Well, August is here. In Texas, that means all those people who were complaining about the heat in July start passing out. Those of us who know what August brings try to plan vacations to the Rocky Mountains, and every year in the past, Farmgirl and her family have loaded up the RV and headed to cool Colorado for some relief. But this year, due to competitive soccer and tomorrow's impending tonsillectomy, the family was forced to stay and endure the 109 degrees that comes every day at 4:00. We discovered that the temperature of the goat's water was hot enough to scald hands, so Farmgirl adds a pitcher of ice to the tank four to five times a day. This is in addition to the pop-up shade we installed to cover the water, which is managing to lower the water temp from almost boiling to very-hot-coffee level. It is definitely time to upgrade to a real barn so we can avoid problems like this. But due to the aforementioned tonsillectomy for Farmgirl's daughter, that's going to have to wait a while. Hospital bills trump the barn. Oh well.
Baily is no longer nursing on Socks, because Socks never really enjoyed mommy-hood anyway, and cut her off in early June. Tiny, ever the perfect mother, continues to allow everyone to nurse on her, even though the "babies" are pretty much the same size as she is. They basically have to lay down under her, and if poor Tiny had tiptoes, she would be standing on them the entire time. Belle, who lost her babies to a very premature birth back in February, is still in milk, in spite of the fact that she has not been milked in 3 months. Farmgirl has explained to her that the big bad boys will be arriving in October, and it would be in her best interest dry up before her date with them. But so far, she is resisting that logic.
Speaking of Belle, she has some nasty scabs on her bag. Farmgirl tried treating it with udder balm, but after two weeks, it wasn't getting better. Farmboy has laid down the law about excessive vet bills, so Farmgirl went to Tractor Supply to see what she could find. Hmmm, something called Blue Kote...which the label says is germicidal AND fungicidal, so that should cover all the bases. Guess what it does NOT say on the label? It doesn't say anything about wearing gloves or protective clothing during application of the product. Yes... Farmgirl's shorts, right hand and several left fingers were a lovely shade of sapphire. One week later - and countless applications of fingernail polish remover, olive oil, goo-gone, and exfoliating scrub - they have faded to pale lavender. But it seemed to have worked...Belle's bright blue udder is now almost wound-free. Farmgirl's son would say she had a DA (dumb ass) attack, because she should have known that any product called "Blue Kote" was probably going to do that. He's right, but we're going to call it a "rookie mistake" instead, because it's less insulting, and it doesn't get your mouth washed out with soap.
