More Rain, Both Literal and Figurative

Today, we got another 1.7 inches of rain. The forecast for tomorrow includes more rain. Daily rain is good, but it would be better if it stayed at 1 inch or less.

Really had news --- the stupid dog, Max, killed one of our goats. We have been trying to give him away for a while, because we were afraid of the possibility of this happening. It finally did. I, personally, would like to strangle that dog to death, but the rest of the family wants to seriously work at finding a home for him. If you want him, post a reply to me.

Some Really Wild Weather Arrives

Some really wild weather has hit central Texas. Down in eastern Austin, rain was falling at a rate of 4 inches per hour! Here at the ranch, we got 1¾ inches, all between 7PM and 8PM. While the rain is welcome, this was too fast. Too much of it is running off, taking the top soil with it.

Yesterday evening, we went to a meet the candidates night at the Republican party county headquarters. We got to meet all the local and county candidates. The state-wide candidates, of course, were not present. The state-wide candidates, from either the Republican or the Democratic parties, never stop at the small towns any more: not enough votes and little fund raising potential.

This is shaping up to be an interesting political season. The House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are up for election. This means that all of the Representatives and one Texas Senator are up for re-election. These races tend to be a referendum on the job the President of the US is doing. In addition, there have been a number of scandals recently, including sweet-heart, no-bid contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq and New Orleans, the corruption scandals related to lobbying, and, most recently, the sexual scandal involving a Republican member of the House of Representatives.

For the Governor's Office, there are five major candidates: Rick Perry, the Republican; Tom Bell, the Democrat, Kinky Friedman and Carol Keaton Strayhorn, the independents; and libertarian whose name I have forgotten. Conventional wisdom says the Rick Perry will win. However, the independants have a strong following. Currently, the opinion polls show:

Rick Perry	33%
Carol Keaton Strayhorn	19%
Kinky Friedmand	16%
Tom Bell	13%

Early voting will start soon. If the turnout is heavy, I believe it will favor the Republicans. If the early voting turnout is light, I think the independents will have an advantage in the Governor's race and the Democrats in the other state-wide races. The weather will have its part to play, since rainy weather will tend to keep people away from the polls. The real results will be announced in about three weeks.

Just Another Day

Good News!
We got a little more rain, about one and a quarter inches. This is great! Just enough to soak in. Not so much that it all runs off. With the rain we have been having, the main pasture is starting to green up. This is good news for the herd and, of course, our wallets. We will need to buy less hay and goat pellets.

More Good News!
We are down to two does in isolation. We pronounced one clear this evening and returned her to the herd! I hope we return the other two by the weekend. If so, this outbreak of pink-eye is finally over.

Not so good news...
One of our older does is experiencing significant weakness. We have not determined the cause. We isolated her in the house compound, gave her an additional dose of worming medication and a vitamin B complex injection. Now, we wait and see if she improves.

Weather - There will always be some...

I found this on the MSNBC web site yesterday:

I wish they would make sense. On the one hand, the Government climatoloogists are calling for a milder than normal winter. On the other hand, severe winter weather is already hiting Alaska, South Dekota and western New York. Go figure...

Fall Has Arrived - Hopefully, That Means Rain

Good News! - -
The weather is predicted to get cooler as the fall weather pattern arrives. Lower temperatures means less money spent on electricity for air conditioning. That is great news! And, no, it does not mean higher energy costs to warm the house: we burn wood for warmth.

The cooler weather allows us to put the dead wood in our woodlands to good use. This has the side benefit of reducing the wild fuel supply which could feed a wildfire. Because of the ongoing drought, the county has had a burn-ban in effect for almost the past year.

Better News! - -
We got 1.4 inches of rain! Of course, the very dry ground instantly turned into a big mud puddle. The ground is so dried out that the rain has trouble soaking in. The forecasters are predicting rain for the end of the week and throughout the next weekend.

The rain will be arriving just in time. Our pastures are dry and quite depleted. We are also out of hay. Looking at the local advertizements, no one is selling hay at a low price at the moment. It only takes a few days for the East Pasture to green up!

It's Time to Worm the Herd, Again

On Saturday, we wormed the herd again. We tried a new tactic - we tried to dose the obnoxious ones first. It turned out that with the easier to catch goats still loose, the obnoxious ones constantly got crowded into traffic, stopping them from running and, thus, making them easier to catch and dose. After the obnoxious ones, the easy ones were - well - easy. We got done in record time.

The pink-eye problem is still with us. We are down to three does in isolation. It looks like they will all be free soon.

Gasoline for Less Than $2.00 per Gallon

Miracles DO happen. We headed to Sea World in San Antonio on Saturday. We buy the two-year season passes, so this is not an expensive trip, except for the gasoline. As we went through Lampasas, we bought gasoline at (believe this, or not) $1.929 per gallon! We filled up the tank on the truck for less than $50.00.

More good news! Sea World will be open throught the end of the year! Usually, they shut down the tourist areas just after the Halloween season. For us, its a relaxing day. I know, we have seen all of the shows several times each. With animal actors, no two shows are ever quite the same, however. The rides are fun. Because the food is overpriced, we eat before we arrive and after we leave. We seldom eat in the park.

At the Hall-O-Scream show in the Shamu theater, they did a dance-for-a-prize contest. They invite everyone to get up and dance. The audience votes by applauding and cheering. Guess who won? Yours truley, of course. I just did a little dance from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The one called Do a Little Side-Step. The crowd went wild every time I took off my hat while I was dancing on the JumboTron. My prize? A large plush Shamu. We had a good time, as usual.