they can eat hay, grass and/or grain. We usually keep them for about 7 months and sell them for about $800 each. So, it is a pretty decent profit.

The baby goats are called kids. We keep the girls, (called nannies), since they can have babies (which on a farm makes the money). Then, we sell the boys. (These are called billys).

The goats are usually shipped off from our local livestock market to other places. Goats are raised for meat, milk, and some for their fur, which is woven into certain woolen items. Lots of cheeses are made from goat milk.

Normally, my husband takes care of all of the farm. My father usually does everything when my husband is out of town. But, this week, my Dad will be gone too.

I am worried about all of it, but the middle of the night stuff is what really has me concerned. (Well, that, plus if any more of the goats have their babies while he is gone and have trouble having them! Sometimes they have difficulty having them if they are breech or whatever and they have to be pulled out. I have done it a couple of times, but I am certainly no pro! I just am scared something will happen that I havent seen before, since I normally dont get involved in all that.

With the goats, it isnt affordable to call the vet with a problem because the vet bill would be worth more than the goat. So farmers generally do all of that themselves. Which is all well and good if one is a farmer, but I am not! Quite scary, huh?

Thanks for hugs and well wishes! As you can see, I certainly need them!

Hugs,
Amy

[GriffsMommy]

Oh my goodness Amy! That sounds like so much work! I hope that you don't have a fibro/ic flare all at the same time. Sending hoping all goes well for you while hubby is away.

[waterflow]

Oh Amy! That is a lot of work for one person. How about someone from the church coming over to give you a hand? There must be enough people to help out in shifts. I didn't know you lived on a farm? Always wanted to do that. Marry a guy who had a big farm but just milking cows. Couldn't bring myself to send them off to be eaten. I know someone has to but I get so attached to everything. Can't even eat our fish in the ponds becuase I think of them as pet fish. Hope you don't get to feeling worse. Maybe someone will volunteer to help you out? Hey, how about the girl scouts or boy scouts? They have kids who raise farm animals. Maybe one of the kids would like the experience?

[dancemomof2]

Wow thats a load of work for 1 person. Hope all goes well. Take care of what you have to and if need be we will watch things here for you so you can rest as much as possible. Take it easy and don't over do it.

[ICNDonna]

Sounds like a lot of work. Any possibility you could get a high schooler to help fairly inexpensively?

Donna

[traceann]

Count me in with the "oh my gosh that's a lot of work for one girl!" whoa!!! I definitely agree you should try to find someone to help you out a bit! Even totally healthy that would be tough to pull off since you chase a little one around the inside of the house!

Oh geesh, I could see it now, if it were me, none would ever get sold, they'd all be my pets and hubby and I would be broke, lol!!!

[patricia1]

WOW that all goes well this week. Good luck..

[jaime15]

That is more work than a newborn! Hopefully you can find someone to pitch in to help.........a cousin or someone from your local church's youth group.

Rest when you can!

[vm]

Man, oh, man! What a lot of work that is. GOOD luck, Amy. I will be thinking of you, girl.

[DaniBelle]

Wow!

That's alot of work and sleep deprivaton!! I hope you can find a couple of teens who can help out. You probably wouldn't have to pay them a bundle, because most teens (esp. girls) love animals! Maybe you could ask a local school if they could get one of their teachers (biology, animal science) to ask their students if they want to earn some extra credit. Of course, you'd have to go through the whole school/parent/student approval thing, but it's just a possible idea. In the meantime, I'll be praying for God to give you extra strength each day (and night)!

Dani

[pingpong]

Any 4-H clubs in your area who would be willing to help?

[Kara29]

Thinkng of You!

Amy,

I'm sitting here with my Grandmother and we are talking about your post. She used to have a large farm. We think you are wonderful for everything that you do inspite of being so sick! I admire your strength and courage to take care of your farm. You are one of the most amazing women I know and I am so honored to know you. My thoughts and prayers are with you this week and always. Steve and Collin are very lucky to have you.

Love and BIG HUGS!!!!

Kara

[ihurttoo]

Thanks everyone for all your helpful ideas, thoughts and prayers. Steve just landed in San Francisco and called me. He had left a message for one of his friends and asked him to look after the cattle. The guy called him back and said he would. (Steve built his deck and a shed for him and didnt charge him anything. So, the guy said he wanted to help us out too. I will still have to take care of the goats. (The guy isnt crazy enough to take those on! ) But, at least I wont have to worry about the bottle calves. Whew!

I know I am still going to be pretty wiped out from the feeding the babies every 4 hours, but at least it gets the other load off of me.

Thanks you all again for all your suggestions and support! I dont know what I'd do without you guys!

Hugs,
Amy